Ah, this song takes me back to the time before I became that wicked woman~
[It feels like the corpses have been purified.]
[Does anyone understand? When I hear the intro, it's like a revolving lantern, bringing back childhood memories. Does anyone understand this feeling? (crying emoji)]
I actually really loved my childhood. I don't know why I always wanted to grow up when I was little.
[Agreed. I never understood what adults meant when they said childhood was the happiest time. Now that I'm grown up, I understand. But things have changed, and I'm no longer a child.]
[Sobbing ┭┮﹏┭┮ I really want to share this with someone, but I realize that my childhood friends are all gone. They're scattered all over the country, and I haven't seen them since graduation.]
[It reminded me of my childhood dream of opening a small shop. I never imagined that a contestant would actually achieve it. It feels like a regret in my life has been made up for.]
[Suddenly realized that I've never thought about owing a lot of money, buying a big house, or even being a small shop owner \(^o^)/~]
I used to think the biggest sum of money was a hundred yuan. Now that I'm grown up and have a hundred yuan, I don't feel the same joy I had as a child. I wish I could go back to the days when I could buy spicy snacks with just a few cents.
Duan Xiulan also planned to go to the city to do business, but she didn't expect that her "mother-in-law" wouldn't want to leave. She looked at the money in her hand and was a little confused.
"You've given me all the money, what are you going to do now? Come with me, the city is so nice, there are flush toilets and it's so convenient."
Wang Cuihua was a little uneasy. She wiped her palms and said, "I'm not going. Just take care of yourself. If you meet someone suitable, find one. If... he hits you, come back."
"Hit me?! That's impossible. I'm the one who'll hit him!"
Wang Cuihua didn't speak, but just stared at her with dark eyes.
"Your husband won't hit you, will he?"
Wang Cuihua said casually, "They hit me, which family doesn't? At first, the beatings were severe, but later my son grew up and protected me, so he stopped hitting me."
Duan Xiulan felt her blood surging. "Then let's get a divorce. Domestic violence is definitely not an option."
"Speaking of which, I haven't asked your son yet. He's not an employee of Feiyang Entertainment, is he?"
Wang Cuihua shook her head. "No, my son was a soldier, but he's gone."
Duan Xiulan felt a twisting sensation in her heart, the words echoing in her mind, "I deserve to die! I deserve to die!" How could she ask about an NPC's wound?
Duan Xiulan fell silent, but Wang Cuihua seemed to have opened a floodgate of words, "My son is very handsome. When he was just as tall as my leg, he would protect me. Later, he married a very beautiful woman, a city girl. They had a beautiful daughter too..."
As Wang Cuihua spoke, she suddenly broke down in tears, "I'm not human. Xingxing is only a little bigger than a kitten, and I kicked her and Yanyan out of the house. I'm not human... I want to go to the eighteenth level of hell..."
After listening for a while, Duan Xiulan finally understood what was going on.
After Wang Cuihua's son died, there was a compensation payment. Her father demanded that she kick her daughter-in-law and granddaughter out of the house, or he would beat her to death. As a result, her father took the compensation and lived with his nephew. In the end, the father died, and his nephew seized the house and property, and also kicked her out.
She did odd jobs here and there, and later she met her daughter-in-law, no, her ex-daughter-in-law, who had already remarried. Xingxing had grown up quite a bit and was cute and pretty with her hair in braids.
She would secretly watch the stars from afar, and when her daughter-in-law wasn't around, she would try to feed them, but the stars wouldn't accept it. Her former daughter-in-law, Yan Yan, had raised the stars very well; they were very polite and wouldn't accept anything from strangers.
Although her salary wasn't much, she gave it all to Yanyan, only to be refused. She didn't know how to make amends for her past mistakes. Lying alone in the container, listening to the snoring of others, she constantly thought of her son. She couldn't understand why she had driven her daughter-in-law and Xingxing away.
If it weren't for the military's periodic inspections, they probably wouldn't have discovered that the mother of a fallen soldier was actually picking up trash.
"If you ask me, you should have divorced your husband the first time he hit you. Don't you have any family members? If you don't want a divorce, then beat him up!"
Wang Cuihua was lost in memories. Her home was in the next village from her husband's. She was the youngest in her family. This was the first time she had been beaten after getting married. She ran home that very night. Her older brothers and sisters were all married. After listening to her tearful account, they told her to go back, saying that there was no food for her at home. Her sister-in-law even said, "What man doesn't beat people? Just bear with it."
She didn't know how she walked home in the pitch-black night, when no one was around. All she knew was that all the tears she had shed over the decades had dried up that night. Afterwards, when she was beaten, she didn't utter a sound or cry, because she knew no one would feel sorry for her. Her parents wouldn't, and neither would her siblings.
She lived like a puppet until her child stood in front of her, shielding her with his tiny body.
But those good days were too short-lived; she wished God would take her life instead of her child.
She turned into a fearful puppet again, driving away her daughter-in-law and Xingxing, who was still in swaddling clothes.
"It's no use, it's no use," he said. "He said if I dared to run away, he'd kill my whole family. They won't let me leave... I can't leave..."
Duan Xiulan looked at Wang Cuihua, who was lost in thought, and said, "Think about it, if Xingxing got married, and her husband beat her..."
Wang Cuihua was extremely agitated. "No! No!! If he hits Xingxing, I'll fight him to the death!!" Xingxing was the last bloodline her son left in this world, and she couldn't bear to imagine Xingxing being beaten.
Duan Xiulan finally understood why Wang Cuihua had always been so strange to her, with a kind of ingratiating attitude. At first, she thought the production team had arranged for her to be a "wicked mother-in-law" so she could experience dealing with difficult relatives, but she never expected it to be like this.
It's likely that Wang Cuihua saved up money for Xingxing, but Xingxing's mother refused, so she wanted a contestant to make up for her strong sense of guilt.
Even if the past is past, mistakes are mistakes. People move forward, and an apology won't undo what you did wrong. A broken mirror can be mended, but words and actions that pierce the heart will leave a mark. Even if your brain instinctively tells you to forget the painful experience, seeing the wound will unconsciously bring you back to that helpless, vulnerable moment.
Duan Xiulan pondered for a moment and said, “If no one protects you, protect yourself. If others don’t love you, love yourself. Neither your siblings nor your parents or children can be with you forever. Mountains may crumble, trees may sway; only yourself is truly reliable. If you are beaten and no one protects you, stand up and fight back! If you can’t fight back, run! If your parents don’t love you and won’t stand up for you, love yourself!! If your siblings don’t pity you, pity yourself!! Chairman Mao said, people must love themselves!! Wang Cuihua, come to the city with me.”
Before Wang Cuihua's tears had stopped, she looked at Duan Xiulan, whose eyes held a light she couldn't understand. But for some reason, she felt an impulse and took Duan Xiulan's hand.
She was going into the city; she also wanted to protect the stars.
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