17 Past
◎On the development of "Ji Xiaokelian"◎
She pried open the woman's palm, took out the copper coins, and threw two at the servant's feet.
The copper coins made a crisp sound when they fell to the ground. The servant thought they were stones and was about to kick them away when he suddenly realized something was wrong. He rubbed his eyes and stared at the copper coins for a while. Then he was overjoyed and quickly picked them up and put them in his sleeve with an unstoppable smile on his face.
Just as he was about to continue sweeping the snow, he saw a few copper coins dropped on the ground not far ahead. He dropped his broom and ran forward happily to pick them up. It was really God's blessing that he could pick up money while being assigned to such a remote place to sweep snow.
He accepted it with a smile and looked forward again, hoping to find more copper coins.
As he walked along, he didn't see any money, but he saw a woman lying on the ground covered in blood. The white clothes on the woman's lower body were stained with blood. The blood flowed down the steps to the snow below, dyeing the white snow red, which looked shocking.
The servant's face turned pale, and then he screamed in fear, then he got up and ran away, shouting as he ran: "Madam Liu is in trouble, Madam Liu is in trouble."
The sound gradually faded away at the end of the corridor.
Shu Yao squatted beside the woman, looking at her haggard face, hoping that the servant could find someone to save this poor woman.
But after waiting for a long time, it was already noon and no one came to help.
The woman had fainted from the pain. Shu Yao moved her to the bed and covered her with a quilt. Her face became paler and paler, her lips seemed to be covered with a layer of frost, and her breathing became weaker and weaker.
Shu Yao was anxious and kept looking at the door. If no one came to help, the woman might really die in the house.
Just when she was at a loss, there was finally a noise at the door, and then an elderly woman came in with a basin of hot water. When she stepped over the threshold and saw the dying woman lying on the bed, she shook her head with pity, then took out the delivery tools and went forward to check on the woman's condition.
Shu Yao's heart finally settled down. It seemed that this person should be a midwife, and the woman on the bed could be saved.
She walked to the door and saw a row of people standing under the eaves outside. Leading the group was a man in a cloak. The man was about thirty years old, with ordinary features but a strong physique. At this moment, he frowned and looked unhappy.
Next to him, Shu Yao saw the old lady. She was supported by a maid, holding a heater in her hand. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, as if she was a little disdainful. She said to the man next to her, "Second brother, what are you going to do with Concubine Liu after the child is born?"
A ruthless look flashed in the man's eyes, and he made a gesture of wiping his neck.
The old lady smiled knowingly and said no more.
Shu Yao was shocked and got goose bumps all over her body. The woman in the house was trying hard to give birth to a child, but the people outside wanted to kill her.
She looked at the man and then at the old lady. Although they were mother and son, they looked nothing alike. However, they were both equally cruel and ruthless, which made people shudder.
She walked over to the woman, feeling mixed emotions.
The midwife reached out and rubbed the woman's belly several times, her expression becoming more and more serious. The fetus was in an abnormal position and she was afraid that it would be a difficult birth.
The woman also slowly woke up at this time and cooperated with the midwife's actions.
Midwife: "Come on, push harder."
"Ah." Aunt Liu grabbed the pillow with both hands, breathing rapidly.
To prevent her from biting her tongue, the midwife took out a wooden stick for her to bite.
One of the incense sticks in the incense burner had burned out. Aunt Liu collapsed on the bed exhausted, with beads of sweat on her forehead and she was convulsing uncontrollably. It was obvious that she had not much strength left.
The people outside the house seemed to be impatient. The old lady's voice was heard: "Why are you so slow in having a child?"
Hearing this, Aunt Liu gritted her teeth and bit the wooden stick in her mouth, leaving a row of deep teeth marks.
The midwife said excitedly: "The head is coming out, push harder."
"ah."
With the last scream, Aunt Liu was completely exhausted and her whole body was limp. She didn't even have the strength to raise her hands. She stared at the beams with a blank expression, as if she was dead.
The midwife held the bloody baby in her arms, her face anxious, wondering why the baby wasn't crying. Then she reached out and patted the baby a few times, and the baby finally let out a faint cry like a kitten.
She breathed a sigh of relief, wrapped the child up, and carried him out, saying to the man and the old lady outside the door, "Congratulations, Master, congratulations, Madam, it's a little boy."
But the old lady and the man didn't show any joy on their faces, instead they were full of disgust.
The midwife felt something was wrong and tightened her grip around the baby.
The man glanced at the baby in the cradle and said in a cold voice, "It's really dirty."
The old lady also sneered, "Aren't children born from brothel girls dirty?" Then she looked at the man beside her and said, "Second brother, it's too windy here, I'm going back first. Remember to do things cleanly tonight and don't give people any reason to talk."
The man nodded slightly: "Son, I understand."
After the old lady left, the man looked at the child coldly, then turned and left.
The midwife sighed, the baby in her arms was not going to have a good life.
The woman had fainted from the pain of childbirth, and the child was lying next to her.
Shu Yao teased the baby in the cradle.
The baby is very well behaved and doesn't cry or make a fuss.
She touched his soft face, and his small hands frantically grabbed at the air and held her fingers tightly. Shu Yao was stunned and sighed. He was disliked by his father and grandmother as soon as he was born. He didn't know how Ji Shijing had survived the past seventeen years in this big house.
It was late at night when two strong servants suddenly rushed out of the house. They took out a torn straw mat, put the still unconscious woman on the mat and wrapped her up, then walked out like thieves.
Shu Yao wanted to go up and stop them, but her body was completely unable to move. She could only watch the woman being carried away by the two men. She suddenly remembered the man's action of wiping his neck at noon, and she felt scared.
This woman is probably in great danger.
She looked at Ji Shijing lying on the bed again and lamented his miserable life.
The light of the candle on the table became increasingly dim, and her consciousness shifted as the scene before her eyes suddenly changed.
It was March, and the weather was excellent. In the small garden in front of me, there was a child flying a kite. A group of maids and old women were surrounding him, fearing that he would fall or get hurt.
In a pavilion not far away, a gorgeously dressed woman was sipping tea and looking at the boy flying a kite with a loving face.
The boy was running happily on the grass, when suddenly the kite string in his hand broke and the kite fell behind a rockery. A group of servants wanted to help the boy pick up the kite, but he ran over alone and didn't let others follow him.
They could only stay where they were.
His figure disappeared behind the rockery.
But after a while, he ran out crying, saying that there was a bad boy behind the rockery.
Seeing the young master crying so hard, the servants knelt on the ground. The woman in the pavilion also hurried forward, holding the child in her arms and comforting him: "What happened to Yu'er?"
Ji Yu pointed to the back of the rockery and cried breathlessly: "Mom, there is a bad boy over there. He stole Yu'er's kite."
Upon hearing this, the woman also became furious. She led a group of servants and walked angrily to the back of the rockery. When she saw the person behind the rockery clearly, she suddenly coughed a few times, covering her handkerchief with her hands, and pointed a slender finger at him: "Why are you running here instead of staying in your own yard?"
In front of her stood a little boy in ragged clothes, his hair was messy and his face was dirty, only his eyes were deep and dark. He returned the kite to Ji Yu.
But when Ji Yu saw the two black handprints on the kite, he burst into tears again: "The kite is dirty, I don't want it anymore."
The woman hurriedly coaxed him, while at the same time not forgetting to glare at the little boy.
The little boy probably knew that he had done something wrong. He lowered his head and stared at his toes sticking out of his shoes, feeling a little at a loss.
The woman said resentfully, "You shouldn't have come into this world." Then she hugged Ji Yu and left without looking back.
The garden, which was originally full of laughter and joy, was now unusually quiet. The little boy stared at the kite in his hand in a daze.
Shu Yao looked at the younger version of Ji Shijing and wanted to go up and offer some comfort, but found it was futile. He couldn't see or feel her at all.
He walked away with the kite, his steps heavy and his back lonely.
He had no name at first, until he was about to be included in the family tree, Master Ji reluctantly gave him a name, hoping that he could wash away the sins and filth in his body, and thus the name "Shi Jing" came into being.
Ji Shijing returned to the small, shabby house where he lived and carefully placed the kite in his hand on the table. The little child sat on the stool and stayed there for the entire day.
After Master Ji learned about this, he used the family law. Ji Shijing's weak body was whipped fifty times, and finally his flesh and blood were blurred. Others couldn't help but gasp, thinking that the master was too cruel.
When everyone thought that the little boy would die under the whip, Ji Shijing stood up tenaciously again, but his health was much worse after this time.
Later one winter, his condition worsened again.
One day, Ji Shijing was very hungry. He walked towards the dog hole at the back and saw a huge black dog eating the leftovers in the bowl with relish.
When he saw the leftover food in the bowl, he couldn't help swallowing his saliva, rushed over, and actually bit the big black dog's throat. The big black dog was enraged and opened its bloody mouth to bite Ji Shijing fiercely.
Ji Shijing tried to block with his arm, but the big black dog bit his hand tightly, and blood immediately flowed out. However, he seemed not to feel the pain and continued to bite the big black dog's throat, fighting until the dog died.
After an unknown amount of time, the big black dog finally fell down, whimpered a few times, and then died completely.
Ji Shijing crawled to the dog bowl with blood in his mouth and began to eat voraciously.
Shu Yao watched with some pity, so she asked the system: [How can I help him?]
The system said: [This has already happened. No matter how you try to stop it, it will be futile.]
Shu Yao: [I want to help him.] Even in a dream.
The system simply replied: [Cause and effect cannot be reversed.]
She took a few deep breaths and said, "Everything depends on human effort." Just as she was about to move over, she found her feet were nailed to the ground and could not move at all.
System: [Master, you are only in Ji Shijing's dream. In the past ten years or so, no one has ever truly helped him.]
Shu Yao understood that since he didn't believe that anyone would come to save him, he couldn't feel her and she couldn't help him.
At this time, a naughty kid came out of nowhere and was so scared when he saw Ji Shijing fighting with the dog for food that he started crying loudly.
Then, Master Ji brought a group of people over with a threatening look on his face, and without saying a word, he kicked Ji Shijing hard in the heart.
"You bastard! Tianbao was frightened because of you. I must punish you severely today. Come, tie him up and hang him on the big tree in the yard."
Ji Shijing covered his aching heart and ate up all the leftover food in the dog bowl.
It’s great that I finally had a full meal today.
Later, he was hung on a locust tree, with snowflakes falling all over him and the cold wind blowing his body to and fro.
When he was put down, he was already frozen like an ice cube. The servants carefully checked his breath and found that he was still not dead.
After this incident, Ji Shijing contracted a cold and became increasingly weak.
Perhaps because he was afraid that Ji Shijing would embarrass himself again, Master Ji locked him up in the house that night, and he stayed there for several years.
In the past few years, he had never set foot outside the house. He could no longer remember what the sunlight outside smelled like or what the wind smelled like. He only remembered the insults and contempt he received from others.
Some servants saw clearly that he was not favored in the mansion, so when they were bullied by their masters, they would take their anger out on Ji Shijing.
The most serious incident was when he was beaten to the point of vomiting blood and lying in bed for seven days.
The house became dark and claustrophobic, and his personality gradually became withdrawn.
During these years, he fended for himself. When he was thirsty, he drank rainwater leaking from the house. When he was hungry, he ate caught mice, and occasionally leftovers brought by the servants.
Every time he curled up in bed at night, his whole body was filled with piercing pain. When he couldn't bear it anymore, he would use a dagger to cut his arm to divert the pain. Looking at the sharp knife in his hand that was flashing with cold light, he thought countless times about what it would feel like to have a dagger cut through his heart.
He hated this world, but he still wanted to live hard. In this life, he was determined to fight against the unfair fate.
The images flashed before Shu Yao's eyes frame by frame. She touched the corner of her eyes and found that she was crying.
He finally got his freedom. The sun was glaring outside. He stepped out of the house and couldn't help but raise his hands to block the sunlight. Growing up in the dark, he had long since surrendered to the darkness. This body of flesh and blood was connected to the bones, and every vein could not see the light.
He put down his hand and stood there silently. After a long time, he turned his head and looked at Shu Yao beside him with a dead look in his eyes.
Shu Yao met his unfathomable gaze, and her heart skipped a beat. Did he see her?
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