"Be good, baby. When you grow up, you will wear flowery shoes..." Jiang Chunlin coaxed Shen Qinghe just like He Xiuyun coaxed Jiang Yuyang when they were children, patting her back gently.
Occasionally move down and pat her little butt.
Shen Qinghe wanted to laugh at first, but as she laughed she leaned into his arms, quietly listening to his gentle and low voice, and slowly fell asleep.
Listening to the even breathing of the woman in his arms, Jiang Chunlin curled his lips. He patted her for a while, then fell asleep holding Shen Qinghe.
When Shen Qinghe woke up, it was already bright outside, and the sun shone through the thin curtains onto her.
She stretched, reached under the pillow and took out her watch. It was already half past nine, so she hurried to get up.
There were two bowls placed on a plate on the eight-immortals table in the main hall. Shen Qinghe opened them and found one contained steamed lamb and egg, and the other contained boiled corn on the cob.
She poured a glass of water, sat at the table and ate slowly.
In the quiet early morning there was the sound of a woman's suppressed crying, sometimes louder and sometimes softer. If it hadn't been broad daylight, it would have been enough to scare one to death!
Shen Qinghe was stunned. After listening carefully for a while, she heard the sound coming from the big tree at the door.
She put down her chopsticks, opened the door and looked over there, and saw a middle-aged woman kneeling on the ground, covering her mouth with her hands and crying with her shoulders shaking.
As if she was afraid of being heard, she cried in a suppressed, miserably, and desperate manner!
Shen Qinghe walked closer and saw that it was Aunt Zhou. She asked in surprise, "Aunt Zhou, what's wrong with you?"
Aunt Zhou didn't expect that someone would come at this time. She raised her red and swollen eyes and glanced at Shen Qinghe quickly, then lowered her head and wiped her tears with her sleeves.
But her tears were like a running faucet, the more she wiped them away, the more they flowed.
It was when she raised her hand to wipe her tears that Shen Qinghe saw the wound on her arm and wrist.
"Aunt Zhou, who hit you?" Shen Qinghe squatted in front of Aunt Zhou, wanting to see her injuries, but Aunt Zhou hid her arms behind her back.
Maybe I cried for too long and my voice became hoarse.
She choked up before whispering, "I'm fine."
Shen Qinghe looked around and there was no one there, and this place was quite far from Aunt Zhou's house.
She ran here to cry because she didn't want to be seen by her family.
"Aunt Zhou, please come home with me first." Shen Qinghe helped Aunt Zhou up.
Aunt Zhou was reluctant as she didn't want to cause trouble for others.
Shen Qinghe sighed, "Aunt Zhou, you have such a good relationship with my mother. My mother is going to work now. If she comes back and knows that I saw you crying but turned a blind eye, she will definitely scold me."
"Your mother can't bear to scold you. She always praises you." Aunt Zhou retorted with hiccups.
Shen Qinghe didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
At this time, she still cares whether she will be scolded.
"You don't want to go home with me, do you want others to see this side of you?"
Aunt Zhou glanced at Shen Qinghe and then followed her back.
Shen Qinghe brought in a basin of warm water. Aunt Zhou washed her face while crying. She felt so wronged.
"Aunt Zhou, you haven't had breakfast yet, right? I can't finish this corn cob, so I'll give it to you."
Shen Qinghe had already eaten half a bowl of egg lamb, so it was inappropriate to give it to Aunt Zhou, so she pushed the cooked corn cob in front of her.
Aunt Zhou sat there shaking her head, lowering her head and picking at her fingers, like a child who had done something wrong.
"Auntie, you are my mother's best friend, why are you being polite to me?" Shen Qinghe forced the corn cob into Auntie Zhou's hand, made her a bowl of malted milk and placed it in front of her, and deliberately said forcefully, "I don't like to drink this. If you don't drink it, it will be a waste. It's shameful to waste it!"
Aunt Zhou looked up at Shen Qinghe and tears rolled down her cheeks.
She knew Shen Qinghe said that on purpose.
Who doesn't like malted milk? She has never drunk this stuff in her life.
Shen Qinghe didn't look at Aunt Zhou. She sat opposite her and continued to eat the lamb with egg.
Aunt Zhou was afraid that Shen Qinghe would ask, but also afraid that she wouldn't ask, so she paused for a while, picked up the malted milk and drank it slowly.
Shen Qinghe glanced at Aunt Zhou. She seemed to be in great pain, frowning from time to time, as if she was enduring great suffering.
Moving her eyes downward, Shen Qinghe glanced at the swollen red marks on Aunt Zhou's exposed wrists, as if they had been whipped.
Her heart ached, thinking that Aunt Zhou must have been abused.
Her husband has been paralyzed in bed for several years, was it because her son beat him???
Shen Qinghe could hardly eat the lamb egg in the bowl.
She went into the house and took out alcohol and ointment. Aunt Zhou looked at Shen Qinghe in horror.
Shen Qinghe closed the door and said to Aunt Zhou, "Aunt Zhou, don't be afraid. I just want to apply medicine on you."
Aunt Zhou looked at Shen Qinghe with tears in her eyes, and then burst into tears.
Shen Qinghe sighed and handed her the handkerchief.
Aunt Zhou grabbed Shen Qinghe's handkerchief and cried breathlessly. It took her almost ten minutes to stop crying.
"Aunt Zhou, if you want to tell me, I will listen. If you don't want to tell me, I won't ask. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone else about this."
Shen Qinghe opened the alcohol bottle, dipped some alcohol on gauze and looked at Aunt Zhou, "Roll up your sleeves, I'll apply the medicine for you."
"Thank you!" Aunt Zhou's throat was hoarse from crying and her words were a little unclear. She rolled up her sleeves.
Shen Qinghe was stunned, and then anger rose to her chest.
"Who hit me?"
She originally thought that Aunt Zhou only had scars on her wrists, but she didn't expect that her arms were covered with new and old wounds, without a single healthy spot, as if she had been abused for a long time.
"The child's father beat him." Aunt Zhou said while shedding tears, "Two years ago, he went up the mountain to chop firewood and fell down the mountain, breaking his leg and then paralyzed on the kang.
He was fine in the beginning and I did my best to take care of him. He always cried and said he was useless and a burden to me and the baby. I comforted him and said it was okay and as long as he was alive, our family would still be complete.
Later, he would beat me whenever he was in a bad mood, and I would endure it silently, thinking that he was a grown man who suddenly collapsed on the kang and couldn't move. He must be in a bad mood and he had to vent it, otherwise he would get sick.
Unexpectedly, he beat me more and more frequently, and his beatings became more and more severe. I really couldn’t stand it anymore…”
Aunt Zhou burst into tears, covering her face with her hands and sobbing, her whole body trembling slightly.
Shen Qinghe's face turned pale. How could a man beat his wife like this? !
She was so angry that her breathing became rapid and her small chest rose and fell. She threw the gauze in her hand onto the table and pulled Aunt Zhou away.
"Qinghe, where are you going?" Aunt Zhou looked at Shen Qinghe, who seemed to be very angry, and asked in a low voice.
"Let's settle the score with that beast!" Shen Qinghe said angrily.
Aunt Zhou was startled and couldn't move away. "Qinghe, you can't go. He's very good at beating people. Don't go to him. He has no humanity at all. He will beat you."
"That depends on whether he has the ability!" Shen Qinghe snorted coldly.
Aunt Zhou shook her head and cried, "Qinghe, I know you are a good kid, and I don't want to drag you down."
Shen Qinghe said nothing and dragged Aunt Zhou towards Li's house.
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