Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

Chapter 344 I'm Afraid of the Cold

When passing by Lin Qingping's house, Xiaomai looked at the lamp inside and suddenly, with a surge of strength, she broke free from her grandmother's hand and ran inside, almost blurting out "Auntie".

However, being small and with short legs, she was grabbed from behind by her grandmother, who covered her mouth before she could even say "aunt."

She was dragged away by her grandmother with tears in her eyes, her head constantly turned, staring at the lights in Lin Qingping's house, a voice in her heart crying out: Aunt, help! Aunt, save Xiaomai!

However, Lin Qingping couldn't hear the sounds that couldn't be uttered; her tears streamed down her face, wetting the back of her grandmother's hand.

As soon as she entered the house, Du Genniang threw her to the ground and slapped her across the back of the head, not her face, because slapping her face would leave a visible mark.

Xiaomai was only a little second grader, how could she withstand such a hard slap? She was slapped to the ground, and her grandmother's vicious curses rang out, "You ungrateful little bitch, your mother is the big bitch, and you're the little bitch, how dare you collude with outsiders to show off your power in the house? I think you don't want to live anymore!"

Xiaomai lay on the ground, trembling with fear. She didn't even have the courage to look at her grandmother, who was as terrifying as the man-eating monster she had heard in the village stories.

"What are you lying there for? Pretending to be dead? Hurry up and go do the laundry!" Her grandmother kicked her, hitting her right in the waist.

She was in so much pain that she curled up into a ball, unable to get up at all. But before she could recover, her grandmother kicked her again, and this time it hurt even more...

Afraid that her grandmother would kick her again, she endured the pain and stood up, her whole body trembling. Unexpectedly, her grandmother grabbed her hair and pulled her over, pinching her back, waist and arms repeatedly.

She was in so much pain that she couldn't bear it anymore. She gritted her teeth but couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face.

Du Genniang saw this, grabbed her hair, and slammed the back of her head against the corner of the table.

Xiaomai felt a piercing pain in the back of her head, and something flowed down her cheeks. Her grandmother forcefully lifted her chin, looked at her tearful face, and scolded her, "You little slut!" "Who are you crying for, you little slut? There are no men here! Don't put on such a shameful act! No matter how beautiful you cry, that bastard Zhiyuan won't see it!"

Xiaomai really didn't understand these words. What did her crying have to do with Zhiyuan?

"Alright, stop hitting her, she's bleeding!" Du Gen's father gestured to Du Gen's mother. After all, she was Du Gen's daughter; if she bled, it would be difficult to explain to Du Gen when he came back.

Du Genniang then noticed a pool of blood on the ground. Startled, she continued her tirade, calling her a "little slut," a "worthless good-for-nothing," and then grabbed a handful of ash from somewhere, smeared it haphazardly on the girl's head, shoved her forcefully, and roared, "Go wash the clothes! Our Du family doesn't raise good-for-nothings who eat and do nothing! Which girl doesn't start working at six or seven? You, born a little slut, still want to be a rich young lady!"

Xiaomai's head and body were still aching, but she endured the pain and ran away, afraid that if she was a step too slow, she would be beaten again.

Her grandmother wiped the blood off the floor behind her, fiercely warning her, "Don't tell anyone a word about what happened today! Otherwise, I'll make your father divorce your mother! I'll kick your mother out to sleep on the streets! I'll sell you to human traffickers! I'll make sure you never see your mother again! Go wash your clothes! If you don't wash them clean, I'll beat you to death!"

Hearing these words, Xiaomai shuddered and silently went to do the laundry.

A large basin of clothes, including her grandmother's, her grandfather's, her father's, and the clothes of that woman she didn't recognize.

Some of the clothes had sticky stains on them. She didn't know what they were. They smelled like urine but not quite. They were disgusting and smelly. But when she thought of her grandmother's words, "I'll kill you if you don't wash them clean," she held her breath and washed them vigorously.

She washed a large basin of clothes for a long time, then took them out to hang them up to dry one by one. Several times she felt dizzy, and everything in front of her was spinning, but she still tried her best to stand up, afraid that the clothes would fall to the ground and her grandmother would hit her.

After finally washing her clothes and cleaning the stains off her body, she was too afraid to wash her hair. She touched her hair and found that the bleeding had stopped, but her hair was sticky and stiff. She didn't care about that; she just felt extremely dizzy. She quickly finished her homework and went to sleep.

She didn't even know when her parents came back.

Gu Youlian did bring her some food, but Xiaomai was already asleep. Gu Youlian called her name a few times at the door but received no response. She quietly pushed the door open and saw that her daughter was sleeping peacefully, so she didn't disturb her.

In Gu Youlian's room, Du Gen called her, the meaning of which was self-evident.

Thinking about that incident, and then about how Lifen and he even had a child, she still felt resistant. However, she remembered a sentence from Dugan: "Life still goes on."

Since life goes on, we have to overcome whatever disgusts us...

When Xiaomai went to school the next day, she wore a hat, a sun hat.

"Why are you wearing a hat today?" Gu Youlian asked her.

Xiaomai felt a pair of fierce eyes staring at her, and she knew it was her grandmother threatening her.

"Today... today we have an activity class, and it's very sunny outside, so I'm wearing a sunshade," Xiaomai said softly.

Du Genniang hurriedly added, "It's good to cover it up. I think the girls in the city are all fair-skinned and pretty, unlike us in the countryside, where we work in the fields under the scorching sun every day, and everyone gets tanned dark."

Gu Youlian then said nothing more.

Dugen took her to school again. Xiaomai followed him, feeling dizzy the whole way. When she finally arrived at school, entered the classroom, and sat down in her seat, she felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. She hurriedly handed her homework to the group leader and then lay down to rest.

Zhiyuan saw this and came over to ask her what was wrong. She said listlessly, "It's nothing, I... I got sunburned while walking, and it's a bit hot."

"Let's have some mung bean soup this afternoon to cool off. Do you want some water?" Zhiyuan gave her his water bottle.

She shook her head. "I'll be fine after resting for a while."

During math class, the teacher went over yesterday's homework, and the first student called on was "Du Xiaomai" because she got all the homework wrong and her handwriting was messy.

"Du Xiaomai, what's wrong with you?" her math teacher asked.

Xiaomai lowered her head. "I...I wasn't feeling well yesterday."

As soon as she said she wasn't feeling well, Zhiyuan looked at her.

The teacher came over and reached to touch her forehead, but she dodged away, saying, "Teacher, it's okay, I feel much better today."

"Your face is all red from the heat, why are you still wearing a hat? Take it off in the classroom!" the teacher said.

Xiaomai shook her head, full of panic, "I...can I not take it? Teacher, I'm afraid of the cold..."