Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 144 Fourteen Years of Pursuit 10
Summer rain can only wash away the dry heat outside, but the cage-like house still retains a stuffy heat.

The sweltering heat made Wu Yang irritable and uncomfortable all over. All she wanted to do was push open the door and rush out to breathe, rather than wait under the glaring lights like she was about to be executed and hear a cruel story.

She stood frozen at the doorway, her sense of duty urging her to speak up directly, yet her sense of duty as a grandson made her want to run back inside.

Lin Chunzhi hurriedly pushed her away, telling her to go back to sleep: "If you want to show off, come back tomorrow. Your dad, your grandma, and I are all going to sleep. Your uncles are here too. Don't disturb everyone's sleep."

"mom--"

"Go back to sleep!"

Wu Yang's father, bewildered, tried to mediate: "What's wrong with you two? Why are you acting so strangely? Just say what you want to ask, but your mother really must be exhausted from rushing back..."

"Shut up, it's none of your business!"

"Dad, don't say anything!"

The mother and daughter clashed, their voices loud and their tempers flaring, before falling silent at the same time.

Wu Yang's father was baffled and also got angry. Just as he was about to lose his temper, Grandma Wu said wearily, "That's enough."

Then calmly said, "Yangyang, go to your room. Ask me anything you want to ask."

The grandmother and grandson went next door. Once the door was closed, the only sounds in the narrow space seemed to be their breathing and their heartbeats.

In fact, Wu Yang hadn't lived here for a long time. After she started working, she rented and bought a house, and all her usual belongings were moved out. Now, this small room only has her award certificates and books from her school days, and the green frog-shaped desk is covered in dust.

When she was little, her grandparents taught her to count and recognize words behind this desk.

Wu Yang took a deep breath before daring to raise her head. Grandma Wu across from her was looking at her gently the whole time.

“Your mother told me this afternoon that you are still investigating the third person from back then.”

"...Is that you?" she asked, her voice strained and hesitant.

Grandma Wu nodded: "I knew you were smart. I told your mother you would find out sooner or later, but she didn't believe me."

After saying that, he turned to look at his blurry face in the glass window, and as he recalled the past, his tone unconsciously carried a sigh: "I knew it, that robber saw me."

Wu Yang was unaware of her own expression; she was almost instinctively pressing the conversation forward: "Why?"

Grandma Wu didn't answer directly, but instead asked her, "Yangyang, do you remember what Grandma's name is?"

"Bai... Bai Jingrong." She only knew her name when she was learning to write in elementary school, but over the decades, she had rarely heard anyone call her that. Her grandmother was her grandmother, her mother, Wu Erniang, her mother-in-law, and rarely Bai Jingrong.

"Actually, my name is Shen Jingrong. My surname Bai was changed when I came to Wuqu County. At that time, my father remarried and sent me here to work in the countryside. My household registration was also registered under the name of a distant relative of mine, so I changed my surname to Bai."

It started raining again outside, the pattering sound swallowing up all the other emotions in her words, leaving only a calm narration.

"That was in 1960. I had just arrived in Wuqu County and didn't know how to do anything. I didn't know how to harvest rice, plant melons and beans, or even wash clothes. I didn't know how to support myself."

“The family that adopted me advised me to adapt as soon as possible, and if it really didn’t work out, I should find someone to marry and help me. Then someone introduced me to your grandfather, who had a good family background and many relatives, so he was a good match.”

“He was attracted to my good looks and didn’t care about money, while I was attracted to his good family background and strong, able-bodied family. That’s how your grandfather and I got married in a daze, thinking I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. But it turns out your grandfather hated people like me the most.”

Wu Yang's eyes widened slightly.

Grandma Wu lowered her eyes and rubbed her sore knees, then continued, "He looked down on me. He would either give me the cold shoulder or mock me for being a city girl. That was a very dangerous thing to say. I was terrified and very resentful. I stubbornly tried to change myself to be like other women."

"In 1963, the train station was hiring porters. Everyone went to carry bags every day to earn some money. He said I couldn't carry them, so I gritted my teeth and carried two bags, even more than him. I thought he would be happier, but he looked even worse. When the rapeseed at home was ready to be harvested and the peanuts needed to be dug, I was always at the forefront, learning how to do it. When the railway was hiring temporary workers to transport stones, I went with them, working like a man. I earned three yuan, which I gave to him for household expenses. Finally, he stopped being sarcastic and started to give me a nicer look."

“The situation was different back then. I was content to live a peaceful life. In 1965, I became pregnant with your uncle. My water broke in the field when I was nine months pregnant. I had to be carried back home. I had a difficult labor and almost died at home.”

“Do you know what your grandfather was doing at the time? Someone told him that I was going to give birth, but he didn’t go home. He went out to help people row boats, doing it for free. Someone invited him to a restaurant, and he ate and drank everything. When he came back, he didn’t even pour me a bowl of water. He went into the room empty-handed, glanced at the baby, and went to sleep. I was like a lump of rotten flesh, covered in blood, lying on the bed, crying with your uncle.”

This was something she would never forget for the rest of her life. As she spoke, her tone finally changed, trembling with hatred.

“He’s so heartless! He doesn’t care whether I live or die, nor does he care whether your uncle lives or dies. I didn’t even have a bowl of brown sugar water to drink during my postpartum period, and I didn’t have enough milk to feed the baby. Your uncle almost starved to death. I cried and made a scene with him, wanting to go home and ask for help, but he actually called me a bad element who can’t run away and nobody wants me…”

"Six or seven years ago, I got pregnant with your second uncle. I didn't really want to have another child, but he got drunk and deliberately... deliberately got me pregnant. Having another child after only a year is not good for my health, so I almost had a difficult childbirth again. But I didn't beg him again."

“Your eldest and second uncles both look like me, and your grandfather doesn’t like them at all. I knew I couldn’t rely on him, and I knew he wanted to suppress me. After I finished my postpartum period, I shamelessly learned how to do business from others. Every day before dawn, I would go to the town market more than ten kilometers away to sell some small things, and I wouldn’t go home until it was dark.”

“With money and the help of his parents, brother and sister-in-law to take care of the children, life went on like that. But he just couldn’t stand me. In 1968, he heard from someone, or maybe it was just his own belief, that I was having an affair with a man at the market and that I was going out early and coming home late every day just to see that man. He went straight to the market, dragged me away in front of everyone, slapped me, locked me in the house and beat me.”

“I couldn’t stand being beaten, so I threatened to jump into the river and kill him. He then knelt down and begged me, bringing many people to mediate—people from the town, the village, and even my stepmother. Was that begging? It was a threat. He wanted me to see clearly that I was an outsider with no one to rely on and nowhere to go.”

"When it was almost 1970, I got pregnant with your father. Your father looked like your grandfather, and he was finally willing to treat the child better. But I really hated your father's appearance and didn't want to breastfeed or take care of the baby. He didn't mind and spent money on your father alone, as if he wanted to compete with me to see whose child would be more successful and whose child would look like the other."

The person outside the door stood silently, casting a short, faint shadow on the ground.

(End of this chapter)