The kang (heated brick bed) for left-behind women

The mountain road was eerily quiet in the dead of night, with only the heavy, slightly unsteady footsteps of Lin Dachun.

He got beaten up quite a bit in tonight's fight.

He was beaten on his back, chest, and head.

My whole body aches now.

It was nearly midnight when I got home.

Lin Dachun knocked on the door.

"Who?"

"It's me," Lin Dachun said weakly.

Li Ruoxue hurriedly lit the lamp, got up, and opened the door.

When she looked through the door and saw Lin Dachun walk in, looking disheveled and with blood on his face, the color drained from her face instantly.

"What happened to you?" Li Ruoxue was startled.

Lin Dachun glanced at her and lectured, "Nonsense, you're sleeping alone at home, why aren't you wearing anything?"

Li Ruoxue blushed.

"It was the same last night."

"Nonsense."

Lin Dachun quickly closed the door tightly.

Seeing Lin Dachun like this, Li Ruoxue felt very distressed and immediately rushed over. Her trembling hand wanted to touch the wound on his forehead, but she didn't dare. "You... what happened to you? How did you get hurt like this? What happened?"

Her voice was choked with sobs, and her eyes instantly filled with tears, shining with fear and immense heartache under the light.

Lin Dachun avoided her outstretched hand, his throat dry, unsure how to explain.

He lowered his head and gently placed the heavy, stained, and suspiciously dark red cloth bag on the kang table.

"We've managed to scrape together some money, but it's still not enough."

Lin Dachun spoke, his voice hoarse and unlike his own.

Li Ruoxue felt even more heartbroken.

"I already told you, even if my parents come, I won't go with them. I'll stay. Why are you working so hard? Do you know how worried I am about you?" Li Ruoxue's eyes were red.

"That way, I can hold my head high in front of your parents. I have to prove to them that I am capable of taking good care of you," Lin Dachun explained.

"You...you went...went to fight someone?" Tears finally streamed down her face as she sobbed uncontrollably. "It was because of my brother's awful deeds, wasn't it? How could you...if anything happened to you, I...what would I do!"

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name 1110 ...

She cried so hard she almost lost her breath, but dared not cry out loud for fear of disturbing the neighbors. She could only bite her lip tightly, her thin shoulders trembling violently.

Overwhelmed by immense guilt and heartache, she was submerged like a tidal wave.

She hated her brother for being useless, and even more so for being a burden to her own family, which had forced the once upright and strong-willed Lin Dachun onto such a dangerous and sordid path.

Lin Dachun watched her cry her heart out, feeling as if a dull knife was cutting into his heart. He awkwardly reached out, wanting to pat her shoulder to comfort her, but seeing the blood and dust still on his hands, he froze in mid-air.

"Don't cry," he finally said dryly, "It's just a superficial wound, nothing serious."

Lin Dachun's hands were wet with her warm tears, the temperature of which made his heart tremble.

He tried to pull his hand away, but she held it tightly.

"Don't say that." Lin Dachun turned his face away, his voice somewhat harsh. "Go get a basin of hot water. Help me apply some mercurochrome."

Li Ruoxue then seemed to wake from a dream, quickly wiped away her tears, and ran to the kitchen to boil water.

The water heated up quickly, and she brought over a wooden basin and soaked the cleanest and softest old cloth in the house.

Under the oil lamp, she carefully cleaned his wounds.

The scab on his forehead melted away with warm water, revealing a shallow but gruesome cut underneath.

The bruises on his shoulder looked shocking under the light.

Her movements were so gentle, as if she were handling fragile porcelain, yet her tears kept falling into the basin, mingling with the blood.

"Does it hurt?" Li Ruoxue asked, choking back tears, with each wipe.

"It doesn't hurt," Lin Dachun always answered briefly, his gaze fixed on the flickering lamplight, not daring to look into her tear-filled eyes.

After cleaning the wound, she found the last bit of medicine powder in the house, carefully applied it to it, and bandaged it with clean cloth strips.

"I'm tired, I'm going to sleep now, I'm exhausted."

Lin Dachun was indeed tired. He took off his clothes, climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed), and crawled into bed.

Li Ruoxue also moved over.

The milky fragrance emanating from Li Tuoxue helped Lin Dachun fall asleep peacefully.