Chapter 51 The Temperamental School Bully (Part 1/2)

It was already completely dark when the van entered a remote mountain village.

Chu Baiyi was carried off the car, and several village women surrounded her with kerosene lamps, their rough hands lifting her nightgown and caressing her as if inspecting livestock.

"The Sun family is so lucky! This girl has big hips, which means she'll have a lot of children!"

"With such delicate skin, I'm afraid she can't do farm work..."

"As expected, fools are lucky. I heard that this girl used to be a rich young lady! It's just that her reputation was ruined, which is why the Sun family spent a little money to get her."

Unaware of anything, Chu Baiyi was dragged into a brick house with faded "double happiness" characters pasted on it amidst the laughter of the crowd.

The bed sheet on the kang (a heated brick bed) looked like it had been recently changed, and a crooked mirror hung on the wall, reflecting her unconscious face.

Sun Shazi excitedly circled the kang (a heated brick bed), muttering about his wife giving birth to a baby, while his father was outside the door handing out cigarettes to the villagers watching, accompanied by his voice.

"Let's consummate our marriage tonight, and go to town to get the marriage certificate tomorrow. Oh dear, with my legs locked, I can't run away!"

Chu Baiyi was awakened by the stench. When she opened her heavy eyelids, she found that her wrists and ankles were tightly bound with hemp rope.

Before her stood a swollen face, crooked eyes, and a fat man with drool dripping from his mouth, who was still vigorously smearing drool on her face.

She tried to scream, but found her mouth was sealed shut with tape.

"Dad! Your wife is awake! It's time to have the baby!"

An excited, distorted voice came from the fat man's mouth.

Chu Baiyi looked around with difficulty; it was an unfamiliar place.

Fragments of memory suddenly pierced Chu Baiyi's mind: there was something in the bowl of white porridge her mother had given her!

She struggled violently, the rope digging deep into her flesh.

"I bought my son's wife for 500,000 yuan, I don't care what kind of rich girl you are! If you make another move, I'll throw you into the back mountain to feed the wolves!"

The middle-aged man walked in and slapped her across the face.

Chu Baiyi's left ear immediately started ringing, and the taste of blood spread in her mouth.

The idiot next to him clapped and laughed, "Hit her! Good job! Your wife is disobedient, hit her!"

Chu Baiyi's tears soaked the sheets. Why would her mother treat her like this?!

The moment the door was locked from the inside, as the fool clumsily lunged forward, she twisted and knocked over the kerosene lamp beside the bed. The flames instantly engulfed the cheap bedding, followed by the curtains. Amid screams and thick smoke, she shoved the fool into the inferno, then rushed into the fire herself and burned to ashes.

Just like her failed rebirth, it vanished completely.

*

Spring sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves of the century-old wisteria, casting dappled golden spots on the bluestone slabs. Five-year-old Jiang Xiaoman stood on tiptoe, her chubby little hands carefully stroking the jadeite rough on the workbench.

"Grandma, this stone is glowing!"

The child exclaimed in surprise, a faint hint of bright green shimmering through the cracks in the grayish-brown stone beneath his fingertips.

Zi Xi's white hair was tied into a simple bun at the back of her head, adorned with a jade hairpin that Jiang Yanli had given her when she turned fifty.

She knelt down, took her granddaughter's hand, and guided her to slowly feel the edges and corners of the stone: "This is old material from the Hpakant mine. Look at this python vein..."

"Are you teaching the kids to recognize stones again?"

Jiang Yanli walked in from the corridor carrying a tea tray, her eighty-two-year-old figure still as upright as a pine tree.

Xiaoman immediately turned around and jumped into her grandfather's arms: "Grandpa! I found a glowing stone!"