Incident at the Reservoir
By the time Lin Ran and Sanya had finished packing up and were ready to head back, they saw that Lin Meng was still there searching. The two of them ignored her and took a detour to return home.
On the way back, Zheng Sanya asked curiously, “Sister Ranran, do you think there’s really treasure there? Otherwise, why would my grandmother say those things? And Sister Lin Meng keeps going there to look for it.”
Seeing Sanya’s large eyes filled with curiosity, Lin Ran couldn’t help but tease her. “What? Do you want to go look for it too?”
Upon hearing this, Zheng Sanya shook her head like a rattle. “I’m not going to look for it. Even if I found it, I wouldn’t be able to use it, and I’d just get beaten.”
At the thought of being beaten, Zheng Sanya instinctively shrank back.
The two of them chatted idly like this. Zheng Sanya was becoming more and more relaxed in front of Lin Ran, no longer as embarrassed to speak as before. However, just as they reached the village entrance, they saw several village aunts hurrying out.
One of the aunts spotted Zheng Sanya and immediately shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Oh, Sanya! Why are you still here? The reservoir embankment collapsed, and it looks like your brother Jinbao has been caught in the accident! No one knows what the situation is yet. Your parents have already rushed over there.”
“What? Why did my brother go there?” Zheng Sanya’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.
But the aunt had no time to answer; she had already bypassed them and hurried toward the reservoir.
Seeing this, Lin Ran could only comfort her softly. “Don’t panic yet. Let’s go see what’s happening.”
But Zheng Sanya began to tremble all over, her voice tinged with a sob. “What should I do? Sister Ranran, if something really happened to my brother, my parents will beat me to death.”
Zheng Sanya was now completely distraught. Lin Ran could only pull her along toward the reservoir while trying to soothe her.
“It’ll be fine. Don’t be afraid. Maybe nothing happened to your brother at all? Even if there was an accident, it’s because he was playing around. It has nothing to do with you. Don’t worry!”
“No, Sister Ranran, I’m scared. I don’t dare go! They really will beat me to death! I’m telling the truth!” As she spoke, Zheng Sanya began to roll up her sleeves. “Look, I really will be killed!”
Lin Ran hadn’t taken it seriously at first; after all, even a fierce tiger does not eat its cubs. Even if Zheng Sanya’s parents favored boys over girls and had always treated her poorly, she hadn’t imagined that parents would actually beat their own child to death.
But when she saw the rows of bruises on Zheng Sanya’s arm—so purple they were turning black—she was completely stunned. On those small arms, new wounds were layered over old ones; there wasn’t a single patch of healthy skin left.
Just how much hatred and resentment must one have to strike with such lethal force? Lin Ran could hardly believe that this was the work of the girl’s own parents.
No wonder Zheng Sanya constantly spoke of being afraid of a beating. Looking at these injuries, it was clear that being brutally beaten had become a daily occurrence for her. There were actually such wicked parents in this world!
But then, thinking of how her own father in her previous life had tacitly allowed her to be drugged, Lin Ran’s indignation softened into a grim understanding. People in this world were made of both light and shadow; even when facing their own kin, they could not change their inherent natures.
“Sister Ranran, I don’t dare go. What should I do? Waaa…” Over there, Zheng Sanya had collapsed onto the ground, refusing to move. Tears and snot were smeared across her face like a small white flower ravaged by a storm.
Lin Ran instinctively wanted to take out a handkerchief to wipe her clean, but thinking about what was to come, she felt it might be better to leave her as she was. To be honest, Lin Ran hadn’t intended to meddle in someone else’s family affairs, and her relationship with Zheng Sanya hadn’t yet reached such a level of intimacy.
However, Zheng Sanya’s plight truly elicited sympathy, and it stirred a touch of compassion in Lin Ran. Perhaps she was thinking of herself from her previous life. If she hadn’t obtained the Ancestor’s jade pendant space back then, she couldn’t even imagine what kind of situation she would have fallen into.
With this thought, Lin Ran leaned into Zheng Sanya’s ear and taught her how to handle her parents later. Although she wanted to give Sanya a hand, relying on others was only temporary in the end. Everything in the future would depend on oneself; only if Zheng Sanya stood up for herself could she truly protect herself!
After listening to Lin Ran’s instructions, Zheng Sanya was still a bit hesitant. She asked between sobs, “Sister Ranran, will this really keep me from being beaten?”
Lin Ran sighed. “But if you don’t face them, will you not be beaten anyway?”
Zheng Sanya had simply been too terrified just now. Now that she had calmed down, she understood perfectly that if she dared to run away, she would only be beaten even more severely. At this thought, she wiped away her tears and stood up tremblingly. She bolstered her courage internally; Sister Ranran was so good to her, she absolutely could not let her down!
“My Jinbao! My precious! You absolutely cannot have anything happen to you! If something goes wrong with you, how is Mother supposed to live?”
“It’s all the fault of that little jinx! If she hadn’t failed to watch you properly, how could you have had an accident?”
“Oh, Heavens! Please, save Jinbao! I beg of you!”
Lin Ran and Sanya hadn’t even reached the spot when they heard a deafening wail of grief. Upon hearing this voice, Zheng Sanya—who had just finished building up her psychological defenses—panicked again.
“What should I do, Sister Ranran? It’s my mother crying. Does it mean something really happened to my brother? I’m finished! I’m truly finished this time!”
Lin Ran’s lips pressed together thinly. Hearing the meaning behind Auntie Zheng’s words, she was clearly blaming Jinbao’s accident on Sanya. If something truly happened to Jinbao, Sanya would be in deep trouble.
Zheng Sanya was still trying to maintain her composure. She remembered the words Lin Ran had just told her, so she kept telling herself to stay steady. “Sister Ranran, should I go over now?” But her trembling voice betrayed her facade.
Lin Ran shook her head. “No rush. You wait for me here first. I’ll go over and check the situation.”
If Jinbao was truly in a bad way, Auntie Zheng would likely go insane. If Sanya walked into that right now, her fate could well be imagined—no plan would work.
After giving her instructions, Lin Ran walked toward the crowd ahead.
There were too many people; it seemed almost the entire brigade had shown up. Lin Ran couldn’t squeeze her way in at all. She could only see through the gaps in the crowd that Jinbao was currently lying on the ground, soaking wet and unconscious. A young male comrade in a white shirt was kneeling over him, performing chest compressions.
Meanwhile, Auntie Zheng was constantly kowtowing. Even though she was striking the dirt ground, her forehead was already red and swollen. Seeing her like this, she truly appeared to be a devoted mother—but only toward her son. Was her daughter not also flesh of her flesh?
As Lin Ran was lost in thought, she heard several people nearby discussing the scene.
“Do you think what Youth Shi is doing, pressing like that, is actually useful?”
“Who cares if it’s useful? It’s better than doing nothing, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. Someone’s already gone to call the barefoot doctor; he should be here soon.”
Some others felt a sense of lingering fear. “It looks like we have to watch the kids at home more closely from now on. We can’t let them come to the reservoir to play in the water; it’s too dangerous! I wonder if Jinbao can be saved.”
“It’s just his bad luck. Who would have thought the embankment would suddenly collapse?”
“It must have been washed out by the continuous heavy rains a few days ago. Back then, the whole team was busy with the seedling beds, so who noticed? No one expected it to completely give way today.”
“Sigh, he’s only a nine-year-old kid. I hope he’ll be alright.”
“It’s probably a long shot. I heard he barely had any breath left when they first pulled him up.”
Lin Ran learned the cause and effect from their conversation. She turned her gaze back to Jinbao. To be honest, she was also quite curious: was it really effective for that Youth Shi to keep pressing on his chest like that?