Dündup’s arm was strong and steady. Even while relying on a crutch, he firmly pulled Sang Luo up from the edge of the well.
Sang Luo leaned against Dündup’s chest, catching her breath as she stared at the mouth of the well with a complicated expression.
From inside came Sang Yun’s desperate cries for help and the splashing of water.
“Help… I can’t swim… Help me…”
Sang Luo closed her eyes.
She remembered the worried, heartbroken expression on her mother’s face whenever she mentioned Sang Yun after returning to Tibet in her previous life.
If her mother found out that she had stood by and watched Sang Yun die, how heartbroken would she be?
Even if Sang Yun deserved to die a thousand deaths, Sang Luo couldn’t let her innocent mother suffer the pain of losing her daughter.
“Abou, wait here. I’ll find a rope.”
Sang Luo spoke calmly, her voice giving away none of her emotions.
Dündup frowned.
“You’re going to save her? She just tried to kill you.”
“I know.”
Sang Luo looked down into the deep well.
“But she’s still Mom’s daughter.”
Sang Luo stood up and helped Dündup sit beside the well. Then, still wearing her soaked clothes, she searched the surrounding area and found the well rope.
She threw the rope down into the well and said coldly,
“Grab the rope. I’ll pull you up.”
Sang Yun below clung to the rope as though it were a lifeline, gripping it with all her strength.
Sang Luo and Dündup worked together and finally pulled Sang Yun up.
Completely drenched and looking utterly miserable, Sang Yun collapsed onto the ground as soon as she reached the surface, coughing violently. Her face was as pale as paper.
She looked up at Sang Luo. A flash of resentment appeared in her eyes before quickly being replaced by fear.
“Sister, I was wrong. I really know I was wrong…”
Sang Yun crawled toward her, trying to grab Sang Luo’s hand, but Sang Luo stepped away.
“Go tell that to the Public Security officers.”
Sang Yun suddenly looked up, disbelief filling her eyes.
“You’re going to report me? I’m your own sister!”
“It’s precisely because you’re my sister that I didn’t let you die in that well.”
Sang Luo’s tone remained calm.
Standing beside her, Dündup spoke sternly.
“You were sent down for labor reform, yet you illegally fled. That is against the law.”
“And you don’t have an official letter of introduction. You’ll be caught sooner or later. Tell me, which punishment do you think will be worse—the punishment for turning yourself in, or the punishment after you’re caught?”
“You!”
Sang Yun trembled with rage at the two of them taking turns speaking.
But after the fright she had just experienced and being soaked in the freezing well water, she no longer had the strength to resist.
The Public Security officers arrived soon afterward. After verifying Sang Yun’s identity, they decided to send her back to the northwest.
Before she left, Sang Yun insisted on speaking with Sang Luo one last time under the supervision of the officers.
“Are you satisfied now?”
Sang Yun gritted her teeth.
“Sending me back to that hellhole is exactly what you wanted to see.”
Sang Luo looked at her calmly.
“You chose this path yourself. You were the one who insisted on going to the northwest with Dad back then, weren’t you?”
Sang Yun was rendered speechless. All she could do was glare at her hatefully.
The day Sang Yun returned to the northwest, the letter Sang Luo had sent there also arrived.
Winter in the northwest was even harsher than on the grasslands.
When Sang Yun was escorted back to the construction corps, she was greeted by Sang Ai’s venomous glare and the gleeful laughter of her two younger brothers.
“Oh, look who finally decided to come back.”
Sang Ai spoke sarcastically.
“Our precious eldest daughter actually knows how to return? Didn’t you run away? Why did you come back?”
Sang Yun lowered her head and said nothing as she walked back into the drafty mud-brick house.
Behind her came the mocking laughter of her father and brothers.
However, Sang Ai soon found nothing to laugh about.
“Sang Ai, someone has reported you for concealing property obtained through exploitation and evading labor reform. Please cooperate with our investigation.”
Sang Ai’s expression changed drastically.
“Comrade, this is a false accusation! I cut all ties with the exploiting classes a long time ago…”
“Whether it’s a false accusation or not, you know that better than anyone.”
The officer took the list of property from the envelope.
“These are the assets we found in your home based on the report. Dare you say these aren’t yours?”
Sang Ai stared at the evidence before him and immediately turned to run.
However, he was apprehended before he had even gone two hundred meters.
At the struggle session, Sang Ai and his entire family of four were forced onto the platform.
“Down with the remnants of the exploiting classes!”
“Capitalists must undergo labor reform!”
Shouts rang out one after another as rotten vegetables and clumps of mud were hurled at them.
Sang Yun instinctively looked toward her father, only to find Sang Ai glaring at her with hatred.
“It’s all because of you, you jinx!”
Sang Yun froze.
She never expected her father to blame everything on her.
“Dad, how can you say that? Those things were clearly hidden by you…”
“Shut up!”
Sang Ai roared.
“If you hadn’t run away and gotten yourself discovered, how would anyone have found those assets?”
Sang Yun looked at the enraged crowd below the platform and at the hateful expressions of her father and brothers.
She finally realized what had happened.
“It must have been Sang Luo who reported us!”
“Fuck! Those two bitches!”
Thinking of Sang Luo and her mother living a comfortable life, Sang Ai’s eyes filled with murderous hatred, as though he wanted to tear them apart with his bare hands.
After the struggle session ended, Sang Ai and his two sons were sentenced to labor reform in an even more remote Gobi desert region.
As for Sang Yun, because she had illegally fled the construction corps, she was sent to a women’s labor-reform camp in one of the harshest environments.
The labor camp was located in a desolate saline-alkali wasteland, surrounded by endless stretches of Gobi desert.
The workload there was twice as heavy as that of the construction corps, while the food was far worse.
Every day, Sang Yun had to work alongside the other female prisoners under the watch of supervisors, reclaiming wasteland and hauling rocks.
At night, they slept in drafty mud-brick houses, more than a dozen people crowded onto the same communal bed.
The northwest night wind cut through the cracks in the walls like knives, leaving everyone shivering from the cold.
“It’s all because of Sang Luo… That bitch did this to me.”
Sang Yun curled up beneath the freezing blankets, whispering through clenched teeth.
“The timeline can’t be changed. I have to endure these years of being sent down. Only then will I meet Li Jianguo. Dad and my brothers must have only turned their lives around and worked hard because of these years of labor reform.”
Sang Yun silently brainwashed herself.
“Sang Yun, you have to endure these days. The good life is still ahead of you. Once you finally live that good life, you’ll have plenty of chances to get revenge.”
A female prisoner sharing the bed heard her muttering and sneered.
“Keep dreaming.”
Meanwhile, far away in Tibet, Sang Luo was sitting inside a warm tent, checking Danzeng’s homework.
“Danzeng’s Chinese writing is getting better and better.”
“It’s all because you taught me well, Aji.”
Danzeng looked up, his dark eyes filled with a thirst for knowledge.
“Look, did I write this character correctly?”
Sang Luo gently patted his head.
“They’re all correct. You’ve improved so much!”
Ever since she and Dündup returned home together a week ago, the two of them had taken over Danzeng’s tutoring in preparation for school.
Dündup sat nearby with his arm in a sling. Watching the affectionate scene between the siblings, his eyes remained fixed on Sang Luo.
After being praised by Sang Luo, Danzeng excitedly turned toward Dündup.
“Abou, did you hear that? Aji said I’ve improved a lot!”
Dündup placed his uninjured hand on Danzeng’s head.
“Mm. Then you have to keep working hard.”
When Lazhen entered carrying butter tea, she couldn’t help feeling as though she were looking at what Sang Luo’s future family life would be like.
Her eyes grew moist.