In a cellar so dark she could not see her own hand, she ate stale, rock-hard corn cakes that made her teeth ache with every bite. Her body throbbed from the blows of fists, and fresh blood kept surging into her mouth.
Su Jinxia felt as though her head was splitting, and her lips were unbearably dry. In a daze, she heard voices. Somewhere in her mind, a thought urged her to wake up. Her eyelids twitched.
“Mingyue, look at this fabric. Isn’t it pretty? I’ll find a tailor to make you a floral dress. You’ll look absolutely beautiful in it! I traded food coupons for this, so you mustn’t tell your father.”
“It’s pretty, it’s so pretty. Sister doesn’t have any, does she?”
Xiao Ying glanced at the tightly closed door of the little room, then continued speaking after making sure everything was fine.
“Of course not. How could I bear to buy fabric to make clothes for her? It’s all for my precious Mingyue.”
Su Mingyue was thoroughly pleased. She linked her arm through her mother’s and rested her head lightly against her shoulder. “Mommy is the best to me. I love Mommy, and Mommy loves me too!”
Su Mingyue laughed smugly, but then a thought occurred to her. “Sister has had a fever for two days already. Will she be all right?”
“Nothing will happen to her. She’ll get over it if she just holds on a little longer!” Xiao Ying replied indifferently. Whenever she saw her eldest daughter’s face, she was reminded of her deceased mother-in-law.
Her mother-in-law, Su Jin, had been as aloof as a chrysanthemum and beautiful. She had seemed as though nothing in the world could touch her heart. But she was clearly just a country woman—what right did she have to put on airs and pretend to be above it all?
Yet both her father-in-law and her husband had doted on her immensely. They would not let her cook in the kitchen, and they would not even let her wash her own clothes.
She had lived exactly the way Xiao Ying herself had always wanted to live, while all the household chores fell to Xiao Ying, as if she had married into the family solely to serve her mother-in-law.
Thinking of what had happened to her mother-in-law, a cold sneer unconsciously curled the corners of Xiao Ying’s lips.
Although the woman was gone, her eldest daughter was growing more and more like her. That only made Xiao Ying hate her more. Hatred could be transferred.
Therefore, no matter how obedient and sensible her eldest daughter was, and no matter how good her grades were, none of it could outweigh Xiao Ying’s hatred for her mother-in-law.
This time, she had been burning with fever for two days and two nights. If the fever did not turn her into an idiot, it would leave her crippled. If anyone was to blame, it was her own bad luck!
Inside the room.
Su Jinxia slowly opened her eyes and saw nothing but pitch-black darkness around her. The air reeked of mildew. Reaching to the side with her right hand, she felt something familiar.
Taking a closer look, she realized it was the cloth doll her grandmother had left her. She abruptly sat up and nearly fainted again.
The voices of her mother and younger sister drifted in from outside. At first, she had thought she was dreaming again, but she never imagined that she had truly returned. Three years of imprisonment in a world without sunlight, and the fists of a violent husband! Boundless hatred erupted from Su Jinxia’s eyes. She had been reborn. At last, she could take revenge. Relying on that powerful determination, she climbed out of bed.
“Mom, I want to eat dried noodles. Could you cook the half bundle in the cupboard for me? Dad said to save them and cook them for Sister’s birthday, but I want to eat them now. What should we do?”
“What else can we do? Of course I’ll cook them for you, my little ancestor. When your father asks about them, just tell him your sister ate the noodles. Say I cooked them for her when she had a fever. If she dares say she doesn’t remember, you must testify for me!”
Xiao Ying spoke smugly as she swiftly took the dried noodles out of the cupboard.
After thinking for a moment, she took a key from her waist, unlocked the cupboard above, and removed two eggs—the last two eggs in the household.
“I want eggs!” Su Mingyue nearly reached out to snatch them as she spoke. Realizing that she could not eat raw eggs, she quickly withdrew her hand and watched eagerly as her mother cracked the eggs. The egg liquid poured into a bowl, filling it with a golden yellow sheen.
“Mom, I want a fried egg and a boiled egg!”
“You’re so fussy. You eat all the eggs normally. I want one today too, so I can’t let you keep eating them all by yourself!” Xiao Ying gazed indulgently at her younger daughter. Although the girl was dark and unattractive, if one looked closely, she did bear some resemblance to that woman.
But what did it matter?
That did not change the fact that the girl before her was her own biological daughter.
As for the one lying inside the room, she was nothing but a debt-collecting demon, constantly reminding Xiao Ying of that aloof mother-in-law who was as calm as a chrysanthemum.
Su Mingyue laughed happily as she watched her mother stir open the stove and add a few more pieces of firewood. The flames immediately blazed up.
Before long, the water in the pot began bubbling vigorously, and Xiao Ying put in the dried noodles.
Feeling somewhat guilty, Xiao Ying glanced toward the little room—and was nearly frightened out of her wits.
Su Jinxia was standing there with a deathly pale face. Even her lips had gone white, but her eyes alone gleamed brightly.
“You little debt-collecting demon, what are you standing there for?”
“Good, good. I finally get to see you two.”
Looking at the mother and daughter before her, Su Jinxia wished she could eat their flesh and drink their blood. The calendar on the wall displayed May 6, 1978!
“Sister, what are you doing? Why are you staring like that? It’s creepy!” Su Mingyue felt a chill run through her. Her sister looked strange, and there was something frightening in her eyes.
Su Jinxia took several steps forward, but her feet felt as though she were walking on cotton. Her body was terribly weak.
It was because of the cold and fever. She had been burning for two whole days and one night.
In her delirium, no one had taken care of her. She only remembered getting up to drink some water; she had not eaten a single grain of rice.
After waking and seeing her mother and younger sister, she had not received even one word of apology from them. All she got was abuse. They looked at her as though she were a complete stranger.
As Xiao Ying watched her eldest daughter approach step by step, she felt inexplicably nervous. Her feet kept retreating backward.
Su Jinxia reached them and lifted the lid off the pot. In front of them, she poured the contents of the bowl of eggs into it and stirred several times with her chopsticks.
She turned, opened the cupboard, and took out the salt jar. With a spoon, she scooped out a heaping spoonful and poured it into the pot.
Only then did Xiao Ying react. “You dead girl, what are you doing? Why are you putting in so much salt?”
“Get out of my way!” Su Jinxia replied coldly.
All she wanted now was to fill her stomach. After that, she would deal with this mother and daughter pair.
Xiao Ying reached out to push her, but Su Jinxia suddenly seized her wrist. Her grip was so powerful that Xiao Ying could not break free. “What are you trying to do?”
“Get out!”
Su Jinxia twisted around and shoved her out. Then she pushed Su Mingyue out of the kitchen as well.
She closed the door behind them and fastened the bolt tightly. Only then did Su Jinxia turn around, pour the noodles from the stove into a bowl, and look at the pale, smooth noodles. Tears began to fall from her eyes before she even realized it.
Her mouth tasted bitter, but that did not stop her from eating. Noodles with salt added were truly different—they were so delicious.
The door was pounded furiously, and the resounding bangs continued without end.
“Su Jinxia! You dead girl, get out here right now!” Xiao Ying slapped the door with one hand and kicked it several times with her foot. Though the shabby door was dilapidated, it was sturdy. It did not move an inch, standing firm and unshaken.
She regretted not replacing the blasted door sooner!
“Sis, hurry up and come out! Look at how angry you’ve made Mom!” Su Mingyue fanned the flames from the side. She was simply jealous of her sister.
Why, when they had the same mother, did the two of them look so different?
Her sister had been beautiful since childhood. Although she had never had nice clothes to wear, they could not conceal her fair, pure, and delicate face. With such a beautiful person beside her for comparison, Su Mingyue felt that she looked uglier the more she looked at herself.
If her sister was a red flower, then she was merely an ordinary green leaf. At school, the boys’ eyes only ever lingered on her sister, while Su Mingyue was forever the supporting character.
Su Jinxia wiped her mouth and stood up. After finishing a large bowl of noodles, she had regained strength in her hands.
In fact, she had always been very strong. They simply had not known it.
She walked to the door, opened it, and sidestepped out of the way.
Xiao Ying charged inside and went sprawling against the stove, nearly plunging headfirst into the pot.
She slapped one hand onto the pot and cried out in pain. “You dead girl, are you trying to kill me?”
Su Mingyue was stunned by the scene before her. She covered her mouth with both hands as she watched the boiling water in the pot about to spill onto her mother. She did not dare reach out to grab her. Instead, she lowered her hands and shouted at her sister, “Hurry up and pull Mom away! The pot is going to tip onto her!”
Su Jinxia grabbed her hand. “My dear little sister, aren’t you two mother and daughter, connected at the heart? Then share blessings together and endure hardships together.”
Su Jinxia seized her hand and pressed it directly against the edge of the pot.
The pot was filled with boiling water. Anyone could imagine how scalding hot it was to the touch.
“Ah!”