In the northwest, in the evening, the aroma of cooking drifted from every household in Huaihua Village.
Jiang Xiaoxiao, who had just turned five, smelled the food and her stomach growled loudly.
She was standing at the doorway, craning her neck as she waited for her aunt and cousin to return.
The town held its market fair every third day of the lunar calendar, and today happened to be the third. Her aunt had taken her cousin to town early in the morning and wouldn’t be back until evening. Before leaving, she had left food for the few pigs at home, but had deliberately not left any food for Jiang Xiaoxiao.
Jiang Xiaoxiao could only go to the fields to pick through discarded rotten vegetables that others didn’t want, boiling them into a mush to stave off her hunger. By now, she was already so hungry that her vision was swimming.
Actually, there was still rice and flour at home, but those weren’t things she was allowed to touch.
Her aunt said she was a burden on this family, said her good-for-nothing parents had stolen money from the household and run off to live happily on their own, leaving her behind.
So she had no right to eat at the table—she only deserved to eat and sleep with the dogs.
Her aunt also said she wasn’t even as good as a dog.
A disobedient dog could at least be sold for money, but even the widowers in the village whose wives had died wanted nothing to do with her.
Just as she was thinking this, a stone suddenly struck her in the face.
“Look, isn’t that the little idiot from the Jiang family?”
“She’s not a little idiot—she’s a thief!”
“Right! Her parents are thieves, and a thief’s child is definitely a thief too!”
The ones saying these things were a few boys from the village. They usually enjoyed tormenting Jiang Xiaoxiao, loved watching her flee in panic.
Now that there was no one at Jiang Xiaoxiao’s house, they were naturally even more unrestrained.
Sure enough, Jiang Xiaoxiao was frightened, her eyes reddening. Like a rabbit, she turned and darted into the house.
Seeing this, the boys roared with laughter, calling her an idiot, a thief, a coward, a snot-nosed brat.
Listening to the jeers and curses from outside, tears welled up in Jiang Xiaoxiao’s eyes.
She was not a thief!
Her mom and dad were not thieves either!
Jiang Xiaoxiao had memories from very early on. Even though her mother had left when she was only a year and a half old, she could still vaguely remember that when her mother left, she hadn’t stolen anything—in fact, she had left behind a lot of money, stuffed inside a large envelope.
At the time, Jiang Xiaoxiao was only one year old and couldn’t understand what her mother was doing, but she had stored this scene in her memory.
When she grew older and figured it out, no one believed her words.
Who would believe that a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler could remember things?
“Jiang Xiaoxiao! You dead girl, where have you gone to slack off now—”
The sudden angry shout from the doorway scared Jiang Xiaoxiao so much that her hand trembled, and the iron basin and bowl in her hands clattered to the ground with a loud crash.
The next second, the door was yanked open from the outside with a bang. Her aunt, Jiang Qingmei, glared with wide eyes, her face full of fury: “What are you doing? Sneaking food?”
Jiang Xiaoxiao was so frightened her whole body was shaking: “I—I wasn’t…”
Smack!
A vicious slap landed, making Jiang Xiaoxiao’s head ring and buzz.
“If you weren’t sneaking food, why are you holding the pig’s food basin? You worthless wretch, have I ever starved you or denied you drink? Even the pigs’ food, you have to steal!”
Jiang Xiaoxiao’s face went pale: “I didn’t, Auntie…” She sobbed as she tried to explain, squatting down to pick up the pig feed basin that had fallen to the ground.
By this time, the children who had been watching the commotion outside had gathered around.
Watching Jiang Xiaoxiao get beaten was one of their daily pleasures.
To make Jiang Qingmei keep beating Jiang Xiaoxiao, they fanned the flames with all their might from the sidelines.
“Auntie Jiang, she’s lying! She stole food, we all saw it!”
“Yes, yes, I saw her steal the pig slop with my own eyes—she ate it like it was delicious!”
“Jiang Xiaoxiao is a thief and a liar! Auntie Jiang, don’t believe her!”
Hearing this, Jiang Qingmei indeed grew even more furious. She grabbed the carrying pole beside her and swung it at Jiang Xiaoxiao.
Jiang Xiaoxiao was so frightened that she dashed away to dodge.
This carrying pole was nothing like a slap—a slap would at most hurt for a couple of days, but if this thick pole landed on her body, she probably wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for ten days to half a month!
“Auntie! I really didn’t steal the pig slop!”
But Jiang Qingmei couldn’t be bothered to listen to her explanation. She grabbed the pole and chased after her.
Although Jiang Xiaoxiao was thin and small, she was nimble. Having been beaten since childhood, she could normally dodge easily. But today, because she hadn’t eaten her fill, she ran a few steps and lost her strength. Soon, several purple bruises appeared on her body.
In the end, it was only when her cousin Jiang Xiaowei muttered that she was hungry that Jiang Xiaoxiao was freed from the pole.
But Jiang Qingmei clearly wasn’t going to let Jiang Xiaoxiao off so easily.
She tossed Jiang Xiaoxiao a basket that looked taller than she was: “Go dig some radishes from the field and hurry up. If you’re not back by sunset, you won’t eat tonight either—you’ll sleep with Dahei!”
Dahei was the family dog, and he was usually very close to Jiang Xiaoxiao.
Hearing his name, Dahei let out a woof and trotted over to Jiang Xiaoxiao’s side.
Jiang Xiaoxiao wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve, endured the pain, and got up. She hoisted the big basket onto her back and staggered toward the back hill.
Her aunt’s radishes were planted on the back hill.
The back hill was actually a graveyard. Whenever someone in the village died, they’d find a plot on the back hill and bury them there. Except for funerals and offerings, no one usually came here.
Even those few boys who had been watching the commotion lost their desire to follow and tease her when they heard Jiang Xiaoxiao was going to the back hill. No one was willing to wander around a graveyard at night.
There was a small ditch on the back hill. It looked narrow, but the water was actually deep. According to the village elders, it was a tributary of the Yellow River.
Jiang Qingmei’s radishes were planted right by that ditch.
Although her whole body ached, Jiang Xiaoxiao was afraid of missing a meal, so she didn’t dare delay. She quickly pulled up a few radishes and threw them into the basket, ready to get up.
Unexpectedly, the basket was far heavier than she had anticipated. The moment Jiang Xiaoxiao stood up, her foot didn’t find solid ground, and with a splash, she fell back down. Not to mention the pain all over her body, the radishes in the basket instantly rolled out.
Jiang Xiaoxiao panicked: “My radishes!”
The little girl scrambled and crawled, but it was too late.
She watched helplessly as the big white radish rolled into the ditch beside her. Without a second thought, Jiang Xiaoxiao plunged headfirst into the ditch.
Splash!
Splash!
Splash!
On the other side of the river.
A boy in a white T-shirt and black pants was focused on painting.
When he heard the first splash, he thought someone had thrown a stone into the river, so he didn’t look up.
At the second splash, he frowned slightly.
At the third splash…
He finally couldn’t help but look up, just in time to see a thin, monkey-like little thing dive into the ditch.
If he hadn’t vaguely heard her yell something about radishes, he might have actually thought it was a monkey—and a stupid monkey at that.
The boy put down his paintbrush, stood up, walked to the edge of the ditch, and pressed his lips into a thin line.
The river channel was much deeper than he had expected.
There didn’t seem to be anyone around either.
So, since this little monkey dared to jump in, it should be able to swim back up on its own, right?
The youth stood on the bank and waited for two minutes, but saw not a single ripple on the river’s surface.
Finally, he could sit still no longer. He took off his jacket and jumped into the river with a splash…