Every member of the Shen family looked toward the city gates with worried eyes. They noticed that some people who were clearly refugees, clad in threadbare rags, were actually able to produce silver to buy entry permits.
Shen Gui immediately spoke up, “Father, I’ll go scout around and ask those refugees how they managed to earn that silver.”
Old Man Shen nodded. “Alright.”
Receiving his father’s approval, Shen Gui went off to gather information from those queueing up to enter the city who clearly looked like fellow refugees.
Before long, Shen Gui returned from his inquiries, his complexion looking terrible.
Old Man Shen looked at him and asked, “How is it? Did you find out?”
Shen Gui remained silent for a long time, so much so that the others grew restless, before he finally replied, “I found out.”
With that, he fell silent once more.
Unable to contain her short temper, Old Lady Shen frowned at him and snapped, “Fourth, if you don’t speak up, I’ll have your third brother go ask instead.”
Only then did Shen Gui speak slowly, his tone heavy with grief: “Those people… sold their children to get the silver for the entry permits…”
“What?! Sold their children?!”
Hearing this, the Shen family was utterly shocked.
When Wang Juhua recovered from her surprise, her eyes landed on eight-year-old Shen Changgeng, six-year-old Shen Bichen, and three-year-old little Xihe.
She couldn’t help but suggest, “Why don’t we sell Changgeng and the kids first? Once we get into the city, find work, and make some money, we can buy them back…”
Before Wang Juhua could finish her sentence, Shen Fu yanked her back hard.
However, Shen Fu was a moment too late. The rest of the Shen family had already heard Wang Juhua’s words and were looking at her in complete disbelief.
They had thought Wang Juhua was merely a bit lazy and foolish, but they never imagined she could make such a heartless proposal!
In a fit of uncontrollable rage, Old Lady Shen grabbed a woodchopping knife and used the wooden handle to beat Wang Juhua mercilessly, scolding her as she struck: “You brainless, heartless, wicked fool!”
Smarting from the blows, Wang Juhua hurriedly scrambled behind Shen Fu to take cover. In the past, Shen Fu would always shield her, but this time, even he felt she deserved the beating.
No matter how poor their Shen family became, they would never sell their own children!
Just as Old Lady Shen was beating her out of breath and Wang Juhua was crying from the sharp pain, a horse-drawn carriage outfitted with iron cages passed right beside them.
Locked inside the iron cages were numerous children ranging from three to ten years old, all gazing outside through the iron bars with dull, lifeless eyes.
Only a young boy of around six was pressed against the iron bars, wailing loudly toward the space behind the carriage: “Mother! *Sob sob sob!* Please let me go! My mother said she won’t sell me anymore!”
Hearing his cries, several burly men driving the carriage burst into loud laughter and kept leading the horses forward.
Hearing the boy’s wails, little Xihe couldn’t help poking her head out from Gu Hanmei’s arms. Seeing the grim scene before her, her little hands gripped Gu Hanmei’s clothes in fear.
Gu Hanmei hastily held little Xihe close, nuzzling her face against her daughter’s tender cheek as she whispered, “Don’t be afraid. Mother will never let anyone sell you…”
Before her words were finished, a emaciated, sallow-faced woman came chasing after the carriage.
Stumbling frantically, the woman caught up to the carriage, fell to her knees before the burly men, and wept: “Kind sirs, I beg of you, please don’t take my son away! He is my only son!”
“Please give him back to me!”
Seeing his mother kneeling on the ground begging those men, the young boy locked in the iron cage wept even harder. He reached his hand out toward her, shouting at the top of his lungs: “Mother! Save me, I’m so scared!”
“I promise I’ll never say I’m hungry again! Don’t let Father sell me!”
Hearing her son’s cries, the woman kowtowed even more furiously against the ground.
The burly men guarding the children looked at the kneeling woman with a flicker of impatience in their eyes.
The leader of the group stepped up to the woman and said in a cold, unfeeling voice, “You want us to give your son back? Sure!”
“Return the one tael of silver you took from us first, and we’ll give your son right back!”
Hearing this, the woman froze mid-kowtow.
She had no silver. After her husband coaxed her into selling their son, he took the single tael of silver from the sale, bought an entry permit for himself, and abandoned her outside the city gates alone.
Having lost everything, she only now bitterly regretted listening to her husband and selling their son.
The leader looked down at the kneeling woman, the corners of his mouth curling into a mocking sneer: “You took our silver, and now you want the child back without returning the money… What do you think we are, some kind of charitable saints?”
“Get lost! Don’t block our path. If you keep standing in front of our carriage, don’t blame us for getting rough with you!”
Terrified by the brutal, icy glare in the man’s eyes, the woman collapsed weakly onto her knees.
The leader glared down at her. “Do I need to say it again? Get lost!”
The woman stole a glance at her son, whose face was drenched in tears, and gritted her teeth: “I’ll go with you! Release my son, please?”
The leader sneered and scoffed, “With looks like yours, not even the lowest brothel in Lingluo County would take you. What would we do with you?”
Hearing his words, the last glimmer of light in the woman’s eyes vanished completely.
As a woman trapped in such dire circumstances, she wouldn’t survive anyway. In that case…
The woman suddenly sprang up and charged headlong toward the iron cage holding her son. The men surrounding the carriage instinctively moved to push her away.
Before any of them could lay a hand on her, however, the woman slammed her head violently against a sharp iron spike on the cage.
A gruesome hole instantly split open on her forehead, and crimson blood gushed out in streams.
The little boy locked inside the cage, who had been wailing just a moment ago, lost his voice entirely at the sight.
Even the burly men were stunned, frozen in place, having never expected her to do something so drastic.
Clinging to her very last breath, the woman glared at the men and rasped, “If you don’t release my son… I… as a ghost… I will never let you rest!”
With those final words, her breath ceased.
…
The moment the woman slammed into the iron cage, little Xihe had squeezed her eyes shut in terror.
When she tried to open them again, she found only darkness before her eyes.
As it turned out, her mother, Gu Hanmei, had also worried the girl would be traumatized. The instant the woman charged the cage, she had immediately covered Xihe’s eyes with her hand, sparing her from seeing the gruesome scene.
Only when Old Lady Shen saw that little Xihe’s eyes were covered did she let out a sigh of relief—it was enough that her precious darling was spared the horror.
Having made sure little Xihe wasn’t frightened, Old Lady Shen turned her gaze back toward those burly men, wanting to see if they would actually set the little boy free.