Chapter 3: 2

 Chapter 2 - The Fool

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Su Qin was trussed up by Zhang Feng and pulled along like a cow to the Fool’s house.

The Fool is called Feifei, who this year is only 15 too. After his father died, his paternal grandfather and grandmother passed away one after another, leaving only him and his mother, Yun Qin.

It is said that the Fool’s father left some money for him to buy a wife, but Yun Qin felt the Fool is still young and could wait for another 2 years. But now that this girl who Zhang Feng delivered over was cheap, she thought it was feasible and bought Su Qin from Zhang Feng.

Locked up in a room, Su Qin was so hungry that she had no more strength.

When night came, someone pushed open the door and switched the light on.

Holding a bowl of boiled water in his hand, the Fool stood at the door with pursed lips as he sized her up.

Though the Fool is only 15 years old, he is already 1.78m tall. He was wearing a washed-out red T-shirt and baggy shorts.

He is very thin but not the emaciated kind. His skin is very fair with a small palm-sized face and is considerably good-looking too. The pair of crystal-clear eyes that looked at her was like a harmless little puppy.

Su Qin’s eyes felt somewhat moist. As a matter of fact, she did not expect she would be resold to the Fool’s home.

In her previous life, she stayed in Zhang Xing’s house for 5 years and was about to be sold off to a 60-year-old man in the village due to her inability to give birth. In a panic, she escaped in the middle of the night and hid in the Fool’s house.

The Fool discovered Su Qin under the bed when he was looking for a kitten.

When Zhang Xing brought people over and asked the Fool if he had seen Su Qin, he nodded and then pointed to the backyard.

Su Qin hid under the bed for three days. The Fool brought her water and steamed buns every day.

The Fool’s mother thought he had taken the food to feed stray cats, so she did not think much about it. Su Qin stayed under the Fool’s bed for a whole week.

She dared not speak or even breathe loudly while under the bed and only spoke two words ‘thank you’ to the Fool in the whole week. One night a week later, the Fool took her out of the village. They ran to Tongluo Township, where they found the teachers who were there under the educational support program.

Later, the children who attended the school reported them, thus Su Qin and the Fool were caught and brought back to the village.

As the Fool had violated the village’s taboo, the villagers burned him alive as a punishment. When they intended to break Su Qin’s limbs, they found out that she was pregnant, hence she escaped the calamity.

For many years afterwards, she could not forget the scene of the Fool being burned to death.

Afterwards, she was hidden away by the villagers when Professor Li rushed over with the police.

Professor Li and the police didn’t give up. They kept watch in the mountains for half a month before they found her trail and rescued her. Once she went back to the city, she had an abortion accompanied by her parents.

Zhang Feng was arrested for human trafficking and Zhang Xing was taken into custody for having murdered someone in the city. Li Yunzhen and those villagers who bought wives/daughter-in-laws were only verbally re-educated and criticized.

Besides Su Qin, other abducted girls in the village were also rescued. Some of the girls, however, chose to return there after going back to the city as they could not bear leaving their children behind.

Su Qin went to the police station to report against Li Yunzhen and several relatives for intentional homicide of burning the Fool alive. When the police went to the village, the villagers said there were no such two people (the Fool and his mother) in the village.

Since there was no evidence, the matter was left unresolved.

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Compared to other abducted girls whether in the previous or this lifetime, Su Qin was lucky.

At this moment, her tears could not be restrained from trickling down when she caught sight of the Fool standing alive at the door.

Seeing that she was crying, the Fool hurriedly put the water on the dark cabinet then pointed his finger at the enamel bowl filled with water and walked out.

The Fool is not really stupid. He is just sullen and doesn’t like to talk, and only behaves foolishly in front of outsiders.

He is very smart. If it was not for him in her previous lifetime, Su Qin would not be able to leave the village.

Su Qin glanced at the bowl of water yet she didn’t drink it. Once the Fool left the room, she poured the water under the bed.

In this village, she can’t actually trust anyone except the Fool. Although he brought the water in, she wasn’t sure if it was drugged by his mother.

Even though her throat was burning with thirstiness, she still wouldn’t dare touch the bowl of water.

The tiled-roofed house in the countryside is no match to the living conditions in the city. The bedroom floor is not covered in concrete, let alone ceramic tiles but rather a pitch-dark dirt floor which is humid and damp.

The bedroom is dark if light is not switched on. Even the cabinets here are dark and out-dated. The bed sheets and quilt cover, though worn out, are cleanly washed with soap scent, which can be seen that the Fool’s mother loves cleanliness very much.

In contrast, Zhang Xing’s house is a lot sloppier, with damp bedding and nauseating mustiness.

Su Qin knows what kind of person the Fool is. If he is the only one in the family, she can then feel completely at ease. But he still has a mother whom she doesn’t know. But crows here are generally black, his mother should be as cold-blooded and ruthless as the rest of the villagers.

Otherwise, the Fool in her previous lifetime wouldn’t have let her hide under the bed for as long as a week.

Su Qin was very sleepy but she didn’t dare to sleep.

The Fool came in again at night and took a pair of scissors to cut the rope that bound her limbs.

Standing by the bed, the Fool looked at her and pointed to the main room next door, “Outside, waiting for you.”

Su Qin rubbed her swollen and painful wrists. Staring at the back of his head, she called out, “Feifei.”

The fool stopped his tracks, visibly stunned as he turned back to look at her.

This time, the look he gave her was no longer that of a gentle harmless puppy, but with sharp vigilance.

Su Qin was startled by the sudden change of his gaze and for a moment, she felt that this big boy in front of her was no longer the simple and kind Yun Fei she had met in her previous life.

Her heart pounded as she cautiously justified her words, “My nickname … is Fei Fei … you can call me Fei Fei.”

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The Fool’s gaze shifted again in a flash, resuming to the silly foolishness he usually displayed.

Su Qin got out of bed to put on her shoes and followed him to the hall.

In the main room, there was a portrait of Chairman Mao pasted on the wall opposite the door and a square dining table under the incandescent lamp with two dishes and a bowl of soup on it.

A plate of cured meat with fried garlic sprouts, a plate of fried green-rape, a large bowl of pea shoots crispy pork soup and bowls of rice on three sides of the square table.

Su Qin was really hungry. Looking at the steaming white rice, her stomach ‘rumbled’.

The Fool went to the kitchen and took out three pairs of chopsticks which he handed her a pair upon returning to the main room.

Su Qin appeared very scared, her body trembled as if she dared not reach out to take them.

Carrying a plate of pickled radish doused with chili oil, Yun Qin saw the little girl trembling like sieving chaff and said to her, “Come over and eat. Only when your stomach is full will you have the strength to be someone’s wife, won’t you?”

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Su Qin raised her eyes cautiously and met Yun Qin’s shrewd eyes when chill ran through her bones.

This woman’s skin is very fair with gorgeous features. Although she was dressed in rags, her temperament is unlike those ordinary peasant women. In her previous lifetime, Su Qin had never met her as she hid under the bed and had only listened to her voice.

The woman’s eyes seemed able to clearly see through everything and she could be seen as an astute woman who is not easily deceived like Zhang Feng and Li Yunzhen.

After sitting down, Yun Qin picked up the bowl and looked up at the girl standing at the table with her head bowed.

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The girl looked no more than 15 or 16 years old. She was wearing a school uniform with disheveled hair, a bruised face and hives that made it impossible to tell what she looked like.

She took an empty bowl and ladled her a bowl of crispy meat soup, “Sit down and eat.”

Su Qin looked like she did not dare to disobey. She sat down, picked the chopsticks and held up the enamel bowl. Not daring to look anyone in the eyes, she immediately buried her face in the bowl and pretended to shove two mouthfuls of rice.

Yun Qin kept staring at her and snorted a cold laugh.

This cold laugh numbed Su Qin’s scalp.

“Don’t worry, there’s no drug in it. Looking like this, even my son can’t open his mouth to devour you.” Yun Qin’s comments were sarcastic yet she picked a chopstick of vegetables into her bowl, “You’re very lucky you are not missing an arm or a leg and being sold to my family.”

Everyone knows her identity in the village, so those traffickers generally do not take the initiative to do business with her. She just bought Su Qin today and when she went out to pick vegetables in the evening, she found herself being watched by her neighbors.

Hearing what was said, Su Qin shoved a mouthful of rice into her mouth. She dared not eat another mouthful even though she was unbearably hungry.

She glanced at Yun Qin cautiously after that mouthful of rice, looking like a frightened kitten.

Yun Qin asked her, “Where are you from?”

Stunned momentarily, her voice was as soft as a mosquito, “Yun … yang.”

Yun Qin stopped talking and lowered her head to eat.

The dining table fell into silence and only the perfunctory sound of chopsticks hitting the enamel bowls was heard.

After the meal, the Fool got up and went silently to the kitchen outside with the tableware. Once the Fool left, Yun Qin took out the half-sewn insoles from the cabinet by the side and began to do needlework.

As soon as Yun Qin put on the thimble, the little girl poked her elbow with her finger, “Do you need … help?”

Yun Qin thought the little girl would take at least a few days before she dared to initiate conversation with her. She didn’t expect she would start talking to her just after one meal.

Smiling, she said, “Oh, you girls from the city still know how to do this?”

Su Qin nodded, “En… I have no family since I grew up in an orphanage and can do all kinds of manual work. I still have to be taken care of by you guys in the future. I can’t eat and drink at your expense.”

She told the other party that she was an orphan and said that she would accept their ‘care’ in the future. The implication was that she had accepted the facts. She has nothing to worry about outside and will live with them obediently, thus trying to let the other party relax their vigilance.

She appeared sincere which made others hard to discern that she was feigning obedience. This girl probably suffered a lot in Zhang Xing’s house, thus she was so well behaved after coming to her place. Yun Qin thought.

If Yun Qin is the kind of person like Li Yunzhen, she might have grinned from ear to ear. Unfortunately, she is not.

She sized Su Qin up for a while then retracted her gaze. While threading the needle, she said, “I indeed don’t keep freeloaders here. Do you think I’ll let you stay just because you can do some work? Wait till your hives healed, I’ll have Zhang Feng take you away.”

Slightly shocked, Su Qin’s heart skipped a beat.

This woman knew what she had was not an infectious disease, but hives, and yet she is letting Zhang Feng take her away? If she is taken away by Zhang Feng again, will she return to Zhang Xing or will she be resold to a 60-year-old man?

This woman, makes Su Qin inscrutable. Doesn’t she want a daughter-in-law who can give birth to a son?

If not, then what did she want to do when she bought herself?

After she organized her thoughts, she came up with a terrible outcome.

She asked Yun Qin tentatively, “You … are an outsider who was sent here?”

Yun Qin’s hand trembled and the tip of the needle stabbed into her finger.

She knocked over what was in her hand and clutched Su Qin’s neck unexpectedly. The blue veins on her forehead appeared suddenly, “That was not called sent! It’s called abduction! It’s an act of banditry! Do you understand the act of banditry?”

Su Qin was unable to breathe because of her choking. Shoving her, she struggled free from her restraint.

She took several steps back when the small of her back pressed against the cabinet. Rubbing her neck, she frowned at the woman who suddenly went crazy in front of her.

“We have a chance to get out.” She coughed lightly and continued, “There’s a postgraduate named Li who came here to teach. He’s our hope to get out of here.”

Hearing that, Yun Qin smiled and laughed coldly, as if she had heard her telling a very naive joke.

“Today I heard Zhang Xing said he will come to this village to gather cultural material.” Su Qin paused, then continued, “The people here won’t let you go out, but your son is different from you. He is Dashan’s child and a fool in the eyes of the villagers. No one will be wary of him. You can bicker with Zhang Xing about sending him to school.”

Yun Qin put away her cold smile and began to re-examine the girl in front of her.

Reborn once again, everything has gone differently, yet she is still surrounded by dangers.

In her previous lifetime, the Fool didn’t go to school. So, he attracted the attention of the students when he went to Tongluo Township, resulting in the discovery of them both.

In this lifetime, if the Fool can go to school openly, she will have a way for Li Chuan to get her message.

The school is built in Tongluo Township, it’s said to be a township but in fact the environment is not much better.

Two days ago, Li Chuan and a few university students walked from Tuling Town to Tongluo Township. They had walked the mountainous path for a day and by the time they arrived, it was already evening.

The fellow students had blisters on their feet and thought they could take a good rest once they arrived but seeing the shabby dormitory, they were baffled with stupefied expressions.

The dormitory is a tile-roofed house with one room for each gender. The wide beds were made from a large wooden plank and the rooms do not even have a door.

The male students were fine with it but the female students were devastated that some even cried out.

The students complained and regretted coming to this place. Only Li Chuan silently threw his backpack on the bed, filled a basin with toiletries and went routinely with ease to the backyard to fetch water from the well to wash up.

A male student followed him blindly with a basin in his arms, patted him on the shoulder and asked, “Genius Li, why on earth did you come to such a hellish place to teach ah? Is it to experience life personally?”

The male student who spoke is called Yang Yuan, who was originally in the same grade as Li Chuan when he was in high school. Later, Li Chuan skipped grades all the way. When he just graduated from university, Li Chuan had completed his postgraduate studies.

Yang Yuan intends to enter officialdom after graduation. He came to such a backward place under the education support program just to increase some political capital[1] for himself. But he could not figure out why Li Chuan would come to such a place.

In his previous lifetime, Li Chuan came here to teach because he had offended someone.

And in this lifetime …

He wrung out the towel in his hand, wiped his face and said, “To find someone.”

[1] 政治资本 (Zhèngzhì zīběn) – a metaphor used in political theory to conceptualize the accumulation of resources and power built through relationships, trust, goodwill, and influence between politicians or parties and other stakeholders, such as constituents.

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