kvmb Chapter 514 I Don't Know Who to Sympathize With
Chapter 514 I Don't Know Who to Sympathize With
Xiu Niang didn't even bother to eat her meal; she turned and ran away.
Lu Yangyang watched her happy and cheerful steps, a stark contrast to her appearance when she first met her, and couldn't help but smile.
Jiang Zhiyi smiled and said, "It seems you really like this little girl."
Lu Yangyang turned her head. "Yes, looking at her reminds me of myself three years ago. I also felt that my fate was really terrible, but a little change can change a lot of things."
Lu Yangyang picked up the bowl and shoveled a mouthful of rice into her mouth.
Jiang Zhiyi understood and smiled in response.
Indeed, sometimes I feel that fate is really terrible, but a small change can change a lot of things.
Lu Yangyang was like that, and so was she.
There are many, many people like that.
Lu Yangyang and Jiang Zhiyi had just finished dinner and were about to clear the table when a young woman came running up breathlessly: "Miss Jiang, Doctor Lu, something terrible has happened! There's a commotion outside!"
"They're making a scene?" Lu Yangyang frowned. "What's going on?"
“Xiuniang, it seems to be the little girl you brought today, Doctor Lu. Her father has come to our door with a group of villagers, saying he's here to take his wife and daughter home!” The girl spoke urgently, “Aunt Zhang is protecting her daughter and won't let her leave!”
Lu Yangyang lifted her leg and ran out.
Xiu Niang's father, the current village chief of Yu Family Village, Uncle Yu the Sixth, has actually come here!
When Lu Yangyang brought those girls out and asked Prefect Ling to send people to other immortal temples to rescue people, there was no time to hide the matter. So most of the villagers knew that the elixir was a scam and that marrying girls off was also a scam. Then those girls were rescued and brought back to the city.
They lingered at Yuming Mountain for a few days. If anyone had been willing to ask around near the government office, it wouldn't have been difficult to find the house where the girls were staying.
Lu Yangyang never expected that someone would come knocking on her door.
These girls were all taken by them to exchange for elixirs of immortality. What are they looking for now?
Lu Yangyang ran out of the courtyard and, sure enough, saw that a commotion had broken out at the entrance of the courtyard, and even some nearby residents who had heard the noise came to watch.
Uncle Yu looked haggard; in just a few days, he seemed to have aged several years, appearing more like the one who had suffered a misfortune.
His eyes were red, and he led about ten men from the village to speak to Zhang.
“I’ve already said, what’s past is past. If there’s any other way, I can’t let Xiu Niang suffer like that. I really have no other choice. What do you want? You’re my wife. We’ve been married for twenty years. If you don’t come back with me, where are you going? How will you support yourself and Xiu Niang in the future? Don’t you know what kind of person I am? I regret it and I hate it too. More than anyone else, I want our family to be well.”
Uncle Yu, overcome with emotion, wiped his face, his voice choked with sobs: "Can't we just live a good life together from now on? What are you doing?"
He kept his head down, somewhat embarrassed to look up. He had been the village chief for several years and was a respected figure in the village. Over the years, since the forced labor incident, he had been trying his best to find ways to save the villagers. When he learned that the Taoist priests were frauds and the forced labor was just a pretext, he was furious.
But what could he do? He could only hate the world and hate those officials who didn't act like human beings. What else could he do?
He was just an ordinary citizen, powerless and without influence. His own son, his family's roots, were gone. He couldn't just stand by and watch all the able-bodied men in the village die, leaving the land uncultivated. How would the people of the village survive in the future?
He felt regret and resentment, but he really didn't know what he had done wrong.
What did he do wrong?
Uncle Yu raised his hand to cover his face, his shoulders shaking involuntarily.
Zhang glared at Uncle Yu with hatred in her eyes, gritting her teeth and spitting out, "You hypocritical old man, let me tell you today, no matter what you say, I will never go back with you. If you dare to use force, I will fight you to the death. If you have the guts, then take my corpse back with you! If you dare to touch a single hair on Xiu Niang's head again, I will haunt you even as a ghost!"
Uncle Yu was deeply provoked by Zhang's words. He angrily raised his head and pointed at Zhang: "You ignorant, stinking woman! I... I wasn't doing this for your and Xiu Niang's sake! If I really had no conscience, I wouldn't have gone through the pressure from the clan to bring you back. I might as well divorce you!"
Zhang sneered, "Then divorce me! If you don't, you're not human. I, Zhang Hehua, will live as a wandering ghost rather than be buried in your Yu family's ancestral grave!"
"You! You!" Uncle Yu pointed at Zhang Shi angrily, his finger trembling.
Seeing his authority being challenged repeatedly, Uncle Yu, not wanting to be ridiculed, had no choice but to appeal to Xiu Niang's emotions, "Xiu Niang, you hate your father, don't you? It's because your father is incompetent. Your father couldn't protect you. If your father had any other way, he wouldn't have, wouldn't have been willing to let you go... Your father came to pick you up today. Your father is really happy, so happy that you're alright. It's so good that you're alright..."
Looking at her father, whom she had once both admired and feared, Xiu Niang suddenly asked, "What if something happens to me? Will Father still accept me?"
Uncle Yu was stunned, rubbing his hands, unable to answer for a moment, only stammering, "Xiu Niang, Father won't let you die, he won't..."
Xiu Niang said softly, "But Father has already sent me to my death once."
Uncle Yu's face turned deathly pale instantly.
Xiu Niang stepped out from behind Zhang Shi, looked at her once imposing father, now hunched over and weathered, and said, "Father is getting old."
Terrified, Zhang grabbed her and cried in a trembling voice, "Xiuniang, Xiuniang, don't be foolish! We can't go back, we absolutely can't go back! Even if I have to take you to beg or sell you into slavery, I will never go back to be humiliated! He's not your father. There's no such heartless father in this world. He's not human, not human! He would send you to your death. Does he deserve to be a father? Does he deserve to be one!"
Zhang was trembling all over, whether from fear or anger, it was hard to tell.
Xiu Niang grasped Zhang Shi's hand and patted it gently. She then turned to look at Uncle Yu, whose eyes were red, her face remaining calm: "Father, I don't hate you."
Uncle Yu looked at Xiu Niang with excitement, but felt inexplicably flustered. He couldn't help but reach out his hand to Xiu Niang, but dared not take a step forward: "Xiu Niang, Father, Father was wrong, Father..."
Xiu Niang shook her head: "I don't know if Father was right or wrong. When I first knew I might die, I was scared and hated Father for being so heartless. But then I saw those people who were rescued. Among them was an uncle from our village. When he was rescued, he was already delirious, covered in cracked wounds, and as thin as a skeleton. He used to be the best farmer in the village, taking good care of ten acres of land. He was not even thirty years old, and his youngest son was only three years old. He was the last strong laborer left in the family."
“How pitiful,” Xiu Niang said. “The uncles and brothers who were taken away are pitiful, and so are we girls who were taken away. I don’t know who to sympathize with, or who to hate, or what I should give and sacrifice for. I don’t have the answer now, but I think one day I will find the answer.”
"I'll go find it myself."