CHAPTER 21: CHAPTER 21: FLOGGING

She did not have the heart or the means to argue about justice with Boss Tian or the authorities; finding the next place to settle down was the most pressing matter.

Though the situation was not minor, it also wasn’t that severe for Sui Yi.

When she had left the orphanage years ago, she knew she had nowhere to hide, but she had never despaired.

After tidying up her belongings casually and making it look less messy, she then dabbed her face with a towel soaked in water to wipe off the dust,

Strangely, she used to feel tired after just a bit of movement, but now she felt more spirited.

Two days had passed, and today was already over. If she had to move tomorrow, her possessions weren’t many; she could just pick a few pieces of clothing and leave. The problem was, where could she go?

"Still need to ask Elder Tang for help... although he’ll probably take the chance to dock my wages..." Sui Yi leaned against the wall and looked out the window when she suddenly heard loud noises and screams from next door.

Rushing out to look, it was next door at Old Lady Wang’s place, where several cardboard boxes were collapsed in a heap, and Old Lady Wang herself was sprawled on the ground, with clothes and various miscellaneous items scattered over her.

Barely able to get up, her face pale as wax, Old Lady Wang could only support herself on her waist and gasp for air, coughing up blood-stained phlegm from her lips, while her daughter-in-law, looking fierce, cursed, "Useless old thing, so annoying, why don’t you just die and stop bothering us with your eating and defecating..."

The curse flowed smoothly and venomously in her heavy local accent, while she wielded a feather duster with a swat.

"Might as well beat you to death!"

The feather duster continued to strike down~!

By the time Sui Yi crossed The Gate into the room, the first strike of the feather duster had already hit Old Lady Wang on the head...

"Ouch..." Old Lady Wang’s arm, raised to block the blow, suddenly sported a bloody mark, dripping red with blood.

The second strike was even more forceful than the first!

Boom!!!

A useless book flew through the air and hit Old Lady Wang’s daughter-in-law on the head! Her wrist was grabbed, the feather duster dropped and caught!

Smack!!!

A fierce strike landed on the plump body of Old Lady Wang’s daughter-in-law.

Her thin chiffon dress tore open, leaving another bloody mark.

The scream that followed was like that of a slaughtered pig!

Inside the room, a middle-aged man, who was comfortably sitting in a chair and eating, was startled, only reacting when his wife shrieked in rage and pain. He cursed vehemently in local dialect and lifted the chair to smash it...

Quick as the wind, the feather duster whipped across his face!

"Yah!"

The chair fell to the ground, heavily smashing onto the base of his foot!

"Ow ow!"

The sound of whipping was dense and distinctly crisp~~

"Ah!"

"Ah~~"

Cries of agony continuously echoed from the seventh floor, shocking everyone on that level. My God, was someone on the seventh floor trying to commit suicide?

The commotion was massive!

When Li Jingyan rushed into the room from the hallway, everything had quieted down; the Wang couple, normally foul-mouthed, now shrank back against the wall in disarray, their clothes ragged...

On the bed lay Old Lady Wang, barely breathing, while Sui Yi stood in front of the bed, gently wiping Old Lady Wang’s face and hands with a towel.

The scene was somewhat bizarre.

He paused, then approached, "What happened?"

"Nothing..." Sui Yi let out a cool breath.

Li Jingyan’s eyes darkened, and he remained silent.

After caring for Old Lady Wang for a while, Sui Yi shot a glance at the couple.

The two shivered.

"Sui Yi... don’t worry, I will definitely take care of my old mother..."

"I, I swear..."

Old Lady Wang could no longer speak, and Sui Yi didn’t know what to say either, just flung the blood-stained towel.

Smack! The bloodied water in the basin splashed up, staining the mottled walls.

"I’m moving away tomorrow. Whatever happens to you from now on, how could I manage, even if you die somewhere, what does it have to do with me..."

The person who spoke of death so lightly was not even eighteen years old.

The couple felt increasingly absurd.

But he was afraid.

Sui Yi had already left The Gate, and Li Jingyan followed him.

Standing in the corridor, he lit another cigarette and exhaled smoke, "Old Lady Wang probably won’t make it through tonight."

He had seen too many people in their dying moments.

Sui Yi leaned his hands on the railing, "It’s better if she goes, to find some peace."

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That very night, which was just an hour or two ago, Old Lady Wang’s daughter-in-law rushed to knock on Sui Yi’s door.

Old Lady Wang couldn’t hold on any longer.

Sui Yi rubbed his forehead and got up from the bed.

The departing don’t talk like those in TV dramas; Old Lady Wang just clutched Sui Yi’s hand, trembling, and said one sentence.

"Thank... you... girl... this, this.. for you..."

After the dust had settled, Sui Yi dimmed his eyes and neatly folded Old Lady Wang’s cold hands by her side. Turning his gaze, he then noticed an uncovered rusty iron box next to her, with some books messily stacked inside.

The top one was a primary school Chinese textbook... it seemed to be from the ’70s...

The Wang couple cautiously examined it for a bit, then sneered, their eyes reflecting relief.

This old woman must have lost her mind, giving away these old books on her deathbed? Books from so many years ago...

And to think they worried she might give away something valuable!

While the Wang couple felt relieved, they dared not speak out in front of Sui Yi, mainly because the memory of this girl frowning and silently whipping them was still too vivid.

"What do we do now?" the man from the Wang family asked weakly, yet he didn’t dare to look at his mother on the bed.

Sui Yi furrowed her brow, knowing not to expect much from the funeral. She was aware that the Wang family was too poor to even lift the lid of a pot, and by tradition, people like them were usually hastily dragged to the "pauper’s cemetery" and buried.

And it all had to be done the same day.

With no money, you couldn’t even enter the crematorium.

In the end, she could only have the man from the Wang family go door to door calling for help.

The residents of the building felt it was a bad omen. They were about to move, and now, damn it, someone had died, cursing their landing with death?

Although they complained, a few sturdy men still went and buried Old Lady Wang.

Li Jingyan went as well, followed by a few young men who refused to be laughed at, and, of course, a number of elderly people attended in the most significant numbers, possibly out of a sense of shared sadness.

What was surprising, however, was that Sui Yi also went along.

Li Jingyan thought that a girl should not be involved in such matters, so he tried several times to dissuade Sui Yi from going, but he couldn’t stop her; she completely ignored him.

An elderly man glanced at the Wang family man walking hesitantly in front, then at Sui Yi walking composedly beside Old Lady Wang’s body, and after a moment of silence, he finally said, "Old Lady Wang was still quite fortunate..."

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A gloomy mountain, a pitch-dark sky, a chilly wind, and the earth muddy and squeaking with rotten leaves.

To call it a cemetery was really just to say it was Mass Burial Mound now. We live in modern times, not like before when death was commonplace, so among the row of people here, many were shivering, the squeaking under their feet causing their soles to chill and itch.

Damn it, aren’t they stepping on human bones!

While digging the grave, Sui Yi stood on the hillside gazing at the distant town lights, which twinkled charmingly.

The wind was somewhat cold.

"How are you not afraid?" With his back to the Mass Burial Mound behind him, Li Jingyan felt his voice grow cold, and unconsciously, he felt the urge to smoke again.

"Afraid?" Sui Yi swept her gaze across the oppressive surroundings, gloomy and as if there were some wooden plaques and steles slanted haphazardly on the hill.

The mounds of earth looked like giant buns...

"When I was a child, I stayed in an orphanage. We often had to stand in the playground all night long, and that orphanage was very big... At night, under the stars..."

And then?

It seemed quite beautiful.

Several people unconsciously listened to the only girl speaking here.

She turned her side, her breath fragrant, "The playground was the Mass Burial Mound decades ago."

"....."

The orphanage was vast, meaning the playground was large, which in turn meant the Mass Burial Mound was extensive... with twinkling stars...

The scene was filled with a uniform shivering and coughing at what they heard.

Li Jingyan seemed to see the girl’s lips curve into a smile; in her eyes too, were twinkling stars.