One of the robust men raised his arm high, intending to strike again when a figure appeared beside him like a ghostly shadow.
The young man raised his hand to block the big man’s descending hand, but the man’s hand passed straight through the young man’s arm and landed heavily on the woman.
The next moment, a violent flurry of blows followed.
Bai Lixin withdrew his hand that was frozen in mid air, watching these thugs with a complicated expression.
It turned out that this place was also a “mirage.”
He was not involved and was just a bystander witnessing this past human tragedy.
No wonder no one paid him any attention when he stood outside the courtyard earlier. He thought it was because he had no presence, but it turned out they just couldn’t see him at all.
Assured that he wouldn’t be discovered, Bai Lixin no longer hid and boldly stood among the crowd to observe.
This group of people seemed accustomed to seeing the beatings. The traffickers treated the women like livestock, using violence to subdue them. Village men gathered as if it was a spectacle.
There was no pity in their eyes, only eager curiosity.
Some women also approached, while most of them stayed in the back, standing stiffly with their heads down, too afraid to speak or move.
The middle-aged woman cried and pleaded on the ground, struggling and trying to escape, but she was powerless.
Finally, a hurried set of footsteps ended this one-sided violence.
Mute Uncle rushed over in a panic, carefully handing a plastic bag covered in grease to Auntie Zhang.
Auntie Zhang took the plastic bag with some disgust, then squatted down and began to open it, counting the contents.
Inside the bag were various denominations of banknotes and coins, with each denomination meticulously bundled with a string. Even the corners of the banknotes were flattened, indicating how frequently the owner visited these banknotes.
There weren’t many hundred-yuan bills, most were ten or twenty yuan. There were also some one- and two-cent coins.
After squatting for a while and feeling that the ground was dirty, Auntie Zhang stood up and moved to a nearby table to continue counting the money.
Seeing Auntie Zhang approaching, the women who were standing behind instinctively stepped back, creating some distance out of fear.
She glanced at them and smiled, “Look at you heartless little things. If it weren’t for me, how could you have settled down, built your families, and had children and grandchildren so early? Do you know how chaotic the outside world is? If it weren’t for me, you might have been run over by a car outside a long time ago.”
No one responded to her, everyone just stared at her quietly.
Auntie Zhang ignored them and opened the plastic bag and counted the money again.
After counting twice, Auntie Zhang raised her head and glanced at the old mute man.
The mute was standing constrainedly, his eyes not daring to leave the money for a moment.
This was the hard-earned money he has worked hard for all his life, and he couldn’t let bad guys steal it.
Auntie Zhang cleared her throat, “Ahem, Mute Uncle, I’ve counted it twice, over and over again, and you’re still short by about twenty yuan.”
Mute Uncle panicked instantly.
This money was all he had. Now, he didn’t even have the money to buy rice for the next meal.
How could it be short by twenty yuan?
Auntie Zhang said, “Mute Uncle, you know I’m not an unreasonable person. How about this? You can use something else as a substitute, and we’ll consider the twenty yuan settled. What do you think?”
Mute Uncle hastily nodded, then shook his head in hesitation.
He didn’t know if he had anything worth twenty yuan.
Auntie Zhang seemed to understand this and looked at Mute Uncle briefly, then glanced at the middle-aged woman with long hair.
With a wicked glint in her eye, she said, “I just remembered, women’s hair can also fetch some money. Once you buy this fish, it’s yours. So, how about you sell me the hair of this fish? We’ll call it even for the missing twenty yuan. What do you say?”
Mute Uncle widened his eyes in amazement, pointing at his own head and then at the woman, seemingly shocked that a woman’s hair could be sold for money.
Auntie Zhang: “Well, now you know. Women have many valuable assets. Hair can be sold for money, the body can be sold for money, and even the belly can be profitable. When you’ve had a bunch of kids and can’t afford to raise them, you can still earn money. In the future, if you want to sell little fishies, just tell Sister Zhang, and I’ll give you a fair price.”
The woman who had been beaten and lying on the ground overheard the conversation between Auntie Zhang and Mute Uncle. She looked at the wretched and aged Mute Uncle and let out a despairing wail.
While she cried, they laughed.
Mute Uncle wore a satisfied, silent smile, Auntie Zhang sported a smile of having secured her money, and the surrounding men had lecherous grins.
Bai Lixin furrowed his brow tightly. UNABLE to bear it any longer, he turned away.
The woman and the four men remained there for a while, eating some food on the side. After ensuring that no one else would buy, they led the remaining two women away.
Bai Lixin watched the smiling faces of the men at the banquet, finding them ugly and offensive.
He left the dining table and arrived at the bridal chamber.
The door to the bridal chamber was tightly shut. He tried to enter directly, but he discovered that although he was an observer and could pass through humans, he couldn’t pass through buildings.
The heavy door obstructed his path.
He pushed it forcefully, but the door didn’t budge.
Then he placed both hands on the door and pushed with all his strength. Finally, the tightly closed door gave way.
His body also rushed in due to inertia.
Inside the room, the scene was entirely different from what he had imagined.
There was no brightly decorated bridal chamber, no bride in a red wedding gown; there was only a man and woman engaged in a heated argument.
To say they were arguing was too generous, it was more like a one-sided beating.
The woman’s hair was disheveled, hanging over her face. Just a moment ago, her bashful face was flushed with happiness, but now she appeared haggard.
Her fair skin had turned sallow, and her cheeks were sunken.
There was a four-year-old girl crying on the bed.
The man, who had been outside a moment ago and dressed in a red wedding outfit, was now standing before Bai Lixin with a fierce and menacing glare. He spoke to the woman, “Liang Tingting, what were you trying to do just now?”
The woman looked at the man’s ferocious expression with fear and stammered, “I… I just wanted to take the child and go back to my… my mother’s place. I… I miss my mother.”
The man: “A married daughter is like spilled water. Since you’ve married into our Huang family, your offspring are also Huang family members, whether alive or dead. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning. You just want to divorce me, don’t you? You women are all heartless. Just like that dead woman, you despise me for being poor, right?!”
“I’m not!” The woman grew angrier, her face reddening as she shouted, “I want a divorce not because you’re poor! If I despised your poverty, I wouldn’t have married you in the first place. I was teaching in this village, so how could I not know your family’s circumstances? I want a divorce because of your violence, your deception, and your discrimination!”
“You’ve used violence against me, not only hitting me but also my daughter. You deceived me, you clearly had another wife before but lied, saying you hadn’t been married. I gave birth to a daughter, and you not only refused to help take care of us, you also looked down on me and my daughter.”
“If you don’t like my daughter, I’ll raise her myself, okay?”
The woman held the girl on the bed in her arms and headed out, “I don’t want anything in this house, I just want my child. I left a week’s worth of buns for you in the kitchen. I’m leaving. In a few days I will come with my mother to divorce you.”
Bai Lixin was standing at the door, and the woman rushed directly in his direction with the child in her arms
Bai Lixin felt something strange and quickly moved to the side.
The woman was about to leave but didn’t see the furious face of the man behind her.
Seeing the woman about to cross the room’s threshold, the man took a swift step forward, grabbed her hair, and violently pulled her back, causing her to fall to the ground.
The little girl was hurt by the fall and cried even louder.
In the next moment, the man began to rain down punches and kicks.
The woman quickly shielded the little girl, letting those fists land on her own body.
She pleaded while shouting for help from outside, but this entire village was filled with their village’s people. Who would come to their aid?
After the man forcefully closed the door, he continued to beat her while berating, “I let you leave, I let you leave.”
“Do you think this is a place where you can come and go as you please?”
“You better stay put!”
“Divorce? Divorce my foot! No one in the whole village has ever divorced. You want to divorce me? Are you trying to make the entire village laugh at me?”
“Do you dare to let others laugh at me? I’ll beat you to death.”
The man’s eyes turned red, and he showed no restraint in his blows.
The woman had a delicate frame and was no match for the man. Under the man’s iron-like fists, she could only passively endure it all.
As the man’s blows grew increasingly relentless, the door that had been tightly closed was suddenly kicked open.
A short-haired woman wearing a thick coat appeared at the door and rushed in, pushing the man aside to protect Liang Tingting. She pointed at the man and started scolding, “You’re hitting a woman like this, are you still a man? Have you gone mad? Are you trying to kill her? Look, she’s bleeding from her stomach! Quickly, call a doctor!”
Only then did the man come to his senses. He looked down and saw a mess on the ground, with a pool of blood flowing from his wife’s legs.
He screamed in fright and rushed out, “You watch her, I’m going to get the doctor!”
After the man left, the short-haired woman carefully helped Liang Tingting back to the bed.
Liang Tingting had taken a beating, and the girl she had been protecting had been frightened.
The woman was now half-conscious and half-awake. Her eyes were bloodshot as she looked at the woman who had pulled her back from hell. She pleaded, “Save me, please, I don’t want to die.”
The short-haired woman held the woman’s hand tightly and reassured her, “Don’t worry, you won’t die, you definitely won’t.”
Liang Tingting cried out, her voice hoarse, “But my stomach hurts so much, my whole body hurts, wuuuu.”
The short-haired woman looked at the woman on the bed with sympathy but could do nothing more than sigh.
Not long after, the man returned with a doctor. The doctor was a barefoot physician who traveled through the village. He took the woman’s pulse and began scolding, “Ah Wei, you’re already an adult, how can you be so reckless? Don’t you know your wife! Now look, the child has been lost.”
The man was confused, “I didn’t know, it’s her fault, she provoked me.”
The barefoot doctor glared at the man, “Hurry up and take her to the county hospital.”
The man: “If I take her to the county hospital, can the child still be saved?”
The barefoot doctor: “There’s no hope for the child, but the adult can get better. Your actions may have left hidden problems. If the inside isn’t cleaned properly, your wife will suffer in the future. Haven’t you seen how much pain she’s in now?”
The man protested, “No, the child is already gone, so why go to some county hospital? She can’t die anyway, she’ll just suffer a bit. In the end, it’s her fault. She didn’t even know she was pregnant and argued with me. She made me angry.”
The man pointed at the woman on the bed and scolded, “You, woman, do you know that you killed my child?!”
“Are you sick?!” The short-haired woman couldn’t stand it and cursed, “You obviously killed the child. If you hadn’t hit her, nothing would have happened!”
The man: “You’re an outsider, why are you meddling in our family’s affairs?”
The barefoot doctor tried to defuse the situation, “Alright, alright, argue after I leave. Ah Wei, are you sure you don’t want to take your wife to the hospital? If not, I can prescribe some medicine. It’s okay to just get a prescription, but I have to make it clear to you, the medicine I have on hand isn’t as good as the medicine in the county.”
The man asked, “Is the medicine expensive, Uncle? Don’t prescribe anything too expensive, I don’t have that much money.”
The short-haired woman: “Are you still a human being? She’s like this, and you’re worried about the cost of the medicine? Use the best medicine.”
The man ignored the woman and looked at the barefoot doctor, “It’s best to prescribe the medicine as bitter as possible. Teach her a lesson and know who has the final say in this family.”
The short-haired woman was frustrated but could only glare at the man.
Though Liang Tingting had been battered and her head felt heavy, she could still make out some things.
She heard her former beloved treating her in this manner, and it left her with nothing but an overwhelming sense of despair.
The barefoot doctor prescribed some medicine and left with the man to get it.
Liang Tingting lay weakly on the bed, murmuring for water.
Seeing this, the short-haired woman hurriedly said, “Wait for me, I’ll go get you some water. Don’t worry, I’ll be with you. You’ll be fine. I’ll be back in a moment, and Pan Pan is here with you. Don’t be scared, I’ll be right back.”
With that, the short-haired woman also left, closing the door behind her thoughtfully.
The cramped room instantly fell silent. Blood was still dripping down, running onto the earthen bed.
Drip, drip, drip, one drop followed by another.
The woman gazed blankly at the wall. The sound of blood dripping onto the floor was like the tolling of death bells.
Just an hour ago, Bai Lixin had “attended” the woman’s wedding.
The woman’s face then and the woman’s face now him gradually overlapped and separated in his eyes, as if they were two completely different people.
Bai Lixin stared at the woman’s face for a long while before turning away with regret.
His gaze shifted slightly, then suddenly froze in mid-air.
Bai Lixin’s pupils contracted. He looked at the little girl sitting beside the woman. The little girl had been staring straight at him all this time, and he wasn’t sure how long she had been watching him.
Was she looking at him, or was she looking at something behind him?
Bai Lixin hesitated.
“Who are you?” a voice with a hint of a cry came from the little girl’s mouth. “Why are you here? Why is your body translucent? Are you a messenger of death here to take my mommy away?”
Bai Lixin finally confirmed that the little girl could indeed see him.
“I won’t take your mommy away,” Bai Lixin replied after thinking for two seconds. “Your mommy will get better.”
“Why won’t you take mommy away?” The light in the little girl’s eyes quickly dimmed. “My mommy wants to leave here. Can’t you take her away? My mommy will be very happy.”
The little girl opened her arms, as if she wanted to hug the weakened woman on the bed, but her hand hesitated halfway.
The woman on the bed was covered in wounds, and the little girl didn’t even know where to hold her.
Bai Lixin was stunned by the little girl’s words.
“You look very unhappy,” he said slowly. “Do you have any worries or wishes?”
The girl withdrew her arms. Her forehead had been scraped when the man dragged her just now, and she touched her forehead, wincing in pain. “I am very unhappy. I don’t like my dad, he’s a bad man. He always bullies my mommy.”
“My mommy often locks herself in the small room, and when I stand by the door sometimes, I can hear my mommy crying inside. She cries and says she regrets it, that if she hadn’t come here, everything would have been better.”
“I hope that if it’s possible, my mommy never came to this village, so she wouldn’t have met my dad and wouldn’t have suffered here.”
“My mommy would definitely be very happy.”
The little girl blinked her black-and-white eyes. She seemed so innocent and unknowing of the world, but her words were filled with sadness and helplessness.
“But if your mommy didn’t meet your dad, you wouldn’t exist,” Bai Lixin pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter,” the little girl replied. “I heard a saying once- some mistakes should never have happened. I’m just like that, a mistake. I should never have been born.”
The system’s prompt suddenly rang out.
[Ding! Congratulations, player, you have found Pan Pan’s distress. Task 2 is 50% complete.]
Bai Lixin had no sense of accomplishment in completing the task, he opened the task bar and looked at it.
[Task 1: Survive for ten days and ten nights (progress: seven days and seven nights)]
[Task 2: Find the reason for Pan Pan’s distress (completed) and resolve it (incomplete).]
[Task 3: Find the hairpin mentioned by the Red-Clothed Demon and return it (Incomplete).]
Bai Lixin closed the task bar and looked at the little girl on the bed.
The little girl’s eyes were clear and he realized that she actually resembled Pan Pan from Gentle Town. The reason he didn’t recognize her at first was because their expressions were quite different.
At this moment, the little girl’s face didn’t show any gloomy expression. She just looked at him calmly, as if her gaze was the purest spring of time. Under such a gaze, even Bai Lixin felt a bit ashamed.
He was a Lord God, but being a Lord God didn’t mean he was omnipotent.
Bai Lixin thought for a moment and asked, “Do you know what it means for you to not exist anymore?”
The little girl nodded earnestly, “I know. When an old person in the village dies, people around would say ‘he’s gone,’ ‘he’s no more,’ ‘he doesn’t exist anymore.’ I know, that means they’re dead, that they will never wake up again.”
Bai Lixin: “Is it your wish for your mom to give up teaching and not to know your dad? Think about it again.”
The little girl nodded very affirmatively, “Yes, this is my wish. If time could turn back, I hope my mom never came here, and she wouldn’t have met my dad.”
Bai Lixin fell silent for a few seconds. “Alright, if I have the ability, I will definitely help you fulfill this wish.”
———————————–
In the live broadcast room.
[So sad, what a good child.]
[I’ve heard a saying before: If time could be reversed, many children wouldn’t want their mothers to marry their current fathers. Even if the cost is that they themselves would cease to exist.]
[Because they’ve seen their mothers suffer with their fathers.]
[But life is full of hardships. In fact, it doesn’t matter who you marry. We all have to face three meals a day, the necessities of life, the complexities of human relationships, and the responsibility of raising children and caring for the elderly. I used to not understand the pressures of adults, but as I gradually grow up, I realize that this is reality.]
[I understand what you’re saying, but his situation is different from what you’re talking about. The pressure we should face, we face it, some people run deliveries until four in the morning because of pressure, some people carry heavy bags under the scorching sun. Everyone has their own pressure, but pressure is different from harm. What this man did in the copy is something no one can forgive. This woman shouldn’t have had to endure this harm. The little girl wants to change her mother’s tragic life, not the life pressures she will face.]
[… Alright, you’re right, I got off topic.]
[It’s a bit uncomfortable. I want God Xin to complete this task, but I also don’t want him to complete this task first.]
—————————-
The tightly closed door was forcefully pushed open from the outside. Bai Lixin suddenly felt a flash of white light before him, and everything turned completely white.
As the white light gradually dissipated, Bai Lixin found himself in a different scene.
It was still the same room, but the bloodstains inside were gone.
Two women sat on either side of a table against the wall, looking at each other. There were many things on the table.
“Look,” the short-haired woman pointed to the things on the table, “today, there was a peddler selling goods on a shoulder pole. I found a lot of good stuff from him.”
“Do you like this?” The short-haired woman casually picked up an item. “This is a harmonica. It sounds beautiful when played. I used to play it often at home. I thought I wouldn’t be able to play it again, but I learned it just by listening to Pan Pan humming.”
“Huh,” Liang Tingting on the opposite side had improved in color and health. She just looked somewhat pale. “Isn’t this the lullaby I often sing? How do you know how to play it?”
The short-haired woman: “I’m pretty smart. I often listened to Pan Pan humming it, so I learned it.”
“You’re really amazing, Ah Jing. If you hadn’t come here, you would have definitely become a musician.” Liang Tingting looked at the woman somewhat absentmindedly and praised her.
