"No!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face. I no longer wanted to worry about the ridicule and disdainful looks from others. Although I had deliberately chosen this path, and although I knew that only this kind of pain would make it impossible for me to turn back, at this moment, I completely broke down.
"It's okay, it hurts a lot, but it'll pass if you just bear with it." An older nurse, old enough to be my mother, grabbed my hand and patted me to comfort me. "It'll be over soon. Every woman has to endure this kind of suffering." I stared despairingly at the operating lights above me, and cried out in my heart, "Someone, please save me!"
The inhuman pain and the bloodstains thrown under the bed will remain in my memory for the rest of my life, becoming the deepest scar in my life.
I slowly sat up, feeling a little dizzy, but I didn't dare look down at the floor. I tried to get out of bed, but my legs gave way and I almost fell. The older nurse rushed over to support me: "Sit on a chair outside for a bit before you walk. Let me help you." She held my medical record in one hand and helped me out into the corridor: "Li Hao's family, where are Li Hao's family members?"
I suppressed a wave of nausea and waved my hand at her, saying, "Alright, you can put me here, my friend..."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm late," a voice said as it took me from the nurse's arms.
"Although you are young, you should still be careful. During this period, don't let your partner touch cold water, and don't take tonics like angelica or ginseng yet. It's not too late to start taking tonics after the bleeding stops."
"Okay, okay, I understand."
Seeing Yin Tian and me fall from the sky, I suddenly felt very weak, and my eyes, which had just dried, became wet again.
"Why do I always run into you when I'm at my lowest point?" I sighed.
“Because you’re such a bastard!” His tone suddenly turned extremely harsh. I thought he was joking again, but when I saw his face contorted with anger, I knew he was serious—he always seemed so carefree and nonchalant, never even showing a serious expression—but he seemed genuinely, truly angry.
"Are you an idiot?! That was a life! Do you know you just killed someone?!" His voice made my ears ring. Everyone in the corridor stared at us, and I felt like I had really become a wicked woman who had secretly come to have an abortion behind her husband's back. However, he suddenly looked somewhat like Willson.
The older nurse ran over: "Shh, keep your voice down. This is a hospital. You can talk about it when you get home. But it's true, there are fewer and fewer men like your husband who love children as much. You two should discuss things together. But it's okay, you're both still young. You have plenty of time to have children in the future, so don't rush it."
"Yes, yes, Auntie, you're absolutely right." Yin Tianyu immediately changed his expression and nodded vigorously.
I was so exasperated by the two of them that I just wanted to kick the bucket and die.
Yin Tianyu seemed to finally notice my ashen face, and took my hand: "How are you feeling now? Shall I drive you home?"
I shook my head. "Let me sit for a while."
"Do you know you just made a mistake? Childbirth is the most precious gift God has given us? Every life deserves respect? Even if you're the mother, you have no right to deprive him of his right to live! All people are born equal! You don't look well. Would you like something to drink?" His face was ashen, yet his eyes were full of worry, a look of utter disappointment. But his word "mother" ripped open my newly healed wounds. For over ten hours, I had avoided looking directly at the part that had just been ripped from my body. "Mother"—this was a luxury that would fill me with lifelong guilt.
"Could you buy me a cup of hot water?" I asked weakly.
"Are you thirsty?" Yin Tianyu asked hurriedly when I nodded. "I'll go buy you a cup of crucian carp soup. Water doesn't provide any nutrition. You sit here and wait for me. It'll be ready soon."
Seeing Yin Tianyu walk down the stairs, I immediately forced myself to stand up: I had to go back right away, I had a lot of things to do today, and I found that I simply couldn't face Yin Tianyu.
When I got home in a taxi, I was drenched in cold sweat. My hands were trembling, but I remained calm. I placed the house keys, SIM card, his credit card, and the surgery bill on the coffee table, weighing them down with the TV remote. Then I picked up a bag of clothes I had packed the night before, grabbed the thug locked in his cage, and slammed the door shut as I left. I didn't look back. "My party is over." I struggled to keep from collapsing. On this day, I had personally shattered the first and most precious gift God had given me. On this day, I had uprooted my love. On this day, I had thrown everything connected to yesterday into that luxurious house. The only thing I took with me was the early pregnancy ultrasound report, which I still haven't dared to look at, hidden under my suitcase.
Part Two, Chapter One
I slept day and night for two days in a small hotel. On the third day, I packed a few simple bags, left Pizi at a pet shop, and boarded a long-distance bus to Shantou alone. I decided to indulge myself and take a month-long vacation to Linya Island. I just wanted to get away. At least facing the sea, I shouldn't have to worry about the dazzling lights and revelry of this city driving me crazy.
With the Lunar New Year approaching, the long-distance bus was packed with people from Chaoshan, eager to return home. Their chatter sounded like arguments, making me dizzy and wanting the bus to move on quickly. Next to me sat a young man with a huge amount of luggage, each bag bulging. The overhead luggage rack was overflowing, and his own seat was also full. He was clutching a travel bag, looking lost and confused. I didn't want to interfere, but seeing his anxious expression, I couldn't help but speak up: "Put your bag under my seat."
"Thank you, thank you," he said eagerly, carefully stuffing his travel bag inside. But his bag was far too big; after stuffing it in for a while, a good portion was still sticking out. This meant I had to pay the price for my impulsive soft-heartedness by spending five hours with my legs bent on the bus. Seeing his relieved expression, I felt too embarrassed to ask him to find another solution, and could only curse myself for being such a fool.
"You're from out of town, right? Going to Shantou doesn't seem like you're visiting relatives." The young man probably wanted to prove that he was a well-informed person, so he struck up a conversation with me enthusiastically, as if he had no idea that privacy existed in this world.
"Oh, yes, for tourism," I replied with a perfunctory smile.
"Traveling at this time of year? Going to the beach? But very few people go to the beach at this time, and you can't swim." The young man was undeterred and wanted to continue our conversation.
"Yes, yes." I gave a vague laugh, turned my head to look out the car window, and made it clear that I didn't want to talk anymore, which finally made the young man wisely shut up.
The bus finally started moving, and I secretly breathed a sigh of relief; my journey had finally begun. But less than forty minutes after leaving Guangzhou, a commotion erupted in the back of the bus. I glanced back and saw an elderly man, dressed like a country bumpkin, holding a bottle of mineral water, laughing and shouting, his eyes gleaming. Three or four other people were surrounding him, talking animatedly, but they were all speaking Teochew, which I couldn't understand at all. Whatever, as long as it wasn't highway robbers, it was none of my business. So I turned away, closed my eyes, and rested.
But the carriage became increasingly noisy, and even the young man next to me joined in the increasingly loud noise, finally forcing me to open my eyes.
The atmosphere in the carriage had become quite tense, but I could vaguely sense an unusual unease. The young man sitting next to me had a flushed face and was excitedly leaning on the back of his seat, waving his fists and arguing incessantly with a middle-aged man in the back seat.
"What's wrong?" I patted him on the back and asked. The young man couldn't contain his excitement, and it took me a while to understand what he meant. Apparently, the old man holding the mineral water bottle had discovered he'd won a 100,000 yuan lottery prize when he opened the cap. However, he had to go back to Guangzhou to claim the prize, but he hadn't earned much money working this time. So, he wanted to sell the winning bottle cap on the bus at a low price to get cash to go home for the New Year. Now, everyone on the bus was vying to buy the 100,000 yuan bottle cap, and the bid had already reached 5,000 yuan.
As soon as I heard it, I realized there were too many loopholes in the story. After observing the old man who claimed to have won the lottery more closely, I found that the people around him who were cheering the loudest were exchanging glances from time to time, and they clearly knew each other.
I whispered to the young man, "Don't join in the fun. These people are all in cahoots; they're all scammers."
"What?!" The young man stared at me in disbelief.
"The government stipulates that, apart from welfare lotteries, the maximum prize money for any commercial activity cannot exceed 5,000. If you're worried I'll scam you into buying that worthless bottle cap at a low price, then just join those idiots and throw your hard-earned money down the drain," I said casually, finding them utterly hopeless. I also want to get rich, but I haven't lost my basic judgment. They've truly brought this upon themselves.
“I believe you, big sister,” the young man said with bright eyes.
"What? Big sister!?" I sighed sadly, my voice so low that only I could hear it, while trying to suppress the urge to throw him and his pile of luggage out of the car window.
The young man was completely unaware that he had offended me. He was only concerned with enthusiastically notifying his fellow villagers not to be fooled, regardless of whether he knew them or not. Some people were already half-believing, and the shrewdness inherent in Chaoshan people, after being momentarily misled by the herd mentality, immediately and habitually dominated their judgment. As a result, the once lively scene suddenly became quiet.
The old man called out several times, but no one answered. He glanced at the people around him. Those people had noticed the young man earlier, and seeing him still trying to persuade an old lady in the seat in front of him, several of them exchanged glances and surrounded him, pointing at him and shouting. Although they couldn't understand what they were arguing about, it was clear the young man was trying to reason with them, but the group had already begun to impatiently start hitting and shoving him. Everyone around quieted down, watching, but no one spoke up to stop them; everyone just watched. The young man's fair face flushed red again. He looked around, but almost everyone he saw—old, young, men, women—avoided him in their own way. So the group became even more aggressive. One of them threw a punch, while the others pulled his luggage from the overhead rack and rummaged through it.
I was determined not to make a sound and cause myself any trouble; my purpose was just a trip, not to be some kind of chivalrous heroine. But the young man was knocked off his feet by that punch and fell on top of me. One of them said something, and the others immediately burst into malicious laughter.
I caught my breath, trying to hold back, but I found I couldn't swallow my anger. A fire burned in my head, so I jumped up and, without a word, kicked the bearded guy who had punched the young man in the front. I used a bit of underhanded force when I kicked, not too hard, so he wouldn't bump into the person opposite him, but it landed squarely on his groin. He cried out in pain and knelt down. The other four guys were stunned for a moment, then, in a flash, they surrounded me, their menacing aura palpable.
"Oh no, they have knives!" a woman whispered.
I regretted it the moment I kicked him. I knew that impulsiveness would get me killed sooner or later. Four grown men were enough to fill a table of food, but I didn't expect them to be so ruthless, actually pulling out knives. At that moment, I felt my palms were covered in cold sweat.