Chapter 40 Goodbye When I Was Child

The iron chain fell, and the thick wooden door loosened a gap, and the thick dust rushed out from the depths of the house like thousands of troops.

Li Zhou coughed several times, waved his hands constantly to drive away the dust in front of him, but one wave dissipated and another wave rose again and again, the dust fog floating in the air, mixed with a strong rotten smell, which made him feel slightly suffocated.

Ahem...why are there so much dust?

This room has been...No one has been here for seven years.

Chen Muyu remained silent, as if she could not feel the dust at all.

Her fingers gently stroked the wooden door. On the almost rotten black wooden door, the tiny scratches flowed through her white fingertips like years.

This was carved on the door when I was a kid.

What carved?Li Zhou was puzzled.

My name.

He looked over carefully and carefully identified the corrupt marks, and found that there were indeed three big words engraved on it: Chen Muyu.

But after the erosion of the years, this trace is like the memory of the past and is vague and unrecognizable.

Why is it painted off?He said, pointing to the two dark spots covered with coal above his name.

That was also what I carved...it was the names of my dad and my mom...

Well……

Li Zhou didn't have time to be surprised. With a creak, Chen Muyu pushed open the door, crossed the threshold, and walked in.

Bands of bright light passed through the flying dust, hitting her back and on the mud ground, and the house was gradually illuminated.

In the empty lobby, there was almost nothing but dust.Only a table with an incense burner facing the inner wall, a coffin facing the front door, and a coffin in the center of the room.

The coffin lay quietly under the beam, supported by four benches.

The coffin was sealed tightly, and the thick wooden boards were firmly embedded by thick nails, and seemed to never be opened.

There was thick dust piled up directly above the coffin, and damaged spider webs were everywhere in the corners.In the center of the coffin, a big lyric word faces the two of them.

This is the countryside of Mei County and Chen Muyu's hometown.

Here, there is a winding river. Opposite the river is a verdant hill, and there is a square yard on this side of the river.

There are clear waters of the mountains and clear waters and setting suns here, but there is no trace of anyone living.

The yard was covered with wild flowers and weeds, and tiles and stone bricks were broken at the door. The iron pillars on the windows were rusted to a deep red. The claw marks left by the wild cats on the beams and pillars, the kang holes covered with dust, and the collapsed firewood stacks. All of this is declared that this house has been deserted for a long time.

Why is this coffin... here?

After a long period of shock and silence, Li Zhou sat on the ground, faced the coffin and asked this question.

The two of them did not find a stool that could be sat on. Chen Muyu took a pink embroidered bed sheet from ancient times in her mother's hut, flipped it over, put it on the floor of the lobby, as a prelude, and sat on the ground.

This is...mother's coffin.Seven years ago, she was left here when she died.

Why not be buried in the soil?But it was just released for seven years?

There are many reasons.Maybe it's because... my mother is a divorced foreigner, and her relationship with the villagers... is not very good, so no one cares about her death here... or maybe it's because I sent my father to prison, so... the relatives at home hate me very much...

what is going on?Li Zhou asked solemnly.

Chen Muyu's legs were put together, leaning against Li Zhou's shoulder, and his eyes began to float away.

Let me start from the beginning...

The sky is going to dark and the temperature drops sharply.

In this empty hut, Li Zhou also felt a little cold. He moved towards Chen Muyu, and the two of them leaned as much as possible, wanting to give her more warmth.

It started drizzling outside the house, and the raindrops fell on the tiles, making crisp sounds, making her voice even colder and heavier.

In my childhood memory, my father was a scumbag.

He was drunk, gambling, and made many friends.He also rarely cared about my mother and me. He obviously did not have a formal job, but he often didn't go home at night.When I was in elementary school, I lived alone in my grandma's room. I could always hear my parents quarrel next door, mostly for some money.Our family was not poor and had a lot of ancestral property, but under his squandering, life was tight.

In fact, these are nothing. In the countryside, many families are not happy, and everyone is just trying to support them.

But what scares me the most is that he likes drinking.When he got drunk, he would yell and throw things around. All the utensils in the house could be smashed by him, even the tablets of his grandparents...His drunken look is the most terrifying person or monster I have ever seen.At first, my mother would persuade him, but in return she was beaten with a bruised ecchymns left on her body and face.

Li Zhou took over the conversation, his voice was serious and sympathetic: Domestic violence.

Yes.

Then how did your mother like him?Li Zhou said angrily.

He remembered that Chen Muyu once mentioned that her mother was a picturesque beauty. Judging from Chen Muyu's appearance, this is absolutely true.

How could such a beauty marry a scumbag?

Maybe it's because my mother is too weak.

If you are weak, shouldn’t you find a better man?This way I won’t be bullied... I don’t understand.

Chen Muyu shook her head gently: I didn’t understand before, but as I grew up, I found that this was actually not surprising at all.Mother... she is such a person... She has been following the trend throughout her life without direction.She believes whatever others say.If there is a slightly stronger liar, she can trick her away... Sometimes, maybe she can understand that she has chosen the wrong path, but she doesn't know where she can go after leaving that person.So... one...one will make... stupid decisions after another.

Li Zhou sighed silently, yes, the generation of parents, because of their lack of cultural education, is indeed easy to have such selfless people.

I learned a lesson from her. Since then, I have only loved myself. Even if someone I like appears, the like will never exceed the weight of loving myself.

This is the correct value.Li Zhou nodded and praised, "Love yourself first before you can enjoy normal love. What happened later?"

Later, after my mother entered middle age, her father's temper became worse and worse.Originally, I was just drunk occasionally, but I got drunk almost every day afterwards.During those days, I had nightmares every night and couldn't sleep well. I occasionally woke up in the middle of the night and saw my mother crying silently at the head of my bed.She didn't even dare to cry loudly, for fear of waking up her drunk father.

My mother and I have thought of many ways, but none of them can be helpful.I remember thinking naively that my father beats my mother, and after drinking, it would be enough to keep him from getting drunk.So I went to ask the teacher if I had anything to hang up. The teacher told me that honey water can hang up, so I would bring a small bottle of honey by my side every day.

Li Zhou smiled and remembered that on the night she was fighting for wine in Shandong, she also soaked a box of honey water. That might be the sequelae of her miserable childhood experience.

But none of them work.The conflict between them has accumulated deeper and deeper, and has reached an irreconcilable level.Finally, when I was fourteen years old, I broke out...

At the beginning of that year, I fell seriously ill and went to the hospital for surgery.After returning, my father and mother were here, and there was a big fight in front of my grandparents' spiritual throne.The father grabbed her mother's hair and hit her on the table's leg. He also called her a bitch while knocking her out, and pulled out a belt to hit her, kicking her in the abdomen with his legs. The sound was so loud that even the neighbors could hear it.I was frightened and saw that my mother was bleeding on her forehead, so I ran back to the room and beat her 120...I still remember that scene... She looked pale and lay on the ground crying, and the tears and blood melted together, as if she was bleeding and tears.

Li Zhou just felt that his heart was hit hard.

He has never experienced domestic violence, and occasionally heard about it, and he is also in the news media far away from him.

At this time, I heard Chen Muyu's detailed explanation, and I felt a force of oppression hitting his heart like never before, making him feel chest tightness and extremely depressed.

He could not imagine how desperate a weak woman was in the face of such cruel violence.Especially that person, who is his partner, is her husband...

Unfortunately, everything was too late... When the ambulance arrived, her eyes had already dissipated... She bleeded heavily in her body and went to the hospital, but she could not rescue her...

Later, the police came and they prosecuted him for intentional homicide... He hired a lawyer, and after debate, it was changed to intentional injury... The lawyer also told him that because I was not an adult and needed him to raise him, as long as I was willing to forgive and accept his support, he would have a chance to probation.

So, during the court session, my father knelt on the ground and apologized to me, crying and asking for my forgiveness. He said he was wrong before and regretted it. He wanted to continue living with me, never drink or beat and scold people again.The sister of the procuratorate also asked me if I forgive him, and I said, no; they asked me again if I would like to live with him, and I still said, no.

My father was desperate. He changed his previous crying and stared at me viciously, just the look he had when he beat my mother, and looked at me tightly until the end of the trial.

That look became my last nightmare...

He was eventually sentenced to seven years without probation.But I was not happy at all. I knew whether this matter was over or not. He would come back. His mother was weak, so he kept bullying her. I was his daughter. If I resist, he would come to take revenge on me...

Li Zhou was extremely shocked, his pupils dilated, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

The murderer did not pay his life, but was sentenced to only seven years?

Why?His voice was so angry that he trembled.

Chen Muyu had accepted this result, but was calm. Her tone was calm: Maybe it was because he did not subjectively intend to kill his mother, and objectively, he did not directly cause his mother's death.My mother died in the hospital, not directly beat her to death...so in the end, she could only be sentenced for intentional injury...

What a breaking law!Li Zhou was so angry that he wanted to swear.

After calming down, he remembered a terrible thing: In other words, your father had already held a grudge against you before he went to prison?Because you did not forgive him and did not accept his raising request.

Chen Muyu nodded helplessly and said: Yes.The last thing between me and him was when he was stuffed into a police car and taken to prison by the police, he shouted at me, saying that he would come to me, as long as I am still his daughter, no matter where I run, he has ten thousand ways to find me...

Li Zhou felt his throat was on fire and his whole body was trembling.

Yes, this scumbag is right. In modern society, he can find her in various legal or illegal ways by relying on his father's identity.

Unless, the relationship between father and daughter is cut off...

The rain outside the house has become heavier.The raindrops as big as beans crackled on the roof like firecrackers, and a lot of rain fell to the ground through layers of tiles.

Chen Muyu looked up at the dilapidated beam, as if he had recalled something.

She paused for a while and continued to tell slowly: After he went in, the creditors came to the door and moved all the valuable things in my house.There was almost nothing left except this altar and mother's coffin.The parents were gone, so naturally the relatives stopped interacting, and the mother's coffin was always here.

Li Zhou calmed down and asked again: Then, you went to the county town and got into the city's high school. What's going on?

When talking about this, Chen Muyu's expression became a little relaxed. She smiled and said: Do you still remember the teacher who taught me how to lyse honey?She helped me.I was originally in junior high school in the county town, and she taught there. When she saw a sudden change in my family, she took me over and helped me raise funds at school and online, and contacted women and children's assistance agencies so that I could complete my studies and not short of money.After I went to the county town, I rented a very cheap apartment there. I worked in my spare time to make money, and I never came back since then, until today.

After all the stories were told, Li Zhou sighed long.

No wonder Mingyan could forgive her.Mu Yu is indeed a very sympathetic and pity person.

Li Zhou was born in a single-parent family and poor family background, which was already quite unfortunate, but compared with her, she was more than a thousand times happier...

He suddenly remembered the conversation with her in the cave, and thought of her at that time, what she said to herself was half true and half false, which turned out to be this: she did not come from a single-parent family, but she lived a more miserable life than a single-parent family, so she could empathize with Li Zhou.

All of this has passed.You've done a good job.Li Zhou hugged her shoulders and comforted her.

Um.Chen Muyu got into his arms tiredly, resting his head on his chest, and closed his eyes with peace of mind, as if only in his arms could these worries disappear.

Have a good rest today and we will end it tomorrow.

Um.

The night has already enveloped the countryside, and the rain and darkness have brought about a cold night.

Li Zhou and Chen Muyu were plastered with her childhood quilt, and they were covered with down jackets that they took off. Chen Muyu was inside, Li Zhou was outside, and they were sleeping against the wall.

There are no evil thoughts, no deep scheming, and there are only the simple and hot hearts of two lonely young people.

They walked all the way from their young childhood, and finally on this day, they were no longer lonely.

No need to hide yourself anymore, I can finally shake hands with the past and say goodbye...

This night, the rain never stopped. Late at night, Li Zhou could still hear the sound of lightning and thunder.Their mood was as quiet as a stubborn stone under heavy rain.

It was not until early morning that the sky had just dawned and the night rains, and it was like a stalker who could not stand the light, sneaking back to the dark world.

The world outside the house finally ushered in a clear sun.

……

Meicheng Prison.

In the early morning, the iron door to release the prisoner slowly opened. A middle-aged man in his forties and fifties, wearing a gray old dress and a buzz cut, had a vicissitudes of face and walked into the sun.

His name is Chen Xuejun. He was sentenced to jail for intentional injury seven years ago. Now he has been released from prison and has regained his life.

…………