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墨書 Inktalez
Liu Wenyi rubbed her arms, feeling the goosebumps, and tiptoed towards the room she shared with Li Li. The wooden doors were ajar, and Liu Wenyi quickly slipped inside. She glanced back nervously towards the hallway, locked the door, and turned around, freezing in place.
It was a disgusting scene. Li Li was below, while Li Weimin was above. Li Li was enjoying a lollipop, completely unaware of what was happening! When Li Li saw Liu Wenyi, he even playfully pulled the lollipop from his mouth and stretched out his arm towards her, saying, "Candy—sweet—here for you."
Liu Wenyi immediately dropped her bag and angrily shouted, "Beast!"
Li Weimin trembled as he jumped off the bed, kneeling in front of Liu Wenyi, tears and snot streaming down his face. "Oh no, Girl, just this once..."
Seeing Li Li naked and cowering in the corner with an innocent and fearful expression filled Liu Wenyi with an indescribable emotion.
Li Cheng was groggily asleep when his phone on the bedside table buzzed. He picked it up and, upon seeing who was calling, instantly woke up. He carefully threw off the covers and got out of bed, feeling his way through the darkness to the bathroom. Once inside, he closed the door before daring to turn on the light.
"What’s going on so late?"
"You need to come over right now! See what your shameless dad has done!"
Li Cheng immediately felt alarmed. "Did he bully you again?"
"It’s not me; it’s your brother!"
"My brother?" After a moment of realization, Li Cheng responded, "Oh, you mean he got physical again? Well, that’s not surprising; Ali doesn’t know any better..."
Before Li Cheng could finish speaking, Liu Wenyi angrily interrupted, "He assaulted Li Li!"
"Wha... what?"
Liu Wenyi recounted exactly what she had witnessed to Li Cheng. After listening, he fell silent for a while. "You don’t need to get involved in this."
Liu Wenyi doubted her ears. "Can you say that again?"
"I said you don’t need to get involved!" Li Cheng then pleaded, "Wenyi, Ali is just an idiot; he doesn’t understand anything. I can’t let my dad’s reputation be ruined because of a fool; do you understand?"
Now it was Liu Wenyi's turn to be silent. After a moment, she said one word: "Okay," and hung up the phone.
That night, Liu Wenyi sat on the edge of her bed without sleeping. Li Li, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside her, kept watch. Eventually unable to resist sleep any longer, he nodded off twice but jolted awake each time. When he saw that Liu Wenyi was still awake, he immediately straightened up as if to say, "If my wife isn’t sleeping, then neither will I."
For some reason, seeing him like this made Liu Wenyi inexplicably tear up.
"Fortunately, you’re an idiot and don’t know how to feel pain," she said through misty eyes as she gazed at Li Li.
Li Li's eyes flickered as she waved her arms, seemingly trying to comfort her, saying, "It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt."
Yes, he is a fool who doesn't know what pain is.
Two months later, Liu Wenyi stood outside the door, listening to the crunching sound of potato chips inside, silently trying to persuade herself.
Li Cheng, this brother of hers, didn't care; she had even less right to intervene. If she did, she would lose her own place and would lose Li Cheng over a fool, which wasn't worth it.
Liu Wenyi leaned against the door frame, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and smoked slowly. The nicotine would numb her nerves, allowing her to feel less guilt about being a bystander.
Unconsciously, the cigarette burned down to the filter. Liu Wenyi shook herself out of her daze and hurriedly dropped the butt, extinguishing it with her toe. When she looked up again, she saw Wang Surong huddled behind the living room door, staring at her with tears in her eyes.
Liu Wenyi couldn't help but feel alarmed.
She knew; she had always known!
She is a mother!
Liu Wenyi's fingertips turned cold with fear.
Time is a strange thing; it gradually transformed Liu Wenyi's terror into relief. If a mother didn't care, why should an outsider like her feel responsible? This matter had nothing to do with her; perhaps Li Weimin had done this long before she moved into the Li Family. She came and nothing changed; everything remained the same—no good deeds and no sins—just as it should be.
So when she found herself standing outside the small house for what felt like the umpteenth time, Li Li's pained groans stirred ripples in her heart. Li Cheng hadn't come for several days; she missed him.
Winter was approaching, and the alley had quietly turned chilly. The branches that reached over the wall in the courtyard had shed all their leaves, and occasionally one could see a couple of nail-sized patches of moss in the cracks of the wall.
Nothing had changed.
Yet everything was changing unnoticed by people.
That day, a light layer of fine snow fell gently from the sky.
Li Li stood in the alley like a child who had made a mistake, snowflakes piled on her head and shoulders.
A neighbor sister passing by while picking up her child stopped when she saw Li Li standing there shivering in just thin clothes. She quickly asked, "Ali, what are you doing? Why aren't you going home? It's so cold; you're dressed so lightly."
Li Li looked up, trembling with purple lips as she stuttered through chattering teeth, "Dad... is fighting with his wife... won't let me in."
The term "fighting" had taken on a new meaning in town since Li Li first uttered it six months ago.
The neighbor sister paused for a moment before asking hesitantly, "Are you saying your dad is with your wife...?" She made an ambiguous gesture, "Just like your wife with your brother?"
This was a question that required thought for Li Li. He blinked up at the sky and then nodded heavily, "Yes! Just like that!"
"Oh dear," the neighbor sister exclaimed dramatically as she covered her face with her hands. "This family has no shame at all." After saying that, she grabbed her child's hand as if avoiding a plague and hurried away through the snow.
On the eighth day of the eleventh month, it was Li Weimin's birthday.
Sun Bai sat quietly in front of the calendar for a long time. She understood that she should go back, both out of filial piety and to please Li Cheng. However, when she thought back to the first two years of her marriage with Li Cheng, when they had no means to afford a house or a car and lived in the Li Family residence, she felt uneasy. Their room was directly opposite her in-laws' room, separated only by a central hall.
She couldn't say whether her father-in-law was a good person or not, but the way he looked at her made her feel uncomfortable. It was as if a hand grew from his piercing eyes; when he scrutinized her, it felt as though she were exposed and vulnerable to his gaze.
That feeling was utterly disgusting, but she dared not mention it to Li Cheng. How could she say it? "Your dad is a lecherous old man?" What evidence could she provide? Just his inappropriate gaze.
Most likely, it would lead to an argument between them. During their time living in the Li Family house, every night after the lights went out, she could hear the creaking sounds of the bed from the opposite room. She would cover herself with the blanket and plug her ears, but the sounds seeped through everywhere, like a curse.
She remembered one time when she urgently needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Without thinking to turn on the light, she rushed out of her room. As soon as she reached the central hall, she heard that unsettling noise again. But when she looked up, her mother-in-law Wang Surong was staring blankly at the sky like a ghost.
What was going on in that room?
What were those intermittent moans?
Could it be that her father-in-law, at such an old age, was brazenly bringing prostitutes home?
Just thinking about it made Sun Bai feel nauseous even now.
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