Chapter 12

“Li, you haven’t been home for a few months, and you’ve clearly lost weight. Let me go cook you a bowl of noodles.”

Mother is still the same as ever-her eyes always dart around when she wants something from others.

My face remained expressionless. I let out a cold laugh. “Just say what you want. It’s always the same every time, it’s really pointless.”

The mother and daughter exchanged a glance.

Lin Pianyue suddenly took two steps back and then knelt down before me: “Sister, I really have no other choice.”

“Just think of it as your sister begging you, please help me.”

My elder sister was crying, my mother was wailing.

The courtyard was lively with noise.

Only I felt as if I had fallen into an ice cellar, chilled from head to toe.

It turned out Lin Pianyue’s pregnancy was extremely tenacious. No matter how much abortion medicine they gave her, it could not be ended.

Later, as the months went by and fearing for her life, they let her give birth.

But whether it was the medicine or the childbirth, she could never conceive again.

Mother Lu had already been dissatisfied with her, and now, unable to have more children, her position in the Lu family was even worse.

“Li, my dear child, go and become a concubine for the Lu son-in-law. With your sister there, and your years of affection with him, you won’t be mistreated.”

“If you don’t go, the Lu son-in-law will soon take another woman, and your sister won’t be able to hold her position!”

Mother clung to my arm, sobbing like a person made of tears.

My sister’s tears fell without stopping.

She cried and called herself unfortunate, said her days were hard.

But what about me?

Is my life not bitter?

Who can I speak of my hardship to?

Who would stand up for me?

“Did you bring me into this world just to pave the way for someone else?”

I suppressed the turmoil in my heart, speaking almost in despair.

I already knew what kind of answer I would get, but I simply couldn’t accept it.

Mother wiped her tears, earnestly trying to persuade me: “Li, we are family after all-there’s no such thing as overnight grudges!”

“Li, do you remember when you were seven and you climbed a tree and couldn’t get down? Your father went up to bring you down, and his hands were scraped trying to protect you. Do you remember?”

“When your sister was at the embroidery workshop, she would always think of bringing you nice pieces of fabric, even gave you her favorite sachet.”

“And when Feng Er was sick, I even secretly saved your father’s stewed chicken for you.”

“And now you say we don’t care for you? How can you say that?”

I let out an angry laugh. “You still dare to talk to me about affection now?”

“Why did I climb the tree that year? Because Lin Yuefeng mischievously got his kite stuck up there and threatened to tell you I bullied him if I didn’t climb up. Father, in the process of getting me down, scraped his hands and even broke my leg. I was bedridden for three months.”

“Everything my sister gave me was something she was tired of playing with and didn’t want anymore. If I touched anything she liked, even the cheapest little handkerchief, she would cry and get father to beat me.”

“As for that chicken, it was originally meant by Granny Liu to help me recover. You picked the best parts for Lin Yuefeng, and I only gnawed on the bones. Is that really worth retelling over and over, mother?”

Feelings and affection-these things only existed in my longing for them.

Now, they are long gone.

Such things, once gone, are gone forever.