“Brother, will this stepmother die?” the crisp and delicate voice of a young girl travelled to Lin Yue’s ears.
“I don’t think so… I didn’t hit her that hard, after all,” the boy next to her said with some hesitation.
“If my stepmother wakes up, will I get sent away? Aunt Li said that she had plans of sending me to the lame family as a child daughter-in-law.”
“No, that won’t happen. Xiu Er, don’t worry. Even if I have to stop my studies and go out to work, this brother will still look after you. If she really dares to send you away to any random family, I, your brother will take you away from this family. “ the boy robustly spoke up, with determination lining his words.
Lin Yue wrinkled her eyebrows lightly, feeling as if her head was about to split open. She opened her eyes and took in the sight before her – A pale yellow wall and a cupboard that looked like it was on the verge of breaking.
The entire house was shrouded in darkness, and the window not too far away from where they were sitting also spotted some holes. Cold wind was blowing harshly at them.
Even if it was the rooftop, it was shabbily put together with traces of dirt and straw.
On the side of the kang, the two children were grasping at each other’s hands, staring at her in horror.
The oversized gray top and green army pants the little boy wore, Lin Yue took one look at it and she could immediately tell they were altered from an adult’s clothing size.
The little boy had a dirty face filled with mud, as if he had just crawled out from some kind of hole in the mountains.
“Hey, I’m warning you! Don’t marry my sister off to anyone, otherwise I’ll show you the consequences!” At this, Jian Lin Yue’s eyes opened wide, whereas the boy grabbed hold of his sister and quickly ran away from her.
Lin Yue’s brows’ knitted together. Somehow she could remember that she wrote stories online, and was about to get married in real life. However, when she discovered that her boyfriend of 10 years had been cheating on her, in a fit of rage, she slapped him and dumped him, running straight to the road.
After that, she felt a harsh collision with the incoming car, and her body flew. So how was it that she had ended up here?
All of a sudden, Lin Yue found that her brain whirring, and her memories started flooding inm increasing the intensity of the headache she had earlier.
Before she had time to slowly process through all of this new information, there was a knock at the door.
“Sister Yue is home, we are here to pick up Xiu Er.” Before she even finished speaking, a middle-aged woman who wore a shirt, Lanka pants and a blue headscarf walked into her house, followed by a disabled man who looked dirty.
According to the original owner’s memory, this woman should be called Xia Kun and she was a well-known matchmaker throughout Xia Jia Village.
“Are you ready? We are going to pick up Xiu Er today.” She promptly plopped herself on the kang beside Lin Yue.
Lin Yue frowned, “What are you going to do with Xiu Er?”
“Sister Yue, didn’t you promise that you would marry Xiu Er to him before? You already accepted our dowry, so naturally we’re here to pick her up too.”
Lin Yue chuckled in her heart. She didn’t know what the original owner of this body was thinking. Xiu Er was only eight years old this year, was she really going to allow her to marry the cripple who was twenty years older than her?
Before Lin Yue could even retort, her front door was suddenly kicked open and Dong Tian rushed in with a small bucket, “Get out! My sister won’t marry!”
After his words, he promptly dumped a bucket of faeces and urine, splashing onto Xia Kun and the other man’s body.
“Shit, these conniving children! My clothes!” Xia Kun screamed in dismay.
This was her new blouse that she wore specially for today. Her grandfather had spent three catties of food stamps to exchange that new blouse for her, and she even had to beg her grandmother to get the fabric from the supply and marketing cooperative, making the manual fee alone more than a dollar.
Dong Tian glared at Lin Yue with venom in his eyes, “Daddy married you for you to take care of us, not sell us! Marrying my sister away to a cripple, let me see how you can explain this to father! I’m telling you, he’s coming back soon, and he’s going to come back and kill you!”
T/L: Very typical starting to a stepmother story, but we shall see how it develops from here
Also, I’m not sure if it’s like disrespectful in any way to our disabled community to use the word “cripple” so loosely like how this author uses it here. If there’s anyone who is uncomfortable with it, please speak up so I can change it to something else! I retained it to keep the original author’s meaning and intention, but I am totally open to alternatives too <3
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