Lu Yun's eyes flashed with sorrow. The entire story was too tragic.
Her mother was an educated youth who had gone to the countryside, her family from Haicheng. Her maternal grandfather was a university professor, and her maternal grandmother was just an ordinary housewife. Her maternal grandmother had had three children: the aunt was the eldest, her mother was second, and the youngest was her uncle.
During the catastrophe, her maternal grandfather, grandmother, and uncle didn't survive; they all died.
Her mother heeded the call to go up to the mountains and down to the countryside, while her aunt married early and was able to remain in Haicheng.
Her mother was very beautiful in her youth, not only attractive but also cultured, and she carried herself with a gentle grace. Upon arriving in this poor and harsh rural area with inconvenient transportation, she drew many covetous glances.
Uncle Lu also set his sights on her mother back then, and under his pursuit and protection, her mother finally accepted his marriage proposal. Despicably, it was then that Chen Juxiang resorted to vile means to lure her mother to her home, drugged her, and allowed her son - Lu Yun's biological father - to have his way with her.
Her mother became pregnant, and under the coaxing of mother and son, she had no choice but to marry while holding back her tears. Her miserable days began after giving birth to her. Her biological father was foolishly filial, without his own opinions, and no matter right or wrong, he listened to whatever his mother said. And his mother happened to be a vicious and selfish woman to the very core.
What she loved to do the most was to use various minor issues to incite her son to beat his wife and children, and then, in her daughter-in-law's presence, she would assume the superior matriarchal posture, demanding her daughter-in-law to kowtow and apologize.
That's why, at her father's funeral, her mother not only didn't cry but laughed coldly. She was only four years old at the time, and because she was always protected by her mother whenever she was beaten, she really "didn't remember the beatings".
That's why when Xiaocui, her "granny", threatened her and spun tales of her mother's misdeeds, she took them all in. So from a young age, she despised her mother and Uncle Lu. Following Chen Juxiang's orders, she would coldly watch her mother toil without offering help and even sabotaged her efforts. She did everything that could antagonize her mother. Whenever there was something tasty or useful at home, she never forgot to inform her granny, signaling her "filial piety".
The most brutal scene was when her mother remarried.
Under her "resistance", her mother submitted once again. In just a short time, her mother aged beyond recognition.
Later, her mother died, falling from a cliff while chopping wood. She became an orphan. The house was emptied, even the new clothes and cotton-padded clothes her mother had made for her disappeared. She had nothing to eat, no cotton-padded clothes to wear, no quilt to cover herself with.
An eight-year-old her, both cold and hungry, went to the door of "granny", who always claimed to love her the most. But her "granny" shut the door in her face, refusing to let her in, and said that the younger generation should honor the older one, there was no rule where the young burdened the old.
In the end, she cried from hunger and could only dig up grass roots and scrape tree bark to stave off her hunger. The villagers couldn't bear to watch, and it was only with the intervention of the village cadres that she was finally able to live at her grandparents' home.
In her grandparents' house, she slept on a pile of straw in the kitchen and was covered with tattered quilts discarded by her uncles and aunts. She wore hand-me-downs left over by her aunt's nieces. Because her uncle's family was well-off, the nicer clothes left by her cousins were always sent to her aunt's maternal home. Occasionally, they brought back a couple of the more worn garments for her to change into.
If the above could still be tolerated, then aside from the heap of chores she had to do every day just to get a few bites of watery leftovers, the frequent beatings and scoldings instilled fear in her.
These were the darkest days she remembered, with endless chores and no break allowed. A single clumsy move would result in a beating or scolding. Even if she did nothing wrong, at any time and place, any passerby who took a dislike to her might slap her or kick her outright. Getting hit once or twice was considered fortunate for her; there were several times when someone in a bad mood would beat her severely, and after being beaten, she still had to continue her work. If she did less, the beating would continue.
Going to school became a luxury. She had already been in second grade, but from the moment she stepped through her grandparents' door, she was forced to drop out. The village cadres did not intervene in this matter. She was not the only unschooled child in the countryside. Despite her longing to return to the classroom, it was in vain, and she could only watch enviously as her cousins went to school every day, her cousin using the backpack made by her mother, a small Xiaocui bag with lace trim.
Such days dragged on for half a year. Only then did she realize how happy she had been when her mother was still alive.
Just as she was on the brink of despair, Aunt Chen came.
Aunt Chen had paid a considerable amount of money to take her away.
As soon as they left the village, Aunt Chen told her the truth, she had come only because Uncle Lu had begged her to. Her mother's family now only consisted of Aunt Chen, and even Aunt Chen's life was tough, so despite her willingness, she was powerless to help.
Aunt Chen said that the expenses for this trip, including travel costs and the "goodwill fee" for the grandparents, were all covered by Uncle Lu's money. Her residency would be registered at Aunt Chen's place, but she was to live with Uncle Lu and depend on him for support.
She was actually afraid of living with Uncle Lu, but that fear was nothing compared to the horror of returning to her grandparents' house.
To her surprise, life with Uncle Lu was like returning to the days when her mother was still alive. Uncle Lu never yelled or scolded her, nor did he ever speak harshly to her. Except for never smiling at her, Uncle Lu was really good to her.
For her sake, Uncle Lu even left Haicheng and stayed in the city where Aunt Chen lived, doing odd jobs to support her. He lived frugally himself but provided well for her, supporting her through university until she graduated.
After graduating from university, she passed the civil service exam and got a job that all her classmates envied. She was finally able to support Uncle Lu, but it was then that she discovered he had been suffering from a terminal illness for quite some time.
To avoid being a burden on her, Uncle Lu had kept it a secret, enduring it alone until there was no hope for treatment.
When she asked Uncle Lu, crying by his hospital bed, why he was so good to her, he was silent for a long time and looked at her with a complex expression. He said he had promised her mother that he would keep his word, and he admitted that he actually hated her...
After Uncle Lu's death, Chen Juxiang, somehow getting wind of it, didn't hesitate to send her younger son to intercept her at her workplace.
Chen Juxiang's first demand was for Lu Yun to give up her job to her grandson. When that didn't work out, she audaciously asked for Uncle Lu's hard-earned house, demanded all of Lu Yun's savings, and insisted that Lu Yun give her 90% of her monthly salary as a tribute from then on.
She had even picked out a suitor for Lu Yun, a bachelor in his forties, and had already taken the betrothal money. Chen Juxiang ordered her to marry quickly and even warned her not to take her nice clothes, claiming those were the property of the Su Family and shouldn't benefit her "in-laws"...
Because Chen Juxiang was so disruptive, Lu Yun's workplace leadership, unable to tolerate it, allowed her to take time off to resolve her family matters. Ultimately, Lu Yun had to painfully quit her hard-earned job, leave secretly, and move to another city to escape Chen Juxiang's entanglement.
In the new city, everything had to start from scratch. Only when she had finally made a fortune and returned to her hometown did she discover the whole "story," learned the true cause of her father's death, and understood the vile role Chen Juxiang had played between her mother and Uncle Lu.
Upon discovering the truth, she cried bitterly. From then on, the past became an emotional burden she could never shed. Even later, when she changed her surname to Lu and went through great lengths to move the ancestral graves so her mother could be buried with Uncle Lu, labeled as his wife and inscribing "Father, Mother" on their tombstone, she could not diminish an ounce of her guilt and sorrow.
Chen Juxiang and the Su Family had made trouble before, but Lu Yun dared to do so only because she was not without support.