Chapter 30: Scarface

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The lady handed me her used item, which I took into my small room, locking the door tight. Upon opening it, I finally found some relief...

From the main room came the lady’s cry: "Zhengtai, let's go out to eat!" She didn't say a word about Niu Zhenqing.

I found it strange, yet it felt somewhat expected, though something was off. The lady had not a penny to her name; how could she afford to eat out? Could it really be... I dared not think any further.

As the saying goes, "When it's meant to rain, a mother will remarry." No matter how capable I might be, I couldn't change that! What did this mean? Could this family...

I changed into another pair of school trousers, leaving a pile of dirty clothes by the bed.

The lady couldn't wait any longer and knocked to come in. Her tears were endless, still flowing. She covered her eyes with a tissue to keep them from swelling, then held me tightly, saying, "My hope lies in you! You must study hard; Mom will earn money to put you through university!"

This was astonishing. Had the lady found a job? Was she suddenly so confident?

When I asked, she was evasive, saying, "You are a student; leave the earning to me! Don't worry!"

The lady put her arm around my shoulder. As we passed the main room, she didn't even glance at Niu Zhenqing sitting on the edge of the bed, not saying a word to him as she led me downstairs.

It was getting dark. The electric scooter was parked there. I sat behind the lady, pressed close to her.

She switched on the headlight with a "whoosh." We quickly merged into traffic. It was dinner time, and the road was crowded with people and all kinds of vehicles—trucks, cars, and large buses—packed tight like a taut string, waiting for the green light to dash forward for dear life.

I didn't know where the lady was taking me. After passing several traffic lights, she stopped by the roadside, pulled her phone from her bag, dialed, and looked around while holding it to her ear. A man's voice came through: "Where are you?"

The voice sounded familiar, though I couldn't recall where I had heard it.

The lady looked all around, unsure of what she was looking for, and said into the phone, "There's a big screen here."

The man's voice replied, "That's not the place. Keep going forward. There's a utility pole with the words 'selling dog meat under a sheep's head' written on it. I’m standing right next to it."

The lady held the phone in her left hand and steered the scooter with her right, her feet dragging on the ground. She rode for a kilometer before stopping at the roadside, peering left and right. Sure enough, she found a utility pole with large red characters written on it.

The person we were looking for wasn't nearby, so she dialed again: "I don't see you. Where are you?"

"Keep going forward, follow the right side, and you'll see me." The call ended.

The street was lined with streetlights; in the dark, I could see where there was light.

The lady steered the scooter with one hand, moving forward while keeping her eyes fixed on the right. Sure enough, there stood a man, about 1.6 meters tall, wearing a striped T-shirt and black casual trousers. He was plain-looking, quite ordinary.

As the scooter maneuvered around other vehicles and got closer, I saw clearly that he had a scar on his face. He looked like a frog, hardly any better than Niu Zhenqing.

I got off the scooter and noticed his eyes were fixed on me. Standing before him, I was twenty-two centimeters taller; he only reached my shoulder.

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The lady parked the electric scooter in a space by the roadside, locked the front wheel with a large U-lock, and followed the scar-faced man into a small eatery. The place was packed with people who occasionally cast strange glances at me. We found an empty rectangular table and sat down. A waiter came over, politely asking, "What would you like?" and placed a menu on the table.

I thought I was just going to eat with the lady; I hadn't expected another man to be there.

The scar-faced man wanted to save face, so he let the lady order, though his eyes lingered on my face.

One can never know what lies behind a person's heart; I wondered what devious scheme he was hatching. But I wasn't afraid. He was so small that a few solid punches would turn him into Niu Zhenqing...

The lady ordered two dishes she liked and showed me the menu. I picked one at random and handed it back.

The scar-faced man had a question: "Who is this?"

The lady smiled and replied tactfully, "I forgot to introduce her earlier. She is my daughter."

The scar-faced man glanced at the menu and ordered two more dishes. The waiter took the order and left.

"She doesn't look like you, nor does she look like Niu Zhenqing." The scar-faced man turned his gaze back to me, looking me up and down.

"It's crowded here. Let's not talk about this. I'll tell you later." The lady found the question awkward and couldn't afford to offend him.

"Her complexion is very strange. There's an aura of evil about her." The scar-faced man insisted, staring at me, scrutinizing everything he could see.

"How do you know that?" This caught the lady's attention. Upon reflection, she felt that sometimes my speech was incoherent.

I hated this scar-faced man. He was trying to drive a wedge between me and the lady. Looking at the scar on his face, I knew he was no good.

Of course, he wasn't speaking without reason. He claimed my eye sockets were dark, that there was something inside my body, and said many other things that were hard to repeat.

The lady was skeptical. Niu Zhenqing’s situation had left everyone exhausted and unable to sleep; it wasn't just my eyes that were dark—her own were as well.

"Your dark circles are pale, but your daughter's are deeply etched into her skin." He disagreed with the lady, offering a more nuanced observation.

"Whether there is an evil aura or not, don't you think I would know?" He was definitely plotting something against me. I really wanted to beat him up so he would stop spouting nonsense.

"Do you have any good solutions?" The lady hadn't been without her own concerns, having been puzzled by this before. Since he had brought it up, she was eager to hear his opinion.

"I'll tell you in a while!" The scar-faced man looked around at the crowded room.

I thought, "We'll be leaving after eating; what else is there to tell him?" In any case, I didn't want to listen—it was all just manipulative nonsense.

Several waiters soon brought the food to the table. I was starving, and I barely noticed how they ate. I didn't just finish the dish I ordered; I consumed more than half of all the dishes on the table.

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The scar-faced man and the lady didn't say a word. He paid for a drink for me, though they didn't have one themselves. After settling the bill, we walked to the door, and he said he would drive back himself.

I didn't see his vehicle; I wondered if it was electric.

The lady rode the scooter fast. Soon, she stopped at the entrance of our residential complex to let me off, then turned around and rode away. I called out to her for a long time, but her replies were muddled, and I couldn't make sense of them. It felt as if...

Back home, the thing I dreaded most was seeing his ugly face. Now that his wife had run off, how would he go on?

Upon entering, I smelled cooking oil. Following the scent, I found him at the induction stove frying sunny-side-up eggs. The rice cooker was steaming. As soon as he saw me, he started making "ah-ah" sounds, pointing at the pan and gesturing incessantly.

I finally understood: he wanted me to eat. He seemed concerned, though in truth, he was always keeping an eye on me.

The lady was far too bold! She wasn't even afraid he might molest me, actually leaving him alone with me in the room. To be honest, I wasn't afraid; if he harbored any twisted intentions, I would beat him to death!

Zhengtai’s father placed the meal he had prepared on the wooden coffee table, making "ah-ah" sounds for a long time, nothing more than wanting me to eat.

I waved my hand, pointed to my small room, mimicked the motion of writing with a pen, and slipped inside, locking the door tight.

I saw the phone by my pillow, picked it up, and opened it. There were several missed calls and many messages. One of them was nauseating: "Zhengtai, I miss you so much. I called N and N times, and you didn't answer..."

I almost vomited. Although it didn't hurt anymore, it had left an eternal scar on my heart.

That shameless Mo Liping—she had taken advantage of me and hadn't even offered the slightest compensation; I couldn't even get through to her on the phone.

I was such a fool! How could something so precious... be defiled by a "man-sister" like that?

Feeling deeply cheated, I dialed the number. Soon, Jiang Meili’s voice came through: "Where the hell have you been? Why didn't you answer the phone?"

I had no choice but to recount what had just happened, and I cursed the shameless scar-faced man for badmouthing me in front of the lady.

Jiang Meili spoke vaguely about her own situation, and I heard many strange things.

I could only tell her simply, "Don't debase yourself. Being violated by others is an unavoidable hardship! Read more books and study hard so you don't fail your exams!"

Her soft, weak voice came through again: "I stopped wanting to study a long time ago. I only want to marry you! But you're a woman, and people won't recognize our marriage."

"How old are you? Isn't this just puppy love?"

"You don't know—if I don't marry soon, I'll turn into an old hag. I think about you all the time, especially in my dreams..." She didn't hide anything from me.