allonlinenovel Chapter 1038 Don't Sell Me!
Chapter 1038 Don't Sell Me!
Fragments of memory suddenly flashed back: My neighbor, Aunt Zhang, used to sigh and talk about a distant relative's daughter, who had been sold as a maid to a wealthy family in the city by her gambling-addicted father, and whom she had never heard from again, her fate unknown.
And then there was that little girl in the alley who was always crying; her stepmother sold her off, saying she was going to a better place. Later, someone said they saw her in a very, very far place, and she was no longer recognizable as a human being.
These vague and terrifying stories I had heard suddenly became incredibly clear and concrete, cruelly overlapping with my father's words and the gold bars before my eyes!
Shock, disbelief, the immense fear and heart-wrenching grief from being completely betrayed by the person she loved and trusted most, overwhelmed her fragile mental defenses like a burst dam!
"No...no...no..." Her little head shook violently, tears streaming down her face like broken beads, instantly soaking her pale face and the pillow: "Daddy...you're lying to me...you must be lying to Xiaojuan..."
"Don't sell me... Dad... Please... Don't sell me... I'll never run away again..."
She cried incoherently, stretching out her uninjured right hand, the one with the IV drip, once again in vain towards Li Shouren, trying to grab the hem of his clothes.
Just like countless times in the past when she was being spoiled or scared, it was as if by grabbing the hem of her father's clothes, she could grasp the whole world and the last bit of security.
Seeing his daughter's tears streaming down her face, looking as frightened and helpless as an abandoned little animal, and hearing her heart-wrenching pleas, Li Shouren felt as if an invisible hand had ripped his heart out, thrown it to the ground, and then trampled on repeatedly by countless feet, causing him so much pain that he could hardly breathe.
He longed to kneel down, embrace his daughter, and tell her, "Silly child, how could your father sell you? Even if I sold myself, I wouldn't sell you! I was lying to you! I was just lying to those Japanese devils!"
But he couldn't! He couldn't even show the slightest bit of weakness! His daughter's pleas were like handfuls of salt sprinkled on his bleeding heart.
He had to make the pain more intense, and the performance more realistic!
So, just as his daughter's little hand, yearning for warmth and comfort, was about to touch the hem of his clothes, Li Shouren, as if bitten by a venomous snake, suddenly took a big step back, completely avoiding his daughter's touch!
His "smile" became even more exaggerated, cruel, and distorted, bordering on madness:
“Lie to you? Why would I lie to you?!” He pointed at the bag of gold bars, his voice shrill, as if he were back in his own silk shop, haggling with a difficult customer: “This is real gold and silver! Enough for your mother and me to live comfortably for the rest of our lives!”
From now on! You! Xiao Juan! Are no longer my daughter, Li Shouren's daughter! Your mother and I! Take this money! And run away! To a place where no one knows us, and live a good life!
You! From this day forward! Whether you live or die! It's none of our business! You! Take good care of yourself! Do you hear me?! Serve your new master well!
These final, heartless words, like the sharpest icicle, shattered the last glimmer of hope in Xiao Juan's heart.
Her outstretched hand froze in mid-air, then fell limply to the snow-white sheets.
She stopped pleading, and simply opened her tear-filled, now empty and lifeless eyes, staring blankly at her father, at this suddenly unfamiliar, terrifying "stranger."
In those eyes, there was no longer any reliance or trust, only boundless fear, bewilderment, and a deathly stillness that shattered Li Shouren's spirit.
Li Shouren knew that he had "succeeded".
He personally extinguished the last glimmer of light in his daughter's eyes.
He could no longer bear this torture-like stare, and he feared that he would completely collapse at any moment.
He whirled around! He used all his strength, as if the simple act of turning around required breaking free from a thousand-pound shackle.
The moment he turned his back to his daughter, two streams of hot tears, filled with endless pain, humiliation, and paternal love, finally burst forth uncontrollably from the corners of his dry eyes, flowing freely down his weathered, suffering-etched face!
He quickly raised his dirty sleeve, which reeked of sweat and dust, and roughly wiped his face, roughly erasing his tears and all his weakness.
He couldn't let anyone, especially the Japanese soldiers behind him, see his tears.
However, just as he took a step, behind him came Xiao Juan's heart-wrenching, piercing, almost distorted screams!
The cries no longer carried any pleading; they were nothing but the utter despair, the brokenness and helplessness of being completely abandoned by the world—the final lament!
"Ah... Father...!"
Immediately afterwards, the crying stopped abruptly and turned into a violent, choking cough caused by extreme grief and excitement, which aggravated the internal wounds and weakened trachea. It was as if the patient was coughing up all of his internal organs!
Then came the dull thud of a body falling heavily back onto the hospital bed, followed by the nurse's panicked shouts in Japanese and the sound of hurried footsteps rushing over!
"Child! Child!"
"Rapid pulse! Difficulty breathing! Dr. Yamaguchi!"
"Quick! Sedatives!"
Unable to withstand the continuous and immense mental and physical pain, Xiao Juan fainted again! This time, it was a fainting spell on the verge of collapse.
Li Shouren abruptly stopped, as if frozen in place by a spell.
His body began to tremble uncontrollably, like the last withered leaf in the autumn wind.
He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into the flesh of his palms, carving several crescent-shaped blood-red marks, but he felt no pain whatsoever.
But he didn't turn back.
He cannot turn back.
Like an empty shell stripped of his soul, he walked stiffly like a puppet, carried by two military police officers, one on each side, away from the ward filled with the smells of disinfectant, medicine, and the despair he himself had created, amidst the chaotic sounds of emergency care behind him.
Every step felt like stepping on a red-hot iron.
Every step he took took him further away from his deepest concern in the world.
He personally severed the blood ties between father and daughter with the cruelest lies, pushing his daughter into an unknown and uncertain future.
He also personally tore his own heart apart, leaving it riddled with holes, the fragments falling into the bottomless abyss.
This was the most resolute, yet most helpless, act of "protection" he, a father, could make in a desperate situation.
The price was his lifelong peace and his daughter's potentially unhealable emotional wounds.
He has no choice.
Cold tears silently slid down his dirty cheeks again, dripping onto the cold cement floor of the medical clinic, disappearing instantly as if they had never existed.