Several people came to the locust tree in the small garden of the hospital. This place could just see the window of Ward 303.
Jiang Minghao took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one out and held it in his mouth.
Pei Shuo reached out to him: "Brother Hao, give me one."
What happened to Jiang Suichu today made him a little irritable. He had long wanted to smoke. However, in the hospital, Aunt Shuyuan was there again, so he couldn't get the cigarettes in his schoolbag, so he just endured it.
Seeing Jiang Minghao twitch now, he couldn't help it.
There were not many cigarettes left in the cigarette box, so Jiang Minghao threw the cigarette box to him. Then he went to his pocket to get a lighter, and touched both trouser pockets but couldn't find it.
He guessed that he might have accidentally dropped it somewhere.
Just when he was about to ask Pei Shuo if he had a lighter, Lu Zhinian held up the lit lighter in one hand and held the flame in the other and brought it to him.
Jiang Minghao looked at him for a moment, then bit his cigarette and tilted his head slightly towards him.
As his cheeks sucked and dented, the cigarette flashed a scarlet red, and then a wisp of white smoke came out of his mouth.
"Want one?" Jiang Minghao squinted and looked at Lu Zhinian.
Lu Zhinian glanced at him, put the lighter into his pocket, and said calmly: "No."
He would have to go up there later, and he didn't want to smell of cigarette smoke.
Pei Shuo gave Tang Zi a cigarette and then threw the empty cigarette box into the trash can nearby.
Jiang Minghao took a few steps back and sat on the edge of the flower bed behind.
"Let's get started." He held the cigarette between his index and middle fingers, then lightly tapped the cigarette butt with his index finger, and the ash fell into the flower bed.
When he came here today, he knew that Lu Zhinian would definitely ask something.
Jiang Minghao: "What do you want to know?"
Lu Zhinian had his hands in his trouser pockets and was wearing a black jacket that was wide and stylish. His chin was slightly raised, and the already stiff facial lines looked even more stern in the dark night.
"When did Suisui return to Muyang Town?" he asked.
Jiang Minghao thought about it while smoking a cigarette, and said, "It was almost in the third grade."
Third grade.
In other words, after Aunt Liyun left Yun City with Suisui, she was sent back to the countryside within two years. Was she in Xuancheng in the past two years?
Pei Shuo took a deep breath on the cigarette and then asked, "Did her mother send it back?"
Jiang Minghao shook his head and said, "No, it seems that Grandma Jiang and her uncle went to Xuancheng to pick her up."
He had never met Li Liyun, and she had never come back to see Jiang Suichu in these years.
"She didn't mention much about her mother, but..." Jiang Minghao paused and said, "I heard from the villagers that her mother seemed to have remarried. The man who remarried originally had a similar relationship to Jiang Suichu. My daughter is about the same age, so I can’t accept raising another one.”
Pei Shuo didn't expect that Aunt Liyun, who he once thought was the gentlest in the compound, would do this. He took a long puff of cigarette. The cigarettes Jiang Minghao smoked were very cheap and had a strong smell. Pei Shuo choked and coughed several times.
"Just because Aunt Liyun doesn't want to die?" He couldn't believe it.
The wind was a bit strong at night, and a few fallen leaves fell on Jiang Minghao's shoulders. He casually dusted it off with his hand and said, "It seems that Jiang Suichu was placed at her grandma's house by her mother at first. But within a few months, Jiang Suichu called Grandma Jiang and asked them to pick her up. .”
Jiang Minghao is not sure how much truth there is in it. Countryside people like to talk about family affairs. As long as it is not their own family's business, they will bring it out as a topic of discussion after dinner.
But it was true that Jiang Suichu wanted to return to Muyang Town. He had heard her briefly mention it once. He forgot exactly when she said it to him. He only remembered that day when he asked Jiang Suichu if he would regret coming back. After all, she was no better off when she returned to Muyang Town.
What did she say then?
Oh~ she said, "At least I won't get lost here."
"What do you mean you won't get lost?" Pei Shuo paused his smoking hand and looked at Jiang Minghao.
Jiang Minghao shook his head. He had asked her the same question at that time, but she just smiled and did not answer.
Lu Zhinian's lip line tightened, and his hands in his trouser pockets tightened again and again, trying to calm down his emotions.
"Then what?"
Lu Zhinian himself didn't realize how hoarse his voice was.
Obviously he didn't smoke.
Jiang Minghao glanced at him, took off the cigarette from his mouth, and continued: "You probably know what kind of life she lived after she returned to Muyang Town. Qu Ping..." He paused and explained, "That's it. Jiang Suichu's aunt, she was unwilling to take her back in the first place, so she would not be too kind to her. Although she was not mean to the point of abuse, beating and scolding was common. You have also seen Jiang Mingjie and Jiang Mingzhu, since they were young. He took pleasure in bullying her.”
"Grandma Jiang, don't you care?" Pei Shuo said angrily.
Jiang Minghao looked at him and asked him: "Care? How to care?"
The more Grandma Jiang takes care of her, the more Qu Ping feels that Grandma is partial to Jiang Suichu, and the more she becomes dissatisfied with Jiang Suichu. Besides, Jiang Mingjie and Jiang Mingzhu are also her grandchildren, and their palms and backs are full of flesh.
"But... at such a young age, doesn't she have any compassion?" Pei Shuo threw the half-smoked cigarette to the ground and crushed it with his foot.
Jiang Minghao sneered: "Country people depend on the sky for their livelihood, who would be willing to open their mouths suddenly?"
Compassion and compassion are not suitable for poor people.
Moreover, he heard from people in the village that Jiang Zhiwei received a pension after his death. But when Grandma Jiang and Uncle Jiang took Jiang Suichu back, they did not bring back the money. Therefore, Qu Ping often quarreled with Uncle Jiang about this matter.
Pei Shuo was silent, he didn't understand, and he didn't understand either.
Lu Zhinian, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke and interrupted the topic, "Do you know about being bullied every year?"
He thought he must know.
Jiang Minghao blew out smoke, and white smoke spilled from his mouth and nose. He nodded: "Know more, what do you want to know?"
Lu Zhinian looked at him with cold eyes and asked, "She has many injuries on her body. Were they caused by them?"
Jiang Minghao knew who he was talking about. He blew out a puff of smoke and said, "Not entirely. Although Jiang Mingjie and Jiang Mingzhu often bullied her, they were still afraid of Grandma Jiang and Uncle Jiang, so they didn't dare to go too far. "
The two of them would also snatch Jiang Suichu's few living expenses, leaving her hungry without money, or throw away her schoolbag and textbooks, which did not cause much real harm.
The person who really bullied Jiang Suchu was a girl named Zhang Yaqi. Zhang Yaqi was well-known as the eldest sister in Muyang Middle School.
At the New Year's Day party on the first day of the lunar new year, I don't know where the teacher knew that Jiang Suichu had learned to dance, so he directly asked her to dance at the New Year's Day party.
When Jiang Suichu was a child, she always followed the boys in the compound. Li Liyun thought she was too wild and did not look like a girl. So I took her to learn ballet for a year. Except for a few basic movements, she didn't know the rest at all. She went to the teacher to change her, but the teacher said that the program had already been registered and could not be changed.
She had no choice but to bite the bullet and go on stage. Fortunately, her basic skills were still there.
The stage in the rural school is very simple, with only a low-quality stereo and two stage lights. While other classes were singing choruses or dancing with demons, Jiang Suichu, dressed in a white gauze skirt, seemed to come from another space.
A different space from country kids like them.
She stood on tiptoes, spinning and jumping to the gentle music on the stage.
Although the scene was so beautiful, it was filled with all kinds of vulgar and unsavory words.
The girls envied her but were also jealous of her. They deliberately misinterpreted her actions and used vulgar and filthy words to describe her.
The boys are eager to conquer her, but they know that they are not worthy of her gentleness and elegance. So they gathered together, talking about her dance skirt and lusting after her dancing posture.
They all just see the tatters on themselves and cannot see others shining.
Since then, Jiang Suchu has become an instant celebrity at Muyang Middle School.
It was at this time that Zhang Yaqi approached Jiang Suichu.
Zhang Yaqi has always liked to form cliques, especially those who are somewhat famous in school. There are often a lot of them wandering around the school.
Be proud of it.
Zhang Yaqi sent friendly invitations to Jiang Suchu several times, but she rejected them all. Jiang Suchu knew that they didn't really want to be friends with her, she just liked the attention on her. She also didn't want to be like them, tyrannizing around school all day long and wasting her time.
Jiang Suichu originally thought that as long as she ignored Zhang Yaqi, she would stop looking for him over time. However, she didn't expect that it would be the beginning of her nightmare.
After Jiang Suchu rejected Zhang Yaqi again, Zhang Yaqi began to reveal her true colors. She asked someone to block her in the toilet.
Zhang Yaqi pulled her hair and pushed her face down on the moldy wall of the toilet, "Why are you pretending to be noble? You are so shameless."
"Listen to me, remember to stay away from me when you see me in the future, otherwise I will tease you every time I see you." There was a sinister smile on her beautiful face.
Her words sounded like they were reminding her, but they were actually warnings and threats.
From then on, Jiang Suchu became a tool for their group of people to have fun.
Led by Zhang Yaqi, they teamed up with everyone in the school to isolate and bully her. They poured water on her bed so she had no place to sleep and had to sit in the corridor all night. He would also tear up her textbooks, hide her bench, or burn her hair with a lighter and splash ink on her uniform.
If she resisted, she would be dragged to the toilet and beaten. They pushed her down on the dirty and damp floor of the toilet, punched and kicked her. He would also burn cigarette butts in places where others would not easily find them.
Jiang Minghao's Adam's apple rolled and he couldn't speak anymore.
Pei Shuo felt a little unable to stand, so he slowly walked to Jiang Minghao and sat next to the flower bed.
"Teacher, doesn't he care?" He looked at Jiang Minghao with red eyes.
A cigarette had long been burned out. Jiang Minghao looked at the sparks remaining on the cigarette butt and twitched his lips: "Ha~ Zhang Yaqi's father is the mayor of Muyang Town. Do you think the teacher will side with Jiang Suichu?"
Teachers will also weigh the pros and cons.
It's not that Jiang Suichu didn't find teachers. At first, the teachers would call Zhang Yaqi into the office for verbal education. More and more times later, the teacher would ask Jiang Suchu to find out why he couldn't have a good relationship with his classmates.
At that time, Jiang Suichu realized that it was useless to find a teacher. From then on, she became silent. Water was splashed on the bed, so she held a book and read by the lamp in the corridor all night. When the book was torn, she would tape it up and continue to use it. When the stool was hidden, she would stand in class.
She doesn't resist or admit defeat.
Lu Zhinian's eyes had turned scarlet, and there was a storm in his eyes. He gritted his teeth tightly, "Her ribs were broken by this woman?"
Jiang Minghao's face froze, then nodded, "Yes."
Jiang Minghao has always been a maverick in the school. He is closed and harsh, and always keeps to himself. Many people in the school are afraid of him.
At first, Jiang Minghao only considered that he did not want to cause trouble to Jiang Suchu for his own reasons, so he had little communication with Jiang Suchu in school. Because of this, he never found out about Jiang Suchu being bullied by Zhang Yaqi.
He knew that when Shi Jiang was bullied at the beginning of his life, he was kicked by Zhang Yaqi and his ribs were broken.
That day, because of the trouble at home, he was feeling depressed, so he skipped the evening self-study and went to the rooftop of the cafeteria to smoke. He walked to the stairs on the last floor, and as soon as he took out the cigarette, he saw Jiang Suichu on the stairs being kicked in the stomach by Zhang Yaqi, and he rolled down the stairs like a sandbag.
He immediately threw away the cigarette in his hand and ran up a few steps to catch her. At that time, she was in so much pain that she could no longer speak, but she held his collar tightly and whispered every word in his ear.
"Call the police." She was in pain and struggled to speak. "I recorded the video with my mobile phone."
It turned out that she had already made preparations. She set her mobile phone to video recording mode and hid it in the used desks piled at the top of the stairs.
At that time, this incident was aroused in Muyang Town. Even though Zhang Yaqi's father was the mayor, he did not dare to openly practice favoritism due to public opinion. In addition to the fact that both witnesses and physical evidence were available, Zhang Yaqi was detained, and the school also penalized Zhang Yaqi with a demerit.
Jiang Suichu thought that Zhang Yaqi would get the punishment she deserved this time, but he didn't want to detain or punish her just to show others.
Zhang Yaqi was released within a few days. With a proud smile on her face, she said to her, "I thought you had some backbone, but it turns out you are only worth 20,000 yuan."
Only then did she learn that her aunt had received 20,000 yuan from the mayor's family and signed a settlement agreement for her.
She looked at Zhang Yaqi's face and felt extremely disgusted.
"What about you? Do you think you are powerful?" She raised her chin like a proud white swan, "People like you are just bed bugs living in the gutter. You are despicable and vicious. You know that you are already covered in mud. So you want to drag as many people into the mire as possible."
"Do you think the so-called friends around you treat you sincerely? No, they are just maggots lying on your body. You will rot and stink together in your self-righteousness!"
After saying that, she turned around and bit her lip desperately to prevent tears from flowing down.
The more they pulled her down into the mud, the higher she had to climb.
Even if it falls in the mud, she will still be a seed that will sprout.
