“Did you investigate me?” Yao Qingqing frantically tried to jump up and fight Shen Peichuan because it was her secret, and she couldn’t allow anyone to know about it.
But her legs were tied. The moment she tried to jump up, she fell back down again.
Shen Peichuan smiled. He knew that this was her weakness, so he continued to provoke her, “You were pregnant at 16 years old and you even gave birth to child. However, your child…died.”
“Shut up, shut up!” Yao Qingqing shrieked. She shook her head violently because Shen Peichuan’s words struck her like lightning, splitting her into half and separating her flesh from her bones.
Then, she went into a frenzied state and sometimes she lied motionless on the ground like a puppet.
On the second floor.
Bai Yinning frowned deeply. Shen Peichuan’s words were very easy to understand, but it shocked him to his core. Yao Qingqing got herself pregnant when she was 16? And she even gave birth to the child?
This was a piece of shocking news even for him.
16 year old girls are considered underage.
He understood what Shen Peichuan meant about a ‘surprise’.
He held on to his armrest and stared at Yao Qingqing. He needed to question her personally about certain things.
With his help of his driver, he went downstairs.
Yao Qingqing’s head was lowered down and her hair was messy. Through the slits of her hair, she could vaguely see Bai Yinning approaching her on a wheelchair.
Bai Yinning?
She looked up instantly and stared at Bai Yinning. He’s here too?
Does that mean that he heard what Shen Peichuan said?
“Yinning…”
“Tell me what happened. Why did you hide the fact that you gave birth to a child when you were 16?” He frowned. At that moment, he realized that he didn’t know her at all.
She wasn’t willing to talk about it and he had never took the initiative to investigate the matter.
He had always thought that her stepparents had treated her badly, but he never thought that…
It was obvious that it had to do with her family because she was underage when she got pregnant.
Yao Qingqing was extremely affected by his words and she curled up into a ball. She wanted to hide and disappear. She didn’t want anyone to see her in this state.
“Say something!” Bai Yinning growled.
“I can’t!” Yao Qingqing’s voice was even louder than his. She wanted to escape this place and disappear. She didn’t want to face him or anyone else.
I’m in so much pain. Don’t force me!
“How can anyone help you if you don’t say something?!” Bai Yinning’s expression had an unprecedented darkness.
Yao Qingqing looked at Bai Yinning and laughed. Then she cried when she looked at him again.
“No one can help me. I’m already tainted…” Her lips trembled as if she recalled something horrific. Her flushed cheeks turned deathly pale. Her gaze was lifeless when she stared at Bai Yinning, “Are you disgusted by me?”
Bai Yinning shook his head.
But Yao Qingqing knew that he was lying to her.
“Yes. I gave birth to a child, and it’s my stepfather’s child.” After she said that, she started to laugh. Her tears then started to stream down her face as she laughed, “He raped me when I was thirteen and it lasted for three years…”
Yao Qingqing had just turned thirteen that year. Her body wasn’t fully developed yet, but one could still see that she was adorable. Her brother was just a few years old at that time and he often cried at night. Her stepfather used the excuse that her stepbrother was too noisy for him to avoid sleeping with her stepmother.
One day, it was raining very heavily and thunder rumbled loudly. Even the cows that were restrained to her house were kicking viciously at the walls because they were afraid of the thunder.
She was hiding in her malodorous and thin blanket because she was afraid too.
Suddenly the door opened with a creak-
“Qingqing?”
It was her stepfather’s voice. Yao Qingqing looked out of her blanket. Her stepparents treated her badly on a daily basis because they forced her to work every morning. She was tasked to cut the hay to feed the cows, do the chores and tend the land. She only stopped working when she was asleep at night.
The villagers had chastised her stepparents for being heartless and mean for not sending her to school and forcing her to work everyday. Her stepparents couldn’t stand the harsh criticisms anymore, so they sent her to school.
But her workload didn’t decrease. She had to feed the cows, wash the clothes and finish all the chores before daybreak before she was allowed to go to school.
Her stepfather treated her slightly better than her stepmother.
However, she was still afraid of him. She asked very carefully, “Dad, why are you not asleep yet? Do I need to do any work?”
“It’s already so late. There’s no work to be done.” Her stepfather sat on the side of the bed and smiled, “I’m just here to see you because I’m worried that you’re scared of the thunder and rain.”
Yao Qingqing immediately shook her head, “I’m not scared. Dad, you can go to sleep.”
Her stepfather’s hands reached underneath the blanket and grabbed her ankles, “You’re not scared but I am. How about I sleep with you tonight?”
Yao Qingqing was horrified. She panicked and said, “Dad, what are you doing?”
She didn’t know about anything when she was thirteen, so she didn’t know what her stepfather was doing. All she knew was that she was absolutely petrified.
“I already taught your mother a lesson because she doesn’t treat you well. I’ll treat you well from now on.” As he said that, he uncovered the blankets and pressed down on her.
She reflexively tried to kick and push him away, but her defiance angered her stepfather. He used ropes to tie her hands together. The strength of a thirteen year old wasn’t comparable at all to the strength of a middle-aged man.
She was trapped, so she could only scream, “Mom…”
Her screams were drowned in the thunder. Her stepfather had a menacing expression as he slapped her viciously, “I’m treating you so well and you don’t want it!”
Half of her face went numb and she could taste the taste of blood in her mouth.
Her stepfather covered her mouth, tore her nightgown and raped her.
From then onwards, her stepfather frequently sneaked into her room at night. If she resisted him, he would beat her up and starve her the next morning.
After some time, she didn’t dare to defy him anymore. Three years then passed just like that.
When she was sixteen, her first period came. Not long after, she got pregnant, but she didn’t know it yet. She was often starved, so her belly was small, and she didn’t know that it was abnormal if her period didn’t come.
Until one day, her stomach suddenly started to hurt a lot during the afternoon. Her stepparents thought that she was ill, but they didn’t want to spend any medical fees so they just threw her back into her room to fend for herself.
She was in pain for ten or more hours and she gave birth to a child at night.
Her stepmother only found out what happened between her and her stepfather then.
Her stepmother was absolutely furious and she scratched Yao Qingqing’s stepfather’s face. They weren’t even willing to take care of Yao Qingqing, and the reason why Yao Qingqing could stay with them was because she could work. Naturally, they wouldn’t take care of a child.
Besides that, Yao Qingqing’s child was an illegitimate child with her stepfather, so of course her stepmother didn’t want to take care of them.
“This girl is still underage. If word gets out, you will be convicted as a rapist. You’ll go to jail.” Her stepmother used the law to threaten her stepfather.
He didn’t dare to defy her, so he said, “So what should we do now?”
Her stepmother slapped him again, “You only have a sense of urgency now?!” Her stepmother was livid. A disloyal husband was a disgrace to her.
Her stepmother relieved her anger on Yao Qingqing. She slapped, kicked and punched Yao Qingqing. She rested for a while when she ran out of energy, and continued to beat Yao Qingqing up once she regained her strength.
Yao Qingqing thought that she was going to die.
If I die, I’ll be free.
Her stepfather tugged on her enraged stepmother, “Don’t beat her. If she dies, we’ll be doomed.”
Her stepmother’s anger subsided. Since things had already progressed like that, she needed to find a way to take care of the issue at hand.
“We’ll just say that she slept around and got this baby. Don’t we have a well outside? We can just throw it outside. She’s already grown up now, so she can work.”
They all say that once a woman becomes a mother, they gain extraordinary willpower and strength, and the 16 year old mother was no exception.
Yao Qingqing dragged her weak body and held onto her stepmother’s legs, “I’m begging you. Don’t… don’t hurt my child. I can eat less and give him some. Please don’t throw my child into the well.”
Her stepmother was angered. She knelt down and tugged on Yao Qingqing’s hair, “If you eat less, the rest goes to the family. This bastard needs to die!”
