Xiaohua struggled to pull the corner of her mouth upward. “I know. I believe what Grandma says. Grandma has never lied to me.”
Jiang Chan’s heart tightened. She touched the uninjured half of Xiaohua’s face. “Go to sleep for a bit, Xiaohua. Once you fall asleep, it won’t hurt anymore.”
“If I wake up, will Grandma still be here?”
“Yes. Grandma will be here. Grandma will stay with Xiaohua until you grow up.”
Only after Xiaohua fell asleep did Jiang Chan slowly begin sorting through the original owner’s memories. She had barely gone through a small part when she abruptly opened her eyes, her face drenched in cold sweat.
The memories were simply too heavy. For a moment, she could not bear them. After calming herself down, Jiang Chan still forced herself to continue, bit by bit.
It was now the late 1980s. The original owner lived in a mountainous area in the southwest and was a true mountain villager.
The original owner was also named Jiang Chan and was fifty-four years old. The short, pockmarked man she had encountered earlier was the original owner’s husband, Zhou Dayou.
When Zhou Dayou was young, his face had already been full of pockmarks. Because of this, his marriage prospects were delayed for many years. Later, through someone’s introduction, he married the original owner. By then, Zhou Dayou was already twenty-two years old.
That was still the 1930s, when marriages were arranged blindly. On the wedding night, when the original owner saw Zhou Dayou’s pockmarked face after the red veil was lifted, she froze for a moment. That single pause struck Zhou Dayou’s deeply buried inferiority and sensitivity.
Zhou Dayou was the kind who bullied his own family but cowered outside. On their wedding night, the original owner was beaten violently. Over the following decades, whenever something displeased him even slightly, he would beat her. The original owner had resisted before, but how could someone who had endured long-term abuse stand up to a strong grown man?
The original owner endured life with Zhou Dayou for decades. If it had only been her own suffering, she might have endured it in silence. At that time, she did not even know divorce was an option.
Zhou Dayou was extremely biased toward males. This attitude also influenced the two sons the original owner bore him, Zhou Fuquan and Zhou Fugui.
The eldest son, Zhou Fuquan, married Zhang Chuncao. In their first year of marriage, they gave birth to a boy. This was the boy Jiang Chan had seen earlier, the one who called Xiaohua a money-losing bastard.
The second son, Zhou Fugui, and his wife Wang Mei had a daughter as their first child. This was Xiaohua, the girl who had just been burned.
The couple had some sense. They knew that farming offered no future, and they also disliked having a daughter. They left the girl at home for the original owner to raise and went out to work.
Not long after, Zhou Fugui and his wife had another child, a boy named Zhou Xiaobao. From then on, the Xiaohua left behind at home became even less welcome.
Influenced by Zhou Dayou, everyone casually called girls money-losing goods. Even the original owner, both a mother and a grandmother, was not treated well. She was never allowed to eat at the table, because Zhou Dayou found her dirty.
In the original owner’s memories, Xiaohua’s burn had once been even worse than this. Her mouth had been burned out of shape, and it was never properly treated. Xiaohua never married even into her thirties. This became the greatest knot in the original owner’s heart.
The original owner left behind three wishes.
The first was to protect Xiaohua’s face from being burned. If it was burned, then she wanted it treated as much as possible.
The second was to divorce Zhou Dayou while she was still alive. At that time, married couples were buried together after death, and the original owner did not want to be buried with Zhou Dayou.
The third was to raise Xiaohua to adulthood. If possible, she also wanted to help Xiaohua find a suitable husband. She was terrified of Xiaohua living a lonely life like in her previous life, enduring people’s cold looks.
The original owner had thought of divorce only after Xiaohua took her in to care for her and she was diagnosed with cancer. While lying in the hospital ward, she heard the word divorce on television.
Later, the original owner asked around. But by then, her illness was already too severe. She could not survive long enough to complete the divorce procedures. This became her second obsession, after Xiaohua.
Jiang Chan pinched the bridge of her nose. The flood of heavy memories hit her all at once, and she felt every bit of it. When she shifted her body slightly, she hissed in pain. Her entire body hurt.
She had carried Xiaohua on her back for hours through mountain paths while enduring the pain from a beating. She truly could not hold on much longer.
Xiaohua’s face was destined to scar now. Whether it could be treated later would depend on advancements in medicine.
The second task was divorce from Zhou Dayou.
Jiang Chan did not understand this area. She would need to consult a lawyer. She frowned. She was still a baby herself, and now she had become a grandmother again and had to divorce a rotten old man.
After Xiaohua finished her IV, Jiang Chan called the nurse to remove the needle, soothed Xiaohua to sleep, and prepared to go out to ask around about law firms.
By coincidence, she ran into the doctor who had treated Xiaohua. After hearing Jiang Chan’s intent, the doctor gave her an address. It belonged to a friend of his who worked as a lawyer.
Jiang Chan thanked him repeatedly. Following the address, she saw fruit being sold along the way. Even though she was short on money, she still bought some fruit before heading over.
She had left in a hurry and had only grabbed a handful of small bills. Now there was not much left. After meeting this lawyer, she would need to find work quickly, or she would not even be able to afford Xiaohua’s medical care.
It was the weekend. With nothing pressing to do, Xu Jing was at home reading when someone suddenly knocked on her door.
When she opened it, an elderly woman stood outside. Her clothes were worn but very clean.
“You are?” Xu Jing hesitated. She did not recognize this elderly woman.
“I was introduced by Doctor Liu from the dermatology hospital,” Jiang Chan said. “I want to consult you about divorce.”
Xu Jing immediately understood. Legal awareness among people at this time was very weak. It was rare for someone to seek legal protection, especially someone this old. She was deeply surprised.
Seeing the fruit Jiang Chan had brought, Xu Jing smiled. She had not expected this elderly woman to be so polite.
It was not about how much the gift was worth. The fact that Jiang Chan was clearly poor yet still acted with courtesy was rare.
After inviting Jiang Chan to sit on the sofa and listening to her explanation, Xu Jing made Jiang Chan realize that divorcing Zhou Dayou now was not a wise decision.
After consulting for a long time, Jiang Chan finally left. It seemed that the original owner’s second wish could only be planned slowly.
Originally, Jiang Chan had thought it was simple. Why not just divorce Zhou Dayou now?
But Xu Jing rejected that idea. There was another condition to Jiang Chan’s divorce, which was custody of her granddaughter Xiaohua.
Xiaohua’s parents were still alive. There was no legal precedent for a divorced grandmother gaining custody of a child. The law would never rule in her favor.
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