Chapter 210: Heart Demon Tribulation (Part I)

Within the vast and silent world.

A series of scenes like a revolving lantern flashed before Ruan Xing.

Countless people walked through them.

The focus gradually faded from Ruan Xing's calm eyes.

Inside a dilapidated rental apartment, a drunken man lay on his side on a peeling single sofa, while a timid woman crouched by the doorway, washing a basin of clothes by the light of the corridor's hanging lamp, whispering complaints: "Damn Liu Daozi, letting you buy liquor on credit again; tomorrow his old lady will be blocking my way for money, and you've already spent more than half of next month's wages before it's even been paid!"

The man listened impatiently, got up, and kicked the woman; she let out a cry of surprise, overturning half the basin of water, and sat on the ground, soaked. Seeming accustomed to being beaten, her first reaction was not even to cry out in pain or resist, but to shout: "Are you trying to kill me! Do you know how much water costs? Wasting so much!"

"So what if I spend my own money? If you're going to nag me so much, I think you're just asking for a beating!" The man swung his fist viciously.

The woman immediately lowered her voice, timidly saying: "You're always absent from the factory, so you don't get paid as much as the others, and you spend it all. What I earn from the street stall is barely enough for rent; how are we supposed to support the family? We still have the girl; she's starting school next year, and you..."

"What school for a girl!" The man was irritated and, picking up a beer bottle from the floor, struck the woman on the shoulder. "You can't even give birth to a son, and you have the nerve to spend my money? Raise the one you birthed yourself!"

The woman took the blow; the beer bottle didn't break, but a bright red mark instantly seeped onto her shoulder. The white-washed shirt she wore was already semi-transparent from being splashed with water, and old scars could be vaguely seen on other parts of her body.

She skillfully hugged her head and began to wail, "Heaven! What kind of sin have I committed... you might as well beat me to death!"

As if repeating the same day, she noisily complained about the unfairness of heaven, the hardships of life, and the man's incompetence. He wantonly abused his wife, enjoying the service he received from her, and finding excuses to vent the dissatisfaction he brought back from the outside world through violence against her.

It seemed as if life could not go on without doing so.

Her crying lit up the voice-activated light in the corridor. This two-story family building was low-rent housing provided by the factory for workers, and almost everyone living there was a worker or their family member, but they seemed so accustomed to the sound of a woman crying from time to time that not a single person came out to watch.

Every household was in almost the same situation; what was there to see?

Perhaps tomorrow morning, another woman would come over with pity to offer a word of comfort, then say that all men are like this, and that if she just endured it, it would pass.

In the inner room, a short, thin little girl heard the noise and came running out, spreading her arms to block the woman.

She was trembling with fear, yet she still firmly and loudly blocked the way: "Don't hit my mother!"

Tap, tap—

Ruan Xing took two steps forward and entered this cramped rental apartment.

This was when she was six years old.

In the past, every time they argued, Ruan Xing would hide in a cardboard box in the inner room. Every year, Grandmother would send a large pile of sweet potato starch noodles to be stored in the wooden cabinet, and she would lie on top of them, smelling the slightly greasy scent of the noodles, accompanied by the shouting outside, until she fell asleep.

When she woke up, she would be able to see her normal father and mother again.

But this year, there were no noodles in the cardboard box because Grandmother had passed away.

At the same time, she also believed she had grown up.

And so, she stood out bravely.

"You little girl, I think your skin is itching! Wanting to get beaten just like your mother, right!" The man spat, his anger growing even more intense. He smashed the beer bottle on the ground, where it shattered with a loud noise, and his fan-like palms landed on her face and body.

The mother was still crying on the ground, hugging her head, but the thin girl grabbed the man's leg and bit down hard.

The weather was not cold, and the man was hot from drinking and only wearing shorts, so the girl's bite drew blood.

He let out a loud yell, "You dare bite me! You ungrateful beast! Who provided your food and drink until you grew this big!? Because of you, I can't even have a son! I'll hack you to death to make room for my son!"

He kicked the girl aside and ran to the kitchen to get a vegetable knife.

The man did manual labor at the factory and had thick skin and flesh; the little girl's teeth couldn't cause him any real damage, just breaking a layer of skin and drawing a little blood.

But the pain and the alcohol rising to his head made him impulsive and reckless.

Seeing the man come out with a knife, the woman finally moved, pushing the little girl in front of her aside, and ran out the door into the corridor. "I can't live this life with you anymore!"

The little girl was caught off guard and fell to the ground, tripping the man; the man stumbled, his body pressing down on the little girl as he fell forward uncontrollably.

He was too heavy; the girl felt her chest and back being crushed together, unable to breathe, her whole head spinning, with an urge to vomit.

After the fall, the man's sluggish brain focused its attention on the woman who had run out.

"Still daring to run! Stop right there!" The man roared, raising the vegetable knife and chasing after her.

Although she knew this was only an illusion within the Heart Demon Tribulation, Ruan Xing still turned to the side to clear the path. She watched the development of events with cold eyes, without the slightest bit of emotional stirring or the intention to intervene.

The woman knocked on doors one by one, calling for help. Some neighbors, annoyed by the noise, came to open their doors while cursing.

"Are you people ever going to finish? What time is it, and you're still not letting people sleep!"

The next second, his impatient expression froze on his face as a large spray of blood erupted. The man, panting as he chased after them, his vision already blurred by drunkenness, saw everything in double images; he stumbled, and with one slash, he cut the neck of the person who had suddenly stepped out of the door.

He instantly sobered up, his legs went weak, and he sat on the ground as the blood flowed over and soaked his shorts.

"Ah! Murder!!" A disheveled woman behind the door let out a scream.

Ruan Xing could no longer remember the specific scene of this event; she only remembered that her eyes were filled with bright red blood and the tears that blurred her vision.

When the ambulance arrived, it was determined that the person who had been slashed in the neck had their trachea completely severed, blood had blocked their throat, and they were declared dead on the spot after failed resuscitation attempts.

This period was when family planning was most strictly enforced, when the "Strike Hard" campaign against organized crime was at its peak, and when the deep, festering wounds were left in her desolate inner heart.

Committing murder while drunk—intentional homicide—he was sentenced to death.

On the day the verdict came out, her mother was wearing a thick cotton-padded jacket, holding her cold little hand, and crying bitterly while holding the verdict. She said, "It's all your fault! Why did you provoke him! If you had just behaved and not made him angry, how could he have killed anyone!"

Ruan Xing didn't understand; they... shouldn't they have been considered to have escaped the sea of suffering? Not long after, because of the man's passing, they were ordered by the factory to move out of the low-rent housing.

The rent for the low-rent housing was one-third of that for houses with similar conditions outside. The woman had no formal job; she only helped others sell fake leather shoes at morning markets and fairs.

They couldn't afford normal rent at all.

On the day they moved out of the low-rent housing, her mother left without saying goodbye.

She walked along the main road alone, feeling lost. A kind-hearted person felt sorry for her and shared half a roasted sweet potato from their pocket. After she finished eating it ravenously, the kind sister said, "Are you lost? I can take you home."

Home...

She was born in that rental apartment and grew up in the factory; could that be considered home? But she and her mother had already been driven out by the people at the factory.

The little girl hesitated for a long time before stating the address of the factory's low-rent housing, and the kind sister took her back.

She stood at the entrance of the family compound, at a loss. The door of her former home was already locked, everything had been cleared out, not a trace of them ever living there remained, and even the blood in the corridor had been cleaned away completely.

A worker's family member who recognized her saw her and called over the director who managed them.

The director asked the worker's family member, "Can you contact her family?"

The person opposite shook their head in a difficult position, "Her father already ate a bullet and I never saw her grandparents come by; I reckon they've been gone a long time. Her mother didn't have a mobile phone, but I heard her mention in conversation that she had a mother farming back in their hometown, though she passed away at the beginning of this year too."

The director sighed and sent the little girl to the police station.

She slept on a bench at the police station for two days, and after that, she was sent to the orphanage.

From beginning to end, she was extremely well-behaved, neither crying nor making a fuss, making anyone who saw her feel pity.

The director of the orphanage was a very elderly grandmother who possessed a refined, artistic temperament and could play the harmonica; she asked the little girl, "What is your name?"

The little girl thought for a moment, feeling that since her father and mother didn't like her and didn't want her, she didn't want them either.

She remembered that her maternal grandmother's surname was Ruan.

"My name is Ruan Xing," she said timidly.

"Which 'Xing'?"

"The 'Xing' from happiness."

The grandmother director taught her that when she saw the uncles and aunts coming to the orphanage, she had to appear lively and cheerful, sensible and obedient; that way, she would have new parents.

Little Ruan Xing nodded, and one month later, she put the grandmother director's words into practice.

A middle-aged couple came to the orphanage to choose a child; they had been married for eleven or twelve years without having any children, and after finally getting checked at a hospital, they discovered the man had Innate oligospermia.

Little Ruan Xing observed for a while, then went up to them and revealed a sweet smile, "Hello, Uncle and Auntie."

The two smiled and praised her to the grandmother director: "This child is truly good, not shy at all."

The grandmother director laughed: "Then would you like to chat with her?"

The woman hesitated for a moment, "But we want a boy."

"It doesn't hurt to chat first," the grandmother director said, wearing an expression of regret, "You already know, there are currently no boys in the orphanage who meet your requirements."

This can be considered an explanation for the reason behind the female lead's personality...

I saw comments earlier questioning why the female lead doesn't seem like a transmigrated modern person, that she is too ruthless; experiences create such things~ She simply doesn't want to return to the modern era.

Thanks to Book Friend 20221023004510870 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to a certain ugly person for the monthly ticket~