Everyone had left.
Even at the very last moment, Xie Jin'an had not stopped her from being poisoned to death.
Only Xie Huaishan, whom she had traded her life for, had ever cried for her.
Xu Rourou slowly closed her eyes.
It felt as though she had dreamed a very long dream.
In that dream, a baby's birth had trapped a woman who had been abducted and wanted to escape.
That woman looked very much like her. Because of her birth, the woman had yielded and left the little dark room with her.
The woman had tended to her with meticulous care, nursing her, loving her, and keeping her safe.
Even under pressure from all the women in the village, she had not drowned and discarded her. Instead, she had protected her with her life and been beaten within an inch of death.
Later, a new woman arrived in the little dark room at home. She was beautiful, and her clothes seemed to shimmer.
One day, the family had a meal of meat, and the woman who had given birth to her disappeared. She was one then, and people often told her that the woman in the little dark room was her mother.
Her memory of her mother's face was hazy, yet she yearned for the feeling of having her mother beside her. So every day, she went to steal a glimpse of her mother, hoping she would hold her as she once had and give her love and warmth.
That night, after a nightmare, she had run crying to find her mother, terrified and helpless. Later, her mother really was captured and brought back.
Another year passed, and a troop of soldiers burst into their home and took her mother away. The man leading them had also wanted to