Little Wood's words were like a demonic whisper, merging with countless identical words in Lina's memory.
Lina fell into a daze. Little Wood seemed to turn into countless people before her eyes, surrounding her and repeating:
"Lina, I was your first man!"
At that moment, Lina felt as though even her breathing had stopped.
She seemed to be back in the Southern Region, back on that summer afternoon.
The young master ordered his burly slaves to drag the girl into the cowshed.
The girl screamed for help with all her might, howling and weeping.
Whips lashed her back again and again, leaving bloody welts.
Once the branding iron used to mark livestock had been heated red-hot, the young master pressed it hard against her body with a twisted smile. Where the iron met her flesh, it hissed.
When she passed out, they poured salt water over her to wake her again, making her convulse from the stinging pain in her wounds.
No one knew how long the torture lasted. Only when the girl no longer reacted to the pain did they grow bored and swagger away.
Her elderly father hauled the unconscious girl back to their room on a handcart.
Her father crouched on the floor for a long time before saying through his tears:
"What can slaves like us do except obey?"
The father could not protect his daughter. He could not even demand justice for her.
Yet the girl had never hated her father.
It was just that, when her father said those words...
Something in the girl's heart seemed to disappear.
The bright, lively girl she had been was lost in that Southern Region summer.
From then on, she became withdrawn and began to stutter.
She always kept her head lowered and her back bent, just like