She and her daughter always locked the door when entering or exiting, and placed glass bottles at the doorway when sleeping at night. The storeroom door lock she would change every month.
She would never be alone in a room with a man; if the other party made any improper moves, she would scream loudly.
Thankfully, her daughter always stayed by her side, preventing many from finding an opportunity to take advantage.
However, she increasingly understood the dangers faced by her daughter, so no matter where she went, even if just to use the toilet, she would keep her by her side.
Yet, such precautions could not ultimately prevent the inevitable.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, the construction site closed for a day. She and her coworkers wrapped zongzi and made eight dishes—four meat and four vegetables— and bought quite a few beers for her colleagues to enjoy. This was arranged by Deng Guoqiang, and the cost of the meal that day had also been raised to ten yuan per person, so she did her best to satisfy everyone.
Since summer had arrived, Gong Mingxia bought a second-hand freezer to wholesale some drinks and ice creams, earning some extra money. She could make a net profit of two hundred yuan a month, which might not seem much, but with the workers drinking beer daily along with soft drinks and ice cream due to the heat, everyone was looking for a way to cool down and de-stress.
Her main dishes also switched to cold rice noodles, cold noodles, mung bean soup, and hot dry noodles. These weren't costly to make but were quite bothersome; however, they were profitable, so she gritted her teeth and occasionally varied their meals.
During these two days, her daughter had a slight cold, felt sleepy after taking medicine, and didn't eat dinner because she was drowsy, so she put her to bed early and locked the door. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelFɪre.net
Worried about her daughter, she didn't have much appetite for dinner. Seeing everyone enjoying themselves, she didn't interfere and decided to go back to her room to rest for a while, planning to clean up after everyone had left.
When she saw her daughter was alright in the room, she felt relieved and then took a basin to the kitchen to fetch some hot water, planning to wipe down her body.
The cold water tap was near the wall at the construction site's main gate, so when she was fetching water there, someone covered her mouth from behind, the basin was knocked over making a loud noise, and despite her legs flailing, she wasn't as strong as the person behind her; she couldn't break free, watching as she was dragged toward the outskirts of the construction site, nearly panicking to death.
Luckily, she was quite flexible. Though her mouth was covered and her upper body restrained, her legs were still free. So, as the person bent down to drag her, she kicked upwards hard, hitting him in the head. As he grunted and slightly loosened his grip, she forcefully twisted his fingers in the opposite direction, and he couldn't hold back a scream, releasing her.
Gong Mingxia grabbed his hair and kicked him hard in the groin, and in the moment he looked up, she recognized him.
After recognizing the man, he went crazy and lunged at her neck. Gong Mingxia staggered back, fell, and as she flailed, she grabbed a stone and hurled it at him while screaming toward the construction site, "Help, someone help! Zhang Tiejun is assaulting me, someone come quick!"
Zhang Tiejun was a cement worker at the site, seemingly honest and reportedly too poor to afford a wife, which is why he had come to work. But who could have imagined he would do such a thing?
Because of Gong Mingxia's loud scream, her coworkers all ran over, and seeing that there was no turning back, Zhang Tiejun fled.
Gong Mingxia sat on the ground, her soul still shaking, looking around at those seemingly honest faces yet feeling a chill down her spine.