"Whether I believe it or not doesn't matter; let's talk after you've actually done it." Yang Sanni rolled her eyes. "Now we don't even have a single pancake to eat, let alone buns?"
"You... how can you have so little confidence?" Yang Ruxin felt somewhat depressed.
"Big sister, mom is so hot..." Yang Erni, who was watching over Xun Hui by the pillow, suddenly cried out in alarm, interrupting the bickering among them.
Upon hearing this, Yang Ruxin hurried over and reached out to feel her forehead, indeed, in just that little while, Xun Hui's head had become so hot it seemed capable of frying an egg. Frowning, she immediately began to loosen Xun Hui's clothes to check her.
When the clothes were removed, Yang Ruxin, who was accustomed to injuries being commonplace, couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
That frail little body had no good spots left on it; there were marks of cane beatings crisscrossing all over, old wounds unhealed with new ones added, some wounds had even begun to fester, with others still oozing traces of blood, making her, who was used to injuries, tremble inside just looking at them...
How could the elder Mrs. Yang be so cruel?
"Did mom do all this?" Yang Ruxin glanced over at her siblings.
"Don't you know all about it?" Sanni gave Yang Ruxin a look. "Aren't most of them because of the beatings you took?" As she spoke, tears began to fall from her eyes.
Yang Ruxin felt a moment of shame, and a bit of recollection started forming in her mind. This former host, slow-witted and stubborn, often provoked Mrs. Yang to fury. Whenever there was a beating, Xun Hui would always come to protect her, and the more she protected, the angrier Mrs. Yang became, and with increasing anger came harder beatings.
Yang Dani would often steal food from home to take to Guan Qingshu. Last time, she even took a bag of sweet potatoes to him, and although the food was thrown back at her every time, Yang Dani was like the Foolish Old Man who removed the mountains, never discouraged. But each time she was discovered, it would lead to a severe beating.
Most of these beatings, however, were borne by Xun Hui.
But it seemed that the former host would lower her head and remain silent whenever she faced a beating from her own mother, never speaking a word.
Yang Ruxin then heaved a sigh. Although their mother was a pushover, she was always good to her children. Forget it, there was no point dwelling on the past; that wasn't something she, Yang Ruxin, had done. Better to look to the future. Since she was here, she was to fill the holes left by Yang Dani. Turning to look at Erni, she said, "Go get the doctor..."
"But... we have no money..." Yang Erni hung her head. They still owed the doctor's fees from the last time they sought treatment for their big sister.
Yang Ruxin furrowed her brows slightly. In her previous life, when she was five, her birth parents died in a car accident. After relatives divided her family's assets, they dumped her in an orphanage. Although later she was fortunate to be adopted, those weren't her real parents. At the age of eight, when their biological son was born, she became superfluous and was sent back to the orphanage...
As a person alone in the world, survival meant relying on herself. To avoid being bullied, she fought desperately and thus developed a strong physique, her combat skills certainly not inferior to those who were formally trained in martial arts.
Later, to make ends meet, she took on any job that paid. Washing dishes, serving tables, distributing flyers, she had even been a human punching bag—letting others vent their frustrations on her for money. As a newcomer, she would be paid only ten yuan for a punch, and a day of getting beaten until bruised and swollen might earn her only a hundred or so yuan. Therefore, she understood all too well the taste of having no money.