Waking up in a daze with a heavy, throbbing headache, Xu Wanqing beheld an unfamiliar bedroom. The room was small and dim. The air was musty and there were streaks of mildew staining all the walls and ceiling. Outside the bedroom, the sound of children crying could be heard.
Someone moved in the bed beside her and nudged her.
"Go and feed the kids. They must be hungry."
Xu Wanqing moved and then hissed, biting back a groan. Her entire body was sore. Swollen. Bruised. Marked. She glared at the man on the bed beside her who must have been the culprit.
"Hurry up. Why are you not moving? You lazy worm. The crying is annoying. I still want to sleep more."
When Xu Wanqing didn't move fast enough, hands and feet struck Xu Wanqing, thrusting her out of the bed to tumble painfully onto the rotting floorboards covered in some sort of brown and black slime.
Xu Wanqing hissed and groaned again.
Who was she? How did she get here? Since when had she gotten married and had children?
Her head hurt and lances of pain were stabbing through her brain, making it hard to move or think. What was wrong with her? Was she injured? Did she die and transmigrate or was she just suffering from amnesia due to a hard blow to the head.
"I told you to go," the man in the bed growled in a threatening tone. "Why are you still not moving? Wanting me to teach you another lesson, is that it?"
It must have been this selfish, evil man who had beaten and done things to her last night. Perhaps he had hit her on the head very hard. Otherwise how could she be in this position where everything hurt so much that she could barely move?
There was another growl from the bed that sent a jolt of panic through her, but in trying to get up, Xu Wanqing's legs refused to take her weight and she fell heavily again. The crying outside the door stopped abruptly, and only a few hiccups were heard.
"Stop messing around and pretending," threatened the man on the bed. "Hurry up and go make breakfast for everyone. I still have to go places later."
Xu Wanqing tried but her body was weak. The pain when she got up, kept sending searing visions of blank whiteness every time, nearly making her pass out. When she tried to speak, nothing but a painful, raw and hoarse wind came out of her throat. It seemed that her throat was swollen or something. Her neck hurt.
Had the bastard on the bed nearly killed her last night?
The crying outside the door started up again and this time, the man on the bed couldn't take it anymore. He stalked over, still without much on and struck her with his hands and feet until Xu Wanqing stopped moving or trying to defend herself. Then he grabbed her by the back of her collar and dragged her out of the bedroom, tossing her out into the equally damp and mildewed corridor.
"Cry," he snarled at the three small children huddled there, one boy and two girls. "Keep crying and see what you'll get. Help your mother make breakfast. If it's not ready by the time I get up later, you'll all get it. Not a single one will be missed."
The children hiccupped and stopped crying again, hiding behind Xu Wanqing, not daring to look up at the man.
The bedroom door slammed shut and the sound of the man returning to bed could be heard.
Small hands patted Xu Wanqing all over and tugged at her clothes, trying to silently persuade her to get up. They tugged urgently, afraid of what might come next should the man get up again.
Xu Wanqing stirred slowly and moved slowly, wiping her eyes. She wasn't sure how badly injured she was, but she knew she had to get herself and the children out before the man woke up again. What kind of man took his anger out on his woman and children?
She was going to need help and seeing the skinny and malnourished appearance of her children, she sighed in her heart. The little darlings weren't being treated well either.
Bit by bit, she managed to drag herself into sitting, propping her body and dizzy head up on the wall. Through gritted teeth, she could see the children were still crying, but silently now. Beckoning to them, she pointed and painfully mimed to them to put on their shoes and jackets, pointing at the front door.
The oldest of the children, a boy, ran away and returned with a coat and shoes for her. He and his siblings helped her put on her coat and the worn out shoes, and then stood around waiting.
Nodding at them, Xu Wanqing pointed at them and once more mimed for shoes and jackets.
"Oh."
The eldest boy's eyes grew wide with understanding and he tugged his siblings away, rushing them to get ready. Then they returned to try and help Xu Wanqing who was dragging herself toward the front door. With effort, Xu Wanqing staggered to her knees, managed to unlock the front door latch and the boy carefully opened the door wider. He and his sisters did their best to help Xu Wanqing out the front door into the corridor of the apartment building, and then quietly closed the front door behind them.
Xu Wanqing tried, but found she still couldn't stand. She could only drag her injured body across the ground to the stairs and go down them one or two at a time, the three children fluttering around her like frightened sparrows. The youngest girl had to climb down the stairs backwards, on her hands and feet, being too young to be able to walk down the steps like her older siblings.
Who knew how long it took? Xu Wanqing had to stop and rest quite a few times. The morning was wearing on and the neighbours had all likely already gone to work. There was nobody around.
At the bottom of the stairs, Xu Wanqing lay there for a while, trying to gather her strength, while cars drove past and the occasional pedestrian passing by shook their heads, clicking their tongues. But nobody stopped to help or to ask if anything was wrong.
A nearby shopkeeper watched them through his store window, seeming conflicted, but eventually doing nothing.
Xu Wanqing coughed painfully and held her sore throat and ribs, wincing. Dashing the water from her eyes, she gritted her teeth and using a corner of the wall, she pulled herself up into standing, almost falling again when a roar of buzzing dizziness swept through her head, nearly causing her to faint. Her vision had gone dark, and her entire body felt like it was screaming, but she held onto the building corner, knowing that she had to get up and get moving or that man would find her and the children here. And then they'd likely all be done for.
The eldest boy tucked himself under one hand on one side, while his sister tried to help stabilise her on the other side. The youngest child held onto her sister to try and support her, so that Xu Wanqing's heavy weight wouldn't topple to their side too much. It seemed that the children were familiar with helping to support Xu Wanqing in walking.
In this configuration, they helped support Xu Wanqing partway down the street, before an elderly shop auntie beckoned them into her shop and had Xu Wanqing sit down in the back of the shop.
"Hide here and keep quiet. I'll call you an ambulance."
Xu Wanqing wanted to stop her but she couldn't speak. An ambulance and hospital cost money. She didn't have any money.
The shop auntie patted her hand gently, not seeming to understand.
"Don't be worried. It's ok. As long as you've made up your mind this time, you can definitely divorce that gambling drunkard. Don't worry about the cost. Money can be earned, but health cannot. If you don't survive, think what will happen to the children?"
Xu Wanqing wasn't sure when, but soon she was being helped to lie down onto a rolling stretcher bed and buckled in. Her children were crying and a tall, young man was speaking to the paramedics with the shop auntie. A policewoman was squatting down and trying to comfort the wailing children.
Xu Wanqing tried to reach a hand out toward the children, but it was tucked back under the blanket by a paramedic.
"Don't worry about the children. The police and shopkeeper have agreed to help you take care of them for now. You just focus on staying alive. Get better. Stay with us. Be brave. Your children need you."
Xu Wanqing felt tired but she didn't feel right to have someone else care for the children. What if the man found them with the shopkeeper auntie? Would he beat them to death?
"Calm down," the paramedics pushing her bed into the ambulance reassured her. "Don't be afraid. Don't be worried. Your children will be safe. No one will be able to harm them. The police will make sure your husband can't touch them."
With this, Xu Wanqing closed her eyes. It only felt like a moment, but the next thing she knew was waking to the constant beeping of monitoring machines and a doctor by her bedside. The young man and the shopkeeper auntie was by her bedside but the children were nowhere in sight.
"We'll send her in for surgery. It will likely take some time and several teams will be involved to try and save her life. You have to be prepared. Her condition is critical and not very stable. Her blood test shows that she's already died once. Normally, we'd need her family to sign the consent form, but given the situation..."
"I'll sign it," said the young man and the form was passed over to him. "We'll help to pay her medical bills for now and take care of the children."
Xu Wanqing frowned and struggled to get up, but that sent an alarm off on the machines, which brought the doctor and nurses running over.
"Don't be scared. Just keep breathing. Everything is going to be alright," a doctor said to her as she leaned over. "We're taking you for surgery now. You'll feel a lot better afterwards. Just remember to keep breathing."
Xu Wanqing tried to speak. To ask about the children but couldn't. A wave of fatigue washed over her. She could feel the medical staff rushing to disconnect her from the machines and move the bed.
The next time she woke up, she did indeed feel a little better. Not a lot, but a little. It was easier to breathe and her body didn't hurt as much as before. She did, however, feel very drowsy.
"Mum. Step-mum," said a small voice by her head and she turned her head to see three worried munchkins standing on a visitor's armchair, staring at her.
She smiled at them and they smiled back through their tears. They clamoured to climb onto her bed from the armchair, but we're stopped by a strong arm.
"Don't disturb your step mother," said the deep voice of the young man who had helped the shop auntie the other day. "She's still in pain and recovering. You can look, but don't touch. She's going to need a lot of rest before she gets better."
"Uncle Jun, will Daddy be able to find us here? What if Daddy comes?"
"He won't be able to find us. The police have already caught your Daddy and put him in gaol. He won't be able to come and find or hurt you all for a very, very long time."
The older two children slumped down onto the chair with relief, holding onto their youngest sister as they did so.
"Great. Good. Daddy can't hurt us anymore," the elder girl cried.
"Shhh," hushed the boy. "Don't make too much noise. Don't disturb Step-Mum, or they'll send us away again."
"Will Mummy get better? She won't die, will she?" the older girl sobbed.
Seeing the older siblings crying, the youngest child began crying too, and the older siblings hurriedly dried their eyes and comforted the youngest. If her crying got any louder, they'd all be sent away again and they didn't want that. They wanted to stay close to their stepmother and make sure she wasn't going to die like their mother had.
"Don't worry," the young man looked at Xu Wanqing with a gentle expression. "My mother and I will take care of the children. Don't worry about the money for now. You just get better first."