Rebirth Autumn Returns to the Countryside

In the office of Linhe Town Middle School, a dozen adult men and women gathered around a computer. The surveillance video playing on the computer had no external sound, and the atmosphere was eerily quiet.

"Whose child is this - that -? Why don't they fight back when they are beaten?" A mother with heavy makeup broke the silence awkwardly.

Vice Principal Lin immediately shot a sharp look at the mother, his voice full of mockery: "Because if she fights back, your child will bully others even more, because you parents will protect your children and come to school to make trouble. The parents of other children are not around, and they live with their elderly grandparents. It's easy to bully them!"

Director Chen of the Political Education Department also spoke up: "Those third-year students are not young anymore, right? Two of them can bear legal responsibility. Didn't they just want to call the police? Go ahead, our school will definitely provide video evidence."

"Don't be anxious, Director, Principal, you see, they are all ignorant children, and some minor conflicts are inevitable..."

The tone and situation changed completely. The parents, sweating in the hot weather, began to fight among themselves. They had come here because their children said they were blackmailed at school, but the truth turned out to be that their children had repeatedly committed evil deeds, and the bullied girl demanded compensation of 5,000 yuan. The parents of the younger children suggested that they pay less, while the parents of the older children were not willing to pay more, saying that the proportion of the compensation amount should be calculated based on the severity of the fight in the video.

After sneering for a while, Vice Principal Lin slammed the table and said, "Pa pa! Stop arguing! First, each family must pay 1,000 yuan in compensation and apologize to the bullied students in person. Then each of them must take their children back to reflect on their actions for a week. Bring a 1,000-word apology letter when you return to school. Those who disagree with this decision can take their children back and wait for the police to handle the matter."

It's that simple and straightforward.

Director Chen thought the punishment was too light, and he wanted to call 110 right away: "If my child was bullied by your child like this, I would - I would -"

The only remaining problem was that Leng Yanqiu did not have a mobile phone to receive the transfer, so Director Chen went to the Postal Savings Bank to exchange the money for cash and handed it to Leng Yanqiu.

"I will arrange for a teacher to escort you home after school this afternoon. You must keep this money safe. If you have your ID card, you can deposit it in a bank. The teacher can take you there."

There was something strange in Leng Yanqiu's eyes, as if she had not expected that the school leaders and teachers actually cared about dull and low-self-esteem students like her.

"No need to bother." She casually reached back, put the stack of red bills into her backpack, turned around and left.

"Thank you." When he was about to leave the office, he turned back and added this sentence.

Judging from her performance at this moment, she is really not like the timid and cowardly little girl who allows herself to be bullied in the surveillance video.

What's even more unusual is that after Leng Yanqiu got the money, he actually walked straight to the school gate, without caring whether school was over or whether the gate guard would let him in.

Before the two security guards came forward to stop her and ask questions, Leng Yanqiu took a few quick steps, pressed the stainless steel fence of the electric retractable door with one hand, and then flipped out of the school gate. Her frail figure floated around the corner in the blink of an eye.

"Hey--"

The two burly security guards were left confused.

Leng Yanqiu was quite happy at the moment. She walked towards home along the road in her memory, thinking of her grandparents from her previous life.

In that life, she was bullied until graduation. Her academic performance was very poor and she could barely attend a vocational high school. However, after entering the vocational high school, the environment became even worse. The campus was full of poor students who had been eliminated from junior high school. With her situation, she could only drop out of school.

I hadn't grown taller when I dropped out of school, but it was a time when there were more boys than girls, so rural children could think about getting engaged when they stopped studying. After getting engaged, they would live in the man's house, just like getting married, and then have children.

The difference from getting a marriage certificate is that the woman has no protection. Once the two sides fall out, the man can drive the woman away at any time and she is not protected by the law.

At that time, Leng Yanqiu lived in the man's house in a daze. The two children, aged 16 or 17, were equally immature. The boy did not like the thin, short and taciturn Leng Yanqiu at all. He soon found a target of his love. The introverted Leng Yanqiu argued with him, quarreled, fought with him, and then went to the hospital - for miscarriage. The doctor was not optimistic and said that it was very likely to develop habitual miscarriage in the future...

The poor child had no idea she was pregnant at the time and didn’t understand!

Leng Yanqiu was sent back to the Leng family. Her grandfather, who had already been in poor health, suddenly fell ill and refused to go to the hospital. As a result, he passed away within a few days.

Leng Yanqiu's father came back to attend the funeral. As soon as they met, he slapped Leng Yanqiu hard several times. He believed that this evil girl had killed her own father.

Then, the gate of the house was locked, and grandma was taken away by father to see her grandson. Leng Yanqiu, who was hiding, watched the car leave and went out to work.

I suffered a lot while working outside. Because of my low education, I could only choose manual labor in the workplace. I was weak since childhood and earned little money. After paying the rent, I had little money left. I had to work harder and worked three jobs every day. In the end, I died of overwork.

Until her death, she never returned to this home, never contacted her nominal parents, and never asked how her grandmother was doing or whether she was still alive.

She should be considered cold-hearted, right? So in her last life, when she entered the world of cultivation, she was very used to the rhythm of life where she was pure-hearted and devoted to cultivating immortals. After three hundred years, she was about to break through the ninth heaven, but was beaten back to her current body of a rookie by the ninth thunder tribulation.

Therefore, an accident happened where Leng Yanqiu, who had always been patient, suddenly refused to endure it anymore and dared to fight and ordered those hooligans to pay compensation.

As if watching a play, Leng Yanqiu reviewed his experiences in two lives.

"(ˉ▽￣～)Tsk~~" She didn't have much emotion and stepped into the open farmyard.

At the end of October, the vegetable patch in the courtyard was still full of life. One third of the leaves of the loofahs had dried up, and two old loofahs were hanging crookedly with their plump bodies. Only a few small cucumber buds were left on the lower cucumber vines. At the lowest point were two rows of leeks, which were also growing slowly and looked like weeds.

There are great differences between the old and new houses of the Leng family. Among the five houses, three are made of red bricks and red tiles, and the other two are made of gold and jade, which are old houses with large areas of adobe wrapped inside red bricks. The windows and doors are all black and mottled, and look even older after being smoked and burned.

The Leng family’s grandparents lived in the old house, and Leng Yanqiu lived in the west room, which was the kitchen of the original owner’s house.

The three main rooms are idle and will be used when Leng's father returns home.

In the past, Leng Yanqiu would always call out "Grandma" when she entered the house, but today she has forgotten this habit and went straight into the west room, looking up and down, left and right at the place where she had lived for many years.

The west room was built in a makeshift manner. It was short and small. The stove that was originally placed opposite the door was covered with a straw mat and became a place for Leng Yanqiu to store sundries. Her old textbooks and a few clothes were all here.

Then there is the bed, which can’t really be called a bed. It is just two wooden benches with a few wooden boards placed on top, and a few cardboard boxes on top of the boards, and a quilt.

In fact, it's not just because of poverty, but mainly because no one cares about it. At first, Leng Yanqiu lived with his grandparents on a brick bed, but later he thought about living in the west room and got used to it.

Leng Yanqiu took off the backpack on her back and heard her grandmother's voice from the main room: "Is Qiu'er back? It's so early today."

"Yeah." Leng Yanqiu was a little uncomfortable, so he stood at the door of the west room and agreed.

To be honest, after three hundred years of practicing Taoism, it is impossible not to be indifferent to family affection.

Grandma Leng looked the same as I remembered, about sixty years old, thin, with a hunched back and hunched shoulders. Her sparse, gray hair was a foot long and was casually pinned behind her ears with two black pins. She wore a gray dress with Chinese-style buttons that reached her chin, and the fabric had become thin due to washing.

There was slanting sunlight at the door of the main room. Grandma Leng was standing in the sunlight, and tiny dust particles were flying in the light and shadow.

"Are you hungry? Qiu'er, you eat first. I made some pancakes for you. They are very crispy now."

Indeed, smoke was still rising from the chimneys.

The old couple didn't mind the heat and cooked on the ground pot in their room as usual in summer, but they blocked the chimney of the earthen kang.

"Okay." Leng Yanqiu followed the old man into the house. Although it was the main room, the light was not strong. Opposite the door was a set of old-fashioned dark tables and chairs. Against the wall was a long table with two old large photo frames on it. It was dark inside. Leng Yanqiu knew what each photo looked like.

On Huang Jinjin's wall is a central hall painting by Huang Jinjin, which should have been bought at the market. The words written by a country artist have been transformed into the flowers, birds, insects and fish in the painting, and are no longer clear.

The old couple's room was furnished with three main items: a table and chairs in the middle, a ground pot, and a brick bed. The rest of the clothes and bedding were piled on one side of the brick bed, and the bowls, chopsticks, plates, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar for eating were placed at the junction of the ground pot and the brick bed, with low wooden stools and high stools scattered around the corners.

There is a large window above the connection between the ground pot and the earthen kang, and a corresponding small window on the back wall. At the moment, both are open, and the room is not very hot even with the firewood burning.

The pancakes made by grandma are placed in a small bamboo basket and covered with a piece of white cotton cloth. The hot steam will slowly become soft, suitable for the teeth of the elderly.

"Eat this." Two pancakes that Grandma Leng had specially made with oil and ingredients were handed to her, accompanied by a plate of freshly steamed eggplant, sprinkled with salt and garlic, and a bowl of millet porridge.

Very suitable for the teeth of the elderly.

Leng Yanqiu ate and drank quietly. This was already a habit. Grandma Leng would wait for grandpa to come home to have dinner together. Her granddaughter was young and could not help but feel hungry, so she would start eating when grandpa came home.

Grandma Leng would mutter to herself, but she didn't need her granddaughter to respond.

"Your dad called and said you'll have a younger brother soon. Our Leng family finally has an heir. Your grandpa is so happy..."