Chapter 48

Standing on the small road not far from the Gao family, Zhixia thought back to her past miseries compared to the present, and she was filled with complex emotions.

"Fourth Brother, I want to go to the Gao house to take a look. Wait for me here at the door later, okay?"

"What is there to see in that place?" An ZhiAng didn't understand why Zhixia wanted to go, and clearly didn't agree with her request.

But seeing the melancholy look in Zhixia's eyes, he thought that they should go take a look after all, so that the people who had abused his sister could see that his Zhixia was no longer the little Gao Cao whom they could bully, but An Zhixia whom they could no longer reach.

"If you want to go see, then go see. But I have to go with you. With your little arms and legs, what if someone bullies you when I'm not there?" This was the most he would concede. If someone dared to beat his sister with him by her side, An ZhiAng would have lived all these years in vain.

Zhixia could only smile helplessly at this. "Alright, alright, everything as Fourth Brother says."

Zhixia walked towards the Gao house, with An ZhiAng following behind her.

In fact, soon after Zhixia had returned, the busybodies in the village had already gone to inform Gao Dalin and Gao Second Sister.

Thinking back on their past bullying of Zhixia, they knew very well, and didn't dare to arrogantly walk up relying on their status as older siblings. Instead, they obediently locked themselves inside the house.

Gao Second Sister still remembered the words of the group who had come to smash up their house last time as they left, telling them to behave themselves in the future, or they would end up like their parents.

Gao Dalin and Gao Second Sister didn't dare to leave the yard, afraid that Zhixia would come to make trouble.

At this moment, the front gate was knocked on loudly. Gao Second Sister's heart instantly tensed up.

Among them all, she had bullied Zhixia the most viciously, especially after finding out that Zhixia was not a blood relative, and looked just like her birth mother.

She didn't dare to openly make a move, afraid of causing a scandal that would ruin her own reputation. And her covert attempts had failed several times. After hearing that Mother wanted to sell Zhixia off to get money for Big Brother to take a wife, she reluctantly gave up.

"Who is it?" Gao Dalin asked in a trembling voice.

Compared to Gao Second Sister's deliberate persecution of Zhixia, he wasn't much better himself.

Unlike Gao Second Sister, he had grown into an adult man, and understood many more things, especially after finding out that Zhixia was not a blood relative. This gave rise to some unsavory ideas.

It wasn't pure affection, just a man's curiosity and desire towards a woman.

Unfortunately, whenever he made a move, the girl screamed and shouted. Even threats and beatings didn't work. After finding out later that she was to be sold off, he still felt regret that he hadn't succeeded.

"It's me, Big Brother, Second Sister. I've come to see you," Zhixia's voice was still steady. No one could detect that this was a girl who had once suffered persecution at their hands.

"Father and Mother have already been arrested. We don't owe you anything. Why have you come back? Hurry and leave! This isn't your home anymore. Haven't you already found your birth parents?" Gao Second Sister's voice trembled as if she would cry at any moment. All the arrogance from before was gone, leaving only fear.

She would never forget the day Li Xiu had her pubic hair shaved off, and Gao Dazhuang had been slapped dozens of times, his face swollen beyond recognition, the skin ready to split open.

That day, their whole family had been put on display like monkeys, becoming the laughingstock of dozens of villages around.

Even now, the siblings didn't dare to leave the house, and even when going out to work, they couldn't avoid being surrounded and pointed at.

She was afraid, truly afraid.

She didn't want to go to labor reform like her parents.

It was too horrifying!

Facing Gao Second Sister's voice that trembled with fear, compared to her ferocious beatings in the past, Zhixia only felt that things really change every thirty years. One should not go too far, or they would block their own way back.

"I'll give you two choices. Either open the door and let me in, or I'll break the door down to get in." Zhixia helpfully reminded them, "Don't doubt my words. If the door really is smashed open, you probably won't even have a place to live anymore, with the wind blowing through."

After all, with the shameful things her parents had done, there were people in the village who could make doors, but they might not be willing to make one for them.

What Gao's parents had done was not just exchanging her, but also taking advantage of their position to secretly hoard gold and silver back then.

It was said that during the land reform campaigns, Gao Dazhuang had shouted the loudest.

And now...the Gao family probably couldn't even afford to pay for a new door.

Gao Dalin weighed things up, and pushed Gao Second Sister, "Second sister, go open the door. Otherwise if she really smashes the door, our family won't even have a front gate in the future. We'll probably be bullied even more."

"You're my older brother, why don't you go?" Gao Second Sister complained unwillingly.

Gao Dalin was so angry he raised his hand, "It's because I'm your older brother that you have to listen to me. Are you going or not?"

"Fine, fine, I'm going, is that ok?" Gao Second Sister stamped her foot in anger. She really didn't understand why every mess got dumped on her.

It wasn't her that her parents had swapped their child for. She hadn't gained any benefits either. If you really wanted to count it out, it should be her good little sister An MeiYun who came back to suffer this misfortune. After all, it was for her happiness that her parents had made the switch in the first place. So now they had ended up in this state.

Yet the other girl was living a carefree life, completely unaffected. While look at her - people were shouting for a beating if she so much as stepped out the door.

In just one month since her parents had been taken away, all the gold and silver that had been found and taken away along with the things hidden by her parents, people kept coming to the house pretending to search, taking away anything decent left. Now all that was left in the kitchen were a few chipped bowls that no one wanted.

Gao Second Sister first opened the door a crack. Because she already knew that An Zhixia had not come back alone, but had brought her own elder brother too.

After looking through the crack and seeing that the people outside didn't look fierce, seeming to have no intention of harming her, she finally pushed the door wide open. She gave an awkward laugh, "Little Cao, you...you've come back? Come in, quick."

But Zhixia was in no hurry to go inside. Instead, she looked back at An ZhiAng, "Fourth Brother, I just have a few words I want to say to them. With you here watching the door, I believe they won't dare bully me. Just wait here for me for a bit, okay?"

An ZhiAng didn't understand why Zhixia insisted on not letting him go with her. It would clearly be safest with him by her side, and she could also take the chance to show off her power in front of him.

But he didn't realize that it was precisely because she cared that Zhixia didn't want to reveal her sinister side in front of him.