Van Dai's heartfelt and honest words left Thu Quynh stunned!
"Ah! Oh, heavens, I'm begging you, let me be a good person and go home, please? In my next life, I swear I won't even flirt with handsome guys. I guarantee I'll be an outstanding youth, contributing to society and humanity! Seeing as I'm so sincere about correcting my mistakes, please do me a favor and just let me die! Forcing me to reason with this mad bull is no different from playing a lute to a buffalo!"
Thu Quynh's frenzy left Van Dai a little scared. He didn't understand what his wife was saying, but he knew she didn't like him.
But it didn't matter if his wife didn't like him; she was the only one he had. She was the wife he had prayed for for twenty-five years. How could he possibly let her go home?
No, absolutely not!
Van Dai looked at the frantic wife in his arms and coaxed her gently, "Wife, don't be sad anymore. If you're feeling upset, I'll let you pinch me, bite me, hit me. Just promise you won't talk about dying, okay? I, Van Dai, have lived for twenty-five years to get a wife. I really don't want you to die. If I don't have a wife, I'll die too..."
He'll die without a wife?
Then how are there old bachelors in the world?
This damn mad bull is trying to use soft tactics on her? So he's not a complete idiot?
But what did his life or death have to do with her? Besides, if she didn't leave, she would die too! If not from boredom, then on this mad bull's wooden plank bed!
If she was really worked to death by this mad bull, what would her future eulogy say?
[On this day... of this month... of this year..., Miss Thu Quynh, of the Do family, died from exhaustion after being plowed excessively by a mad bull?]
Damn it!
In that instant, Thu Quynh truly went berserk: "Let go, let go, you damn brute, let me go!"
Ignoring the stinging pain on his face from her slaps, Van Dai held on tight and refused to let go: "Wife, I'm not a brute, my name is Van Dai. You can call me husband, or you can call me Van Dai."
"I don't care if your name is Van Dai or Van Dog, I'm going to beat you, you wicked thing!"
Van Dai quickly tried to soothe her.
"Hit me, go ahead and hit me, I won't let go. I want you to be my wife, and I'll treat you well. As long as you stay, I won't let you suffer. I'll even hunt wild game for you every day. All the money I earn, I'll give it all to you. Please, don't go, okay?"
"No, I have to go!"
"No, I won't let you go!"
Another struggle ensued...
Hitting people was also tiring work. If this were her previous life, Thu Quynh knew this beating would have either killed or crippled the brute. But now, this body of Do Thu Quynh, though clearly a farmer's daughter, had been raised to be as fragile as a willow in the wind. Just a few hits and her arms were already sore and exhausted.
For a moment, Thu Quynh felt complete contempt for the original owner of this body!
Seeing that Thu Quynh's movements had finally slowed, Van Dai thought his words were having an effect and continued, "Wife, I will treat you well, I really will always be good to you from now on, as long as you're willing to stay with me. My father died when I was fifteen, my mother when I was eighteen. After raising my younger brother and sister, I was all alone. Please, can you stay?"
He was clearly a man built like a bear, so why did he look so pitiful?
She wasn't a rescue center, so why should she have to stay in these deep mountains with such a crude man? How would she live out the rest of her life?
She couldn't win in a fight, and the man was basically deaf to her curses. Thu Quynh was exhausted. In the end, she could only stare blankly at the ceiling...
The extreme helplessness and the cruel reality made a strong girl like Thu Quynh finally break down in tears.
Van Dai wasn't afraid of his wife causing a scene; he liked her no matter how much she acted up. But he was terrified of her being like this. The sight of her crying silently made his heart ache. For a fleeting moment, he even had the thought of letting her leave, just as long as she wouldn't cry.
But when his wife had arrived, she didn't even have clothes on her back, let alone any identification papers. If he just let her go out like that, what if the unmarried men in the village saw her? How would she ever get out of these mountains?
Even if no one saw her, the eighteen-mile mountain path was fraught with dangers; everyone in the village knew that.
The momentary softness in his heart vanished. Van Dai decided that from now on, he would indulge her in everything. Once she understood his heart, she would surely stay!
"Wife, I'll go make you some food. I caught a wild rabbit and a pheasant today. I'll cook them for you later, okay?"
She didn't even want to live, so what was the point of eating wild rabbit and pheasant? Thu Quynh knew that right now, even if you placed Tang Sanzang's flesh and a ginseng fruit in front of her, she wouldn't even blink!
"How about... roasted rabbit? I'll stew the pheasant into a soup and add some mushrooms I picked, how does that sound?"
"I'll go cook now, then. I'll call you when it's ready," Van Dai said to himself.
Thu Quynh had no idea when Van Dai had left. After a silent crying spell, her face was still filled with despair.
A splitting headache came in waves. Suddenly, she felt someone crying in her heart:
["Van, why did you kill me? I always treated you so well. I gave you more than half of my allowance. You said you liked going to Thanh Minh's house, didn't I take you every time? Why would you do this to me? I don't want to die..."
"Hahaha..."
Another triumphant female voice rang out:
"Do Thu Quynh, I've seen fools, but I've never seen anyone as foolish as you! Who's your sister? Don't think that just because I was given the Do surname, I'm really your sister! With that useless father of yours and your biased grandparents, you think I'd want to acknowledge them? Let me tell you, Thanh Minh would never marry a fool like you. If you want to be his wife, you can do it in the underworld! Hahaha..."
"Don't kill me! Don't kill me..."
"You fool, go to hell!"]
...
The desperate voice in her heart infected Thu Quynh. Seeing the foolish appearance of Do Thu Quynh, she screamed in resentment:
"You useless thing, what's the use of crying? You're such a naive idiot, how could you ever win against that white lotus? Serves you right for being stupid, serves you right! You deserve it! If you weren't so stupid, would I have had to possess your body? Crying, crying, crying, what is there to cry about! I'm about to be done in by you!"