Chapter 2 They Strangled Grandma
Before the blackout, Grandma had been busy in the kitchen with tomorrow's breakfast. She insisted on steaming a basket of flower rolls, the kind that stood for climbing higher with every step.
"Songsong, check again if you packed the Exam Admission Ticket. What about the pens? The eraser?" The little old woman said not to be nervous, but she had checked my bag countless times that night.
The nagging I used to find annoying became a dream I could never get back.
I held her tight and buried my face in her shoulder, tears gathering at my lashes.
Grandma froze and stroked my hair, as if she did not know why.
"What's wrong? Are you nervous? Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Whatever school our Songsong gets into, Grandma will be happy."
Through ten years of paralysis, I regretted opening that door every single moment.
Through the peephole, two men in uniforms were soaked. The instant the door opened, a huge hand clamped around my throat.
"Grandma—"
I did not even get the cry out before they slammed me into the wall.
Hearing the noise, Grandma raised a kitchen knife and stumbled forward, ready to fight them with her life.
She was no match for murderers. One kick sent her onto her back.
I only learned later that the two of them were death-row inmates. They had killed police officers and broken out. The fat one with a meaty face was called Fei Kun. The thin one was called Ma Jiu.
They had multiple lives on their hands. Both were desperate killers.
Fei Kun dragged me into the bedroom without waiting. After a brief blackout, I woke to Grandma's sobbing pleas and pain tearing through my body.
They had tied Grandma to the floor while they did it, making her watch.
Grandma cried herself hoarse. She crawled on the ground and kowtowed in despair. "Please! All our money is yours, all of it. If you have to kill someone, kill this old woman. Spare my granddaughter!"
The torment lasted a full four hours, until they got hungry and told Grandma to cook noodles.
"Oh, the exam's tomorrow. Serve us well, and maybe we'll let your granddaughter live. Haha."
Grandma believed them. Until the two of them had eaten and drunk their fill, and finished picking their teeth.
Only then, in front of me, did they strangle her with a rope.
The little old woman's face turned the color of pig liver. Her hands flailed helplessly, stretching toward me with everything she had.
I screamed and struggled like mad. The rag in my mouth loosened. I lunged like a rabid dog and bit the fat man's arm. He hissed in pain, grabbed a knife, and hacked at me.
Fei Kun had been a butcher. He was used to chopping at joints.
The first to find the crime scene was my homeroom teacher. She did not see me at the exam hall and came straight to my house.
I had passed out in a pool of blood, every joint and bone smashed, like a boneless fish.
They did not think I would last through the surgery.
"What a pity. A real Tsinghua And Peking seedling. Top three in the province on several mock exams. Both admissions offices had come. Such a future, what a pity..."
Pity. I lived, at the cost of being disabled for life.
I lost my family, my future, my dignity.
I clung on and survived.