novelraw Chapter 24 The Scarred Rose
Chapter 24 The Scarred Rose
Upon seeing her, the child seemed to have found a pillar of support, and timidly called out in a tearful voice, "Big sister..."
"It's a misunderstanding, a complete misunderstanding!" Li Shuo quickly explained again, "I just wanted to help him tune the guitar, that's all."
The woman glanced at Li Shuo, then looked down at the guitar the child was clutching tightly. Her tense expression softened slightly, but she said stiffly, "No need, thank you."
Li Shuo felt a little embarrassed and guilty, so he reached for his wallet to put some money in the shoebox.
But when you open the wallet, you'll find that the smallest denomination inside is a 100 Singapore dollar note.
As he hesitated about whether it was appropriate to give it away, Sun Yanzi quietly stepped forward, took out a ten-yuan bill from her pocket, and gently put it into the shoebox.
"You can't accept this!" The woman reacted strongly, taking out the banknote and trying to stuff it back to Sun Yanzi.
"Who told you to take the guitar out again?" she turned and scolded the child.
Tears welled up in the child's eyes again. He looked at the money that had been stuffed back into his hands with disappointment and protested, his voice trembling with suppressed sobs.
"I...I want to earn money to help my sister! Last time we came out from here, I saw people performing like this on the street outside, and they earn money...You can play the guitar and sing well, but you never teach me!"
The woman froze, as if something had struck a nerve.
Her blood-red lips, painted with vibrant lipstick, trembled.
She didn't answer, but suddenly became rough, grabbed the child's arm, and almost dragged him to the most secluded table in the open-air area of the food court next door. She forced him to sit down, then quickly ordered a bowl of bak kut teh rice from the stall and placed it heavily in front of the child.
"Eat! After you finish eating, go back to the shop and do your homework! If I see you running out again, I'll beat you up!" Her voice was fierce, but her eyes were red.
The child dared not talk back anymore, picked up the bowl, shoveled rice into his mouth, and swallowed it down with tears mixed with the rice.
Li Shuo and Sun Yanzi exchanged a glance, realizing that staying any longer would be awkward, and prepared to turn around and leave.
Just then, an Indian man wearing a vest and smoking a cigarette strolled over to the woman with two henchmen.
He glanced sideways at the child who was engrossed in eating, then looked at the woman, chuckled, and said something.
The woman's body tensed up noticeably, and she replied in a low voice.
The man's face darkened, and he suddenly reached out and roughly snatched the woman's handbag from beside her, dumping its contents onto the greasy table.
Scattered cosmetics, a lipstick, an old wallet, and a few coins lay scattered about.
He picked up the old wallet, pulled out all the banknotes inside, and counted them in his hand.
Clearly very dissatisfied, he raised his hand without warning and slapped the woman hard across the face!
The sharp "snap" sound was still clear and jarring amidst the noisy background noise of the food court.
Li Shuo and Sun Yanzi, who hadn't gone far, turned around in surprise and saw that the woman's head had been turned to the side after being hit, and her originally tied-up hair was disheveled, making it impossible to see her face.
But she didn't say a word, she just slowly turned her head and sat silently, as if she had already gotten used to it.
The man who had hit her continued to shove the woman's head repeatedly, still not satisfied with the blow.
The child who was eating stopped eating in fright when the man emptied his bag.
He dragged the guitar in one hand and held the rice bowl in the other, shrinking into a corner near the wall like a frightened little animal.
While keeping a watchful eye on the conflict, he put down his guitar and then quickly shoveled food into his mouth with his hands, his big eyes filled with fear and urgency.
Li Shuo froze, a feeling of inexplicable suffocation rising in his chest.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally walked over, but not to the side of the conflict. Instead, he took a chair and sat down next to the child who was huddled in the corner, eating and crying at the same time.
He lowered his voice and asked, "Your sister is being bullied, and instead of seeking help, you're hiding here crying and eating?"
The child paused in his eating, looked up at Li Shuo who was returning with teary eyes.
Then, her eyes darted quickly to the side where the argument was still going on, and she mumbled, "Shouting here won't get us any help; if I cry loudly, they'll get even angrier and beat me up too..."
He tried to swallow the food in his mouth: "We can't waste food, we have to finish it quickly. My sister... she works very hard to earn money."
Upon hearing the child's answer, Li Shuo was speechless for a moment.
The food court owner watched from the sidelines, these people were affecting his business but he didn't dare to do anything about it. He muttered under his breath, "They're all damn trash. These Indian bastards in Yalong are getting more and more unruly. They're ruthless... They even take 30% of people's hard-earned money!"
Li Shuo looked over when he heard the boss cursing.
"What are you looking at! She's not some older sister, she's this little guy's mother!" The boss spat, his voice not loud, but his tone was a mixture of contempt, a hint of barely perceptible sympathy, but mostly annoyance.
"She was brought here two years ago by a street performer who worked at various venues. She was only a teenager and already had this kid with her. They used to sing together at the venue, and things were going well... But then the financial crisis hit last year, and the man lost all his money. He gambled away everything and ran away with it! Leaving these two behind... What bad luck! Now the economy is bad, and singers don't earn as much as they used to. She's used all her valuables to pay off debts and still has to raise a child... She was forced into this kind of business. She made the kid call her 'sister' to cover up her shame! I heard she even tried to cut her wrists at first... Tsk tsk."
Li Shuo stiffened slightly, and Sun Yanzi also looked surprised. The two of them looked at the woman with complicated expressions.
Not far away, the Indian man in the black vest with tattoos stuffed the stolen money into his pocket, hurled a few insults at the woman in broken English, and then swaggered away with his henchmen.
Throughout the entire ordeal, the woman did not resist, nor did she look at the child in the corner. She simply picked up the scattered items on the table one by one and put them back into her bag, her movements slow and deliberate.
The two red rose tattoos on her wrists, even in the dim light, were clearly visible, their glaring scars impossible to conceal.
The child had stuffed the last few mouthfuls of rice into his mouth, and the bowl was empty. He looked a little lost.
Li Shuo slowly stood up, a heavy feeling of unease pressing down on his chest.
He glanced at the mother and child, then looked at Sun Yanzi.
"Go check if my dad has come out yet. I'll stay here for a while."
Sun Yanzi wanted to say something but stopped herself... and walked towards Haifeng Garden next door.
The restaurant owner was still muttering "bad luck" under his breath as he turned around and vigorously wiped the already clean table.
The conflict didn't really have much impact. At this time, most of the people eating at the restaurant are colleagues dressed similarly to that woman, who have seen or experienced what happened before. They continue eating as usual without any problems.
A few more just came in, but nobody paid any attention; they just pretended not to see them… It's all so numb.
Sun Yanzi had only walked a few steps out of the food court…
"Xiao Sun, don't bother, I've been here the whole time."
"Then, Uncle, you..."
"What should I do? Rush over and tell Li Shuo to mind his own business? Or go and help the poor and needy, stand up for the weak? I'm fine with either... but the decision of what to do, and how to do it, is up to my son. I'm just there to cover for him!"
What to do... I want to swear, this family is so cool!
Sun Yanzi thought to herself...
Li Shuo was actually visiting Yalong for the first time in both his previous and current lives, but thanks to various content creators in his previous life, he actually "understood" this magical place quite well.
It all began with the Japanese pirates' invasion of Singapore, which led to the birth of this place…
The large influx of Chinese laborers after World War II, or as they were called, "coolies," brought about the "prosperity" of this place!
Ultimately, the small city of Singapore has basically achieved complete estrangement from gambling and drugs, except for this industry, which has always been characterized by its tendency to want both things at the same time!
They even legislated to legalize this place, requiring "clocking in" to be on duty... with strict supervision, and people inside are not allowed to leave the designated area... except for menstrual holidays, and they are not allowed to stay overnight outside!
That must mean what the child just said about taking him out.
Holy crap! This is practically the same as that "park" from my previous life, which, under the guise of the world's strictest regulations, has become Asia's only legal "red light strip area"!
This Singapore is truly a "creepy place"!
Li Shuo cursed inwardly, but looking at the child, with the same skin and eye color, the same language... would he continue to hold that guitar and grow up unknowingly, playing music in that dark place?
The bustling night in Yalong seemed to fall silent instantly, leaving only that corner abandoned by the lights and the cold truth of survival within it.
He didn't want to get involved, so he took a deep breath and pulled the child up.
Then he stood up and waved to the still-cursing boss: "Boss, a bottle of soda, please."
The boss paused for a moment, then turned around and took out a bottle of orange soda from the freezer with an annoyed expression.
Li Shuo took it, opened it, inserted a straw, and put it in the child's hand.
"Drink it!"
The child looked at him blankly, then at the soda, took a careful sip, and widened his eyes slightly. "So sweet!"
Li Shuo then picked up the old guitar that was leaning against the wall.
The moment I picked up the guitar, my body instincts kicked in.
He plucked a string, and the completely out-of-tune noise made him frown again.
He held his guitar, but instead of tuning it immediately, he turned towards the direction where the woman was sitting, and raised his voice.
The words sounded like they were being spoken to a child, yet also seemed to have a hidden meaning.
"If you want to learn guitar, remember this! For a musician, pitch accuracy is fundamental. If you start by hearing the wrong notes, every chord you play and every phrase you sing will follow suit. If you keep making those mistakes, they'll become ingrained, and you'll never find the right pitch again. Then you're... ruined!"
Li Shuo emphasized the last two words.
Upon hearing this, the woman on the other end of the line trembled almost imperceptibly.