Three Women in the Cage

"At that time, I didn't understand why my mother was always arguing, and I also didn't understand why, during the argument, the uncles rushed over with angry faces, pushed my mother down, and punched her non-stop.

When we cried and tried to pull them away, the uncles would glare at us fiercely, scaring us away. We could only cry, endlessly, as if at that time, there was nothing we could do except cry...

Later, everyone in the village, young or old, male or female, always quarreled with Mom over one thing or another. We watched Mom quarrel endlessly, get beaten and scolded endlessly, and get punched and kicked endlessly, while we could only cry endlessly by her side.

I always didn't understand why these people bullied my mother. Later I realized that we were the ones who committed the original sin. Since my mother gave birth to girl after girl and ultimately failed to give birth to a son, she was destined to suffer for us girls.

Everyone kept saying in her ears: "A married woman is like spilled water, she belongs to other people and is a money-losing commodity..." Everyone was laughing at her and making fun of her.

We didn’t understand at first, but later we understood.

But my mother never gave up on us. She always asked us to study hard and have a bright future.

We know that to get out of this predicament and save our mother from suffering, we can only study hard and earn a way out comparable to giving birth to a son, so that we can truly save our mother.

So we try our best to grow up, study hard, and work hard...

But it takes too long to grow up. I don’t know when I will grow up or when I will be able to escape from the sea of ​​suffering. I persist, but I am becoming less and less able to hold on.

My sisters are not back, and now I am the only one with my mother. I am afraid of the daily quarrels and afraid that my mother will be bullied where I can't see her.

But what can I do? I don't have the courage, I can't help.

One day when I came back from school, I found a bruise on my mother's forehead. Looking at the bruise, I felt uneasy and asked her the reason.

My mother touched the bruise on her forehead and told me angrily that it was Uncle Seven who took away our pig trough while my mother was away working for a month. Now we want to raise pigs ourselves, and we can't do without the pig trough, so my mother went to ask for it back. Uncle Seven said that my father had agreed to it, but my father had not cared about us for a long time, so why did he decide to give away the pig trough? My mother had asked someone else to make it with stone. Of course, my mother refused to accept it and went to ask for it back angrily. As a result, Uncle Seven and Aunt Seven chased her home with a carrying pole, pinned her to the ground and gave her a severe scolding.

In the end, my mother didn't get the pig trough back. Sometimes I don't understand why she would fight for it even though she knew she would lose and get beaten for it.

Later I realized that it might be a matter of attitude! At least I resisted, letting others know that even if I can't win, I still have to protect my rights.

It may seem stupid, but he is actually trying to protect his only dignity.

I looked at my mother's bitterness, but I was powerless. What could I say? It seemed that I couldn't say anything.

This kind of thing happens almost every two or three days, and my mother seems to have gotten used to it, but I am getting more and more worried and hesitant every day.

What should I do? I cry, cry every day, and feel like a waste. I deserve to be despised as a woman. Yes, I am a powerless woman.

It turns out there is a reason why they like boys. Maybe boys are braver than me!

I had this dream more than once that I killed everyone in the village to avenge my mother and myself, and then I committed suicide in my dream.

However, I only dared to think about it in my dreams. When I woke up, I had no courage at all. I didn’t know whether I was afraid of killing people or afraid of dying. It was ridiculous! I was trapped by the word "fear".

How I wish I could kill to my heart's content, just like in my dreams. Maybe then I'd feel relieved. If all this is destined to end, I'd rather end it myself. Maybe then my mother would have no regrets and would have no regrets in her life.

I prepared dinner, fed all the livestock and poultry in the house, and waited for my mother, but she didn't come back until very late. I stood in the dark, waiting anxiously and panically. I don't know how long it was before my mother finally showed up.

When I saw new wounds on my mother's body, I choked up and asked her, what happened this time?

My mother told me that Zhang Cuihua and her husband from the village had taken over my family's field ridges. Taking advantage of a month-long absence while she was away working, they dug through the ridges and snatched away half of our land. So, my mother argued with them to reclaim the ridges, but they refused to acknowledge their ownership and resorted to violence. They pinned her against the ridges, beating her until she was bruised and swollen. Finally, they walked away, feeling completely justified. My mother was left alone there, and it took her a long time to get up. Ultimately, however, she never got her field ridges back.

After hearing what my mother said, I couldn't control my tears anymore. What can I do for my mother? I can't. I can only cry helplessly, watching my mother's old wounds getting worse day by day.

I was hiding in my bed crying at night when I suddenly heard a noise. I ignored it, perhaps because I was scared, and I didn’t wake up my sleeping mother.

But because of my fear, my mother was beaten severely the next day.

Sometimes, I feel like I’m really useless. I can’t do anything right and I’m a burden to my mother.

Because of my silence, a male duck was lost in my family. The kind of male duck is used by the mother duck to breed with the female ducklings, but before it could breed with the female ducklings, it was stolen.

I don’t know how my mother found out that night. She got up and looked for me for a long time, walking along the village road. I didn’t tell my mother that I heard some noise that day, and I don’t know why I didn’t wake her up at that time.

In the end, my mother couldn't find the drake until dawn. Some time later, my mother heard from others that it was taken away by Wang Dayun from the village. He was a well-known thief in the village.

He sneaked up the mountain, built a pot and started a fire at night, and ate the drake as a picnic.

My mother went to him to ask for an explanation on the spot, but Wang Dayun was a man of bad character who only engaged in secret flirting. After being questioned by my mother, he not only shamelessly admitted it in person, but also boldly provoked her.

The mother was so angry that she had a fierce quarrel with him. In the end, the fierce fight ended with the mother's face bruised and swollen.

I can’t tell you how many of these things are happening. It seems like they are happening every day, in places I can see and in places I can’t see.

I can only spend every day begging, living in fear, helpless and crying. I don't know how much longer I can endure this kind of life. I might collapse at any moment. I struggle on the edge of collapse and begging, hoping someone can save me, but I know in my heart that no one can save me...

It has been raining a lot recently and there has been no sunshine for a long time. I long for sunny days, as if only where there is light can I see hope.

This year's winter passed very slowly, so slowly that it felt like a century had passed. I stood at the broken window, gazing at the sky that seemed both near and far away, begging myself to grow up quickly...

Xinxin closed her weekly diary and gently put it into her schoolbag. This was the first time she wrote down what was in her heart. She wanted to show it to Teacher Wu, but she was afraid to show it to him.

With an indescribable feeling, she anxiously waited for Teacher Wu's response.