A gentle night breeze rustled, and summer insects chirped.
Dim, yellowish light shone from a dilapidated adobe farmhouse at the very northern edge of Longquan Village.
"Xiao Fei, I'll come wipe you down as soon as I get Bao'er to sleep."
Hearing his sister-in-law's call from the next room, Lin Fei felt a complicated mix of emotions.
A car accident two years ago had claimed the lives of his parents and older brother, while also leaving him paralyzed from the chest down and completely blind.
Now, the only people left in the family were Lin Fei, his sister-in-law Mo Xinlan—who was three years older than him—and her five-year-old niece, Lin Bao'er.
To pay for Lin Fei's medical treatments, Mo Xinlan had sold the family's two-story house and moved into this abandoned adobe dwelling at the northern edge of the village, scraping by in hardship.
Lin Fei had graduated from a traditional Chinese medicine university and was interning at the town hospital, just waiting for his position to become permanent.
Who could have foreseen that an unexpected catastrophe would plunge his life into total darkness?
A young man in his early twenties, stuck lying on a brick bed all day, unable even to turn over, yet still needing his ill-fated sister-in-law to wait on a living corpse like him.
This made Lin Fei wish he were dead.
And yet, he had to keep living.
Because a blazing, towering hatred was pent up inside his heart!
As the sole survivor of that car crash, he knew the disaster had been a plot orchestrated by the village tyrant, Liu Jinshan.
After the accident, Lin Fei had feigned amnesia precisely to avoid being silenced by his enemies.
After all, who would worry about revenge from an amnesiac, paralyzed blind man?
Killing the village tyrant Liu Jinshan to avenge his tragically killed family members was Lin Fei's sole motivation for staying alive.
Though he had no idea if he would ever get the chance for revenge, he absolutely could not die.
If he died, no one would avenge his parents and brother, and their grievances would never be put to rest!
Before long, Mo Xinlan walked in carrying a basin of warm water.
Mo Xinlan was renowned as the prettiest woman for miles around, with fair skin, exquisite features, a slender, graceful figure, and a pair of dark, watery eyes that could hook a man's soul right out of his body.
If the Lin family hadn't been well-off back then, and if Lin Fei's older brother Lin Yue hadn't been so capable, Mo Xinlan never would have married into the Lin family.
Regrettably, life was unpredictable.She had been married into the Lin family for less than five years when tragedy struck, leaving her a young widow who had to care for her paralyzed brother-in-law and a toddler, making her life utterly miserable.
Yet Mo Xinlan was gentle and good-natured by nature, and she never uttered a single word of complaint in front of Lin Fei.
Enduring hardship and bitterness without a single word of discontent, she took care of Lin Fei and Bao'er, supporting this shattered, crumbling home on her frail shoulders.
Because Lin Fei was blind and the weather was hot, Mo Xinlan dressed very coolly and casually, revealing her sexy figure to the fullest.
Every time his sister-in-law came over to wipe his body, Lin Fei's nostrils would always be filled with her unique, subtle fragrance.
Although he had no sensation from the neck down, it was impossible not to have imaginations.
Still, Lin Fei held deep respect for his sister-in-law and dared not let his mind wander improperly.
A person paralyzed in bed had to be wiped down every single day, not only for hygiene, but also to promote blood circulation.
Therefore, wiping Lin Fei's body every morning and evening had been Mo Xinlan's rain-or-shine routine for the past two years.
In the beginning, awkwardness and embarrassment between the two were inevitable.
As time went on, Lin Fei grew numb to it, and Mo Xinlan grew accustomed to it as well.
"Sister-in-law, Dunzi told me that bastard Liu Er bullied you again?"
Lin Fei spoke up, breaking the silence in the room.
Dunzi was a childhood friend of Lin Fei's who frequently came over to chat with him after Lin Fei became paralyzed.
"There's no such thing. Don't listen to Dunzi's nonsense."
Mo Xinlan flatly denied it, but her eyes began to turn red.
In truth, she simply did not want to make Lin Fei worried and distressed.
Ever since misfortune befell the Lin family, she had frequently been harassed by the idlers and scoundrels in the village.
After all, a young and pretty young widow was the easiest target for men to fixate on.
Especially that Liu-Er, who relied on the village bully Liu Jinshan for backing and constantly harassed Mo Xinlan.
Sometimes, she really felt like she could no longer hold on, and genuinely wanted to take Bao'er and run away far from here.
Yet she could not bear the thought of letting her brother-in-law starve to death on the brick bed, so she could only grit her teeth and endure one day at a time.
Lin Fei knew his sister-in-law was keeping things from him; Dunzi was an honest man who would never tell lies.How could Lin Fei not know the suffering and hardship his sister-in-law had endured? His inner pain and guilt were beyond words.
After tending to Lin Fei, Mo Xinlan returned to her bedroom. She looked at Lin Bao'er, who was fast asleep, listened to Lin Fei’s helpless sighs from the next room, and then caught sight of her own still-stunning reflection in the mirror. Suddenly, she felt an urge to burst into tears.
Bang!
Just as Mo Xinlan was preparing to sleep, her bedroom door was suddenly kicked open, and a man reeking of alcohol charged in. It was Liu Er, the village thug.
"Ah! Liu Er, you bastard! What... what are you doing?"
"Lanlan, I think about you all day and dream about you all night. Just give in to me!"
With a lecherous look on his face, Liu Er lunged at Mo Xinlan.
"Waa... Mommy! I'm scared!"
Woken by the commotion, Lin Bao'er saw the scene and began to wail in terror.
"Ah... Liu Er, if you don't stop right now, I'm going to call for help!" Mo Xinlan resisted with all her might.
"Hmph! Go ahead and scream! Tonight is Liu Jinshan’s mother’s birthday banquet; the whole village is drinking. You could scream until your throat rips, and no one would hear you!" Liu Er yanked at Mo Xinlan’s limbs, behaving with unbridled arrogance.
"Liu Er, you son of a bitch! I’m going to kill you!"
In the next room, Lin Fei heard Liu Er bullying his sister-in-law. Stung by anger and desperation, he cursed furiously.
"Oh, I almost forgot—you’ve got a piece of trash lying in the next room. Lin Fei, you’re nothing but a pile of rotting meat. You want to kill me? You couldn't even kill an ant! Hahaha!" Liu Er mocked loudly toward the next room.
"Liu Er, I curse your ancestors to the eighteenth generation!"
Lin Fei’s face turned purple with fury, his veins bulging as he clenched his teeth so hard he nearly shattered them. Yet, besides shouting, there was nothing he could do.
"You big bad guy! You’re not allowed to bully Mommy! I’ll beat you, you big bad guy!"
Driven by a sudden, inexplicable surge of courage, Lin Bao'er swung her tiny fists, trying desperately to strike Liu Er as he pinned her mother down.
Thump!
Driven by his beastly instincts, Liu Er kicked the child to the floor. The little girl fell, stunned into silence for a long moment before she could cry again.
"Oh! Bao'er! You animal, Liu Er! I’ll fight you to the death!"
Seeing her child kicked, Mo Xinlan turned into a crazed leopard and bit down hard on Liu Er’s arm.
"Argh! You filthy bitch! How dare you bite me!"
Slap! Slap!
Stung by the pain, Liu Er lashed out, slapping Mo Xinlan twice. Immediately, the woman's screams and the child's cries filled the room.
"Liu Er, you dog-begotten bastard! Stop! Stop it!"
In the next room, the rage in Lin Fei’s chest felt like it might burst. He opened his eyes wide, shaking his head and shouting until his voice grew hoarse. Perhaps because the overwhelming anger caused a physical reaction, blood suddenly surged from Lin Fei’s nose.
The blood trickled down his chin and onto the circular jade Safety Talisman hanging around his neck. Mo Xinlan had bought that talisman from a fortune teller she met in town last year and insisted Lin Fei wear it, hoping it would keep her brother-in-law safe.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the blood-soaked Safety Talisman emitted a white light. Lin Fei felt the pendant grow burning hot against his skin. The light instantly shot into the center of his forehead. Following that, Lin Fei felt a warm current of energy flow from deep within his brow, rushing into his eyes and then rapidly circulating throughout his entire body.
The next moment, he was shocked to realize that his body had regained sensation! A powerful, unprecedented surge of energy was coursing through his limbs. Furthermore, his vision had been restored!
What... what was happening?
Lin Fei didn't know what was going on, stunned into temporary silence.
"Sister-in-law!"
Once he snapped back to reality, he didn't have time to process what had happened. He sprang up from the bed and rushed toward the next room, calling out.