Chapter 170 The Dirty Beneath the Beautiful Surface
After school, Jane got home and took out her key to open the door. As soon as she got in, she was about to call her little aunt, but she heard something fall on the floor and smash.
Having no mind to care if she had changed into her slippers, she walked quickly inside. As she walked, she called, "Little aunt?"
The noise had come from the master bedroom, but the bedroom door was tightly shut. When Jane had almost come to the door, her little aunt's voice suddenly came out, "I'm fine. Don't come in, Jane."
Jane felt something was wrong-her aunt's voice sounded unusual. Ignoring all this, she walked up, pressed the doorknob, and rushed in.
She would never forget that scene.
Ellie loved life deeply. She would always make their home clean and put a bunch of fresh flowers in it, and she also appreciated beauties-she had hung her and Jane's photos all over the wall.
But what Jane now saw was a messed floor: flower bottle pieces, water running here and there, crushed flowers, smashed photo frames, pillows, quilts..., everything that shouldn't be on the floor.
She looked up and saw a man sitting on the edge of the bed. His eyes red, he was fuming with a steel clothes hanger in his hand. There were curled legs half exposed on the bed, but the ankles were tied up, and the fair skin was full of flogged red marks.
Dumbfounded, Jane watched the scene for a few seconds, and her legs, which seemed to be filled with lead, could not move at all, until the woman behind the man leaned against the pillow, trying hard to support herself, and showed a small part of her tearful face, shouting in terror to the door, "Get out, Jane!"
This was summer. Jane could see that the arms not covered by her nightdress were also full of flogged red marks, which were long and dense, and some of which even looked purple as if they would bleed once they were touched.
Jane could not make a sound because her tongue got stuck, but she suddenly rushed madly at the man on the bed, wishing to kill him. The man caught her arm. Although he didn't seem to use any strength, she had been thrown to the door with her back hitting the wall. Fortunately, the schoolbag on her back weakened the hitting force, so it didn't hurt that much. Instead, she just felt her legs were without strength.
Ellie shouted hysterically, "Don't touch her! Don't touch her, Wilder Russell!"
Jane rushed over to scratch the man's face. Still, with the clothes hanger in his hand, the man did not slap her, but grabbed the collar of her school uniform, carrying her out of the room.
Although her hands and feet were all tied up, Ellie, disheveled, rolled down the bed in an awkward state, wishing to stop the man from behind. After pushing away Jane, the man slapped Ellie with his clothes hanger, which ran all the way to her right shoulder and caught it with its hook, instantly making her bleed.
He was obviously Ellie's boyfriend, but he seemed to hate her so much, with disgusting curses madly flying out. He pinned Ellie to the floor, then he kicked and pouched her. Covering her head, Ellie curled up and hysterically called, "Go, Jane!"
Jane heard everything, but she also seemed to hear nothing. What she saw at the moment stimulated her most primitive instinct. She turned around to run outside, even turning over a chair in the dining hall, but she didn't run out. Instead, she headed straight into the kitchen, taking out the kitchen knife with her left hand and the fruit knife with her right.
When she returned to the bedroom door, the man was still flogging Ellie lying on the floor with that clothes hanger. Without blinking, Jane took a few steps forward and then moved her right hand forward. In an instant, the man screamed with a knife in the small of his back.
Jane's left hand was not that flexible, but she didn't want the man to shed so much blood. Instead, she just wanted to take out the fruit knife and stab the man again, but the knife was so deep in him that she could not immediately take it out.
Covering the small of his back, the man tried to avoid her. Ellie looked up and saw Jane holding a kitchen knife and the man raising his hand to look at the cut.
The man smelled full of alcohol, but Jane's stab made him a little sober. With something like shock or anger in his eyes, he gritted his teeth.
As she tried to get up in a panic, Ellie mumbled, "Jane, run, run!"
She could not get up, but crawled to stop the man's legs. Furious, the man instinctively raised his clothes hanger to hit her again, but Jane rushed up like mad. Having no mind to think if the kitchen knife in her hand would give him wounds and make him bleed, she simply wanted to kill him!
She cut the man's arm first, making him instantly bleed. The man screamed and took steps back. She pounced on him, and he stopped her with the clothes hanger, but it immediately flew out. Then she went to cut him again, chasing after him around the apartment just as he had done to Ellie.
Ellie had been calling to her at the top of her lungs, but Jane could not hear anything in a rage. Forced to the bedside table, the man picked up the table lamp in chaos to fight back. Taking the chance that Jane had fallen, he ran outside like a deserter.
Feeling no pain, Jane got up to pursue him, but was stopped by Ellie, who called "Jane" many times.
Jane would never forget that day. Six years after her mother's death, she finally had the ability to protect her family. She had sworn that she would not let anyone bully those she cared about.
Seeing her unmoving eyes, Ellie held her face in fear and kept calling her name, telling her not to be afraid.
Jane put down her kitchen knife, lowered her head to untie the ropes around Ellie's wrists and ankles, and whispered, "Little aunt, call the police."
Ellie said with a pale face, "When we see the police in a while, keep quiet. Listen to me. I cut the man with the knife. Do you understand?"
Jane looked up and said, "Little aunt, calm down. I did it."
Ellie shook her head, her lips trembling.
Without blinking, Jane said calmly, "I'm underage. Even if I had killed him today, I wouldn't be thrown into prison."
Ellie shook her head and held Jane's face in her hands, her tears flooding down.
Without a drop of tear on her face, Jane said almost as calmly as a hitman, "Listen to me. It's his fault. He had no good reason to beat you! He had no right to bully you! We defended ourselves. The knife was the one he was to use to hurt us. I had no choice, and I cut him accidentally."
Ellie's crying suddenly became soundless. At that time, Jane thought Ellie was a coward, but a long time later, she finally realized that Ellie had felt pain to the bone. Her elder sister had entrusted her with the task of taking good care of her daughter, but she had failed to fulfill the task.
Ellie and Jane called the police on that day. It was Jane who told the police everything. The man came to their home to beat her aunt, and he also used a knife, wishing to kill them. In the chaos, she picked up the knife to scare him away, but the man hit the knife carelessly. Both the man and her sister were full of wounds, and there were human testimony and material evidence. In the end, the man was arrested at a small clinic. At that time, the police were very angry, even wishing to avenge them at once.
The man gave all his explanation, saying that how Jane had intended to hurt him and run after him to cut him, but the police did not believe him. Facing a thirty-year-old scum and a twenty-year-old soft, weak girl, the police chose to believe the latter without hesitation.
The man was an ordinary employee without any backers, and the case had been made sensational, with a minor involved. In the end, the man was sentenced to five-year imprisonment, which would be carried out immediately.
Since her father had quietly run away and her mother had committed suicide by taking drugs when she was six, Jane had been living with Ellie, who was just an eighteen-year-old teenager back then. For her sake, Ellie had given up and sacrificed a lot. In this life, Jane did not want anything, but wished that her little aunt could live happily for the rest of her life.