Infinitely Criticizing the Villain for Being Like My Ex-Boyfriend

"Wake up... wake up..." A girl with a strong dialect accent kept pushing Zhang Chunliang's body.

But strangely, Zhang Chunliang understood what she said. He opened his eyes with difficulty.

The short girl had a dark face with some freckles, and looked unremarkable. When she saw Zhang Chunliang wake up, she immediately grinned, revealing a row of white gap teeth.

"Brother Aiyong! Xiaoping is awake!"

"I told you not to go into the river, why didn't you listen?" The boy's voice was still immature, but his Mandarin was standard and his accent was mature.

Zhang Chunliang looked over blankly - it was a little boy about ten years old wearing a small gray coat. He had delicate features and looked familiar to Zhang Chunliang.

The boy had built a bonfire and was grilling some freshly caught fish.

"This river can't get you back to town, let alone to the city. Don't keep hanging around here trying to escape. I heard there are water ghosts in the river that can eat people." The boy lowered his voice, as if threatening Zhang Chunliang.

Zhang Chunliang suddenly began to speak uncontrollably: "I want to go back. I don't want to stay here. I want to find my parents."

"Xiaoping, weren't your parents beaten to death by Uncle Liu and his men?" The little girl didn't know what cruel words she was saying, she just looked at him curiously.

Zhang Chunliang only felt a clear pain in his heart. The pain was so severe and without reason that it made his nose sore, his throat tight, and he couldn't utter a word.

"Guifen! Don't say things you shouldn't say!" The boy widened his eyes and looked at the girl Xu Guifen fiercely.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Brother Aiyong, I was just listening to the conversation between Wang Saozi and the others in the village..."

"Don't listen to those women's gossip all the time." Xu Aiyong looked at Zhang Chunliang with some guilt, "Xiaoping, you should live in the village first. You haven't committed any crime of speculation or profiteering. There is no reason for the villagers to bully you."

"They are already bullying me." The boy possessed by Zhang Chunliang calmly wiped away his tears and told Xu Aiyong: "They came to my house at night to scare me, smashed my windows, and stole my things."

"Hey, tell me who I am, and I'll go find my parents and talk it out with them!" In order to express her apology, Xu Guifen immediately joined his group.

Xiaoping didn't want to pay attention to her, but just said with a bit of lassitude: "Don't look for me anymore, the villagers will gossip. I've been hiding in the cornfield, how can you still find me?"

"If we don't look for you, are we going to watch you die quietly in the field?" Xu Aiyong threw a few pieces of paper into the fire and said with some dissatisfaction, "We can't find you no matter how hard we look! Do you think the cornfield is fun? My brother said that some time ago there was a child who was caught and eaten by a crazy old man in a cornfield. When he was found, only bones were left!"

"..." Zhang Chunliang keenly felt that the Xiaoping he possessed was becoming impatient and uneasy. He asked in a trembling voice: "Xu Aiyong...what are you using to make a fire?"

Xu Aiyong happened to throw the last bit of paper into the fire, which immediately ignited a bright flame.

"The waste paper in your bag." He said casually.

Xu Aiyong was illiterate, but he saw Xiaoping once secretly burning some strange papers, so he mistakenly thought that these were also papers he was going to throw away. Instead of wasting them, he might as well use them to make a fire - in fact, he felt a little distressed, because paper was precious, and Xiaoping had been spoiled for too long and didn't know how to save at all.

"Ah!!!" Xiaoping let out a shrill scream. He didn't care about his weak body after choking on water. He crawled frantically to the fire and stretched out his hand to grab the pile of half-burned paper ashes from the fire.

"You, what are you doing?" Xu Aiyong was startled, but quickly reacted, kicked the soil around him and put out the fire.

But it was too late. Xiaoping's hands were burnt black and he only caught some crumbs.

"Mom... Dad..." His voice was choking and shaking, and he could hardly breathe. "Ah!! This, this is the letter they, they... wrote to me..."

……

Zhang Chunliang felt his hands were terribly burning and numb, as if fire had singed his skin and flesh all the way to his bones.

He was sweating profusely and suddenly woke up from the nightmare.

But he found himself lying on a man's shoulder, his chin resting on the crook of his neck, following the man's steps step by step.

Xu Erzheng carried him on his back, walked across the riverbank, around the ridges of the fields, and walked towards the village.

Zhang Chunliang's hands were tied in front of him to prevent them from slipping down.

Zhang Chunliang raised his head and looked at the sky blankly, and found that it was almost dark.

"Xiaoliang, are you awake?" Xu Er grabbed his hand, exerted force on his shoulders and neck, and suddenly shook him up: "Sleep a little longer, you were too sleepy just now, I couldn't wake you up no matter what I did."

"...How long have I slept?" There was still a strong sense of fatigue in his voice. He had not slept all night last night and had been tossing and turning all day today, so it was normal for him to fall asleep suddenly.

"Hmm." Xu Er seemed to be recalling, then shook his head, "Forget it, go back to sleep, we're almost at the village."

Zhang Chunliang's thinking was still a little sluggish, his soul seemed to still be in that extremely grief-stricken child, and his heart was in great pain.

Xu Er's ears were very red, and Zhang Chunliang's breath kept hitting his neck, causing his steady body to begin to tremble slightly.

"...Xu Er." Zhang Chunliang stared at his ear blankly and suddenly spoke.

"What's wrong, Xiaoliang." The voice was too soft. Xu Er sounded as if he had been bullied severely, and even his voice was a little weak.

"Xu Aiyong, is he your father?" Zhang Chunliang asked softly, leaning against his red ears.

Xu Er, who had been walking non-stop for two hours, suddenly stopped at this moment.