When The Strangers Meet (part 2)

"Gosh, that trap is meant for a big animal! I hope she doesn't have to lose her foot!" the woman said.

The girl cried louder than before as she imagined that she might have to lose her foot.

"Help me to open this trap!" the man said.

The woman helped the man, and they managed to release the girl's foot from the trap.

The girl cried out loud while her blood spilled on the snow ground.

The man cut his clothes to bandage his daughter's foot. "Ying-er, don't cry! You will recover! You're my brave daughter! You will be fine!"

The girl with her teary eyes forced herself not to cry and just nodded her head.

"Good obedient girl!" the woman said and rubbed the girl's head. "You're so brave!"

The girl looked at the woman and said, "Thank you, auntie!"

"Beautiful girl!" the woman said and smiled at her.

The girl wiped her tears and said, "Auntie, you carry a sword. You must be a hero!"

The woman laughed, "Someday, who knows you will be a hero too!"

The girl nodded, "I will learn swordsmanship! Someday I have to be a hero!"

"Here, some money! Buy a good medicine for her. Her wound is severe. Don't let her lose her foot!" The woman gave some money to the man.

The man gratefully thanked the woman who immediately left the place.

"Hero sheds no tears! You should not cry, little hero girl!"

"Hmm, I won't cry! But my foot is still painful!"

"Let me carry you on my back!" the man said.

"Thank you, father!" the girl said.

"Stupid girl! You're my daughter. You don't need to say thank you to your father!"

Two hours later, they arrived home. The snow was still pouring heavily. And the tired girl fell asleep on her father's back.

"Ying-er, we arrive home!" the man said and put his daughter on the ground.

"Why did you have to carry her on your back?" the woman asked her husband with angry eyes.

"Ying-er's foot fell on an animal trap and could not walk. I have to carry her!" the man said.

The woman, as if she didn't believe her husband, pulled her daughter to get closer to her and took off the bandage from her foot. Indeed there's a lot of bloodstains on the bandage. But her foot? There's no wound on her foot.

The girl also looked surprised to see there's no sign of a wound on her foot. She moved her foot, and she could not believe that she could move her foot freely as if her foot had never gotten a severe wound by the bear trap.

The woman looked at her husband, angrily, and started to cry.

The girl went to her room and closed her ears, trying not to hear her parents' quarrel.

She had heard over and over again how her mother was suspicious if she's the daughter of her father from another woman.

This time, her mother was suspicious of her father had something to do with her adopted daughter. She's blindly jealous when she saw her husband carrying the girl on his back, especially because she could not find any wound on the girl's foot. Both the father and the daughter swore that her foot fell on a trap. Yet, how could she get healed so fast? Why did the two of them lie to her?

The girl was too young to comprehend the whole situation. She also didn't understand why her foot could have healed so fast. She checked her foot over and over again. There's no sign that she's wounded. Was it only a dream that she fell on an animal trap? But her father also said that she fell on a bear trap. She didn't understand why. Probably she's just dreaming.

But if it's only a dream, why did she have to dream a dream like that? Why didn't she dream of something more beautiful? What about being a king? How she wished that she could be like the king of his minister. But his father said she's a girl and could not be a king or an official. And what about being the king's woman? She wondered what life was like for those people.

Yet for Ying, life was not a bed of roses. When she was still a child, her neighbors were mocking her and kept on telling her that wolves raised her before her parents adopt her. Now when she's growing up, she's growing up to be a beautiful girl, and her mother beat her more often.

As if she knew that she owed her life to her parents, Ying had never complained even when she was beaten. She was an obedient girl at home. But outside her house, she often vented her anger to anyone who mocked her or insulted her.

One day, a boy teased her and called her wolf girl. Ying didn't say anything and just walked away. The boy who felt ignored followed her and kept on teasing her. Then Ying saw a peddler with a pole stick to carry his merchandise put on his merchandise and put his pole stick on the ground.

Without saying anything, Ying took the pole stick and used it to beat the boy who was teasing her. She hit the boy fiercely. The boy tried to defend himself, and as a result, Ying and the boy wrestled like two hungry beasts.

Some neighbors testified how the girl was enraged until her face was red. She fought the boy bravely, although she's smaller. Some men separated them. Otherwise, the boy might be seriously wounded. Ying not only beat the boy with her fists, but she also scratched and bit, like a wolf!

The village chief sent Ying home. Ying's father - Lao Wu, and his wife were shocked to hear about Ying's fight with the village chief's nephew.

"My nephew likes your daughter. He teased her as he just wanted to get her attention. Who would have thought that she beat my nephew like that," the village chief said.

"I'm sorry, Chief! I promise I will educate and keep an eye to my daughter strictly!"

"How old is she now?" the village chief asked.

"Eleven!"

"Should be older. When you found her, she's already around one or two years old!" the village chief said.

Lao Wu said nothing.

"Lao Wu, you better marry off your daughter! Perhaps, that would ease your burden!"

"Sigh! But who wants to marry her?" Madame Wu asked.

"I have a relative from another village. His wife has no children. He's looking for a younger wife! If you agree, I could be the matchmaker!"

"How old is he?"

"He's thirty-five!"

"He's too old for her!"

"What kind of younger man wants to marry her?" Madame Wu said.

"What if he knows about Ying's past?" Lao Wu said.

"He wouldn't know if we don't tell him! Besides, Ying is pretty good looking. He would be happy to have her!"

Lao Wu sighed and said, "About this, I need to discuss it with her! Ying is our only daughter! We…"

"Aye, what daughter? Everybody knows she's not our real daughter! Just marry her off and send her away from this village is probably the best choice for us!" Madame Wu said.

Lao Wu looked concerned and said to his guest, "I will seriously consider your offer!"

After the guest left the house, Lao Wu and his wife argued.

"Ying is very obedient to us. Why do you have to hate her?" Lao Wu sighed. "In winter you gave her a summer sandal, in summer you give her no shoes. Does she ever complain to you? Every time you scold her, does she ever argue with you?"

Madame Wu angrily said, "You always defend her. I wonder if she's your lover's child that you always defend her! You are right; she's obedient! But she always brings a lot of trouble for us!"

"There you go again!" Lao Wu sighed. "That boy mocked her, and Ying beat him! Do you expect Ying to remain silent? She's had enough of your beating at home!"

"What? Are you not happy that I beat her?" Madame Wu enraged.

The couple quarreled while Ying could only stay in her room, trying to warm her frozen feet by putting her feet close to the fire. She's too tired to hear her parents quarrel.

Lao Wu insisted not to marry Ying off. He thought that she's too young to get married.

Unfortunately, a year later, Lao Wu fell ill. That day she called Ying and said, "Daughter, your father may not be able to take care of you!"

Ying knew that her father was ill. She said in a low voice, "Father, I will take you to see a doctor! He may be able to cure you!"

"Silly girl! We have no money to go see a doctor and buy medicine!"

"I will find a way!" Ying said. "I can hunt some deer and sell the skins and earn money!"

"You're a good girl!" Her father said and caressed her head. "Before I die, I will do my best to find a good husband for you! I want you to have someone who can take care of you!"

Ying shook her head and said, "You won't die. I will get medicine for you!"

Her father only laughed. They had no money to buy any medicine.

The next day, Ying went to the village's shaman, who could make medicine to heal sick people.

"How are you going to pay me?" the shaman lady asked her. She scrutinized that girl from head to toe.

"I will give you two deer skins. What about that?"

"I want the jade bracelet on your ankle!" the shaman lady said.

Ying sat on the floor and tried to take off her jade bracelet on her left ankle. The jade was given by her father. Her father found the jade buried in an ancient tomb. He took the jade and put it on Ying's leg when she was just seven years old. The bracelet was too big for her at that time. Now, as she had grown up, although the bracelet isn't tight anymore, it cannot be taken off from her ankle.

"I can't take it off! Two deer skins!"

"I want that jade bracelet!" the shaman lady said and put a medicine box on a table. "Bracelet for the medicine!"

"I don't know how to take it off!"

"Let me cut your foot!"

Ying was terrified, while the shaman lady smirked. "You're a beautiful girl. If I cut your foot, you will be crippled, and nobody wants to marry you! You better think it over!"

Ying looked at her foot and looked at the medicine. In a lowered voice, she said, "My father's life is more important than anything! You can cut my foot to get this bracelet! But don't lie to me. If you lie about the medicine, I will kill you!"

The shaman lady laughed and brought a knife to approach Ying. She gave a cloth and stuffed it on Ying's mouth. "It's going to be painful!" With her word, the shaman lady started to cut Ying's foot.

Ying bit the cloth on her mouth while tears flew from her eyes when the knife started to cut the flesh on her ankle.

Her blood started to flow from the cut wound. And when the shaman lady saw her blood, she began to scream in panic and said, "Who are you? You are not human! You….get out from here!"

The shaman dragged and pushed Ying away, and while the girl was still crying in pain, the shaman already threw her off her house with the medicine package. "Here's the medicine. Just don't ever come back here! Get out, and don't ever come back here!"

Ying took the box and checked it. There's some medicine inside. Although she felt pain on her ankle, her excitement made her forget about her pain. She took the medicine and left the shaman's house, almost running! She ignored the pain on her ankle.

When she arrived home, she immediately delivered the medicine to her mother.

"How did you get this medicine?" her mother asked. "That woman always asks for a lot of money! Where did you get the money?"

"I want to trade with her. But later on, she got angry and threw the medicine at me!" Ying answered. Ying just realized that she no longer felt pain on her leg. She lowered her head only to find out some blood on her left ankle. But there's no wound on it.

Ying knitted her eyebrows. She didn't understand. The shaman lady cut her flesh, and she bled a lot of blood. "That woman called me…not a human!" Ying said in her mind. "Am I really a wolf girl?"

Her mother looked at her. The girl didn't seem to lie. Suddenly she realized that this girl has never done anything wrong to her. Her husband was right; she's an obedient girl! She rubbed the girl's head and said, "I will beat you if you steal from other people!"

Lao Wu recovered from his illness. And Madame Wu stopped beating Ying since she's the one who got medicine for Lao Wu.