Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 42 - 26 Superior Person_1

Chapter 42: Chapter 26 Superior Person_1
It was still early, recommendations and collections desired.
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Lian Yaya’s upper body was held by Lady He, while Lady Zhou, Lady Gu, Lian Xiuxiu, Lian Huahua, and Lian Duoduo firmly pressed down on her legs. Grandma Li Si placed one of Lian Yaya’s feet on her knee, breaking Yaya’s toes one by one before sprinkling a generous amount of alum between them.
What Lian Manman saw in her eyes were Grandma Li Si’s slender yet powerful hands with bulging veins, and what she heard in her ears were the agony-filled screams of Yaya, mixed with the snapping sounds of her toe bones.
Definitely some toes were broken or dislocated, how cruel. Lian Manman thought to herself, yet what followed terrified her even more.
Grandma Li Si took out two bamboo strips from her bosom, placing them on the sides of Yaya’s feet. Then she picked up a foot-binding cloth covered with fragments of porcelain and started tightly wrapping it around Yaya’s feet, encircling them over and over. Manman could clearly see blood gradually soaking through the layers of cloth.
Lian Manman’s teeth started chattering, and she felt... her feet aching.
At this point, Yaya’s howls were no longer distinguishable as human.
"Mom, it hurts so much, I don’t want to bind my feet anymore, Mom, just kill me," Yaya kept howling as she tearfully begged Lady He.
Lady He tightly embraced Yaya, herself drenched in sweat.
"Grandma Li, could you please..." Lady He still couldn’t bear her daughter’s pain, and thus she begged Grandma Li Si for mercy.
Grandma Li Si didn’t even look up.
"If you want them to be elegant, this is necessary. It’s not too late to back out now," she said.
"No, we won’t back out," Lady He hurriedly responded.
Grandma Li Si wrapped both of Yaya’s feet as tight as zongzi, before she took needle and thread and started sewing the cloth strips firmly in place. During this, she looked up and caught sight of Manman’s gaze.
Lian Manman quickly withdrew her head.
"Told you not to watch, it’s scary, isn’t it?" Lian Zhizhi pulled Manman over, speaking with sympathy.
"After such tight binding, it’s small, but I doubt she’ll fit into those tiny shoes." Manman was puzzled.
"This is the first wrapping. There will be a second, third, and it takes at least half a year." Zhizhi explained to Manman.
Inside, Grandma Li Si had finished sewing up both of Yaya’s feet and then put on slightly larger shoes for her.
"Walk on the ground now," Grandma Li Si said as she released Yaya’s feet.
"She has to walk now?" Lady He asked.
"Mom, it’s like a thousand knives cutting my heels, I can’t walk," Yaya, still crying, collapsed into Lady He’s arms.
"Those who suffer great hardships will stand above others," said Grandma Li Si slowly as she packed up her basket.
"Your Aunt Zhou, along with your Sister Huahua and Sister Duoduo, they also went through this. Just endure and it will pass," Lady Zhou spoke, adding that Xiuxiu, Huahua, and Duoduo’s feet were bound earlier, without the use of bamboo strips or porcelain shards.
Yaya merely slumped into Lady He’s embrace, unwilling to get off the kang bed.
Manman, listening outside, had seen those porcelain shards in the foot-binding cloth herself, and walking on them seemed nothing short of torture akin to the ten most cruel punishments—just the thought was terrifying. Though she was afraid, curiosity led her to quietly peek through the corner of the curtain again.
Lady He carried Yaya off the kang and set her on the ground. Yaya leaned all her weight against her mother, pleading with tears.
"If you go soft now, all the pain suffered before was in vain," Lady Gu said.
After a moment of contemplation, Lady He pushed Yaya away.
With her feet full of broken porcelain, Yaya couldn’t stand and collapsed with a thud. Lady He stepped forward, lifting Yaya up again, urging her to walk.
Manman thought of a phrase: a dance on the edge of a knife.
Why undergo such torture alive, just because this represented beauty, decency, and the likelihood of marrying into a family with a good background, to lead a good life.
She too wanted a good life but was resolute against such torture. Better to be the wealthy household herself—no need to marry into one to have a good life. For the sake of keeping her feet unbound, she would strive to become a wealthy Little Landlord.
Lian Manman clenched her fist; she had truly been shocked by the gruesome scene.
"Mom, kill me, just kill me... Let me keep my big feet, I can still help you like Sister Zhizhi," Yaya cried out in madness, clutching Lady He’s clothes while wailing.