Now that she’s in prison, what can she do?
The female inmates were delighted to see fear in Hattie’s face, and the violent impulses that arose from their hearts erupted instantly, as they made the decision to attack.
There were no knives in the prison, so three people held Hattie down, controlling her struggling body, while the others went to find things they could use.
One person brought a bottle of boiling water, and another found a brick used to prop up the bed.
With her hands held firmly on the ground, the inmate holding the boiling water opened the bottle cap: “Let me through, I’ll wash her hands with water first. The boiling water was just boiled tonight, be careful not to scald yourselves.”
They dragged Hattie’s hands over to the squat toilet, aiming at the opening.
“No…” Tears streamed down one by one. Fear occupied her nerves, and for a moment, Hattie thought she had escaped reality, trapped in an endless nightmare.
The broken cries were buried in the madness of these people as the scalding hot water poured down.
Perhaps afraid that Hattie’s screams would be too piercing, they covered her mouth with a towel.
Her hands stung, her fingers intertwined, her hands felt like they had shed a layer of skin. Hattie’s hands were beautiful, her fingers long.
At the hospital, many nurses praised her, saying that the most beautiful moment for Dr. Mason was when she was holding a scalpel.
Other people’s hands were a pity if they weren’t playing the piano, Hattie’s hands were a pity if they weren’t holding a scalpel. But now these hands were swollen, fingers worn out.
After being showered with boiling water, Hattie was covered in cold sweat, breathing heavily. She wished she could pass out at that moment, but the more she wanted to faint, the more she couldn’t.
She could still open her eyes and watch as the inmate lifted the brick and smashed it down on her little finger.
Hattie’s eyes widened at the sudden, vivid pain. When she heard the bone break, her last shred of clarity vanished.
Her right little finger throbbed numbly, that section of the little finger was no longer elongated and straight, but twisted like a piece of rotten meat.
It was very painful, the bone seemed to be shattered directly, but this was not the end, only the bone had broken, not yet completely severed.
They smiled savagely, and the inmate holding the brick struck Hattie’s little finger again.
Again and again… nine times in a row, until the little finger was brutally smashed. The bright red blood blurred her vision, she watched her “little finger” fall into the toilet drain and disappear.
Stiff all over, experiencing intense pain, the soul seemed to leave her body under such violent stimulation, as if floating in the air above, watching her tortured self struggle below like a leaf in a storm, about to be shredded to pieces the next second.
Tears streamed ceaselessly, like fractured droplets mingling with cold sweat and sliding down her chin to drip on the ground.
Hattie, already pale-faced, now as pale as white paper, her eyes half-closed, abdomen in excruciating pain.
But the abdominal pain paled in comparison to the hand pain. Hattie coughed with her mouth open, shivering all over. Each shiver intensified the taste of blood in her throat, and she loosened her jaw, and moments later blood flowed down her mouth, staining half of her face, dyeing her prison uniform scarlet.
Looking at her maimed right hand, shadows of people passed through her mind.
Hattie pressed her hand over her heart with her uninjured left hand, still in unbearable pain, unable to breathe.
“I’m in so much pain, Dad, Mom…” When in pain, the first thought that came to mind was always for the person who had been the kindest, even though her parents had passed away more than a decade ago, she thought of them.
Hattie murmured softly, like a lost child, forgetting the way home. She had been taken care of by her parents when she was young, calling out in pain, and her parents would come running to comfort her, as if nothing had changed even as she grew older.
“Hattie, what do you want to do in the future?”
“I want to become a doctor. My dream is to become a doctor.”
“Health is a precious asset, life is entrusted to me. As I step into the sacred realm of medical study, I solemnly swear:
I volunteer to dedicate myself to medicine, love my country, be faithful to the people, abide by medical ethics, respect my professors, study diligently, strive for excellence, develop comprehensively. I am determined to spare no effort in curing human suffering, promoting health. I will uphold the sanctity and honor of the medical profession, heal the sick and injured, tirelessly pursue, and devote myself to the development of the medical, pharmaceutical and health cause of our country and strive for the lifelong health of humanity!”
Five years ago, she held up her right hand and swore the Hippocratic Oath. Five years later, her right hand was completely destroyed, the little finger rotting in the toilet.
Seeing her little finger broken, several of the female inmates let go of her. Hattie was still lying on the ground like a corpse.
Her eyes were still open, staring blankly at the squat toilet without blinking.
“Enough playing, let’s go to bed, it’s late.”
“Give her a couple of days to recover, don’t play her to death.”
After playing their game, they went straight to bed to sleep.
The throbbing pain in her ten fingers could not dissolve the hatred in her heart. Tears and blood mixed on her face.
Her left hand trembled as it reached out to cover the maimed little finger of her right hand, already in intense pain. She squeezed it, as if grasping at a lifeline.
Harry, I truly hate you.
She had too many things she couldn’t understand, couldn’t understand what horrible thing she had done to deserve such torture.
She thought that the fifteen years she spent by Harry’s side were already the height of pain, but she was still too naive.
She thought Harry was her salvation, but all her suffering started with him.
After the Mason family went bankrupt, she told herself to endure it. Humiliating, painful, heart-wrenching, sad, frightened – she had to endure it all.
As a doctor, she knew the value of life. Even though she hated Harry and stabbed him twenty-nine times, she avoided vital points, only causing him pain for a while, looking terrifying but not dangerous.
Even when driven crazy, she never thought of killing him, she just wanted to escape, to break free from his grip.
Harry easily destroyed the life she had been pursuing, leaving her with no hope for the future, just darkness.
Now that she had realized, it was too late. At the end of endurance lay darkness, and even if she had tasted all the bitterness, there was still greater suffering waiting for her.
The finger forcefully broken by a brick was just the beginning. That night, everything she had fought for came to an end.
The next day, everyone got up, except Hattie was still lying on the ground, seemingly unmoved all night, her body stiff and cold, the blood on her clothes had hardened. In the dark of the night, nothing seemed amiss, but now in the daylight, blood was everywhere in the bathroom, with not even a place to stand, a chilling sight to behold.
“Could she be dead?” A female inmate cautiously asked. Even with someone protecting her, if they had killed Hattie, they would be in deep trouble.
The head inmate replied, “Just breaking off a little finger shouldn’t kill her. Drag her down and splash cold water on her. If she doesn’t wake up, go get the guards.”