Chapter 74

If physical pain could replace the ache in her heart, Shen Qiancheng would have gladly let Shi Jianren beat her to death.

A month had passed since she had last knelt on the cold floor of the study. A single lamp cast light onto the desk before her. Shi Jianren raised one eyebrow high, his eyes full of mockery.

"Shen Qiancheng, you're not the only clever one."

Shen Qiancheng stirred slightly, lifting her head. The whites of her eyes were bloodshot and piercing, making it hard for anyone to meet her gaze.

"Shi Jianren, who do you think you are? You think you're worthy of speaking to me?"

Her eyes, brimming with immense hatred, fixed on Shi Jianren. His heart felt as if it had plunged into an eight-hundred-mile glacier in the dead of winter; a bone-chilling fear surged through him.

When had Shen Qiancheng dared to speak to him like this?

Crack!

The sound of a whip cutting through the air, in a silence so profound that a pin drop could be heard, was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Shen Qiancheng let out a muffled grunt. Where the barbs had caught her flesh, a searing pain flared up.

Crack!

Another strike, landing with precision on the exact same spot as the first. A fresh wound opened atop the bright red welt, the edges curling outward to reveal even more vivid flesh beneath.

Cold sweat beaded on Shen Qiancheng's forehead, but her eyes remained fixed on Shi Jianren, defiance and contempt interwoven, challenging him with the proudest posture.

Is this all you've got? This is just like being tickled.

After only two lashes, Shi Jianren dared not look into Shen Qiancheng's eyes, as if one more glance would drain him through those hate-filled pupils.

Clenching his fist and raising it to his mouth, he looked away and said, "Kneel properly. You're not to leave this room until you're married into the Su family."

Her back burned fiercely, as if branded with a red-hot iron from ancient torture.

Shen Qiancheng straightened her back, as erect as a pine, and rolled her eyes disdainfully. "I will go out!"

Her defiance, which clearly showed no regard for Shi Jianren, made his anger flare. "You still want to run? Shen Qiancheng, I caught you once, and I can catch you any number of times."

The dim yellow light fell on Shen Qiancheng like a holy glow. Her long, slanted eyes gave Shi Jianren a contemptuous glance. She had already seen through his tricks, and she sneered with utmost seriousness, "Hahaha. Even if I die, I won't marry Su Zeye."

Shen Qiancheng staggered to her feet, closing in on Shi Jianren, her eyes glaring into his, proclaiming her declaration.

What a beautiful face. Shi Jianren smiled slightly. Wouldn't it be better for a woman to obediently marry into a powerful family? After all this trouble, hadn't she just ended up with nothing to show for it? And she'd covered herself in wounds.

Shen Qiancheng simply hadn't fallen hard enough to learn her lesson.

No matter. There was plenty of time.

Shi Jianren gave a slight smile and, with the air of someone who had been through it all, hypocritically lectured, "You'll agree eventually. Didn't the person run away? If I catch her, will you obediently marry Su Zeye, or would you rather she marry him? I've heard that Su Zeye is very interested in her."

Shen Qiancheng fell silent.

She stood straight, but Shi Jianren could clearly see a hint of distraction in her eyes.

So she did have a weakness. That was useful.

Shi Jianren patted Shen Qiancheng on the shoulder. Everything was now under his control. What if the bird could fly? Just clip its wings.

Shen Qiancheng's breathing in the room was steady and long. As Shi Jianren closed the door, a voice came through.

"Keep an eye on the eldest young lady. She's not to leave the study until her wedding day!"

The evening breeze blew gently, carrying the vibrant vitality of spring.

Shen Qiancheng's ears twitched. Through the wide-open window stretched a starry sky of freedom.

A figure, nimble as a cat, leaped from the windowsill.

"Young miss—" The butler, pushing open the door, caught only a glimpse of Shen Qiancheng's fluttering hem, vanishing into the night with a determination that never looked back.

This was the third floor!

The butler shouted, "Someone, come quick! The young miss jumped from the third floor!"

After the leap came the dizzying sensation of falling. Shen Qiancheng kept her head up, gazing only at the starry sky, brilliant and shining in the silent night.

The moment she hit the ground, she sprang up and ran, past the rows of crabapple trees on either side, their blossoms vivid like sunset clouds.

"Young miss—" The butler's voice was heart-wrenching.

Shen Qiancheng ignored it, running barefoot along the pebble path, blood dripping from her back and staining the cobblestones red.

She felt no pain, like a machine with only one command: run.

The world seemed to fall into a dead silence.

"Young miss, young miss, young miss—"

After the ringing in her ears subsided, the servants' voices came, some anxious, some alarmed, some shouting hoarsely.

Shen Qiancheng wanted to ignore them all. Someone caught her around the waist, but her upper body still strained forward.

The sound of a car engine started. Shi Jianren drove away from the Shen residence.

Shen Qiancheng's body went rigid, and she let the servants support her back inside.

In her mind flashed Shi Jianren's face, twisted with barely contained displeasure, dark as a demon, as he said, "Since you're being so disobedient, I'll go fetch the obedient one."

Shen Qiancheng, who had been listless like a dead fish, suddenly revived as if electrocuted. For the first time, she begged Shi Jianren in a voice that was almost pleading, "No, don't bring her back."

"Don't take her. I agree, I agree!" Shen Qiancheng's agonized cry gradually lost its strength.

###

Late March in the countryside was a time of leisure. Every household had finished spraying pesticides and watering the fields. Those who were going out to work had already left; those who stayed home tended the children; and those who liked to gossip gathered at the village entrance to chatter.

"The new daughter-in-law of the Sun family is something else. She's got her mother-in-law completely under her thumb. I heard she makes her mother-in-law bring her foot-washing water," said an old woman with graying hair, gossiping with relish.

"That's not what I heard," chimed in an old woman in a red coat, raising an objection.

The one in black trousers grew animated, pulling the woman in red aside. "Oh, go on then, you tell us."

The woman in red had only been playing devil's advocate. When pressed for details, she couldn't come up with anything. Just as she was about to make something up, she noticed a pure white figure at the village entrance.

It was late March. Anyone who was going out to work or study would have left long ago.

Why would a new figure appear at the village entrance?

The woman in red squinted and nudged the one in black with her elbow.

"Hey, is that the girl from the Shen family?"

The woman in black, whose eyesight was the best of the lot, slapped her thigh. "It really is! Hasn't she been gone for over three years?"

The gray-haired one chimed in, "Three years or more, yes. She broke with her family back then. She still has the nerve to come back now?"

"Tsk, she's probably after the homestead."

As the words fell, the pure white figure reached the entrance. It was Liao Xue, carrying only a small backpack. She had left with nothing, and she returned with nothing.

"Xiaoxue, you're back?"

The old women greeted her, more out of curiosity than kindness.

Liao Xue nodded stiffly and kept her head down as she walked toward the village.

She hadn't gone more than a few steps before the chatter erupted behind her.

"Hey, it's her. She's the one who worried her mother to death. She doesn't even support her brother. Who knows what she's been doing out there?"

"I know about that. My second uncle's granddaughter saw her working as a cook..."

"So she's just a cook."

"And now that she can't make it out there, she's back. Didn't her brother say he wouldn't recognize her as his sister?"

"Tsk, she couldn't make it outside, so she's back..."

Liao Xue could hear it all, but she kept her head down and walked forward. After a short while along the main road of the village, she saw the Liao family's gate.

The sun overhead was bright, and Liao Xue felt a sudden dizziness. Her hand gently touched the wooden door—the same one that had never been replaced since Shen Qiancheng had kicked it.

Liao Xue took a deep breath, the scent of fresh grass filling her nostrils.

The door was unlocked. Liao Xue pushed it open and stepped inside. The dilapidated courtyard seemed even more run-down after she had seen the concrete jungle of Tang City.

The father and son clearly had no domestic skills. In just a few years, they had let the yard fall into such disrepair.

Liao Feiyu was still in junior high, with no worries about reaching high school; he lived at school and wasn't home. Liao Shenjun had probably left for work a while ago.

Neither of them was home, and they hadn't even bothered to lock the door.

Liao Xue let out a sigh of relief. This was actually for the best—it made it easier to come back and get what she needed.

Pushing open the door to the main house, she saw an even bigger mess. There were leftover bowls of rice and stir-fry, half-eaten and now moldy, set out on the square table in the middle of the room. In the summer, they would have been overrun with rats and flies.

Liao Xue couldn't be bothered to clean up. She went into her old room, gathered what she needed, and tucked it into her clothes.

As she stepped out the door, the sunlight fell on her eyelids as if kissed by the sun. She took a soft, deep breath. This was the place where she had grown up and lived.

The old women at the village entrance had already moved on to other topics. When they saw Liao Xue turn back, they all stared at her, wide-eyed.

Liao Xue kept her head down, enduring their gazes, these people who were already halfway in the grave.

A gentle breeze stirred, carrying the fragrance of wheat fields.

Liao Xue took a step back, a smile curling at the corners of her mouth—so reminiscent of someone else's smile that the old women felt a jolt of unease, as if something bad was brewing.

The first old woman took the lead. "Xiaoxue, where are you off to? Why not stay a few more days? You're leaving already?"

Liao Xue flashed a smile that showed all eight teeth, a smile that made people feel a chill down to their bones on a warm spring day. "Ah. Me? I'm in a hurry to go skiing in Switzerland."

The old women were stunned into silence.

Liao Xue delivered the finishing blow by pulling out a small booklet and deliberately opening it. "This is a visa. You've never seen one, have you?"

The old women had never heard of a visa. They stared for a while, but couldn't make heads or tails of it. "What is that for?"

Liao Xue snatched it back abruptly and raised her chin. "It's too complicated to explain to you people."

The old women felt a surge of the old fear they had once had of Shen Qiancheng. What was wrong with this girl?

###

The pungent smell of disinfectant hung in the air, lingering in the cramped space of the study.

A large bed had been moved into Shi Jianren's study. In the soft bedding lay Shen Qiancheng, her face pale but with a dark scowl.

After leaping from the third-floor window, she had broken her leg and been confined to bed.

Her injured leg was hoisted up, and when she looked up, all she saw was the cast-wrapped limb, utterly numb.

Shen Qiancheng lowered her gaze, her long lashes fluttering like butterfly wings—beautiful, but with a rare fragility.

Liao Xue had broken the same leg...

Shen Qiancheng closed her eyes. Why was she thinking about that woman!

The door was knocked on. Shen Qiancheng's throat was dry and hoarse, and she didn't want to speak. The butler waited a moment, then pushed the door open.

The study was fitted throughout with eye-protective lighting. The scientifically designed light bathed Shen Qiancheng in a faint golden glow.

With her eyes closed, she lay still on the bed like a captured butterfly stripped of its freedom. From now on, the sky would hold no color, and the flowers would have no purpose.

Despair hung over her like a curse. The butler brought in a tray of food, steam rising gently, at just the right temperature.

"Young miss, please eat something," the butler said, torn between obeying Shi Jianren and genuinely worrying that Shen Qiancheng's hunger strike might kill her. "You haven't eaten all day. Aren't you hungry?"

Shen Qiancheng cracked open an eyelid, then turned her face away from the butler, showing only the back of her head in silent protest.

On the first day, she refused food.

On the second day, she refused water.

On the third day, her voice was as hoarse as if she had swallowed razor blades, but she finally spoke. "I want some fruit."

Butler Wang was so relieved he could have set off firecrackers. He personally prepared the fruit and brought it to the study.

Shen Qiancheng leaned against the headboard, her face so pale she looked like a vengeful ghost. She gave the fruit tray a cold glance.

The butler didn't dare say a word, afraid that even the sound of his breathing might make her change her mind.

"I want the cherries peeled."

The butler let out a silent sigh of relief and quickly replied, "I'll peel them right away."

Shen Qiancheng pressed down on the tray, her cold eyes narrowing at the butler. "I'll do it myself."

The butler would agree to anything. As long as she ate, it didn't matter whether it was peeled cherries or strawberries with every seed removed.

He beamed and handed her the fruit knife, adding a word of caution, "Young miss, be careful not to cut yourself."

The next second, the smile froze on his face.

Shen Qiancheng gripped the knife, blade pointing downward. Without a flicker of hesitation, she stabbed it into her own leg!

The butler went paler than she did, panicking. "Oh, my lady! What are you doing?!"

Shen Qiancheng didn't even frown. "Get out. I want to see Shi Jianren."

"The master is at the office," the butler explained, afraid to take the knife from her.

Shen Qiancheng pulled the knife out and tilted her head in resignation. "Call him. Tell him I agree."