“What?” Shang Yang thought she’d misheard. She repeated it, “Are you apologizing to me?”
She immediately realized what Shang Yi meant and clicked her tongue, waving it off. “How is that your fault? Why are you taking responsibility for someone else’s mistake?”
“It was because of me… that this happened.” Shang Yi lowered his head even further, his voice so muffled it was almost inaudible.
Seeing him sink deeper into a spiral of self-blame, his expression growing darker by the second, Shang Yang opened her mouth several times but didn’t know how to comfort him. Saying it had nothing to do with him wasn’t entirely true—but saying it did didn’t make sense either. How could she blame him?
Besides, comforting people wasn’t exactly her strength. She was used to cursing people out—reducing them to tears if anything. Consoling someone? That simply wasn’t her style. After fumbling over her words for a while, she finally came up with something that sounded halfway decent.
“It’s because of you that I’m safe. Otherwise, those guys would’ve beaten me up. So I should be thanking you.”
“But—”
“Say one more word and I’ll beat you up.”
Shang Yang shot him a glare. He shut his mouth, though he still looked unhappy.
“I’ll beat you up if I’m unhappy.”
“…”
She got home two hours late.
Upon seeing Shang Yan, Shang Yuanlin coldly began scolding her, “Coming home so late, where have you been? Midterms are coming up soon, I don’t know how you manage to have fun!”
“I don’t know? Fine, then I’ll tell you…”
Shang Yan earnestly tried to preach to him, only to be glared at and shut down by Shang Yuanlin.
Fine, she couldn’t afford to offend this old man now. She’d buy a new enamelware set and then stand up straight and argue with him.
In the study.
Shang Yuanlin sat in his chair, sometimes busy with his official duties, sometimes glancing at Shang Yan across from him to check her homework progress.
At first, he only checked Shang Yan’s homework every night, but later he looked at the questions carefully and found that Shang Yan got every question right. The others were fine, but the problem was in chemistry.
It was strange that someone who couldn’t even memorize the periodic table could get all the chemistry questions right!
So Shang Yan was dragged to the study to do her homework, personally supervised by Shang Yuanlin. Her phone was confiscated, and she could only obediently finish her homework, leaving the parts she didn’t understand blank for Shang Yuanlin to explain later.
he glanced at her and caught Shang Yan daydreaming. He slapped her on the forehead, exasperated.
“Daydreaming again! How many questions have you missed?! You were doing this question ten minutes ago too. If you don’t know the answer, move on to the next one. Don’t waste time!”
Shang Yan covered her head, knowing she was in the wrong, but couldn’t help but retort, “I was thinking! Do you understand what thinking is? Not everyone is a genius who can answer instantly. I’m not.”
Shang Yuanlin snorted, “Of course you’re not. You’re the idiot among geniuses, the one who won the gene lottery.”
Damn it.
Shang Yan wanted to retort, but then she saw a shard of porcelain on Shang Yuanlin’s table. She gritted her teeth and swallowed her words. Shang Yuanlin couldn’t help but laugh at her speechless expression. It seemed that the broken enamelware wasn’t a complete waste.
Shang Yan swallowed her anger and started flipping through books to find similar examples. She couldn’t resist stealing a glance at the old man, only to be caught red-handed. She quickly lowered her head and pretended to be busy.
On her first day after transmigrating, Shang Yuanlin wasn’t like this. Back then, he was serious and composed, the epitome of a noble and low-key patriarch.
After an argument, it was as if he’d unlocked his full potential, unleashing a torrent of insults and showing favoritism. If she had known the consequences of the argument would be like this, she would have preferred to be scolded that day.
She could distinguish between a single scolding and repeated scoldings.
After tutoring Shang Yan, this blockhead in chemistry, Shang Yuanlin felt more exhausted than after a day’s work. He was middle-aged, and recently, he was even showing signs of graying hair, yet he was still troubled by his high school child.
He had heard people say that everyone has their own retribution, and now he understood it. Shang Yan was his retribution, allowing him to experience the pain of raising a child in his middle age.
After finally finishing tutoring, he had to go out for a social engagement. “You stay home and read a book tonight, and preview the material for tomorrow’s lesson. I’ll check it when I get back.”
Shang Yan pouted, “Okay.”
Shang Yuanlin frowned at her barely audible voice, “Louder!”
“Okay!”
In the living room, at the dining table,
Aunt Zhao and several other women had already set the table. Ning Wanyun sat in a seat next to the head of the household, giving them an elegant smile.
In the eyes of most of the Shang family’s servants, this lady was gentle, considerate, easy to serve, and not troublesome. She was a rare good employer, and also virtuous, managing the household impeccably.
Although these wealthy families had many intricacies, they all thought that Ning Wanyun, as a stepmother, had done a very good job. So when they heard the young lady being aggressive, they actually thought she was being unreasonable.
Occasionally, when they chatted with Ning Wanyun about this topic, Ning Wanyun would explain and defend the young lady. Where could they find such a good stepmother?
When Shang Yan dragged her body, riddled with holes from the chemical attack, downstairs, everyone else was already seated, waiting for her to start the meal.
As soon as she sat down, she felt thirsty again, so she casually instructed Shang Yi beside her, “Go get me a glass of warm water.”
Shang Yi nodded, obediently standing up to fetch a glass of water and placing it beside Shang Yan.
Ning Wanyun watched this scene, lowering her eyes to eat a bite of food. When did these two siblings become so close again? Hadn’t she already made Shang Yan dislike Shang Yi?
Lately, Shang Yan’s temper had become strange again, somewhat out of her control, and she felt inexplicably uneasy. No, she had to find a way to bring the situation back under her control.
So, she ladled a bowl of soup and placed it in front of Shang Yan, her smile so gentle it seemed to melt hearts. “Yan Yan, some new clothes have arrived at the store. Auntie will go shopping with you tomorrow, okay?”
Ning Wanyun had observed Shang Yan these past few days; she had been wearing her school uniform to school for several days now, something that would never have happened before. She guessed that Shang Yan was tired of those clothes, and that’s why she came up with this excuse to take her shopping.
But Shang Yan didn’t even look up and said she wouldn’t go.
Her smile faltered for a moment, then quickly returned to normal. “Since you don’t want to go, I’ll have them bring them to our house. Xiao Yi’s too.”
Upon hearing this, Shang Yi’s hand tightened around the food he was picking up, then he silently withdrew it, his calm face showing no emotion.
He was afraid. If Shang Yan was a time bomb, then Ning Wanyun was the ticking time bomb. He feared that Shang Yan would explode in anger the next second, demanding to know why Ning Wanyun treated her as well as him.
Immediately afterwards, Shang Yan would look at him with the eyes and expression he least wanted to see, saying that she hated Shang Yi the most, and that he had almost caused Shang Yan’s death today, which he couldn’t forgive himself for.
They had been together since before they even came into this world. They were clearly each other’s closest people, sharing a cradle and a room, always together, understanding each other’s thoughts without even speaking or looking.
But later, Shang Yan would show disgust whenever she saw him. Sometimes he hated himself, hated that his intelligence made Shang Yan dislike him.
He wasn’t greedy; he didn’t need his sister to be good to him, just that she wouldn’t look at him like that, and wouldn’t fiercely resist his approach, because they were one.
He longed for them to be like before, but he didn’t want them to revert to what they were before.
Ning Wanyun stopped eating and quietly waited for Shang Yan to have her attack. She had administered a colorless and non-toxic medicine that would instantly turn Shang Yan into a furious little beast.