The words Jin Yong blurted out were filled with such vicious malice that they made Yao Huang laugh until tears came to her eyes.
“If I die, who will punish a disgusting man like you?”
Jin Yong trembled like a leaf. He was not stupid; with circumstances stacked against him, he had no choice but to put on the appearance of a loving father and plead in a low voice:
“Yao Huang, it’s all Dad’s fault. Your face was just so frightening that I panicked and said something without thinking. I didn’t mean any of it.”
He was trying to coax Yao Huang as if she were a three-year-old child. Unfortunately for him, she was having none of it. Instead, she pressed the knife deeper.
Jin Yong’s legs shook violently, and his voice grew more urgent.
“I was wrong to abandon you and your mother back then. I admit that was all my fault. But if I hadn’t divorced your mother, I wouldn’t have been able to return to the city. I’d studied for so many years, and all that knowledge would have gone to waste. I just didn’t want to spend my whole life buried in the countryside.”
Yao Huang looked at him as though he were a clown making a fool of himself. She sneered.
“If I hadn’t peeled the skin off your face, would you really have thought you were still a person? You think you’re fit to be a teacher? If you had divorced my mother openly and honestly, I wouldn’t hate you. But when you left, you even tricked her out of most of the Yao family’s property. Did any of that belong to you? When my mother came to demand it back, you vile animal sent a bunch of vagrants to bully her. You even tried to burn your own daughter alive. Do you think you’re fit to call yourself human?”
Yao Huang’s words left the onlookers stunned. Even Jin Yong’s colleagues, who had come with him, were left gaping.
Jin Yong would never admit to any of it. Though he was fierce on the outside and frightened within, he argued desperately:
“You’re talking nonsense! I haven’t done any of that. I don’t know anything about any property. I’ll sue you for defamation and attempted murder!”
Yao Huang had already been willing to stake her life on killing him. Why would she care about that?
She plunged the dagger viciously into Jin Yong’s thigh, and blood immediately gushed out like a fountain.
“You can sue me, no problem. But first, you have to stay alive.”
Jin Yong had never suffered anything like this. His face twisted with pain. Realizing that pleading with her was useless, he roared:
“You’re committing patricide! You’ll suffer divine retribution for this! Even if I die, the law will punish you. You’ll pay with your life!”
Without changing expression, Yao Huang stabbed him again in the abdomen.
“Do you think I cherish this rotten life you gave me? I’ve had enough of living like neither a person nor a ghost for more than twenty years. If it weren’t for your disgusting genes, I wouldn’t have grown a face like this. All of this is your fault, you animal.”
As if that still hadn’t been enough to vent her anger, she stabbed him viciously once more.
Zhong Yu watched closely. None of Yao Huang’s blows had struck a fatal spot. She intended to torture the man to death slowly.
At some point, railway police officers had arrived. One of them stood facing Yao Huang with a weapon in hand, trying to persuade her to surrender.
The others were dispersing the passengers to prevent anyone else from being harmed.
Zhong Yu was pushed along by the crowd. At that moment, she looked especially small, but she was deeply worried about Yao Huang.
As the railway police officer pushed her outside, she instinctively pleaded:
“Let me stay. I’ve spoken with her before. Maybe I can persuade her.”
There were not many officers, and given the situation, they were afraid the suspect might lose all restraint and injure more innocent people.
They could only try this desperate measure. A female officer took Zhong Yu by the arm and led her back inside.
By the time Zhong Yu reached them, Jin Yong had already passed out from the pain. His body was covered in bright-red blood. If he was not treated soon, he would likely die from blood loss.
Zhong Yu studied Yao Huang carefully. There was no panic or regret on her face. Instead, she was filled with the exhilaration of finally getting revenge. Even her deformed features no longer looked quite so fierce.
Yao Huang had come here with the intention of dying together with Jin Yong. Zhong Yu did not want her to destroy herself over a human-shaped beast like him.
In a relaxed tone, she asked:
“Are you Yao Huang? Do you know that surgery can improve the structure of your face and restore it to normal?”
Zhong Yu did not beat around the bush. She went straight to the matter Yao Huang cared about most.
Yao Huang did not believe her. She casually wiped the blood splashed across her face and said, her voice slightly hoarse:
“This is a congenital defect. It can’t be cured. Do you take me for an idiot?”
Even though Yao Huang had a favorable impression of Zhong Yu, she still found words like these deeply irritating.
Zhong Yu walked a few steps closer. Her instincts told her that Yao Huang would not harm an innocent person.
Only when she was four or five steps away did she sit down. In a serious, earnest tone, she said:
“I don’t know what kind of doctor you consulted before, but I’m an attending physician in the Plastic Surgery Department. I graduated from Capital Medical University’s eight-year direct doctoral program. From a professional standpoint, your face can absolutely be made normal—and beautiful. Medicine is developing rapidly, and plastic surgery has only just begun to emerge. You might as well trust me. Give me a chance, and give yourself a chance to live again.”
Yao Huang did not understand medicine, but she understood the words “plastic surgery.” Half-believing her, she asked:
“You can really make me beautiful?”
Zhong Yu smiled and nodded. “I can not only make you beautiful—I can make you even more beautiful than I am.”
The old Zhong Yu would never have dared to be so confident, but now she had the Rebirth Vine. With the two working together, the odds of success were quite high.
Longing appeared in Yao Huang’s eyes. After being absorbed in the thought for several seconds, she decided that she could not possibly be so lucky. Her expression filled with wariness.
“Your only purpose is to save this scumbag. No matter what you say, I won’t believe you.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she stabbed Jin Yong again without hesitation.
Zhong Yu had seen scenes far bloodier than this and was not frightened in the slightest. She calmly continued:
“I can design a new face for you first. Based on your existing facial structure and features, a good plastic surgeon can shape a perfect face.”
As she spoke, she took a sketchbook from her luggage. After studying Yao Huang’s face for a few moments, she drew the contours of it on the paper.
“What kind of features do you like? We can design them according to your preferences. The exact procedure will still depend on your actual condition.”
Yao Huang seemed unable to recover her senses, but she yearned so desperately for a new face that she unconsciously followed Zhong Yu’s train of thought.
“If I were normal, I should look like my mother. Her eyes are large and bright, and when she smiles, even her eyelashes curve upward.”
After saying this, she carefully took a photograph of her mother from her clothing pocket and handed it to Zhong Yu.
The photograph was quite old, but it was clear that it had been kept carefully. The woman in it really was beautiful. It was a pity she had ever been paired with that human scum.
Using the photograph as a reference, Zhong Yu carefully sketched. Before long, a beautiful woman came to life on the page.
She handed it to Yao Huang, who accepted it eagerly.
The woman on the paper was even more beautiful than her mother. Her features bore the shadow of her mother’s, but they were more refined.
Yao Huang stared at it, entranced, holding the paper as though she could not bear to let go.
Only after a long while did she ask hoarsely:
“Can I really become like this? If you’re lying to me, I’ll kill you.”
When Zhong Yu heard this, she not only was not afraid but smiled instead. She nodded with confidence.
“The real you will definitely be more beautiful than the drawing. But the surgery will cost quite a lot of money. It requires many medicines and medical instruments, and I personally don’t have the ability to waive the bill for you.”
Yao Huang kicked Jin Yong on the ground.
“He took things from the Yao family. Once he gives them back, there’ll be enough to pay for my surgery.”
She had a facial defect, not a mental one. Yao Huang still possessed quite a few antiques from the Old Yao family—things even her mother knew nothing about. Jin Yong had naturally never had the chance to get his hands on them.
Since she no longer wanted to die, she could not kill Jin Yong.
Looking at the man on the ground, who lay there like a dead dog, she asked uncertainly:
“I didn’t stab him to death, so I shouldn’t have to spend too many years in prison, right?”
Zhong Yu answered honestly:
“You wounded only nonfatal areas, and he has committed plenty of crimes himself. You should still have evidence of his crimes, right? You can consult a lawyer.”
Yao Huang had always been clever and quick to understand. It truly was not worth sacrificing the rest of her life for someone like this. Besides, she had vented enough anger for one day.
She casually tossed the knife aside. Seeing their opportunity, the railway police officers rushed forward as one and immediately handcuffed Yao Huang.
Zhong Yu felt a pang of distress at seeing her in such a sorry state, but Yao Huang herself did not seem to care.
She raised her head and smiled at Zhong Yu.
“I did what you told me to do. You can’t disappoint me!”
“Leave your face to me,” Zhong Yu said confidently. “I’m going to work at Nanshan Hospital in Hai City. My name is Zhong Yu. When you get there, come straight to me.”
Yao Huang smiled even more brightly, as though someone had breathed new life into her.
The railway police officers escorted her off the train. She would be held at the local public security bureau, so Zhong Yu should still have a chance to see her again.
Watching Yao Huang’s slightly lighter footsteps as she walked away, Zhong Yu knew that from then on, Yao Huang would live properly for herself.
Meanwhile, Zhou Qin had happily brought her son to meet the train. Who could have expected that the moment the train arrived, a terrifying alarm would ring out?
Before long, the area was sealed off by the police. More and more police cars and ambulances arrived in succession.
All the relatives waiting to meet passengers were herded to one side and forbidden from approaching the exit.
Someone said:
“There’s a criminal inside holding hostages at knifepoint! I heard the victim is practically covered in blood. I wonder if he’ll even survive.”
Zhou Qin’s face went white when she heard that. She instinctively grabbed Song Congchun’s arm for support.
Song Congchun might have been quick-witted, but he had never experienced anything like this. He was frightened too, his heart fluttering with panic.
He squeezed his mother’s hand, repeatedly comforting her—and himself.
“It definitely isn’t my sister. She’s a doctor. She must be inside helping people. Mom, don’t worry.”
Zhou Qin’s face was pale, and her lips trembled. She could not bear the pain of losing her daughter.
To her, losing a man was not the end of the world. If Zhong Guoqiang was gone, she could still live well as long as she held on to her daughter’s hand.
But her children were her life.
“That’s right. Your sister will be fine. We’ll wait for her to come out.”
Yet waiting was the most torturous part. They saw police officers going inside and doctors in white coats running in, but no one came back out.
Zhou Qin kept her eyes fixed on the exit without blinking. Even when her neck grew sore from craning it, she was unwilling to move.
Time seemed to stretch endlessly. By then, the sky outside had gone completely dark.
No one knew how long they had waited before they saw the police escort a criminal suspect out. The suspect was covered in blood.
The person wore a black hood, and the clothes hanging from the body were oversized, so the onlookers could not tell whether the perpetrator was a man or a woman.
The suspect was handcuffed and put into a police car. Not long afterward, someone carried a stretcher to an ambulance.
Zhou Qin rose onto her toes to look. The man lying on the stretcher appeared to be about the same age as Old Song. Only then did her heart finally settle back into her chest.
After the police and ambulances left, the officers began dispersing the crowd. Passengers gradually emerged from the station exit.
Song Congchun was young. He twisted his way straight through the crowd and immediately spotted his sister as soon as she came out.
Waving his hand vigorously, he shouted:
“Sis! Sis! We’re over here!”