Shi Sheng watched Ye Xiangwen’s palms continuously spurting blood and smiled, her voice soft, like a little daughter confiding in her mother.
“After all, we’ve been mother and daughter for so long. There have to be some similarities between us, right?”
Ye Xiangwen had spent a fortune maintaining her hands to look like those of a young woman in her prime, but now, the flesh of her palms was grotesquely torn and twisted.
Someone who usually threw a tantrum over the slightest scratch had never suffered an injury this severe; the pain was nearly unbearable.
Perhaps the agony stirred memories suddenly, she recalled the year Shi Sheng had mentioned.
That winter, unable to resist longing, she had secretly gone to see Yiyan, who was being fostered elsewhere.
Through the car window, she had seen her daughter, who should have been by her side, snuggling intimately in another woman’s arms, smiling so sweetly, so happily as if they were the real mother and daughter.
Because of the fortune teller’s warning, she hadn’t dared appear and had to leave, simmering with anger.
Returning home, she saw Shi Sheng, wearing Yiyan’s princess dress, running toward her. In that moment, she nearly went mad.
The scissors sliced through the air, and blood splattered.
With that single cut, the five-year-old girl’s palm was almost severed, flesh turned outward, bone exposed, blood everywhere.
Because of that incident, her husband came back, scolded her, and hurriedly summoned the family doctor not out of concern for the foster daughter, but to prevent the scandal from tarnishing the Shi family’s reputation.
“Remember now?” Shi Sheng gently lifted her left hand, the jagged scar on her palm clearly visible. “You said then that it was to teach me to remember my place.”
That injury required Shi Sheng, later, to secretly contact the top microsurgeon in R country and undergo five surgeries to repair the nerve damage.
Her hand now functioned like any other, but the pain had etched itself into her very bones.
The ache in her palm spread like electricity through Ye Xiangwen’s body, making her realize for the first time that the Shi Sheng before her was no longer the foster daughter she had once thought she could crush or mold at will.
Cold sweat streamed down her face, mingling indistinguishably with tears.
Her fingers clawed at the carpet, oblivious even as the jeweled tips of her nails cracked.
“Please… please…” Ye Xiangwen’s voice trembled in a way she had never experienced before, pleading desperately.
When the silver scissors’ tip was pointed at her neck, pure terror finally broke her last defenses. Warmth began to trace down the custom-fitted gown.
Just as she was about to faint from fright, the pressure suddenly vanished.
Ye Xiangwen’s scattered gaze saw only Shi Sheng looming above her.
“Rest up. We… have all the time in the world.” Shi Sheng even thoughtfully locked the door behind her.
In the bathroom, she slowly washed her hands. The warm water flushed away both the blood and the memories of that five-year-old girl’s pain.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she smiled.
Five-year-old Shi Sheng, I’ve avenged you.
When she walked out of the Shi estate, the evening sun cast a gentle glow over her, as if the bloody scene had never occurred.
She pulled out her phone but hadn’t dialed when a female voice interrupted her from nearby.
“Why are you here again?” Shi Yiyan’s eyes burned with anger. Thinking of the fiancé at her side, she swallowed a curse and forced out a twisted smile. “I mean… didn’t you tell me you were coming home? Came to see Mom and Dad?”
She naturally didn’t want to give Shi Sheng a friendly face; she knew the “white lotus” persona wouldn’t go over well socially. But in front of her beloved, she wanted to appear gentle.
“Why does it matter to you where I go? There’s so much nonsense are you running for chief of the bathroom mosquitoes too?”
Shi Sheng shot back without hesitation.
Talking to someone this foolish required no detours she simply couldn’t understand subtlety.
Nearby, Shen Shaowen’s initial delight upon seeing Shi Sheng vanished with that sharp remark.
He had been planning to ask where she had been staying, whether she was doing well, if anyone had bullied her but all his concern was shut down at once.
He didn’t like Shi Yiyan, but Shi Sheng’s words were painfully harsh.
His father already disapproved of her. If he found out how she was acting now, forget entering the Shen household his parents wouldn’t even approve of her being fostered outside.
He adopted a lecturing tone: “Shi Sheng, you should work on your temper. Yiyan is your sister. How can you speak to her like that? Look at yourself now you have no appearance of a proper heiress. Which elder would approve of you like this?”
Shi Sheng smirked. “If you like being a grandson, that’s your business. Don’t bother me. Or haven’t you been a grandson enough at the Shen house? Go ahead, kowtow to me, and I might consider adopting you as my unfilial grandson.”
Shi Yiyan, still basking in her fiancé backing her up, suddenly heard this and blushed with anger.
“Shi Sheng, how dare you ”
Shi Sheng cut her off impatiently: “And why wouldn’t I dare?”
She had grown sick of the Ye mother and daughter, and “how dare you” had become her natural response. She had already acted what was there to be afraid of?
Glancing at Shi Yiyan, still blocking the path, she added, “And you’re blocking the way too what, want to stay here with your fiancé and be my grandson too?”
Shen Shaowen’s face turned dark red, his temples throbbing with anger.
He dragged Shi Yiyan aside and gritted his teeth: “Shi Sheng, you won’t regret this.”
He had liked Shi Sheng since childhood, but she had never treated him kindly.
He couldn’t understand what he had done to offend her.
After being repeatedly dismissed, even someone with his temper could get frustrated.
If Shi Sheng’s attitude were better, after divorcing Shi Yiyan, he might still be able to marry her.
But at her current tone, he might as well remain her lifelong “canary in a gilded cage.”
Shi Sheng had yet to notice that someone, in broad daylight, was already indulging in daydreams.
After she finished berating the pair, a soft laugh rang out.
Not far away, a black Maybach had somehow stopped under the shade of a phoenix tree. Through the half-lowered window, a sharply angled side profile appeared.
Shi Sheng furrowed her brow. Why was this unlucky man here?
The last time, he had nearly ruined her plans she had no desire to see him.
She pursed her lips, didn’t linger, and turned to leave.
Not long after, Shi Sheng paused, staring at bird droppings just half a step from her feet.
If she hadn’t been quick, it would have landed squarely on her head.