Not long after the two married, Mother Shen died, and the ten taels of silver vanished without a trace.
At first, the original owner still put on an act, pretending to treat Shen Yan well, but between the lines she was trying to pry information out of him, asking where the silver was.
Shen Yan had seen through her long ago. Earlier, he had only gone along with it to fulfill his mother's dying wish without exposing her, but now he naturally wouldn't give her the silver either.
So the original owner began to torment Shen Yan…
Feeding him spoiled rice, making him drink swill, dousing him with cold water in the dead of winter, then opening the window to let the freezing wind blow on him…
Under her cruel treatment, Shen Yan wasted away day by day, losing all his former vitality until he was like a corpse that could only breathe…
Meanwhile, under the guidance of Granny Wang next door, the original owner got tangled up with a dissolute young master from town, desperately wanting to marry him as a concubine.
Granny Wang said that great households had rules and wouldn't take a married woman. So to shake off the burden of Shen Yan, they staged the scene Su Wei witnessed when she opened her eyes…
This was a story of Pan Jinwei cheating with Young Master Ximen Dong, then poisoning Shen Erlang under Granny Wang's instigation…
Su Wei pressed her lips together, and thinking of the look in Shen Erlang's eyes, two more streams of clear tears rolled down her cheeks…
…
Shen Yan was jolted awake by a chunk of falling plaster. His head was groggy and his thoughts muddled. He closed his eyes, and only slowly did he recall what had happened before he lost consciousness…
The poisonous woman failed to kill him, and in her blunder, beat Granny Wang to death…
That was dogs biting dogs!
But that poisonous woman had also landed a vicious punch on him…
He would kill that poisonous woman!
The moment Su Wei entered, she saw Shen Yan's gaze, filled with hatred, fixed squarely on her.
Su Wei: "…"
This thing called a gaze—though it had no substance—could truly make one's whole body feel unbearable…
Su Wei set the coarse rice porridge she was holding on the table and sat down wearily, meeting Shen Yan's eyes. She wanted to have a proper talk with this man, perhaps about how they could coexist peacefully in the future and later go their separate ways through divorce.
But Shen Yan's gaze was simply too terrifying. Truly, Su Wei felt that if a gaze had substance, she would already have been sliced into a thousand pieces.
The hot porridge steamed, rising between them in a bizarre atmosphere that was hard to describe.
Su Wei steeled herself and called out to him.
Shen Yan ignored her completely.
So Su Wei said, "There might be a bit of a misunderstanding between us."
Misunderstanding?
Shen Yan found it laughable. Between them there was enmity, resentment, and scheming—everything except… a misunderstanding!!
Su Wei couldn't go on. She felt that her words at this moment were like a middle-aged man who had been strong all his life—limp and powerless…
Su Wei brought the porridge to Shen Yan, took a bite herself in front of him, swallowed, and only then said, "Drink it. It's not poisoned. I'll come back to collect the bowl in a bit."
Having done all this, she paid no mind to Shen Yan's reaction and quickly slipped out the door, retreating back to her room.
The original owner's room was clean and tidy but utterly destitute. The only things of value were the small bronze mirror on the table and a modest silver hairpin—both gifts from Young Master Dong…
That Young Master Dong was really stingy…
Su Wei set the hairpin on the table and went back into the kitchen. She dug a roasted potato out of the stove's fire pit, its fragrance instantly filling the air. She tapped off the ash with a twig, peeled back the blackened skin, and took a bite…
A potato that had been blown by the wind was bitter, and Su Wei's face twisted for a moment. But she forced herself to eat it anyway, crying as she chewed…
Thinking once more of the look in Shen Erlang's eyes, she felt a chill of terror run through her…
Once he gets the chance, he definitely won't let her off easy.
What should she do?
Wuwuwu…
She wanted to go home…