“Good heavens! Zhou Xiangyang has actually slept with that girl Yu Zhaodi!”
At that moment, a shriek from outside detonated the entire courtyard compound.
Wow!
The women and aunties who were busy washing, cleaning, and hanging laundry instantly dropped what they were doing and rushed toward the Zhou family home.
Yu Zhaozhao’s eyes turned icy cold. She wrapped three hundred yuan and a bicycle ration coupon in oiled paper, hid them beneath the water vat, and only then stepped out to head for the Zhou residence.
“Tut-tut-tut! Look at Yu Zhaodi’s face all flushed and blooming, her lips bright red and swollen like they have been bitten. Those red marks on her neck though, they do not look like bite marks, they look like finger bruises.”
“The marks on Zhou Xiangyang’s neck are definitely bite marks! There are fingernail scratches on his arm too. Could Yu Zhaodi really be that wild and fierce?”
“Good heavens! What is to become of Yu Zhaozhao? She and Zhou Xiangyang have been betrothed since childhood!”
“Yu Zhaodi is just like her mother a shameless hussy! She is even setting her sights on her own sister’s intended husband!”
…
Yu Yaozu could not bear to listen to their increasingly vile speculations. His face flushed with anger as he tried to defend them. “You are speaking utter nonsense! My sister only came here to look for Zhou Caixia!”
Standing beside him, Zhou Caixia had already turned pale with fright.
She had only meant to give her brother and Sister Zhaodi some privacy. She had stepped out with Yu Yaozu to buy ice pops yet upon returning, everything between her brother and Sister Zhaodi had been exposed to the world.
Flustered, Zhou Caixia stammered an explanation. “It was, it was Yu Zhaozhao’s wild vegetable, mushroom, and egg soup. After my brother and Sister Zhaodi drank it, they just.”
Yu Yaozu cut in to reassure her, “Caixia, do not be afraid. Yu Zhaozhao did this on purpose. She means to ruin Xiangyang-ge and my sister. Wang Baogen has been courting him, he visits our home every day, and has even promised to secure her a job or a university recommendation. How could she still look up to Xiangyang-ge after that?”
Yu Zhaozhao’s suppressed rage erupted instantly. She strode forward and slapped Yu Yaozu hard across the face twice in quick succession. Then she delivered a sharp kick straight to Zhou Caixia’s midsection.
“Ahh! It hurts! It hurts so much!”
Zhou Caixia clutched her stomach and rolled on the ground in pain, yet not a single bystander blamed Yu Zhaozhao for striking her.
Zhou Xiangyang watched the scene unfold with cold, impassive eyes, unmoved.
Yu Zhaodi, startled by Yu Zhaozhao’s ferocity, shrank back and hid behind Zhou Xiangyang.
Yu Yaozu’s fair face swelled up red and bruised. The searing pain stoked his fury. “Yu Zhaozhao, how dare you strike me!”
Slap! Slap!
Yu Zhaozhao slapped him twice more. “I shall strike you, you heartless, heaven-struck, treacherous, vicious wretch!
Xiangyang-ge and I grew up together, betrothed from childhood! I have looked forward every single day to becoming his wife! What job, what university recommendation could ever matter more than marrying him? It is you, Yu Yaozu, who covets that university placement! Wang Baogen’s mother is close friends with yours. Since childhood, you have trailed after Wang Baogen like a lackey, boasting that your sister would one day marry into the wealthy Wang family and live in luxury. Yet now Wang Baogen has grown fat, short-tempered, and coarse, beneath your sister’s notice. So you have conspired together to ruin Xiangyang-ge and me!”
Yu Zhaozhao burned with hatred toward Yu Yaozu. She had never imagined they would speak such slander of her name. Worse still, Yu Yaozu bore his share of guilt for the calamity that had befallen her in her past life, the debt of her broken leg.
From childhood onward, Yu Zhaozhao had been targeted by that mother and her two children. Whenever her worthless father Yu Jianshe beat her, Yu Yaozu was always the one to hand him the stick.
Yu Yaozu flinched before Yu Zhaozhao’s fury, yet he felt no real fear of her loathing. His mother had long told him: Yu Zhaozhao was an ill-starred child, a curse upon all who drew near.
Even before she was born, her grandmother had died in an accident. Upon her birth, her mother fell ill and passed away after two years. When Yu Zhaozhao turned four, Xiangyang-ge’s mother, the one person who had always protected her, also died. Therefore, one must never treat her kindly. If one could not keep far away, one must loathe her and oppose her. Only when she suffered hardship could their family prosper. Yet such superstition could not be spoken aloud now.
Besides, he told himself, he was doing this for Xiangyang-ge’s own good. A calamity-bringer like Yu Zhaozhao was far beneath him. As for Wang Baogen, fat as a pig, cruel and ill-tempered, he was exactly the sort of husband who could tame and discipline Yu Zhaozhao. His own sister Yu Zhaodi, gentle and lovely, was the true match for Xiangyang-ge.
Yu Zhaozhao turned to look at Zhou Xiangyang, and in her heart, she felt nothing more.
In this plot, Zhou Xiangyang had begun as the victim. But history had already been written: Yu Zhaodi would bear him a son, binding them together with a child. Later they would even have a second. Yu Zhaozhao harbored no hatred toward him, no resentment, yet she could love him no longer.
“Xiangyang-ge, you wrote saying you had requested leave to return and marry me. Yet now, with Yu Zhaodi, what am I to do?”
“Waa, I only came to visit Caixia, and then, waa.”
Yu Zhaodi crouched huddled in the corner, trembling and weeping piteously, appearing as though she had suffered the cruellest injustice.
“You lie! You leaned close to me of your own accord!” Zhou Xiangyang retorted, stammering with rage. His head still throbbed dizzily. Seeing Yu Zhaozhao heartbroken before him, he too felt plunged into despair, overwhelmed by guilt and self-reproach. He stammered an explanation:
“Zhaozhao, I came straight to your home looking for you the moment I returned. Your stepmother said you had gone out at dawn. Then Caixia brought a bowl of wild vegetable, mushroom, and egg soup to the table, saying you had left it for me. I thought nothing of it and drank it.”
“Xiangyang-ge, why would I ever send Zhou Caixia to deliver soup to you? Even had I known you were coming, I would have brought it myself.”
Since Wen Huazhi had claimed she was out, Yu Zhaozhao chose not to reveal she had been home all along.
“I was foolish, I let my guard down,” Zhou Xiangyang said, writhing with remorse. His eyes blazed red as he glared at Yu Zhaodi, Yu Yaozu, and his own sister Zhou Caixia. His own flesh and blood had conspired with outsiders to disgrace him so utterly. He could not forgive them. He could not find peace with this.
Yu Zhaozhao lashed out and slapped Zhou Caixia twice more across the face. “Zhou Caixia! Even if you did not wish for me to be your brother’s wife, how could you harm him so? This is the brother who stormed a den of human traffickers to rescue you, who was nearly beaten to death saving you! Your own flesh and blood! Has your heart been eaten by dogs?”
Zhou Caixia pressed her stinging cheek, glaring back at Yu Zhaozhao with venomous hatred. She shouted defiantly:
“You lie! My brother is the most precious person in the world to me! I did this for his own good! Sister Zhaodi is gentle and kind, she is his true match! You are wicked and cruel, you are not worthy of him! I only helped him make the right choice!”
Slap!
Zhou Xiangyang, beside himself with rage, struck Zhou Caixia hard across the face. “It is you who are wicked! Foolish and poisonous! Who asked you to choose for me? You have ruined my life!”
“Hah! For his own good?” Yu Zhaozhao’s voice cut through the murmurs of the growing crowd. “You drugged your own brother? When you did this despicable, shameless deed, feeding him potent, aphrodisiacal herbs fit for beasts, did you stop to consider who he is? What grudge do you hold against him to destroy him so? Why not serve that soup to Yu Yaozu instead? Then you might have married him outright!
And now, you hope your brother will marry Yu Zhaodi? Do you still imagine you can marry Yu Yaozu yourself? Trading siblings between families in marriage? What sort of shameful bargain is this? Truly, foolish, poisonous, and utterly devoid of shame!”
Yu Zhaozhao stood before the onlookers, her words ringing clear as she laid bare Zhou Caixia’s schemes.
“I did not.”
“You did not poison your brother? You do not love Yu Yaozu? Swear it! Swear that you do not love him, that you have never wished to marry him, and that you will never enter the Yu family as his wife, not for all your days!”
Yu Zhaozhao tilted her chin, watching Zhou Caixia clamp her mouth shut as though she had been gagged. She let out a cold, mocking laugh.