“Yu Zhaozhao, you have gone too far.”
Zhou Caixia glared at Yu Zhaozhao in utter fury, unable to believe anyone could be so hateful. She felt no regret for plotting against her own brother and Sister Zhaodi. Her only regret was that she had drawn the neighbors over and allowed everything to spiral so far out of control. To her mind, Yu Zhaozhao had nothing to recommend her besides a pretty face, and she was always bullying Sister Zhaodi and Yaozu. Someone like that was never good enough for her brother. Sister Zhaodi was gentle, generous, and even tempered. She had noticed Caixia’s feelings for Yaozu and had always encouraged the match. Unlike Yu Zhaozhao, who had declared that any woman who married Yaozu was destined for a life of hardship.
“You are not going too far? You are nothing but a curse and a plague upon everyone around you.”
Yu Zhaozhao scarcely deigned to speak to someone so foolish. For a fleeting moment she felt thankful that she had not married Xiangyang-ge. With such a foolish and venomous sister in law, life would have been bitter even with Xiangyang-ge and Uncle Zhou at their best.
Zhou Xiangyang drew close and asked in a low voice. “Zhaozhao, were they plotting against you?”
Yu Zhaozhao nodded, saying nothing more.
Zhou Xiangyang understood instantly. His gaze swept over Wen Huazhi and her children and Wang Baogen with open loathing. A cold, ruthless fury rose up in his chest, uncontrollable and overwhelming. His eyes turned sharp and hard.
Yu Zhaozhao whispered a warning. “Xiangyang-ge, hold back. I have come to no harm. I got away safely. We could punish them, but it is not worth ruining your own future and ending up in prison over them.”
Zhou Xiangyang’s eyes glistened with moisture. His heart swelled with profound relief. Thank heaven Zhaozhao was clever enough to escape the trap. Yet he burned with a deep, searing hatred.
“Zhaozhao, I shall never let them get away with this.” He vowed it in his heart with iron resolve.
Yu Zhaozhao sighed inwardly. She believed that at this moment, Zhou Xiangyang meant every word. Yet people change.
“Brother.” Zhou Caixia was filled with resentment as she watched her brother speaking quietly to Yu Zhaozhao. She was his own flesh and blood sister. Why did he always treat Yu Zhaozhao with such tenderness and warmth?
Zhou Xiangyang looked back at the sister he had sheltered and protected all her life. His eyes were cold and filled with revulsion. “I am no brother of yours. From this day forward I have no sister.”
“Brother.” Zhou Caixia stared at him in disbelief. How could he speak to her with such cold finality? She had done everything for his own good. Why could he not see how deeply she cared for him?
Slap!
Zhou Xiangyang swung his arm and struck her hard across the face.
Zhou Caixia’s head rang violently. Sharp pain shot through her skull and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Plop!
Two teeth fell out onto the ground, stained red with blood.
Yu Zhaozhao stood silent. She had never seen such force. She had beaten Caixia for quite some time without knocking out a single tooth. Yet Zhou Xiangyang had felled her with one blow. His rage was absolute. He turned his face away, his heart filled with a deep, unforgiving loathing for the sister he had once cherished.
“Zhaozhao, I…” Pain and sorrow filled his eyes.
“Xiangyang-ge, after everything that has happened, there can be no future for us.”
Zhou Xiangyang had no choice. He must marry Yu Zhaodi. If he refused, his education and his entire future would be destroyed. They were not meant to be. Fate had never woven their lives together.
Zhou Xiangyang felt as though his heart were being torn apart. How had everything come to this? Throughout his three years at university, female classmates had shown interest in him. Yet his heart had always belonged to Yu Zhaozhao. He had wanted no one but her. He had planned to marry her as soon as he graduated this year. The moment he received his father’s call and learned that the Yu family refused to secure a work placement for Zhaozhao, he had requested leave and rushed home to register their marriage in person. Only to be betrayed and ruined by these hateful, scheming people.
After hearing the full account of what had transpired, Uncle Zhou felt nothing but utter disappointment in his daughter Caixia. He valued his son, yet he had never treated his daughter unfairly. He had only these two children. After his wife passed away, he had refused every offer of marriage over the years. He had wanted nothing more than to raise his children and watch them grow into adulthood. Yet his own daughter had conspired with outsiders to destroy her brother. Uncle Zhou pressed a hand to his chest, his temples throbbing violently as blood rushed to his head. He fought to keep his composure, yet the world swam before his eyes and he slumped forward.
“Uncle!”
Yu Zhaozhao was the first to notice that something was terribly wrong. Her cry alerted Zhou Xiangyang, who rushed forward and caught his father just as he lost consciousness.
And so it came to pass that instead of going to the police station, the whole group ended up at the hospital. Curiosity ran deep in human nature. By now the hospital was bustling with onlookers. Nearly every resident of the courtyard had followed them there.
Meanwhile, the Wang family arrived in a towering rage.
“Wen Huazhi, you shameless old hussy! How dare you defile my son! He is barely twenty years old! You are worse than a beast!”
Wang Baogen’s mother Zha Jinhua rushed at Wen Huazhi, screaming and tearing at her clothes. The two women had known each other since girlhood. Born in the same year and both bearing the character for flower in their names, they had once been closest friends. One had become a stepmother and taken work at the Textile Factory. The other had been widowed and remarried, also becoming a stepmother and joining the same factory. They had visited each other often. Now their former friendship had turned to bitter, screaming fury.
At the sight of the Wang couple, Yu Zhaozhao lowered her eyes, concealing the ruthless resolve churning beneath her gaze.
“Stop this fighting at once! This is a hospital!”
Doctors and nurses rushed forward to intervene. Further violence would surely cost someone their life.
“Cease this! Your son is still in surgery fighting for his life!”
At the Women’s Affairs Director’s words, the Wangs rushed toward the operating theatre in panic.
The Director breathed a sigh of relief and urged the doctors to examine Yu Zhaozhao and the others.
Zhou Xiangyang said. “Zhaozhao, you go first.”
Yu Zhaozhao said nothing and went through her examination. When she came out, Zhou Xiangyang and the others including Wen Huazhi and Yu Zhaodi were gone.
“Comrade Yu Zhaozhao.”
Yu Zhaozhao looked up to see a tall young man standing before her, about one hundred and seventy centimeters in height. He held a food container in his hands and looked at her curiously. She had noticed him standing quietly in the crowd earlier but had paid him no mind. Now she recognized him as Lu Shiguang, Yu Yaozu’s bitter rival from school. The two had once fought and both sets of parents had been called in.
“Hello. May I ask what this is about?”
“Yu Zhaozhao, do you remember my older brother?”
Yu Zhaozhao looked at him in confusion. “Your brother?”
“Lu Shiye. When you were little, you came with Zhou Xiangyang’s mother to our compound for a wedding. My brother gave you a piece of candy. You told him you would one day become his bride. He and Zhou Xiangyang were classmates. He has always cared for you deeply. Yet since you were betrothed to Zhou Xiangyang from childhood, he joined the army after graduating high school. Now that your marriage to Zhou Xiangyang will not take place, would you consider my brother instead?”
Yu Zhaozhao’s face flushed with embarrassment. Dimly she recalled something like that happening. Yet that kind older brother had been Lu Shiye all along?
Lu Shiye was known as the rebellious, troublemaking student in Zhou Xiangyang’s class. If Zhou Xiangyang was the model student that parents praised, Lu Shiye was the sort of boy that parents warned their children to keep away from. He slept in class, was constantly late or absent, and fought in brawls so frequently that he was said to be unbeaten in combat. He could vault over the school wall with the lightness of someone possessing supernatural skill. A band of younger boys always followed him about, calling out Brother Ye in admiration. Whenever she had seen him from afar, his face had always been bruised and swollen. Yu Zhaozhao had never clearly seen what he actually looked like.
Yet Lu Shiye had long been Yu Zhaodi’s secret love. Yu Zhaozhao had once even seen a poem Zhaodi had written in the first flush of youth. Dearest Brother Ye, you are the radiant moon above, and I am a little yellow flower growing low upon the earth. There had been a time when Zhaodi grew listless and sorrowful whenever Lu Shiye was away. No one had expected him to join the army.