“Sorry… I was too nervous…” Su Wantang hurriedly crouched down to clean up the mess.
As her sleeve brushed across the ground, the spiritual spring space quietly opened. A drop of spiritual spring water slipped from her fingertip into the remaining water at the bottom of the broken bowl, colorless and odorless.
Midwife Wang brought over another bowl.
This time, Su Wanrou watched the entire process closely. Su Wantang had no chance to touch the water.
But when Su Wanrou turned around to fetch the needle, Su Wantang flicked her fingertip slightly.
Another drop of spiritual spring water landed precisely into the new bowl.
The manipulation inside the space took no more than a moment in the outside world.
The blood test continued.
Su Wantang’s blood dropped in first, forming a perfectly round bead in the water.
When Su Dashan’s blood fell in, the entire courtyard became so quiet that everyone could hear their own breathing.
The two drops of blood moved closer.
Touched.
Yet they seemed separated by an invisible barrier.
No matter what, they refused to merge.
“This… how is this possible?!” Su Wanrou blurted out, her face turning deathly pale.
The system notification flashed before Su Wantang’s eyes:
[Spiritual spring water contains special minerals that maintain blood surface tension and prevent the fusion of non-direct blood relations.]
Su Dashan staggered backward.
He stared at the two clearly separated drops of blood in the bowl, his lips trembling.
“You… you really aren’t…”
“No!”
Su Wanrou suddenly grabbed Su Dashan’s hand.
“Test again! Father and I will test again!”
Her panic was abnormal.
Su Wantang’s heart skipped a beat.
A second bowl of water was brought out.
Su Wanrou snatched the needle and stabbed her finger hard.
Her blood fell quickly and heavily.
Su Dashan’s blood was added again.
Under everyone’s eyes, the two drops of blood…
Also failed to merge.
The courtyard fell completely silent for three seconds.
“Clatter.”
The sewing basket in Wang Xiuying’s hands fell to the ground.
She looked at the separated drops of blood in the bowl.
Then she looked at Su Dashan.
Finally, her gaze moved back and forth between Su Wanrou and Su Wantang.
Her pupils slowly lost focus.
“Both…”
She murmured.
“Both of them aren’t…?”
Before she could finish speaking, Wang Xiuying rolled her eyes and fainted.
The back of her head struck the doorstep with a dull thud.
“Xiuying!”
Su Dashan rushed forward.
The villagers outside exploded into chaos.
Someone shouted to call Doctor Li.
Others whispered:
“The two daughters of the Su family… neither of them are actually their biological children?”
More people stretched their necks, desperately trying to see the blood in the bowl.
Su Wanrou stood frozen in place.
She stared at the bowl.
Then suddenly, like a madwoman, she grabbed it and smashed it onto the ground.
“This water is wrong! Someone tampered with it!”
“The water was scooped by you.”
Su Wantang spoke softly.
Su Wanrou abruptly turned around.
Her eyes were like poisoned knives.
“It was you… You changed the water, didn’t you? You already knew you weren’t Father’s biological daughter, so you plotted against me—”
“Enough!”
Su Dashan roared.
Holding the unconscious Wang Xiuying in his arms, his eyes were bloodshot as he looked around the courtyard.
“Neither of you are my children?!”
“Fine… Fine!”
He gasped heavily.
His gaze finally locked onto Su Wantang.
“You tell me. That night, did Zhao Jianguo touch you or not?”
The meaning behind the question had completely changed now.
If she was not a daughter of the Su family, then the child in her belly was even more likely to be a “bastard.”
And Zhao Jianguo’s harassment became the most convenient excuse.
Su Wantang opened her mouth.
But she found that the system was silent at this moment.
No prompt.
No options.
Only the fetus gently kicked her once.
Suddenly, the crowd outside parted.
A tall figure pushed his way through.
A military-green training uniform.
A slightly raised bandage around his waist.
It was Lu Zhanye.
The man who should have already left.
His eyes swept across the broken bowls scattered on the ground, the unconscious Wang Xiuying, and the furious Su Dashan.
Finally, they landed on Su Wantang’s face.
They paused for a second.
Then shifted to Su Wanrou.
“The secretary asked me to come get the military water bottle I left behind.”
Lu Zhanye’s voice was calm.
But his hands were empty.
He walked toward Su Wantang.
From his pocket, he took out a small oil-paper package.
“Doctor Li asked me to give this to you. Medicine for regulating your stomach.”
When he handed over the package, his fingertips lightly brushed against her wrist.
Almost imperceptibly.
Su Wantang trembled as if shocked by electricity.
She raised her head and met his eyes.
How much had he heard?
How much had he figured out?
Lu Zhanye turned and walked away.
But when he reached the courtyard gate, he stopped.
He looked back at Su Dashan.
“Uncle Su, family matters are important, but some things…”
His meaning was clear.
“Don’t wrong an innocent person.”
Then he left.
But he left behind an even more mysterious silence.
Su Wanrou stared at Lu Zhanye’s retreating back.
Then she looked at the oil-paper package in Su Wantang’s hand.
Suddenly, she laughed.
The laughter was cold and unsettling.
“The blood test doesn’t count.”
She spoke word by word.
“But Father, we can test another kind of blood.”
“Three months later, when the child is born, we can test whose blood it carries.”
“How about that?”
Su Wantang’s hand trembled.
The oil-paper package almost slipped from her fingers.
Three months…
That would be when she was four months pregnant.
By then, her pregnancy could no longer be hidden.
And what Su Wanrou wanted was obviously not just to expose her pregnancy.
“Before that…”
Su Wanrou walked up to her.
Her voice was low enough that only the two of them could hear.
“Little sister, you’d better behave.”
“After all, right now…”
“You don’t even have the qualifications to carry the surname Su anymore.”
She turned around and helped Su Dashan up.
Her gentle, filial appearance was completely different from the madness she had shown moments ago.
“Dad, saving Mom is the most important thing now.”
Su Dashan glanced at Su Wantang with a complicated expression.
There was anger.
Disappointment.
And a trace of confusion he couldn’t hide.
He had raised two daughters for more than ten years…
Yet neither of them were his biological children?
He carried Wang Xiuying inside.
And never looked back at Su Wantang again.
The villagers slowly dispersed.
Their whispers rose and faded like waves.
Su Wantang stood alone in the ruined courtyard.
She looked at the broken bowls on the ground.
The dried water stains.
The two traces of blood that refused to merge.
Finally, the system panel appeared.
[Blood test crisis temporarily resolved.]
[Su Wanrou’s hatred increased by +30.]
[New threat: The three-month blood identification challenge has been planted.]
[Remaining lifespan: 26 days, 11 hours.]
[Fetal health value: 79/100 (continuously fluctuating)]
She slowly crouched down and picked up a piece of broken porcelain.
The sharp edge reflected her pale face.
The red mole near her waist was clearly visible.
Lu Zhanye remembered this mole.
He remembered the scent from the threshing ground.
Did he remember…
That night, the final words he whispered hoarsely into her ear:
“Wanwan, don’t leave.”
From the distance came Su Wanrou’s gentle voice comforting Su Dashan inside the house.
Mixed with Wang Xiuying’s weak sobs after waking up.
From today onward…
There was no longer a place for Su Wantang in this family.
She tightened her grip on the porcelain shard.
The pain in her palm was sharp.
The spiritual spring space trembled faintly within her consciousness.
That tiny one-cubic-meter world had become her only escape route.
But how long could she escape?
Three months later—
When the child could no longer be hidden.
When Su Wanrou forced her to identify the father.
When Lu Zhanye might appear again…
Where could she run?
The night wind suddenly rose.
It scattered the smell of blood in the courtyard.
Beyond the fence, a dark figure stood silently for a moment.
Then turned and disappeared into the night.
The night grew deeper.
The dew became heavier.
The oil lamp in the Su family courtyard had long since gone out.
From the main room came suppressed sobbing.
Wang Xiuying was awake and crying.
Su Wantang lay on the cold earthen bed in the side room.
Beside her ears came her mother’s broken, unconscious murmurs:
“Impossible…”
“I clearly carried…”
“How could this happen…”
She had repeated those words more than ten times.