The last bit of expectation flowed out of Su Qinghua like a deflated balloon, and she stared at her birth mother as if she were a stranger.
Qiao Yaqin seemed to have noticed the change and her eyebrows furrowed, vaguely feeling something had slipped out of her grasp, figuratively and literally.
The moment her mother’s claws loosened, Su Qinghua dashed away. She didn’t know when her buff would expire, and when it did, she might not be able to handle a big, angry man like Wang Dashan.
Qiao Yaqin flinched and her eyes widened as she looked at her daughter’s back getting farther away. A deep, irritable feeling emerged from her soul, different from the indignant anger and annoyance from before.
But habit was habit, and all she thought of was dragging that girl back, no matter the consequence.
"Stop her!" she yelled, rarely raising her voice. "Someone stop that girl!"
She was beautiful and some men wanted to help. But many of them had seen how the woman handled the child, and they were reluctant to assist in that abuse.
When Qiao Yaqin saw that some passersby were just standing by, her eyes reddened, and she snapped. She usually cared for her image outside the house, but that daughter of hers always had a way to make her head go haywire.
Combined with the indescribable feeling of losing something important, she went all in and raised her voice. "CATCH HER! CATCH HER! SHE’S A THIEF!"
The feeling of desperately trying to cling onto something made her gut feel heavy, but she just took it as anger for being fooled and stolen from.
At this point, some hoodlums rushed out, thinking the beauty was never wrong.
Su Qinghua could hear this at a distance, and tears inadvertently pooled in her eyes. She wiped her tears with her palms, and she dashed as fast as she could, even if it felt like her lungs were burning.
She ended up in a dead end, but she used her newfound strength to bolster herself up over the wall. Fortunately, she was still quite strong at this time.
Soon, she found an isolated corner and immediately entered her space to hide, planning to let things pass inside. She had no mind to look at the space or do errands at this time.
She just dragged her body towards a corner and flopped down, curling into herself and burying her head into her arms.
...
After an hour or so, Su Qinghua recalibrated herself and her mood. By this time, she no longer had any expectations, and the pain became dull rather than sharp.
It felt a lot like the process of mourning. In a sense, it might really not be different.
Taking deep breaths, she went out of her space and headed straight to the police station. Unsurprisingly, both parents were there, likely to make a report against her.
They shot up from their seats at the sight of her, with Wang Dashan about to lunge forward. However, the policemen were nearby and stopped them, keeping them away from her.
"That’s her! That’s her! She’s a thief!" Qiao Yaqin shouted, voice higher than usual. However, she managed to rein in her emotions and calmed down a little, regaining some of her grace.
Her eyes were reddened in anger, and now she just looked like a beautiful mother who didn’t know what to do with her rebellious daughter. "Please keep her in place, officers! I don’t know where I went wrong raising this daughter, so I can only ask for your help!"
"My sister stole everything. She even assaulted me and left me in a room to starve!"
Qiao Yaqin supplemented. "I...I don’t know how to discipline this child anymore. Officers, you’ll help us, won’t you?"
The two went back and forth like this, appearing like the wronged parties. They were two beautiful women, too, so their wronged expressions were more impactful.
However, Su Qinghua watched all this with a bored expression on her face.
Wang Dashan hadn’t been calm this whole time. When he saw Su Qinghua’s impassive expression, he snapped immediately. "I raised this bastard for sixteen years, but she bit the hand that fed her!! BITCH! DON’T BE UNGRATEFUL!!!"
The officers frowned and pushed him down, forcing him to sit. "Calm down," one said, eyebrows furrowed, obviously disliking his attitude. "We still need to investigate your claims."
Su Qinghua nodded, unperturbed, though the messy hair partially covering her face made people unaware of her expression. "Having more mouths doesn’t make it true."
Wang Xiuying, seeing that the officers—despite this being a 3-versus-1 situation—still hadn’t fully sided with them, couldn’t help but chime in.
"It’s my fault! It’s my fault! I was locked in the room, injured, and starving because I said the wrong things." She was what young people of the later generations would call ’green tea.’ "Wuwuwwuwu! Sister...I’m so sorry I hurt your feelings."
She continued to cry in a gentle way that some men felt sorry for her. "Our parents love you very much. They just seem like they favor me because I am filial and obedient."
Translation: Your fate is your fault; you should’ve been obedient.
"But... this is no excuse to steal and beat people up, okay?"
Su Qinghua looked at this actress with a raised eyebrow. She was really an actress.
Actually, in her past life, Wang Xiuying indeed became an actress. Using her and Shen Yanchuan’s resources, she gained a certain level of fame.
But she wasn’t the only one who could act.
Su Qinghua’s eyes—which were already red from the drama her mother caused before—lifted her head. She combed back her unruly, sloppily-cut hair and tucked the loose strands behind her ear, showing the bruises on that side of her face.
She also rolled up her sleeves, showing bruises of varying sizes and colors as well as several bandaged areas.
"Don’t treat people as blind. People will know who is evil or not with their own eyes."
People gasped at her pitiful state, though some couldn’t help but note that this child was actually quite pretty.
Wang Xiuying’s nails buried into her palm. She was actually quite pretty, inheriting her mother’s advantages. It was just that compared to Su Qinghua, she looked rather plain, which was why she had always done her best through the years to suppress the other’s radiance.
Over the past decade, she made sure that that bright little girl had lost her luster, not just losing meat but also personality.
But what was going on now? Why was she acting differently?
Wang Xiuying remembered some scenes in their childhood, where this one actually beat up the bullies who kept pulling her hair, and got many other kids following her around like little minions.
At the time, she did her best to befriend them, giving them snacks and candies, but whenever Su Qinghua appeared, all attention would go to her. The contrast was jarring to the young Xiuying.
It could be said that her twisted mind had already begun to darken at that age.
She thought it must’ve been her imagination, but now she realized: that version of Su Qinghua...was back.
She gritted her teeth but—despite all odds—managed to keep up the act. "Sister....wuuu..."
Wang Dashan didn’t have patience for the sobbing mess next to him. "You little brat!" he gritted his teeth. "Give my things back! Do you want us to send you to prison?!"
Wang Xiuying decided to play the soft family member, contrasting with her father. "Just come back to us, okay? I...I can give our parents my savings, don’t be afraid, sister....wuuu..."
The policemen were not quite sure how to handle this. From what they gathered so far, this could be put under ’family dispute,’ which meant they couldn’t do much but mediate.
They turned to Su Qinghua, who seemed the calmest among the group, to listen to her side of the story. "Are...are you here to, er, turn yourself in?"
She shook her head. "First of all, I did not steal anything. I was too weak to carry myself and had to drag myself to the hospital. How would I have the energy to carry anything? The neighbors can serve as witness to this."
Before the couple could retort, she took out the medical certificate from her jacket.
"Rather, I’m here to report him," she said, pointing rudely at Wang Dashan. "For human trafficking and attempted murder."
!!!