Chapter 4 I Want to Go Home

"Uncle Lu, my mom even made your favorite dishes. Our two families have been friends for generations. It wouldn't look good to fall out over such a country bumpkin..."

Gu Yuanyuan's voice, lacking confidence, finally betrayed her fear.

Lu Jiunian lashed out with his whip, his low, cold voice devoid of warmth, "Who are you calling a country bumpkin?"

"Holy shit..."

Gu Yuanyuan clutched his bruised and battered arm, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He looked up in disbelief, “Uncle Lu, you hit me for something like this?”

Lu Jiunian raised the whip again.

Gu Yuanyuan hurriedly covered her face with her hands and shouted, "I won't say it again, okay?"

Seeing that the whip hadn't come down, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Everyone says I look alike with my uncle, but I've never seen you back me up like this. It's good to have the same face."

Gu Yuanyuan seemed to be deliberately reminding him of something.

Lu Jiunian frowned slightly and stuffed the whip into Shi Nianzhi's arms. "You do it."

Shi Nianzhi held the whip, and after a while, he mustered up the courage to raise it, then put it down again.

When Lu Jiunian saw Shi Nianzhi's cowardly appearance, his brows furrowed with annoyance, and he was no longer as patient as before.

Gu Yuanyuan added fuel to the fire, "Shi Nianzhi looks like my uncle, but his character and temperament are nowhere near as good as my uncle's. A substitute is just a substitute after all."

"Shut up!"

Lu Jiunian reprimanded Gu Yuanyuan, his eyes filled with gloom, "He is not a substitute."

Gu Yuanyuan remained silent.

The man strode towards Shi Nianzhi, grabbed her hand, and said, "Just like this, you can't fight back, can you? If someone hits you and you don't fight back, they'll only bully you even more next time, you understand, hmm?"

"But, but the whip, it hurts..."

Shi Nianzhi had spent too long in that small mountain village where doors were left unlocked at night, and his nature was pure and kind.

Lu Jiunian grabbed his hand and lashed out with the whip.

The group of teenagers screamed in agony and knelt on their knees begging for mercy.

Shi Nianzhi kept pulling his hand back, but Lu Jiunian squeezed his hand tightly with his knuckles, seemingly angry about something.

"Clang—"

"pain----"

Shi Nianzhi cried out in pain; his wrist had been dislocated from the force of his struggle.

He was genuinely afraid of Lu Jiunian when he was angry, and the memory of their wedding night still haunted him.

As soon as Lu Jiunian let go of him, he took several steps back, his dislocated and swollen hand behind his back.

He whispered, "I want to go home. I miss my parents."

Lu Jiunian slammed the whip to the ground, his brows furrowing as if frost had settled, and he stared sharply at Shi Nianzhi.

In Shi Nianzhi's eyes, he looked like he wanted to eat people, so Shi Nianzhi took another step back.

"Take me home."

Shi Nianzhi raised her eyes and looked timidly at Lu Jiunian.

The man's thin lips were stretched into a straight line.

The assistant tried to smooth things over, "Young Master Shi, how can you be so insensible? Third Master spent so much money treating your father's illness, treated you so well, and even took care of those who bullied you. You're not only ungrateful, but now you're making a scene about going home. What do you take Third Master for?"

Although Shi Nianzhi was timid, he wasn't stupid. He glanced at Gu Yuanyuan.

He then looked at Lu Jiunian with a puzzled expression, "He said I'm just a substitute. If I'm a substitute, then I'm not important. If I'm not important, then I can just be replaced. Why can't I go home?"

Shi Nianzhi mustered his courage and approached Lu Jiunian. Lu Jiunian looked up at him directly, appearing somewhat self-righteous.

She added, "Can't I go home? I don't feel comfortable here, and I don't like being with you."