Chapter 86
She walked to the recliner, picked up the photo that had fallen to the ground, wiped it on her sleeve, and saw Ye Hua smiling at her in the photo.
After returning the photo to its original place, she suddenly felt something was wrong.
What about the wheat field?
She searched for a long time before finally finding it in Ye Hua's room, where it was nestled under Ye Hua's bed with its eyes half-closed.
After Ye Hua passed away, it came every day, so she put a cushion under it.
She carried Maitian out, intending to take it to the living room, when she suddenly noticed blood on the mat.
"Wheatfield, where are you hurt?" She frantically checked around, but couldn't find any wounds.
"Where did this blood come from?" She examined it again, carefully and thoroughly, and found it intact.
Suddenly realizing something, she was startled: "Did he bully you?"
"Did he bully you, that's why you were angry with him?" Jian Sheng took it outside, placed it next to the recliner, poured it water, and prepared some food for it.
Jian Zihua disappeared for two days. During this time, Jian Sheng finished filling out the first batch of college applications and returned to Chen Zhoujing's place half an hour later.
He opened the door and limped in, his arm still wrapped in bandages.
Upon seeing Jian Sheng in the living room, he threw away his keys and strode towards her.
Jian Sheng carried Mai Tian to the balcony and blocked the glass door. Jian Zihua pulled twice but couldn't pry it open.
He went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and rushed over. Jian Sheng held the door tightly, but Jian Zihua was tall and strong. The knife hit the glass door, shattering a large piece instantly, and she was thrown backward.
Jian Zihua threw away the knife, opened the door and walked over. His hands, bound with bandages, tightly gripped her neck and led her to the railing.
Jian Sheng glanced sideways at the distance of the eighth floor, gritted her teeth, and grabbed his hands with both of them: "Let go of me."
Jian Zihua's smile was sinister: "Let go? You don't come home tonight because you're with that brat?"
"No, don't talk nonsense!"
“I’m your father. Don’t think I don’t know about your affairs. I’ve come here to find out everything. Today, the old man on the second floor even told me that the man comes to see you every day.”
"What? You think you've found a phoenix and shed your pheasant's shell? You think you've found a backer and dare to oppose me?"
Jian Zihua pinched her until her face turned red and she couldn't speak.
He was about to say something when Maitian barked at him. Jian Zihua turned his head and saw Maitian staring at him with its fangs bared. His face darkened: "Beast!"
Wheatfield went up and bit his pants, ripping them off hard.
Jian Zihua let go, then angrily kicked it: "You damn dog! How dare you bite me!"
He kicked several times, but Mai Tian dodged them.
Jian Sheng covered his neck and coughed for a long time. He wanted to call out to Mai Tian, but he couldn't.
Jian Zihua dragged Maitian to the living room, picked up a knife, and was about to slash at it.
Jian Sheng pushed herself up and rushed over. The knife almost hit her, grazing her hair before crashing onto the coffee table. The glass coffee table shattered in two and fell heavily to the ground.
Suddenly, the iron gate at the entrance rattled.
Jian Sheng hugged Mai Tian tightly, her voice trembling. She looked towards the door and tried to keep her voice calm: "It might have disturbed the neighbors."
Reasoning with Jian Zihua was pointless; she could only adopt her old attitude of swallowing her anger and speaking to him kindly.
Jian Zihua glared at her and walked towards the entrance.
The door opened, and a pair of gloomy eyes stared at him.
The fist in his hand almost hit him, but Chen Zhou quickly withdrew his hand: "The door opened too suddenly, I couldn't stop myself."
"You don't live in this building, do you?" Jian Zihua glanced at the watch on his wrist again.
Chen Zhou shook his head, his tone somber: "The building opposite."
He raised his hand, his slender fingers tracing the watch. Seeing Jian Zihua's gaze follow his hand, he casually removed the watch, handed it to him, and said in a low voice, "Going to the police station is more comfortable than sitting and collecting money."
Jian Zihua raised an eyebrow and snatched the watch from his hand: "Wow, a European watch... this must be worth over ten thousand, right?"
Chen Zhoujing didn't say anything, turned around and went downstairs.
After Jian Zihua closed the door, he returned and sat at the top of the stairs for the entire night.
For several days in a row, whenever he got drunk at night and made a move, Chen Zhoujing would knock on the door.
Jian Sheng sent him many messages urging him to return, but Jian Zihua restricted her from seeing him, saying he would go crazy if he couldn't see her.
He was afraid that Jian Zihua might do something to her.
He didn't have much on hand; most of it was stuff Li Jing had given him, and he had brought it all with him. But Jian Zihua was like a vampire, and he used it all up in just two days.
In early July, during a torrential downpour, he stood downstairs at her house carrying a black bag.
The shouting grew louder as he approached, so he threw down his umbrella and ran toward the glass door.
...........
When Jian Sheng woke up in the morning, he thought Jian Zihua had gone out, so he only boiled two eggs.
She stared blankly at the light rain outside the window for a while, and when the fire was extinguished, a sound came from the living room sofa.
Jian Shengxin's heart tightened, and the next second, Jian Zihua's commanding tone came: "Bring the noodles over."
She clenched her hands: "I'll do it now."
"What? You didn't cook? What time is it?" He jumped up and walked towards the kitchen. "Are you trying to starve me?"
"You still want to eat eggs? Eat my ass!" He threw the eggs and the plate on the ground, and then stomped on them a few times with his brand-new, shiny leather shoes.
Jian Sheng only glanced at him.
His fist came flying, and she dodged it, which ignited a fire in his heart. But as she closed her eyes, she seemed to remember something and chuckled, "I won't bother with you."
“You’re not ignoring me,” Jian Sheng slowly opened his eyes, his gaze turning sinister. “You’re just not concerned about money.”
Jian Zihua wasn't annoyed; instead, he laughed even more heartily: "He told you?"
"This kid is no good. What kind of man spends money on a woman and then tells others about it? He's not fair."
Jian Sheng twitched the corners of her mouth. On his ruthless smile, she saw greed, disgust, and decay.
Her lips twitched as she said, word by word, "The whole county knows that you only spent half the cost of three years' worth of train tickets from our village to win over my mother. My mother didn't ask for a single penny of the 80,000 yuan dowry, and you gave her over 100,000 yuan after you lost money gambling. All the money you earned from odd jobs day and night was used by you for eating, drinking, and gambling. Apart from you, me, and He Ying who twists the truth, no one else knows!"
"Are you still arguing about who's dishonest? You, on the other hand, are the one who's dishonest?"
She trembled with anger: "You severed ties with Grandma yourself, saying that apart from you, no one in the Jian family is any good, and that they're like vampires sucking money from Jian Qingyao's father. How can you be so shameless?"
"You angered her to the point that she was hospitalized for a month, and you didn't even glance at her or give her a penny. Why didn't you say a word when you were out partying? How dare you say you didn't tell her when she passed away? Do you think you're a decent person?"
"When she came to pick me up and forcibly took me away, you said again that you were severing ties. She even secretly slipped you 20,000 yuan with her pension. When you were pushing her and telling us to get out while taking the money, why didn't you say you were being decent?"
Jian Sheng was trembling violently, but she just wanted to continue speaking. However, she knew that Jian Zihua could endure it today.
"You tricked my mother into a marriage of convenience, got her pregnant, and then didn't give her a single penny of dowry. You even made her pay for the marriage yourself. How can you be so honest?"
"After the first miscarriage, you knew perfectly well that she wasn't in good health, yet you still made her have a second child right away. When it came time to give birth, because I was a girl, you waved your hand dismissively and shamelessly said that girls were meaningless, and threatened to have an abortion. Was it your body? Could you have endured it? Were you the one lying on the cold operating table? Were you the one being surrounded and having your abdomen cut open?"
“I was abandoned to He Ying’s family after I was born, and they never gave me a penny. She paid for my upbringing for those three years, and you even took half of it. Do you think you’re being fair?”
"After my mother passed away, knowing that she couldn't afford to support me and that your money bank was gone, she started to put on an act and lied to my mother again. After she got her back, she started to show her true colors again. Even though she knew that she was cold-hearted, she still heartlessly said that she was aloof, that she was a rich girl and therefore precious, and that she was high-minded for not wanting to have another child. After she got pregnant, she didn't cherish it, and when the pregnancy was almost formed, you ruined it."
“We were dressed in rags and were constantly gossiped about, while you were always clean and tidy, changing clothes five times a month, everything was new, and you pointed at us and called us a money-loser!”
"After my mother died, I gave you half of the money she left me, and you even wanted to take the subsidy my school gave me!"
Tears blurred her vision.
"You've lived in Jeju for so many years, knowing her family is in Gangju, yet you've never once come here!"
“I never went to her grave. She was so young, yet she came to Jeju alone with you, to experience a life she had never known before, and to accept everything about you.”
"In the end, you joined He Ying and the others in spreading rumors about her, saying she took dirty money, that she was a slut, and that she brought you bad luck?"
"Jian Zihua! You're not human!"
"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you so much! Why did you treat her so well, yet you hurled insults at her, clung to her like a starving ghost, sucking her blood and eating her flesh!"
After finishing speaking, Jian felt he had used up all his strength. When Jian Zihua slapped him with a gust of wind, he had no strength left to resist or fight back.
She even wanted to just kneel down under his fist.
Go see her mother.
Jian Zihua kicked her a few times inside the house, but not satisfied, he dragged her outside and led her down from the eighth floor to the back door.
The rain poured down, leaving her stranded in the downpour, still wearing the short-sleeved shirt and trousers she had on that morning.
Jian Zihua pointed at her nose and cursed, his curses as loud as thunder.
"You shameless bastard, who the hell told you that? You seduced a rich guy, and now you think you can step on my head?"
"I fucking regret having you. What kind of person are you to challenge me?"
"Why didn't that bitch Zhou Yilian take you with her when she died? What a waste of my money."
"What the hell can I say to you? I'm your dad!"
Bang--
The beer bottle shattered on the ground, and the sharp, piercing sound assaulted Jian Sheng's ears, stimulating her brain. She instinctively covered her head to block out the inappropriate intrusion from the outside world.
The number of figures in her line of sight gradually increased, creating a cacophony of noise. Her ears were ringing, and she couldn't make out the specific sounds. She huddled in a corner, with a wall covered in moss and various stains behind her, and the air was filled with the stench of a nearby garbage can.
Apart from her clothes, there wasn't a single clean spot on her body.
The bruises, large and small, and the cracked skin were gruesome and frightening.
"Get up! I told you to get up. Weren't you so arrogant and talkative when you were talking back just now?" Jian Zihua's rough but deep voice was loud, but the people passing by with umbrellas seemed to be used to it. The events of the past few days had spread throughout the area, but it didn't attract many people. Only a few people who were nearby joined in the fun, while others avoided it like the plague.
Jian Sheng was too weak to speak and kept trying to dart into the corner next to the trash can. This was the best she could do to avoid his beatings, and even the filthy garbage dump became her only tool for protection.
The neighbors watched and pointed, but no one stepped forward.
What makes them quickly take sides and believe they are on the moral high ground?
It's a rumor, a rumor fabricated by her own father.
"Have you been doing something dirty with him? I've been watching him for a long time. Does he come to see you every day before and after school, and come back late every night? Your poor grades are all because you're too young to be studying properly and dating!"
Bang--
Another bottle was knocked, and the surroundings became noisy. Suddenly, a figure appeared in Jian Sheng's line of sight.
"don't want!"
Chen Zhoujing's movements were swift and ruthless. When the bottle hit Jian Zihua, he was stunned for a moment until scarlet blood flowed down his forehead.
Jian Sheng felt unwell and wanted to go forward, but her vision was already blurred and all she could hear was a buzzing noise.
Chen Zhoujing threw his bag aside, his gaze sweeping over Jian Sheng, his pupils bloodshot.
Jian Zihua's usual smiling face disappeared. In front of everyone, he picked up an old chair from the wall and smashed it on Chen Zhoujing.
He didn't dodge, letting him smash things.
He smashed things while cursing Jian Sheng.
When Chen Zhoujing's head started bleeding like his, his face darkened. As Jian Zihua leaned forward, he slammed the sharp weapon in his hand into Chen Zhoujing's body, saying, "Say that again if you dare."
His voice was sinister, instantly intimidating Jian Zihua.
He saw the shards of the beer bottle in his hand and instinctively reached out to catch them.
The pain of the sharp blade slicing through his palm made Jian Zihua grit his teeth, but he still had to say something.
But Chen Zhoujing had already pulled the beer bottle back, and as he opened his mouth, he prepared to stab him again.
This time, Jian Zihua was caught off guard. Just as he was terrified, someone stepped forward to shield him.
Chen Zhou was startled to see who it was. His hand loosened, his pupils contracted sharply, and he instantly became alert: "Li Jing!"
"How are you? Who told you to rush over here!"
The rain stained the blood on the ground, some of which belonged to Jian Sheng, some to Jian Zihua, some to Chen Zhoujing, and some to Li Jing.
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