Ni Sitian lowered her head and watched him squat on the ground, his slender fingers deftly tying her shoelaces. Suddenly, her eyes reddened slightly.
Her family, with whom she had lived for twenty years, treated her like dirt, while the man she had been married to for only eight months treated her like a treasure. The quality of relationships between people isn't truly determined by blood ties or the length of time spent together.
Ni Sitian was lost in thought and didn't notice that Xu Tingchuan had already tied his shoelaces and looked up.
Xu Tingchuan looked up and saw something strange on her left cheek, which was covered by her hair; there was a little bit of redness and swelling.
He slowly stood up.
Ni Sitian snapped out of her daze and immediately turned around to open the door.
Xu Tingchuan grasped her shoulders and slowly turned her body around.
Ni Sitian lowered her head so much that it was almost buried in her chest, biting her lip and refusing to look up.
Xu Tingchuan reached out and gently brushed aside her long hair, revealing a clear handprint on her cheek, which was so swollen that her face was asymmetrical.
"What's going on?" His eyes suddenly turned as dark as a well, and his face was covered in frost.
Ni Sitian could sense the storm brewing beneath his calm exterior, and she instinctively covered her face.
Xu Tingchuan pulled her hand away, lifted her face, and said in a deep voice, "Who did it? Was it them?"
"Don't ask anymore." Ni Sitian's eyes were red, and she felt very embarrassed. She couldn't bring herself to say that she had such a father.
Xu Tingchuan suppressed his anger, pulled her back to the living room, pressed her down on the sofa, turned around and went into the bathroom, wrung out a hot towel, walked back to her side, and with a stern face, silently applied the towel to her cheek.
Ni Sitian pursed her lips tightly, lowered her eyes, and dared not look at his face. Although his movements were very gentle, she knew he was very angry. The more silent he was now, the more serious his outburst would be.
After applying the towel for a while, it got cold, so Xu Tingchuan went into the bathroom and wrung it out again.
After repeating this three times, Ni Sitian grasped Xu Tingchuan's wrist and whispered, "I'm alright now."
Xu Tingchuan put down the towel, looking at her with deep eyes, his face tense, his voice cold and stern: "Is it your father, your stepmother, or Ni Ziqi?"
Ni Sitian lowered her head, finding it difficult to speak.
Seeing her like this, Xu Tingchuan understood that it must be Ni Qianshan.
He Cuiyun and Ni Ziqi were not related to her by blood, so they would never make her feel so uncomfortable. Only Ni Qianshan was her biological father, and they were connected by blood. No matter what, she still held hope for him in her heart.
Xu Tingchuan clenched his hands tightly at his sides, the veins on the back of his hands bulging slightly. He finally understood why she had been sleeping with her back to him all night, but he had been so oblivious that he had only just realized it now. She had suffered such a great injustice at her parents' home, and he had been completely unaware of it.
Ni Sitian saw the veins on the back of his hand bulging slightly, reached out and held his hand. She was a little scared of his silence, and said softly, "I'm really fine now, it doesn't hurt anymore."
Xu Tingchuan gripped her hand tighter. What kind of life did his wife live in that family before? They dared to treat her like this as soon as they returned to the country. It was conceivable that such things were commonplace in the past, which he did not know about.
"Don't be angry." Ni Sitian took his hand and gently rubbed it against her cheek, acting coquettishly.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Xu Tingchuan asked in a tense voice, his hand gradually loosening as his fingertips touched her left cheek.
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