Chapter 71: Reprimand

Inside the screening room, keys clicked and clacked in rapid succession, sending out crisp, rhythmic taps. Aside from that, there was only a tense, evasive silence.

He Chuanzhou cleared her throat and asked awkwardly, “Is that your young boss’s girlfriend?”

“Uh…”

The employees didn’t actually know, but they couldn’t say no for sure either. After all, who knew what the future held?

He Chuanzhou turned to Xie Qimeng for an answer, but he, too, fell into a shameful silence. He suddenly realized that his friendship with He Jueyun was incredibly superficial.

Reading the room, Fang Qi cried out, “He’s completely blurring the lines between work and personal life! He Jueyun is using his job to pick up girls!”

He Chuanzhou said understandingly, “Well, they’re young.”

Fang Qi: “??” Just because they’re young, they get a free pass to shove their romance in our faces?

·

Inside the Instance, He Jueyun stood in front of Xia Xia’s door and glanced down.

The light inside the apartment was still on, spilling out from the crack beneath the door.

He Jueyun pressed the doorbell, but it was broken, so he resorted to pounding heavily on the door with his palm.

A gruff voice came from inside as a middle-aged man shouted, “Who is it!”

He Jueyun said, “Open up.”

The man asked, “Who!”

He Jueyun lowered his voice slightly. “Neighborhood committee^[1].”

The man warily poked his head out, using his body to block the doorway and shield the interior from their view.

His expression was highly guarded. “Can I help you?”

He Jueyun pulled out his badge to show him. “Criminal investigation.”

Hearing this, the middle-aged man’s voice dropped, and his aggressive demeanor softened considerably.

He Jueyun pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, made a show of comparing the face on it, and said, “It’s you. You know Ding Xihua, right? We have some questions for you.”

“Wait, why ask me about him?” the middle-aged man said defensively. “Did he call the police?”

He Jueyun scoffed, “If you didn’t do anything, why are you afraid of him calling the police? Guilty conscience?”

The middle-aged man said hurriedly, “He did that of his own free will! Besides, his family was supposed to pay. I raised my daughter all this way just for them to ruin her. Do you think this has been easy for me?”

He Jueyun said, “But according to our neighborhood inquiries, it seems your relationship with your daughter isn’t very good.”

“I’m her father, how could I harm her? We’re family, what do you mean our relationship isn’t good?” the man retorted without a second thought. “Can you really believe what those outsiders say? They do nothing but gossip. They don’t know a damn thing!”

He Jueyun asked, “So you think you’re a good father?”

The middle-aged man replied, “Of course!”

He Jueyun didn’t want to waste any more words on him. “Step aside, we want to talk to Xia Xia.”

The middle-aged man glanced back inside, looking hesitant, but he didn’t budge an inch.

He Jueyun said dryly, “What, do you want us to stand out here in the hallway and talk about your daughter’s pregnancy?”

The middle-aged man snapped back, “What does my daughter’s pregnancy have to do with the police? Aren’t you overstepping your bounds?”

“Extortion and murder have to do with us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ding Xihua’s father is dead,” He Jueyun said. “Don’t you watch the news?”

The man’s complexion was too dark and weathered to show a change in color, but his suddenly dull eyes and trembling lips betrayed his true emotions.

“This… this has nothing to do with us,” the man said, scrambling to distance himself. “When did he die? We’ve been staying at home lately, we…”

While his voice was still trembling, a heavy thud echoed from behind. A series of loud, crashing impacts followed, growing more distant as if something were tumbling down the building and crashing onto the ground. The noise was incredibly jarring in the quiet night, almost deafening. The middle-aged man’s body shuddered violently in sync with the sounds.

Qiong Cang had been standing in the shadows. Hearing the commotion, she shifted her stance and immediately bolted downstairs.

He Jueyun glanced back but missed Qiong Cang’s figure. He chose to rush into the apartment after the middle-aged man.

Once inside, his steps faltered for a second at the sight of the chaotic living room.

A thick, long rope stretched from the living room toward the bedroom. The middle section of the rope had been frayed and snapped by something, leaving the two severed halves lying on the floor. The living room window was wide open, the curtains billowing wildly in the wind.

“Ah! Ah!”

The middle-aged man leaned precariously out the window, straining to look down while letting out mindless, guttural screams. Hearing those agonizing shrieks, He Jueyun finally understood what had happened. His hair stood on end, and his scalp went numb. He spun around and sprinted downstairs to check on the situation.

The rapid patter of footsteps, combined with the sudden burst of hushed chatter from the neighbors, made the air feel hot and suffocating.

He Jueyun didn’t have time to think. He only knew that Xia Xia had jumped.

By the time he reached the ground directly beneath the living room window, a figure was already crouching beside the injured girl. A light shone from her hand as she dialed emergency services.

He Jueyun stopped beside her and asked, “How is she?”

Qiong Cang nodded, speaking into the phone at the same time. “Address: XX… A female fell from the fourth floor. Fortunately, a few awnings and clotheslines broke her fall. A preliminary check shows no fatal head injuries. However, she is currently pregnant and showing signs of minor vaginal bleeding. Her breathing is weak, and I cannot determine the extent of her fractures or internal bleeding. There are no medical professionals nearby, so we have not moved her.”

Her calm demeanor steadied those around her.

The operator on the line said, “Do not move her. Wait patiently for the paramedics. Is the victim conscious?”

Qiong Cang said calmly, “Yes.”

Xia Xia’s eyes were wide and filled with tears. Her pupils darted around, scanning the starry sky and the faces above her. With a single blink, heavy tears rolled down her cheeks.

Qiong Cang took her hand, her thumb gently stroking the back of it in reassurance, and felt a faint squeeze in response.

“Xia Xia!”

The middle-aged man rushed forward with a loud cry, trying to scoop up his daughter. Reacting quickly, He Jueyun shoved him back.

The man struggled violently. “What are you doing? Let go of me! How is my daughter?”

He Jueyun grabbed him by the collar, pinning him to the ground, and barked in a low voice, “Enough! Shut up!”

Qiong Cang said, “Instead of wasting time throwing a fit, you’d be better off going to the entrance to meet the paramedics.”

The two grown men belatedly realized how they could be useful. One ran toward the intersection to guide the paramedics, while the other cleared the scene and dispersed the crowd.

In less than five minutes, the ambulance stationed at a nearby clinic arrived. Although it was the evening rush hour, the passing drivers were highly cooperative. Once one driver set the example, the others followed suit, orderly clearing an emergency lane for the ambulance.

The paramedics carried the stretcher, running all the way to Xia Xia’s side. They administered emergency first aid and rushed her to the hospital.

He Jueyun drove behind the ambulance, then followed the middle-aged man all the way to the doors of the operating room.

The doors were tightly shut. Nurses bustled back and forth, and the pungent smell of antiseptic filled the corridor.

The middle-aged man squatted dejectedly on the floor, rubbing his head with his hands, scratching out a clump of his already thinning hair.

He Jueyun paced over to him, his tall figure casting a shadow over the man. His face was dark and grim, and his voice was bone-chillingly cold when he spoke.

“Now that you have time to talk, what did you mean by tying her up in the room with a rope?” He Jueyun suppressed his anger, holding back the urge to kick him. “Do you have any humanity left? That’s your daughter, and she’s pregnant. Do you not treat her as a human being, or do you not treat yourself as one?”

The middle-aged man hung his head, and only after a long pause did he mutter to himself, “I did it for her own good. If she hadn’t wanted an abortion, why would I treat her like this?”

Sitting in the waiting area, Qiong Cang turned her eyes and stared at him expressionlessly.

He Jueyun let out a harsh, angry laugh and took a deep breath. “Abortion is a woman’s right. Unless you grow a uterus and give birth for her, what right do you have to make decisions on her behalf?”

“But she can’t have an abortion! The doctor said it would be very dangerous for her, and she won’t be able to have children in the future.”

The man’s sallow face was lined with wrinkles, and tears glistened in the dim light. At this moment, the rogue finally showed a trace of what a father should look like.

“Ding Xihua told her to get an abortion, so she went to get an abortion. She doesn’t even care about her own life anymore! How could she do this? I tried to talk to her nicely, but she’s gone mad. She’s been completely brainwashed by the Ding family!”

Qiong Cang interjected, “How did she get the injuries on her face?”

That single question choked off all the sound in the middle-aged man’s throat. He said guiltily, “She probably fell just now.”

Qiong Cang sneered, “Why don’t you fall and get the exact same injuries for me to see?”

Father Xia’s lips trembled, and he remained silent for a long time.

He Jueyun tilted his head back and rubbed his face hard.

Yet, the man did not reflect for long before he started complaining again. “I had no choice. I did it for her own good. Xia Xia used to be so good, so sensible. I never expected her to end up selling… earning dirty money. How could she do something so scandalous and shameful? Do you think I could tell anyone else? I had to hide her. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. I was just driven mad by anger and wanted to wake her up. If it were you, what would you have done?”

Qiong Cang laughed at his words. Her dry chuckle sounded rather chilling. Curling the corners of her lips, she asked, “Are you resentful because your daughter embarrassed you, or because she spent all the money on herself instead of donating it to the burdens of your family?”

Father Xia snapped his head up, his eyes bloodshot. “What do you mean by that? That’s a baseless accusation, and it’s uncalled for!”

Qiong Cang said, “If you were really just afraid of losing face, why did you go to Ding Xihua to extort millions? And why did you force Xia Xia to give birth to the child? You took the money so readily – where was your backbone then?”

Father Xia opened his mouth, but Qiong Cang cut him off. “Don’t lie. When you lie, the muscles in your face contort in a very ugly way. I can see right through you.”

Father Xia stood up, his face tense with agitation, his wrinkles carving deep lines like those on a plaster statue.

“Do you think if I had a choice, I would have let her be with an old man like Ding Tao? Is she not beautiful? Couldn’t she have married a decent young man? Now she’s pregnant, her whole life is ruined, and in the end, she still has to rely on me! She brought this ruin upon herself!”

He Jueyun was stunned by these words. His eyelid twitched, but not wanting to show his surprise too obviously, he could only dart his gaze back and forth between Qiong Cang and Father Xia.

Xia Xia was Ding Tao’s mistress? She was pregnant with Ding Tao’s child?

No wonder Father Xia took her to extort Ding Xihua instead of forcing a marriage.

Qiong Cang remained as calm as ever, her tone still laced with sarcasm. “Didn’t she learn that from you? Weren’t you the one constantly teaching her, through word and deed, that any man has the right to look down on her? She didn’t bring ruin upon herself; she has just always been made to feel worthless. You planted the seeds of her low self-esteem, and your influence lies behind every choice she made. Yet you still want to use her dirty money. You are far dirtier than she is.”

“I didn’t!” the man retorted. “She’s my daughter! How could I not want the best for her?”

Qiong Cang said, “Anyone can see that you favor your son. Even though this is the first time I’ve met you, I know you are trading your daughter’s life to get millions for your son.”

Father Xia argued, “I’m already much better than other families! She can rely on her husband in the future, but my son is still young, so I have to plan for him. That doesn’t mean I’m not good to my daughter! Don’t make people out to be so disgusting!”

Qiong Cang stood up as well, looking him straight in the eye. “Then stop constantly talking about ‘fairness.’ It’s this self-righteous, self-proclaimed sense of fairness of yours that is the most disgusting. It completely defiles the very concept of fairness.”

When Qiong Cang chose to sting someone, every single word she spoke stabbed deep into their heart, leaving absolutely no room for escape.

She sneered, “Don’t you understand? She would rather throw away her self-respect, self-worth, and self-love just to escape the brand you stamped on her. Do you think because you’re her father, she admires you and is grateful to you? No. The fact that she jumped from the building without a second thought proves how much you disgust her. She disgusted you so much that she didn’t value the life you gave her at all, nor did she value the twenty-odd years of her life that you were a part of.”

Father Xia was deeply provoked, his face flushing red. “You…”

Clenching his fists, he lunged forward, the veins on his forearms bulging. Instantly shifting out of spectator mode, He Jueyun stepped in front of him, pressing a single hand against his chest. “Just try it,” he warned.

“What do you know! What do any of you know!” Father Xia roared at Qiong Cang. “That father and son from the Ding family are absolute scoundrels! They were both playing her! She’s the stupid one, running off with a man so easily. She let an old man keep her, and then she fell for his son. Did she have any idea they were both laughing at her behind her back? Since things have already turned out this way, is it wrong for me to tell her to keep some money for herself? I did it for her own good!”

Qiong Cang stepped forward. “As a man, you have no sense of responsibility, and as a father, you’ve failed to be someone your child can rely on. Aside from saying ‘it’s for your own good,’ what have you ever done? Even that phrase isn’t an expression of love. It’s just a tool to force her to work, to keep her dependent on you. It’s emotional blackmail. If you had put even a fraction of the sincerity you preach into your actions, she wouldn’t have run off so blindly with another man.”

Though Qiong Cang’s tone was calm, her voice dripped with biting sarcasm.

“You say Ding Xihua doesn’t have a single redeeming quality, that he’s just a scoundrel. Then why was Xia Xia so utterly infatuated with him? Because the man she lived with for over twenty years is a thousand times worse than the scoundrel she just met. That’s why even the slightest bit of warmth from a scoundrel was enough to make her think he was a good man,” Qiong Cang said. “You’d have been better off dead. If you were dead, she could at least fantasize about what it would be like to have a normal father. But you’re alive, a constant reminder that her life has been a tragedy from birth, inferior to everyone else’s. Whenever she makes a mistake, instead of comforting her, you call her stupid, tell her she had it coming, and then tie her up to trade her for cash you could never earn in a lifetime. You useless waste of space!”

He Jueyun stared at Qiong Cang, unsure of what to do other than nod along.

He always forgot how lethal Qiong Cang could be when she unleashed her sharp tongue. She simply rarely aimed her weapons at others. Though she looked physically fragile, she had never truly been defeated by anyone.

Time in the game advanced rapidly. As they stood there with heavy hearts, the operating room doors swung open, and Xia Xia was wheeled out.

The attention of all three snapped to the bed, and Qiong Cang fell into step beside it.

Xia Xia was still awake, though barely conscious. Her eyes were dull and her face was completely drained of color. She looked as if she had aged overnight, her hair dry and lifeless.

“The patient needs rest,” the nurse pushing the bed said. “Family members may visit, but please do not argue or agitate her.”

Qiong Cang pressed her lips together, swallowing the rest of her words. He Jueyun remained silent as well. Father Xia squeezed his way through, grabbing Xia Xia’s hand as he choked back tears. “Xia Xia, Dad was so worried about you.”

Xia Xia did not even look at him, weakly pulling her hand away.

The sudden emptiness in his palm sent a jolt of panic through Father Xia. He stared at his daughter, who felt like a complete stranger, utterly at a loss.

He still believed he was in the right, and he missed the way their family used to live. It wasn’t that he had no feelings for his daughter; even strangers living together for over twenty years would develop some attachment. But his affection was shallow—enough to make him grieve, but not enough to make him fight for her.

Qiong Cang leaned down and asked, “Can we talk?”

Remembering how it had felt when Qiong Cang held her hand earlier, Xia Xia nodded. “Yes,” she said, her voice soft and weak. “But only you.”

Qiong Cang: “Alright.”

Father Xia was still muttering, “Nannan^[2], how did you end up like this…”

He Jueyun stepped forward on his own initiative, clapped a hand over the man’s mouth, and dragged him away, giving Qiong Cang a reassuring gesture as he left.

Qiong Cang wheeled Xia Xia into the hospital room and closed the door.

Only the two of them remained in the room. Bathed in the soft glow of the nightlight, the room was quiet and peaceful, as if the flow of time had slowed down.

“Why did the police come looking for me?”

Xia Xia’s voice was like a gentle stream, soft and pleasant, with a faint sweetness despite her hoarseness.

“Ding Tao is dead,” Qiong Cang said.

“He’s dead…” Xia Xia was shocked. Her eyes widened, though she showed no signs of grief. “I didn’t kill him.”

Qiong Cang: “I know.”

Xia Xia said: “Then there’s nothing I can do. I can’t help you.”

Qiong Cang: “I actually wanted to ask you about Ding Xihua. What kind of person is he?”

At the mere mention of his name, Xia Xia’s face brightened. She smiled. “Brother Xihua is a very good man.”

Qiong Cang softened her tone, asking casually, “How did you two meet?”

Xia Xia didn’t need to search her memory; she recounted the story as if reciting a familiar script. Though she spoke of it lightly, Qiong Cang could tell she had relived the moment countless times, keeping it tucked away in the most accessible corner of her mind.

“Some drunk guys came to the shop to cause trouble. They called me ugly and started groping me, but Brother Xihua stepped in and taught them a lesson. He bought two dragon fruits for twelve yuan, but he gave me a fifty-yuan bill.” Xia Xia smiled faintly. “He told me not to tell my parents about the change and to keep it for myself. He also said I looked prettier with my hair down, and told me to buy a nice hair clip.”

Qiong Cang shifted her posture.

“He really is a good man,” Xia Xia repeated.

Falling in love like this was like a summer breeze drifting through a forest—elusive, yet cool and refreshing. It was a feeling she had clung to for a long time.

Qiong Cang shook her head inwardly. “Why did you choose such an extreme way to end the pregnancy? Do you know how dangerous it is to jump from a building?”

Tears silently spilled down Xia Xia’s cheeks as she sobbed. “Brother Xihua told me he was disappointed in me. It was the first time I’d ever seen him look at me with such contempt. I ruined his family, but even then, he didn’t yell at me. I couldn’t have the baby. I had to make it as if none of this had ever happened.”

The memory of going to ask Ding Xihua for money that day flashed through her mind. She closed her eyes, full of aversion. “I hate my dad. He killed me once already.”

Qiong Cang opened her mouth to speak but stopped. Moving past the topic, she asked, “How did you meet Ding Tao?”

She wiped her nose, forcing herself to calm her emotions.

“Ding Tao occasionally came to the school to wander around, and we ran into each other. He said I looked a bit like his wife when she was young, and that my voice was nice.” Xia Xia was truly filled with regret, her voice thick with grief. “I didn’t know he was Brother Xihua’s father. If I had, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten involved with him.”

Qiong Cang: “Were you that short on money?”

“I wanted to be pretty,” Xia Xia said. “Brother Xihua is very rich, and the people around him are all so glamorous. I wanted to earn his praise. I didn’t want to look as sloppy and unkempt as I used to.”

Qiong Cang: “Did he ever mention in front of you what kind of clothes or bags looked good?”

Xia Xia shook her head. “He’s not that kind of person. It was my own vanity.”

Qiong Cang observed her expression and said slowly, “So he did. He once casually mentioned to you which brand of clothes looked good on you. Or perhaps while chatting with others, he mentioned which girl was pretty, and you happened to overhear. He blew hot and cold, keeping you at arm’s length. When you put on nice clothes, he was gentle with you, but when you dressed plainly, he was cold. Right?”

Xia Xia insisted, “It was my own vanity.”

Qiong Cang: “There are people in this world who enjoy the thrill of manipulating other people’s lives. Do you understand that?”

Xia Xia insisted, “He’s not that kind of person!”

Qiong Cang was left utterly speechless.

“Xia Xia, Ms. Xia.” Qiong Cang leaned forward, drawing closer to her to offer one last piece of advice. “Subservience doesn’t buy equality and respect. The more pitiful you think you are, the more pitiful you will become. If you don’t know how to protect yourself, you will only attract people who will hurt you. After all, the one most capable of ruthlessly stabbing you is yourself.”

Xia Xia: “I…”

Qiong Cang pulled the corner of her blanket up and said, “Get some rest. I’m leaving.”