Chapter 46: Rearing, Part 1
Early spring, a time of revival. The faint morning light filtered through the frosted windowpane, bringing the first rays of dawn.
Gu Zhi, draped in a woolen coat, sat by the window, flipping through a book in the morning light.
After reading for a long time, her eyes felt sore.
Gu Zhi put down the book and gently pushed open the window. The cool, soft spring breeze carried the scent of water and flowers, filling the room with the fresh smell of grass and earth.
The chirping of birds in the woods was incessant. A few returning swallows were searching for their old nests. Gu Zhi vaguely remembered feeding them once.
Actually, Gu Zhi wanted a pet, but swallows weren’t suitable. They always left in the winter and returned in the spring. She couldn’t restrain them, not even with a cage. She hated… such disobedient pets. It violated the proper nature of a pet.
She had also looked at the kittens and puppies in the pet market, but in the end, she decided against it. She wouldn’t be staying here forever. She would eventually have to leave, and they would be left behind. A pet without its owner couldn’t survive on its own, and an owner who abandoned their pet was not a good owner.
The dusty wind carried the sweet, innocent sounds from the garden. Gu Zhi’s gaze swept over a group of young children running through the woods. They ran on the thin layer of early spring snow, their smiling faces reflecting in the green leaves.
They were playing tag. Many of the children were laughing, their laughter seeming a bit monotonous. They clustered around a small boy in the center, who wasn’t smiling, his face etched with a sadness that was out of place for his age. It was like a needle piercing Gu Zhi’s eye, the pain stirring her hardened heart.
At eleven or twelve, children are still naive and innocent. They can be very kind… and also very malicious. A few of the bigger boys had ferocious smiles on their faces, spewing foul words that reached Gu Zhi’s ears, disgusting her.
The small boy was probably from a single-parent family. Gu Zhi could glean some information from the insults.
The seemingly innocent boy was “it,” but he stood amidst a group of people who were hurling insults at him. As soon as he moved, they would laugh and retreat, their mouths still filled with foul words.
The boy probably didn’t want to be “it,” but he couldn’t catch anyone else to take his place. He was too thin, seemingly malnourished, his sadness seeping into his alluring, water-like eyes and eyebrows, creating a gender-bending illusion.
Weak and pitiful.
As Gu Zhi watched, her hardened heart began to beat faster, pumping warm, fresh blood through her veins, gradually warming her cold body, a faint, unnatural blush appearing on her face.
She pitied the boy’s situation, even empathized with him. But the boy looked so weak and helpless, as if she could control him with one hand, never to escape her sight.
She swallowed the thick saliva that had collected in her mouth, a morbid expression on her face. Gu Zhi had no intention of helping. Even though a single word from her could have driven away those mischievous children, it was a good show. It had just begun, how could it end so hastily?
She would help the boy…
When he was covered in scrapes and bruises from running and chasing, when he was sobbing from the unbearable insults of his classmates, when he was on the verge of choosing death under the heavy burden…
Just like taming a pet, give them a little food when they need you the most, and they will remember you forever, groveling at your feet, wagging their tails and begging for your favor.
She would wait until that moment to step out, gently stroking the boy’s head, changing the dressing on his wounds, soothing his pain bit by bit, feeding him a few sweet candies, and finally, letting him curl up in her arms, so that his obsidian-like, clear eyes would only reflect his master. This way, she would win his trust, slowly encroaching upon him… until he was imprisoned in the palm of her hand.
Dark thoughts flashed through her mind like a fleeting white horse. Gu Zhi still smiled gently and softly. She knew that things rarely went as planned. Someone’s appearance had disrupted her plans.
“Hey, you little rascals, what are you doing?”
A pleasant, sharp cry made the group of boys stop their game. They looked at the suddenly appearing pretty girl, her large, almond-shaped eyes clear and bright, her cheeks puffed out in anger.
Her beautiful shoes were now stained with mud, the white surface ruined. The girl stood with her hands on her hips, her pigtails swaying with her movements. She shouted, “Get lost! Don’t bully my Xiao Yu, or I’ll beat you all up.”
The girl’s imposing manner instantly scared off the fierce-looking boys. Of course, they weren’t afraid of her physical strength, although one-on-one, they might not be a match for her. But there were so many of them. Weren’t they good at bullying the weak?
But they didn’t dare to lay a hand on a girl. The girl in front of them wasn’t someone to be trifled with. They could only retreat, revealing the boy behind them.
The girl rushed over and took the boy’s hand, her eyes filled with a mixture of anger and affection. She checked him for injuries, sighing in relief when she found none.
“You really are something else. How did you get bullied again? And you don’t even fight back. You’re so stupid. Don’t listen to my mom when she says fighting is bad. If someone bullies you, you have to hit them hard. That’s the only way they’ll learn not to mess with you.”
“Mu Qing, I… I’m fine.”
The boy slowly pulled his hand away, not feeling particularly happy about being rescued.
“Yo yo yo, Su Yu, do you just hide behind girls? Are you a man or not?”
“Yeah, coward.”
“And He Mu Qing, you’re just a tomboy, so fierce. You’ll never get married.”
The taunts made the boy clench his fists. Even when he had been bullied so badly before, he hadn’t reacted much. He was used to it. But now, his eyes flickered, burning with anger. He felt ashamed because of their taunts, and angry because they had insulted the girl.
“Mu Qing, let’s go.”
The boy took the girl’s hand again and pulled her away. He didn’t want her to hear the nasty things they were about to say. This was the only thing he could do.
…
“Hah…”
A cold sneer seeped through the drawn curtains and into the chilly spring air. Sharp icicles fell from the eaves, shattering on the ground. The temperature seemed to drop even further.
