Chapter 48: The Caged Bird Infected with a Vicious Disease (3) Part 1

Bai Qian had stepped through the door ahead of Jian Wanqing, yet she spotted the framed photo a beat later.

The moment she made out the faintly smiling face staring back at her, she froze for a second. Then memories of the original host’s life flooded back, and she let out a quiet breath of relief.

She knew full well what she could get away with and what crossed the line.

Two single women crossing paths at a bar and heading to a hotel for a harmless one-night stand? When you boiled it down, there wasn’t anything wrong with that.

But if one of them had a family waiting at home, well, that turned it into something entirely different.

Bai Qian couldn’t see the expression on the face behind her, but she could easily imagine it from the sharp edge in Jian Wanqing’s voice just moments ago. The thought brought a peculiar flicker of relief.

Say what you would about the woman—at least she had some sense when it came to things like this.

Had Jian Wanqing spouted something utterly shameless like gleefully admitting to being a homewrecker, Bai Qian would’ve had to do more than just teach her how to survive on her own. She’d have needed to straighten out that warped sense of right and wrong, too.

And reshaping someone’s deeply ingrained beliefs was never an easy task.

Lost in her thoughts, Bai Qian drifted off for a moment, forgetting the rattled woman behind her who was still waiting for an explanation.

Jian Wanqing took the silence—and Bai Qian’s distant stare—as a guilty non-denial. The elation and eager anticipation she’d felt just a minute earlier upon following her inside curdled into an equal measure of resentment and hurt.

It was her first brush with something like this, and the panic defied simple words. If she had to put a name to it, it felt like finally sinking her teeth into that cake she’d been daydreaming about, swallowing it down with pure delight—only to discover wriggling worms beneath and a nasty patch of green mold smack in the middle. The kind of revulsion that made you want to retch and weep all at once.

Before the tears could well up and spill over, Bai Qian finally snapped back to reality and offered her belated clarification. “That’s my friend’s daughter. My friend passed away from illness two years ago.”

Jian Wanqing’s face transformed in an instant.

First came the sting of regret for jumping to conclusions, then worry that she’d upset the woman with her accusation. She scrambled for an excuse, some way to make it right, but nothing stuck. In the end, she opted for brutal honesty.

She mumbled an apology, her expression brimming with such pitiful remorse that it was impossible to stay mad. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to misunderstand you like that. I’ve got this awful habit I just can’t shake—my mouth always runs ahead of my brain. Because of it, my dad walloped me plenty growing up, but I still haven’t kicked it. I really didn’t mean anything by it. You’re not mad that I called you out, are you? Sorry, I—”

Bai Qian had already endured the full onslaught of the female protagonist’s nonstop chatter from the passenger seat on the drive over. If she didn’t cut in now, the woman would probably keep going forever. “Miss Jian, I’m not upset. I just blanked on the fact that I have a daughter for a second there and didn’t explain right away.”

Jian Wanqing whipped her head around in disbelief. “Do you not spend much time with her or something? How else do you forget a whole person like that?”

“…” Bai Qian couldn’t very well explain her real connection to the little girl, so she let the subject drop. “No point standing around out here. Let’s head inside.”

“There aren’t any slippers for me.” Jian Wanqing let herself be steered along without protest, though she glanced down at the lone remaining pair of kiddie slippers with a frown.

Bai Qian paused, then silently turned and slipped her feet back into the shoes she’d just kicked off. “Never mind. Let’s go pick up some essentials for you first.”

Jian Wanqing jiggled the pharmacy bag in her hand with a grin. “But I haven’t put anything on my face yet. If you hadn’t swung by the drugstore, I’d totally forgotten it’s still all puffy. Bai Qian~ You’re too good to me. I like you even more now!”

The whole drive back, the woman’s mouth had been going a mile a minute, like some kind of chattering laser gun. No matter the words, they all circled back to endless variations on how much she adored Bai Qian.

At first, Bai Qian had tried shushing her, but when that failed, she’d thrown in the towel and tuned it out. By now, she was thoroughly desensitized.

So when Jian Wanqing came out with another blunt declaration of affection, Bai Qian didn’t bat an eye. Calm as still water, she brushed it off. “Then bring the meds. You can apply them in the car.”

They left the car in the underground garage and took the elevator up. It stopped on the tenth floor, and a mother-daughter pair stepped inside.

The little girl was being led by the hand by her mother, prattling away with her head tilted back, sharing all the fun happenings from kindergarten. But the moment she spotted Jian Wanqing in the elevator, her face slightly swollen, the girl’s chattering mouth snapped shut.

Pity quickly filled her big, round eyes. When she glanced over at Bai Qian standing beside Jian Wanqing, that pity twisted into fear and anger.

The girl’s sudden silence felt unnatural, prompting her mother—who had been glued to her phone screen—to turn her head with a gentle smile. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

The little girl pulled her gaze away. Her pure, bright eyes burned with determination as she tugged at her mother’s clothes and beckoned with her soft little hand.

Obediently, the mother bent down. The girl, thinking she was whispering very softly, spoke in a voice that rang clear through the elevator. “Mommy! We should call the police right now! That pretty big sister is so scary. She slapped the other big sister’s face until it swelled up. Mommy, isn’t this like the domestic violence they show on TV? That other big sister is so pitiful—she doesn’t even dare stay far away from the pretty one. She must be terrified of getting hit. Let’s help her call the police!”

The child’s innocent words were met with total silence.

Seeing her mother not responding, the little bundle of energy grew anxious. “Mommy, our teacher said we have to help those who are weaker. Right now—”

“Little one.”

Jian Wanqing’s voice cut the girl off.

The child turned her head, her expression adorably guilty at having been caught whispering. In a soft, sticky-sweet voice, she asked, “Big sister, what’s up?”

The mother pointed at the person beside her and smiled at the girl. “The big sister thanks you very much, but she hasn’t been abused by her. So you don’t need to worry about her. If she really were being abused, she’d go to the police herself for help.”

The little girl clearly wasn’t convinced. “But big sister’s face is all swollen! Big sister, don’t worry—we’re two people together, me and Mommy. If she tries to hit you, we’ll protect you!”

With the misunderstanding only deepening, the other person at the center of it all finally stopped being a silent bystander.

Bai Qian instinctively lowered her gaze to the little girl, who only came up to her thigh.

But that ordinary glance, paired with her habitual tight-lipped, unsmiling coolness, was somehow interpreted by the child as a threatening glare.

Before Bai Qian could even say a word in her own defense, her frosty expression had stunned the righteous little firebrand into terrified silence. Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes as she instinctively cried out for the person who made her feel safest. “Mommy! Mommy!”

Just then, the elevator dinged at their floor.

The mother scooped the little one into her arms and apologized to the two women. “Sorry about that. A couple days ago, her teacher was talking about how kids should bravely ask for help if they see something bad…”

Jian Wanqing shook her head to show it was fine.

After taking a couple of steps out, the mother seemed to make up her mind. She turned back, her expression serious. “But miss… are you really okay? Safe?”

Jian Wanqing blinked, her features so pure and open that not a trace of deceit could be found. “I’m an actress in short videos. Just got back from the set.”

The woman nodded in understanding, gave her an apologetic smile, and carried her daughter away.

As the two stepped out, the wide-open elevator doors began to slide shut. Jian Wanqing reached out to press the button on instinct, but then Bai Qian—who hadn’t spoken until now—suddenly said, “Miss Jian, I didn’t realize you were so good at lying.”

Jian Wanqing’s finger paused on the button. Smiling, she explained just as the doors sealed them into their own little world with nothing but each other. “I didn’t lie. This wasn’t your doing, after all.”

Bai Qian turned to look at her, her gaze complicated for a moment. “I meant what you said about going to the police if you were abused.”

Jian Wanqing’s face, which never lost its smile, stiffened for the briefest instant at those inexplicable words. But it quickly softened back into its usual warm, smiling expression.

“He only slapped me once. That’s hardly domestic violence. And besides—”

Tentatively, she reached out. Her hand stopped just before touching Bai Qian’s at her side. In the end, she didn’t take hold—in line with her earlier words about not crossing boundaries without consent—and let her hand drop back to her side. “Coming to find you was way more useful than calling the cops, wasn’t it? The police would probably just call it a family matter and send me right back where I came from. But you… you took me away.”

Jian Wanqing delivered the line in a joking tone, then turned and pressed the door-open button.

She stepped out first and half-turned from the doorway, calling back to the woman who hadn’t moved. “Come on, aren’t you supposed to buy me some stuff?”

Bai Qian’s gaze lingered on her frail back. Following the direction of the woman’s eyes, it seemed she could peer through that thin layer of fabric to the bloodstains left by the bamboo whip that had lashed across it.

She knew this was no mere joke.

—There had been a time when the Female Protagonist, for not being obedient enough, had been mercilessly whipped as punishment by her own closest kin.

The scars were now covered over by fresh new flesh, and the one who had been hurt could recount that inhuman ordeal in the most casual tone, as if making light of it.

—As though it were all in the past.

Bai Qian took a step forward. She reached out and caught hold of the woman’s hand, which had tentatively stretched toward her before pulling back.

“Come on. Let’s go buy some new things to welcome your new life.”