Chapter 4: I Don’t Like Owing Favors

Shen Chaoyi lifted her head, her eyes misty and intoxicating. “No need.”

Her tone and inflection were identical to Yi Qingzhuo’s when she’d refused earlier, but Shen Chaoyi still wore that soft smile on her face.

She adjusted her collar. “Remember to come to the hospital every three days for a dressing change. I left in too much of a hurry this morning, so I didn’t get to tell you.”

With that, Shen Chaoyi stepped past Yi Qingzhuo, ready to leave.

Yi Qingzhuo looked down at the three crumpled bills in her hand, her gaze unreadable.

“Dr. Shen, I don’t want to owe anyone any favors.”

Since the point was still to make Shen Chaoyi take the money, Yi Qingzhuo added two more bills.

Five hundred yuan. Yi Qingzhuo figured that was more than enough.

Shen Chaoyi turned back. The light inside the room happened to fall right on Yi Qingzhuo, making her look even darker in contrast, almost harsh.

“This was just finishing up the treatment we started this morning. It’s not a favor.” Shen Chaoyi stepped back a little in her high heels, unbothered.

Then she turned around and walked out of the internet cafe.

It seemed Shen Chaoyi had nothing more to say to Yi Qingzhuo. She’d handled the wound, so she didn’t stick around.

She just left.

Yi Qingzhuo didn’t chase after her. Her body swayed slightly before she sank back into the chair.

She pulled a phone with a cracked screen out of her jeans pocket. Glanced at the five hundred yuan, then stuffed it back into her wallet.

The phone had taken quite a beating. Not only was the screen cracked, but even the black casing had broken in places, revealing the insides.

She swiped a few times, expressionlessly deleting the text messages from those unfamiliar numbers.

When she saw the dozen or so missed calls, Yi Qingzhuo stood up.

She called Li Hengyang back, then left the internet cafe.

It was only a little past nine. Outside, the night market was packed with people.

The high school evening classes had just ended. As she passed the wall surrounding the playground, she could hear the noise of students mixed with the sound of basketballs bouncing.

Yi Qingzhuo zipped up her jacket, shoved her hands in her pockets, and walked quickly.

She weaved through the bustling crowds for about ten minutes until she reached an old residential building.

Unfazed, Yi Qingzhuo stepped over a pile of broken glass. Just as she pulled out her keys and unlocked the door, she looked up.

On the security door and the wall beside it, graffiti had been sprayed.

“Murderer.” “Cold-blooded animal.” “A life for a life.” “Go die.”

With a habitual sneer, a fierce glint flashed in her eyes. Yi Qingzhuo kicked aside the Barbie dolls and broken toys smeared with red paint that had been piled at the entrance, then turned the key.

Inside this aged residential building, this particular apartment stood out. The door was brand-new, and it was the highest-grade security door available.

From the few deep dents on the surface—still not fully unwrapped—it was clear that the door had endured some violent attacks. But it had held up, and it was practically unscathed.

Yi Qingzhuo stepped inside, casually locked the door behind her, and tossed the keys onto the shoe cabinet.

The keys slid off the smooth surface. Yi Qingzhuo glanced at them but couldn’t be bothered. She didn’t even change her shoes before walking into the apartment.

She called out, “Mom.”

After that, Yi Qingzhuo expertly pulled open the heavy curtains, letting some light into the pitch-black room.

She flicked on the light. From the bedroom at the far end came the crisp click of a door lock. The next second, a flustered middle-aged woman emerged from inside.

When she saw Yi Qingzhuo, the worry and panic on her face didn’t lessen. Then she noticed the wounds on Yi Qingzhuo’s face.

The woman was so flustered that she couldn’t speak. She opened and closed her mouth, struggling for words for a long time.

Tears just kept streaming down her face. She stroked Yi Qingzhuo’s long hair, her voice trembling. “You’ve suffered so much, my child. It’s Mom’s fault. I’ve dragged you down.”

Yi Changhuan. Yi Qingzhuo’s mother.

Yi Qingzhuo let her mother examine the wounds all over her body. The frost in her eyes thawed a little, and her voice softened.

“No, Mom. It’s not your fault.”

“My child, does it hurt?” Yi Changhuan’s fingers trembled. She wanted to touch the wound on Yi Qingzhuo’s face but was afraid to.

What a good daughter she had. Now she was forced into this situation.

Yi Changhuan couldn’t even begin to describe the bitterness she felt. The guilt she felt toward Yi Qingzhuo was so suffocatingly strong.

She hadn’t been home today. She only found out when she came back.

Yi Qingzhuo’s father’s elder sister—Yi Qingzhuo’s aunt—had come looking for her again. She’d come to settle scores.

She’d come to demand why Yi Changhuan had given birth to such a murderous daughter. She’d come to demand why that murderer was still allowed to live.

And because Yi Changhuan wasn’t there, Yi Qingzhuo happened to be home.

Yi Changhuan might swallow that kind of abuse, but Yi Qingzhuo was not someone who rolled over easily.

She ended up in a fight with five of them, one against five. When Yi Changhuan finally got home, she found out what had happened.

Yi Qingzhuo had been taken to the police station. She went to find her, but Yi Qingzhuo had already left.

Yi Changhuan had searched all over. She couldn’t reach Yi Qingzhuo’s phone.

When she’d come back just now, she heard someone working on the door lock.

She thought it was Yi Qingzhuo’s aunt and her crew again. To avoid a direct confrontation and to not have to listen to their insults, she’d hidden in the bedroom.

Yi Qingzhuo forced a faint smile. Using the fingers of her only functional left hand, she wiped Yi Changhuan’s tears. “It doesn’t hurt.”

She was already numb. Naturally, she couldn’t feel the pain.

“Silly child.” Yi Changhuan noticed Yi Qingzhuo’s immobilized right hand and the bit of gauze peeking out from under her sleeve.

Her heart felt like it was being cut open. Her legs gave way, and she almost couldn’t stand.

Yi Qingzhuo caught her. Her voice was hoarse. “Mom, I’m hungry. Go make me a bowl of noodles.”

She hadn’t eaten all day. Her stomach was churning with acid.

As soon as Yi Changhuan heard that, she quickly wiped her tears away, put on her apron. “Okay, okay. Wait ten minutes. I’ll make it for you right now.”

Then, without a moment’s delay, she went to the kitchen, turned on the stove, and started cooking noodles.

Yi Qingzhuo watched her mother’s back for a moment, then turned and went to her own room.

From a pile of black-and-white clothes, Yi Qingzhuo grabbed a casual outfit and headed to the bathroom.

Struggling with one hand, she peeled off her bloodstained clothes. Through the mirror, she finally got a complete look at her injuries.

Her cold, pale skin was covered in wounds. Besides her face and hands, her waist, ribs, lower abdomen, and shoulders were a crisscross of black and blue bruises. It was a gruesome sight.

Those men, over six feet tall, had landed punches and kicks with every move aimed at killing her.

In their eyes, Yi Qingzhuo was a sinner. A sinner for all eternity. Even after serving ten years in prison, she was still a sinner.

She should have stayed in jail forever. The best thing would have been for her to be sentenced to death. Even dying wouldn’t be enough to atone.

But no one saw the eighteen-year-old Yi Qingzhuo shielding her mother’s battered body, begging her father to stop, only to get backhanded so hard that her ears rang.

No one knew that Yi Qingzhuo lived in hell every single day.

She hated her own weakness. Hated her own helplessness. The fact that she couldn’t protect her mother.

The one and only time she had fought back, she had paid with ten years of her youth. She had paid with the future she could have had at a top university.

She had no hope left. So she would rather stay in hell herself and become the heinous devil people called her, if it meant protecting her mother.

A basin of clear water reflected Yi Qingzhuo’s ravaged face. She plunged her head into the water, submerging herself in the oxygen-deprived liquid.

Her brain starved for air for a brief moment. Yi Qingzhuo forced her deep eyes open. Everything in front of her was a blur.

Only when she was teetering on the edge of suffocation did she straighten up.

Under the showerhead, her good figure was faintly visible in the misty bathroom.

She washed herself hastily, threw her blood-soaked clothes into the trash, and casually dried her dripping black hair with a towel.

When she came out, Yi Changhuan had already made a steaming bowl of egg noodles.

It looked appetizing. It easily stirred the hunger pangs of Yi Qingzhuo, who had gone all day without food.

Pinching the chopsticks between her thumb and index finger, Yi Qingzhuo practically shoveled the noodles into her mouth.

“Slow down. If it’s not enough, I’ll make you another bowl.” Yi Changhuan sat across from Yi Qingzhuo, watching her eat.

Seeing her wolf down the food, tears welled up in Yi Changhuan’s eyes.

Yi Qingzhuo was about to shove a second mouthful in when a ding came from her phone.

She’d left it on the table. It was a text message. Yi Qingzhuo glanced at it—an unfamiliar number.

She swiped, barely bothering to read the content, intending to blacklist and delete it immediately.

But just as she tapped, another message came in, and her phone automatically opened the first one.

【Keep your diet light. Avoid spicy food like hotpot and barbecue. Don’t get the wound wet—it could get infected. Don’t use too much force—it could reopen. Also, I noticed you were limping a little. I recommend you come in for a CT scan to check for internal injuries.】

【Come to the hospital every three days for a dressing change. Don’t forget.】

Shen Chaoyi.

No contact name saved. But it could only be her.

Yi Qingzhuo raised an eyebrow in surprise. When she thought about the five hundred yuan Shen Chaoyi had refused, she felt unsettled.

What was she playing at?

No one who saw her in such a pathetic state would want to voluntarily get close to her.

And this Shen Chaoyi, with her glamorous career and her clean, pretty face… how did someone like that fit into the same world as someone like her?

Besides, how did Shen Chaoyi have her phone number?

Yi Qingzhuo curled her lips into a sarcastic smile. She just assumed it was a doctor’s sense of duty kicking in. And…

…that Shen Chaoyi had no idea about the notorious stories that followed Yi Qingzhuo around. That was the only reason she would willingly get close.

She put her phone down without replying. A drop of water from the ends of her hair fell onto the screen.