Warning: This chapter contains flashbacks of physical and sexual child abuse. Nothing overly graphic or explicit, but if it’s a traumatic/triggering topic or something that you would rather not read, you can skip reading after the red line. I’ll provide a short summary at the end of the chapter so you can get a gist of the story.
Generally speaking, women were more emotional than rational.
Their decisions and behaviour were more likely to be guided by the emotions they were feeling.
Because they were of the same kind, Liu Lin could usually guess what the girl was thinking just by looking at her.
However, he forgot the fundamental difference between them—if the little girl was a boy, she would’ve held back her anger and swallowed it into her stomach, simply because she wouldn’t be able to beat a man who was stronger than her.
But she wasn’t a boy.
The little girl was just like him, irascible and crazy, so she was even more emotional than ordinary girls.
When it came to her, Liu Lin’s method of oppression would undoubtedly be counterproductive.
He had no idea that she had already decided never to let them go, planning to thoroughly entangle them until the end. So much so that even upon feeling the murderous intent coming from the girl, he didn’t take it seriously.
He only thought that the little girl was really way too inexperienced because she couldn’t even control her own bloodlust.
“Five minutes. If by that time you still can’t keep it in check, then come and get another slap from me.” Liu Lin told her as he continued playing his game.
Four minutes later, the girl finally restrained her murderous aura and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
At about seven o’clock, Yao Qi’s head began to stir on Liu Lin’s thigh. After lying down for two more minutes, he slowly opened his eyes, waking up.
Getting up from his slumber, Yao Qi felt that he would have been better off not sleeping—his whole body felt sore and numb, and he could even hear his bones cracking when he straightened his back.
He groaned as he thumped on his numb back.
“How bad is it?” Liu Lin bent down to take care of his shoulders, patting them to help with the circulation.
“Still fine.” Yao Qi forced himself to stretch, all of his joints cracking from his movements, but he did feel much better after he was done with the stretching.
Liu Lin nodded and stared at him.
Inadvertently, he saw Liu Lin shifting his legs and suddenly remembered that he had been lying on the man’s lap since last night. Liu Lin must have had it much worse than him. Feeling sorry for him, Yao Qi curled up his fists and used them to massage Liu Lin’s legs.
At this moment, he really looked like Liu Lin’s little lackey.
The person on the bed started to move—of course, this person was not Yao Qi, but that little girl.
Yao Qi looked at her and pondered about how he should broach the topic, but at last, he decided to do it straightforwardly.
“I sent you to the hospital, and I’ve also paid the bills for you. You can stay here for about five more days.” After saying that, Yao Qi paused for a moment before continuing, “For the sake of saving you, can you tell me exactly what did I do to provoke you?”
The moment she heard this question, the girl froze in place.
The corners of her mouth began to twitch, as if she was going to laugh, but then she didn’t. A film of tears dampened her eyes, which were filled with grievance.
She was close to crying.
But Yao Qi just kept looking at her indifferently.
In the end, instead of crying, the girl parted her lips for a grin, putting on a smile that was even harder to look at than a weeping face. Her gaze turned ferocious. “Yes, of course you don’t remember.”
“How could you possibly remember. To you, I’m no different than a passer-by, to be forgotten the moment you left.”
These words… why did they sound so ambiguous?
Yao Qi felt rather stupefied.
According to what she said, they must have known each other before.
But the reality was that he didn’t have the slightest recollection of meeting this girl.
“I really don’t remember,” Yao Qi honestly admitted, his voice turning solemn, “but I don’t think I’ve done anything that would warrant you wanting to kill me.”
He had always treated others with gentleness.
As long as anyone didn’t touch his bottom line, he wouldn’t care too much about what they did, let alone take the initiative to harm them.
He had figured out his sexuality a long time ago, and all the people he had slept with were fellow men.
Whether or not the little girl’s appearance suited his taste didn’t even matter, because just by looking at her age, he couldn’t even stomach the thought of doing anything with her.
One by one, he ruled out all the possible scenarios he could’ve committed to evoke another person’s hatred. Yao Qi once again confirmed that he hadn’t done anything to warrant this amount of malice.
He couldn’t help but wonder, when and where exactly did he meet this little girl?
“Nothing, you said—” The words sounded as though they had been squeezed out of her throat.
A hideous expression took over her pretty face.
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We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktf ulgi ogjcalmjiis rja eq, tfg fsfr aegclcu gfv.
“P’nf yffc jyerfv ys sbe rlcmf P kjr j mtliv!”
“You’re hungry? You think you can eat my snacks just because you’re hungry? Give me the needle! If I don’t sew your mouth shut, then my surname is not Yao!”
“Tbe’v yfja eq wf ktfcfnfg sbe’gf lc j yjv wbbv—”
“You damn bitch! You’re happy that I got dumped, right? Fuck! Just keep screaming! I’m gonna kill you!”
“Tbe ujnf wf ab sbeg oglfcv…”
“Hey, your little sister looks so cute, why are you so mean to her? … Come here, little sis, if you help me to lick it, I’ll tell your brother to treat you better.”
“Tbe aglmxfv wf jcv rjlv sbe’v ajxf wf bea ab qijs, yea sbe jmaejiis rfca wf ab atf gfv iluta vlraglma—”
“Listen to me and wait here, I’ll come back after buying some things, don’t run around.”
“You lied to me, you clearly said that you’d tell me a bedtime story tomorrow—”
“Yao Yue is a good girl, right? … A good girl should go to bed by now, so, will Xiao Yue be good and go to sleep? … l’ll come tomorrow as well, don’t be afraid… Yes, I’ll come again tomorrow and tell you another story.”
“…I want to call you brother, can I call you brother?”
“Of course.”
Of course, he said.
There was always a gentle smile on that handsome face.
He looked at you as if he was looking at his whole world.
As if he had put you inside a jar of honey.
Eventually, this face overlapped with another face in her memory.
Aahh, this was her big brother.
This was her true brother.
Her brother!
Her ‘ideal brother’!
The girl had shouted out everything.
Her voice was filled with such deep fury.
And an equally deep grief.
Everyone in the ward looked at Yao Qi.
They pinned those eyes full of disgust onto Yao Qi’s body, as if wanting to burn a hole in him.
“Trash…”
It was unclear who uttered the word.
Liu Lin snapped his head and glared at the direction of the voice, then looked back at the hysterical girl on the hospital bed. With a sneer, he reached out to grab her neck.
Out of her whole tirade, only the last sentence sounded like something Yao Qi could do. Aside from that, he didn’t believe a single word of what she said.
She slandered his Yao Qi.
So he would teach her a very, very, very good lesson.
Clap.
A hand grabbed hold of his wrist, stopping his blow from hitting the girl who was frightened off into ducking away by him.
He looked at the owner of that hand—it was none other than Yao Qi.
Yao Qi sat still on his spot, his expression as dull as it could be.
There was no emotion in his eyes, no smile on his face, he just looked straight at her.
Quietly, silently, looking at her.
No words, no smiles, just a pair of cold eyes.
It made the girl feel as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water on her, and her frenzied emotions began to calm down.
She shuddered.
Without knowing why, a feeling of dread crept inside her heart.
Then, she watched as Yao Qi finally moved his lips.
He said, “I remember who you are.”
“Yao Yue, female, ten years old—should be fifteen by now, right? Developed severe autism due to prolonged abuse since childhood—but now it seems like that diagnosis was incorrect. Both of your parents as well as your older brother died after your house was burgled, but you managed to narrowly escape death by hiding. After that, you were sent to Hua’er Orphanage.”
“You’re my former patient.”
“—not my younger sister.”
“You’re lying!” The girl screamed in denial.
“Who am I?” Yao Qi did not refute her, but changed the subject.
“You’re my big brother!”
“Then what’s my name?”
“Yao Qi! You’re Yao Qi!”
“I’m not Yao Qi. You say I’m your brother, but you don’t even know my name?”
“You’re lying! You are Yao Qi! You are my brother!”
“My name is obviously Yao Yu, who is Yao Qi?”
“Nonono—you liar—your name is Yao Qi!! You’re called Yao Qi! How can you call yourself Yao Yu! Your name is not Yao Yu!!” She screamed and viciously pulled her own hair, going through a mental breakdown. Her shrill voice rang deafeningly within the ward.
“I’m your older brother, and my name is Yao Yu. Who is Yao Qi?”
Who was Yao Qi?
Yao Qi was her big brother—
—so who was this person sitting in front of her…?
No, no!
It couldn’t be!
Her true brother was the person sitting right in front of her!!
“My name is Yao Yu, who is Yao Qi?” the man was still asking.
Who was Yao Qi?
Yao Qi was a nobody!
Yao Yu was her true brother!
Her brother!
…
Yao Yu…?
…Yao…Yu…?
“Fuck! Bastard, you can’t go on a day without asking for a beating, huh? I told you to take off your clothes, are you deaf!?”
“It hurts? Hahahaha—that’s how it’s supposed to be, now scream louder!”
“You bitch—…”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
“No, no, no—you’re not—you’re not——”
“How could you not be Yao Qi—”
“You liar…”
“How could you be that scum—”
She was like a drowning person, tightly clutching the clothes on her chest as if she could no longer breathe and was about to sink.
Tears flowed freely down her face.
Her eyes were wide open, but they were devoid of light.
Her hair was dishevelled, covering half of her desperate face.
She looked like a complete lunatic.
Just the sight of her could easily send shivers down your spine.
“Am I not the scum who abused you, beat you whenever I’m unhappy, and threw you in the red light district?”
“I am that scum.”
The voice of the devil echoed in her ears.
She frantically shook her head, refusing to admit it, “No… you’re not him… you’re not that scum… you’re my ideal big brother… you’re not him…”
Her voice was hoarse, but she kept murmuring softly, denying Yao Qi’s words.
“I’m Yao Qi,” he said.
The girl felt as if someone had pressed the pause button on her body. Her voice, her movements, everything abruptly stopped in an instant. And then gradually, bit by bit, she raised up her head.
Yao Qi’s face came into view.
The man repeated, “I’m Yao Qi.”
The girl was ecstatic; with a deranged smile on her face, she rapidly nodded at him, eager and excited beyond belief, like a person who was about to die of thirst finding an oasis.
“You’re Yao Qi—”
“I’m Yao Qi, and I abused you.”
The girl yelped, cowering and quickly shaking her head, “No… no… Yao Qi didn’t do it!”
“I beat you—”
“You didn’t—”
“If it’s not me, then what’s the name of the person who did all that to you?” As gentle as an angel, Yao Qi smiled and softly asked, cradling her face in his hands.
“…His name is Yao Yu… His name is Yao Yu…” She was bewitched. The only thing her eyes could see was this man with his gentle face, and so she murmured the name she had painstakingly erased from her mind long ago.
“So, the one who abused you was Yao Yu, and not me, right?”
The girl exclaimed in response, nodding excitedly.
“Since it wasn’t me who abused you,
then—
—how could I be your brother?”
He revealed this incomparably cruel fact to her with a smile on his face.
He was gentle as an angel, yet his words were that of a devil.
Small Theatre 1
He was gentle as an angel, speaking words of a devil’s.
Shao Qing: *grabs some popcorn and nudges Ah-Lin* Do you think Xiao Qi is an angel or a devil?
Ah-Lin: How could Xiao Qi be a devil? Xiao Qi is obviously the best angel there is *dreamy face*
Shao Qing: Alright… (this person is completely hopeless)
Xiao Qi: *putting away his devil’s horns and tail to wear the disguise of an angel, looking all gentle and kind* Ah Lin, I’m home.
Ah-Lin: *pounces on him*
Small Theatre 2
Shao Qing: *points the microphone at the little girl* Let me interview you, do you think Xiao Qi is an angel or a devil?
Yao Yue: How can my brother be a devil? QAQ If he’s not an angel, who else deserves to be an angel!?
Shao Qing: Great, yet another one.
Xiao Qi: How long are you going to obsess over this issue? *helpless*
Shao Qing: Because I used to be one of them back then (ノ=Д=)ノ┻━┻
Xiao Qi: So you’re not anymore now? *laughs*
Shao Qing: ……Yao Xiaoqi, you should quickly think about how you’re going to buy me a meal, don’t forget that you’re a pauper now ╰(*’︶`*)╯
Xiaoqi: (Aiya, made him angry)
T/n: Here’s the summary for those who skipped the part:
– The girl’s identity is finally revealed. Her name is Yao Yue, she’s 15 years old, and 5 years ago, she was Yao Qi’s patient (and no, they’re not blood related at all, the same surname is just a coincidence)
– She’s been abused physically and sexually by her own older brother since she was a kid and became twisted as a result of it
– At the age of 10, her whole family died (due to “burglary”) and she was sent to an orphanage, where she met Yao Qi
– Yao Qi was very kind and gentle to her, a perfect ideal of what an older brother should’ve been in her eyes, but later he suddenly disappeared from her life
– That basically snapped her last straw. Desperate to lock away the traumatising memories of her dead abusive brother & longing for Yao Qi, their identities eventually overlapped in her mind, and she became obsessed with Yao Qi
– She had a whole meltdown in the hospital, accusing Yao Qi of doing things her dead older brother did (which made Liu Lin angry coz the whole ward was like wtf @ Yao Qi)
– Yao Qi finally remembered who she was, and after a round of mind games with the in-denial Yao Yue, made her face the reality that he wasn’t her brother
That pretty much covers the storyline of this chapter. It won’t affect your reading of subsequent chapters, so you don’t need to read the part after the red line if you don’t feel like it, coz even though nothing was described in detail, the allusions are still pretty horrifying. Take care and see you next chapter!
Oh, her life was so sad, poor girl :<
Thank You for the new chapter ( ˘ ³˘)♥
She was a victim too 😢 thank you for reading 💝
Thank you for the update translator! ❤️❤️
Thank you for reading! 😊💖