Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The autumn sky was a deep, vast blue, impossibly clean. I sat by the slide in the residential compound, staring up until I was lost in thought.

After a long while, I let out a sigh.

“What a beautiful day…”

When I pushed Nannan back home, my mother-in-law was sitting at the dining table with her arms crossed, her eyes and the corners of her mouth drooping in a scowl.

Today, both Lu Huaixu and my sister-in-law were out. Usually, at times like this, she would find any excuse to nitpick and criticize me-not to mention I was an hour late getting through the door today.

“Didn’t your mother teach you anything? Making your elders wait for you to eat? Don’t you know I’m old and can’t go hungry? My life is so bitter; every day I have to worry about a daughter-in-law like you who can’t even squeeze out a word when poked with a stick. If I’d known, I would have just died with his father and spared myself the sight!”

“Then go ahead,” I said.

“What?” My mother-in-law frowned.

I placed Nannan on the play mat, turned around unhurriedly, and softly let out three words.

“Go ahead and die.”

My mother-in-law’s pupils dilated bit by bit. A few seconds later, the flesh on her cheeks twisted and shook, and a roar tore from her throat.

“Presumptuous!”

I looked her up and down.

“Mm, I’m being presumptuous. What of it? Do you want to give me eighty lashes?”

“You! You slut! Get out of my house!”

Beside herself with rage, she rushed over, raising her hand to slap me.

Just as her hand was about to fall, I let out a sharp cry and collapsed onto the play mat, clutching my head and screaming in pain.

“My head!”

Startled by my reaction, my mother-in-law froze. She turned and shouted at the nanny standing at the kitchen door.

“You saw that, didn’t you? This bitch has some nerve, actually trying to frame me!”

The nanny wore a conflicted expression.

“Madam, I saw it. You hit her.”

My mother-in-law’s eyes widened, her face full of disbelief.

“W-what!”

When Lu Huaixu returned, I was lying weakly in bed with a bandage wrapped around my head.

The nanny sighed beside me. “I accompanied Xiao Li to the hospital. The doctor said that not only is the external injury serious, but she also has a severe concussion. She can’t handle any stress or agitation for a while. Sigh, I didn’t think the old madam would hit her so hard just because she came home a little late…”

Lu Huaixu’s face was dark as he gently stroked my hand, his lips pressed thin, saying nothing.

He did have feelings for me.

I didn’t doubt that.

That was also why I had been able to compromise and endure until now.

It was just that in the past, his love was my support.

Now, his love was useful to me.

Outside, my mother-in-law was screaming at my sister-in-law.

“That stinking bitch told me to go die! She fell on purpose to frame me! That snake-hearted bitch!”

Lu Huaixu reached his breaking point and strode out. Moments later, his suppressed, angry voice drifted in.

“Mom, with Zhining’s personality, how could she possibly do something like that to you? You bully her all the time, and I’ve always let it slide because you’re my elder, but this time you’ve gone too far!”

Before the high-decibel shouting match could escalate, I put on my noise-canceling headphones and turned on a powerful, stirring symphony.

I was so immersed in the music that when Lu Huaixu walked in with a flushed face, I was momentarily dazed, wondering why he looked that way.

“I’m sorry, Zhining. This was my mother’s fault. I apologize to you on her behalf.”

His face was full of guilt and heartache.

My eyes welled with tears, my expression timid.

“Huaixu, can I move out for a while? I’m a little scared… to see Mom.”

He walked over and pulled me into an incredibly gentle embrace.

“My mother’s emotions are unstable lately; it’s better if you avoid her. It’s just… I’m sorry you have to suffer this grievance.”