Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I had a young servant help Xie Lanting wash up and bathe.

But before long, a commotion broke out in the east wing.

When I went in, the servant was at a loss, trying to coax Xie Lanting into taking off his clothes.

Xie Lanting, meanwhile, looked utterly guarded. He clutched his clothes tightly around himself, his whole face screaming, Keep away.

I waved the servant out first.

Then I said gently, “Can you tell me why? If you bathe by yourself, there won’t be anyone to scrub your back, and you definitely won’t get clean. Or if you’d rather I scrub your back for you, that’s fine too.”

The gloom in Xie Lanting’s eyes turned even colder. He lowered his head and spat out a few words.

“I can wash myself clean. I can reach my own back too.”

I sighed.

“All right. Did someone say bad things about me in front of you? Did they tell you I don’t like you? I know being a stepmother is hard. Even if I tore out my heart and offered it to you, you still wouldn’t like me or trust me. I should have known… A husband who won’t come home, a son who won’t acknowledge me… What a bitter life I have…”

I covered my face and began sobbing.

Since I really couldn’t squeeze out any tears, I made do by shaking my shoulders a couple of times.

Xie Lanting was speechless. “That is so fake.”

Me: “…”

Sorry. My terrible acting must have offended your eyes.

Then he said in a muffled voice, “I don’t hate you. I’m afraid you’ll be disgusted by me.”

He slowly pushed up his sleeve, and I saw wounds crisscrossing his arm.

I was shocked. I immediately lifted his clothes, and there, across his back, were overlapping whip marks, ghastly to behold. Some had already faded into pale white scars, while others were still red and swollen-fresh injuries.

My heart clenched, bit by bit, as if I had been lashed by a whip too.

“Who did this?”

Xie Lanting said nothing. His expression was terribly dark. A dim flicker crossed his eyes, but he quickly lowered them again, hiding the hatred within.

As if defending himself, he covered his body back up. That tiny trace of weakness he had shown in front of me disappeared, and he became hard and unyielding once more.

He probably thought that even if I, a stepmother, knew about it, there was nothing I could do for him.

When I read the book, I had skimmed through parts of it, so I wasn’t very clear on what Xie Lanting had gone through.

But I could understand that a child whose father had joined the army and whose mother had died young, who had no choice but to live under someone else’s roof, would not have had an easy life.

I just hadn’t expected him to be abused.

I took his hand and immediately ordered the steward to summon a doctor, prepare horses, gather people, and head back to the ancestral village.

Xie Lanting’s eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

Only when the two of us had mounted the horses and were galloping all the way toward the ancestral village did he finally believe it.

A little awkwardly, he asked me, “What are we going back to the ancestral village for?”

“Revenge.”

I understood a little now why Xie Lanting would become so vicious when he grew up. The grievances he had suffered in childhood were too heavy. He had no strength to take revenge, and no one to stand up for him.

That hatred grew along with him. Years of repression shaped him into someone forbearing, ruthless, hypocritical, and desperately starved for love.

That was why a single gentle word of encouragement from the female lead could fill his entire heart.

And it was also why, after he gained power, he began to take revenge in extreme ways and became reviled by all.

What I had to do now was pull out that seed of hatred. I could not let it fester into a wound inside his heart.

Neither Xie Lanting nor I knew how to ride, so we could only be held in the arms of the guards.

He was very good at enduring pain. Even when his legs were rubbed red, he didn’t say a word.

I was protected by a female guard, but I still felt awful. It was my first time riding a horse in this life, and I was pretty sure the skin on my legs had been scraped raw. They burned with searing pain.

But I had to hurry.

It had taken Xie Lanting three days to get from the ancestral village to the capital. If we leisurely made our way back, his wounds would be nearly healed by the time we arrived, and it would be harder to denounce anyone. Riding was painful, but half a day was enough.

By dusk, we had already reached the village.

The place was picturesque, with cooking smoke curling into the air. Those who had finished dinner were wandering around and chatting idly.

Our group entered the village with great fanfare. Someone recognized Xie Lanting and immediately ran to the Xie Family’s house to report the news.

I deliberately slowed down. By the time we leisurely arrived at the home of Xie Lanting’s uncle and aunt, many people had already gathered there, curiously sizing us up.

Xie Er and Xie Er’s Wife immediately came out to greet us, smiles on their faces, though there was a hint of guilt in their eyes. The look they gave Xie Lanting carried a warning.

Xie Lanting lowered his head, not daring to meet their eyes.

I did not force him. Instead, I barked an order.

“Beat these two heartless bastards for me!”