Chapter 3

Chapter 3

At twenty-five, Ah Yao was no longer the Ah Yao of my memory.

The old her was a crybaby-timid, afraid of the dark, and so soft-hearted that she was constantly bullied.

The current her loved to smile. That smile sat on her face like a mask, every curve and dimple perfectly calibrated, her every movement carrying an air of effortless composure.

She told me about the past fourteen years.

She said she had learned many ways to protect herself within that predatory, complicated family environment.

She had learned to wear a gentle, harmless smile to achieve her ends.

For instance, when she was eighteen, her stepmother became pregnant and tampered with her car, nearly killing her in an accident. In response, Ah Yao applied a thin layer of olive oil to the family’s elegant spiral staircase. She then stood at the very top, looking down with cold, indifferent eyes as her stepmother lost her footing and tumbled down the stairs, step by step.

Smiling, she told me in an incredibly tender voice, “Ah Zhu, you didn’t see the blood pooling beneath her. It was truly beautiful.”

Then there was the time she was nineteen. She seduced her stepbrother in the living room while he was incoherent and drunk. Just as his animalistic instincts took over and he began to force himself on her, her workaholic father “happened” to return. He witnessed the scene in a fit of rage while she huddled behind him, weeping in terror and clutching her torn, tattered clothes. No one saw the smirk hidden beneath her hair.

“After that, the beast was exiled. He can’t even show his face near me anymore. Ah Zhu, your methods are still too soft. This is how you settle things once and for all, isn’t it?”

And at twenty-one, she brought home a beautiful but weak-willed roommate who was always looking for a shortcut. She ensured the girl crossed paths with her father. After that, her stepmother fell completely out of favor. Her roommate would now cling to her arm, smiling and saying obediently, “Ah Yao, your father said he’ll get a divorce and marry me. Don’t worry, I’ll listen to everything you say.”

She was indeed obedient; at the very least, she ensured that Ah Yao smoothly entered the company and began taking over the business after graduation.

She told me many things, and I remained silent throughout.

Perhaps because I hadn’t responded, her tone gradually flattened until her face was devoid of expression. “Ah Zhu, are you like Fu Chengbi? Do you think I’m a deep, calculating, and venomous woman?”

She sat quietly before the mirror, reaching out to touch her reflection. “Ah Zhu, do you find me terrifying too?”

I sighed, my voice calm. “Ah Yao, you must have suffered so much all these years on your own.”

I don’t like being sentimental, but I couldn’t control the ache in my heart. I smiled at her through the mirror. “I’m happy, Ah Yao. Truly. I’m happy you learned how to protect yourself.”

She froze.

“So tell me, who is making you suffer?” My tone shifted, turning ice-cold.

Yes, the twenty-five-year-old Ah Yao had grown in a way that relieved me, but I hadn’t forgotten that every time I appeared, it meant she was in pain.

Extreme, desperate, unbearable pain.

I thought of the man named Fu Chengbi-the cold, icy expression he wore when he looked at Ah Yao, and that line: “This face of yours makes me utterly sick.”

I couldn’t help but sneer. “Do you love him?”

Only when you fall in love with someone do you grant them the power to hurt you.

Even the twenty-five-year-old Ah Yao, who had developed a heart of stone, could be trapped by her emotions.

There was no need for pretenses in front of me. I watched her drop her guard, her face gradually revealing a lost, sorrowful, and somewhat childishly confused expression. She asked me, “Ah Yao, I’m so good to him. Why doesn’t he love me back?”