Chapter 40: Teaching Her a Lesson

Wang Ma returned to her servant quarters and found a bottle of stomach medicine she usually took herself.

She suffered from chronic bloating, so she kept this bottle of stomach medicine on hand; bringing it for the young mistress to take, she had no idea if it was the correct treatment.

But at this point, she had to treat a dead horse as if it were alive; whether it was the right treatment or not, this was the only medicine available, and it was better than taking nothing at all and dying from the raw pain.

Wang Ma poured out two capsules from the bottle and brought them along with a glass of warm water to Shi Kezhen, who was still slumped over the dining table.

“Young Mistress, take this stomach medicine first.”

She placed the capsules and the water by Shi Kezhen’s hand, bending over to support her shoulders.

“After you take them, I’ll help you upstairs to rest for a bit.”

Shi Kezhen raised her head, the stray hairs on her forehead damp with sweat and clinging to her skin.

She glanced at the stomach medicine in Wang Ma’s hand, her voice weak and listless.

“Isn’t… the doctor coming?”

Wang Ma’s lips twitched, but she ultimately spoke the truth.

“Madam… won’t allow a doctor to be called.”

Shi Kezhen closed her eyes, then opened them again.

“I understand.”

She showed no anger, no tears, and no questioning.

It was just like Mother Shi not allowing her to dine upstairs.

She understood; Mother Shi simply wanted to make her suffer, to make her feel pain, and to teach her a lesson.

***

Shi Kezhen lay in bed, curled on her side in the shape of a shrimp.

Likely due to stomach spasms, her stomach throbbed with wave after wave of sharp pain; because of the pain, she gasped heavily, her entire body breaking into a sweat that soaked a large patch of her loungewear.

Fortunately, Wang Ma’s medicine had some effect.

Over an hour later, perhaps the medicine had kicked in, or perhaps her stomach had finally settled down.

The severe pain slowly receded, and she gradually recovered.

Once she regained her strength, she relaxed her body bit by bit, her breathing gradually stabilizing.

She stopped sweating, but instead began to feel cold.

She pulled the blanket over herself.

Her clothes were completely soaked through with sweat, clinging to her skin cold and sticky, but she no longer had the strength to climb out of bed and change.

She was afraid that just as her stomachache had subsided, she would catch a cold from the dampness.

Nobody in the Shi family would coddle her; she had to take good care of herself and not allow things to get even worse.

***

She had heard that people with cheap lives possessed relatively resilient vitality.

‘I really do have a cheap life,’ Shi Kezhen thought to herself self-deprecatingly.

She had been in agonizing pain just yesterday, yet she was already much better today; her stomach no longer ached, and her legs had regained a bit of strength.

Today at seven-thirty, it was breakfast time.

Shi Kezhen appeared in the dining room on time; looking at Mother Shi, who was already seated at the head of the table, she walked up, lowered her head slightly, and called out.

“Mother.”

Mother Shi was browsing through her phone, sparing her a glance and replying faintly.

“Mm.”

Shi Kezhen walked over to her usual seat and sat down.

The servants began serving the meal.

The Shi family was very traditional when it came to meals; throughout the four seasons, all three daily meals were almost exclusively Chinese cuisine.

Breakfast was also customized to the tastes of the Shi family, consisting of various porridges, side dishes, eggs, steamed buns, and the like.

Today, the kitchen had prepared shiitake chicken porridge, but since Shi Kezhen had suffered a stomachache yesterday, to look after her stomach, Wang Ma had quietly prepared a separate bowl of pumpkin millet porridge for her.

While serving, Wang Ma discreetly placed the pumpkin millet porridge in front of Shi Kezhen.

Mother Shi saw this, her gaze casting a casual glance at Wang Ma.

Keeping her head lowered, Wang Ma walked back to the kitchen on her own after serving, doing her best to minimize her presence.

She had found Shi Kezhen’s suffering too hard to watch yesterday and softened, taking matters into her own hands while fearing her mistress’s blame.

Fortunately, Mother Shi was in a fairly good mood today and didn’t blame her for it.

Shi Kezhen waited for Mother Shi to pick up her spoon and take the first bite before she picked up the millet porridge in front of her.

She quietly ate the bowl of millet porridge, bite by bite.

‘It’s enough just to be alive.’

‘Only by living can I leave.’

After finishing breakfast, Shi Kezhen set her spoon down and looked at Mother Shi.

“Mother, I want to return to school.”

Mother Shi had already finished eating, dabbing her lips with a tissue, and cast a glance at Shi Kezhen.

“Have you learned your place?”

she asked, her tone neither heavy nor light.

“Do you still dare to harbor those unrealistic thoughts?”

Shi Kezhen pursed her lips and said nothing, but the silence itself was an answer.

Mother Shi saw through it, realizing she was still unwilling, and that beneath her lowered eyes still hid a refusal to submit.

“If you want to step out of this front gate, you must give me a guarantee,” she said unhurriedly.

“You cannot harbor any of those unrealistic thoughts from before.”

“Do not ever dream of severing ties with the Shi family, and definitely do not dream of leaving.”

She paused.

“As long as you are obedient and well-behaved as before, you can return to your original life.”

Shi Kezhen’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.

‘My original life.’

‘A life that is ten years like a single day, devoid of freedom and sense of self.’

“Alright, I guarantee it.”

Mother Shi let out a soft snort.

“A verbal guarantee won’t do; you must write a written statement of guarantee for me.”

Mother Shi turned her head to look at Butler He.

Butler He understood, bowing slightly and walking out of the dining room.

After a moment, he returned with paper and a pen, placing them in front of Shi Kezhen.

Shi Kezhen looked down at the blank piece of paper.

Under the table, she clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms; the slight sting kept her alert.

She then released her grip, picked up the pen, and wrote a neatly penned written guarantee.

After finishing, she pushed the paper before Mother Shi.

Mother Shi picked it up, her gaze scanning back and forth across the few lines of writing; she wasn’t particularly satisfied, but she also knew she couldn’t push too hard.

She didn’t make things difficult for her any further, folding the paper twice and placing it by her hand.

“Tomorrow is Monday; you will return to Jingda with Yanzhou to study.”

Shi Kezhen nodded.

“Thank you, Mother.”

Mother Shi cast another glance at her, and as if granting a favor, turned to command Butler He.

“Old He, return her phone, computer, and everything else to her.”

Butler He replied.

“Yes, Madam.”

***

After two whole weeks, the phone finally returned to Shi Kezhen’s hands.

Upon returning to her room, she didn’t dare open the Privacy Space immediately.

Mother Shi would definitely keep a close eye on her during this period; any slight disturbance could cause all her previous efforts to go to waste.

She waited all the way until past nine in the evening, when the servants had retired, Father and Mother Shi had returned to their rooms, and Shi Yanzhou hadn’t yet returned from going out to play in the afternoon.

Only when the entire Shi household fell quiet did she adjust her phone’s volume to a very low level, finally daring to switch to the Privacy Space.

Just as she switched to the Privacy Space, the WeChat notifications of her secondary account began chiming non-stop.

The red dot on the WeChat icon displayed 999+ unread messages.

Cheng had left her countless messages, along with many missed video and voice calls.

Shi Kezhen stared at those messages, her finger hovering above the screen without scrolling.

She knew that with her sudden disappearance for such a long time, Cheng would definitely be extremely anxious.

But she had no other choice; her phone was confiscated, her person was grounded, and she even had to read others’ expressions just to eat a bite of food.

Bow her head to Mother Shi today and writing that guarantee was merely a superficial compromise.

After these two weeks of resistance, she clearly understood one thing.

Head-on confrontation was useless.

If she truly wanted to leave the Shi family and completely sever ties with them, she had to find another way.

She had to get her phone back first.

She had to step out of the Shi family’s front gates first.

She had to survive first.

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