Chapter 16: Keep Acting

She turned back and saw Bai Zhinuo standing still with her head down, both hands clutching the plastic bag handles. Her ears were red enough to bleed, and she was hunched in on herself like a frightened quail.

Shen Qingci’s gaze left Bai Zhinuo and swept over the servants in the yard. She saw the undisguised contempt in their eyes. She understood at once. Her look turned cold.

“The Shen family pays you to watch a show?”

Everyone in the courtyard heard her voice.

The servants’ movements paused at the same time, and the work in their hands stopped.

“That free, are you?”

Shen Qingci stepped forward. Her school uniform skirt swayed slightly in the night wind, but her presence was sharp, sharp enough to make people lower their eyes.

“Not satisfied with this job?”

The servant closest to her flinched, and the watering can almost slipped from her hand. She quickly lowered her head, stopped staring at Bai Zhinuo, and pretended to fuss with her tools. The others also dropped their gazes and scattered back to their posts, but the shock on every face was plain.

How had the useless young lady, who had left the house with such a meek air that morning, turned into a different person in just a few hours?

Had she… wised up?

Shen Qingci stood still until everyone had scattered, then turned and walked back to Bai Zhinuo.

She reached out and wrapped her hand around Bai Zhinuo’s, the one holding the plastic bag.

“Come.”

Bai Zhinuo’s hand was cold as ice, but Shen Qingci’s palm was warm. That warmth seeped between their interlaced fingers, and Bai Zhinuo’s fingers unconsciously curled back around hers. She didn’t pull away.

Shen Qingci led her across the yard, up the steps, and pushed open the villa’s front door.

Warm yellow light filled the entryway, and the marble floor gleamed like a mirror. Bai Zhinuo glanced down at her canvas shoes dusted with dirt and wood shavings, hesitating to step inside.

Shen Qingci didn’t give her time to hesitate. She pulled her straight in.

“Don’t be so fussy. Floors are for walking on, not for admiring.”

The villa was quiet. The living room light was on, and someone was sitting on the sofa.

Bai Zhinuo looked up and saw a girl in a silk robe lounging back, watching TV. Her long hair spilled over her shoulders. Her nails were painted bright red. She held a glass of red wine, and the whole look of her was pampered and elegant.

When she saw Shen Qingci walk in, she lifted one eyelid and curved her mouth into a half-smile.

“Oh? Back?”

That voice had an affected, rising lilt at the end, and it made Bai Zhinuo instinctively uncomfortable.

Shen Qingci didn’t answer. She kept hold of Bai Zhinuo’s hand and walked deeper into the house, as if she hadn’t heard the woman at all.

Shen Jiao sat up straight and looked past Shen Qingci at Bai Zhinuo. She glanced up and down at the skinny girl in the shabby uniform, one side of her face swollen, like she was looking at something filthy. Her brows drew together.

“Who’s this?”

Her voice sharpened, with undisguised disgust.

Shen Qingci stopped.

“Something you fished out of a dump?”

Shen Jiao got up from the sofa and padded barefoot across the glossy marble floor toward them. She was a head taller than Bai Zhinuo. She looked down at her like someone who disliked cats staring at a stray that had wandered into the house.

“Torn clothes, torn pants, and blood smeared on your face. Tsk, tsk.” Shen Jiao tilted her head to look at Shen Qingci and let out a laugh. “Shen Qingci, when did your taste drop this far? If you’re going to dig through trash, at least pick for quality. Dragging something like this home… are you afraid people won’t know you’re a stray from outside?”

Slap.

A crisp, clean slap.

Bai Zhinuo hadn’t even processed what was happening before she saw Shen Jiao’s head snap to one side. Shen Jiao stumbled two steps sideways, and the wine glass flew out of her hand and smashed on the floor, shards and red wine splashing everywhere.

Shen Jiao stood there holding her face. It took her a long moment to turn back.

A clear handprint rose on her left cheek, in the exact same spot as the one Shen Qingci had received in the bicycle shed that afternoon, but the force behind it was more than double.

With that, all three girls in the room now wore a handprint on their face.

She stared at Shen Qingci, her pupils shrinking, her lips trembling. She still couldn’t grasp what had just happened.

Shen Qingci stood in front of her, her hand still out, not yet lowered. Her face was terrifyingly calm. Those wine-red eyes held no emotion at all, like a frozen pool of dead water.

“Since we’re talking about being picked up,” Shen Qingci slowly lowered her hand. Her voice was neither loud nor low, and every word rang clear through the living room. “Don’t you have more experience with that?”

Shen Jiao held her face, her lips quivering.

“You!”

“The outsider my parents picked up was always you, wasn’t it?”

Shen Qingci took a step forward. Shen Jiao instinctively stepped back. Her bare foot came down on a piece of broken glass, and she hissed at the sting. But Shen Qingci didn’t stop, still advancing.

“After living in my house for over ten years, you actually started thinking you were one of the Shens?”

“Now you dare question a decision made by me, the true young lady with pure Shen blood? What gives you the nerve?”

Shen Qingci’s voice shifted at last, carrying a cold that sank into her bones and mixed with undisguised contempt.

“Say something.”

Shen Jiao opened her mouth. The hand with bright red nails covered her swollen left cheek. But once the initial shock faded, her eyes narrowed slightly.

From her spot by the entrance, Bai Zhinuo caught it clearly. A glint of venomous calculation in Shen Jiao’s eyes, like a snake whose tail had been stepped on, already looking for the right angle to strike back.

Then Shen Jiao’s expression changed in an instant.

She tucked that venom away completely. Replacing it was wounded shock, fear, and just the right amount of helplessness. Her eyes reddened at once, and tears spilled down her swollen cheek, making her look utterly pitiful.

“You… you hit me?” Her voice cracked, no longer sharp and biting, but trembling with tears. “Shen Qingci, you actually hit me? Mom and Dad never had the heart to hit me, and you…”

Slap!

Another slap, heavier than before. Bai Zhinuo heard the sharp crack even from several steps away.

Shen Jiao was knocked backward. Her waist slammed into the sofa’s armrest, and she curled up in pain, tears and snot running down her face.

Shen Qingci shook out her hand and looked down at her.

“Keep acting.”

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