"Come to my office."
Lin Wanyi followed Liu Renzhi inside. It was her first time in his office, and she felt a bit nervous.
Liu Renzhi instructed Zhou Chenyu:
"Pour a glass of juice."
Zhou Chenyu gave Lin Wanyi a few more glances before leaving. Liu Renzhi continued asking:
"How long have you been here?"
Lin Wanyi answered honestly: "I came at three, but you were in a meeting the whole time, so I didn't want to disturb you."
Liu Renzhi glanced at his watch and frowned slightly. "What's the urgent matter?"
Lin Wanyi immediately said: "Brother, Siyue's condition is very serious. The doctor said she has suicidal tendencies."
"Suicide?"
Liu Renzhi repeated: "Did the doctor really say that?"
"Yes, that's what he said. I thought about it, and I had to tell you. You'll figure something out, won't you?
"I didn't tell Aunt Su. Siyue doesn't want you all to worry. She won't say anything, so I won't either.
"But I need to tell you. You can help her."
Liu Renzhi clenched his fists tightly. Beasts. Those bastards.
He remembered the state Liu Siyue was in when they first found her in Wangjia Village. He couldn't bear to imagine that if they had arrived just a moment later, she might have already been a cold, lifeless body.
The more he thought about it, the more grateful he became toward Lin Wanyi.
He took a deep breath. "It's so late now. You must be hungry. Let me take you to dinner.
"As for Siyue, don't worry. I'll keep an eye on her."
Lin Wanyi quickly refused: "Brother, you've had a long day. Go home and rest. My mom saved dinner for me."
She stood up to leave, and Liu Renzhi saw her out the door. He watched until she got into a taxi, then turned to ask Zhou Chenyu:
"She was here for five hours. Why wasn't I notified?"
Zhou Chenyu hastily explained: "You were in a meeting, and she didn't say it was urgent, so I..."
Liu Renzhi cut her off:
"From now on, no matter when she comes, notify me immediately. Is that clear?"
Zhou Chenyu's curiosity about Lin Wanyi deepened. Who exactly was she?
Liu Siyue barely ate a few bites at dinner. Su Jing noticed and felt pained.
She brought some fruit to Liu Siyue's room. Liu Siyue hugged her and acted coy:
"Mom, I'm on a diet. Don't keep feeding me like this. Girls have to stay in shape, or their boyfriends won't like them."
"Diet? What's there to diet from?" Su Jing's heart ached. "You're barely over ninety pounds. Any thinner and the wind would blow you away. Come on, eat a little more."
"Alright, alright, I'll eat, I'll eat, okay?
"Mom, I'm eating."
She ate a banana and an apple in front of Su Jing, then showed her empty hands:
"All gone, Mom!"
Satisfied, Su Jing left. But the moment the door closed behind her, Liu Siyue bent over the toilet in agony, vomiting.
Everything she had just eaten came out, leaving nothing behind.
She cried as she vomited.
She didn't want this. She never wanted this.
But she couldn't help it. It was a physical urge to purge everything.
She sat on the floor, knowing she was sick—very sick.
But what could she do? What should she do?
She opened the medicine the doctor had given her and swallowed it in one gulp.
Lying down, she tried to close her eyes, but the moment she did, Chen Guanshan's old face appeared.
She covered her entire face with the blanket.
In her heart, she screamed: "Don't come near me. Don't come near me.
"Get out! Just get out!
"I'm not afraid of you anymore. You can't hurt me. My brother's here. My dad's here. My mom's here."
"I'm not afraid of you."
But before she could finish shouting, Chen Daniu came again.
One of them pinned her hand down, and the other pinned her foot down.
She couldn't break free no matter how hard she struggled.
Just as she was about to lose her mind, the blanket was lifted, and Liu Renzhi wrapped his arms around her:
"Yueyue, it's your big brother. Big brother is here. Cry if you want, let it all out.
"Big brother will protect you. No one will hurt you anymore.
"Yueyue, Yueyue!"
Liu Siyue lay in Liu Renzhi's arms, tears streaming endlessly. She was still holding back, afraid that Su Jing might hear, afraid that Liu Jiannan might hear.
But Liu Renzhi said, "Cry. Cry out loud. We're family, Yueyue. We're your closest people.
"Don't hold anything back. Let it out if you need to."
That night, Liu Siyue slept soundly for the first time in Liu Renzhi's arms.
A good night's sleep without nightmares, without Chen Guanshan and Chen Daniu, without Wang Family Village.
Liu Renzhi stayed with her the whole time, staring at the moonlight, wishing he could kill the father and son from the Chen family with his own hands.
Wang Hao stayed in the hospital for two days, and then his boss urged him to come back to work:
"If you don't come back soon, you're fired."
Liu Chunlan fumed with indignation: "What kind of company is this? A man gets into a car accident, and instead of checking in on him, they push him to come back to work. They're completely heartless.
"Son, switch jobs. With your skills, you can find a good job anywhere, right?"
Wang Hao, emboldened by Liu Chunlan's words, got fired up instead.
Not only did he not go back to work immediately, but he also dragged it out for two more days.
When he finally returned to the company, a new person was already sitting at his desk.
He went to see the boss, and the boss told him outright:
"I told you—if you didn't come back soon, you'd be out. Wang Hao, get lost."
Wang Hao made a huge scene in the company but was eventually thrown out by the security guard.
With nowhere else to go, he had to return to Wang Family Village.
When Liu Chunlan heard he had lost his job, she was livid:
"She actually dared to fire you? Son, it's fine. Mom believes in your abilities.
"We'll just find a new one."
Wang Hao believed in himself too. He had sailed smoothly since graduation, earning the highest salary among the young men in the village.
He was confident he could find a better job and rub it in his former boss's face.
But he was wrong.
The job market was tough, and his demands were high.
He wanted a monthly salary of over thirty thousand, a five-day workweek with no overtime, a single-person dormitory provided by the company, and preferably an apartment as well.
Such a job in a small county town was nothing short of a fantasy.
So after several days, there wasn't a single position that met his requirements.
Wang Jianguo scowled at him every day:
"Get out of here. A grown man loafing around all day—what is that?
"When the neighbors ask, I'm too embarrassed to even say you're unemployed."
Wang Hao, tired of hearing it, shot back:
"You have the nerve to criticize me? What good job have you ever had in your life?
"Haven't you been loafing around and drinking heavily all these years? I never said anything about you, and here you are, lecturing me?"
Liu Chunlan saw things differently. She firmly believed Wang Hao would find a good job, so she wasn't worried at all.
Right now, she was focused on finding a woman for Wang Hao to meet for an arranged marriage.
Auntie Li wasn't an option anymore—all the matches she set up were unreliable. So she switched to a new matchmaker.
She gleefully told Wang Hao:
"Mom found you a young woman. A real virgin, she just turned eighteen.
"The matchmaker says her requirements are simple—she just wants a man who's honest, really honest.
"Son, go meet her?"
Wang Hao figured since he had nothing else to do, he might as well go and meet her. He could always send a video to Lin Wanyi later and get back at her.
He agreed. He went.
But when they met, he was stunned.
She really was young, truly eighteen years old.
But she was simple-minded, with the intelligence of a three or four-year-old—a genuine fool.
