After a hard day's work, Xia Chuyi rubbed her shoulders and continued to tidy up the kitchen.
Bang, a noise came from behind her.
She turned around, startled, and saw a middle-aged man, plump and balding, wearing an ill-fitting jacket, jumping down from beside the wall.
At the sight of the man, Xia Chuyi's body tensed up suddenly, both shocked and scared,
"He Qing? What are you doing!" she angrily demanded.
He Qing, her ex-fiancé and also her former brother-in-law, had been pestering and harassing her in her shop ever since they bumped into each other at the vegetable market last month.
To avoid him, she had even started closing the shop unusually early, but who knew he would actually climb over the back wall!
What the hell did this bastard want?
"I just came to check on you, Chuyi. After all, we were once family..." he rubbed his hands while licking his lips.
"Who's family with you? You were Xia Family's son-in-law, and I've severed ties with the Xia Family long ago. Get out, get out of my shop!"
Xia Chuyi felt so nauseous.
"Don't say that, Chuyi. You haven't married all these years, aren't you keeping yourself pure for me?" He Qing flashed a sleazy disgusting smile, "It's been a long time since you tasted a man, hasn't it?"
He lunged at her.
"Help!" Xia Chuyi ran for the door, screaming as she sprinted.
He Qing caught up to her in two steps, covering her mouth tightly with one hand and strangling her neck with the other.
"Good Chuyi, if you like to scream, I'll let you scream enough on the bed later!" He Qing's tone became more obscene.
Xia Chuyi fiercely shook her head, thrashing and kicking at him.
Ignoring her resistance, he dragged her towards the small bedroom behind the shop.
Realizing his intentions, she struggled even more fiercely; her hands unintentionally brushed against the dishes in the cupboard.
Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed a stack of porcelain bowls, flinging them forcefully at He Qing.
Bang,
The porcelain bowls shattered on the floor.
He Qing momentarily paused his actions, cursing, "You bitch!"
A sharp pain in her scalp, her hair was fiercely pulled, and she was yanked up by He Qing who grabbed her collar and slammed her hard towards the cupboard.
Her body hit the cupboard hard, causing intense blunt pains in her organs. She fell to the floor like a kite with a broken string.
Crash—the dishes in the cupboard spilled out, shattering upon her.
Sszz—a glassy piercing sound as shards lodged into her flesh.
The back of her head was pierced by a piece of those porcelain shards.
She moaned, the taste of blood spreading in her nose and mouth, fluid slowly seeping from the back of her head, drenching a large patch of hair, and trickling down to the ground.
Seeing the blood, He Qing was shocked.
"Chuyi, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it..."
"He... Qing... If I die... I won't... let you go!" Xia Chuyi gasped, enduring the severe pain, word by word.
He Qing stepped back twice, his voice panicking.
"No, no, no... not my fault... it was Xia Lan, Xia Lan sent me!"
"It was her all those years ago too, she was the one who drugged you and Huo Shiqian..."
At this, the fading consciousness of Xia Chuyi widened her eyes: "What... did you say?"
Xia Lan? It was her!
No wonder that day, despite her not coming home all night, it was only in the morning Xia Lan anxiously and "worriedly" began searching everywhere for her. Then, "coincidentally" found her entangled with Huo Shiqian, drugged and bruised.
"It's all Xia Lan, all Xia Lan..." He Qing shouted as he fled out of the shop.
"Xia Lan..." she used all her strength to cry out that name that had led to a lifetime of tragedies for her.
Why, why!
She ruined her thirty years ago, and now a second time, thirty years later!
Xia Lan!
What grudge do I hold against you!
She was very unwilling to let it go!
Clenching her teeth, with a bloody hand, she moved inch by inch towards her phone... Her bloody fingerprint moved less than an inch, the blood's owner's consciousness began to blur, thoughts scattering.
Past years flashed before her eyes like scenes from a movie.
Her life had been hard, her father died early and her mother was weak, grandparents favored her cousin, forced to quit school when young, lost her virginity before marriage, fiancé snatched away, forced to marry an old widower, causing her uncle's death, driven out of the house...
A trail of tears mixed with blood slowly slid from Xia Chuyi's eye; she never managed to reach her phone. The blood from her head soaked the fragmented ceramics red.
She died with her eyes open.