Shen Mo forcefully pulled off the silk thread in her hand, closed her eyes, and cried out, "You'll regret it if you don't listen..."
"Bang!" "Ah!" Two loud noises, a window slam, and a scream.
The window was still making a soft thud because it had been suddenly pulled down; it must have been hit pretty hard. Looking at the boy who was huddled up in a ball, covering his head, Shen Mo suddenly felt a little guilty and said softly, "I told you you'd regret it if you didn't listen."
"I only told you after I hit you! Ouch, that hurts so much..."
Shen Mo was stunned. He caught the thief but was scolded by him instead. The arrogance of the boy in front of him could completely defeat Rong Yue. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
She only realized what was happening when he stood up again and tried to run away. She grabbed his arm and said, "You're not allowed to leave."
"Let go, or I won't show you any mercy."
"I won't suppress my voice either."
The boy glared at Shen Mo for a long time, then his face fell. "Grandma, dear sister, little beauty, I only ate some of your family's food. Is there any need to be so confrontational?"
"The last time you stole my birthday present to myself."
"Oh, really? It tastes pretty good, but it looks a bit ugly."
Don't you think you should apologize?
The boy scoffed, "I don't eat other people's food, you should feel proud. Alright, it's getting late, I should go back." With that, he tried to pry her hand away.
But she found she couldn't pry it open no matter what she did. Frowning, she looked up and was startled to see Chen Mo's burning gaze. "What do you want? You don't mean you want to repay me with your body, do you? Let me tell you, we're still young, and we won't be able to have children even if we get married."
"Cough..." Shen Mo choked on his breath.
Chapter Twelve: He Keshang
"You know kung fu?"
Upon hearing this, the boy stopped running away. He curled his lips into a smile, raised his chin, and sneered, "You're lucky you know what's good for you, otherwise my fists wouldn't have cared about your suppressed, raspy voice." With that, he held out his fist in front of Shen Mo, looking threatening.
Shen Mo released him, took a step back, and said, "How about exchanging your skills for a full stomach every day?"
Unexpectedly, the other party abandoned his arrogance, suddenly took several steps back, and showed some feigned fear, "You want to cripple my martial arts!"
Shen Mo frowned. "Stop pretending. I've locked the windows behind you. This is the only way you can escape." She pointed behind her.
"I will not teach you my martial arts. Give up. Either you move aside and I'll leave, or you call for help and I can still leave." The boy suddenly turned hostile, his stubbornness barely concealed.
"Why?" Shen Mo originally thought this was a child suffering from extreme hunger, and that this was a very worthwhile deal for him.
Why should I tell you?
Shen Mo was pushed aside by him, watching him swagger out. Perhaps certain that she wouldn't gain any reputation, his steps weren't hurried, but annoyance could be seen in his stride. Later, Shen Mo learned that she had unintentionally crossed his line, and this "later" would take three years to resolve.
Over the past three years, Shen Mo would occasionally think of this emaciated boy, dreaming of his mocking eyes and thin body. Then, bored, she would run to the kitchen, hoping to find something, but in the end, she would find nothing. Sometimes she wondered if this person had already starved to death, and if she was one of the culprits.
In fact, the time it takes for a stranger you've only met once to stay in your mind is far less than three years. Three years later, Madam Rong suddenly told her, "I'm going back to the Rong family mansion." Shen Mo's occasional memories of the boy had long since turned to ashes, until one day he suddenly reappeared mysteriously, but not in the kitchen, and his identity was not that of a thief.
Shen Mo remembered that she was frowning and staring at her bleeding calf. The food basket that Aunt Xia asked her to deliver to Uncle Xia was dropped to the side, but she had no time to care. The two snake fang marks on her calf were gradually becoming painful and swollen. At the time, she thought that the snake was not poisonous, so she tried her best to run away and get rid of it. It wasn't until she could run no more and stopped that she saw the bluish-black color and felt something was amiss.
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she looked around helplessly. Wasteland, reeds, ponds—but no sign of human habitation. She had no choice but to unbuckle her belt and tighten it around her calves to prevent the poisonous gas from spreading. She crawled to a more spacious area and then waited. She watched the sun slowly set, listened to the evening breeze, until the feeling in her legs had completely disappeared, but still, no one appeared.
So when the intermittent singing came from not far away, no one knew how overjoyed Shen Mo was. It was a very beautiful song, Shen Mo thought, and he told the singer the same thing.
When Shen Mo lured him over with her cries of "Help!", her first words upon seeing his face were, "So you sing this well." Little did she know then that her casual remark would one day be recognized by half the world.
The same thin clothes, the same coarse cloth robe, and a clear pallor on his face, the boy raised an eyebrow and tilted his chin up, saying, "Most people can't hear this, you're lucky."
Do you still remember me?
After listening, the boy looked at her seriously for a long time, and finally shook his head and said, "You little girl are quite something. If you hurt your leg, you should just ask me for help. Why are you so young and talking about family ties? Who cares?" He withdrew his hand, which was about to reach out to check her foot injury, because of his disdain.
He indeed didn't remember him. The shame of the deal, which he had been thinking about for half a year and which could potentially harm a poor boy, suddenly fell apart, and Shen Mo felt a sudden surge of joy for no reason.
“You’re right, I shouldn’t have gotten involved with relatives,” Shen Mo raised her face and said, “Then can you help me? I can’t move right now.”
The boy scratched his head impatiently, awkwardly took her feet in his arms, and then his expression brightened. "This snake is poisonous!" he exclaimed, suddenly becoming unusually happy.
Shen Mo was sure she wasn't seeing things, and clicked her tongue, "You don't need to be so happy that I've been poisoned, do you?"
The boy rolled his eyes at her. "What's the panic? This is a poison I can cure."
Shen Mo had guessed he wouldn't abandon her, and might even take her home, but she hadn't anticipated this scene. Her eyes widened as she watched the young man bend down, his slightly cool lips pressed against her wound, sucking out the venom drop by drop. In the few times Shen Mo had seen him, and in the few expressions she had witnessed, she had never seen him so earnest.
Just when Shen Mo thought he would say something cheesy like "How do you feel?" after he finished inhaling, the other person suddenly lunged to the side and vomited like a pregnant woman. After a long while, he turned around and said to Shen Mo, "Your blood smells awful."
Shen Mo smiled. "Thank you."
"Who needs your thanks? If this poison didn't work on me, I wouldn't risk giving you the antidote." The young man spoke with a mixture of arrogance and pride.
Why doesn't it work for you?
"The poison isn't strong; after a few bites, it will become ineffective."
His casual words, seemingly just a casual remark about the weather, left Shen Mo stunned for a long time. This young man was far more destitute and helpless than she had imagined.
"What are you spacing out for? Get up! In a little while, there won't just be snakes here anymore."
Shen Mo finally came to her senses, but she couldn't stand up no matter what. Her legs had been hurting for half a day, and she was covered in cold sweat. She felt weak and exhausted. She simply sat up straight and looked at the back of the figure that had already walked several steps away with an innocent pleading look.
Finally, he turned around, staring at her with wide eyes in surprise, "You don't mean I have to carry you back, do you?"
Shen Mo didn't nod or say anything. She just stared at him, watching him throw off his sleeves and leave, then come back with a troubled expression, finally carrying her on his back with a helpless look on his face.
"If I'd known I'd run into a burden, I shouldn't have come out today..." "Sigh... why am I so unlucky?" The boy muttered to himself as he walked, his silence contrasting with the silence of the person on his back. After a long while, he realized something was wrong. "Why aren't you saying anything? Don't you feel suffocated?"
"My name is Shen Mo."
The other person paused, "Who asked your name?"
"..."
"You should ask your benefactor for their name first."
Having never met someone with such a wildly imaginative mind, Shen Mo asked him, "May I ask your honorable name, benefactor?"
"He Shang!"
Just as He Shang proudly announced her name, Shen Mo finally couldn't help but laugh. He overheard her and immediately threw her to the side of the road, looking at her with slight anger and saying, "It's not the monk you think it is. 'He' means 'what night is this,' and 'Shang' means 'a wine cup that floats on the waves.'"
"He...Shang," Chen Mo tried calling him again, looking at his somewhat annoyed face.
"Hmph, you've ruined my mood. I don't want to carry it anymore. Go fend for yourself." With that, he pointed to the food basket he had taken from her hand. "I'm taking this. Don't remember my kindness anymore. Goodbye!"
He Shang truly left without looking back, not even escorting Shen Mo home. But Shen Mo found it understandable. He was thin and frail, with no advantage other than being taller than Shen Mo. It was already quite an achievement for him to carry her and chatter for such a long distance. Even just before she was put down, she heard He Shang's heavy breathing. Protecting his own freedom, even distancing himself from a stranger—all of this was forgivable. Shen Mo looked around. She was at a crossroads, with fishermen returning from fishing not far away. Gazing at the path He Shang had taken, Shen Mo suddenly realized that placing her at such a strategically advantageous crossroads couldn't be unintentional.
What is unintentional may be intentional, and what is intentional may be unintentional. He Shang could only guess at these things regarding Shen Mo. As for He Shang later, he told her about it to someone else, an acquaintance.
After thanking the fishermen who had brought her back, she struggled back to the courtyard and sat on the steps, panting. As she was still thinking about how to explain things to Madam Rong, a shadow suddenly fell over her.
Shen Mo raised her head, then rubbed her eyes and called out with disbelief and hesitation, "Young Master?"
"Um."
Why Chapter Thirteen?
"Why are you back so late? You've made Uncle Xia go hungry and caused Madam worry."
Ren Chenmo racked his brains but never imagined that the first person he needed to explain to was Rong Yue, whom he hadn't seen for three and a half years. Under the cover of night, Chenmo could only see his blurry eyebrows and eyes, but he could still discern his usual arrogant and casual demeanor and his unchanging cold and aloof stature.
"It was my fault. I encountered some problems on the way. I will be more careful in the future." Shen Mo knelt down to pay her respects, the cold, hard stone slabs digging painfully into the wounds on her legs.
"Madam spends most of her time away from home worshipping Buddha, and she doesn't like being around many people. You are all alone, so you must serve her with utmost care."
Shen Mo thought she had misheard. Such earnest words were always spoken by Rong Si, while Rong Yue would only punish servants without saying a word when they made mistakes. When did he learn such a tone? She glanced at him as he turned his back to her, seemingly deep in thought. His desolate figure carried an unfamiliar sense of vicissitude. Was it time? Or an event? However, whatever it was, she had no right to ask. She could only drag her heavy legs and say softly, "Yes, this servant takes her leave."
Rong Yue seemed to have started to like this place. Every day, he would ask Uncle Xia about the surrounding situation, people, and things. He would even personally visit the amusement park to check on things. He would act as usual in front of everyone, but Shen Mo could always find some unfamiliar expressions on Rong Yue's face that she had never seen before. She began to convince herself that this was what three years had been like.
Rong Yue came to visit Madam Rong, that's what he said, and everyone initially thought so too. However, when Shen Mo strangely counted the days on her fingers as they passed, and Rong Yue showed no sign of leaving, even Madam Rong stopped believing it.
“It couldn’t be that he just came to see me.” Madam Rong finally couldn’t help but sigh to Shen Mo, who had become her personal maid, but her tone was very certain.
"Madam, please don't overthink it. Perhaps the young master just wants to spend more time with you." Shen Mo said this with her head down, not even believing the truth of it herself. In the past, when Rong Yue was young, he had never been attached to his mother, let alone now that he had grown up.
Madam Rong lifted her head and stared intently at her. "Amo, help me see what he's doing?"
Three and a half years ago, after leaving the Rong family mansion, Shen Mo realized that it was a huge mistake to have assumed that Madam Rong's eyes were like withered wood. They held secrets, scheming, and, as they did now, a mad love for Rong Yue. Even after years of practicing Buddhism, she could not lose her edge.
“Madam…” Shen Mo knew what she wanted her to do, but she didn’t understand. Wouldn’t it be easier for her mother to ask her son a casual question than to make her follow him?
"Yue'er said he's going to the fishing village again today."
But the other party refused to explain, only giving her a curt answer.
In truth, the fishing village wasn't close at all; in fact, it was quite difficult to reach. Looking at the path she'd known for over three years and at Rong Yue's confident strides, she knew he'd been there countless times. No wonder Madam Rong used the word "still." Suddenly, Chen Mo, finding herself in such an awkward position, became interested. She wanted to see what it was that could fascinate Rong Yue so much.
So when Rong Yue suddenly took a wrong turn at an intersection, she even had the urge to run out and lead the way for him.
Before she knew what she was about to face, she mistakenly continued to follow Rong Yue down the wrong path. She thought it was because she was already past the age of impulsiveness, but in Rong Yue's eyes, it was a hostile roadblock.
Rong Yue suddenly quickened his pace, and Shen Mo struggled to keep up. Beads of sweat began to appear on her forehead. Finally, Rong Yue disappeared from sight. She clutched her chest, panting, and recounted the moments when her first spy mission had failed.
Suddenly, a sharp object struck her knee, forcing her to her knees before she could even feel the pain. Her outstretched hand was grabbed and twisted violently backward. In that instant, her mind went blank, and she heard a crisp cracking sound from her bones. Then came a cold, sharp voice.
"Tell me, who sent you?"
A bead of cold sweat dripped from Shen Mo's forehead, a mixture of shock and pain. Before she could even grasp the situation before her, she adopted her usual silence, which only emboldened her to become even more ruthless. The pain in her knees had subsided, replaced by numbness; the broken bones in her wrists and hands had given way to Shen Mo's rebellious spirit. She bit her pale lower lip and turned her head away, determined to remember everyone who had wronged her—a habit she had carried over from her past life.
Perhaps the other party was careless, or perhaps they simply didn't expect it, but when Shen Mo suddenly turned around and used his still-good arm to wipe the mask off his face, a completely unfamiliar and cold face was placed in front of Shen Mo.
"Tell the young master to tell the madam what he's doing. This servant will not keep you company any longer," Shen Mo suddenly laughed, a pale laugh. She looked at her wrist, which she could not lift at all, and told the man in front of her, "This servant cannot keep you company either."
"Let her go."
A calm voice rang out, and Shen Mo looked in the direction of the sound. The figure that had used its superior speed to leave her behind reappeared not far away. However, this time it was no longer a figure hurrying along. It was facing her, and her eyes held a slightly apologetic gaze.
She didn't even want to doubt the truth of it. It was because of that sentence and that feeling of guilt that when she returned to the courtyard and faced Madam Rong, Shen Mo compromised once again. She rubbed her aching knee and showed her wrist to Madam Rong. She said, "Madam, the mountain road was too slippery. I was incompetent and fell down like this."
When Madam Rong looked over with a slightly suspicious gaze, Shen Mo was thinking about Madam Rong's secret. Only in this way could she instantly feel that she could also be the master, and then hide her own lies.
"I'm so sorry to have troubled you. I shouldn't have asked you to go," Madam Rong said gently, her hand slowly stroking her arm. "Does it still hurt?"
Shen Mo shrank back, but still couldn't avoid getting some of the sandalwood scent from Madam Rong's hands. However, she didn't dare to frown. "Thank you for your concern, Madam. It's just a bone removal. Uncle Xia has already reattached it for me. I'll be fine in a few days."
Little did she know, those so-called "few days" turned out to be dozens of days. Rong Yue had recently become somewhat irritable. Several times, when Shen Mo brought him tea, she would occasionally see discarded Xuan paper lying around. Having spent several years in his study, Shen Mo knew he had something on his mind. But Shen Mo no longer wanted to care too much. With a "let it be" attitude, she watched him drift through her life, and yet he could still manage a pale smile when Uncle Xia helped her with the bone-testing.