Finally catching her breath, Ye Xingmian clutched her stomach in pain. Her blurred vision was smeared into a mess by the light, her whole body felt as if it had been thrown into water, and she was gasping for air.
“…My younger sister…” Her voice was somewhat hoarse as she told the truth.
“Your sister? The one named Lin Ziyan?” Qin Haiyue raised an eyebrow. She crouched down, leaning closer to Ye Xingmian, her cold fingers touching the girl’s burning cheek.
“Mhm…” Lacking strength all over, Ye Xingmian only managed a soft sound in response. Her pink eyes trembled as she looked at Qin Haiyue.
Qin Haiyue’s expression was strange. It held neither anger nor a smile, just a blank face with slightly narrowed eyes.
“Why did she choke you?”
“Uh… because her parents… favor…” Ye Xingmian spoke haltingly.
“Shouldn’t that be a matter between them? What does it have to do with you?”
Ye Xingmian opened her mouth but couldn’t speak. Explaining the whole story to Qin Haiyue would inevitably require a great deal of effort, and in her current painful state, she clearly lacked that strength.
Her stomach hurt so much. A sharp, dull, suffocating pain.
As if the organs inside had been smashed, the intense agony continuously scorched her mind, making her face deathly pale. Cold sweat seeped from her forehead, dampening her black hair.
“Hmm? I’m asking you a question.” Qin Haiyue’s face grew a few degrees colder.
“My younger… sister…”
“What about her?”
Ye Xingmian tried to organize her words, wanting to explain things to Qin Haiyue as briefly as possible to avoid potential violent treatment.
She thought for a long time and finally figured out a way. She had just opened her mouth when Qin Haiyue, frowning, covered it with her hand, forcing the words back down her throat.
“Why didn’t you fight back?” Qin Haiyue said coldly. “Forget it, don’t say anything else. I’m not interested. I just want to ask you one thing now. She choked you, why didn’t you fight back?”
Qin Haiyue leaned in even closer. She was half-kneeling on the floor, one cold hand stroking the girl’s cheek. On her indifferent face, those blue eyes stared fixedly at Ye Xingmian, who lay collapsed on the ground.
Beneath her was the cold, hard floor, pressing painfully against her body. The pain in her stomach was still churning violently, yet the question Qin Haiyue asked seemed so unreasonable. Ye Xingmian opened her mouth.
“I… I couldn’t fight back…”
She was telling the truth. At most, she could only provoke Lin Ziyan with words, and even then, she had to worry about retaliation. Moreover, there were her foster parents.
If her resistance displeased Lin Ziyan, or if she hit her, and Lin Ziyan complained to their foster parents, the consequences would be unbearable for her.
This wasn’t her being overly anxious; these were things that had happened before.
“Hmm? Why couldn’t you fight back?”
However, Qin Haiyue didn’t seem to acknowledge the helplessness and fear in her words, still pressing coldly and aggressively.
Her pursuit of this matter wasn’t out of concern for Ye Xingmian, nor was it to understand what kind of bullying she endured in the Lin family. That line of questioning stemmed more from a strange sense of dissatisfaction, like…
In that instant, Ye Xingmian’s pupils contracted. She suddenly realized something.
‘You are my dog. You can’t be hit by others, understand?’
Yes, that’s right.
A plaything belonging to her, something she could bully at will, an existence that should obey her every word. She had never seen Ye Xingmian as a person.
Understanding this, Ye Xingmian felt utterly hopeless.
Dog?
But Qin Haiyue didn’t let her off. One hand roughly dragged her up from the floor, ignoring the uncontrolled cry of pain from the girl as the violent movement twisted her injured area.
She dragged Ye Xingmian, like hauling garbage, and threw her directly onto the sofa.
The sofa was soft and warm, much more comfortable than the floor. However, Ye Xingmian’s slumped posture on it looked painful and not very graceful.
After doing all this, Qin Haiyue also got onto the sofa. But she didn’t sit; she straddled Ye Xingmian, cradling her head with both hands. Those blue eyes flashed with a terrifying obsession.
“I said, you are my thing. Only I can bully you, understand?”
Ye Xingmian’s eyes looked unfocused. She couldn’t see Qin Haiyue clearly; that face was a blur in her world. Her gaze focused behind Qin Haiyue—on the hanging family portrait.
She saw that black-haired, timid girl—the one who looked very much like her, Qin Haiyue’s younger sister.
The source of all her current suffering.
Sure enough, it’s all fake. Liking her sister, using me as a substitute, all lies.
Being lovers, being good to me, all lies.
Qin Haiyue was still that Qin Haiyue, never changed. The past two days were just an illusion, as if they never existed.
She had already reverted to how she was before, quickly, so quickly it was hard to react.
The brief peace she had gained was now completely shattered.
“I’m asking you a question! Do you understand!”
Seeing her delayed response, Qin Haiyue grew increasingly impatient.
She demanded an answer, but Ye Xingmian’s eyes remained unfocused. Her dazed pink eyes were like smudged pink ink, evenly staining a flawless white water surface.
Empty, without reflection.
Like an unconscious doll.
Looking at Ye Xingmian, Qin Haiyue suddenly remembered her own younger sister’s hateful face from last night. A crybaby, so weak inside, like a water balloon that would burst at the slightest bullying.
The anger in her heart surged again.
She gritted her teeth and viciously tightened her grip on Ye Xingmian’s neck, as if this action could wash away last night’s anger, erase the marks others had left on her neck.
The intense pressure on her neck, along with the suffocating pain, once again brought Ye Xingmian back to her senses.
Her pupils refocused, staring blankly at the Qin Haiyue before her. Her hands instinctively covered the other’s hand, struggling weakly.
Her sluggish brain began to turn slowly. She knew what she had to do to please Qin Haiyue, to make her let go.
“Let… let go of me…”
A trace of desolation appeared in her eyes. She tried to force a smile but couldn’t manage it. The pain on her face became more evident, several lines of tears sliding down her pale cheeks.
“Please… I beg you… let me go…”
“Let you go?” Qin Haiyue was pleased by her expression. As if this reaction restored her sense of existence, she actually revealed an excited smile.
Her tone pointed toward an obvious, humiliating answer.
“Alright then. So, my good little doggy, what should you call me?”