“Su Li……”
“Su Li……”
“Su Li……”
Jin Ke’er kept mumbling her name, scenes from the restroom encounter flashing through her mind—how she met Su Li there, and how she was slapped hard across the face.
“Damn it!”
She clenched her fist tightly, letting blood trickle down as anger continued to blaze in her eyes.
She was about to become a normal person.
Su Li wouldn’t get away.
She was going to show Su Li the price of provoking her.
Jin Ke’er pressed the remote hard in her hand, and on the TV, footage of Su Li serving her began to play.
Every night, she would watch this footage over and over again.
In the video, Su Li’s drooping lashes looked like two frozen snowflakes, completely unresponsive no matter how much she humiliated or cursed her.
Back then, Su Li was such a well-behaved little dog.
But now, after being abandoned, her good little dog had found a new owner—and to please the new master, she had come back to bite the old one.
This made Jin Ke’er furious beyond words.
“Just a dog relying on her master’s power!”
“One day, you’ll pay the price.”
“You’ll be abandoned by your master again.”
Watching Su Li act like a loyal dog in the projection, Jin Ke’er’s hand gripped the wheelchair armrest so tightly that the veins bulged and her nails nearly broke the leather.
The image of Su Li fixing Bai Huizi’s skirt was like a red-hot nail, stabbing straight into her temple.
That wretch had knelt and served her the same way before, bangs meekly hanging down—now she had learned to put on that submissive look for a new master!
Suddenly, Jin Ke’er pounded her numb thigh, her knee striking the wheelchair’s metal frame with a dull thud.
It hurt, but it was nothing compared to the bitterness churning in her throat.
Images flashed of Su Li’s fingertips brushing Bai Huizi’s ankle—she could almost hear the sharp crack of that slap again.
Those hands should only ever touch her wheelchair, should only ever hold her feet, yet now dared to slap her for the sake of the new master!
In the projection, Jin Ke’er grabbed a Bone China Cup from the coffee table and smashed it to the ground, shards scattering at Su Li’s feet.
That wretch didn’t even blink, instead clinging closer to her feet, just like a stray dog wagging its tail at anyone it met.
She could almost smell Su Li’s faint, sickly-sweet scent through the screen.
“Disloyal, lowborn thing!”
Jin Ke’er slammed her fist against the back of the chair again, but it did nothing to release the pressure inside her.
This feeling could only be released completely by slapping Su Li across the face.
“Miss.”
A knock sounded at the door. Jin Ke’er struggled to suppress her anger, then used the remote to turn off the projection.
“Come in!”
Outside, Lan Yinyun slowly opened the door, glancing at the girl beside her.
The girl nodded, her body trembling. She looked into the room at Jin Ke’er sitting in the wheelchair, shaking even harder.
Jin Ke’er had light amber hair that glowed with a honey sheen, the ends brushing her collarbone with every movement.
Her skin was so pale it seemed almost transparent, with fine sweat beading on her nose and faint blue veins tracing down behind her ear like cracks in porcelain.
Despite her delicate features, when their eyes met, the only thing the girl felt was fear—pure, helpless fear.
Still, this job was hard to come by. According to the Butler who brought her, she only had to work once to earn Ten Thousand Yuan.
And that Ten Thousand Yuan…
Was everything to her.
With Ten Thousand Yuan, she’d finally have enough for her younger brother’s Bride Price.
Her brother could finally find a wife!
Her parents wouldn’t have to wear those constant frowns anymore, and she herself wouldn’t have to marry that reeking old man whose body stank of sour, spoiled rice and stale tobacco.
She hated that greasy smell of leftover porridge mixed with the stench of tobacco clinging to him.
In the end, the girl balled her fists and slowly walked into the room.
“Raise your head.”
Jin Ke’er stared at the girl, gasping for breath. Her own body was trembling too—but hers was from excitement.
The girl slowly lifted her head, locking eyes with Jin Ke’er’s golden gaze.
A crisp “slap!” rang out in the room.
The girl’s cheek was whipped violently to the side, a searing pain stabbing from her cheekbone to her ear like a hot wire.
Her right cheek swelled visibly, eardrums buzzing, blood and saliva trickling from her lips down her chin, even her back molars throbbing with numbness.
Disheveled hair clung to her sweaty skin, every strand brushing her swollen face making her temples throb.
Pain!
It hurt so much!
Too much!
Blood-flecked saliva spattered from her lips.
The metallic taste burst in her mouth, her back molars numb, half her face burning as if pressed by a hot iron.
Red lines of blood trickled down her chin, blooming into a garish flower on her pale collar, each muffled gasp sending droplets splattering like stars on the tile.
She wanted to cry out, but clenched her lips shut—she couldn’t make a sound.
If she made a sound, she’d lose this job.
She needed the money!
She needed the money!
Only money could buy her a future!
“Stand up!”
Jin Ke’er’s voice was icy and impatient.
This was just the beginning!
She wasn’t a pushover—since she’d paid, she expected to get her money’s worth.
The girl cowered in the wheelchair’s shadow, the pale blue hem of her dress trampled into messy creases.
Jin Ke’er seized her hair, yanking so hard that the girl’s face—so like Su Li’s—was forced upward, lashes trembling with unshed tears.
Slender fingers dug into her neck, and she heard fabric tearing near her collarbone.
That was the new dress Butler Lan had given her just this morning.
With a ripping sound, the girl squeezed her eyes shut in pain.
“Slap!”
“Slap!”
“Slap!”
“You wretch!”
“**!”
“Backstabbing dog!”
“If you knew it would come to this, why did you do it in the first place!”
“Traitor, you’re helping outsiders bully me now!”
“Slap!”
Scene after scene of Su Li humiliating her replayed in Jin Ke’er’s mind, every slap landing on the girl’s face.
“Slap!”
The last blow sent the girl reeling back, her head smacking hard against the tiled wall.
The ringing in her ears was sharp as boiling water, her swollen cheek squinting her eye to a slit, lashes clumped together with blood.
Her knees suddenly buckled, and as her body slid down the wall, her fingers clawed for something to hold—but found nothing.
The overhead light flickered in her vision, dissolving into snowy white spots.
The iron taste in her throat hadn’t even finished rising when darkness swept over her eyes like a tide.
“If only I could die here.”
The thought echoed in the girl’s heart.