“I’ve actually known for a long time that because I always had my younger brother with me, I was already an oddity among people, often looked at with strange eyes.”
Shi Lingge said softly.
“But people have a sense of shame. Those strange glances were mostly hidden in the shadows, never as open and brazen as they were back then, surrounding me to stare.”
Su Ziyan was taken aback.
Just imagining that scene was enough to make one feel awkward.
“So, in that moment, I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Shi Lingge looked at the stunned Su Ziyan and whispered, “I had never felt so humiliated before. I cried and scolded him, asking him why he did that…”
“Back then, I always thought I was very mature, but looking back now, I was just a thin-skinned little girl.”
“But what I never expected was that my younger brother answered me, saying, ‘Because they were saying bad things about you, Elder Sister.'”
“At that moment, I was completely at a loss.”
Shi Lingge chuckled softly, “It was like punching cotton, right?”
“Like punching cotton.”
Su Ziyan nodded.
He was so engrossed in the story he hadn’t noticed he’d stopped stirring his spoon a long time ago.
“What happened next?”
For some reason, he saw the shadow of Xu Duyan and himself in this pair of siblings, even though their experiences were worlds apart.
“Next, I couldn’t say a word, until the teacher arrived.”
Shi Lingge met Su Ziyan’s gaze, looking into his silent eyes, and said, “Then it was the classic case of punishing both sides equally, calling the parents, making my brother apologize.”
“That’s really…”
Su Ziyan sighed, “There’s no helping it. Most teachers are like that.”
“Yeah, I just followed behind, watching my parents make my brother apologize.”
Shi Lingge also sighed.
“That’s when I suddenly remembered something from my childhood.”
“When I was little, I broke a vase. I was afraid of being scolded by my family, so I lied to my younger brother and told him to say he was the one who broke it.”
“He agreed without hesitation. I thought I had escaped punishment, but I never expected my parents would still figure it out and scold me very seriously for making my brother take the blame.”
“I was so angry back then. I called him a traitor, but I never expected his reaction to be so intense. He said he hadn’t told, that he would never betray me.”
“He said he was my brother, that I was so good to him, and that he would always protect me.”
“Looking back now, how could two children possibly fool adults?”
Shi Lingge laughed again.
“It’s just that I was too naive back then.”
“And he kept his word.”
Su Ziyan nodded.
“He didn’t let others talk badly about you behind your back.”
“Right. At that moment, I thought, my brother really does what he says.”
Shi Lingge lowered her head, looking at her reflection on the table.
“But what my brother didn’t know was that deep down, I actually didn’t like him, even though he said he would protect me.”
“My heart really ached back then. So I stepped forward and apologized together, thinking that once we got home, I would confess everything to him and say I’m sorry.”
Su Ziyan was stunned.
At that moment, he suddenly and inexplicably thought of Mother Su.
Even though they had indeed had an unpleasant argument back then, without her… he would have really been taken by Xu Duyan to apologize to the other children’s parents, wouldn’t he?
Even though those children were telling such outrageous lies.
“So, what happened next?”
Su Ziyan asked.
“He must have accepted your apology, right? I don’t think he would blame you.”
“Why would you say that?”
Shi Lingge paused, curious.
“How do you know he wouldn’t blame me?”
“Uh…”
Su Ziyan didn’t expect her to ask that, but he still answered, “Because I have an elder sister too. If something like this happened, I would do the same.”
“I see.”
Shi Lingge nodded, then fell silent.
Su Ziyan couldn’t see her nodding, so after a brief silence, he asked, “Did he… not forgive you?”
“No, it’s not that.”
Shi Lingge shook her head gently.
“It’s just that I never got to know his answer.”
“Never got to know?”
“Yeah. On the way back, there was a car accident. My parents and my brother all died. Half of my face was burned, and I never got the chance to apologize to him.”
Su Ziyan’s hand holding the spoon trembled slightly.
He suddenly remembered Shi Lingge saying she had once been utterly desolate and thought about suicide.
“Later, I was adopted by my aunt. She was a psychopath who took pleasure in tormenting me.”
Shi Lingge spoke as calmly as if she were talking about someone else’s affairs.
“She would prick me with needles, cut me with knives.”
“It might sound a bit narcissistic, but I was very pretty. Even with burn scars on half my face, it couldn’t hide my natural beauty.”
As she spoke, Shi Lingge laughed at herself.
“My aunt didn’t like that I was pretty, so she would always use needles and knives to cut my scars.”
“Want to touch them?”
Su Ziyan was stunned.
The sudden shift in topic caught him off guard, but he still nodded and extended his hand.
Shi Lingge took his hand and placed it on her face.
Su Ziyan’s fingers landed on the right side of Shi Lingge’s face.
The delicate, smooth skin spoke of a girl in the prime of her youth.
But when his hand followed her guidance to the left side of her face, he couldn’t help but feel a massive contrast.
It was like a chasm.
Scars crisscrossed, each one so deep.
At this moment, he truly felt heartache, but there was nothing he could do.
At most, he could only help her curse that beast of an aunt.
So much time had passed.
What use was it now?
“It’s ugly, right?”
Shi Lingge said with a smile.
“Back then, I suffered every single day. But the person who said he would protect me was already dead, before I could apologize.”
“Later, I couldn’t take it anymore and chose to end my life. It was the Young Lady who saved me and sent my aunt to prison. So I’m very grateful to her. That’s my story.”
Su Ziyan wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.
After all, if it was just comfort, it was not only too late but also too weak.
But he couldn’t just do nothing.
After hearing all this, he felt he had to do something.
Now he understood why she had torn open her old wounds to show him, and he knew why her actions were so practiced.
So, he did his best to make his voice sound younger and more tender, opening his arms as he said:
“You’ve had it so hard all these years, haven’t you? Do you need a hug, Elder Sister?”
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