Shen Er chased blindly after me, his hand snatching tightly at my sleeve. "Yuan Yuan, listen to me."
I kept walking quickly down the corridor in a furious daze. "Fine, tell me! I'll listen to your explanation right now."
Shen Er kept a desperate grip on the corner of my clothes, stumbling blindly as he struggled to keep up with my furious pace. He seemed utterly flustered, trying to force himself to calm down. "It isn't what she said. I don't like her..."
I stopped so suddenly he almost crashed into my back. I couldn't hold the venom in anymore. "Zhu Yuan'er is just a convenient substitute, and Shen Er isn't just a simple, helpless blind man. Right?"
Shen Er's beautiful eyes went entirely blank for a moment, and then his long eyelashes drooped helplessly. "You aren't a substitute," he murmured. "I..."
I was genuinely shocked by the violent depth of my own heartache and anger.
From the very beginning, I had agreed to this transaction. We were simply a married couple on the surface. I didn't expect him to love me; I was only here for the silver. I had already suspected he liked someone else. If he wanted to take a concubine, I had even planned to dutifully help arrange it for him.
Hadn't I been perfectly prepared for this from the start?
So why... why did my chest hurt so badly now?
Now, even the sweet sound of him calling me Yuan Yuan made me furious.
This was an incredibly dangerous sign.
Shen Er and I fell into a bitter cold war that lasted for ten days.
We still spoke when necessary, but I only ever gave perfunctory answers. Eventually, sitting in the suffocating tension, he became completely silent too.
During this frozen period, Old Master Shen returned to the estate.
He was a middle-aged man with a commanding, imposing presence. He didn't look much like Shen Er at all.
Madam Shen was always extraordinarily careful to please him, but Old Master Shen remained coolly indifferent, rarely paying her any genuine attention.
"Xiao Er, in a few days it will be your mother's death anniversary. Take... Yuan Yuan, and go visit her." Old Master Shen suddenly brought this up over tea, and the atmosphere in the room instantly became violently subtle.
Shen Er only nodded and murmured his agreement.
Old Master Shen looked over at me, a rare hint of a smile reaching his eyes. "Yuan Yuan, now that I have you here, I no longer have to constantly worry about Xiao Er. If Shen Er tries to bully you, you must tell me."
My face flushed a guilty red. For the past ten days, I hadn't even bothered to speak to his son properly—it definitely wasn't certain who was currently bullying who.
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