Zhang Yushu stared blankly at the scene in front of him. His gaze slowly shifted to An Peng not far away. An Peng had been standing there with her arms folded all along, a sneering smile on her lips as she watched coldly.
In his heart, his wife An Peng, though a bit willful, should have been a kind and gentle woman. How could she have allowed such a despicable incident to happen?
His gaze fell on the girl in the illusion again. Her cheeks and hands were now red from the cold, and her body trembled slightly.
At this moment, malicious intent of varying degrees came from all directions. The once - indifferent gazes now weighed a thousand pounds, making it impossible for the girl to straighten her back.
She had no idea what was going on, let alone why An Peng, a noble like a star in the sky on normal days, would suddenly bring her, an insignificant person, to this secluded alley.
They seemed to keep mentioning that Young Master Zhang... But she was hardly familiar with that young master.
This afternoon, she was just sweeping the snow in front of the stable for her father. The stable was adjacent to the only private school in the area. When Young Master Zhang passed by on his way home from school, he saw the fine horse her father had just tamed for a noble and stopped to ask a few questions about the horse's age and temperament. Young Master Zhang was gentle and polite in his speech. She only had respect for the scholar in her heart and kept her head down when answering. She had absolutely no other thoughts! How could... How could such a disaster befall her?
A mixture of grievance and fear made her small body tremble uncontrollably. She struggled to get up from the cold ground and escape those suffocating gazes.
Just then, a pair of brand - new, exquisitely made leather boots with soft fur trimmings silently stopped in front of her, blocking her way.
The girl's movements froze. With a timid hesitation, she looked up little by little along those noble boots. First, she saw the brocade skirt embroidered with intricate patterns, then the soft and warm fox fur, and finally... met An Peng's condescending face, with a hint of playfulness and cold scrutiny.
An Peng didn't say a word. She just tilted her head slightly, looking down at her with a look as if she were sizing up an object or... enjoying the struggle of a prey before death.
Instead of helping the girl up, An Peng slowly squatted in front of her, lifted the girl's chin with her slender fingers, and asked condescendingly,
"What's your name?"
"Shi... Shi Qiu..."
An Peng took a careful look at Shi Qiu's face. First, she frowned, then sneered disdainfully.
"You're quite good - looking, but it's a pity you're just the daughter of a groom. You're doomed to a poor life! You'd better just marry some rustic villager. How dare you seduce Zhang Yushu with your humble background?!"
Hearing this, Shi Qiu turned deathly pale with fright and shook her head repeatedly, explaining, "I didn't... I didn't seduce him..."
But An Peng didn't listen to her explanation at all. She flung Shi Qiu's face away, stood up gracefully, wiped her hands with a handkerchief, and casually threw it away as if she had touched something dirty.
"If I see you approaching Young Master Zhang again, I won't let you off."
After leaving a string of taunts, the group swaggered away, leaving Shi Qiu alone and stunned on the spot...
Although they knew that what they were seeing was just a projection of the past, everyone was still a bit angry.
Dongfang Xiao subconsciously reached out to help Shi Qiu up, but only touched a shadow.
"It's too much! It's no skill to bully a little girl!"
He ruffled his hair irritably. But there was nothing they could do about what had already happened. Dongfang Xiao could only punch the air a few times hard, still unable to relieve his anger!
Shen Cuiyu stared at the small figure in the illusion. She could clearly feel Shi Qiu's emotions at this moment - sadness, fear, and more importantly, endurance.
Shi Qiu stretched out her red - frozen hands to wipe away her tears and slowly got up on her own.
The whole village relied on the An family. Naturally, she didn't dare to offend An Peng. She also didn't intend to tell her father about this. Her father was a taciturn man who only knew how to raise horses. He couldn't solve her problems but would only worry.
Forget it... Just endure it... Enduring it will be fine.
Her father always said that suffering losses was a blessing.
Fortunately, not everything had been bad recently. Thinking of this, the gloom in Shi Qiu's heart seemed to disperse a little - she could finally go to the private school to sit in on classes!
This was an opportunity she had never dared to hope for. In the past, she could only secretly crouch under the window of the private school during the breaks between feeding the horses and cleaning, listening to the loud reading inside. She would clumsily imitate the strokes of the characters on the muddy ground with her fingers or a small tree branch...
Once, she was so absorbed in writing that she didn't even notice the teacher standing behind her. Instead of scolding her, the teacher looked at the slanting but clear characters she had written on the ground, stroked his beard, and showed a surprised and gratified smile. He immediately announced that he would exempt her from the tuition fee and allow her to sit in on the classes.
This news was like a ray of sunlight breaking through the gloomy sky.
She wouldn't be trapped in poverty for a lifetime as An Peng had contemptuously predicted. She wanted to study, understand the principles, and seize this only opportunity to change her fate...
As Shi Qiu's figure gradually disappeared into the vast expanse of snow, the scene in front of Shen Cuiyu and the others gradually changed -
Shi Qiu thought that her tolerance would bring peace, but she didn't know that when she stepped into the private school, the real nightmare was just beginning.
The class where Shi Qiu was arranged to sit in on happened to be the same one where An Peng was.
When Shi Qiu walked into the classroom with a borrowed, worn - out book in her arms, head down and walking carefully, An Peng's gaze instantly turned into poisonous ice needles, stabbing into her!
An Peng couldn't believe her eyes - the daughter of a groom, wearing a shabby cotton - padded robe, dared to enter the academy and be in the same room as her?
Zhang Yushu, who had been bowing his head to study, heard the noise, looked up, and was a bit surprised when he saw Shi Qiu. Then he remembered the matter of asking about the horse not long ago and gave her a gentle, encouraging smile.
An Peng saw all this. She slowly withdrew her gaze, and the expensive rice paper in her palm was silently kneaded and twisted until it became a crumpled mess.
From that day on, a silent but strict order spread quickly like a cold cobweb throughout the school and even the whole village - no one was allowed to talk to Shi Qiu.
Whoever showed the slightest kindness to Shi Qiu, even just lending her a stick of ink or nodding at her, would immediately become the next target of exclusion, isolation, and malicious targeting!
As a result, Shi Qiu soon found herself in an invisible cage.
Wherever she went, she was greeted by immediate silence and evasive gazes.
When she tried to ask about her studies, the other person would either scurry away like they had seen a ghost or give her a cold and numb glance under An Peng's watchful eye.
She sat in the most remote corner of the classroom, like a transparent person out of place.
The hope that had been ignited by the opportunity to study was gradually devoured and extinguished by the daily silence and the ubiquitous cold gazes.
The joy of first entering the school had long since disappeared, replaced by a deeper, bone - chilling despair than ever before.