CHAPTER 75: CHAPTER 75: THE PAST

Bai Su thought about her temperament and reluctantly proposed another condition, speaking with a bit of grievance, "You promised me that if I helped Auntie wake up, you would answer one of my questions."

His pitiful tone made it impossible for Rong Zhi to refuse with a cold face.

Rong Zhi remained expressionless for a while, then curled her lips indifferently.

"You want to know, huh," she returned to her nonchalant demeanor from their first meeting, speaking with a playful drawl, smiling like a lazy fox, "You must have had a great childhood."

Bai Su was slightly stunned, pursing his lips without answering.

Rong Zhi didn’t care about his reaction and continued, "As for me, you know, I was the child the Rong Family lost for eighteen years. Maybe the heavens thought I was too pitiful and couldn’t bear to let me freeze to death in winter, so they let my mom pick me up and take me home."

At that time, He Songzhi was still young and beautiful. On the way, she picked up a baby, almost frozen to death in the winter, and felt it was a gift from heaven. She took the child back to her hometown to raise.

"Then my mom got married, oh, to Rong Fengmian’s biological father."

He Songzhi and Rong Wei tied the knot, and at first, they lived quite happily. Even though He Songzhi brought along Rong Zhi, this baggage, Rong Wei did not mind. But until Rong Fengmian was born and Rong Zhi grew up, showing her temperament, Rong Wei started to resent her presence more and more.

At that time, the family was quite poor, living in a small village, and Rong Wei had the typical male chauvinism of rural men. He began to find all sorts of faults with He Songzhi, insulting Rong Zhi and wanting to send her away.

Later, he actually did send her away.

"When I was five, during the New Year, Rong Wei said there were still some New Year’s gifts to buy and he would take me along. My mom was busy in the kitchen and probably didn’t hear clearly, so she just agreed."

It was quite cold that day, she remembered it clearly. After Rong Wei took her out, he said he would go buy the gifts and let her wait on the street. She thought that since Daddy didn’t like her, she just had to be obedient, then he would like her. So she stood there without moving.

Until a few fierce-looking people came and took her away.

She struggled with her frozen stiff legs, biting those people’s hands desperately, but it was all in vain.

Locked in a dark, sunless wooden house, she initially cried and made a fuss, gradually realizing that Rong Wei had abandoned her.

Dad and Mom didn’t want her anymore.

Outside, the city lights were brilliant, and fireworks resounded, all unrelated to her.

"Why do I hate human traffickers so much," Rong Zhi casually took a lollipop from her pocket, tore the wrapper, and bit into it, squinting and smiling lightly, "Because I was abducted. That feeling of living worse than dying, I understand it better than anyone."

So after she got out, she swore to do everything in her power to eliminate all human traffickers and bring back all the abducted children.

It didn’t matter that she had no home; she couldn’t stand to see others suffering.

Bai Su didn’t know what expression to wear.

He listened as the girl recounted her past lightly, her emotions so faint they almost ceased to exist.

A lump seemed to form in his throat, causing discomfort. He swallowed slightly and took a deep breath, speaking softly lest he disturb the girl, "That wooden house... was it like the one today?"

"Yeah," Rong Zhi slowly ground the candy, speaking unclearly, "It was very dark around. I couldn’t tell the time or how long I’d been kept there, and there were many little kids like me who had been caught."

"They cried and screamed, giving me a headache. I couldn’t cry, my legs were useless, and only death awaited me."

She paused when she said this, tilting her head up, a faint layer of irony spreading in her eyes, yet the smile on her lips didn’t diminish, "I was quite unwilling. I still wanted to crawl out and see the daylight."

"Rong Zhi."

Bai Su gripped her hand tightly, his palm cold, as if in the midst of a freezing winter.

The boy’s voice was extremely calm, sounding even more normal than before, but precisely this calmness, when speaking about such things at such times, appeared especially eerie.

"If you’re feeling uncomfortable, just let it out. If you’re afraid of crying and being seen as ugly, I’ll turn my head and pretend I can’t hear." Bai Su spoke slowly, his voice unusually soft and cautious, "But I don’t want to cover my ears. I want to wipe your tears, is that okay?"

He looked into her striking fox-like eyes, his knuckles white from gripping, and if listened to carefully, one could hear the tremor in his words.

Rong Zhi remained silent.

She didn’t move.

This was probably the most she had spoken in a day, her throat dry.

She didn’t understand how she could talk about such old stories to this relatively unfamiliar man in front of her, a strange feeling surfacing in her heart, so strange she forgot to react otherwise.

After a while, Rong Zhi took out another lollipop, unwrapped it with one hand, and offered it to the man’s mouth, calmly saying, "Have some candy, it’s sweet."

Anyway, regardless of Bai Su’s purpose, someone was willing to listen to her babble about these long-publicized old affairs, so she had no reason to throw a tantrum.

Moreover, she didn’t feel uncomfortable.

It’s all in the past; Rong Wei is dead, and there’s no point in holding grudges against someone who’s deceased.

Bai Su frowned slightly, then unexpectedly smiled, biting into the lollipop she held, mimicking her drawing tone, laughing indistinctly, "Yeah, it’s sweet."

...

Tingshan Villa.

Jiang Gujun received a call from Bai Su and went into the closet, pulling out a whole bunch of clothes.

When Rong Zhi and Bai Su arrived, he was still picking through them selectively.

With Mr. Su’s direct order, of course, Jiang Gujun had to fulfill it completely. All the clothes he and Bai Su hadn’t worn were here, piling up to fill an entire sofa.

Rong Zhi entered the room.

Bai Su bent down to take a pair of furry cotton slippers from the shoe cabinet and placed them at her feet.

Recently, the temperature in Beijing had dropped, and feet are the easiest part to get cold. Bai Su didn’t want her to wear sandals or walk on the floor, as it’d easily cause a cold.

Rong Zhi stepped into the shoes and walked a few steps. She expected them to be loose but found them surprisingly fitting.

She glanced sideways at someone changing shoes, squinting her eyes.

"Mr. Rong, how about this one?" Jiang Gujun pulled out a pure white shirt from the pile.

The shirt’s edges were embroidered with intricate star and moon patterns, with deep obsidian decorating the cuffs.

"Hmm." Rong Zhi responded lightly.

Jiang Gujun set the shirt aside and then searched for pants, but after searching, all were too long to find a suitable pair.

"Didn’t you get some new pants the other day and said they were too small?"

Bai Su poured a glass of warm water for Rong Zhi, caught a glimpse of Jiang Gujun’s actions, and reminded him.

"Oh right, they were small and needed to be sent back." Jiang Gujun realized, turning to run upstairs.

It wasn’t long before he came down with the pants and shirt, handing them to Rong Zhi, saying, "Both the shirt and pants are new, never tried on before, rest assured, Mr. Rong."

Rong Zhi accepted them, "Thank you."

Jiang Gujun waved, "No big deal."

Bai Su sipped some water, set down the cup, and put his hand in his pocket, walking ahead, "Let’s go, I’ll take you to the bathroom."

The architecture of Tingshan Villa is modeled after the pavilions and terraces of Jiangnan, with a very spacious terrace on the second floor, decorated with rockeries and waterfalls, linking to the main bedroom.

Bai Su opened a room door, stepping aside for the youth to enter.

This room was big, and also quite empty, with sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the deep blue bed, like a galaxy waterfall.

Rong Zhi stood still in place, was this a guest room?