chapter 6

Qi Sinian’s mother was the daughter of a wealthy family.

She had once run away from home for a poor boy, only to be betrayed by him later. Heartbroken, she didn’t even take Qi Sinian with her when she returned to her wealthy family alone.

Until she passed away from an illness.

Qi Sinian’s grandfather found him and brought him back.

By then, Qi Sinian and I were seventeen. We had depended on each other for survival for many years.

On the day he returned to his wealthy family, he took nothing with him but me.

And me? I abandoned everything and followed him thousands of miles without a second thought.

This is the story of Qi Sinian and me that everyone knows.

But anything known to the public has been sanitized.

Beneath the polished facade lies a wall covered in scars and desolation.

When Qi Sinian’s mother first eloped with his father, they must have been deeply in love.

How long can love last? A year? Two?

Soon enough, the pressures of reality eroded the beauty.

The man had to support the family; he couldn’t provide the emotional validation the woman craved.

So, the woman looked elsewhere.

Back then, in that small city, my father was a teacher at the only local second-tier university.

He was gentle, romantic, and highly educated.

He and the woman clicked instantly.

First came the spiritual resonance, followed by physical intimacy.

I was the first to discover them together.

I was six that year, and there were many things I didn’t yet understand.

I only felt terror and disgust; they were tangled together like two man-eating monsters.

Later, my mother found out. Then, Qi Sinian’s father found out too.

One night, he was supposed to be away driving his truck, but he suddenly returned.

He walked in on their tryst.

He rushed into the kitchen and grabbed a meat cleaver.

One slash, two, three…

Twenty-seven wounds to my father’s face, head, and back.

He died at our doorstep.

There was a bloody handprint on the door, but he no longer had the strength to knock.

He was dead.

Qi Sinian’s father was sentenced to death for intentional homicide.

Qi Sinian’s mother fled, abandoning him and everything else.

It snowed heavily that year.

Orphaned by circumstance, Qi Sinian collapsed in the snow.

My mother stood by the window and watched for a long time.

In the end, she carried him back home.

She decided to adopt Qi Sinian.

Everyone opposed it.

My grandparents even kicked us out.

They would never allow the murderer’s son into their home.

My mother didn’t say a word. She took Qi Sinian and me by the hands and walked away without looking back.

From age six to sixteen-for ten years-that woman supported us by selling snacks from a tricycle.

Until Qi Sinian’s grandfather came looking for him.

She committed suicide. She jumped from a building.

No one knew why she did it.

Some said she was paving the way for me-that only if she were dead would the Qi Family take me in as well.

Some said her life was too bitter, that raising two children had long since crushed her.

Others said she had never truly escaped the shadow of her husband’s infidelity and death.

But regardless of the reason, that year was world-shattering and utterly devastating for both Qi Sinian and me.