Volume One, Chapter Two: A Deeper Hell

Lu Zhaochuan left and never came back to see her.

Lin Zhiyu felt nothing but relief.

Every time he visited, her injuries would worsen by half. Once he left, it took her nearly another half month of recuperation before she was finally able to be discharged from the hospital.

On the day she left the hospital, her brother Lin Qianyu came to pick her up.

He scrutinized her from head to toe, his expression cold as ice. “Lin Zhiyu, you’ve gone too far this time.”

She was taken aback.

He looked at her with nothing but contempt in his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell the family you were coming back? Do you have any idea what kind of misunderstanding Huahuan got into because of you? She’s had a fever for an entire month.”

“Someone like you—how could you ever bear to leave the Lin family? When we get home, you’d better explain everything to her.”

Explain?

Lin Zhiyu lifted her eyelids to look at him, her mind momentarily adrift.

She had spent two full months in the hospital. Her brother had shown not a shred of concern, and now, the moment he arrived, it was only to condemn her.

Yet once, he had truly loved her.

Back when she was in school, she loved the soup dumplings sold at a stall near the school gate. They were difficult to get, but her brother would wake up twenty minutes earlier every day to queue for them. When she arrived at school, he would hand her the warm dumplings he had kept close to his chest. All the joy of her school years was pieced together from those little dumplings.

But now, all he had for her was reproach.

Lin Zhiyu was silent for a while, then sincerely asked, “How do you want me to explain?”

Lin Qianyu’s face darkened, his true nature revealed as he glared at her in anger. “What do you mean? Is it beneath you to explain things to Huahuan? You owe her this!”

“No wonder our parents always favored Huahuan over you. I finally get it—you’re selfish, inconsiderate, and still acting like a spoiled princess. Huahuan has cared for you from start to finish. Who are you to throw a tantrum?”

“What’s more, you’ve enjoyed the privileges of the Lin family for so many years on Huahuan’s behalf. Now that you have to suffer a few years in her place, you call it unfair? You should have been the one to take the blame in the first place!”

His merciless words pierced Lin Zhiyu’s heart.

But she could no longer feel the pain.

Once, she had thought about leaving the Lin family—she could disappear and never disturb them again.

But her parents and brother wouldn’t allow it; they insisted she stay, promised to treat her as their own daughter.

And she had believed them.

Then came the betrayal.

Now, those once beloved family members had already torn her flesh to shreds with blades and spears. After so long, with all her blood spilled, she was numb.

Lin Zhiyu truly didn’t know how to explain herself, but faced with his words, she couldn’t help but say, “I wasn’t throwing a tantrum.”

Lin Qianyu let out a cold laugh, his dark eyes full of scorn.

At that moment, a gentle, warm voice sounded nearby.

“Sorry, Zhiyu, something came up with Huahuan, and I was delayed in picking you up.”

It was their mother, Cheng Nianhua.

Cheng Nianhua was well preserved, with little trace of age on her face. She took Lin Zhiyu’s hand as soon as she arrived, her eyes immediately welling with tears.

“It’s been three years—you’ve gotten so thin.”

She stroked Lin Zhiyu’s hand, now as brittle as dry kindling, the bones stark beneath the skin, as if the slightest pressure might snap her wrist.

Lin Zhiyu let her hold her hand, numb and silent. “Mm,” she murmured, saying little.

Cheng Nianhua was the only one who, at first, had tried to find another way to save her.

But under the persuasion of her father and brother, even she hadn’t lasted a minute before she nodded in agreement, her eyes brimming with tears, saying that she’d find a way to bring her home soon.

When the staff injected her with drugs, she would writhe in agony on the floor every day, crawling like a dog and begging them for the antidote. Sometimes, she would lose control of her bodily functions in the bright, sterile laboratory, losing all dignity.

But the medical staff only recorded her numbers, cold and detached.

Every day, she hoped her mother would come to save her, but she never did. Her mother never came.

That kind of hope was a torment. To cling to hope in hell was to create a deeper hell.

In the end, she learned to let go—of everything she had known, of every expectation.

“You’re hurt?” Cheng Nianhua suddenly cried out in alarm.

Lin Zhiyu came back to herself, looking at the sleeve pushed up to her elbow. Where the knife had cut her, the wounds had scabbed over; some scabs had fallen off, revealing new pink flesh, while others still bled.

Cheng Nianhua’s eyes were full of disbelief and pain.

Lin Zhiyu pulled down her sleeve, her expression calm. “I’m fine.”

There was no need to display her suffering.

Yet a mocking laugh came from beside her.

“Lin Zhiyu, that wound looks pretty real. Did you wait for Mom to come just to show her, hoping she’d feel sorry for you?”

Cheng Nianhua frowned and rebuked him, “Qianyu, is that any way to speak to your sister?”

But Lin Qianyu arched his brows, his tone full of irritation. “Mom!”

“We only made Lin Zhiyu take the blame to appease the Shen family, but the Lins are one of the top families in City A. How could they possibly have treated her so harshly? Don’t let her fool you. She stayed in the hospital for two months just to act pitiful now.”

His attitude was self-righteous, his eyes full of disdain.

Cheng Nianhua was silent for a moment, but in the end, she believed him. Turning back, tears in her eyes, she pleaded, “Zhiyu, now that you’re home, don’t make me sad, all right?”

Looking at her mother’s deep affection and her brother’s ridicule, Lin Zhiyu felt only a desire to laugh.

If the Lin family’s reputation was really so formidable, why did they need her to take the blame for Lin Yihuan in the first place?

Feigning pity by staying in the hospital for two months—how absurd.

Her dear brother had long forgotten that, once, the thing she hated most was the hospital.

The pungent smell of disinfectant, the cold needles, and the merciless scalpel were nightmares from her childhood. Why would she ever use two months in a hospital to beg for pity from people who would never care for her?

At last, she wearily pushed Cheng Nianhua’s hand away. “I never asked you to feel sorry for me.”

Cheng Nianhua stared in disbelief at her hand, now pushed aside, her tears flowing even harder.

This child used to be so good at coaxing affection!

Lin Qianyu’s face twisted in rage, his handsome features contorted as he strode forward and kicked Lin Zhiyu hard in the stomach.

“Lin Zhiyu, that’s enough. Don’t keep pushing your luck!”

The kick came out of nowhere. Lin Zhiyu had no time to dodge. Agonizing pain exploded, the wound in her abdomen tearing open again, blood seeping through.

A nurse’s shocked and furious voice rang out from the doorway.

“How can you treat a patient like this? She’s still injured!”