Yong gingerly walked upto Ruolan’s side and smiled at her. "Aunt."
Ruolan, who seed to be in her mid-fifties, didn’t respond to Yong’s call. Her gaze was fixed at the distant horizon outside the window. A lock of grey, wrinkly hair fluttered past her eyes and cheek which she didn’t bother to tuck behind her ear. Amidst the hustle and bustle of Huayuan’s festival, she remained deathly silent, her beautiful face devoid of any expression.
"Did you not like the food she brought? Should I bring sothing else for you?"
No response.
Jia glanced at Mingshen questioningly. He, too, studied her for several monts. His head slightly tipped to the side.
Bojing asked, "I-Is she hurt anywhere?"
Mingshen whispered to Jia. "It seems like she is going through so emotional turmoil seeing her unresponsive like that."
Yong let out a small breath, a glint of defeat passing by her eyes. She placed the tray in front of her and patted her hand.
"I will drop by again soti, okay?"
Yong rose on her feet and walked back to the group. She led the way to an adjacent room where a transparent curtain parted the other room where Ruolan resided. Qin Ruwen hid in the furthest and darkest corner.
Jia asked the obvious question, "...Who is she?"
Yong replied, irked. "Right now? The product of so terrible deeds at the hands of so influential people."
She leaned back on the couch, glancing right towards Ruolan once. A flicker of pain reflected in her eyes.
"Thirteen years ago, one of ours disappeared. Her na was Nuwa. She was Aunt Ruolan’s best friend. They treated each other like sisters even though they had quite an age gap between them. Aunt Ruolan wanted to investigate but our then leader, Long Sicong didn’t bother. He was never bothered with any of us, whether we died or disappeared sowhere. He surmised the client bought her and she agreed."
"It doesn’t look like that was the case."
"Of course it wasn’t. Aunt Nuwa had no interest in becoming sobody’s permanent possession. Aunt Ruolan was sure of it, so she kept insisting. But eventually Long Sicong lost it. He was a tyrannical ruler who hated opposition. Aunt Ruolan was thrown into confinent as punishnt. Her daughter, sis Yuming, slowly went crazy too, seeing her mother getting beaten up everyday."
A chilly silence ensued.
Bojing whispered tearfully. "S-So Miss. Nuwa was never found...?"
Her expression strained. "No. We never got any news about her. That’s why we don’t presu her death either."
Mingshen asked, "What does her disappearance have to do with She?"
Yong balled her fist. "It was a year later when Aunt Ruolan’s daughter, sis Yuming, ran away from Huayuan. Once again, Long Sicong didn’t care. Her becoming crazy was like a bone stuck in his throat anyway. We had no clue where she escaped. But a year later, she returned saying that she took revenge of Aunt Nuwa’s death and everything that her mother went through because of it. She punished the wrong doers."
Jia’s eyes widened. "Death?"
"That is what she claid but she never gave clear answers. She simply...kept laughing in joy. Long Sicong was enraged and he threw her into confinent too. The only thing she used to say was that she defeated She. It was so confusing that we never really understood her at that ti."
Jia stared at her. "She? You an...sohow the cult was behind her disappearance?"
"Directly or indirectly, we don’t know but yes. That was the first ti we heard about She from her but we didn’t understand the context. But considering her state of mind, nobody here believed that she actually took revenge. Sis Yuming was around fourteen when she returned.
She thought that things would slowly fall back into place, but Aunt Ruolan didn’t change. The two years of constant beatings, assault and no news about Aunt Nuwa had crushed her ntally. She was never the sa - even after Long Sicong was overthrown and she beca free."
Jia cast a somber glance towards Ruolan, a sense of heaviness settling in her heart.
"Sis Yuming’s condition never improved either. She was always kind of lost. Sotis, she would suddenly laugh as if rembering sothing very funny. Then so two years ago or so, she went out of Huayuan for so work but never returned. We tried to find her in every possible way, but we couldn’t," her eyes narrowed at the end.
"Along the way of finding her whereabouts, we ca across a quite elderly man who rembered sis Yuming from ten years ago. It was that year when she had escaped from Huayuan. Apparently, sis Yuming had found out that Aunt Nuwa used to frequently co to his small tea shop. It was him who gave her the tip that Aunt Nuwa’s client probably belonged to one of the very powerful political families."
Mingshen raised his brow. "Political?"
Yong said, "As a matter of principle, the sisters here don’t reveal their client information and identity. But that tea shop owner kinda guessed based on so slip ups sotis she made here and there like words like rallies, etc."
Jia asked, "Did he help you in finding Yuming?"
Her eyes squinted. "No. But through him, we understood that the people behind Aunt Nuwa’s disappearance weren’t defeated like what sis Yuming claid. If she had, then the family would have been in a big uproar and he heard nothing like that. He even said that sis Yuming wouldn’t have been left alive if she had even as much as bent a strand of their hair. The fact that she was alive ant that whatever happened with Aunt Nuwa was never resolved."
"Then what about the family with whom she took revenge?" Jia blinked.
"I know nothing about them or who they were. Like I said, sis Yuming never said where she lived that year."
Yong leaned forward with a cold gaze.
"Which brings us to today. We still don’t know where sis Yuming is and we know that whoever was behind Aunt Nuwa’s disappearance is still at large. They are sohow connected to She and that’s what I want to find out. What the hell She is and who is it working with that kidnapped Aunt Nuwa."
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