Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The "scene" wasn't over. After the mother-daughter argument fell apart, time began to speed by.

Ji Xia and the others could clearly see the sun rising and setting, the winter passing and spring arriving, but because they could only stay in this room, they felt a strange sense of time standing still.

Everything was changing, except this room remained utterly unchanged.

That dressing table covered with a white cloth stayed in the corner, not moved an inch, and no one ever used it.

What suffocated everyone was this: Gong Shuwan's mother almost never left this room.

They watched as her clothes became increasingly luxurious, the hairpins and jewels in her hair grew more elaborate, and even the maidservants attending her increased in number.

Yet those exquisite fabrics wrapped her tighter and tighter, the heavy jewelry weighed her neck down until she could barely lift her head.

And the persistent, faint sorrow between her brows grew ever more profound.

"Bang!"

The door slammed open, shattering the room's stagnant silence.

The rush of time abruptly slowed down, returning to normal.

The door was pushed open roughly. Gong Shuhuai, dressed in splendid robes but frosty-faced, strode in, storming up to the woman.

"Look at the little monster you raised!" Before the words were out of his mouth, he raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face with a sharp "crack"!

The woman's head snapped to the side, a clear handprint appearing on her cheek. Her body trembled violently, yet she dared not utter a single cry of pain.

Gong Shuhuai's anger was far from over. Pointing at her, he cursed, "That Fan Lin's reputation is almost surpassing mine! She still dares refuse marriage? She'll marry whether she wants to or not!"

The woman covered her face, her fingers turning white at the knuckles from the force. In a rare moment of defiance, she offered a low rebuttal: "Fan Lin... is truly not a good match..."

"A good match?" Gong Shuhuai laughed as if he'd heard the biggest joke, then backhanded her, delivering another slap that sent her staggering a step. "You think I look up to that destitute Fan family?! This is the mess she made herself! That good-for-nothing, she's the one who propped him up into a 'master of a generation'! Utterly ridiculous!"

Panting heavily, he looked at the woman trembling before him, forcibly suppressing his rage. His voice lowered, carrying an indisputable command: "I don't care how you do it, talk some sense into her! No matter what, you must get them to finalize the marriage arrangement! Have the wedding as soon as possible! Do you hear me?!"

The woman lowered her head, her long hair covering her swollen, reddened cheeks. She replied in a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz: "...Yes."

Gong Shuhuai flicked his sleeves and left.

The room fell into dead silence once more.

The woman stood alone for a long time before slowly straightening up.

Her gaze slowly turned towards the dressing table covered with white cloth in the corner. Her expression grew complicated, but in the end, she said softly, "Go... invite the young mistress over. Tell her I want to learn how to use this dressing table."

The maidservant lowered her eyes and complied obediently.

Gong Shuwan arrived quickly.

Ji Xia and the others clearly saw that the joyful exuberance of her girlhood was long gone from her face, replaced only by an exhaustion so deep it seemed to settle in her bones.

"Mother." Her voice was flat, carrying a sense of distance.

Seeing her like this, the woman felt both heartache and irritation. Unable to help herself, she lapsed into her habitual scolding: "Look at you, what have you done to yourself? Spending all day in that workshop, covered in dust and grime, not a bit like a proper young lady..."

Gong Shuwan seemed well accustomed to this. Her expression didn't change in the slightest. She cleanly cut off her mother's nagging and walked towards the dressing table, saying gravely, "I'll teach you."

She drew back the white cloth, revealing the exquisite table. She began to explain intently: "...See this 'Small Wooden Kite'? It's a safety lock. Turn it clockwise three times, then counterclockwise half a turn. When you hear a 'click,' the lock is disengaged. If you encounter danger, just gently pull the Small Wooden Kite out from the back. The anesthetic-tipped short arrows will shoot out from the front here..."

She taught with great seriousness and patience.

But the woman, while appearing to listen, had her mind entirely on another matter.

Gong Shuwan asked her, "Do you have it?"

The woman: "...Yes, yes, I do."

Just as Gong Shuwan was about to ask her to demonstrate how to disengage the safety lock,

the woman grabbed her arm and pleaded, "Wan'er, stop all this... Listen to your mother, just marry him. Marry Fan Lin, alright? Your father..."

Gong Shuwan flinched as if stung by a poisonous wasp, sharply shaking off her mother's hand. Her voice suddenly rose: "Mother! I don't like Fan Lin!"

The woman was startled by her reaction, then felt heartache again. "If you don't like him, then why did you pour all your skills into teaching him? Why help him achieve fame and success..."

"I helped him?" Gong Shuwan looked at her mother with utter disbelief, her voice sharp. "Mother! I was saving our entire family! What is the consequence of failing a royal decree? Don't you know, Mother? It's the extermination of the clan!"

The woman's heart trembled, horrified by the words "extermination of the clan."

But immediately, as if finding a new leverage point, she softened her voice, pleading tearfully, "Wan'er... Mother knows you're a good child. Even if it's just for Mother, I'm begging you. Help our family again, help your father again, alright? Just agree to this marriage... Please, for Mother's sake..."

Tears rolled down her cheeks, the tracks cutting through the thick powder, faintly revealing the reddened handprint beneath.

Gong Shuwan saw it clearly. Her heart felt as if pierced by a knife.

Finally, she closed her eyes as if all strength had been drained from her. When she opened them again, only a dull gray remained in their depths.

Gong Shuwan looked at her mother and said, word by word, "Perform all the steps I taught you, completely and correctly. If you can do that, I will agree."

The woman's sobbing halted. She raised her tear-filled eyes, seeming not to have fully grasped it.

"You... you... really?"

"Mm." Gong Shuwan's voice was very calm.

"Good! Good! Mother... Mother will do it right now!" The woman, as if clutching a lifeline, hurriedly wiped her tears with her sleeve and walked to the dressing table.

The Small Wooden Kite was carved vividly, utterly adorable.

But the woman had no mood to appreciate it. She just grabbed it, recalling her daughter's earlier actions, and clumsily imitated them.

"Is this right? Clockwise three times... counterclockwise half a turn..." She operated nervously. When she heard the faint "click," she jumped in fright.

Immediately, a subtle sound of mechanisms turning came from inside the dressing table. The front slid open silently, revealing the short arrow ports gleaming with a cold, faint blue light.

"Ah!" The woman's face turned deathly pale with fright. She retreated several steps, shrieking, "Stop! Stop it! This is too terrifying! Make it stop quickly!"

Gong Shuwan swiftly stepped forward and skillfully deactivated the mechanism. Everything returned to its original state.

"Did you remember?" she asked the woman, her tone devoid of emotion.

"I... I remembered..." The woman, still shaken, patted her chest. But thinking of her daughter agreeing to marry, she forced a slight smile onto her face. "Mother remembered... Wan'er, you... you promised Mother. You can't go back on your word..."

Gong Shuwan looked at her and smiled.

That smile held an indescribable sorrow, as if she were weeping.

She took a step forward and wrapped her arms tightly around her mother.

The woman was taken aback by the sudden hug but then gently hugged her back.

The mother thought her daughter had finally come to her senses and felt a deep sense of relief.

However, the next scene made the hearts of Ji Xia and the others sink.

The scene shifted again, still in this bedroom, but the atmosphere was completely different.

Gong Shuhuai stormed in furiously, shouting at the panicked woman, veins bulging at his temples:

"That ungrateful girl! That rebel! How dare she run away!"

The woman was horrified, collapsing to the floor.

Gong Shuwan's departure was like pulling out the main support beam of the Gongshu family, causing this once-prominent artisan clan's situation to plummet.

Not to mention the royal court's increasingly harsh new demands, they couldn't even handle the backlog of old orders, missing deadline after deadline.

Gong Shuhuai, like a cornered beast, frantically searched everywhere for Gong Shuwan!

He used every connection he could, wishing he could dig three feet underground, but he never found his daughter!

Gong Shuhuai then thought of his wife at home.

They say a mother and child are connected at heart...

Gong Shuwan couldn't truly be so heartless as to abandon her mother; she must have left behind some way to watch over her in secret!

Thus, he vented all his anxiety and panic on the weak and helpless woman.

Verbal abuse became routine, and physical violence grew more frequent and brutal.

The woman's old wounds hadn't healed before new ones were added; she rapidly weakened, her eyes growing increasingly hollow.

But no matter how Gong Shuhuai tormented her, Gong Shuwan never appeared.

"Look! Look at the heartless, ungrateful wretch you gave birth to!" Gong Shuhuai grabbed the woman by the neck, dragging her to the window, his face twisted as he roared at the empty courtyard, "She doesn't care if you live or die! She doesn't want you as her mother anymore!"

The woman was like a withered leaf, letting him manipulate her.

When the pain became unbearable, her gaze would drift to the corner where the dressing table still lay covered by the white cloth.

The little wooden kite stood perkily on the dressing table; even under the cloth, you could make out the proud outline of its raised head.

She knew how to deactivate the "safety lock."

During countless days and nights of violence, she had rehearsed it in her mind a thousand times.

Three turns clockwise, half a turn counterclockwise, hearing the "click," then gently pulling out that small wooden kite...

Her fingers trembled almost imperceptibly in her sleeves, imagining it.

Yet each time, every single time, she only curled up deeper, remaining motionless.

Until that day, when the final deadline of the royal decree fell like a guillotine.

The heavy footsteps and clang of armor flooded the Gongshu residence.

"By order of the King! The Gongshu family stands accused of deceiving the throne! All property is forfeit! Seize everyone and throw them in the dungeons to await trial!"

Soldiers swarmed in like wolves; the once-glorious mansion instantly descended into chaos.

Disheveled, his hair unkempt, Gong Shuhuai stumbled into the woman's bedroom.

"Wife! Wife!" He fell to his knees before her with a thud, clutching her icy hands, tears and snot streaming down his face, "I was wrong! I'm a scoundrel! You... you must find a way to contact Wan'er! Only she can save us now! Tell her, if she comes back, she'll be in charge of the household from now on! She can do whatever she wants!"

The woman stared at him blankly, her face expressionless, as if looking at a stranger: "...I don't know where she is."

"She wouldn't abandon you! She must have left you something! She must have!" Gong Shuhuai roared in desperation.

These words struck the woman's numb nerves like a muffled thunderclap.

Left something?

Yes...

She did.

She looked to the corner, to that object she both feared and which had given her a sliver of false courage on so many desperate nights.

Beneath the white cloth, the small wooden kite seemed to struggle free, ready to take flight.

Suddenly, she understood.

A strange, twisted smile crept onto her chapped lips.

"Ah..." she let out a sigh, her eyes vacant as she gazed ahead, murmuring softly, "She did."

As Gong Shuhuai's eyes lit up with sudden hope, she spoke, each word crystal clear:

"Wan'er taught me... how to protect myself."

The moment her words fell, the surrounding scene shattered like broken reflections in water, collapsing abruptly!

The "story" was over.

Ji Xia and the other four returned to that dusty, deathly cold room.

But this bedroom had changed.

In the center of the room, that exquisite dressing table had vanished without a trace.

In its place was the white cloth that had once covered it.

It seemed to have gained life, floating silently in mid-air, and then everyone saw what had been invisible before.

The sight was breathtakingly magnificent yet eerily chilling.

The white cloth transformed into billions of crystal-clear, hair-thin white threads.

They wound densely and silently around every beam and pillar, covering every inch of the walls, enveloping the entire Gongshu residence.

In truth, they had always been there.

It was just that Ji Xia and the others couldn't see these threads before.

And now, as the Gongshu residence collapsed, they all fell upon the "Stone Sovereign."

The threads were soft, yet when gathered together, they possessed astonishing resilience, always capable of withstanding attacks far greater than what they individually could endure.

They had found this crucial "thread"—it was what made the Stone Sovereign outside indestructible.

Author's Note:

Hugging all you angels out there! Random cash giveaways in the comments section~

Even if it flops, I'm still having a blast writing this [eyes sparkling]