Chapter 38 - 37: Crushing the Spirit! She Is History Itself
Chapter 38: Chapter 37: Crushing the Spirit! She Is History Itself
"Mom, this has nothing to do with Changying," Xu Zhao Yu spoke up immediately. "Housekeeper, you are not allowed to disturb Changying’s sleep."
"Sleep? Look at the time! She’s already a senior in high school, and she’s still slacking off like this?" Fury surged in Old Madam Xu’s chest. "Housekeeper, make her come down this instant!"
Housekeeper Xu was somewhat afraid of Shi Changying. Nowadays, his legs would tremble just from seeing her, but he dared not disobey Old Madam Xu’s orders either. He could only bite the bullet and head upstairs.
With a CREAK, the door opened, and Shi Changying appeared at the top of the stairs.
Housekeeper Xu breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Old Madam, Miss Changying is awake."
Shi Changying pulled her coat closer around herself. After coming downstairs, she walked straight into the dining room and sat down. She started by eating a runny-yolk fried egg, acting as if there was no one else around.
Old Madam Xu suppressed her anger. "What did you say at school yesterday?"
"I said that some black-hearted person swapped my dad’s life for their daughter’s," Shi Changying replied carelessly.
"I-I’m sorry." Xu Zhao Yu covered her mouth, her voice choked with tears. "I didn’t want this, I really didn’t... I am so sorry."
"Bastard!" Old Madam Xu’s fury was thoroughly ignited. "Is this how you bully your aunt?"
"I simply stated the facts. How is that bullying?" Shi Changying finally looked up. "If this counts as bullying, then what about my dad?"
Old Madam Xu said coldly, "You did something wrong. Bringing up your father won’t help you."
Ming Chengli was the son she had carried for ten months. Having been separated from him for forty-five years, she naturally felt guilty and heartbroken. However, she held absolutely no affection for Shi Changying, this deadweight of a granddaughter. If Ming Chengli had grown up in the Xu Family all along, she would have chosen a well-matched wife for him. It would have been utterly impossible for him to father a wild brat like Shi Changying.
The more Old Madam Xu thought about it, the angrier she became. She raised her hand, wanting to slap Shi Changying across the face.
"When my dad was abandoned at the gates of the orphanage and didn’t have enough to eat, what were you doing?" Shi Changying sat entirely unmoving. "When my dad couldn’t scrape together enough money for his tuition and was forced to go out and work, what were you doing then?"
Old Madam Xu’s hand froze in mid-air, completely stunned.
"Oh, right. You were living in a manor, being comfortably served by maids and servants every day, and your precious little daughter had new dresses to wear every single day." Shi Changying’s tone was flat and straightforward. "You were living in the lap of luxury, never once sparing a thought for a little boy being bullied in an orphanage, watching the steamed bun he had fought so hard to get be kicked into the dirt."
She took a bite of a shrimp dumpling, her voice faint. "The bun was dirty, but a child will starve to death if they don’t eat. He had no choice but to pick it up and eat it anyway. Yet, as he chewed, he tasted a bitter saltiness. It turned out he was crying."
Her words were completely plain and unadorned; even a three-year-old could understand them. But precisely because of this, they transformed into an even sharper blade that mercilessly pierced through the heart, carving out the deepest of old wounds and leaving behind a bloody mess.
Old Madam Xu’s hand fell back down. She stared blankly at Shi Changying. Her chest felt as if it had been sliced open by something, letting in a bitter cold wind that ached with an agonizing sting.
"It’s my fault. I failed your father." Old Madam Xu looked utterly devastated. "Why didn’t I keep a closer eye on him back then? I..."
She couldn’t even finish her self-reproach. She burst into wails, old tears streaming down her face, feeling overwhelmingly ashamed.
Shi Changying admired Old Madam Xu’s pained and sorrowful appearance for quite a while before finally saying, "You people—that’s what you call bullying."
With that said, she resumed eating her breakfast. Her appetite remained excellent, completely unaffected by the scene. But whether it was Old Madam Xu or Xu Zhao Yu, both had thoroughly lost their appetites.
Old Madam Xu cried and laughed at the same time, sobbing so hard she practically wanted to heave out her internal organs. "Just what kind of life has he been living all these years..."
"Mom..." Xu Zhao Yu called out in a low voice.
Old Madam Xu acted as if she hadn’t heard a thing. She dragged her heavy steps upstairs, leaving Xu Zhao Yu standing there for the first time, completely ignoring her.
Xu Zhao Yu’s hands suddenly clenched tightly onto her dress. A few seconds later, she let go, though her breathing was still somewhat ragged. Pursing her lips, she said, "I’ll be leaving first. Housekeeper, let Mom get some good rest."
Carrying her bag, she hurried away.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the Xuan’an Archaeological Research Center.
Ming Chengli, carrying only a single backpack, stood travel-worn and weary at the front gates. He hadn’t slept a wink all night and had only eaten a dry piece of bread for breakfast.
The door opened, and a middle-aged man quickly walked over. Seeing Ming Chengli, he immediately stepped forward to shake his hand. "Chengli, welcome! Come on in. You haven’t had breakfast yet, right? Let’s eat together."
"I’m not hungry," Ming Chengli waved a hand dismissively. "Where’s the ancient zither? Take me to see it."
The middle-aged man was speechless for a few seconds before chuckling. "You... how are you still as impatient as you were back in school? All right, follow me."
The two took a car to the excavation site, where quite a few people had been working busily through the night.
"It’s right here." The middle-aged man led Ming Chengli a few dozen paces inward and stopped. "We’ve already done one round of examination, but we still haven’t found that mark."
Ming Chengli knew what mark he was talking about. Two ancient zithers previously used by Xie Qingshi had already been unearthed and were currently preserved in the Mingjing Museum. The common trait between these two ancient zithers was that there was the character "Xie" engraved on their bodies.
Ming Chengli hummed in acknowledgment. "Let me take a look."
Just as he stepped forward, his phone rang.
Seeing his expression immediately brighten, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but ask, "Who is it? What’s making you so happy?"
"My daughter." Ming Chengli triumphantly pressed the answer button. "Hello? Changying, Dad has arrived. Don’t worry, if the work goes quickly, Dad will be able to go back and have dinner with you tomorrow."
Shi Changying made a sound of acknowledgment. "Are you running into any difficulties?"
"We’re still looking for the mark belonging to Xie Qingshi," Ming Chengli said. "I speculate that this ancient zither holds a different significance to him, so the mark isn’t as obvious as it is on the other zithers."
The middle-aged man was surprised. "As expected of Chengli. You immediately thought of the most crucial point."
Shi Changying pondered for a moment. "Have you checked the inner walls of the resonance chamber?"
"The inner walls of the resonance chamber?" Ming Chengli blanked for a moment and looked at the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man shook his head. "Are you talking about the side walls of the sound-absorbing groove? There wouldn’t be any marks in a place like that."
Ming Chengli had indeed never seen such a thing before either, but for some inexplicable reason, he decided to listen to Shi Changying’s words. He asked the middle-aged man to lend a hand, and together, they carefully dismantled the bottom board of the ancient zither.
"Chengli, if it were anyone else, I absolutely wouldn’t let them touch something so precious. If it were to get damaged, money wouldn’t be enough to fix it," the middle-aged man said helplessly. "Why did you suddenly think to look at the inner walls of the resonance chamber?"
Ming Chengli coughed. "My daughter told me to take a look."
"You..." The middle-aged man laughed out of sheer exasperation. "Your daughter doesn’t know anything about archaeology. As someone who studies history and archaeology, how could you be so reckless as to listen—"
His voice came to an abrupt halt.