After the Most Hated Persona Faked Their Death, the Ex-Husband Lost His Mind - Chapter 9

His words were neither heavy nor sharp, yet they were perfectly clear. Wang Kaixuan, however, could not hear a single syllable. He was in such agony that he nearly rolled on the ground, losing every shred of human dignity.

With scalding water poured directly onto his back, who could maintain their composure? Wang Kaixuan felt as though the flesh on his back was being cooked alive. He collapsed, wailing for his parents, and in his struggle, the thumbtacks scattered on the floor pierced into his flailing arms. He truly believed he was dying.

“An ambulance! Call an ambulance quickly! Kaixuan, Young Master Wang, please hold on!” The homeroom teacher, frantic and on the verge of tears, hurriedly dialed emergency services. “Young Master Wang!”

Seeing the situation escalate to this level, the students scattered like startled birds. In the chaos, Gong Jie grabbed Li Zhi and pulled him toward the exit. “Do not be stupid, Li Zhi. Let us go.”

“Chu Mingzhang.”

“You are still worried about him?” Gong Jie let out a frustrated laugh. “Have you not heard the saying? Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, and shrimp eat the mud at the bottom. You are the mud, and Chu Mingzhang is the big fish. It is more likely that Wang Kaixuan’s father will have to apologize to Chu Mingzhang’s parents.”

How absurd, Li Zhi thought. High society is truly absurd.

“That is just how it is,” Gong Jie said, as if reading his mind. “Let us go. Otherwise, after Wang Kaixuan’s father finishes playing the grandson in front of Chairman Chu and President Xu, he will come and try to act like your grandfather.”

“Let us go!”

Gong Jie raised her voice again, finally snapping Li Zhi out of his daze. Like waking from a dream, he stumbled as she pulled him all the way out of the teaching building.

With such a major incident occurring, the plan to watch the rehearsal was ruined. Gong Jie looked up at him with concern. “Li Zhi? Are you okay?”

“Does your foot still hurt? Do you need to go back to the infirmary?”

Before confronting Wang Kaixuan, Gong Jie had already taken Li Zhi to the school clinic to treat his injury. He shook his head. “I am fine.”

“Oh. Then, can you manage on your own? Should I help you back to the boys’ dormitory?”

“No need,” Li Zhi interrupted, shaking his head as his voice trailed off. “No need.”

Since he insisted, Gong Jie did not push further. She simply watched as Li Zhi limped away.

Li Zhi passed the dormitory building but did not go inside. Standing beneath the vast sky, he felt an overwhelming sense of oppression, an invisible force nearly snapping his spine.

He stared blankly at the main gate for a long time. Suddenly, he turned around, ignored the sharp pain in the sole of his foot, and began to run desperately toward the school entrance.

It was Monday. Normally, the security guards would not allow students to leave, but the entire school was in such a state of upheaval that no one noticed a single student slipping out of the gates.

Li Zhi ran a great distance in one breath, only stopping when the piercing pain in his foot finally caught up to him. He bent over, clutching his stomach and gasping for air. When he finally caught his breath, he straightened up slowly.

Night had fallen. Looking at the surrounding skyscrapers, he felt a profound sense of aimlessness.

This feeling was familiar, much like the first time Wang Xiaochun had brought him to the Zhou family home. Li Zhi knelt down, took out his phone, and dialed Wang Xiaochun’s number. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer.

He did not know how he got home; perhaps that lavish villa could not truly be called his home. Ignoring the butler’s startled expression, he stepped into the interior elevator. As the doors slowly slid shut, he finally had a moment to breathe.

Wang Xiaochun did not return home until one o’clock in the morning. By then, Li Zhi had fallen asleep. In his groggy state, he was dragged out of the covers by a woman’s cold hand. The bedroom light flicked on with a sharp click. The sudden brightness caused tears to prick at the corners of his eyes. As his vision cleared, the exquisitely made-up face before him came into focus.

It was Wang Xiaochun.

“What are you doing?” Wang Xiaochun asked, her eyebrows knit in anger as she took the offensive. “The butler said you came back today. Why are you here instead of staying at school?”

The scent of alcohol and perfume clung to her. Li Zhi turned his head away, trying to avoid the dizzying stench.

Today was the first time Zhou Guoxiong had taken her out to socialize. Wang Xiaochun had drunk quite a bit, and before she could even rest, she had to deal with Li Zhi’s return. She was tired and annoyed, and Li Zhi’s silence only made her more irritable.

With her long fingers tipped in bright red polish, she gripped Li Zhi’s thin chin and forced him to face her. “Speak! Are you mute?”

“Why did you run home instead of staying at school? Tell me, what exactly do you want to do?”

“Speak!”

“I want to drop out!” Li Zhi grabbed her wrist. Every word from Wang Xiaochun was like a knife carving a hole in his heart. A surge of resentment and indignation that had nearly driven him mad finally found an outlet. “I want to drop out. I want to die!”

“I want to die!”

Li Zhi felt the hand on his chin suddenly freeze. For a fleeting moment, he experienced a thrill of satisfaction that felt almost like revenge. He took a deep breath, a small smile appearing on his face as he whispered, “I want to die.”

The cold hand finally let go, only to be raised high. Before the slap landed, Li Zhi heard the rush of air, followed by the stinging pain on his face. The blow made him see stars, and then his scalp erupted in pain as Wang Xiaochun grabbed him by the hair.

The force pulled him backward, and Wang Xiaochun’s beautiful, enraged face moved closer. Li Zhi could see his mother’s thick mascara, the red veins in her eyes, and his own reflection in her dark pupils.

Two pairs of identical eyes: one oppressive, one evasive; one manic, one cowardly.

Ultimately, Li Zhi lost. He tried to look away from her blade-like gaze but was forced to maintain eye contact. Tears filled his eyes and overflowed, sliding down his face and into his trembling lips. “Mom.”

“Mom,” he whispered, hoping for a shred of maternal affection. “Mom!”

“Do not call me Mom! I am not your mother!” Wang Xiaochun panted heavily. “What did you say? You want to die?”

“Then go ahead and die!”

“You useless thing. You do not want to study anymore? Do you know how much effort I put into getting you into that school?”

“Do you know how hard I have worked!”

“Ah! Ah!”

The woman’s piercing screams and the boy’s sobs blended into a bloody backdrop of pain.

Li Zhi grit his teeth and forced his mother’s hand away. Under Wang Xiaochun’s startled gaze, Li Zhi threw back the duvet.

He tore off the bandage wrapped around his foot. The stain of red on the gauze struck Wang Xiaochun’s eyes. “I do not want to go. I really do not want to go. Do not force me.”

“Do not force me. Please, Mom.”

Wang Xiaochun’s eyes widened, her pupils trembling. She pressed her lips together, and the only sound in the room was Li Zhi’s sobbing.

She took two steps forward. Perhaps because she had been bent over for too long, her legs shook as she straightened up. “How did this happen?”

“Stop crying.” Wang Xiaochun turned her head away and stiffly reached out. Li Zhi instinctively flinched, but this time, it was not a slap. Her cold fingers brushed away his tears. “Xiao Zhi.”

Wang Xiaochun rarely called him that. “Stop crying.”

Li Zhi blinked. He grabbed her hand before she could pull it back, as if trying to catch her fleeting tenderness. Fearing she would change her mind, he pleaded, “I do not want to go back to school, Mom.”

The woman remained silent for a moment, her head tilted slightly upward so Li Zhi could not see her expression.

She touched his face again. After a long while, she spoke stiffly. “Rest for a few days first.”

She added, “Do not think so much. Go to sleep. Does it hurt?”

“It does not hurt.” Li Zhi froze for a moment before shaking his head vigorously. “Really, it is okay.”

Wang Xiaochun looked at him for a while and nodded. She abruptly switched off the light in his room, her urgency almost strange. “Go to sleep.”

Li Zhi sat in the darkness until he heard the click of the door closing. He curled up under the covers, his heart pounding rapidly.

He touched his cheek. The stinging pain and the cold comfort had landed in the same spot, making it impossible to distinguish between the two.

For the first time in a long while, he slept well.

Li Zhi took an extra week off. When Friday arrived, he saw Zhou Baiyu, who had returned home after school. For some reason, the way Zhou Baiyu looked at him was strange.

“You are truly finished this time,” Zhou Baiyu said as Li Zhi brushed past him.

Li Zhi had been away for a week, and so had Wang Kaixuan. Gong Jie had told him the news. There was always a bigger fish; Wang Kaixuan had been scalded with boiling water, and the perpetrator had simply said a half-hearted “sorry” to settle it.

Chu Mingzhang was not the type to look for trouble. This was his first time having a conflict with a classmate. His parents felt terrible and offered compensation, but even if they wanted to pay, the Wang family could not afford to accept it.

Wang Kaixuan was his family’s only child. If it had been anyone else, his parents would have flayed them alive. But because it was Chu Mingzhang, they had to swallow their rage no matter how angry they were.

Fortunately, Wang Kaixuan had dodged quickly. Despite the dramatic scene, it was only a first-degree burn. After a few days in the hospital and some ointment, he would be fine. He could not avoid the minor suffering, but there was no lasting damage.

“It really is karma. By the way, Li Zhi, when are you coming back?”

“I am so bored without you!”

Li Zhi looked at the two messages on the screen. His fingers hovered over the keyboard for a long time before he finally typed, “Soon. I will be back next week.”

“Go back to school next Monday,” he remembered Wang Xiaochun telling him the previous night. She had walked in carrying a plate of sliced fruit. At some point, a plate of fruit had become her way of offering an olive branch.

She sat on the sofa in his room. “There will be no more trouble in the future.”

Li Zhi put down his book and turned to look at her. Wang Xiaochun looked him in the eye. “Are you really never going back to school?”

“Are you truly going to drop out as you said, Xiao Zhi?” Her voice was very gentle. She wore no makeup, and her smooth black hair framed a pale face, replacing her usual allure with a touch of softness. Her eyes were full of earnestness, making her look like a truly loving mother.

She said, “Go back. I have settled everything for you.”

“I know you are a good child. You will not disappoint me.”

“Go back. Do it for me.”

So, Li Zhi had to go back. He had no retreat.

He never did.