My Wife, So Fierce! - Chapter 69

Before her sister could speak, she couldn’t wait to admit her mistake: “Sister, I was wrong.”

Zheng Yao was surprised: “What did you do wrong?”

“I shouldn’t have gotten too close to them before. That Tang Tong even spoke disrespectfully to you today.” Shen Baiyi said, lowering her eyes.

“That’s Tang Tong’s problem, not yours.” Seeing her pitiful appearance, Zheng Yao sighed softly. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Don’t be afraid, I’m not here to blame you.”

Hearing this, Shen Baiyi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course, she didn’t dare to completely relax either. She walked over and held her sister’s arm, pretending to be pitiful: “You looked so scary earlier, you really frightened me.”

Zheng Yao wasn’t falling for it this time, looking at her with an amused smile: “How could the famous Sister Yi be scared by a weakling like me who can’t even carry anything?”

Shen Baiyi feigned confusion: “Sister, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Seeing her play dumb, Zheng Yao didn’t expose her, only asking: “What do you think about that Tang Tong, your Sister Tong?”

“She’s not my Sister Tong.” Shen Baiyi frowned, correcting her somewhat unhappily.

Her expression was so serious it was unbearably cute.

Zheng Yao’s heart softened, and remembering what Tang Tong had said, she felt even more affectionate toward her: “Alright, I misspoke. That’s my mistake.”

Shen Baiyi whispered: “Sister didn’t do anything wrong.”

Zheng Yao pretended not to hear and brought the conversation back on track: “Do you believe what this Tang Tong said?”

“No.” Shen Baiyi immediately shook her head.

Zheng Yao didn’t care whether she truly didn’t believe it or was just trying to show loyalty. She said seriously: “Only believe half of what she says. I let you hear how they describe you not so you’d be influenced by them, but also not so you’d disbelieve everything.”

Shen Baiyi might encounter many people from her past in the future – elementary school classmates, middle school classmates, high school classmates. Since she knew nothing about her past, she could easily be influenced by others’ words.

It was better to take this opportunity to listen more and learn to distinguish, so she wouldn’t remain completely ignorant about her own past and believe whatever others told her.

She carefully analyzed for Shen Baiyi: “She definitely doesn’t treat you like a real sister, that’s beyond doubt.”

“Mm.” Shen Baiyi nodded. “I know.”

Hearing this, Zheng Yao raised an eyebrow: “Then tell me, why do you think she doesn’t treat you like a real sister?”

“If we were really that close, I wouldn’t have needed to help her deal with that troublesome customer to make her owe me a favor, just so I could ask for her help.”

As she spoke, Shen Baiyi couldn’t help glancing at her sister again.

If she wanted her sister’s help, she would act cute or pretend to be pitiful, not make her sister owe her favors.

Her sister treated her so well – she would do anything for her sister. How could there be any talk of owing favors?

“Good, it seems you have your own judgment.” Zheng Yao nodded with satisfaction. Although she had gradually discovered during this time that Shen Baiyi wasn’t as weak and pitiful as she had initially thought, she was still quite happy about it.

This was how it should be.

Having grown up in such an environment, she should be this resilient and brave, with her own opinions and judgment. Otherwise, she would be eaten alive.

But whenever she thought about what Shen Baiyi had been through, she couldn’t help feeling angry.

She never expected Shen Sanguang and Bai Yuanzhu to be so shameless. She had seen people mooching off their parents before, but this was the first time she had seen someone mooching off their child.

How could Shen Sanguang and Bai Yuanzhu have the nerve to do this when Shen Baiyi was still a child herself?

Originally, she had thought that since they were already here, she might as well let Shen Baiyi pay her respects to Shen Sanguang and Bai Yuanzhu. But now, all she wanted was to take Shen Baiyi and run.

A foster father like that was better off abandoned.

“Are you feeling sad?” she asked, carefully observing Shen Baiyi’s expression.

“No,” Shen Baiyi shook her head. “It feels like listening to someone else’s story. I don’t feel anything.”

No feelings at all?

Zheng Yao raised her eyebrows in surprise, momentarily unsure whether to be astonished by Shen Baiyi’s poor empathy or relieved that she didn’t harbor negative emotions over her tragic past.

“That’s fine too,” she nodded thoughtfully. “If you run into any old acquaintances in the future, don’t panic. Don’t show weakness and let others take advantage of your amnesia to lead you around by the nose, understand?”

“Understood,” Shen Baiyi said, then couldn’t resist hugging her again. “Thank you, sister.”

Her emotions had been on a rollercoaster today. Now that she could finally relax, her courage grew slightly. She sniffed the fragrance on her sister’s body, her eyes gradually darkening.

Sister didn’t believe what others said about her, and her attitude toward her remained unchanged despite hearing those negative comments. Did this mean she held more weight in her sister’s heart?

At this thought, she couldn’t quite suppress the corners of her lips from curling up.

“What are you doing?” Feeling Shen Baiyi’s warm breath against her neck, Zheng Yao’s expression changed slightly as she quickly pushed her away. “Go back to your room. I want to take a nap.”

“Alright.”

Shen Baiyi sighed softly and obediently let go.

The room returned to silence.

Zheng Yao finally relaxed, collapsing onto the bed to sort through her thoughts. Before she could make sense of anything, her phone chimed with the distinctive notification tone of the Lala Love app.

She picked up her phone and glanced at it, it was a message from a recently matched online friend.

Compared to previous matches who either steered conversations toward sexual topics or revealed incompatible values within a few sentences, this one felt much more comfortable to talk to.

Zheng Yao didn’t mind chatting with them. After several conversations, she discovered they shared many common interests. This person always found plenty of topics to discuss and responded thoughtfully to everything she said. Among all her online matches, she felt the most favorable toward this one and began considering getting to know them better.

If things went well, they could try meeting offline in the future.

She really should find a girlfriend soon. Lately, she had been intentionally creating distance between herself and Shen Baiyi. Once they returned home, if she started dating someone, surely Shen Baiyi would quickly abandon any inappropriate feelings toward her upon seeing it.

Thinking of this, she sighed wistfully. She hoped she could quickly rid herself of those improper thoughts too.

–

Zheng Yao bought tickets for the next morning but didn’t idle away the afternoon. She asked Wang Yong to find people who knew Shen Baiyi and inquire about her past.

Perhaps Shen Baiyi had always maintained a perfect facade most people spoke highly of her, describing her as quiet, kind, sensible, and academically outstanding, the epitome of the perfect child in everyone’s eyes.

Of course, the most common description was that she had a hard life and a troubled background.

It seemed that only Tang Tong and Shen Zhuhao’s perception of Shen Baiyi differed from those evaluations.

Zheng Yao speculated that before the internet cafe incident, Shen Baiyi had likely appeared as a pitiful figure in Tang Tong’s eyes as well. Later, Shen Baiyi was probably in a hurry to deal with the Tan family matters whether she revealed her true nature or put on a bold front out of fear of showing weakness only Tang Tong and her circle knew that less simple side of Shen Baiyi.

Of course, the changes during that period could easily be explained away as a drastic shift in temperament due to sudden family changes.

The current Shen Baiyi remained the same good student she had always been.

After having Wang Yong make arrangements everywhere sealing the necessary mouths and repaying owed favors by the next day, she directly took people to the bus station.

Unexpectedly, just before leaving, another incident occurred.

As soon as they went downstairs, before Zheng Yao could even put the suitcase in the trunk, a dog suddenly charged out.

It was a scrawny yellow dog from the neighboring restaurant, covered in scars with a scraped nose, but it seemed extremely excited and immediately pounced on the unprepared Shen Baiyi, knocking her to the ground.

“Xiao Bai!”

Zheng Yao’s face paled, and she instinctively rushed forward, only to see Shen Baiyi half-propping herself up and saying, “I’m fine, sister. Don’t come over.”

Her steps halted as she abruptly remembered her own fear of dogs.

After a brief moment of daze, she saw the yellow dog wagging its tail like a propeller, whimpering and whining as if complaining and acting coy.

A faint sense of familiarity washed over her.

People from the neighboring restaurant had already run over, apologizing while trying to grab the dog, but the yellow dog kept hiding behind Shen Baiyi, and after much effort, they still couldn’t catch it.

“Is this your dog?” Zheng Yao asked.

“Yeah! It’s a meat dog we bought, waiting to be slaughtered for soup!” the man replied dismissively. “So sorry, we couldn’t hold it back just now and it dashed out. But don’t worry, it’s very gentle and doesn’t bite.”

No sooner had he spoken than the yellow dog poked its head out from behind Shen Baiyi and barked fiercely twice.

Perfectly embodying the phrase “a dog putting on airs relying on its master’s power.”

Zheng Yao fell silent.

If she remembered correctly, this seemed to be Shen Baiyi’s former yellow dog, the one she had given away to someone else to raise.

A year later, the dog had lost its former healthy, glossy appearance, becoming emaciated and even turning into what was called a meat dog.

“This damn dog!”

Seeing that he couldn’t catch the dog, the man instantly grew angry, grabbing a thick stick from nearby to hit it.

“What are you trying to do?” Shen Baiyi’s expression turned cold.

Hearing the obstruction in Shen Baiyi’s tone, the man grew impatient. “It’s my dog, what’s it to you what I do!”

Shen Baiyi pursed her lips. She glanced at Zheng Yao, then looked down at the dog, hesitation flickering across her face.

“Brother, hold on a moment.” Sensing Shen Baiyi’s thoughts, Zheng Yao sighed inwardly and took out her phone. “How much did you pay for this dog? I’ll buy it from you, alright?”

Seeing Zheng Yao’s politeness, the man’s tone softened. “It wasn’t expensive just a hundred yuan. But we already have a customer who reserved it, waiting to have the meat and soup at noon. If you like raising dogs, I know plenty that are cleaner and prettier than this one.”

Zheng Yao had no intention of arguing further. “Five hundred. I’ll buy it.”

Seeing this, the man was stunned and only spoke again after a long pause, though his eyes darted around as he tried to raise the price: “But the customer is waiting for it by noon.”

“Fine.” Zheng Yao put away her phone and looked at Shen Baiyi. “It’s just a stray dog, and it might even be sick. I’ll buy you a pet dog when we get home.”

Hearing this, the man instantly panicked: “Hey! Don’t go! Five hundred, I’ll sell it to you for five hundred! If that’s too much, four hundred or three hundred will do.”

Zheng Yao’s heart sank.

He didn’t deny that the dog was sick, which meant the yellow dog was truly unhealthy. And he still planned to sell it as meat? Wasn’t he afraid the customer might get sick from eating it?

In the end, the yellow dog was bought for three hundred yuan. Zheng Yao didn’t dare get too close, standing at a distance with her arms crossed as she asked Shen Baiyi, “Xiao Bai, why did you want to save it just now?”

There was a hint of probing in her words.

Shen Baiyi wasn’t usually this sentimental. Perhaps seeing the dog had reminded her of some things from the past.

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