Pats Little Shrike's Tail - Chapter 117

Chapter 117

Shen Hongjun was completely provoked by her words. His head began to smoke with anger, and he immediately stood up and furiously said, “What lunatic?! No one has ever dared to call you a lunatic!”

This made Shen Qingyi laugh. She sneered twice: “Don’t dare? Even if you don’t dare to say it out loud, you think it in your heart, don’t you?”

“Nonsense!”

“But isn’t that what you think? Otherwise, why would you monitor me? Why would you make Zhou Shu keep an eye on my condition and report to you at all times?”

Shen Hongjun was stunned by the question, then angrily retorted, “I was worried about you! As your father, what’s wrong with me caring for my own daughter?”

“Nothing is wrong,” Shen Qingyi said. “Because you are also afraid that one day I might go crazy. When that happens, you will treat me the same way you treated my mother, locking me in a mental hospital where I’ll never see the light of day.”

“Your mother’s situation worsened, that’s why I did that. I loved her very much when she was normal, and I never abandoned her when she got sick,” Shen Hongjun’s eyes flickered slightly. He looked at his daughter and said, “Morally, I cared for her until the end. Logically, I never gave up on her treatment. Although she has passed away, I did not wrong her.”

Shen Hongjun said, “I provided your mother with the best treatment. I wholeheartedly looked after her and diligently raised you. Your Auntie Tao and I only started dating many years after your mother passed away, and Jiaojiao was conceived after we got married. I worked hard to give you the best living conditions, and I never made things difficult for you when you refused to move into the house.”

“I don’t know what I did wrong for you to treat me like this,” Shen Hongjun looked at the person in front of him and demanded, “I just wanted you to step out of your mother’s shadow, to live like a normal person, to have children, and live a stable life. What is wrong with that?!”

Tao Wanyue and Auntie Jiang walked over when they heard the commotion. Shen Jiaojiao was also scared stiff. She had never seen Shen Hongjun so angry in her life. With a pale little face, she rushed into Tao Wanyue’s arms, afraid to look at the arguing father and daughter.

Shen Qingyi listened to his words, curled her lips, and softly laughed: “Yes, you did nothing wrong. It has always been my fault.”

“If you hadn’t taken me to the mental hospital back then, I wouldn’t have seen my mother suffering in the hospital bed,” Shen Qingyi said. “And I wouldn’t have helped her escape from the room.”

“What?” Shen Hongjun was shocked, his face instantly changing: “What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Wasn’t there surveillance in the room? You should know what I did back then.”

Shen Qingyi looked at him, calmly saying, “It was my fault. I untied…”

Before Shen Qingyi could finish her sentence, there was a loud ‘smack,’ and Shen Hongjun landed a slap directly across her face.

“Don’t talk nonsense anymore,” Shen Hongjun’s chest heaved with anger. His eyes flickered slightly as he told Shen Qingyi, “How many times have I told you? Your mother’s death has nothing to do with you! Don’t ever say something like that again! My hope for you is to see you living like a normal person before I die, not as an outcast.”

The side of Shen Qingyi’s face that was slapped gradually turned crimson. She paused for two or three seconds before turning her head, which had been knocked sideways, and giving Shen Hongjun a long, hard look.

“But I am an outcast.”

Shen Hongjun watched Shen Qingyi turn and walk away without another word. Not until her car drove out of the Shen family gate did Tao Wanyue approach with her daughter.

“What was the point of getting so angry?” Tao Wanyue asked, confused. “Weren’t you looking forward to Yiyi coming? Couldn’t you have talked it out nicely? Why shout and yell like that?”

Shen Hongjun sighed, looking in the direction Shen Qingyi had driven off: “I spoke to her nicely. Did she listen to me?!”

“But she’s a girl, after all. Why do you, as a father, always try to control so much?” Tao Wanyue held her daughter and said to her husband, “You two fight every time you meet and miss each other when you’re apart. Shen Qingyi is a sensible girl. If you just spoke to her properly, things wouldn’t have escalated like this.”

“What? She argues with an elder, and it’s still my fault?”

“Otherwise?”

Tao Wanyue frowned and said, “Children have their own fortunes. How many years do you think you have left to live at your age? Why do you care if she likes men or women? As long as it makes Shen Qingyi happy, it’s not like she’s doing anything heinous.”

Shen Hongjun was left speechless by her counter-argument. He said angrily, “Don’t lecture me like I’m one of your students! Let’s stick to the matter at hand—Shen Qingyi should listen to me.”

Tao Wanyue rolled her eyes, held Shen Jiaojiao, and said, “When will you men ever wise up?”

With that, she took Shen Jiaojiao and went back into the house, leaving Shen Hongjun so furious that he didn’t know what to say. He angrily sat back down and poured himself half a glass of wine.

Meanwhile, Shen Qingyi, driving far away, sped along the road.

Realizing that driving like this was too dangerous, Shen Qingyi pulled over to the side of the road by the lake, opened the car door, and stepped out for some air.

The argument with Shen Hongjun today had been building up in Shen Qingyi’s heart for a long time.

She leaned on the railing, looking at the towering buildings across the lake. The colorful lights reflected on the water. The night breeze ruffled the water surface, making it shimmer, and also blew through Shen Qingyi’s long hair.

Shen Hongjun sent people to monitor her and investigate the people around her—Shen Qingyi knew all this, but she couldn’t stop it.

She knew her father was well-meaning, and the things Zhou Shu did were also out of good intentions.

The matter of Shen Qingyi’s mother was a devastating blow to the man.

The woman he once deeply loved was tortured by illness, becoming frantic, dangerous, and miserable. Every day was a tug-of-war between her recovering and her forgetting him forever, tearing their once lively family to shreds.

Shen Qingyi still remembered that woman. She was delicate and beautiful, with long, glossy black hair, and her light-colored eyes were full of tenderness.

She was originally a very gentle person.

But the mental illness made her erratic. Sometimes she spoke gibberish, and other times she seemed like a normal person. But the next moment, she would turn back into that monster, leaving an indelible shadow on Shen Qingyi’s young mind.

She remembered when she first started kindergarten, her mother was confined at home.

The situation was better at first. She still recognized people, only she couldn’t control her emotions. She would scream, cry loudly, or laugh hysterically at the slightest thing, but after ten minutes, she would return to her original self, comforting Shen Qingyi and telling her not to be afraid.

By the time Shen Qingyi started primary school, her mother had been sent to a mental hospital by Shen Hongjun. At that time, the mother was almost never lucid. She spoke nonsense all day long, desperately calling Shen Hongjun, asking where her daughter was.

The nanny could control her initially, but later, she started self-harming, hurting herself and others. She became very aggressive and could no longer stay at home, so she had to be sent to the hospital for treatment.

But being locked up only made the illness worse.

The woman’s condition deteriorated quickly. She was tightly restrained to the bed, layer upon layer of restraints binding her like a cocoon, like a butterfly that would never break free and would eventually die in that airless place.

“Yiyi.”

Shen Qingyi remembered. That was when Shen Hongjun brought her to the mental hospital to see her mother, and the woman called out to her like that.

At that time, the woman had already been given a shot. Although her eyes were somewhat dull, they were still full of light when she looked at Shen Qingyi, as if this child was her only lighthouse, giving her a faint glimmer of light on the vast, confusing ocean.

Six or seven-year-old Shen Qingyi didn’t understand that feeling then. She only knew her mother was calling her, so she moved a chair over and sat solemnly by her hospital bed.

“Mom, are you hot?” Shen Qingyi looked at the woman on the bed, using her small handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her forehead, helping her tidy her messy hair.

“Yiyi.” The woman just looked at her daughter, seemingly trying to engrave Shen Qingyi’s face into her memory forever.

The woman said: “Did you come with your father? Why doesn’t he come to see me? I lie in bed every day and feel like I can no longer tell the time.”

Shen Qingyi didn’t understand the latter part of her speech, only answering the first question.

“Dad is in the doctor’s office. He’ll be here soon, and he told me to keep you company first,” Shen Qingyi said seriously, “Mom, you look much better today. Last week when I came, you even tried to bite me.”

The woman smiled, a flush of color appearing on her pale face: “Did I? Did I hurt you?”

“No, I dodged quickly,” Shen Qingyi said, “Dad said you were only like this because you were sick, and he told me not to blame you. He’s so strange. You’re my mom, why would I be angry at my mom?”

After speaking, Shen Qingyi couldn’t help but frown slightly. She looked at the woman and asked: “But Mom, when will your illness get better? I’ve started school, and I have lots of homework every day. The teacher said that when I get to higher grades, I’ll have tutoring on weekends. Will I not be able to come see you every week then?”

The woman smiled when she heard this: “Yiyi is a big girl now. I will try hard to get better. Mom also wants to be with Yiyi when you go to school and take you out to play on weekends.”

Shen Qingyi knew the woman was comforting her. Since she had memory, the woman had always been like this. But she still held a glimmer of hope for the woman, smiling and saying: “Okay, there are many, many places I want to go, but Dad is always busy and has no time to take me. If you get better, we can go out and play together.”

The woman’s brows smoothed out, listening to the small child describing and outlining one scene after another.

Shen Qingyi wanted to ride the carousel.

Shen Qingyi wanted to go boating in the park.

Shen Qingyi wanted to eat a family meal with Mom and Dad.

Shen Qingyi also wanted her mother’s illness to get better so their whole family could be together forever.

The woman listened to all these words seriously, her eyes shining as if everything Shen Qingyi was saying would eventually come true.

When Shen Qingyi was tired of talking and drank from her children’s water bottle, the woman slowly spoke: “Yiyi, Mom feels uncomfortable. Can you help me undo the restraints on my body?”

Shen Qingyi looked confused: “But Dad said I can only talk to you and can’t do anything else.”

“But Mom is tied up, and my body is uncomfortable,” the woman looked at her daughter and said to her, “Just this once, can you help Mom undo them?”

Shen Qingyi hesitated. She was an obedient child, and she remembered Shen Hongjun’s instructions.

“Yiyi,” the woman said again, “Help Mom undo them. It’s too painful like this. Every day is so painful, and I don’t want to continue anymore. Mom has never asked you to help me with anything. Just this once, please help Mom undo them.”

Shen Qingyi pondered for a long time, then nodded: “Okay, Mom, don’t rush. I’ll help you undo them.”

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