She Is Such A Jerk, And Yet She’s The One Crying! - Chapter 3

The night was bitterly cold, and the bedding felt as heavy and freezing as iron.

In this single night, Qiang Ning had endured more freezing cold than she had in her entire life combined. She felt as though even her breath was icy, her hands and feet had lost all sensation, and she was too cold to even fall asleep.

So, how on earth was the person beside her sleeping? And how had she endured so many years of such frigid winters?

Qiang Ning tilted her head slightly, her gaze falling upon Lin Dongruan. This woman’s sleeping posture was very disciplined; her hands were resting peacefully over her lower abdomen, resembling a corpse laid out for burial. She hadn’t moved an inch since the moment she lay down.

For a fleeting moment, a wave of doubt flashed through Qiang Ning’s mind—could Lin Dongruan have actually frozen to death?

Unsettled, Qiang Ning leaned closer and gently reached out to pull the hand resting on the other woman’s abdomen.

It was icy, possessing only a faint trace of living warmth. Lin Dongruan’s fingernails were trimmed very neatly, thin and possessed of a smooth, glassy coldness. Her finger bones were of that slender, delicate variety unique to beauties; perhaps because she often went hungry, she was so thin that one could even feel the subtle pathways of the veins beneath her fair, fine skin.

By the time Qiang Ning regained her senses, she had already meticulously felt over every part of the other woman’s hand, even going so far as to dominate the situation by gathering those slender hands into her own palms, using her own steady stream of warmth to provide heat to the other.

She didn’t know what she was doing, nor did she understand why things had developed into such a situation.

Qiang Ning let out a sigh.

There was another thing: the roof of this place leaked air, and it seemed as though snowflakes could find a gap to drift through. Qiang Ning never expected the Imperial Preceptor to be so poor that she didn’t even have a warming stove. In such cold weather, she could only use firewood for warmth, and at night, one couldn’t burn firewood because the smoke was too thick; one could only endure it through sheer force of will.

Qiang Ning prided herself on being cold-hearted. Ordinarily, she was not only capable of refusing to save someone in mortal danger but could even go so far as to kick a person while they were down. But now, facing Lin Dongruan, she couldn’t find it in her heart to be so cruel.

She sighed once more.

In the darkness, Lin Dongruan heard her sigh. Carrying a hint of sleepiness, she raised her hand and gently stroked Qiang Ning’s head. “It is very cold, isn’t it?”

Lin Dongruan seemed to sigh as well. After a moment, she said softly, “Sleep. Once you fall asleep, you won’t feel the cold.”

Qiang Ning’s voice was cold: “Sister, it is so cold I cannot sleep.”

“Then… come closer.” Lin Dongruan moved up slightly, supporting Qiang Ning’s head to guide her to rest against her chest. She followed this by stroking her again as if comforting a child. “I am to blame; you have been wronged.”

Even if Qiang Ning were truly devoid of human decency, she knew this wasn’t Lin Dongruan’s fault. With a slight nasal tone from the cold, she murmured, “It’s not your fault.”

“Sleep. Tomorrow, I will think of a way.”

Qiang Ning leaned against the other’s heart—it was the warmest place on Lin Dongruan’s entire body. In her ear, she heard the other’s heartbeat, beat by beat, shallow yet powerful. The other’s pulse and heartbeat gradually synchronized and merged with hers, becoming indistinguishable from one another.

Finally, Qiang Ning closed her eyes.

The next day, just as dawn broke, Qiang Ning noticed the person beside her waking up and preparing to head out.

“Where are you going?” Qiang Ning propped herself up and asked her. “It is so cold outside; what are you going to do?”

The door had only just opened a crack before Lin Dongruan carefully closed it again. A gust of wind laden with frost and snow blew in, disturbing the dark hair at her temples.

She said she was going to take the medicinal herbs she had saved up to trade for some coal for warmth.

Qiang Ning looked at Lin Dongruan, speechless. The woman stood by the door, framed by the light, dressed in a simple thorn hairpin and a plain skirt. What she spoke of were the mundane concerns of the mortal world, yet she still possessed a kind of lofty, jade-like purity of spirit.

“You slept little last night, so there is no need to get up. Just wait for me in the room. It will be warm soon,” Lin Dongruan instructed. Following this, she opened the door and went out.

Qiang Ning lay in the covers with a complicated state of mind, not knowing what to say.

Because it was truly cold, she continued to lie in the warm bed for another hour. When the sun had completely risen and the sunlight made the room less freezing, she heard some unfamiliar human voices coming from behind the house.

“Are these the medicinal herbs Lin Niang was preparing to sell to us just now?”

“Yes, these are the ones. Take them all.”

“Manager, are we really going to take them all? Why didn’t we just buy them earlier?”

Judging by this conversation, it should be a local pharmacy manager and an apprentice from the shop.

Listening to their dialogue, Qiang Ning narrowed her beautiful eyes, and a cold smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She pulled back the quilt, straightened her clothes, and walked outside as silently as a ghost.

Outside, the manager was somewhat irritably hitting the back of the apprentice’s head, scolding him: “Why buy them from her? Isn’t it much more convenient to just take them from here? Since she leaves them here and doesn’t hide them well, doesn’t it mean she wants people to take them freely? Since she put them here in the first place, she should have the realization that they will be taken by others!”

Is that so?

Just hearing these words made Qiang Ning unable to suppress the killing intent in her heart. She gritted her teeth and walked toward the two men, the fake smile on her face gradually widening. “You two have arrived at quite a coincidental time. The owner of the house is not here, yet you haven’t even given a word of notice.”

Hearing someone speak, both the manager and the apprentice were startled and looked at her in surprise.

“There is no need to notify Lin Niang. She has told the neighbors that if they don’t have the money to buy herbs from the pharmacy, they can take them from the back of her house without paying,” the manager said, awkwardly rubbing his nose and adding with a dry laugh, “She put this year’s herbs here—it was for people to take as they please.”

Qiang Ning looked down and swept her gaze over the area. The fence surrounding the back of Lin Dongruan’s house was no higher than a person’s knees, and the small shed where the medicinal herbs were stored wasn’t even locked. It truly embodied the concept of “not picking up what is dropped on the road, and not needing to bolt the doors at night.”

What a wonderful “Great Harmony of the World,” what a wonderful “Bodhisattva’s heart”!

Qiang Ning’s teeth were nearly crushed from clenching. She lowered her chin, but her eyes rose with a sinister look, her killing intent gradually solidifying into something tangible. “Those who open pharmacies—could they possibly lack medicinal herbs or the money to buy them?”

Hearing this, the manager stopped pretending. He simply spread his hands and said in a glib tone, “Who told her to say she was giving them away? Everyone else can take them, so why can’t I?”

“Hahahahaha…”

It was as if Qiang Ning had heard the greatest joke in the world; she crossed her arms and began to laugh.

After laughing for a moment, she propped her finger against her chin and spoke in a soft, gentle voice, “No wonder she possesses such medical skills yet hasn’t saved much wealth, nearly freezing to death during this winter.”

The manager just stood there watching her laugh. Seeing that she had no intention of stopping them, he winked and gestured for the shop apprentice to continue stealing Lin Dongruan’s herbs.

“Alas, what a pity that I am also an outsider and cannot interfere in the affairs of others.” Qiang Ning thought for a moment and removed a gold-threaded double-butterfly hairpin from her hair. “Fortunately, I am a kind-hearted person and cannot stand to see others suffer. How about this, Manager? Take a look at this hairpin of mine and see how much charcoal it can be pawned for. I will give it to you, and you bring some charcoal here.”

The moment the manager saw the gold hairpin clearly, his eyes instantly lit up. He spoke so quickly he nearly developed a stutter: “This… such a fine, large gold hairpin, you… you truly want to trade it for charcoal?”

“That’s right.” Qiang Ning narrowed her eyes with a seemingly indifferent smile. “Since that woman surnamed Lin can give away medicinal herbs as she pleases, why can’t I give away a gold hairpin as I please? We are both kind-hearted people of this world.”

Seeing the profit, the manager’s greed took over. Because of Lin Dongruan’s precedent, he thought Qiang Ning, who lived in this house, was also a “good person” and a pushover. Thus, he lowered his guard and almost crawled and scrambled to get in front of Qiang Ning.

“What a valuable gold hairpin.”

The manager reached out with trembling hands to take the hairpin from Qiang Ning’s hand…

But in the next instant, before he could even see what the other person had done, a sudden, stabbing pain erupted in his right eye. Warmth trickled down his cheek, and the vision on one side turned completely black.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH——”

A scream of agony echoed across the snowy ground, accompanied by the shriek of the apprentice nearby. The sounds of pain and terror mixed together, acting as a cheer for this brutal act of revenge.

Qiang Ning laughed with satisfaction. Holding the hairpin, she twisted it, stirred it, and stabbed down with force. Because of the extreme pressure, the gold hairpin snapped abruptly. The manager lost all strength and collapsed on his knees before her. She then tossed the hairpin aside, looked down from her height, and stepped on the manager’s shoulder, bit by bit treading him down until he was kneeling on the ground, kneeling into the snow, until he lay flat on the earth.

“Manager, you certainly have good taste. My gold hairpin with double butterflies and entwined flowers is the only one of its kind in the entire world. You really are a person who recognizes quality.”

Qiang Ning spoke with a smile, her pure appearance looking very much like an innocent young girl… if one ignored her feet, which were gradually applying more pressure.

“Oh dear, I was really too careless.” Qiang Ning looked at the broken half of the gold hairpin she had just tossed away with a look of regret. “How did it get broken?”

The manager’s hands clawed frantically at the snow as if his fingernails were about to rip off. The blood from his cheek stained that small patch of snow red. Gradually, he fell silent.

Not far away, the pharmacy apprentice was so scared his legs went weak and he fell to his knees, crawling away in terror to distance himself from the scene. Having finished with the manager, Qiang Ning waved her hand at him: “What are you afraid of? I didn’t take his life. It’s just one eyeball—how can that possibly compare to the value of so many medicinal herbs? She worked hard to save herbs for four seasons, and you were going to steal them all at once. Trading one eyeball for them… I feel she’s getting the short end of the stick.”

The woman before him was as beautiful as a goddess, yet her heart was more venomous than a scorpion’s. Her words were sweet and light, but her actions were incredibly ruthless.

The pharmacy apprentice’s throat felt as if it had been poisoned into silence; he could only let out whimpering moans. His legs had lost their strength, so he kicked at the ground, propping up his upper body with his elbows and scooting backward inch by inch.

Qiang Ning was merely intimidating him a little and had no intention of holding the apprentice accountable for the manager’s faults. She stood up in a good mood and casually wiped the blood-stained snow off the sole of her shoe by stepping on the man’s neck.

It was only after a good while, when Qiang Ning had lost interest and was preparing to go back, that the apprentice finally found the strength to stand up.

“Help! Help—”

The apprentice wailed with all his might, running toward the town with every ounce of his strength, screaming as he ran.

“Shh——”

Qiang Ning raised her index finger, smiling as she pressed it against her lip.

Just after the second cry, and before the apprentice could let out a third, all the noise vanished abruptly.

In the distance, the secret guards had already pressed the man’s head into the snow. All screaming was terminated; the apprentice flopped his limbs about like a fish out of water, futile and terrified.

“How boring.” Qiang Ning pursed her lips and shook her head, taking a handkerchief to leisurely wipe her hands. At the same time, she gave orders: “Follow this man back to the pharmacy. From now on, the pharmacy in Wusang Town will be under your control. When Lin Dongruan goes to sell herbs, give her more money… and also, get some charcoal. This Princess is truly freezing to death.”

When Lin Dongruan returned, she saw that Qiang Ning had already gotten out of bed. The girl was sitting obediently by the table, and on the floor by her feet was a warming stove filled with glowing red charcoal, with hot water even boiling on top of it.

“Where did the charcoal come from?” Lin Dongruan had walked a long way and failed to trade any herbs for charcoal. She had been feeling dejected, but she never expected to see charcoal in the room. Even as she asked, a natural smile appeared on her lips. “The room is so warm.”

Qiang Ning looked back, a matching smile on her face: “Sister, I had a gold hairpin that broke in half. After pawning it, I happened to get a warming stove and quite a lot of charcoal.”

Lin Dongruan felt a bit of heartache for her: “How did it get broken? Perhaps it could have been repaired; there was no need to pawn it…”

“It was I who was careless and broke it, and it got dirty too. There was no point in repairing it.” Qiang Ning eased her mind. “Sister, there is no need to feel bad over such a small thing. Living here, I am already a burden to you. If I can help you, my heart will not feel so guilty.”