The Tragic Heroine Fell in Love with Me - Chapter 41

Li Ailun’s smile froze instantly, but it didn’t vanish instead, it transferred to Zheng Qi’s face.

Li Ailun clearly sensed this was Zheng Qi’s twisted sense of humor, but what could he do? She was the boss who controlled his paycheck. “Boss, working overnight suits me perfectly. You know I’m a night owl, I can handle the job while reading novels and won’t feel sleepy at all.”

He spoke as if seeking praise, “Boss, hehe, yesterday your grandmother came to see you, but I stopped her.”

“What did she want?” Zheng Qi suddenly thought of something and asked, “Xiao San’er didn’t run into her, did she?”

“Of course not. How could I let Miss Xiao meet someone like that? What if she slandered you again and ruined your image in Miss Xiao’s eyes?” Li Ailun fawned obsequiously.

Zheng Qi hummed in acknowledgment.

“Should I tell Miss Xiao that you’ve woken up?”

Zheng Qi thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No, let Xiao San’er focus on her work. No need for her to come running over again.”

“Alright then. If there’s nothing else, I’ll head out first. You rest well.” Li Ailun tidied up his things and backed toward the door, then leaned in again to ask, “Boss, about that raise you mentioned…”

Zheng Qi rubbed her temples. “Mm.”

“Boss, you’re the best boss in the whole world! May you and Miss Xiao be a perfect match!” Without waiting for Zheng Qi’s reaction, he quickly closed the door and scurried away.

Zheng Qi had long known that Li Ailun liked to talk nonsense, but for the first time, she found herself agreeing with his words.

Even though she had just woken up after sleeping for three days, she felt drowsy again. Images of Xiao San’er flashed through her mind, and the corners of her lips lifted slightly. She believed that when she woke up again, she would see Xiao San’er.

But her sleep was far from peaceful. The slight smile on her lips faded, and her relaxed brows gradually furrowed.

“Grandma, I won’t eat anymore, I won’t eat anymore… Wuwu… I was wrong.”

Zheng Qi felt as if she had returned to her childhood, being beaten harshly by her grandmother with a stick. She ran around the yard, using all her strength, but her grandmother easily grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back.

“You jinx, you debt collector, you worthless girl! Stealing food again, stealing food again! I swear you’ll eat this family into ruin!” Her grandmother cursed Zheng Qi with every insult she had ever learned. “You don’t work, all you do is eat! Eat, eat, eat, why don’t you just eat yourself to death!”

The adult Zheng Qi stood nearby, feeling as if those blows were landing on her once more, strike after strike, so painful she wanted to scream. But she only gritted her teeth, watching her emaciated younger self trying to dodge the blows.

She knew there was no escape.

Finally, the old hag grew tired of beating her and threw her aside. She crawled into the woodshed and hid by the door, listening as the old woman continued her tirade outside.

She wasn’t just cursing Zheng Qi, she was also cursing Xie Xinyue and Xie Xinyu.

Xie Xinyue was Zheng Qi’s mother, and Xie Xinyu was her aunt.

Zheng Qi’s birth had not been welcomed by Xie Xinyue, simply because she was a girl just like Xie Xinyue and Xie Xinyu, both daughters themselves.

Grandpa passed away early. The old woman used to dote on her two daughters, but after Grandpa’s death, she seemed like a completely different person constantly complaining about them, resenting them for being girls, calling them nothing but money drains.

Unfortunately, even after Xie Xinyue found a partner, she still gave birth to a daughter.

At least the old woman had once shown maternal love, but Xie Xinyue felt no affection whatsoever for this daughter. She simply left her at the old woman’s doorstep and never returned.

Although the old woman didn’t treat her well, she still raised her.

Even though she was beaten and scolded every day, even though she was made to do so much work at such a young age, Zheng Qi remembered that back then, she still liked the old woman. She would affectionately call her “Grandma” and follow her around.

When did she start disliking her?

Zheng Qi watched as her younger self hid by the door, crying, then took a boiled egg out from her clothes. The egg was already cracked and smashed from rolling on the ground.

But she was still happy because she had an egg to eat.

Zheng Qi looked at that helpless little girl, who had no idea that in a few months, she would meet the aunt who would love her, care for her, and even sacrifice for her.

Zheng Qi held back her tears. She knew clearly that what she was seeing was a dream.

If this were a dream, she should have dreamed of her aunt.

But no, this strange dream suddenly shifted to a cold, pitch-black freezer.

She was locked in that dark, freezing place, with two boys beside her.

Zheng Qi had never forgotten this moment.

Fear was like a giant mirror, enveloping her completely. As long as she opened her eyes, she could see a demon perched on her shoulder, its slimy tongue licking away at her soul.

Zheng Qi closed her eyes and groped her way to a corner.

It had been a long time since she had this dream, the one that should be her deepest fear yet she rarely seemed to dream of this scene.

“Don’t cry. Listen, I’ll play the whistle for you,” one little boy said, pulling her into his arms. The other boy snuggled close too. The three of them huddled together in the corner, keeping each other warm.

“Woo, woo woo!”

The sound of the whistle wasn’t pleasant.

“Stop blowing it, it sounds like a ghost wailing,” the other boy said.

The boy with the whistle placed it in her hand. “I’m not good at it. You try.”

Zheng Qi remembered the sensation when the boy found her hand in the dark, she could feel his fingers were cold, but his palm was warm. As she gripped the whistle, she could feel a warm spot on it.

The whistle was small enough for her to hold in one hand.

The mouthpiece was clean, he must have wiped it before handing it to her.

She put it to her lips and blew hard.

“Woo woo woo, woo woo!” The sound was just as unpleasant.

The boy who had complained laughed. “Yours sounds even worse.”

But suddenly, Zheng Qi wasn’t as scared anymore. She kept blowing, producing truly awful sounds. Yet in that pitch-black, freezing place, with the floor constantly shaking beneath them and strange noises coming from outside, that sound seemed to calm all three of them.

Zheng Qi couldn’t see anything.

It was truly dark not a single glimmer of light.

Because it was a speeding large truck, they were huddled in a corner of the cargo area.

The truck was loaded with seafood, and to keep it fresh, a lot of ice had been placed inside. The ice was piled from the center to the back of the truck. They were wrapped in a few mattresses, with warm blankets underneath.

They had been kidnapped.

The kidnappers were a group of desperate criminals. Zheng Qi later learned that some kidnappers with a shred of conscience would return their victims after receiving the ransom, but this group never returned anyone alive.

In that situation, they were certain to die.

But they survived.

Because her aunt saved them.

Her aunt had exhausted every means to find them, entered the kidnappers’ lair alone, and rescued them.

Zheng Qi still remembered how overjoyed she had been when she saw her aunt.

She had finally escaped the kidnappers’ clutches, but she had lost her aunt forever.

She remembered the warmth of Shen Lin’s hand gripping hers. They didn’t dare take the main roads, only crawling and walking through the forest.

Because her aunt had died right before her eyes, she had lost the will to live. It was Shen Lin, even though he was only eleven or twelve years old like her, who carried her, pulled her, and dragged her to escape from the kidnappers’ den.

That Shen Lin, who had given her the whistle, held her to chase away her fears, and never gave up on her in the forest, was also in her dreams.

But she never saw her aunt again, not even when the ice was moved away, when those fierce-looking men came in, picked the three of them up, and threw them onto a flatbed cart covered with grass and leaves. Insects kept crawling into their clothes as they were taken to a wooden cabin in the forest, and through many, many other terrifying scenes, she never saw her aunt.

Perhaps it was because her aunt didn’t want to see her.

She was the reason her aunt missed the chance to study abroad, broke up with the person she loved, and ultimately lost the courage to start a happy new life, meeting death instead.

She had once thought she had touched happiness.

Xiao San looked at Zheng Qi with concern. Hadn’t she woken up already? Why had she slept so long again, and why was she having nightmares, crying and calling out for her aunt?

“Ah Qi, wake up, Ah Qi.”

Xiao San shook Zheng Qi, hoping to wake her, but Zheng Qi only cried more violently, even flailing her arms wildly. “Don’t touch me, I don’t want to go, go away, go away.”

Xiao San had no choice but to call for doctors and nurses while holding Zheng Qi’s arms down.

It wasn’t until the doctor injected Zheng Qi with a sedative that she finally stopped struggling, though her brows remained tightly furrowed in pain.

Xiao San was deeply worried but couldn’t enter Zheng Qi’s dreams, so she could only keep patting her gently. “Ah Qi, I’m here, I’m right here. Don’t be afraid, I’m here, Ah Qi. Don’t be scared, Ah Qi.”

She kept saying this, over and over, for a long time.

The entire afternoon, she repeated these words, even when she was so tired, she could barely stay awake, her mouth still murmuring comforting words to Zheng Qi.

When Zheng Qi finally opened her eyes, Xiao San’s first words were still: “Ah Qi, I’m here. Ah Qi, don’t be afraid.”

“San’er?” Zheng Qi, just waking up, was still a bit dazed. She had almost completely forgotten the scenes from her dream, as if there had been no dream at all.

Xiao San finally breathed a sigh of relief. “You have no idea how scared you made me. Why did you suddenly have a nightmare?”

Xiao San complained with concern, pulling a ceramic whistle from her pocket. “Earlier, I heard you looking for a whistle in your dream. I guessed the whistle you mentioned might be the one I found before. Is this it?”

Zheng Qi looked at the whistle in Xiao San’s hand and reached out. Her fingers were cold, but the whistle she touched was warm.

Suddenly, she remembered what she had dreamed. The dream and reality merged into one, and it felt as if she had touched it again.

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