GBP Chapter 2009: These are the details that defeat family ties.
Chapter 2009: These are the details that defeat family ties.
The air in the cellar seemed to have frozen.
The veins on Shangguan Wuji's hand, which was gripping his daughter's neck, bulged. His usually dignified face was now filled with shock, anger, and a hint of panic at having his secret exposed!
The light from the lantern flickered behind him, casting his distorted shadow on the wall, like a monster ready to devour its prey.
"Who exactly told you all this?"
He almost roared, his voice echoing through the cellar, shaking dust from the walls, "Tell me, who is it?"
Shangguan Wanqing was pinned tightly against the cold wall, her feet almost off the ground.
The terrifying feeling of suffocation washed over her like a tidal wave, engulfing her and causing her vision to darken.
She could feel the strength in her father's fingers; it was a force that truly wanted to strangle her!
But she did not struggle.
He even thought that he might as well just die!
What is the meaning of life?
In this world, besides that one and only person who has ever cared about you, who else has ever truly loved you?
On the verge of losing consciousness, Shangguan Wanqing managed to force a smile.
It's good to be free.
The smile was faint and tragic, carrying a chilling clarity that sent a shiver down Shangguan Wuji's spine.
If a person is not even afraid of death, then once she sets her mind on something, probably no one can stop her.
"What..." Shangguan Wanqing squeezed out the words through clenched teeth, her beautiful eyes bloodshot. Looking down at him now, there was even a hint of disdain in her gaze. "Father... are you afraid? Afraid that I'll find out... that I'm an orphan... afraid that I'll escape your control?"
"You bastard!" Shangguan Wuji tightened his grip, and the woman in front of him almost stopped breathing completely, her face turning from red to purple!
But just as she was about to completely lose consciousness, he suddenly let go of her hand.
Bang!
Shangguan Wanqing fell to the ground, the pain jolting her awake from her unconsciousness. She then clutched her neck and coughed violently, gasping for breath.
With each breath, my throat felt like it was being cut with a knife.
Shangguan Wuji stood in front of her, looking down at her, his chest heaving.
The light from the lantern shone on half of his face, revealing surprise and doubt.
The other half of his face was hidden in the shadows, and as the light and shadow flickered, his face became even more ferocious.
"How did you find out?" Shangguan Wuji's voice was as cold as ice. "Only three people in the entire Shangguan family knew about this: me, your mother, and the old steward who has been dead for over ten years! They are all dead, so how did you find out?"
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Wanqing slowly sat up from the ground, propped herself up against the wall, raised her head, and looked at the man who had raised her for nineteen years, the man she had called father for nineteen years.
“My mother… told me this before she died!” Her voice was hoarse, her vocal cords strained from being pinched, sounding like a broken bellows. “She had a high fever, she was delirious, and some things… I overheard. She herself… let it slip… it was probably what she truly felt… She said, ‘Qing’er, you are not a member of the Shangguan family, one day you will die, you must be careful’…”
Shangguan Wanqing paused, looking at Shangguan Wuji's face, which had turned pale instantly.
“I was twelve years old that year. It suddenly dawned on me, and after belatedly realizing the details of those years, I was almost certain that what my mother had said was true! After that, in order to prove it, I secretly started investigating! I checked the account books, the records, everything I could find…”
“Three years ago! In the study of the old house, I found an adoption document! The date was the winter month of 61, outside the city. Later I learned... in those years, there were far too many abandoned babies like me... You must have adopted more than just me, right?”
The cellar was deathly silent.
The only sounds were Shangguan Wanqing's heavy breathing and the crackling of the lantern burning behind Shangguan Wuji.
A howling winter wind blew from the cellar entrance, and the windows in the warehouse were slammed against the walls by the wind, making strange thumping noises.
After a long silence, Shangguan Wuji slowly spoke, his voice carrying a strange weariness: "So... all these years, you've been pretending, pretending to be a dutiful daughter, pretending to be an obedient young lady?"
"No!" Shangguan Wanqing shook her head, tears streaming down her face without warning. "I was indeed faking it at first! But later, I really hoped, I really hoped that after my older brothers and sisters left, you could treat me like your own daughter... I hoped that there would still be some warmth in this family!"
She raised her hand, wiped her face, wiped away her tears, and wiped away the last trace of weakness.
"But did you give it to me?" Her voice suddenly calmed down. "I was fifteen years old, with a fever of 41 degrees Celsius. You went to the bathroom to take a shower and had the housekeeper just give me a bowl of ginger soup. If my sister hadn't happened to be passing through Yanjing and came back, I would have died long ago!"
"On my sixteenth birthday, I said I wanted a copy of the 'Compendium of Materia Medica,' but you said that no woman could study medicine, so you locked me in my room to copy 'Admonitions for Women'!"
"The winter before last, the plum blossoms on the mountain bloomed! I wanted to go see them, but you refused to go with me, saying it was dangerous in the mountains! But the very next day, you went with a wealthy lady from the city!"
She recounted each item one by one, and with each item she mentioned, Shangguan Wuji's expression grew increasingly gloomy.
“Of course, these are all trivial matters to you! But it is these details that can destroy family ties…” Shangguan Wanqing said, crying.
"These are all minor matters, why do you remember them! Which noble family doesn't have so many children? Strict fathers produce filial sons, while doting mothers spoil their children! I'm doing this for your own good!"
"For my own good?" Wanqing suddenly laughed, tears streaming down her face. "What about my eldest brother? You broke his legs, was that for his own good? You drowned my second brother in the moat, was that for his own good? You kicked my third brother out of the family, was that for his own good? You married my eldest sister off to that fifty-something-year-old sea merchant, was that for her own good?"
She stood up abruptly, her back straight despite the shackles on her feet, like a plum blossom that stands unyielding in the wind and snow!
“Father… no, Mr. Shangguan!” She suddenly changed her words, like a knife stabbing into Shangguan Wuji’s heart. “You have never had the concept of being good to your children! You only care about whether they are useful or useless. Useful ones are put on the table as pawns! Useless ones are discarded like worn-out shoes, or even… eliminated as soon as possible!”
She stared at Shangguan Wuji and said, word by word, "I'm just a pawn! I'm still useful for now! That's why you're keeping me around, supporting me, and even pretending... to care about me!"
Shangguan Wuji's expression changed completely.
He clenched his fists tightly, his face a mixture of shock, anger, and embarrassment at being exposed.
"I've been strict with you for the past nineteen years, but I've never mistreated you! Your food, clothing, and daily necessities have all been provided according to the standards of a young lady! I was even thinking of finding you a son-in-law to live with us when you're older, so you can inherit the family business!"
He suddenly became agitated as well, "But what about you? Is this how you repay me? Secretly learning martial arts is one thing, but investigating the family's secrets is another, and now... you're even teaming up with outsiders to deal with me! Wanqing, you've disappointed me so much! You've been taking advantage of my feelings for you, taking advantage of the nineteen years of kindness you've shown me!"
"Feelings?" Wanqing repeated the two words as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world. "Mr. Shangguan, do you really have feelings for me?"
She took a step forward, the chains rattling.
"If you had feelings for me, would you have thought taking a bath was more important when I was sick? If you had feelings for me, would you have hindered my medical studies? If you had feelings for me, would you have locked me in this dark and gloomy cellar? If you had feelings for me, would you have chained me up here like a dog?"
Her voice rose, almost shouting: "You have no feelings for me, this is an investment! Investing in a chess piece, waiting until there are no more pieces of value, then setting up the chessboard to win a game for you!"
“And now…” she took a deep breath, “you’ve discovered that this piece is disobedient, has its own ideas, and might ruin your big plans! You panic, lock her up, and keep her locked up until she becomes the obedient and useful piece again!”
“But Mr. Shangguan,” she smiled, a smile both poignant and resolute, “you’ve forgotten something!”
"..."
"I am not a pawn!" Wanqing said, each word like a nail piercing Shangguan Wuji's heart. "I am a human being! A person with flesh and blood, capable of feeling pain, crying, loving, and hating!"
She looked up at the small ventilation opening in the cellar.
Moonlight filtered in from there, casting a small, pale patch of light on the ground.
It's like hope, that faint hope.
“You can’t control me!” she whispered, as if talking to herself, or as if declaring, “Even if you lock my feet, lock my hands, lock my body… you can’t lock my heart! My heart has already flown away!”
Shangguan Wuji stood still, unmoved, as if these words were of no value or weight to him.
The light from the lantern shone on him, making him look like a lifeless sculpture.
After a long while, he slowly turned around, picked up the lantern, and walked up the wooden stairs.
"Then you'd better stay here and think it over!" His voice was cold and devoid of warmth. "Think about your mistakes, think about your choices! When you've figured things out, when you admit your mistakes, I'll let you out!"
He paused, his voice sounding like it was laced with poison.
"Otherwise... you'll stay here forever! Just like your brothers and sisters, slowly rotting away in this dark and sunless cellar, slowly being forgotten by everyone!"
Bang!
The iron plate was put back on.
The light disappeared.
The cellar returned to darkness.
Wanqing stood there for a long time before slowly sliding down to sit on the ground.
She hugged her knees and buried her face in her arms.
"Silly Chun, has your letter been delivered yet?"
She looked up at the void, muttering to herself, it was unclear whether she was crying or laughing...