Mrs Fox Heinous Revenge: Can You Love A Villainess like Me?
Chapter 198: Old Wounds

Chapter 198: Old Wounds

The large long hands that had took care of her hair was unbearably gentle. Li ZiChen leathered the soap on his hands with a great care, the bubbles that touched her hair even felt lightweight, as if those tender touches had been warned to be in their place and never cross the line to harm the owner of the hair.

AiLin’s eyes were closed, her body utterly relaxed.

Perhaps because her body was relaxed that she couldn’t help the words that came out from her mouth. She had muttered aloud, "It’s my first time ever having my hair washed by someone else."

Li ZiChen’s eyes flickered, "Not even Mrs Jiang?"

She shook her head faintly and let out a small laugh, "Once she gave birth to me, or supposedly brought me from the hospital, she never once wanted to touch me. I heard that it was a case of baby blues that attack the mother, and seeing how she had treated Jiang MengYao the same way when he was first born, it seems to became a tradition for her not to take care of her babies once they were born. The only time she ever cradled me properly was to breastfeed me."

He gently rubbed her scalp, his fingers threading through her hair as her eyes remained closed. Those long, dark lashes fluttered slightly, as if blinking away the remnants of old, painful memories.

"She probably couldn’t bear to touch her children because of the guilt she carried from her affair," he said softly, his voice careful, almost hesitant.

A faint smile touched her lips as she replied, her voice tinged with quiet regret, "That’s something I figured out too late. If only I had known when I was younger, I could’ve realized it wasn’t my fault.. that there was no reason for me to be despised, that I was lovable, and that I could learn how to love myself."

She squeezed her eyes, a laugh slipping from her lips that sounded more heartbroken than happy.

"But if there were times when I’m truly grateful for Mrs Jiang, I think I do have them, some..." she whispered as she recalled when she was really young, before she entered elementary school how her mother would always wake up and took breakfast with her. It was something that AiLin had always held dear to her own heart, something she greatly missed when her mother began to stop loving her.

"But there’s no point dwelling on what’s already done or what might have been," Ailin said, her eyes opening slowly. The faint light reflected in them, but her gaze was distant, clouded by memories of Mrs. Jiang. The fleeting moments of her being a good mother were overwhelmingly drowned by the weight of her as a horrible and frightening mother.

"What’s happened can’t be undone, and I can’t go back and rewrite the past," she continued, her tone steady but laced with resolve. "And that’s fine. Now, I’ll live my own life— I want to know everyone in Hua Family better. For that I will have to face Elder Hua and my path to a better life won’t be smooth sailing yet."

"You’ll do well, you can trust my words for it," Li ZiChen whispered. No, even if she couldn’t do well, he will make sure that everything would fall the right way for AiLin, so that no one would ever try to harm her and hurt her, that she would always find her happiness. "Oh, by the way, I have heard what happened in the acting set today."

A sense of surprised flickered AiLin’s heart. She could almost hear her heartbeat fastening as she slowly turned her head and gulped.

How much does Li ZiChen know? If he knew that she had endured the cold ice bath... she could for sure see his disappointed face.

"It seems someone by the name of InRan is in the set as well?" Li ZiChen squeezed his eyebrows, questioning it which made her realize that he hadn’t found out about the endurance she did.

She nodded her head eagerly and changed the conversation, "You know about her?"

"That she was once in your high school, a part of your bullies with Jiang NianNian, I do know about them," he confirmed and added, "Just to make sure you know about this, I wasn’t the one who had let InRan into the production. JingYi had trusted Director Gu to choose the other supporting casts and since InRan had once played in Director Gu’s movie, she was casted by him personally. Unlike me, JingYi isn’t aware of our situation."

AiLin shook her head, "It’s alright I understand that JingYi took care of it and the people he hired isn’t because he wanted them but rather to make sure that the production would go well."

"Yes, but if it bothers you."

"No," she shook her head with a wide smile, "How could that be? It’s fine if InRan is in the production. She looks tough from the outside but out of Jiang NianNian’s people, she’s one of the weakest. In fact one of the two strongest subordinates under Jiang NianNian has all... somehow met misfortunes in the earlier part of their lives."

Li ZiChen was rubbing her head, his eyes however flickered with a glint that he replaced with a meaningful smile, "Really? Was it YunHa and Lan GouHan?"

"Yes!" She snapped her fingers, her tone deceptively light. "So you’ve heard of them too. YunHa and Lan GouHan are both equally sadistic. Sometimes, they’re even worse, resorting to more physical violence than Jiang NianNian ever did. There was a time..." Her voice trailed off briefly, but she pressed on with a forced nonchalance, "She pressed a cigarette butt into my palm until it scarred."

Her words were casual, as if recounting a trivial event, but Li ZiChen’s expression told a different story. His face darkened with fury, his jaw tightening as if holding back the storm of anger threatening to break free.

"Did they..." he asked, his tone wasn’t quizzical but rather hiding an unspeakable anger he was trying to restrain. "That’s surprising. What else have they done?"

"Well they usually throw heavy balls to me? I remember it knocked me once," she answered. Maybe because she had decided to open to Li ZiChen, that the problems like this which had once became a source of her shame now simply became a story she didn’t mind telling him. "I was bleeding from my nose and the nurse took care of me but once she found out that the perpetrator was YunHa and Lan GouHan, even the nurses was too scared to write it as a school violence and named it as an accident instead."

"Even the adults," whispered Li ZiChen, "How many... many people looked away from your sufferings in school?"

"It isn’t that bad," she sang, saying it softly, "Alright it was kind of bad," she drawled after seeing his expression that had turned utterly sour. "But not as bad, because I had an upper hand when it comes to violence. I can just pretend to get hit or fight back, though whenever I fight back I got in troubles at home and that one I can’t avoid so I decided to mostly endure it."

"Do you remember their names?" Li ZiChen’s dark tone made her to shudder.

She laughed and shook her head, "It’s been years, Zi Chen, how could I possibly remember all of them? Besides, I only take care of the people who actually did harm me, if I keep tabs on those who just watch passively or allow it to happen, then the entire high school would fall on the lists. Even though I know they are somehow in fault, I also understand that each have their own circumstances. But there are people who really tried to help me, those who did it so quietly. While there are others who would laugh along with the bullies and enjoy what happen to me for their own vanity."

Li ZiChen softly sigh as he turned the faucet and lightly check the temperature of the water that came from the shower head, "Close your eyes a little bit."

She nodded and do what he said. The warm water dripped and wash her head off from the soap bubbles and then she heard his voice, "Those people, once they have reached adulthood will son pay for the mistakes they did on others when they’re young. It’s karma, and youth isn’t a reason for one to become a devil."

"Mhm, I know, I don’t believe in karmas at first, but once I heard about YanHa and Lan GouHa who had suddenly been discovered for their drugs usage and how one of them became a mistress to an old but wealthy man of a foreign country which in the end ended her quick raise to fame as a model. I heard both of them are in prison now, paying for their mistakes..." she then suddenly remembered something that made her eyes flickered, "That’s right, aren’t they both in the same prison as OuYang?"

Li ZiChen’s smiles darkened but it couldn’t be seen by AiLin who was enjoying the gentle massage on her head.

"Are they? I didn’t know about that," he said, his lies obvious to him but not to the gentle woman under his hands, "I hope they don’t suddenly kill each other in the prison."

"Haha, why would they?" she chuckled. "There’s no reason for them who used to work together now kill each other."

"Maybe, just to save their own self, they’ll do it."