4 WISHFUL THINKING

[WARNING: This chapter contains extreme violence.]

Jin Zhilan was overwhelmed with intense feelings of sadness, anger and helplessness.

"What sins are you talking about? We are not related to each other."

"We are related by hatred", the old lady said coldly.

Jin Zhilan's brain was trying to process everything. But she couldn't. Hearing the ridiculous statements of the old lady, Jin Zhilan had lost all her ability to speak and think rationally at this point.

"I don't care about your reasons! None of your good reasons could justify the atrocity you committed to my mother. Do you people have no morals? Don't you have anything better to do with your lives?" Jin Zhilan screeched.

The older woman was infuriated further. She growled through gritted teeth, "Shut up girl, otherwise we'll peel off your skin."

The old woman rose slowly from her seat, pointed a shaky finger to the girl's direction.

"Let me tell you one more thing clearly. You're delusional if you think you can escape from here. No one is capable enough to rescue you from our, Xu family's territory." The old woman said in a domineering tone.

"Now, don't dirty my floor. Get up", the old lady scoffed.

But Jin Zhilan didn't move from her position. She stared at the old lady with cold and moist yet clearly angered eyes. Her expression was that of stubbornness and looked totally unaffected by the threats of the Xu family.

The old lady's anger stirred again in her violently seeing the blatant disrespect of the girl. Her fingers and lips began to tremble. She slapped the girl with her aged hand which was still full of power.

"How dare you show an attitude towards us?"

The old woman staggered towards the old man and snatched the walking cane from the old man's quivering hand and began clubbing the girl with the cane.

Jin Zhilan was defenseless, helpless and powerless against the old lady's attack. But she didn't cry. She had already lost her will to live. She didn't feel any pain because of the numbness settled over her body.

The old lady's fury was getting stronger and stronger. Her whole frame quivered with anger. After a few seconds, the old lady lost all her strength beating the girl. When she aimed a strike at the girl, the cane slipped from her feeble hands and fell on the floor with a clattering sound.

Few minutes after the lady stopped striking, Jin Zhilan lifted her head and struggled to get up. She stumbled, grabbing the wall to support herself.

Once Jin Zhilan got to her feet, the old woman pushed her back like garbage. When she fell back on the floor, the lady laughed menacingly and spat at her.

"Lock her up", the old woman commanded.

Pulling her by her hair, someone violently dragged her out of that living room. Jin Zhilan didn't have any idea how much time they dragged her. But soon she was pushed into a dark room and was slumped to the floor. The door swung shut with a bang. She heard the sound of retreating footsteps echoing outside the door, until they passed out of hearing.

In that cold, dark and lonely room, she shivered. She shivered not because of the coldness of the night, but because of everything that happened in front of her eyes. Her sadness and heartache overshadowed her physical pain.

She sat on the floor in silence for an unknown amount of time.

The first rays of morning light were beginning to stream through the window, when Jin Zhilan came out of her dazed state.

After returning to her senses, She lifted her head and gazed around the room. Other than a small bed in the left corner, there was nothing else in the room.

She crawled across the floor to the bed with every ounce of strength left in her body. She pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the bed.

She desperately wished that those were all just a dream—a nightmare. She tried to convince herself that she was trapped in a nightmare and she frantically wished she could wake up and everything would go back to normal.

Who would have thought that it was just her wishful thinking?

She shouldn't have come back to this place. At least she should have stayed home with her mother instead of going to that restaurant late at night. If only she could go back in time and stop herself and her mother from coming back to this place. But that was an impossible dream.

She lost everything in just a single span of one night. She didn't know what went wrong. She broke down and sobbed, hugging her quivering shoulders.