“Please!” Shen Yan said with a smile.

Li Mei looked into his eyes, “Did you love Miss Zeng?”

“What?” Shen Yan didn’t answer her because he didn’t expect such a question.

“Let me put it in another way. Have you ever thought of marrying her? Before you met Xia Yu.” Li Mei changed the way she asked.

Shen Yan smiled, “Will you believe me if I say never?” Shen Yan thought such a question was meaningless.

Li Mei also felt that her question was meaningless. Before yesterday, she used to suspect Shen Yan’s motivation because he was the second Mister of Shen Family after all.

But now she chose to believe Shen Yan.

After staying on one night at Shen Yan’s villa, Xia Yu felt much better. When she opened her eyes in the morning, it was about eight o’clock and she seldom got up so late.

Xia Yu put on clothes and walked out of her room. She found Aunt Ma had prepared breakfast for her already. “Miss Xia, I’ve cooked some porridge and two egg pasta for you.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ma.” Xia Yu sat down and started to eat.

“Miss Xia, Young Master Yan has called to learn about your health condition and tell me that he has something important to do. Perhaps, he won’t come back today. You can stay here and have a good rest.” Aunt Ma informed her of what Shen Yan said.

Xia Yu nodded, “I’m OK now. Tell him that I need to work if he calls back later.” She knew her condition scared him yesterday.

But Xia Yu was not the one to blame on, but those horrible patients in the rehabilitation center. Zhou Yan said she was brave enough, compared with a young nurse who fainted away on the first day on duty. When the nurse woke up later, the first sentence she said was that she would never work there anymore.

Though Xia Yu thought she was brave, the fact was that her reactions yesterday were not better than that nurse. Otherwise, why should Shen Yan be so desperate to take her back home?

“Miss Xia, though work is important, you also need to look after yourself. You’d better take Young Master Yan’s kind suggestion.” Seeing Xia Yu was determined to work, Aunt Ma persuaded her sincerely.

The doorbell happened to ring at this moment. Aunt Ma went to open the door.

“Yo, you two do make peace. I have thought Shen Yan boasted of it.” First Madame said while coming in. She wore an ambiguous smile and said to Xia Yu, “Don’t you have relationship mysophobia? How could you forgive Shen Yan who had a love affair with his sister-in-law?”

Xia Yu put down the bowl in her hand. She was not in the mood to eat anymore.

If she didn’t know about the woman in front of her, she would never expect she was the First Madame of Shen Family. “Aunt Ma, I’ll go to work.”

“All right. If any, call me.” Under such circumstances, Aunt Ma gave up urging Xia Yu to stay. As First Madame was here, Xia Yu might be provoked and it would make her health condition worse.

Xia Yu paid no attention to First Madame and left, which made First Madame feel angry. However, she could do nothing to Xia Yu, so she vented her anger on Aunt Ma before she left.

About half an hour late after Xia Yu went to Ruyi Tower, Zhou Yan made a phone call to her because he was still worried about her.

“I’m fine now.” Xia Yu felt embarrassed and was reluctant to admit in front of Zhou Yan that she had remained in terror about that experience.

“Since you have gone back to work, I gather you’re fine now and feel happy for you. Otherwise, Shen Yan might tear my clinic apart.” Zhou Yan was happy that he didn’t recognize any terror in her voice.

“You are overreacting.” Upon recalling Shen Yan’s expression yesterday, Xia Yu thought it was very likely for him to do so. But Aunt Jiang’s misery did make her feel shocked, “Zhou Yan, can you think of any way to help Aunt Jiang recover soon?”

“I am going to tell you about it. I’ve discussed with the management level of the rehabilitation center and they think Aunt Jiang could be cured to some extent. So, I’ve decided to go to Nihon and invite my teacher to help us.” Though Zhou Yan might need to spend a lot of money, he was determined to cure Aunt Jiang.

“Great! When will you set off?” Xia Yu wished Zhou Yan could invite his teacher at once so that Aunt Jiang could recover as soon as possible. In that case, Aunt Jiang would suffer less and then they could find out the truth earlier.

“I’ve booked the plane ticket and I’m leaving. By the way, when I chatted in the rehabilitation center, I overheard something useful. They said Aunt Jiang’s families once came to see her and took away some of her belongings. There might be something important to us, so can you go to Village Jiang to investigate when you’re free?” Zhou Yan had planned to go there in person, but he had to invite his teacher while Wanru was busy after adopting Cheng Xi. Thus, only Xia Yu could do this favor.

“OK, I’ll change my schedule and go there tomorrow.” Xia Yu agreed without hesitation.

On the next day, Xia Yu went to Village Jiang and she told Shen Yan about this visit before she set off. Seeing this visit was crucial, Shen Yan had wanted to go with her, but he had to stay to deal with Zeng Family’s affairs. At last, he agreed to let her go there and made her promise to look after herself.

Xia Yu promised. Then she bought a train ticket and took a car after she got off the train in the town. The road climbed zigzag up the mountain, which made the journey uncomfortable for passengers. The whole view was rugged mountains and brown cracked earth due to lack of water.

The car pulled over after driving a short distance because the road was too rugged to go up. Xia Yu agreed on the price with the driver and asked him to stay there and wait. Then, she went up on foot.

A village in the mountain was different from those on the plain. Most of them were bungalows scattered on the slope. It took Xia Yu about half an hour to get to the village, beside which there was a stone with two words “Village Jiang” on it.

Xia Yu couldn’t help laughing when she saw the fainted “Village Jiang” on the stone. The whole village was composed of about sixty families and half of them were under the poverty line, receiving government subsidies. The average annual income of each of them was below 4,000 yuan. The village was one of the poorest villages in the country. Standing under the old persimmon tree, Xia Yu had a complicated feeling. But this time she did not come here for scenery beauty. She had a task.

Before she arrived here, she had learned that Aunt Jiang’s families lived on the other side of the village. The bungalow was made of earth, whose wooden door was half-ruined by worms, scattered with rotten holes.

Xia Yu came over and peeped through the holes. It seemed that there was nothing in it, but darkness and the blowing wind coming out from inside.

“Who are you looking for?”

A voice rang behind and Xia Yu looked back, only to find an old woman in a washed-white indigo old-fashioned cotton coat standing on the muddy road. Her back was bent, and she had a walking stick in her hand.

“You are?” The old woman looked carefully because Xia Yu was a stranger to her. Xia Yu directly walked over and stood in front of her. The old woman squinted at her for a long while and made sure Xia Yu was not her acquaintance, “Are you looking for someone?”

“I come from downtown. This family…” Xia Yu pointed at the rotten door behind her.

The old woman lamented and sighed, “Gone. All gone.”

“What happened?”

“You don’t know? Her son and daughter-in-law went out to make a living and have never come back. A few years ago, their old mother went mad in downtown. How pathetic!”

“The old mother might be cursed because her son and daughter-in-law didn’t care about her and left her alone in the rehabilitation center.”

Xia Yu was stunned, “Do you know where they are now?”

The old woman shook her head.

Xia Yu frowned because she felt it was tricky, “Granny, do you remember something in the past?”

“About what?”

“About Aunt Jiang’s mental disorder. She used to be sane. Why should she go mad suddenly?”

“About this,” Old Madame squinted and paused, “I remember she went to downtown and worked as a maid in a family. Later, a murder happened in that family and then she went back to this village…”

The old woman pondered on it again. Suddenly, she pointed her walking stick at the entrance of the village, “Shortly after she came back, a black car went to this village and drove to her house one day. Later, Aunt Jiang went mad.”

The old woman kept recalling. Her senile eyes seemed to unveil the sealed memory, “When the car got to our village on that day, I witnessed it destroyed the vegetables planted in my fence. A month later, the back car came here again and took away Aunt Jiang. Alas, she was bony and completely mad at that time. She ran around the village with her head buried in her arms, roaring nonsense, which scared children into crying.”

Aunt Jiang went mad in the village after Ning Jing died? When she suffered from the mental disorder, it was her family that informed Shen Family to pick up her? Xia Yu could imagine the scene at that time. She clenched her fingers and closed her eyes.

“Did she have any abnormal behaviors in the village then?”

“Yes, indeed. She burst into screaming every time she saw the color white and she feared dragon-like toys played by the children. Little children were unaware of her suffering, so they made fun of her by playing those dragon-like toys. She was provoked to snatch and bite them. The villagers roped her for a few days, fearing she might make big trouble. However, she ran away by gnawing off the rope and stole clothes. At last, she could only be locked in her house. They didn’t know the details but as I lived near, I knew in the evening…”

The old woman paused as if it had been hard to describe.

Xia Yu took a breath, “What happened at night?”

“Like a fierce ghost, she roared and cried all nights as if she had been tortured in downtown, which disturbed my sleep.”

The sound was like coming from hell. Xia Yu felt her stomach was stirring up, so she rubbed her chest to comfort, “What’s going on later?”

“Under such circumstances, her family had to look after her. In the short term, her son and daughter-in-law could manage to see to her but in the long run, they were overstretched. Their children needed to go to school so they had to go out to work. Later, villagers put forward that they should ask the master to take some responsibility since Aunt Jiang was sick during the stay. So, Aunt Jiang’s son went to that family. Luckily, the family was generous and took Aunt Jiang away to attend. Then her son and daughter-in-law went out to make a living with two children and had never come back.”