The Woods Residence – 7:30 AM

The dining room glittered with polished silverware and glass chandeliers, but the tension sitting around the table was heavier than the air itself. Mr. Liang set down his teacup with deliberate calm, his eyes fixed on Mei.

“Your engagement to Shen Ji will be finalized this weekend,” he announced, his tone leaving no room for debate.

Mrs. Liang nodded beside him, her smile razor-sharp. “It’s time you showed gratitude, Mei. You’ve been under our roof for twenty years. We fed you, clothed you, educated you. It’s time to repay that debt.”

Mei’s chopsticks hovered above her untouched bowl of congee. Her heart pounded, but her voice, when it came, was steady. “If you love Shen Ji that much…” Her eyes flicked toward Bai Liang, seated smugly at the table. “…why don’t you marry him to your daughter? They already make a fine pair, stealing my designs together and claiming the glory as if it belongs to them.”

The room went silent.

Bai Liang’s face flushed scarlet. “How dare you—”

“Quiet,” Mrs. Liang snapped, though her own hand trembled on the porcelain teacup. Her lips curled. “You ungrateful little wretch. We should have left you in that orphanage where you belonged. At least then we wouldn’t have to hear your poisonous tongue at our table.”

Mr. Liang’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. Silence was his approval.

Mrs. Liang stood, her chair scraping violently against the marble floor. She crossed to Mei with cold purpose, her jeweled hand gripping Mei’s arm. She pinched hard into the soft flesh at her side, twisting cruelly.

“You think you’re clever?” Her voice was low, venomous. “You think you can insult us and walk free? You are nothing without us. Nothing.”

The pain seared through Mei’s ribs, but she didn’t flinch. She didn’t even blink. Her eyes locked on her aunt’s, dark and unyielding.

“Thank you for breakfast,” Mei said evenly. She rose to her feet, every movement deliberate, controlled. “I’m going to work.”

The words fell like stones in the room’s suffocating silence.

Mrs. Liang’s hand hovered in mid-air, fingers twitching with the desire to strike Mei’s face, but she stopped herself. No bruises where the world could see. Not yet.

Mei walked out of the dining room, her back straight, her footsteps calm, though her skin throbbed where her aunt’s nails had dug into her flesh.

For the first time in twenty years, she hadn’t swallowed their cruelty in silence. She had spoken. And the echo of her words—Why don’t you marry him to your daughter—still rang like a weapon in the air she left behind.

The echo of Mei’s footsteps faded up the marble staircase, leaving a silence so sharp it cut.

Mrs. Liang stood trembling, her manicured nails digging crescents into her palms. “That girl…. ” Her voice cracked with fury. “That girl dared to mock us in our own house!”

Bai Liang’s lips curved in a tight smile, though her eyes burned with humiliation. “Let her talk, Mother. Words don’t change the fact that she’ll be signing Shen Ji’s papers this weekend. We’ll silence her permanently once she’s bound.”

“Silence?” Mrs. Liang hissed, slamming her hand against the table so hard the teacups rattled. “She humiliated you. Humiliated us. If she thinks she can walk out of here untouched after that she’s more foolish than I thought.”

Mr. Liang finally spoke, his voice heavy, deliberate. “Enough. She has nowhere else to go. Her defiance means nothing.” He leaned back, folding his arms. “Let her play strong for a moment. On Saturday, she’ll be Mrs. Shen. And by then, she’ll have no voice left to use.”

Bai Liang’s smirk returned, crueler this time. “Besides, Shen Ji doesn’t need her consent to make her life unbearable. Once she’s in his house, her ‘talent’ will belong to him and to us.”

Mrs. Liang’s breathing slowed, her fury cooling into something sharper. “You’re right.” She smoothed the wrinkles in her silk blouse, regaining her composure. “But I don’t like the way she looked at me just now. Not scared. Not broken. As if she’s already planning something.”

“She’s not capable of planning,” Bai Liang scoffed. “She’s a mouse that got bold for a second. That’s all.”

But Mrs. Liang’s eyes lingered on the doorway Mei had disappeared through, unease prickling her skin. For the first time, she felt the smallest thread of doubt.

Upstairs, Mei stood in front of her bedroom mirror, pulling her sweater over the fresh bruises blooming along her ribs. She traced the faint purple marks with steady fingers, her reflection staring back at her with new eyes.

She no longer looked like the silent niece who accepted everything. She looked like someone who had drawn blood in a battle no one else even knew had begun.

And this time, she wasn’t going to lose.

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