Because I Cannot Hurt You

The tears plopped of disgust and hatred plopped down her cheeks as Xinyi's chest heaved breathlessly. Her teeth gritted against each other as she trembled.

Han Mingli broke out of his daze. He felt as if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

The calm and meek Xinyi slapped Han Guang? It was impossible to digest. She wouldn't even raise her voice against them, much less act violently.

He rushed to his wife's side. "Guang! Are you alright?"

He glowered at her. "Xinyi! How dare you slap your Aunt! She is your elder. Have you forgotten all your manners!?"

Xinyi angrily laughed. "Manners? I haven't forgotten anything! But has she forgotten how to act around a small child?"

Han Guang raised her head in utter shock and blankly stared at Xinyi. 

"You bitch! How dare you slap me!?" She raised her arm to slap her back, but Zhiyuan grabbed onto her wrist and crushed it under his pressure that she yelped in pain.

"Zh-Zhiyuan! What are you doing? Don't stop me! Didn't you see how she slapped me?"

As she met his dark gaze, she involuntarily shuddered. The sense of oppression that he emanated was so strong that she forgot to breathe. A chill ran up her spine.

As he parted his lips, she felt as if he would give her the death sentence. His voice was quiet, low but equally threatening. "Let Xinyi complete what she has to say. Then we will judge if you deserved that slap or not."

She stiffened. "W-what do you mean, Zhiyuan?"

Xinyi said, "Siying told us everything! The day we came back from the picnic to the time when he left school falling in the trap of YOUR brainwashing against Zhiyuan and me - Siying has confessed everything!"

Han Guang turned pale. Her eyes widened, and she turned as white as a sheet. Her blood ran cold.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Are you even in your senses?" Han Guang tried to act firm and innocent but inwardly, she was panicking like crazy.

She smiled. "I wasn't until now. But now you have finally opened my eyes as to how low you can stoop! You said all those horrible things to Siying. That Zhiyuan and I hate him? That we don't want Siying anymore? That we blame him for making us hurt? He is a burden to us? And we wanted to dump him in an orphanage!?"

The temperature plummeted to a dangerously lower level until they felt chilly. Han Huizhong's gaze darkened and his fingers clutched onto his stick in rage.

Zizi looked at them, stunned. "What!?"

Han Mingli and Han Guang turned ghastly pale. The color drained away from their faces.

"T-this utter nonsense! Why would I say such things to Siying?"

"That is what I want to know! Why would you target my Siying like that?"

She pointed her quivering finger at her. "I... always knew that you hated Siying and me. You never accepted us. But I cannot believe that you will go so far in your hatred!"

She covered her mouth as she gasped. "Do you have any idea how traumatized Siying was! Zhiyuan and I were trying like crazy to get him back to normal. He was already feeling guilty about the accident, but you did nothing but pour oil into the fire! He is only three years old! Did you stop to think about what effects this could have on a child? You cruelly made him think that we want to abandon him. You fed his ears with all the lies!"

Han Guang gulped. "Y-you are misunderstanding-"

"I am not misunderstanding anything! He got a high fever that day only because you scared him, saying that we don't love him anymore! He didn't eat, drink and he refused to even talk. You made him feel as if we hate him so much that we want to send him to an orphanage!?"

"It's nothing like that!" She anxiously looked at Zhiyuan, tears streaming down her eyes. "Zhiyuan, just look at what your wife is saying! Do you think I will really do this?"

Zhiyuan's expression didn't change.

Xinyi clenched her fist. "Stop with your lies already. Siying said it himself that he met you in the corridor that night. When he said how he told you about his bad dream, instead of soothing him, you began to feed him with all sorts of nonsense. You repeatedly accused him of nearly killing Zhiyuan and me. Is that what an adult says to a child who is crying? You put the burden of killing someone on such small shoulders…Even an adult cannot bear that. Do you think a child would be capable of thinking straight!"

"And what killing? Siying is a child. Whatever he did was only out of concern for Zhiyuan and my relationship. Yet you made him feel as if was a murderer!"

Xinyi trembled and burst into tears. "Did you even bother to look how afraid he got? He was shivering so badly. He was crying so hard. And you threatened him not to say anything to us or else we will get even angrier at him."

Zizi blankly stared at Han Guang. "Aunt...you did this to Siying?"

"No!" Han Guang sobbed. "Siying is just a child! He is lying to you all. This Xinyi! She must have told him to say my name!"

Xinyi gritted her teeth. "ENOUGH!"

Han Guang froze. Han Mingli jolted, and he averted his gaze. Her loud voice resounded in the Han villa.

"...At that time, I had seen someone's silhouette at a distance. You brought the glass of juice to him that day, right?"

Han Guang stiffened.

"And then you brainwashed him into thinking that we were sending him into an orphanage!"

"No-"

But Xinyi cut her off. "Zhiyuan and I were talking about donating charity to the Sun Orphanage! You know right, Aunt? We donate every year. You are a part of the family. Of course, you know this tradition. Then why did Siying think that we wanted to send him away? Of course, somebody told him that! You...You told him to run away from school because I will never come to pick him up, isn't it?"

Zizi widened her eyes and looked at her in horror. 

"Even this morning, it was all an act, right? Faking a sprain in your ankle and urging me to take care of you so that I get late in school and Siying misunderstands that I don't want him anymore!"

"Of course not!" Han Guang "Why will I lie? I was really hurt!"

"Shut up!"

Xinyi breathed heavily. She looked around and hastily walked towards the breakfast table. Han Guang and Han Mingli looked at her, dumbfounded.

What is she doing?

Han Huizhong calmly watched it without much change in his countenance.

Xinyi picked a fruit knife and charged towards Han Guang, taking big strides as if she was ready to stab her. Han Guang almost stumbled.

"Zh-Zhiyuan! Look what Xinyi is doing! She is going to stab me! Stop her!"

Han Mingli panicked. "Zhiyuan, why are you just standing there!"

But Zhiyuan didn't respond. He ignored them and didn't bother to stop Xinyi. He knew what she was doing and why.

Han Guang tremblingly stepped back. "Somebody please stop her! Xinyi has gone crazy! She wants to kill me! Soo Yunru! You are a cop! Why aren't you stopping her?"

Yunru simply sneered at her. She was stunned at his response.

"U-Uncle…" she turned towards Han Huizhong and cried, "X-Xinyi wants to kill me."

Han Huizhong smiled. "Sure. Why not? It's such nice entertainment. A murder mystery~"

Han Guang couldn't believe her ears. "Mingli! Save me!" She yelled at the top of her voice. Adrenaline rushed inside her, inducing a fight or flight response.

Xinyi was close to reaching her. Han Mingli tried to interfere, but Zhiyuan grabbed his shoulder. "Stay right there, Uncle," he quietly said.

Xinyi raised her arm and was about to slash her when Han Guang broke out into cold sweat and jumped on her feet to the other side. She ran away from her, hiding behind a couch. "Somebody stop her! She will kill me!"

Silence. Zizi looked at her wide-eyed.

Xinyi stopped in her steps and withdrew the knife. "What happened, Aunt? Wasn't your ankle sprained?"

Han Guang froze. 

"But you seem to run just fine. Did it not pain you? You didn't even stumble in your steps. A sprain doesn't heal in just one day."

She opened and closed her mouth several times in an attempt to say something, but nothing came out. She finally realized that it was all Xinyi's act to prove to her that she was lying.

"N-No of course it hurts! I was too scared to feel the pain!" She feigned to collapse and sob, "Mingli my foot…it hurts badly…"

Xinyi stared at her. "Aunt. You are holding your right foot. In the morning, you were limping on your left foot, weren't you?"

She froze.

"I know it. After all, I applied the balm on your left ankle myself."