Yan Chen’s mother was a woman from a respectable family. She would not speak rudely, but the hidden meaning in her everyday conversations was very hurtful. Moreover, she could always find ways to complain about Lan Waihu, thus destroying her sense of dignity. Although Lan Waihu wanted to tell Yan Chen about what had been happening, she just could not.
First of all, Yan Chen’s mother had been acting as though she cared about Lan Waihu like a delicate treasure.
Secondly, Yan Chen needed peace to recover from the side effects that he suffered from. Hence, Lan Waihu tried to keep trivial matters away from him. Also, she lived with a pervasive sense of guilt that she was the reason behind all his sufferings. Therefore, she did not want him to be distracted by these temporal affairs.
Thirdly, even if she wanted to tell him about her situation, there was no way that she could describe it. After all, Yan Chen’s mother had only emotionally abused her. She disdained her recklessness, so what she had always been doing was to ‘correct’ her and make her a qualified wife for their family.
Within a month, Lan Waihu had pined away dreadfully. Her dignity was completely shattered, almost gone. She started to remain remarkably still and silent, as she had to ‘correct’ her flaws to meet his mother’s standards. She acted more and more like a lady by speaking and behaving cautiously. Nonetheless, his mother still managed to find a lot of flaws in her behavior.
She was extremely bored. She had no friends, except Yan Chen. Her servants were nice to her, but their relationship would not get any closer. Sometimes, they would also be judgmental. They probably thought that she was just another Cinderella story.
She started to reminisce about the days in Tianju Hall and all her friends. She had a lot of friends in Tianju Hall, but not many of them had an amulet for directed audio. Only Zhang Chuchu and Qian Lingyu had the amulet.
However, they were very busy, as they had to carry out their daily practice and missions. Their days were completely swamped with work, so she dared not disturb them too much. However, every once in a while, they would stay in touch.
When they did get to speak, Zhang Chuchu was leather-lunged. She could always talk with great relish with Lan Waihu about how her days were terribly exhausting in Tianju Hall and how badly the teachers had been treating them. She sounded very energetic.
They used to spend their days together talking bad about their teachers. They used to suffer together in school. If she were given another chance, she would rather go back to school again.
Zhang Chuchu was a less sensitive girl, so she did not realize that things were difficult for Lan Waihu. Instead, she envied Lan Waihu, as she got to spend her days with the one she loved. Moreover, Lan Waihu did not have to wake up early every day to practice.
As for Qian Lingyu, he was only a boy, a boy with a spoiled attitude, so he could not quite understand a girl’s feelings. Moreover, she chose to tell him only with the good things, so he did not know her actual situation. Anyway, he did encourage her to tell him if she was mistreated in any way. He was her family, so he would do anything to help her. Lan Waihu was very touched by his kind gesture which could temporarily lift her spirits.
Their conversation could always make her feel better. However, one day, Yan Chen’s mother accidentally found out that she was talking to another boy and was very unimpressed. “Waihu, you are no longer a little girl and one day, you will become the wife for my son. How can you talk so enthusiastically with another man? What if others find out about the indecency? For the sake of Yan Chen, you should keep your distance.”
His mother, saying that she was going to keep it for her, confiscated Lan Waihu’s amulet.
Since then, Lan Waihu had fallen into helpless isolation, for her only joy had been taken away. Slowly, she was wasting away. Finally, Yan Chen realized that something was not right and wanted to find out why.