Chapter 63: Pei Yunji
The sound echoed through the room. Her small body staggered sideways. For several seconds, Meng Zhi simply stood there.
She couldn’t understand. Her cheek burnt, and her body hurt, but the pain in her chest was far worse.
She stared at her father in disbelief. Why?
She hadn’t done anything. Her father stared at her too. Then, as though suddenly awakening from a nightmare, horror appeared in his eyes.
He looked at his own hand, then at Meng Zhi. He stumbled backward. "Meng..."
He couldn’t finish his sentence. That night, he left. Meng Zhi never saw him again.
She was still too young to understand why he had abandoned her.
So she went to the corner of the room and hugged the pink rabbit plushie he had given her on her third birthday.
She pressed her face against its soft fur. Her father had once told her,
"Even if the whole world turns against you, this little rabbit and I will always stay with you."
Meng Zhi had believed him. It turned out, he had been a liar too. By the time she turned eleven, every hope she had ever possessed had collapsed.
Her father, who had slapped her only once in the beginning, eventually became an abuser. At first, he had been guilty.
He would apologize. Sometimes, he would even kneel before her and promise that he would never do it again.
But those apologies gradually became meaningless. Whenever something went wrong, Meng Zhi became his target.
Whenever he was frustrated, she suffered.
The bruises on her body became so frequent and obvious that even the other children began to feel frightened when they saw her.
Yet Meng Zhi never complained. She had already learned the most important rule of her life.
If she wanted people to stay, she had to endure whatever they did to her. And perhaps that was why she hated winter more than anything else.
Winter always seemed to arrive carrying something terrible. One winter, her friends and fiancées abandoned her.
Another winter, she started to get abused.
Another brought a completely different father who called her misfortune and calamity.
Eventually, she began associating the cold with misfortune. Whenever the temperature dropped, she would instinctively become anxious.
’Winter again.’
She hated it. The only thing that could make her smile during those cold months was a pink teddy bear.
It was one of the few things in her life that didn’t ask anything from her. She didn’t have to please it. She didn’t have to endure pain for it.
She didn’t have to smile when she was hurting. She could simply hold it.
And for a few minutes, she could pretend that she was an ordinary girl living an ordinary life.
By the time she turned twelve, a huge scar ran from her forehead to her left ear. It was impossible to hide.
No matter how much she tried to cover it with her hair, someone would eventually notice. And whenever they did, they would stare. Those cold eyes filled with venomous judgement.
’Monster. She indeed looks like a calamity. She should be killed.’
That was what everyone called her. Meng Zhi never believed them. She was human. She ate, slept, cried, laughed, and felt pain just like everyone else.
Perhaps she really did bring misfortune to the people around her. But only Meng Zhi knew how much she hated that ability.
She had never asked for it and never wanted it. She had spent years desperately trying to suppress it, hoping that one day it would disappear.
So she continued trying to be good. And eventually, she managed to make a friend.
Her name was Pei Yunji. Pei Yunji was beautiful, with long blonde hair and bright eyes that seemed to carry warmth wherever she went.
To Meng Zhi, she was one of the few bright lights in her miserable life. For the first time, Meng Zhi thought perhaps things could finally change.
Perhaps she could have a friend. Perhaps she could live like an ordinary girl. Unfortunately, misfortune followed her too.
Pei Yunji would suddenly trip while walking down the stairs. She would cut her hands on branches while walking through the garden. She would slip on perfectly dry floors.
Once, she even narrowly avoided being hit by a falling signboard. At first, everyone thought they were coincidences.
Eventually, they stopped thinking that. The boys in their class began worrying about Pei Yunji.
They started blaming Meng Zhi.
"She’s a jinx!"
"Stay away from Pei Yunji! She’s cursed!"
"Every time something happens to Pei Yunji, Meng Zhi is nearby!"
Those words slowly burrowed into Meng Zhi’s mind.
She began wondering whether they were right.
’Maybe I really am a curse.’
By the time she was fifteen, the bullying had become unbearable. Several girls cornered her in the bathroom one afternoon.
They beat her because they believed she was bringing misfortune to Pei Yunji. Meng Zhi curled up on the floor and covered her head.
She didn’t fight back. She never did. After they finally left, she remained there for a long time. The throbbing pain in her heart couldn’t surpass her physical pain at all...
For the first time, she wondered if life was truly fair. Eventually, she dragged herself toward Pei Yunji. Her knees were scraped, her hair was dishevelled, and her clothes were stained.
She lowered her head. "I’m sorry."
Pei Yunji stared at her. "It’s all my fault."
Meng Zhi’s voice trembled. "If staying away from you can keep you safe from this misfortune... then I want to leave."
She turned around. "I don’t want to hurt you anymore."
Then she ran. She was afraid that if she stayed another second, she would burst into tears. For so long, when no one had given her warmth, Pei Yunji had become that warmth.
She had been the one person Meng Zhi desperately wanted to protect. So she thought leaving was the only way.
That night, Meng Zhi closed her eyes and lay quietly on her bed. She didn’t know that it would be the last peaceful night she would have for a long time.
The next morning, devastating news reached her.