Chapter 36: Shen Chaoxi, What Right Do You Have?

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“You say I’m being unreasonable, but who’s the one playing the victim now?”
Shen Chaoxi’s slender, pale fingers toyed with the dragonfly caught between them, her downcast eyes cold and detached, her very voice like a clear winter stream.
“What do you mean, playing the victim?” Shen Sisi frowned, standing guard as if ready to defend someone, glaring at Shen Chaoxi.
“It’s clearly you, Shen Chaoxi, who’s deliberately making things hard for Sister Shen Xin.”
She didn’t know exactly what happened earlier, but she was certain that with Shen Xin’s gentle nature, she must have been bullied by Shen Chaoxi.
“You dare to come here and accuse me without even knowing what’s going on.”
Shen Chaoxi curved her lips in a faint smile, meeting the girl’s gaze, her manner gentle yet composed.
“Shen Sisi, if you don’t need your eyes, perhaps you should donate them.”
“Shen Chaoxi, you…” Shen Sisi, unable to outargue her, stared for a long moment, her expression shifting.
Yet thinking of Shen Chaoxi’s health, knowing she’d hardly ever been around dogs, maybe it really was a misunderstanding. She tried to soften her tone, dropping the earlier sharpness.
“Sister Shen Xin was wrong at first, but she didn’t know you dislike dogs. She already apologized.”
The implication was clear—even if it was a misunderstanding, Shen Chaoxi shouldn’t be so petty and unforgiving.
“She apologized to me.”
Shen Chaoxi lifted her gaze, meeting Shen Xin’s eyes, her voice soft. “Does that mean I must accept it?”
Her eyes were chillingly cold.
Shen Sisi had been to the Shen estate often, but had barely seen Shen Chaoxi a handful of times.
Her impression of Shen Chaoxi was shaped by the countless times Shen Xin had cried to her as a child.
So she instinctively believed Shen Chaoxi had always bullied Shen Xin.
She also knew Shen Chaoxi was frail, pampered and protected by the family.
But why then did Shen Chaoxi’s gaze just now seem so terrifying?
Shen Sisi stared at her, swallowing hard.
Witnessing this, Shen Xin’s sense of grievance swelled.
“Chaoxi, I…”
Shen Xin’s expression stiffened, her lashes dropping as she nervously bit her lip, looking lost and anxious.
Tch.
There she went again, putting on an act.
Shen Chaoxi could hardly stand it.
As if she really had bullied her.
Shen Chaoxi looked up at her, the corners of her mouth curling into a smile. “Why don’t you tell her yourself what just happened?”
Shen Xin’s brows furrowed.
Shen Chaoxi was pressing her to tell Shen Sisi the truth about what happened earlier.
“Sister Shen Xin, don’t be afraid. As long as I’m here, you can say whatever’s on your mind.”
Shen Sisi took Shen Xin’s hand, gently reassuring her.
Yet Shen Xin only frowned, meeting Shen Chaoxi’s gaze, which lingered on her for a long moment.
At last, facing Shen Sisi’s question, her voice trembled, her tone timid: “Sisi, it was me.”
At that, Shen Chaoxi looked at her, half-expecting she would finally speak honestly.
But after a moment’s hesitation, Shen Xin’s face tensed with anxiety, and she shook her head, lips quivering, unable to speak.
Feigning helplessness and fragility.
Which only deepened Shen Sisi’s misunderstanding.
She was convinced Shen Chaoxi had bullied her—so much so that Shen Xin didn’t even dare to speak the truth.
“Sister Shen Xin!”
Shen Sisi rushed forward, grasping her hand and comforting her, “Don’t be afraid.”
If she’d doubted before, now she was certain: Shen Xin had been bullied by Shen Chaoxi.
Why else would she act like this?
Shen Xin had arrived before her; though she didn’t know exactly what happened, she’d found Shen Xin standing nervously in the lakeside pavilion, while the pale girl sat in her wheelchair, a cold smile on her lips.
Sister Shen Xin looked so pitiful and uneasy, as if she was about to kneel and beg.
Just the thought of it stirred all of Shen Sisi’s protective instincts.
A surge of righteous anger welled up inside her—she had to stand up for Shen Xin. So she turned to Shen Chaoxi and said,
“Shen Chaoxi, Sister Shen Xin has been sent abroad for so many years. She hasn’t been able to visit Grandfather in so long, and now you’re making things difficult for her?”
Shen Xin had come to Sanqing Peak to see Old Master Shen.
But Shen Sisi assumed Shen Chaoxi was deliberately making things hard for her.
Shen Chaoxi heard this and asked with a faint smile, though her eyes were calm, “Making things difficult?”
She looked up at Shen Sisi, her eyes brimming with mockery.
It was obvious to anyone how little she thought of Shen Sisi’s naivete.
“Shen Sisi, Shen Xin, did you come to Sanqing Peak to visit Grandfather, or to put on a performance for me?”
With that, Shen Chaoxi propped her head up with one hand, her pale skin making her seem even more sickly.

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Bathed in the thin twilight, she closed her eyes and let out a low, mocking laugh. “All this noise is giving me a headache.”
Shen Sisi’s face twisted with irritation.
She stared wide-eyed at the girl in the wheelchair. “Shen Chaoxi, stop pretending. I know you too well—every time you use your frailty as an excuse, making everyone in the Shen family dote on you, treating you like a treasure. Has anyone ever considered how Sister Shen Xin and I feel?”
Shen Chaoxi had been sickly since birth, yes, but they were also daughters of the Shen family, living under the same roof. Even as a child, Shen Sisi had felt that Shen Chaoxi was the moon everyone gazed up to, while she and Shen Xin faded into the background wherever Chaoxi was.
“What, are you jealous?”
Shen Chaoxi’s lips quirked as she caught sight of the envy on Shen Sisi’s face. The girl was so easy to read—it was almost amusing.
Shen Xin had always been a master of pretense, but only Shen Sisi was gullible enough to believe her. Not that it mattered; she never expected much intelligence from Shen Sisi anyway.
“Who’s jealous of you!”
Shen Sisi lifted her chin defiantly, averting her eyes from Shen Chaoxi’s irritating face. “I just can’t stand to see you bully others.”
Hearing this, Shen Xin’s brow creased, her mind snagging on that word—“others.”
It stung, as if her sensitive heart had been pricked.
Just ten years apart, and now Shen Sisi saw herself and Shen Chaoxi as close, while she was the outsider?
The thought left Shen Xin inwardly unsettled. She clenched her fingers tighter, struggling to maintain a calm facade.
“Sisi, don’t be like this. Chaoxi really didn’t bully me—it’s all my fault.”
A faint flush rose to her ears, her tone earnest, as if defending Shen Chaoxi.
“I shouldn’t have brought the puppy here. It was my fault for upsetting Chaoxi.”
Listen to her—every word was self-blame.
Yet from any angle, it painted Shen Chaoxi as petty and unkind, bullying her over a trivial matter.
Well, it seemed Shen Xin had no intention of letting this go.
Shen Sisi retorted, “What’s wrong with a puppy? So what if you don’t like it—I do! Never mind, Sister Shen Xin, let’s go see Grandfather together in a bit.”
She smiled naively, gently reassuring Shen Xin, “I’m sure when Grandfather hears you rescued a stray puppy, he’ll praise you for your kindness!”
Shen Xin, seeing Shen Sisi take her side, showed a gentle, grateful smile.
“Right, Sister Shen Xin, where is that puppy you picked up on the way?”
Just then, Shen Sisi remembered, looking around for the puppy but finding no sign of it. She frowned and asked Shen Xin,
“Sisi.” Shen Xin’s brow furrowed, and at the question, she shook her head, clenching her fists in a silent plea not to say more.
Shen Sisi looked at her, confused.
It was obvious Shen Xin was hiding something—was she afraid of Shen Chaoxi?
“Sister Shen Xin, what’s really going on?” Shen Sisi pressed, worried.
Shen Xin looked troubled, shook her head, and remained silent, driving Shen Sisi nearly frantic with concern.
“Shen Chaoxi, was it you?”
Suddenly, a dreadful suspicion flashed through Shen Sisi’s mind.
She demanded, “What did you do to Sister Shen Xin’s dog?!”
“Drowned it,” Shen Chaoxi replied lightly.
She flicked the trembling dragonfly from her slender fingers.
Her bloodless lips pressed together, her face as pale as ice—almost ghostly.
For such a frail girl in a wheelchair to speak so coolly of life and death—it seemed almost heartless.
“What?”
Shen Sisi’s eyes darkened with fury. “You actually drowned Sister Shen Xin’s dog?”
Shen Chaoxi glanced up at her, as if genuinely surprised.
“So it’s dead. What’s there to be surprised about?”
Her voice was as soft as a sigh.
“Shen Chaoxi.”
Shen Sisi stared at her in shock, her voice rising, “That was a living creature!”
Even if it was just a small animal, how could Shen Chaoxi be so cruel?
How callous must she be to take an innocent life!
Yet at Shen Sisi’s angry rebuke, the girl’s lips curved in a faint smile, her gaze drifting from her pale fingertips, her eyes glimmering with a strange amusement. She lifted her lashes and said,
“Didn’t you hear her just now?”
“I don’t like it.”
“So I drowned the dog.”
“There, it’s in this lake. If you fish around now, maybe you’ll still find the dog’s corpse.”
She smiled, her eyes crescent-shaped.
“If you don’t want to do it yourself, ask someone with you to go in.”
Shen Chaoxi propped her head on her hand, her peach blossom eyes gentle, her lashes curling upwards, her gaze unreadable.
“After all, if the one who started all this doesn’t go down, I doubt the dog will rest in peace.”

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Her gaze flickered to the girl standing beside Shen Sisi, a slow smile forming on her lips.
Shen Xin’s brows tightened.
But Shen Sisi, oblivious to any deeper meaning, only felt that Shen Chaoxi was deliberately humiliating Shen Xin, her hatred intensifying.
She glared at her and shouted, “Shen Chaoxi, do you feel no remorse for drowning that dog?”
“Are you trying to humiliate Sister Shen Xin on purpose?”
She was standing up for her childhood friend with all sincerity.
But Shen Chaoxi’s subtle implications were lost on her.
“Apologize!”
Stubborn as ever, Shen Sisi refused to back down.
“I want you to apologize to Sister Shen Xin!”
“Sisi…” Shen Xin, seeing this, tugged at Shen Sisi’s sleeve with a pitiful look, as if trying to make peace, her words muffled and indistinct.
“It’s not like that.”
“Chaoxi really didn’t mean it.”
She seemed to be trying to calm things down, yet only fanned the flames.
At this point, there was no reasoning with Shen Sisi.
She’d always believed Shen Chaoxi was the pampered invalid, raised apart from the rest, who could never understand her or Shen Xin.
But she never expected Shen Chaoxi to be so cruel.
“Did you hear me?”
“Shen Chaoxi, I told you to apologize to her!”
Seeing Shen Chaoxi remain unmoved, Shen Sisi stormed forward and grabbed her arm. Shen Chaoxi frowned, trying to pull away.
But seated in her wheelchair, there was little she could do. Shen Sisi, usually not strong at anything else, was surprisingly forceful when grabbing someone, intent on forcing an apology.
In the midst of their struggle, Shen Xin, standing just behind Shen Sisi, suddenly darkened her eyes as if seizing the moment. She lunged forward to “break up the fight,” then stumbled deliberately.
Shen Sisi was knocked forward.
“Ah!” she screamed in panic, still clutching Shen Chaoxi’s hand.
Shen Chaoxi’s brows drew together.
She’d been about to push Shen Sisi away, but suddenly checked herself.
At the same time, a nearly imperceptible smile flickered at the corner of her lips as she pulled the “accidentally tripped” Shen Xin down with her.
A loud splash.
Several figures tumbled among the lotus blossoms, water spraying high.
Shen Sisi plunged into the lake—dragging Shen Chaoxi in as well.
The whole scene was witnessed by the newcomers who had just arrived.
Lu Yunzhou’s eyes darkened.
He and the others had just reached Sanqing Peak, at the Clearwater Pavilion, when they saw the fall into the water.
“Young Miss!” A maid who had gone to fetch ice saw the figures fall in and went pale with fright.
When she looked toward the pavilion, Shen Chaoxi was nowhere to be seen.
There was no need to guess who had fallen into the water.
The arriving servants rushed to the lakeside, peering anxiously at the struggling figures.
“Help!”
Shen Sisi, soaked and choking, thrashed her arms, her head bobbing above the water as she cried out,
“Save me.”
“I can’t swim.”
“Go in and help.” As the struggling figures became clear, Lu Yunzhou barked the order to the man beside him.
His face was cold and impassive, his presence sharp as ice.
Yet without hesitation, he plunged into the lake.
It was the peak of summer, the air sweltering, but the water was not cold.
Petals from the lotus blossoms drifted down, and the girl submerged in the muddy water, eyes closed, face deathly pale, had lost consciousness—her limp form pulled into a protective embrace.
When Shen Chaoxi regained a sliver of awareness, she was clutching a man’s wrist, the scent of cool pine reaching her nose. Her hair, soaked, clung to her skin, her whole body wracked with cold.
Lu Yunzhou looked down at the girl in his arms, her snowy skin almost translucent, ill and fragile. His brows furrowed, as if he’d finally realized who she was.
Here at Sanqing Peak, there was a girl known for her sickly constitution; the one who’d just fallen in must be Shen Chaoxi.
Feng Chenxin pulled the others out of the water first, setting Shen Sisi on the bank, where she coughed and choked, struggling to clear the water from her throat.
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