Chapter 3 - My Only Crime Was Falling In Love

Xiong Jingfei didn't get a chance to recover before getting slapped across the face twice by her father.

"Idiot!" Xiong Guozhi roared, unable to control his anger he slapped her one more time. Making her already fragile body slam hard against the cold floor. "Why did you go crying at that disgusting place! They already stomped on our face by breaking off the marriage with you."

She didn't answer her father or rebuke what he had said. It was all but the truth. She knew better than to say anything; he was always strict but became more violent after losing everything. She was too afraid to cry out loud in front of her father.

Xiong Jingfei scrambled up from the ground to be on her knees again. Inside her mouth, it was filled with the taste of metallic. Instead of spitting it out, she forced herself to swallow it.

"Furthermore, you went running up to their front door to beg their son to marry you!" Xiong Guozhi huffed, breaking the chair he was sitting on in half, which he'll come to regret more than hitting his own daughter.

"I loved him..." Xiong Jingfei broke her silence. She went there because she loved him. Did she need any other reason? "Is it wrong to love? Father, I love him."

"Love! Love! Love! Is that all you know?" He kicked the wood from the broken chair, almost hitting Xu Song.

"Yes! Father, it was you who told me to love him the moment I can talk! Father, it was you who told me to be a good housewife to him the moment I can walk! Father, it was you who tied this marriage with Yang Zheyan's parents! Was it wrong of me to fall in love with him?"

Those were the words Xiong Jingfei wanted to tell him. She wanted to scream and cry out all her grievances too. Still, she sat there quietly sealing her lips shut.

"What did he give your love in return? That bastard Yang Zheyan went off and got married to our enemy! The very same people who put us here."

Xiong Jingfei muscled tensed up as she clenched her jaw recalling Wen Yingyu. She didn't hate that Yang Zheyan had chosen Wen Yingyu over her. She hated the fact that their family knew it was the Wen clan who brought the catastrophe upon her family. And he still got engaged to her.

"Can love feed you? Can love give you money? Can love shelter you from the rain and wind?"

'No, father. My only crime in life was falling in love with someone who stabbed me in the heart.'

Xu Song cried crawling on her knees to hug her Miss, who looks like she'll break into pieces. She was the only maidservant of Xiong Jingfei who stayed with them willing. She'll never forget the kindness Xiong Jingfei's mother had shown her.

She was an orphan child who was going to get auction off to a brothel. Once Xu Song saw her chance to escape, she took off sprinting for freedom. Sadly, she did not make it very far before getting captured.

Luckily, Xiong Jingfei's mother was passing by after visiting a temple, praying to bore a healthy child. She pitied Xu Song who had so much more to live for than serve a brothel. She purchased Xu Song freedom from them and granted it to her.

"Madam, please let me serve you for the rest of my life. I vow never to betray you." Xu Song kowtowed, serving Xiong Jingfei's mother was better than dying out in the streets.

"Alright. If I give birth to a boy, you'll serve me for the rest of your life. If I deliver a girl, you'll become one of my daughter maids."

Unfortunately, tragedy struck on the day her lovely Miss was born. As if the heavens had heard Xiong Jingfei's mother prayer, they gave her a healthy baby and took her life away. Even without anyone ordering her to take care of motherless Xiong Jingfei, she did it anyway.

"Master, please don't hit the Miss anymore. Hit me instead." Xu Song begged, wiping the blood from the corner of her Miss's mouth. "My Miss wounds did not heal yet."

Xiong Jingfei grasped her hand and shook her head, telling her not to interfere. She didn't want to get Xu Song involved in her own doing. She will be the only person who carries the burden of her action. At least her father will spare her life after beating her, but if he hits Xu Song, she might not survive.

"She wouldn't have received those injuries if she wasn't over there!" Xiong Guozhi raised his hand in the air, planning to make another strike on Xiong Jingfei's face.

"Stop husband!" Li Roulan gasped, rushing in between them and held Xiong Guozhi's arm back. "She'll die if you keep hitting her!"

Li Roulan did not gasp in concern because of Xiong Jingfei horrendous condition. She was afraid Xiong Guozhi's iron hand would smack her across the face, and it should have. She was watching everything unfold the whole time with her two daughters.

Li Roulan was the second wife of Xiong Guozhi, who he married after the death of his first wife. His reason for marrying her was that his newborn daughter is going to be motherless. However, Li Roulan had never treated Xiong Jingfei like a daughter. In front of Xiong Guozhi, she made it seem like she gives everything good to Xiong Jingfei versus her own daughters.

She detested Xiong Jingfei will all her might. It became worst when she grew up having more and more of her mother's beauty. Because of Xiong Jingfei, her daughters' appearance was always below average. People will compare them when all three of them appear together.

Honestly, she wished her husband will keep hitting Xiong Jingfei until she follows her mother to the grave. One less person competing with her daughters.

"Husband, forget about this troublemaker," Li Roulan coaxed, hugging his arms tightly near her chest. "Don't forget the deal we made. You cannot leave a scar on her face... Anymore."

Even though Xiong Jingfei was keeping quiet, she wasn't deaf.

"Why can you not leave a scar on my face?" Xiong Jingfei demand, slowly getting up from the ground with the help of Xu Song.