Chapter 17 The Woodshed Taunts
They shoved me into the woodshed.
This was where servants went when they’d committed a grave offense.
Rats darted across my feet. I didn’t even flinch.
Through the small window, Shen Wanrong pinched her nose dramatically, voice dripping with pity.
“I heard you devoured the Four Books and Five Classics. A true heroine among women.”
“What a shame. From now on, these hands of yours won’t be able to hold a brush, or a book… maybe not even chopsticks.”
I stared at the floor and said nothing.
She didn’t mind. She just laughed.
“All that talk of Kyoto’s Twin Beauties, the most talented lady in the capital—it’s all empty air.”
“For a woman, the only thing that matters is being cherished by her husband.”
“You, though? About to become a cripple? You’ll never have that chance.”
She saw my bowed head, my defeated posture, and her smile widened, her voice turning lighter, crueler.
“You were born lucky—pampered, dressed in silk, fed delicacies. Me? I grew up in the borderlands, wind-burned and wild.”
“Flowers on high peaks need to be dragged down. I just can’t stand proud, self-righteous ladies like you.”
“Though… you’re not quite like the rumors.”
“But it doesn’t matter if you fight or not. They’ll only ever want me. Hahahaha…”
I stayed silent.
Eventually she grew bored, with a satisfied smile on her face, and left.
Only then did I lift my head.
Mother once told me Shen Wanrong was the pampered heroine of this world.
After meeting her, I decided she was nothing but a mindless parasite clinging to men.
She must have chosen this exact moment to come gloat—because she believed I’d been utterly discarded. No longer a threat.
A morning glory vine, dazzling only because it climbs on others. One cold autumn wind, and it’s nothing but dead leaves.
She truly believed that without the story’s blind protection, once their own interests were at stake, her “pampered” status would still mean anything?
I understood them.
Just as they thought they understood me.
They believed only by completely destroying me would I ever submit.
But if they took my right hand, I still had my left.
Until the very last moment, I, Xie Yaohua, would never give in.