‘Are you going to hit me?’ Yuan Gun Gun asked.

  ‘Are you different to other people who break the rules here?’ Hao Yan Che asked.

  ‘I’m sorry I’m home late,’ Yuan Gun Gun said. ‘But something happened, which is why I’m home late.’


  ‘What happened to you is your business,’ Hao Yan Che said. ‘You breaking the rules is my business.’


  ‘You’re right,’ Yuan Gun Gun said. ‘You’re young master. You don’t need to listen to reason before punishing someone.’


  Hao Yan Che held Yuan Gun Gun’s chin.

  ‘You don’t agree with the rules?’ Hao Yan Che asked.

  ‘I didn’t mean to come home late,’ Yuan Gun Gun said.

  Hao Yan Che let go of Yuan Gun Gun’s chin. He held back his anger because home came out of her mouth.

  Yuan Gun Gun rubbed her sore chin. Suddenly Hao Yan Che pulled her to the bedroom, and pushed her onto the bed.

  ‘What…… are you doing?’ Yuan Gun Gun asked.

  Hao Yan Che ripped Na Liu Ting Du’s shirt to pieces. Yuan Gun Gun sat in a fetal position to cover her body.

  ‘Who hit you?’ Hao Yan Che asked.

  Hao Yan Che threw a bedsheet at Yuan Gun Gun’s feet, and she quickly wrapped it around her body.

  ‘Tell me who hit you,’ Hao Yan Che said.

  ‘My classmates,’ Yuan Gun Gun said.

  ‘You deserve it,’ Hao Yan Che said.

  Yuan Gun Gun regretted she couldn’t walk through walls.

  ‘In the future if you wear another man’s clothes home then I’ll kill you in an ugly way,’ Hao Yan Che warned.

  Hao Yan Che kicked the door down, and he walked out of the bedroom. Yuan Gun Gun looked at the shirt pieces on the floor, wiped sweat off her forehead and felt grateful he didn’t hit her.

  Hao Yan Che exercised, took a bath and laid in his bed. He thought about Yuan Gun Gun’s sweet smile, her scared face, her sleepy face, the bruises on her body and her wearing another man’s shirt. He punched a wall. Didn’t she know how to take the initiative to makeup with him? Why didn’t she come wake him up? Why didn’t she look for him?

  Hao Yan Che got out of bed, and he stared at his phone for a long time. He thought about breaking the phone, but in the end he picked it up and called Jia Tu.

  ‘Young master?’ Jia Tu asked.

  ‘Um, find out who hit Yuan Gun Gun,’ Hao Yan Che said.

  ‘Yes young master,’ Jia Tu said.

  Hao Yan Che hung up and threw the phone on the floor. Then he quietly walked to the pink bedroom to check that his rice ball was sleeping on the pink bed.

  The next day, the servants gossiped about how their young master punished their future young mistress. The maids who helped clean Yuan Gun Gun’s bedroom saw the sacrificed shirt on the floor, and Yuan Gun Gun naked on the pink bed. The maids were shocked their young master would punish Yuan Gun Gun in that way when Yuan Gun Gun was injured. So most of the servants cooked nutritious food to nourish Yuan Gun Gun’s body.

  During the period Yuan Gun Gun took leave from school, she was responsible for cooking three meals a day again. The servants advised Yuan Gun Gun not to bow to Hao Yan Che, and to watch Hao Yan Che eat instead of running to her bedroom. But Yuan Gun Gun refused.

  One early morning, a person snuck into the kitchen, turned on the gas stove, walked outside the kitchen and closed the kitchen door.

  At eight in the morning, Yuan Gun Gun fed her small friends and Xiao Yuan followed her to the kitchen.

  ***