The two of them unknowingly stayed in the cave until half past eleven.
"It's time to go back," Cheng Jinyang put the novel back into the bookcase.
"Yeah," Yang Wangshu reluctantly put down the game console.
They turned off the table lamp, left the cave, covered the entrance with plastic fake vines, and then quietly left.
Back at the entrance of the clan territory, Yang Wangshu suddenly turned pale, because she saw her elder brother, Yang Guangming, standing at the entrance of the clan territory, looking at them both with an unfriendly expression.
"Siping," Yang Guangming spoke, "I wanted to find you just now, so I went to your room, but found no one there."
"I, I went out to do something..." Yang Siping said hesitantly.
This guy clearly couldn't lie, whereas Cheng Jinyang would have come up with something on the spot, like "Little sister isn't good at studying, so I went to help her study. She's sensitive and didn't want to be found out by others, so we went to find a secluded corner."
However, Yang Siping's hesitant tone couldn't fool his elder brother, so Yang Guangming said in a stern voice:
"I think Father should be informed."
After saying that, he just turned and left.
If it were the shameless girl Qingqing at this time, she would have immediately thrown herself at him, begging and pleading with all sorts of "good brother" pleas, trying to force her elder brother to change his mind.
However, Yang Wangshu and Yang Siping were still children after all. When they encountered such a thing, they immediately lost their minds. They just watched their elder brother leave with their mouths half open, feeling numbness in their scalps and coldness in their limbs.
"What... what should we do?" Yang Wangshu said anxiously, "Should we go back and move everything away?"
"This..." Yang Siping was also at a loss, "But it's already midnight..."
"No!" Yang Wangshu shouted, "I need to go back quickly!"
She turned and ran away in a flash.
Yang Siping hesitated for a moment, then decided to go back to his room to sleep.
Not long after falling asleep, he was called again.
Second brother Yang Quanqi silently led him away from the clan territory to Yang Wangshu's secret base entrance, only to see his little sister already being held by his elder brother's arm, while their father, with a stern face, was ordering two clan members to move everything out of the cave.
"You worthless thing!" he roared angrily at Yang Wangshu, "Indulging in worthless pursuits! Burn everything for me!"
Yang Wangshu wanted to plead, but fearing her father's authority, she could only silently bite her lip, tears streaming down.
But the more vulnerable she appeared, the more her father hated his inability to toughen her up, until all the comics, games, and other things in the cave were moved out and piled into a small mountain on the mountain road.
By now, Yang Wangshu was sitting on the ground in despair, watching as two clan members poured gasoline over it and set it on fire.
The raging fire, fierce and terrifying in the darkness, made Cheng Jinyang even see the surrounding light vaguely distorted by the heat waves... No, it should be Yang Wangshu's emotions shaking violently at this moment, thereby affecting the dream itself.
He looked at Yang Wangshu again, only to see her sitting slumped on the ground, half-mouthed, with a desolate look as if all hope had died.
The cherished limited edition comic set, gone.
The unfinished novels, gone.
Hundreds of hours of game saves, gone.
Her strength seemed to have been completely drained, perhaps leaving her with no more joys or sorrows in this life.
Then, the surrounding sounds seemed to disappear.
.............
In the hospital, Yang Wangshu sat on the bed in a daze, while the doctor was talking to Yang Siping.
"The mutism is caused by social anxiety disorder, fundamentally it's a mental disorder," the doctor asked solemnly, "Has the patient recently experienced any intense mental stimuli?"
Yang Siping fell silent for a moment before asking, "Is there a cure?"
"For now, psychological therapy is the main approach," the doctor replied, "Her language ability is normal, but due to social anxiety disorder, the language area gets inhibited when facing others, it's a specific stress response."
"Don't let her face strangers for now, otherwise, the stress response will be reinforced, increasing the risk of mutism worsening. You can use some non-face-to-face communication methods, like electronic communication, to gradually desensitize her."
"Okay," Yang Siping sighed.
He walked into the ward and saw Yang Wangshu trembling in fear, hiding under the blanket.
Yang Siping opened his mouth as if to speak, but restrained himself from uttering a word.
Instead, he took out his phone and sent a text message to his younger sister:
"Father won't demand much from you anymore."
After a moment, he received a reply:
"Really?"
"Yes," Yang Siping felt a bitter pang in his heart.
The so-called 'not demanding' actually meant abandoning her completely.
All the efforts and hardships she had endured in the past had become sunk costs, yielding her no future returns.
However, Yang Wangshu seemed not to grasp this. She quickly typed:
"Then I don't want to stay on the family estate anymore. I want to rent a place nearby to live alone, is that okay?"
"It's okay," Yang Siping replied after a moment of silence, "What kind of place do you want?"
"I want a slightly bigger room," Yang Wangshu replied, "Fast internet speed, with enough space for my comics and games. Also, it would be great if there are restaurants nearby for quick food delivery."
"Okay, I'll arrange it," Yang Siping replied.
"Brother," Yang Wangshu asked finally.
"What's wrong?"
"Am I really... free now?"
Yang Siping was speechless.
After a moment, he struggled to type a reply.
"Yes."
"You are free."
Yang Wangshu curled up in her blanket, staring blankly at the phone screen.
She suddenly noticed that the number sending her messages was not her brother Yang Siping.
If she remembered correctly, this number seemed to belong to someone she disliked...
————————
Cheng Jinyang slowly woke up.
It was 8 o'clock in the morning, and the girls were still fast asleep.
He got up alone and went to the bathroom to freshen up.
After a while, there was a knock on the door.
Oh, at this time, it must be the synthetic maid coming to clean up.
Cheng Jinyang opened the door for her, and the synthetic maid walked in, glancing around briefly.
"We need to talk," she said.
Cheng Jinyang: ???
"Yang Wangshu?" he asked incredulously, thinking that the network technology of this housekeeping service company was too bad, how could the maid be invaded so easily?
"Sure enough, it was you in my dream yesterday, pretending to be my brother and spying on my privacy!" Seeing that he immediately guessed the answer, the synthetic maid angrily scolded, "Pervert, shameless! Dirty, vulgar, despicable!"
"Stop!" Cheng Jinyang quickly explained, "First of all, I want to clarify that this is just a coincidence. I didn't mean to enter your dream, and in fact, I didn't know this would happen."
"Secondly, you must come over once, otherwise your father will find out that your aphasia is almost cured." Wang Wanrou's voice came from the bedroom doorway, and the young lady was leaning against the door frame with her arms folded, saying coldly, "It's just because of social anxiety that you don't want to talk to people in person."
"You!" It was as if the deepest secret in Yang Wangshu's heart had been exposed, and the synthetic maid controlled by her seemed to freeze for a moment.
After a moment, she burst into laughter:
"What makes you think my father would believe you?"
"He will," Wang Wanrou said, "because I am the daughter of the Wang family head."
Yang Wangshu: ......
This is bad!
Firstly, after so many years of carefree life as a shut-in, her aphasia had indeed improved significantly, and she could now barely speak when encountering strangers. It's just that due to her social anxiety disorder, she would feel nervous and uneasy when facing others.
So she usually chooses to wear a mask and use a keyboard to type instead of speaking, as a kind of psychological protection for herself.
Secondly, what Miss Wang said was not false. If she used the reputation of being the daughter of the Wang family head as a guarantee, her father would definitely believe it.
If her father knew that her aphasia had improved, would he start demanding things from her again? Would he make her return to that harsh life where she felt like she'd rather be dead?
Absolutely not!
"You, you just wait for me!" Yang Wangshu exclaimed angrily, and then the synthetic maid suddenly stopped moving.
After a moment, it slowly stood up and began to clean the room—apparently because its controller had cut off contact behind the scenes, and it had resumed its cleaning program.
"Wanrou," Cheng Jinyang asked puzzled, "why did you call her over?"
"To add a new member to your harem," Wang Wanrou replied calmly.