Xiang Tianwen maintained an image in the village as someone who feared neither heaven nor earth, his triumphant smile unrestrained.
"Dead? She fell to her death herself."
He didn't care about Lin Yan, who had fainted on the ground, and walked away with a few of his brothers.
He knew well that a slap couldn't kill a person.
Lin Yan opened her eyes, her eyelids heavy as though she were recovering from a serious illness, her back soaked with cold sweat, her clothes wet and clinging to her body, unable to muster any strength.
"Where am I?" Lin Yan's mind was muddled.
She suspected that the slap from Xiang Tianwen had dazed her.
"You fainted at the door. When you left, you cleaned the blood off the ground."
The man pushed the door open, holding a porcelain bowl containing boiling water.
With fiery impatience burning her throat, Lin Yan took the bowl from the man's hands.
She held it with both hands, burying her head and gulping down more than half of the bowl, forcefully suppressing a burp.
The water was cold.
After finishing, she lay down again, her hands pulling the blanket around her, tucking herself in tightly, revealing only half of her full and smooth forehead.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'll live here starting today."
Lin Yan felt a bitter taste at the heart, after all, she was a woman of respectable standing, how had she fallen so low, without shame or embarassment.
She convinced herself, if life was gone, what's the use of face?
Hearing the man's approaching footsteps, she covered her head with the blanket and said in a muffled voice, "I'll stay here, I won't be a bother to you."
With the blanket over her head, Lin Yan... found this man was clean.
His blanket didn't have any strange smells, just a light scent of soap and the fragrance of being sun-dried.
Was it a habit developed in prison, this tidiness?
A coolness above her head, the blanket over Lin Yan's head was lifted.
"Why does it have to be me?" the man asked in a deep, rough voice that strangely had an allure.
He spoke without any accent, Lin Yan couldn't tell where he was from, definitely not a local.
Lin Yan wanted to explain everything from beginning to end, but the words got stuck in her throat, swallowed back in haste.
Her lustrous eyes misted red, and her pitiful little face made one's heart ache to look at.
"I think, you're a good person."
The man's stoic face finally showed a shallow smile that didn't reach his eyes.
All the companies that had been squeezed out of business and bankrupted by Lu Corporation over the years cursed his family to ruin, and he was never associated with the word 'good person.'
The man spoke coldly, "I'm not a good person, and I don't want another person in the house. Come from wherever you did, and go back to where you came from. How many times do I have to repeat myself?"
Lin Yan observed that this man's personality wasn't very pleasant, very short on patience.
She was adept at discerning people's moods, and just a few words in, he was already impatient.
"You saw it yourself, going back means they'll definitely beat me to death. That old bastard, I can't afford to offend." Lin Yan showed her fear, barely daring to raise her voice.
"What does it have to do with me if you're beaten to death?" the man said, with a smile that was barely one.
"I..." Lin Yan choked, unable to speak.
She didn't even know this man's name, only knowing him by the nickname "the bachelor at the east end of the village."
He was right; her death wouldn't concern him in the slightest, perhaps even considered bad luck by passersby—the two of them were not familiar.
The man coldly said, "Leave after you've finished drinking water."
Having drank such a large portion of cold water, Lin Yan could not finish the rest and slowly shook her head.
I won't leave, and I don't want to drink.
"Please shelter me for one more night, I promise I'll leave first thing in the morning, I swear."
Her lips were a soft crimson, speaking in a gentle, delicate voice. Lin Yan naturally gave off the impression of a cuddly dumpling, devoid of any aggression.
She was very timid and faint-hearted.
Her father often taught her to endure if possible, they were too poor to offend anyone, and to avoid trouble.
She did not wait for the man's permission nor hear any words urging her to leave.
The man closed the door and left; Lin Yan let out a sigh of relief, already thinking of excuses to stay here tomorrow.
After today's incident with Xiang Tianwen, she had the strange feeling that the usually fearless village tyrant Xiang Tianwen seemed less imposing in front of this man, clearly suppressed.
Compared to being dragged out to marry Zhang the Blind's son, this place felt the safest for her.
There was only one bed, and Lin Yan hugged her blanket, shifting towards the wall, looking for a mat to make sleeping on the floor more comfortable. It was her first time spending the night in a man's house.
The cabinet was right beside her. Lin Yan stared at it for a long while, but without the owner's permission, she couldn't rummage through his belongings.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Lin Yan immediately sat up properly, her hands resting on her knees, legs pressed together, looking obedient.
The man paused noticeably as he entered; he was not used to having an extra person here.
"Where will you sleep?"
Lin Yan weakly pointed with her finger to the spot she had made for herself, "Just here, you can sleep on the other side."
The bed was long enough to fit more than seven or eight people, with a considerable distance between the middle.
"Leave right away in the morning." The man took out another pillow from the cabinet and threw it in the direction she had pointed.
Lin Yan craned her neck, gazing longingly at the cabinet, "Could you trouble yourself to lend me a mat? It's just that without something underneath, it's kind of..."
She wasn't a princess on a pea, so delicate.
Without a mat, lying on the bed was like sleeping on a concrete floor.
"None," the man replied.
Lin Yan opened her mouth, not quite believing, and glanced up at the gap in the cabinet door.
The man, perceiving the woman's sly thoughts, simply opened the cabinet door wide to let her have a clear view.
Indeed, there was none; it was empty except for a few neatly folded clothes.
Lin Yan nodded, message received.
She felt to herself that he really had nothing to his name. If she stayed here with him, she would definitely add new bedding, made from cotton batting.
There was a place that made comforters in the county, and one cost over two hundred yuan. She didn't have much money with her, and probably couldn't afford one now.
Lin Yan slipped under the blanket onto the bed, taking up only a small space, afraid to turn over too loudly, lest she disturb the man far across from her.
In the darkened room, Lin Yan asked in a whisper, "My name is Lin Yan, what's yours?"
There was no response. Lin Yan clutched the corner of the blanket, "Good night."
After a long pause, a low voice finally spoke slowly, "Lu Chenyuan, you don't know, or you're pretending to be dumb?"
Lu Chenyuan had not yet decided whether this woman who appeared suddenly was someone sent by the Lu Family.
He was naturally suspicious; it might well be a ploy, this woman's approach not quite innocent.
"Ah?" Lin Yan was confused, murmuring softly, "If you don't say, how would I know?"
The name Lu Chenyuan did sound familiar to her, as if she had heard it somewhere.
That name utterly clashed with the ambiance of their village.
"It's a very nice name," Lin Yan praised softly yet emphatically.
The name Chenyuan, Lin Yan didn't know what his parents were thinking when they named him—it sounded oppressive, as if unblest.