Chapter 283: [Unswerving Devotion] A Slap
Seeing the maid step to the doorway, Bai Cha suddenly called out to her.
“Wait a moment.”
The maid turned back, somewhat baffled and a touch expectant—in her view, Xu Taotao might have had a change of heart.
After all, given Xu Taotao’s usual personality, she had likely just been pushed too far recently, which was why she lost her temper.
“What day of the month is it today?”
“Huh? Oh… today is the twenty-eighth of the twelfth lunar month. In two days, it’ll be New Year’s.”
Bai Cha lowered her eyes slightly, then raised her head to look at her.
“Got it. Go call them over.”
The maid pursed her lips and stepped outside.
Bai Cha walked to the dressing table and sat down, bringing the candle closer to herself.
The candle was indeed a section taller, and the date had moved forward.
So what was the significance?
Had time shifted for the other players as well?
Bai Cha looked at the mirror.
Her face was reflected inside, seemingly unchanged—still carrying that appearance extraordinarily similar to Xu Shengsheng.
Bai Cha kept her gaze fixated on the mirror, unblinking.
After a good while, unable to discern any changes and with no weird mirror phenomena occurring like before, she knitted her brows and opened the bullet chat.
Ah, the streamer opened the bullet chat!
Streamer, do you know you’ve been sleeping for a really long time?
Sleeping-category streamer.
“I’ve been sleeping for a long time?” Bai Cha sharply picked up on that comment.
Yeah, slept for quite a while.
Timestamps can’t be sent out, they get blocked.
I thought you got dragged into a dream again, streamer.
Lowering her eyes, Bai Cha gently stroked the candle with her fingers.
“I seem to have had a dream, but I don’t remember it,” Bai Cha let out a faint, haunting sigh.
Finally, looking at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes flickered subtly.
Her expression when sighing just now looked so much like that woman in Biyi Tower.
Her heart grew vigilant.
Ever since waking up, she had felt something was off, yet couldn’t tell what it was.
Streamer, you came back right after falling down that hole.
Streamer, you’re truly done for—you didn’t get a partner, and you even offended someone.
In this instance, people without partners lose their minds very easily. Streamer, can you see this sentence?
She can’t see it; that counts as leaking answers.
Alright then.
Bai Cha indeed couldn’t see that specific line, but she could see their other exchanges.
“What are the other players doing right now? Are paired players safer?”
Safer than you.
Indeed… nobody knows what’s going on on your end—it’s completely different from everyone else’s.
Put it this way, streamer—on the forum, this instance has always gone by another name: Single Means Hell.
Aba aba, did single people eat their rice or something? Why is this instance so full of malice?
Bai Cha closed the bullet chat.
She needed to think things through, and she needed to step outside to explore.
Night was nearly pitch-black outside.
When Bai Cha walked out the door, she saw the maid returning with a lantern.
“Miss, why did you come out?”
“Where are they?” Bai Cha asked.
The maid hesitated, stammering, “It’s too late now, so they aren’t there anymore. They’ve probably gone to sleep.”
Simply put, she assumed Bai Cha’s anger was merely temporary; as long as she stalled through this period and her anger faded, she wouldn’t pursue the matter any further.
Bai Cha stared at her with a cold, distant expression.
The light cast upward from below, falling onto Bai Cha’s slender, frail frame while accentuating her current expression, inexplicably giving off a ghostly, uncanny feel.
The maid broke into a cold shiver.
“Are you very cold?” Bai Cha spoke up.
The maid let out a forced, awkward laugh.
“The weather has been quite cold lately. Miss, don’t stand outside either—your health has been poor since childhood, so you’d better hurry back to sleep.”
Saying this, she made to step forward to support Bai Cha, but Bai Cha reached out directly and took the lantern from her hand.
“Miss?” The maid paused in surprise.
Bai Cha had already set off with the lantern in hand.
“Miss, where are you going? The kitchen isn’t over that way!” the maid shouted after her.
Yet Bai Cha acted as if she hadn’t heard a thing.
A gust of frigid wind blew into the courtyard, swaying the hem of Bai Cha’s clothes; beneath the flickering lantern light, her shadow projected onto the wall swayed continuously.
The maid shut her mouth.
She broke into another shiver.
Had the temperature dropped again? Why did it feel so cold?
Should she follow her? Forget it—at any rate, Miss hadn’t said anything, so she would just pretend she didn’t know.
She constantly felt a hair-raising aura radiating from Miss; in a fleeting moment of daze, she had even felt a bloodthirsty glint across her frame.
Drawing in a sharp breath of cold air, the maid rubbed the goosebumps rising on her skin, turned around, and departed.
Xu Taotao had sat in her room observing the mirror for a long time, discovering no further anomalies.
The sky outside gradually turned dark.
Before long, it was time for the evening meal, but she held no appetite whatsoever.
Especially since she still had to drink her medicine.
Her heart resisted it deeply.
Yet she didn’t even know what she was resisting.
Biyun urged her from the side to eat a little bit regardless.
“If you don’t eat, your health will become even worse. What if you get disdained after getting married down the road? Madam explicitly instructed me to watch you finish your meal.”
Xu Taotao pressed her lips together.
More of these words—if she would be disdained after getting married, then it was better not to marry.
Yet going unmarried led to being disdained all the same.
She knew this; she had seen it when she was young. A daughter from a household on the eastern side of the city refused to marry, so people claimed something was wrong with her, pointing and whispering wherever she went, leaving her entire family unable to hold their heads up.
A scholar on the southern side wanted only academic achievements and held no desire to marry, so people constantly accused him of being unfilial, claiming he wanted to sever his family line; he was pointed and whispered at wherever he went as well.
Even the examiners refused to let him sit for the exams upon hearing of it.
Unwilling to marry, one couldn’t hold one’s head up for a lifetime.
Yet was marriage truly that wonderful?
Everyone claimed her father and mother lived in perfect harmony, a deeply affectionate couple.
Yet she always felt deeply uncomfortable.
“I don’t want to eat. Take it away.” Those indescribable, murky emotions stirred revulsion in Xu Taotao’s heart, and she lost her temper once more.
Left with no choice, Biyun went to inform Lady Li.
Father Xu was present as well, and upon hearing that she refused even to eat, he threw down his chopsticks in rage.
“Rebellious girl! Then don’t let her eat—let her starve! How can she hold such a huge temper simply because I said a word to her today?!”
Lady Li coaxed, “Don’t be angry; she isn’t necessarily holding a grudge against you. She might simply be feeling unwell—she just saw the doctor today.”
“What unwell? You’ve spoiled her rotten!”
Father Xu grew even angrier, standing up abruptly—only for his vision to turn black, and he pitched forward, collapsing straight to the floor.
When Xu Taotao heard of this incident, she paused in a daze as well, hurriedly lifting her skirt to run out.
By the time she arrived, the doctor had already come over and was checking Father Xu’s pulse.
“How is he?” Lady Li was deeply anxious.
The doctor bore a grave expression, letting out a sigh after a long while.
“Madam, Master has suffered a stroke. I shall apply a few needles for him to see—if he is fortunate and can still move after waking up, then all will be well. But if he cannot move…”
Then he would be paralyzed in bed.
Lady Li nearly fainted from a black spell as well, breaking down into tears on the spot.
Xu Taotao couldn’t help stepping forward to embrace her mother, only to be struck across the face by Lady Li’s backhand slap.
“It is all because of you! If you hadn’t enraged your father to this extent, how could he have suffered a stroke?! Wouldn’t everything be fine if you simply nodded obediently and married?! Yet you insisted on being picky here and there! Your marriage wasn’t smooth to begin with—do you have any idea how much your father and I have endured?!”
Her head turned to the side, Xu Taotao’s entire brain buzzed violently from this slap, her blood rushing upward incessantly.
Compounded by Lady Li’s words, Xu Taotao felt stars dancing before her eyes, unable to even stand firm on her feet.
Was it her fault?
What did this have to do with her?
When considering a match, if she didn’t like the person, was it wrong to speak up directly?
How could her father’s state possibly be her fault?!
Clutching her face, Xu Taotao staggered and ran outside.
