Chapter 9

"Open the door! Open the door!"

"Shi Xi, I know you're outside. Whatever you want, I'll satisfy you, I beg you!"

"Please open the door... at least, first, turn on the light, I... I'm very uncomfortable."

Shi Yi knelt in front of the door, patting it hard, but the door remained tightly closed, not moving at all.

"Heh, know how to beg me now? Haven't you always said you were not wrong?" A triumphant laugh came from outside the door, "I ask you, are you wrong or not?"

"I was wrong... I was truly wrong, please forgive me."

Shi Yi's heart beat wildly, and fear drowned her like a tide.

"Was it you who used a laser pointer to blind one of my eyes!"

"Yes... it was me... I'm... sorry..."

Shi Yi responded in a panic; as long as she could open the door, she would be willing to do anything now!

"Heh, after so many years, you finally admitted it!"

Shi Xi looked up and laughed loudly, like a madman who had lost her mind—she had waited for this apology for nearly 20 years!

Today, she finally heard the words "I'm sorry" from Shi Yi's own mouth.

"Heh, you know how to apologize now, it's already too late! One of my eyes is blind and will never recover for the rest of my life! Do you know how many side-glances and ridicules I've suffered since I was little? They called me a one-eyed dragon, called me blind, no one wanted to play with me, everyone saw me like they saw a monster and hid far away! All of this was thanks to you, thanks to my own sister!" Shi Xi vented the hatred she had suppressed in her heart for many years unscrupulously, "Hahaha, Shi Yi, you have your day too!"

"Stay here and reflect on yourself!"

Hearing this, Shi Yi felt her heart sink suddenly.

She knew Shi Xi couldn't possibly open the door for her.

The basement was pitch black, and the damp air was filled with a decaying smell. She only felt her breathing becoming more rapid and heavy, as if no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't catch her breath!

Her hands began to grope the walls in the darkness, trying to find something to rely on—right, her phone!

After getting out of prison, her family only threw her an old-fashioned Nokia phone that could only be used for calls, which she had put in a drawer. Shi Yi opened the drawer in a panic, only to find that the phone's battery had been removed and the screen wouldn't light up.

A huge fear gripped her heart like a demon's claws in an instant. Shi Yi trembled all over, and with a "wa," she bent down and vomited everything she had just eaten.

"Is anyone there, save me!"

"Please, save me..."

"I was wrong, let me out..."

On the other side, the eldest young master of the Shi family, Shi Heng, was bathing in the bathroom.

The warm water flowed down with a "clatter," and he closed his eyes, but the lonely yet resolute back of Shi Yi as she walked out of the banquet lingered in his mind.

What's wrong today? Why have I been thinking about her the whole time?!

Shi Heng turned off the shower head irritably, walked out of the bathroom, and put on a white bathrobe. Then he took out a hairdryer, turned on the hot air, and began to blow his hair.

Just then, a violent knocking sound came from outside the door.

However, the "buzz, buzz, buzz" sound of the hairdryer happened to cover the knocking, and Shi Heng didn't notice it at all.

Ten minutes later, Shi Heng turned off the hairdryer in his hand, and only then did he hear the knocking outside the door.

"Who is it?"

Shi Heng walked to the door, and the moment he opened it, he saw Zhang Ma kneel in front of him with a "plop."

"Eldest Young Master, please save the second young lady!"

Shi Heng's heart skipped a beat, "What happened to Shi Yi?!"

"She was locked in the dark room in the basement by the third young lady!"

Shi Heng's face changed, and he ran toward the basement quickly. Just as he arrived in the basement corridor, he saw Shi Xi leaning against the door with her arms crossed, a smile of unknown meaning on her lips. At this moment, the entire basement corridor was pitch black, and the power switch seemed to have been pulled.

"What are you doing?! Don't you know she's afraid of the dark!"

Shi Heng said angrily, "Open the door for her quickly!"

"Afraid of the dark?"

Shi Xi smiled sweetly, her deep blue prosthetic eye on the left emitting a faint and eerie light in the darkness, which startled Shi Heng.

"Will she die if she's afraid of the dark?"

Hearing Shi Xi say the word "die" so easily, a fire of anger rose in Shi Heng's heart, and he slapped Shi Xi across the face with a "snap."

"Shi Xi, do you really want to drive her to death? She is your own sister!"

Shi Xi had been pampered by her family since she was little, and no one had dared to touch a finger of hers. Now, she had actually been slapped!

And it was by the eldest brother who usually pampered her the most.

"You... you hit me?!"

Shi Xi covered her slapped red cheek in disbelief and roared hysterically, "So what if she's my own sister? She ruined one of my eyes! And she ruined my whole life! I'm the victim, okay? From childhood to adulthood, has she ever formally apologized to me, has she ever said 'I'm sorry' to me once!"

"What's wrong with me doing this? I just want her to say 'I'm sorry' to me, what's wrong with that?!"

Just then, Shi Father and Shi Mother also rushed over after hearing the news.

Liu Wanxin saw the five bright red finger marks on Shi Xi's face at a glance and exclaimed in shock, her heart aching with every twitch:

"Xi'er, my Xi'er, who hit you like this?!"

Shi Father hadn't attended Shi Xi's birthday party today and didn't know everything that had happened during the day, but he still recognized at a glance that Shi Xi had been hit by Shi Heng.

"Shi Heng, how are you acting as a brother, apologize to Xi'er immediately!"

Shi Heng gritted his teeth and ignored Shi Zhenyuan, instead looking at Shi Xi with eyes like blades, scolding angrily:

"Give me the key."

He didn't know how long Shi Yi had been locked inside, and he was afraid that if he delayed any longer, something would really happen.

"What key?"

Liu Wanxin hugged Shi Xi, stroking the red finger marks on her face with incomparable heartache, tears swirling in her eyes.

"The key to Shi Yi's room, she is still locked inside, and she has claustrophobia!"

"Claustrophobia?"

Shi Zhenyuan frowned deeply. It was the first time he had heard this term, and he had no idea what it meant. However, seeing the grave expression on Shi Heng's face, he knew that the matter might not be a joke.

"Give the key to your brother."

Shi Zhenyuan looked at Shi Xi seriously and ordered.

Shi Yi had no choice but to hand over the key in her hand while sobbing. Shi Heng snatched the key and opened the door with a "click."

The room was pitch black, and he couldn't see his own fingers, seeing nothing at all.

Shi Heng had no choice but to turn to Zhang Ma:

"Zhang Ma, go turn on the power switch."

Zhang Ma immediately said "hey" and ran over to pull the power switch.

The next second, the light came on, and Shi Heng gasped. He saw that the chair was overturned, the table was flipped, the plant on the windowsill was shattered, and there were porcelain shards, mud, and messy debris everywhere on the floor...

Shi Yi was lying in the middle of a pile of sharp shards, her body curled into a small ball, her face as pale as snow. Her eyes were tightly closed, and beside her mouth was a pile of unknown vomit...

Beside her were also glaring red spots!