By the time Li Caiyi left the police station, the sky had gotten so dark. The questioning took more time than intended, so the kind-looking officer offered to take her home, but she politely refused. She did not want her parents to see her coming home in the police car and getting scolded again, so she stopped a cab and went home with it.
She was exhausted, and although she wanted to check on Shenqiang's condition, she thought he was probably resting right now and did not want to bother.
When she arrived at her house, Li Caiyi did not expect that Su Suyin and Li Jirong had been waiting for her in the living room with a grave expression on their face. When she saw that, she knew that something must have happened.
She calmly took off her shoes and went inside. How she wished she could just pretend not to see them and take a shower now. She sweated all day and became dirty after the day's debacle, and they did not let her rest.
"Mother, Father, I'm home." She greeted softly, but their expressions hardened instead.
"Where have you been all this time? Why did you go home late?" Su Suyin was the first one to ask her a question.
Honestly, as a mentally adult person, she did not consider 8 PM as late, and it was not like this was her first time going home around this time. They just never questioned her about it before. She suspected they might not even notice if she was not in the house sometimes.
For them to notice her absence this time, they must have been waiting for her for a while. There were only two possible reasons for that. Either they wanted to scold her, or they wanted to ask something from her. She assumed it was the former from the heavy atmosphere and their ugly faces.
Li Caiyi could not possibly tell them she got held back in the police station, so she made an excuse on the spot. "I went to the department store to buy something, but I could not find it."
Su Suyin's brows knitted in doubt. "Are you going out with your friends again?"
"No, I was alone this time."
Bringing up her friends might have gotten her into a deeper problem. She did not want to risk it.
Li Jirong put down his cigarette on the ashtray. His gaze was filled with contempt and impatience when he looked at Li Caiyi. "Sit down!" He ordered harshly. Anyone could sense the suppressed fury in his voice.
Li Caiyi was calm when she sat down. By now, any kind of scolding and degradation was nothing to her. Her heart had died, both in a figurative or literal sense. What was there to be afraid of after what she had gone through in her past life? She might get scolded, but it could not be any worse than when they abandoned her coldly.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Li Caiyi asked indifferently. Her tone was cold and detached, almost like talking to a stranger.
Su Suyin squinted at her daughter's behavior. Usually, Li Caiyi would be so scared whenever Li Jirong did so much as raising his voice in front of her, but now, not only did she sit with a straight posture, she also looked at Li Jirong directly in his eyes. Since when did Li Caiyi become so fearless?
Li Jirong was further enraged when he saw her daughter showing no remorse or panic in her face. He knew Li Caiyi was afraid of him and would never dare to raise her head before him, much less have eye contact with him. As disappointing as she could be, Li Jirong could barely tolerate her because he did not dislike her subservient side. However, the current Li Caiyi clearly displayed her indifference and disrespect to him. It infuriated him even more when he recalled his daughter's great deed.
With a roar, he slammed on the table. "Explain to us why you would sign up for a writing competition! Didn't I make myself crystal clear last time? As the descendant of the Li Family, there would be no meaning for your life if you did not inherit our family's legacy. Do you take our family as a joke by acting like a scholar who could do nothing but make pretty words?! Am I a joke to you?!"
Even Su Suyin was taken aback by the force of her husband's rage this time. She wanted to intervene, but she was also afraid of her husband's berating, so she clamped her mouth shut and let nature take its course. It was Li Caiyi's fault for testing his father's patience in the first place, anyway.
Li Caiyi did not cower under her father's fiery gaze. She wondered what kind of mistake she committed this time; it turned out he found out about that. However, how did Li Jirong know about it when she never told anyone from her family about this?
An answer flashed through her mind. Li Caiyi swept a sharp look over her bedroom before she returned her gaze to the man in front of her. Eventually, she was planning to tell her parents about it; however, she wanted to wait until they announced the winner before she did that. If she won, then her parents might be able to take the news better.
However, since the cat was out of the bag now, she had no choice but to reveal her intention.
Li Caiyi took a deep breath before she finally spoke firmly.
"Father, I don't want to be a doctor."
Her bold declaration dumbfounded Li Jirong for a second. He thought her daughter would break into a panic and even begged him to forgive her, but not only did she have no intention of repenting, but she even challenged him!
A mere good for nothing like her. How dare she!
Su Suyin was frightened to death when she noticed the change in her husband's expression because she knew well what that expression meant. She quickly held Li Jirong's thigh with a pleading look. "Husband, please calm—"
Before Su Suyin could finish her sentence, Li Jirong had raised his hand and gave Li Caiyi a fierce slap in the face. From the crisp sound of it, Li Jirong did not hold back at all.
Li Caiyi's slender figure could not withstand the sudden impact, so the momentum got her tumbled down from the sofa.
The room fell into silence.
Li Caiyi's mind was blank for a moment, but the realization slowly sunk in her. Her cheek was hot, and the stinging pain was very familiar. What did she expect him to do? Of course, a self-absorbed scum like him would never stop to listen to her explanation.
Li Caiyi already knew that, yet she still could not stop a sense of disappointment bubbling inside her. Li Jirong's extreme reaction had completely shattered any kind of delusional thought she had. She did not expect him to agree, but she thought he would at least ask why she did not want to be a doctor. However, she was clearly overestimating her self-worth in her father's eyes.
To him, she was unworthy of such conversation. The only thing he deemed worthy enough for her was a harsh beating.
"Ha," Li Caiyi let out a peal of self-mocking laughter as she touched the place where she was hit. It was scalding hot, very opposite to the chilling coldness in her heart.
She brought this to herself. By getting her hopes up, she was only asking for a beating!
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