Destined to be his Wife

Chapter 19 - Confused

"You stupid girl! Pick it up, don't you dare leave a single piece on the floor. I am not moving until you pick it all up!" Aunt RuiZi was screeching at TangShi so loudly it was hurting her already delicate head. Suffering from her first time being drunk, and she was trying to ignore the washing machine stomach or pounding fluffy brain. Auntie her usual mean self and picking out absolutely anything she could to make TangShi's life hard. If it wasn't restricting her food, criticizing her hair, clothes or make up, day in and out, then it was finding random things to scold her for, like this.

She was suffering from last night and was being unusually clumsy today. Having accidently walked into aunt who was carrying a glass of water and knocked it out of her hand in passing. The shards all over the floor were mixed with the undrunk water and Xiaosu was screamed at for trying to help her tend to it. Aunt was in a bad mood, as usual, and TangShi was always an easy target.

"I'll go get a brush and dustpan and some paper towels." Xiaosu offered as a way of help, but Aunt glared at her with that nasty venom she was good at and Xiaosu quietened right down. She knew better than to intervene when she had been warned off.

TangShi pulled the wastepaper basket from under the nearby table and walked back to the mess glittering the hardwood floor. It was hard to see where all the shards were in the water and began blindly picking at anything sticking up, scratching her fingers as she did so, but Aunt was not sympathetic.

"Don't be so clumsy. Don't you drip blood everywhere. I'm cursed to have you living under my roof and now look at the mess you're making!" Her high-pitched shrill tone was piercing and TangShi jumped. Slicing her index finger on a large piece she was aiming for by accident. Her nerves were already frazzled today, and aunt wasn't helping.

She tried to stem the blood by pressing her other finger against it and continuing to pick up glass with her other hand, turning to Xiaosu with a sober expression.

"Can you get me some tissues for my hand? So It doesn't make things worse." She asked with a gentle quiet tone, hoping aunt would at least allow her something to stop the blood dripping all over the floor.

"Yes, Miss." Xiaosu didn't wait to be told she wasn't allowed and ran off at speed to go find the first aid box, feeling horrible for her Miss Lei. Xiaosu hated seeing her being bullied day after day and hated how indifferent YuZhi seemed about aunts mean temper towards his wife. TangShi was too sweet a girl to throw shade back at the elders, and it infuriated Xiaosu how much she put up with.

TangShi pulled back as a sharp stabbing sensation shot up her pointer finger on her uncut hand and pulled back to stick it in her mouth as fresh blood started seeping from another slice. Aunt looked so furious she might self-implode.

"You're doing it on purpose, aren't you? Stupid, idiot girl. Clumsy and pathetic, I curse the day they brought you home." She had hit a new level of shrill, her temper flaring, and she waved a glitter tipped finger close to TangShi's face as she crouched down, making her flinch but she kept her calm. TangShi had years of practice being on the receiving end of this kind of treatment and didn't react at all. Doing what she always did, eyes down, face blank and continued to try and finish the task they were yelling at her to do.

The blood wasn't stopping thanks to the water which was making her hands drip. Small slices looking worse as the blood diluted and ran further on both hands now. She kept trying to proceed but the droplets of red were spreading as they hit the puddles on the floor and tinting them too, so it was starting to resemble a mini murder scene.

"What's going on?" YuZhi's hostile tone made TangShi jump with the unexpectedness of it, and Aunt snap her head up to the two approaching male figures that just walked into the hallway. Both men clad in three-piece grey suits and looking like handsome bookends getting off work. YuZhi spotted the mess, the blood around her feet and TangShi's hands from his angle and his face turned thunderous. Isn't switching from tired and relieved to be home, to snarling protector.