Chapter 4: 4. Chapter 4: Seven-Stringed Zither, Breaking-the-Formation Music

Chapter 4: Seven-String Zither, Music of the Broken Formation

Ye Wanlan slowly raised her head. She rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward alone. "Wenli, wait for me here. It’ll be over in a minute."

One minute.

To deal with these people, she only needed one minute.

"Sensible." The leader was very satisfied.

They didn't want to forcibly take Ye Wanlan away in front of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School either; it would leave a bad impression and damage the Qin family's reputation.

"You—" Lin Wenli failed to stop her. He watched as Ye Wanlan followed the Qin family's guards into the alley, his brows furrowed tightly.

Even though he detested Ye Wanlan, he hadn't reached the point of watching her die without intervening.

In the end, Lin Wenli stepped forward and picked up his phone, preparing to call the police.

One minute passed, and it was at this moment that Ye Wanlan emerged from the alley. Not a single strand of her hair was out of place, and her shirt remained pristine white.

But Lin Wenli noticed fresh blood dripping down the girl's index finger.

Her finger bones were like jade, the crimson blood striking and vivid, like a beautiful ghost.

Lin Wenli was shocked. He took two more steps forward, and only then did he see the full scene inside the alley.

The five Qin family guards were sprawled on the ground, piled one on top of the other, vomiting blood, their faces bruised and swollen. It was clear they had suffered inhuman abuse.

This had been a one-sided beating.

Ye Wanlan wiped her hands, looking indifferent. "It's settled. Let's go home."

Lin Wenli didn't move.

He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Ye Wanlan, but he still remembered how she used to fawn over and humble herself for people in Zhou Hechen's circle. How had she suddenly changed?

"They wanted to hit me." Ye Wanlan raised her eyes and swept a glance over them, adding an explanation, "But they were unlucky and tripped."

Lin Wenli looked at one of the guards, whose leg was broken. "You're saying they tripped and ended up like this?"

Ye Wanlan was certain. "I said, they walked in and tripped like this."

Lin Wenli: "..."

He could be certain that Ye Wanlan had gone mad.

But it had nothing to do with him.

Lin Wenli put his phone away and left with an expressionless face.

The siblings walked one after the other.

The whole way was silent.

Irises swayed in the wind. Ye Wanlan said, "I'm moving back home."

Hearing this, Lin Wenli stopped abruptly, mocking, "Home? Didn't you say that if it couldn't even give you a Gardica bag, it wasn't your home?"

His memory was excellent.

He remembered that time Lin Huaijin had run into Ye Wanlan on the street and kindly urged her to go back to school, only to have her smash a luxury bag into his face.

"What good does it do me to go back to school? I could work my whole life and still not afford a Gardica bag. Do you know how much this bag costs? One point two million after the matching requirements! Can you give me that? Get lost!"

Recalling these words, Lin Wenli's gaze grew colder.

He would not believe Ye Wanlan.

Ye Wanlan lowered her eyelashes, her voice cool. "I threw all those away."

Lin Wenli laughed coldly and quickened his pace.

It was already 7:30 when the two returned home, and the aroma of food greeted them.

"Dad, Mom, I'm back." Lin Wenli nodded slightly, put down his schoolbag, and went to wash his hands.

Ye Wanlan greeted Xu Peiqing, who had also returned not long ago. "Hello, Auntie."

Xu Peiqing didn't look at her, nor did she speak. She gripped her chopsticks tightly, her eyes dark and gloomy, restraining herself from erupting.

It was Lin Huaijin who broke the deadlock. "Let's eat."

The four of them ate the meal with different thoughts in mind.

After finishing, Ye Wanlan picked up the empty plate and headed to the kitchen.

Xu Peiqing finally spoke: "Don't touch it, let go! This is none of your business!"

"Auntie—"

"I said let go!"

"Clatter!"

In the struggle, the plate fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.

A deathly silence followed.

Ye Wanlan stared blankly at her hands, her eyelashes trembling slightly.

"Alright, everyone sit down. I'll wash the dishes." Lin Huaijin felt a headache coming on.

Xu Peiqing took a deep breath and slammed the door as she returned to her room.

Lin Wenli remained expressionless. He looked at Ye Wanlan. "You shouldn't have come back."

Ye Wanlan squatted down, clutching a shard in her palm, letting the blood seep out. After a long while, she said in a low voice, "I'm going to the attic."

**

"Peiqing." Lin Huaijin pushed open the door to the master bedroom and urged in a low voice, "Don't be angry, it's not good for your health."

"Why is she here?" Xu Peiqing turned back abruptly. She asked with tears in her eyes, "Lin Huaijin, have you forgotten the pain once the wound has healed? Have you forgotten how she treated you?!"

For these past four years, Ye Wanlan had trampled their kindness into the mud countless times.

She could not bear to live under the same roof as such a person.

Lin Huaijin was silent for a moment. "I feel like she has truly returned this time, just like six years ago, when she was twelve, she..."

Xu Peiqing wiped her tears, her voice cold and hard. "I don't believe it. Yesterday, the Zhou family sent people here to look for her. How do you know she wasn't dumped by the young master of the Zhou family and is only coming back as a second choice? She only treats you as a fallback! And yet, you still believe her!"

The affair of Ye Wanlan acting as a substitute for Zhou Hechen had caused a storm in Jiangcheng.

Xu Peiqing also knew that Ye Wanlan had run away several times over the past two years, only to end up back by Zhou Hechen's side each time.

What were they?

A link in the amusement of Ye Wanlan and Zhou Hechen?

They were human too, and their hearts were made of flesh and blood!

After a very, very long silence, Lin Huaijin said hoarsely, "Peiqing, this is the last time, I promise."

Xu Peiqing closed her eyes. "Fine. I can pretend she doesn't exist, but I have one requirement: she must not affect Wenli."

Whatever Ye Wanlan's future held, it had long since ceased to have anything to do with her.

**

Ye Wanlan was cleaning the attic.

There was a lot of clutter piled up here, almost all of it her belongings.

The transmigrator who had occupied her body had never returned to the Lin house and would not have known about this place.

Aside from books, the most eye-catching item was a seven-string zither. It was covered in dust, clearly untouched for a long time.

Ye Wanlan wiped the body and strings of the zither clean and gently plucked one of the strings.

"Zheng!"

The string vibrated; the greatest sound is silent.

Ye Wanlan blew the dust off the music score. As the dust cleared, the three characters "Music of the Broken Formation" came into view.

The transmigrator would never have guessed that the head of the ten great classical masterpieces of Shenzhou, long lost to history, was in this inconspicuous attic—a treasure that the World Intangible Cultural Heritage Center had been desperately searching for in vain.

Ye Wanlan put the score away and carried the seven-string zither into her bedroom.

When she returned this morning, she knew that even though she hadn't been at the Lin house for four years, Lin Huaijin had still kept her room.

He had even prepared new sheets and a duvet cover while she was out picking up Lin Wenli.

Ye Wanlan's expression was faint.

What was a desperate situation? She had always liked finding life in the face of death, and she could kill to her heart's content.

Her phone vibrated; a new message came in.

Cheng Qingli: [Sister Lan, my ancestor! What have you done?]

Cheng Qingli was the new agent she had just hired; the two hadn't met yet.

Ye Wanlan took a look.

It was a screenshot of a social media post.

Someone had posted a photo of the Qin family guards beaten to the point of vomiting blood, with the caption: "Since when did Young Master Zhou's pet become so wild?"

Below it was a string of comments.

[No way, did she go crazy because of love-turned-hate for Young Master Zhou?]

[What's the point of going crazy? With one wave from Young Master Zhou, she'll still run back. It's just playing hard to get.]

[Sister Yunyi is back, does she really think she can compare to the real one?]

At the very bottom was a comment from Zhou Hechen: [Delusional.]