Mr. and Mrs. Xia invited the Mo family to discuss the matter in a small hall adjacent to Xia Ruyan's room. The room, though modest, was spacious enough, furnished with two sofas and a table in the center.
"Mo Yichen, I can't trust you again. I don't think I ever will, not when it comes to my daughter," Mrs. Xia began sharply. "What happened now, and what's been happening in your house, is no secret. I told you and your grandfather before, she doesn't speak much, she keeps to herself, but she is a kind girl. She is loyal and polite, but only to those she considers her own. And yet, your family made sure she never felt that way."
She paused, her voice trembling slightly. "I didn't want to intervene. I knew the way you two got married would need time to adjust. But that doesn't erase the barbs your family continues to throw at her."
"I am deeply disappointed with how things turned out," Grandfather Mo added gravely. "I failed as the head of the family. But it was never intentional, and I promise, it will not happen again." He then looked to Mo Yichen, signaling him to speak.
Mo Yichen met their eyes directly. "I will prove myself through actions, not words. I will make you believe that sending her back to Mo Mansion was the right decision," he said, voice brimming with determination.
Xia Jingxuan responded with a calm but cold gaze. "Mo Yichen, human beings are bound by relationships, and they must learn to balance them. The way your family treats your wife will reflect how you treat her. I am sending my daughter back with you, not because I trust you, but because this is the only option. Being your wife offers her a layer of protection."
He exhaled slowly before continuing, "The Xia family has enemies. We still don't know who attacked A-Yan. Now that she can speak again, we'll ask if she remembers anything. But... the ghosts of the past," his voice cracked faintly, "I don't want to dig those graves. Because I had to bury my own blood in that graveyard."
His wife instinctively looped her arm around his. Tears welled in her eyes. He patted her hand gently.
"It's hard for us to speak about it, even think about it. But we left that life behind to live peacefully. Five years ago, we settled in Bai shu."
"Five years?" Mo Yichen interrupted. "But the records say you moved there two years ago."
Xia Jingxuan let out a sigh. "We did settle there five years ago, and for a while, we thought we found peace. But blood debts... they screamed into our serene nights. We had to leave again to settle those scores. It was a mistake. Everything changed after that. The loss was too great. 'Too big' doesn't even begin to describe it. We weren't looking for peace anymore, just refuge. But it seems those shadows never left us. We chased light but couldn't break through the darkness."
Then he looked at Mo Yichen with weary but determined eyes. "As a father, my only request is that you keep A-Yan safe. I will handle the rest."
Silence fell over the room. Heavy, suffocating. The kind of silence that felt like mourning. Mo Yichen suddenly remembered Xia Ruyan once saying she was mourning. Now he could see it, mirrored in her parents' grief. What had they lost to bury themselves so deeply in sorrow?
Mo Yize eventually stood and opened the window, letting in a breeze. It felt like the room had just stepped out of a graveyard.
In the adjoining room, Xia Ruyan sat still, staring at the wall. Zhen Yu sat across from her, quietly observing. He had known her since childhood, a distant relative of Rong Lihua, taken in by the Rong family after losing his own. He had later joined the army.
Whenever Xia Ruyan visited her grandparents, she would meet him. They had once been playmates. Now, though distant cousins, they remained good friends. Zhen Yu knew Xia Ruyan better than most. He knew she concealed her emotions behind silence. No one alive could truly read her. But he suspected something, something wild, was brewing within her.
If he asked, she'd never tell him. But he could see it, she was finally starting her game.
"You'll go back with that Mo?" he asked.
She tilted her head slightly, coming out of her trance. "Mm," she replied.
"After everything? He didn't care for you. His family plays these petty tricks," he said, clearly worried.
"Do you think I need his care?" she asked slowly. "Or that I care about his family?"
"Then why?"
"I care about mine," she said plainly. "And I have my own reasons to return."
"Yanyan, I know you're planning something. Just... don't do anything reckless. I don't think your parents can handle another shock."
She said nothing, returning to her blank stare at the wall. What she wanted, what she planned was hers alone to know. She wouldn't trust another soul, not even her parents. The human heart was greedy. And she had suffered enough from others' desires. Even her parents, greedy for her safety, were no exception.
At that moment, the Xia couple and Mo men entered the room. Xia Jingxuan approached her bed and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"A-Yan, Mo Yichen will take you home. The doctors say you can be discharged," he said softly.
Everyone braced for her reaction for rejection, a refusal. But Xia Ruyan looked at her father and replied simply, "Okay."
Mo Yichen and Xia Jingxuan, who had prepared for every possible rebuttal, were stunned into silence.
"You're not angry?" her father asked cautiously.
She shook her head. "You want me to go, Baba. That's enough."
"She's a good daughter," Grandfather Mo murmured.
Xia Ruyan heard him and turned. Good daughter. The words made her want to laugh. Indeed, she was a good daughter. And yet the darkness inside her only deepened. She quickly looked away before anyone could glimpse what she hid.
With her discharge confirmed, it was time to question her about the kidnapping. She recounted calmly: the sudden abduction, the dim room, the masked man.
"He was trained," Xia Jingxuan noted. "His martial arts were free-form not from any known school. "I couldn't see his face," he added. "The room was too dark. He wore a mask. But he was shorter than me, by about four inches."
"He smelled of cigarettes and frankincense," Xia Ruyan said. "It felt... familiar. But I can't quite place it."
"His voice was hoarse, like a chain smoker. He lit a lighter at one point. I saw a tattoo on his neck....looked like a spider lily."
She paused to breathe. Her voice remained unnervingly calm, as if she were describing a stranger she had brushed past on the street.
"And there was a scar on his right hand," she added. "Thick calluses too."
"You saw it?" Zhen Yu asked, leaning forward.
She shook her head. "No. I felt it... when he touched me."
Zhen Yu cursed aloud, slamming his fist on the armrest.
Mo Yichen felt something vicious stir in him, primal, brutal and burning. He didn't know he could feel rage like this. The thought of anyone touching her...
He started to step forward to ask where and how, but stopped when he saw Xia Jingxuan. The man stood rigid, silent, trembling. But his rage was cold and controlled. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.
"A-Yan, we will find him," he said gently. "Your only mission now is to heal."
His voice was soft, but the force behind it left Mo Yichen stunned. So, this was where Xia Ruyan's quiet strength came from.
Even Mo Yize looked on in awe. The Xia couple's quiet dignity, their bond, their restraint, it was something else entirely.
"Yeah, just rest and heal," Zhen Yu added. "I even got you an ointment, there won't be any scars."
There was no need for anger now. That would be reserved for the right time, for the right person.
That was what they had been taught in the Xia household.