Filed To Story: The Scarlet Vengeance: Justice of a Framed Beauty Novel (Grace & Jason)
From then on, Lisa was left all alone. Her most frequent destination was the river where her daughter drowned. She would often burn paper offerings by the riverbank.
Who would have thought that over three months ago, Lisa found an unconscious woman by the river, and the woman’s leg was even broken.
Lisa spent a lot of her savings to bring an old village doctor from a nearby village to treat the woman.
Although the woman’s legs are in casts, she has been unconscious the whole time.
As a result, many people in the village are saying that Lisa is a burden and that her family now has an
“undead” person living with them.
Some people even encouraged Lisa to throw the woman out, saying that she wouldn’t wake up anyway, so what’s the difference between that and being dead.
However, Lisa persisted and refused to give up. She said that even if the person couldn’t wake up, their life was still valuable and couldn’t be discarded so easily.
Furthermore, this woman was found in the river, which made Lisa feel even more like it was her deceased daughter coming back.
Lisa went to the old village doctor again to get the medicine. She cooked it in a clay pot and carefully fed it to the woman lying unconscious in bed, one spoonful at a time.
“When will you wake up? Everyone says you won’t wake up, but
I don’t believe that. As long as my wife is alive, I will take care of you. It’s up to your luck whether you can wake up before my wife passes away.” Lisa muttered to herself, unaware that the woman lying unconscious beside her had twitched her left pinky finger slightly.
A year’s time has quickly passed.
During this year, for some people, it was just an ordinary year, but for others, it was a year of significant change.
Phoebe and Whitney have been sentenced to life imprisonment, and anyone who knows the details knows that these two will not have a chance of parole. They may even suffer various forms of torture while in prison.
But no one sympathizes with them.
Even Patrick, who had some acquaintance with Phoebe, never spoke up to plead for her even a little bit.
Everyone knows that the current crown prince is colder and more melancholic than ever before. He always has a piece of rag wrapped around his right wrist, but few people know what it is or what it means.
Just beside him, there was one less person, a girlfriend he had once admitted to having!
The three characters of “Valda” have become a taboo in front of him, and others cannot mention it.
Once it is brought up, no one can say for sure what the outcome will be.
Once, a journalist mentioned Valda’s name in front of Brian and asked if they had broken up. As a result, Brian physically attacked the journalist and sent them to the hospital. Since then, nobody has seen that journalist in Emerald City.
The uncontrollable and frenzied behavior of Brian when he hit the reporter, along with his aggressive appearance, left a lasting impression on those who witnessed the scene.
At that time, people gradually began to understand that the three letters “Valda” were synonymous with taboo.
And now, the person most frequently seen with Brian is a woman named Camille. Many people are speculating in secret whether
Camille is the prince’s new lover.
Whenever Camille sees this kind of gossip online, she can only helplessly smile.
The reason why Brian became close to her and even met her once a week is because they both share a bond over “Valda”..
Every week, Brian would ask her to talk about things related to
Valda, whether it was their experiences in school or Valda’s work experiences. Brian was desperate to know everything about
Valda, even though this understanding now seems too late.
Brian goes to the apartment where Valda used to live every week to clean it himself, without relying on anyone else.
Once, when Camille was also at Valda’s apartment, she saw Brian holding one of Valda’s sketchbooks and crying like a child.
Later on, Camille found out that the booklet was filled with drawings of Brian, all done by Valda.
H
Even some of the paintings had Valda’s personal messages next to them.
These were things that Valda left for Brian, but for Brian now, they felt more like a punishment.
A punishment for his missed opportunity.
The woman who once loved him so much was gone! She couldn’t be found!
It wasn’t until now that Camille truly felt that Brian had really fallen in love with Valda! How happy Valda would have been if she knew?
But…it was too late!
Once again, Camille arrived at Valda’s apartment door and took out the key to the apartment.
Now, there were two keys to this apartment, one in her hand and the other in Brian’s.
And when she opened the door, the lights in the room were on.
Could it be that Brian had come?
Camille thought for a moment, then closed the door and walked through the hallway to the living room.
There was no one in the living room, so she figured Brian must have gone to Valda’s bedroom.
Camille thought about it but didn’t go into the bedroom to disturb.
Often, when she and Brian were both in the apartment, they wouldn’t bother each other.
Camille sat on the sofa in the living room and picked up a Valda comic book, flipping through it casually.
Whenever she stays here like this, looking at everything in the room remaining the same, she feels as if Valda is still alive.
But with the amount of water released from the reservoir, there’s no way Valda, who can’t swim, could have survived!
At that moment, suddenly, there was a loud noise of something heavy falling to the ground in the bedroom, followed by a woman’s cry of pain.
Camille’s body suddenly stiffened.
What is this sound…
She almost abruptly stood up and looked straight towards the direction of the bedroom.
Is it possible? Could it be Valda?
Is Valda still alive? Did she even come back here?!
Camille put down the book in her hand and almost stumbled as she walked to the bedroom door and pushed it open.
What she saw was a slender figure struggling to get up from the ground. Camille stared at the figure in disbelief, her eyes turning red in an instant.
It was…Valda!
It was Valda!
Even though Valda had lost a lot of weight compared to a year ago, and her long hair had been cut short, but…it was Valda!
“Valda!” Camille shouted suddenly, “You’re alive? You’re still alive?”
As she shouted, Camille ran to Valda and hugged her tightly. The real touch and warmth of her body told her that this was not her imagination!
“You’re really alive! Why didn’t you call me to tell me you’re alive?
Do you know how worried we were about you? Brian hasn’t given up looking for you, he’s been sending people to search for you all this time!” Camille said in a rush, tears streaming down her face.
“Sorry,” murmured Valda.
“You know, do you have any idea how many tears I shed for you during these days? I thought I would never see you again,” Camille cried and laughed, then suddenly remembered something and said, “By the way, does Brian know that you’re alive? No, he probably doesn’t know yet. If he did, he would probably be by your side now. I need to call him and share this good news!”
Camille spoke and quickly took out her phone. However, just as she was about to make a call, Valda’s hand pressed down on her phone.
“Camille, don’t hit!” said Valda.
Camille looked at Valda strangely and asked, “Valda, what’s wrong? Are you planning to surprise him yourself? Should I find a reason for him to come over and then you can…?”
“I don’t want to surprise him, I just don’t want to face him yet,
Camille. I came here today just to retrieve some of my personal belongings and I don’t want him to know that I’m still alive.”
Valda returned to her apartment and found the key to her door under the doormat, which was her habit. Surprisingly, the spare key was still there after a year.
So she decided to leave with something without disturbing anyone.
But unexpectedly, they met a good friend!
“Why?” Camille looked puzzled, her gaze fixed on Valda until she noticed her friend was wearing a long dress that reached down to her ankles.
Valda never used to wear long dresses like this before.
But then, her eyes widened as she noticed a crutch in the room.
This type of crutch is usually used by people with mobility issues, propped under the armpit. And now, there was one in the room.
“Valda, are you injured?” Camille asked with concern.
“Well, I got hurt, but I survived. It’s just that one leg is a bit immobile,” Valda said, bending down to pick up the crutch from the floor. She propped it under her armpit and picked up some personal items she had previously organized, hobbling out of the bedroom.
Camille quickly followed her out of the room. “How long will it take for your leg to heal? You’re having trouble moving around now, so you should tell Brian to take care of you!”
“Camille,” Valda took a deep breath and said seriously, “my leg… will never heal. It won’t get better.”
“What?!” Camille was stunned, her face full of disbelief. “It won’t get better? What does that mean?”
“It means that my leg will always be lame from now on,” Valda said. For the rest of her life, she would be a cripple.
Camille felt as if a huge rock had hit her chest, causing pain and making it difficult for her to breathe.
“I don’t know how you got injured, but you can definitely recover from it. I’m sure of it!” said Camille.
Valda’s eyes flashed with a hint of desolation as she gave a bitter smile and said, “It’s not looking good.
My leg has already missed the best time for treatment, so no matter how I try to treat it again now, it’s too late!”