If You Could Hear My Heart

Following the light, she narrowed her eyes and confirmed that the noise was coming from a low house.

The screams and howls were mixed with the sound of barking dogs, which piqued Zhou Ran’s curiosity, prompting her to open the car door.

As she walked toward that house, she realized that it was a dog kennel.

There were two large wolf dogs inside the kennel, and in the darkness, they looked fierce and vigilant, their eyes gleaming.

Not far from them were two girls, curled up in fear, clinging to each other and crying, shouting together.

The two wolf dogs kept pacing around them, sniffing them incessantly with their noses.

Every time a wolf dog approached, the two girls would let out a loud cry.

One of the girls, with sharp eyes, was the first to notice Zhou Ran; she recognized that this was the mother of the Fourth Young Master!

“Madam, Madam, please save us… We don’t want to be bitten to death…” the girl crawled over.

Her head was covered with thatch and spider webs, making her look extremely disheveled.

Zhou Ran, of course, did not recognize her and frowned, “Who are you?”

“We are… We did something wrong and were thrown here… We are… We are servants of the Waterside Pavilion…”

“Waterside Pavilion servants?” Zhou Ran’s eyes sharpened, her face expressing doubt.

“Yes, Madam, we are not lying… Please save us, please… We don’t want to die from dog bites…” They were crying miserably.

The two wolf dogs continued to circle them, but since the girls did not engage in any extreme behavior, the dogs just surrounded them without attacking.

The size of the two wolf dogs was intimidating to anyone who saw them, let alone having to share a space with them.

Zhou Ran stood outside feeling chilly, but as calm as she was, she saw more than just the wolf dogs.

“Madam, please, save us…”

“Who locked you in here?”

“It was… It was the Fourth Young Master… We accidentally offended the Fourth Young Master’s wife’s dog…”

One of the girls finished speaking with a trembling voice, her shoulders shaking violently.

Her face had turned pale with fear, her legs continuously quivering.

Zhou Ran fell silent, offended Xu Chaomu’s dog?

“Madam, please save us, we promise never to make another mistake… We will always obey you in the future…”

Under the night sky, their voices sounded especially pitiful.

The two wolf dogs were still pacing around them, sniffing incessantly.

“Wait for me,” said Zhou Ran, then turned and walked toward her car.

The two girls did not dare to breathe heavily, clinging to each other, waiting for Zhou Ran to return.

Zhou Ran remembered there were some jerked meats in the trunk of her car, which she retrieved and unwrapped.

Approaching the kennel, she threw all of the jerked meats as far away from the girls as possible!

The fragrant smell of the meat enticed the wolf dogs, who became excited and pounced toward the meat!

The girls saw a glimmer of hope, and at that moment, Zhou Ran opened the door of the kennel!

They quickly ran out, and just as the wolf dogs were reacting, Zhou Ran swiftly closed the door!

The two of them collapsed on the ground, their legs giving out.

“Thank you, Madam… Thank you… Thank you… Thank you…”

“Why did the Fourth Young Master lock you in here? Explain clearly,” Zhou Ran asked.

She was not someone who favored beating around the bush; she was no savior either.

The two calmed down, thumping their chests, gasping for breath as they recounted the whole evening’s events.

“Madam, that’s what happened… We were just complaining a bit, perhaps we said some unpleasant things, and then…” they expressed their grievance.

“Daring to spout nonsense in the Fourth Young Master’s house, this punishment is already considered light!” Zhou Ran said sternly.

“Madam, we dare not anymore, we know we were wrong…” the two hastily pleaded for mercy again.

They could not guess what Zhou Ran was thinking; if she sided with the Fourth Young Master and his wife, she certainly would not have rescued them.

“I want to ask you a few questions,” Zhou Ran said.

“You ask, we will tell you everything we know.”

“Do the Fourth Young Master and his wife often stay at the Waterside Pavilion?”

“Sometimes we stay here, sometimes we go back to the Shen Family.” They answered with respect and sincerity.

“Are their relations good?”

“That…”

“Tell the truth!” Zhou Ran demanded sharply.

“Sometimes they’re good, sometimes not so much, but most of the time they’re quite good.”

“When they’re not good… For instance?”

“Like the night before last when there was a heavy downpour.” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Hmm? Continue,” Zhou Ran said, standing with her arms folded in front of them.

“The rain that night was particularly heavy, and the Fourth Young Master and his wife went to the Shen Family. We thought they would not come back, so we started to close up,” a maidservant said with more articulation, narrating the events to Zhou Ran in one breath.

Zhou Ran listened quietly, without any change in her expression.

“But late at around nine o’clock, they suddenly came back. The rain was pouring, and I was the one who went to meet them with an umbrella,” she continued. “The Fourth Young Master carried his wife out of the car, both of them looking rather grim. Especially the Fourth Young Master’s wife, her eyes swollen and red, as if she had been crying…”

“Then what happened?” Zhou Ran asked.

“The next day, the Fourth Young Master didn’t go to work, and his wife lay in her room all day, neither eating nor drinking,” said the young maidservant.

“Yes, yes, I brought breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the time, only to find that the Fourth Young Master’s wife hadn’t eaten a bite,” said another maidservant.

“What was the Fourth Young Master’s reaction?” Zhou Ran asked again.

“We saw the Fourth Young Master smoking outside for a long time, his face stormy. We were all very afraid of the Fourth Young Master; that day, nobody dared to provoke him. Still, someone got scolded by the Fourth Young Master.”

“What was the reason?” Zhou Ran inquired.

“It seems they had an argument,” said the little servant.

“Not right, it wasn’t an argument,” another servant contradicted, “A servant who came back from the Shen Family said the Fourth Young Master’s wife was quite out of control there that night, and some people heard her call out ‘Mom’…”

“Is that so? Then I don’t know,” said the little servant, shaking her head.

“Perhaps the Fourth Young Master’s wife remembered her mother, who passed away long ago…” the other servant speculated, “Maybe she lost control of her emotions for a moment.”

As they talked, the depth of Zhou Ran’s gaze kept increasing, darkening as she seemed to understand something, though her face remained composed.

“Madam… The time we saw the Fourth Young Master and his wife at their worst was probably the night before last. However, today the Fourth Young Master took his wife out and when they returned, the Fourth Young Master’s wife’s mood, although still low, had improved a lot.”

“I see,” Zhou Ran said indifferently.