After nine lifetimes of reincarnation, the yandere villainous heroine descends.

For several days in a row, Shao Miao locked herself in her bedroom, refusing to show herself no matter how much her mother knocked and called out from outside.

She never imagined that after decades of being together day and night, she would be completely immersed in a colossal lie woven by her mother.

To care for her seriously ill mother, she swallowed her grievances and served her day and night, believing that she was shouldering the heavy burden of family ties and protecting the warmth of blood relations.

It wasn't until a thin sheet of paper revealed the truth, ruthlessly piercing through all pretense, that she suddenly glimpsed the obsessive selfishness hidden beneath her mother's frail exterior.

That persistent illness was never just a physical ailment, but rather a fine shackle that bound her steps year after year, making it impossible for her to move an inch.

These past few days, what kept recurring in Shao Miao's mind was Shen Shu Chou, who was far away in Suzhou.

She held the old phone with its slightly yellowed screen edges and opened the chat window with him—in the input field.

That sentence, "Shen Shuchou, I miss you so much..." had been lying there for a long time. She wrote it and deleted it, deleted it and wrote it again, but never had the courage to send it.

A few days ago, she finally mustered up all her courage and dialed that familiar number, but instead of the gentle male voice she remembered, she heard a cold and distant female voice.

At that moment, an overwhelming sadness overwhelmed her, like a cold tide, slowly eroding her senses, making even breathing feel heavy.

She curled up in the blankets, burying her face in her knees, her tears silently soaking the bedding.

It turns out that even distant longings can't find a place to rest.

The next moment, with a loud crash, the locked bedroom door was ripped open by a brute force, and wood chips flew everywhere.

The lights in the room suddenly turned on, and the blinding light instantly filled every corner.

Li Ming stood in the light, her expression obscured by the backlight, only her eyes fixed on Shao Miao, who was curled up in the corner of the bed.

The footsteps approached, finally stopping beside the bed. Li Ming looked down at her, her voice calm to the point of being cold: "You've made enough of a scene these past few days, haven't you?"

Upon hearing this, the blankets, which were wrapped up in a ball, stirred slightly, and a small head slowly peeked out.

Her small face, streaked with tears, was pale and haggard, and her lifeless eyes stared blankly at the person in front of her.

This familiar face, etched into my very bones by our daily interactions, now exudes a chilling strangeness and coldness, severing all the warmth of the past.

A moment later, a faint, bitter smile appeared on her lips, her voice hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper: "Are you kidding me?"

The reason I kept it from you was because I had my reasons and had no choice but to do so.

Li Ming was stating a perfectly reasonable fact: "You are my daughter, you should understand me, instead of throwing a tantrum like this."

The cold words, like heavy shackles, suddenly tightened around Shao Miao's throat.

A suffocating feeling suddenly swept over her limbs and bones, making her chest feel tight, her breathing difficult, and even her heart ached with a soreness, leaving her with no strength to argue.

Difficulties? Understanding? It turns out that in her mother's eyes, her struggles and pain these days were just "willful tantrums".

Backlit, Li Ming quietly watched her dejected and broken appearance, a barely perceptible struggle and reluctance flashing across her eyes.

But that touch of softness vanished in an instant, replaced by coldness once more.

"Don't you have anything you want to say to me?"

Silence fell all around.

Shao Miao remained silent, slowly lowering her eyes and burying her shattered head deep inside the blankets.

She wrapped herself tightly in the soft quilt again, as if this small, cramped space was the only safe haven she had left to contain her disheveled state and pain.

This passive and escapist attitude ignited Li Ming's anger.

The restraint in his eyes suddenly shattered, revealing a surging surge of malevolence.

She stepped forward, raised her hand without saying a word, and suddenly ripped off the layers of blankets.

The warmth dissipated, and Shao Miao curled up, her thin body exposed to the glaring, cold light, vulnerable and utterly fragile.

"Are you really that cowardly?"

Li Ming stared intently at her, her tone sharp and filled with exasperated anger, "You're not willing to say a single word to me?"

Shao Miao remained deathly silent, her eyes a desolate emptiness.

She futilely stretched out her slender, icy hand, trying to pull the blankets back to cover her disheveled and embarrassed state.

But the next instant, a hand with tremendous force suddenly grabbed her wrist and pressed it down hard, not allowing her to struggle at all.

Immediately afterwards, that hand forcibly turned her downcast face, forcing her to look up and face him directly.

The moment their eyes met, Li Ming saw the girl's lifeless and utterly desolate eyes, and a sharp pain suddenly shot through her heart.

The next instant, she raised her hand and brought it down.

"Snap—"

The crisp, loud slap shattered the deathly silence of the room, sharp and abrupt.

A searing pain instantly shot up half of Shao Miao's cheek, and her fair skin flushed a glaring crimson.

Li Ming's eyes were bloodshot, her chest heaving violently, a mixture of pent-up anger and anxiety swirling within her. Her voice was sharp and piercing: "Speak!"

The extreme numbness had already permeated every part of Shao Miao's body, and the burning pain on her cheeks had become blurry and distant.

Compared to the coldness that pierces my heart, this physical pain is insignificant.

She looked up at her mother, who was both familiar and unfamiliar to her. Her eyes were empty and stiff, and her voice was hoarse and broken, without any emotion, but every word was filled with tears.

"What does Mother want Miaomiao to say? No matter what Miaomiao says or does, in Mother's eyes, it's just being unreasonable, right?"

"Over the years, Miaomiao has always stayed by her mother's side and taken good care of her, because in my heart, my mother is everything to me."

Shao Miao spoke slowly and deliberately.

"I can give up everything, but I can't give up my mother. But now I realize that it was all a lie. In my mother's eyes, I'm probably just a willful and mischievous child now."

She paused, then looked up at Li Ming, her gaze carrying an almost broken calm: "So, what else does Mother want me to say?"

After a brief pause, she asked softly, "Is Mother satisfied now? Can Miaomiao be left to her own for a while?"

Hearing these words, the anger in Li Ming's eyes seemed to be extinguished by a bucket of cold water, replaced by a dense mass of pain.

She opened her mouth, as if something was stuck in her throat, but in the end she said nothing, slowly turned around, and left the room.

The moment the door was gently closed, Shao Miao could no longer hold back, and tears streamed down her face like a broken string of pearls.

She bit her lip hard to stop herself from crying out, but her shoulders trembled violently uncontrollably.

Li Ming, after leaving the room, did not stop walking. She walked straight out of the building, through the tree-lined path of the community, and only stopped at the entrance of the community.

The evening breeze was cool, and the night was deep.

Under a streetlamp not far away, a woman in a black trench coat stood quietly, a cigarette between her fingers, the smoke slowly dissipating in the cool air.

Li Ming walked to her side and stopped. The other person gently blew a smoke ring, which happened to drift right in front of her.

Li Ming frowned slightly, but did not dodge.

"Want one?"

The woman turned her head to the side, her voice languid, and handed over the cigarette case.

Li Ming glanced at the box and said calmly, "I've quit."

The woman raised an eyebrow, withdrew her hand, and stubbed out her cigarette in the nearby trash can: "It seems you've really gotten into character playing the role of a good mother all these years."

Li Ming's expression darkened slightly. She didn't reply, but stared at the blurry lights in the distance, a complex and unreadable emotion flashing in her eyes.