A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

Under the sky, everyone fell silent.

A farmer forgot about the tobacco in his hand, and only jerked his hand away when a spark burned his fingertip.

Liu Che, inside the Weiyang Palace, stared intently at the sky.

Li Shimin, sitting in the Taiji Hall, unconsciously gripped the armrests of the dragon throne, his knuckles turning white.

Ying Zheng, in the Xianyang Palace, put down his vermilion brush, unaware that a small patch of ink had seeped into the bamboo slip.

Liu Bang placed the wine cup on his lap and forgot to drink it.

No one spoke; even their breathing became soft.

On the sky, Shen Moyan turned around, picked up the blackboard eraser, and erased all the remaining words "coercion," "concealment," and "dead silence—outburst—greater dead silence" from the blackboard, stroke by stroke.

Chalk dust rose up, drifting into a fine mist under the fluorescent lights.

She picked up the chalk and rewrote a line on the blackboard.

Act IV: Thunderstorm.

"The fourth act takes place two hours later, at two o'clock in the morning, in the living room of Zhou Mansion."

Everyone in Act III is converging on this mansion, and the living room in Act IV is their final meeting point.

Thirty years ago, Zhou Puyuan pushed Shiping out the door, and the price was settled in this scene. Three years ago, Zhou Ping and Fanyi crossed that line, and the price was settled in this scene.

She picked up the chalk and wrote a time under the word "destruction": 2 a.m., location: Zhou Mansion living room.

"Act Four is the end of the play. All the survivors have gathered in the living room of the Zhou mansion. The thunderstorm outside the window has reached its most violent moment. This scene has only one outcome: everyone knows the truth, and then they are destroyed."

She opened her textbook.

"At the beginning of Act IV, Zhou Puyuan is alone in the living room. He is waiting for Fanyi to return, for Zhou Chong to return, and for everyone to return to this roof. Outside, there is thunder and rain. He is sitting in this living room filled with Shiping's old things, looking at the furniture, those things he has kept for thirty years."

"The first one to return was Zhou Ping. He had just escaped from Lu Gui's house. He was half-drenched and looked flustered. He made an excuse to send the servants away and let Si Feng hide in his room first. He was going upstairs to confront Fan Yi and beg her to let him leave with Si Feng before dawn."

"Following her back was Fanyi. She was soaking wet, her hair was plastered to her forehead, and her face was as white as paper."

She stood outside the Lu family's window for half the night, watching Zhou Ping climb into Si Feng's room.

The rain extinguished her last glimmer of hope.

She understood; Zhou Ping wouldn't turn back, and her eighteen years of forbearance in this family had won her nothing.

Zhou Puyuan looked at her and asked where she had gone. Fanyi said she had gone out for a walk, and without looking at him, she went straight upstairs.

Zhou Puyuan didn't press her further; he didn't care where she had gone.

"But this time, Fanyi was no longer the woman forced to drink medicine in the first act. She walked to the top of the stairs, stopped, turned to look at Zhou Puyuan, and said clearly: 'Tell Zhou Ping to come see me.'"

Zhou Puyuan frowned: "He's upstairs." Fanyi said: "I know." Zhou Puyuan looked at her: "What do you mean by that?" Fanyi smiled: "What do I mean? Ask your good son."

Zhou Ping rushed downstairs, trying to stop Fanyi. He grabbed her arm and whispered to her not to make a scene.

Fanyi shook off his hand, stared at him intently, her eyes filled with a desperate ferocity.

She didn't expose their affair in public. What she wanted now wasn't a humiliating, mutually destructive confrontation, but to keep Zhou Ping and break him up with Sifeng.

Shen Moyan closed his textbook.

Zhou Puyuan merely glanced at her coldly, observing her soaking wet, pale, and seemingly insane state. Then he turned to Zhou Ping and said, "Your mother has gone mad. Take her upstairs."

As always, he used the gentlest, most cultured, and most subtle way to refute Fanyi's words.

You're crazy, you're having an episode, you need to take your medication.

Shen Moyan wrote a line on the blackboard: Use the word "madness" to erase all resistance.

"But Fanyi was not erased. Driven to desperation, she called out to Zhou Chong."

"Zhou Chong returned a long time ago. He walked all the way in the rain, and there wasn't a single dry spot on his body."

He went to the Lu family to find Sifeng and witnessed an embarrassing scene. His young heart was already mostly broken.

Fanyi pushed him in front of everyone, hoping that he would stop the elopement based on his feelings for Sifeng.

But Zhou Chong, seeing Sifeng's pale and pained face, instead said that he could grant their wish if Sifeng was willing.

"Fanyi has completely lost control; she can't even count on her own son."

So she took the final step: she summoned Zhou Puyuan back. She thought that Zhou Puyuan was the head of the family, and he would definitely not allow Zhou Ping to marry a maid's daughter. She wanted Zhou Puyuan to break them up with his own hands.

Little did she know, she wasn't calling her parents; she was calling the key to unlocking thirty years of karmic debt.

"Shi Ping and Lu Dahai followed Si Feng to the mansion. Shi Ping had already given up, wanting Si Feng to run away with Zhou Ping and never come back. But the moment she chased into the Zhou mansion, all the secrets were on the verge of being exposed."

The classroom was completely silent.

The people under the canopy dared not even breathe.

"Zhou Puyuan looked at the people in the room, and at Shiping. He thought that his identity of thirty years could no longer be hidden. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief, as if a burden had been lifted. He walked up to Zhou Ping, pointed at Shiping, and spoke calmly."

Shen Moyan gestured for the boy playing Zhou Puyuan to read his lines.

"Ping'er, come here. This is your birth mother. Kneel down and kowtow to her."

The entire venue was deathly silent.

Zhou Ping stood frozen in place, her body stiff and cold. Si Feng's eyes widened, and the handkerchief in her hand slipped to the ground. Shiping trembled, turned her face away, and tears welled up instantly.

Fanyi was stunned for a moment. She only wanted to break up a couple, but she never expected to uncover such a huge sin with her own hands.

Shen Moyan gestured for the girl with the ponytail to read Sifeng's lines, her voice trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"No... It can't be... You're lying to me... Mom, tell me this isn't true!"

Shi Ping stood in front of her daughter, opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

Thirty years ago, she stood on the riverbank in Wuxi, holding her newborn baby.

She thought she would die that night, but she didn't. She survived for a full thirty years.

Thirty years later, her daughter stood in front of her, pregnant with her brother's child, and asked her: "Mom, why can't we be together?"

"ah!"

On the sky, Sifeng let out a heart-wrenching scream.

She broke free from everyone and rushed out into the rain.

A thunderbolt struck, and a broken power line lay across the ground in the garden. Sifeng ran into it and was instantly electrocuted.

"Zhou Chong was the first to rush forward, trying to pull Si Feng away, but he was also electrocuted and fell to the ground on the spot. In just a few seconds, Zhou Chong and Si Feng, the two youngest and most innocent lives, died in the thunderstorm."

"Zhou Ping did not go out to see. He staggered back to the study. A moment later, a gunshot rang out from the study. Zhou Ping shot himself with a pistol."

"Fanyi heard the gunshot in the living room and staggered towards the study. She saw Zhou Ping lying in a pool of blood and let out a heart-wrenching cry. The cry and the thunder were intertwined, and no one could tell which was the thunder and which was her lament."

"Shi Ping stood there, watching all of this, her eyes gradually becoming unfocused and losing their direction. Her mouth was open, but she couldn't make a sound. In just a few minutes, she lost two children."

Lu Dahai rushed outside, knelt beside Sifeng, and reached out to check his sister's breath, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

Shen Moyan paused for a moment.

"Only two people remained in the Zhou mansion: Zhou Puyuan and Lu Gui. One sat on the sofa in the living room, while the other huddled in a corner."

She closed the textbook on the podium.

"This is the ending of 'Thunderstorm'. Three people died: Sifeng was electrocuted, Zhou Chong was electrocuted when he tried to pull her away, and Zhou Ping committed suicide by shooting himself."

Two people went mad: Fanyi and Shiping.

One person ran away, and Lu Dahai disappeared in the early morning after a thunderstorm.

The two who survived were the two people who least deserved to live: Zhou Puyuan and Lu Gui.

Zhou Puyuan sat alone in the empty living room, facing all the sins he had committed.