Please Support Revenge

After ten years, Julia visited Marlon, begging him to save her child. But he only looked at the sickly child with eyes colder than ice. “Why should I do that? If Lobelia dies naturally from a fever like this, I’d be very happy. Don’t forget, I only spared you because of my reputation,” was his cruel reply.

The reason Marlon didn’t kill Julia as soon as she signed the memorandum was because he was a man of status. For him, it was a whole different story to accept her as a wife and abuse her secretly, and to kill her altogether.

Julia bit her lip until it bled. Desperate, she took something from her pocket. Marlon’s eyes instantly twinkled at the sight of it. What she had to offer must have swayed Marlon. Not only did he commission the temple of the capital to treat Lobelia, he also accepted Julia and Lobelia as members of the military. His generosity then earned himself the reputation of a philanthropic noble who accepted the wife of his deceased brother and a child born out of wedlock.

Julia and Lobelia, on the other hand, were harshly treated as leeches feeding on Marlon. Julia could only grit her teeth and endure the insult.

Out of pity, Marlon gave Julia and Lobelia a separate house and left them alone. Now that he had taken everything, there was no need to bother the two of them. But Marlon’s second wife, Josephine, was different. Josephine was highly speculative and mean-spirited. She humiliated Julia and Lobelia in every possible way and abused them without Marlon’s knowledge.

Once, Josephine called Julia and made her kneel before her to recite verses of an old book while a bucket of ice was being poured over her.

“A woman should not speculate, she should not be greedy, and she should always be submissive to the head of the household…” Julia trembled in despair as she recited the verses of the book.

Josephine slapped Julia’s cheek with a distorted smile. Apparently, she hadn’t tortured her enough. “Because of you, I had to divorce Marlon once. He doesn’t give me and my daughter enough affection because of you!” Unable to suppress her anger anymore, Josephine took out a whip. It was the same whip that Marlon once used to abuse Julia. “You wormy bitch!” she screamed as she swung the whip.

Julia, who was already suffering from hypothermia, eventually lost consciousness.

Lobelia, who had been kneeling next to her, reciting passages from an old book as well, screamed, “Mom!”

Josephine, too, was surprised when Julia collapsed. She quickly called the doctor.

From that day on, Julia was ill for two months. Lobelia nursed her mother day and night, never leaving her side. One night, Lobelia was dozing next to the bed when she faintly heard her mother’s cries.

“Lia…”

“Mom?”

Lobelia opened her eyes wide. Julia was staring at the ceiling. She was barely breathing, and it was no exaggeration to say that she was no different from a corpse. “Why,” she cried, “did we become like this?” Thousands of years flashed across her empty eyes like a lantern.

“Lia, I, I…I have failed as a mother.” Julia sobbed in between words. “I just, to my daughter… I wanted you to have a peaceful life… It’s just…uh, where..did it go wrong…”

A stream of her blood poured from Julia’s mouth. Without even thinking to grab a towel, Lobelia wiped the blood with her bare hands. But no matter how much she wiped, blood kept oozing out.  “Mom, please, Stop talking now. That’s enough,” Lobelia begged.

“Our daughter, our poor daughter… Mom is sorry…”

Lobelia hurriedly opened her mouth to say she was okay, that it was not her mother’s fault their life turned out miserable. But before she could utter the words, Julia convulsed and did not awake anymore.

Lobelia stared blankly at Julia, who was losing her warmth. She reached out her trembling hand and gently shook Julia’s shoulder, but there was no response. Her stomach turned and tears started falling. Her legs lost strength and it felt like she would never be able to stand up again.

Where did it go wrong?

What have I done wrong that my mother and I have to suffer like this?

It seemed that joy would forever be a stranger to her.

***

The shock from Julia’s death and the fatigue that had accumulated for over two months left Lobelia unconscious for three days. When she awakens, Lobelia shall discover the existence of the ‘original’ and learn the secrets of the world.