My Mother Was a Renowned Beauty, yet She Was Defiled

"The most poisonous thing in this world isn't arsenic, nor is it hemlock; it's the human heart." My father said this while grinding some medicine in his hand. His eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses were as calm as an ancient well, revealing not a ripple. I was too young then to understand the meaning behind his words. Until later, I saw the bruises on my mother's snow-white neck, and I saw Zhao Yanwang (a character from Journey to the West) stagger out of her room, his belt undone. My father witnessed this scene the day he returned from the West. I thought he would be furious, would draw his sword, would splatter blood everywhere. But he wasn't. He simply pushed up his glasses slightly, a slight smile playing on his lips...