On the day Shen Lingke married Chi Wenhe, he made it clear: "You are a substitute, don't expect me to be nice to you."
She believed it and endured it.
Carrying water for washing feet, being put in solitary confinement, being humiliated in public, being punished and not allowed to eat - she gritted her teeth and endured them all. Because she owed it to the Shen family and she had to pay it back.
Until late that night, he suddenly kicked open her door and stared at her as if she had seen a ghost:
"Starting tomorrow, you are free."
She asked why. He turned around and left, his back stiff.
Only later did she understand - he checked the surveillance video of his home and found that everything he had done in the past half month was worthy of a prison sentence.
He was afraid.
So he began to "be nice to her" - giving her bags, buying her books, buying her a new desk lamp, and saying "she is my wife" in front of everyone.
But Shen Lingke kept those gifts in the cabinet one by one and never used them.
One day he couldn't help but ask: "Why don't you still believe me?"
She took out the lamp and placed it in front of him:
"When you gave me this lamp, what were you thinking, was it too hard for me to stay up late and read, or was it that if something happened to me, you would be asked, 'Why didn't you give her a lamp?'"
Chi Wenhe was stunned there, unable to say a word.
——Until that day, he broke three ribs trying to block a car that hit her.
Before he passed out, he held her wrist and his voice was only one breath:
"This time... I'm not afraid anymore."
Shen Lingke held the bloody hand and cried in front of him for the first time.
——The love he grew out of fear was the most dangerous gift she had ever received in her life.
