In the face of her accusation, he did not deny it at all. His ice-blue eyes stared directly at her, his gaze like a sharp knife piercing her soul, as if the one guilty of murder was not him, but her. He spoke each word deliberately.
“Wrong? His wrong was having ears; his wrong was having eyes. A Jew shouldn’t have ears or eyes.” He simply shouldn’t have listened to her play the piano or looked at her smile. His ethnicity had nothing to do with it. He hadn’t intended to explain too much, but just this one sentence revealed far too much. He closed his mouth, but his lips still trembled slightly, his gaze shifting in-depth, the ice-blue pupils changing focus.A middle-aged female doctor, accompanied by her young assistant, was treating her wounds with a degree of professionalism. The light in the room was too dim, so they had to add a few desk lamps. The doctor injected her with an anesthetic, and she felt no pain. The doctor performed a small, precise surgery on her hands, applied medication, and had the assistant wrap them in gauze.
The doctor exhaled, preparing to tidy up her instruments when suddenly she seemed to remember something and said to her young assistant, “Lina, check to see if she has any other injuries.”
The young assistant examined her body and suddenly stopped moving.
“Doctor…” Her eyes widened as she murmured.
Following the assistant’s fixed gaze, the doctor looked between Khanyi’s legs. Perhaps due to years of medical experience, she remained calmer than the assistant. “Give me a hemostat, and… an anesthetic.”
……
Khanyi leaned weakly against the bed, motionless, as if she were a thoughtless shell.
The next morning, Abigail pushed open the basement door and tossed a box of ointment at her. “Here, apply this to your wounds; it will feel better.” Seeing her expressionless face and lack of response, the plump woman’s face showed signs of impatience. “You troublesome yellow-skinned woman, do you want me to do it for you?” She took Khanyi’s hand and methodically unwrapped the gauze from her fingers. Once, she had delicate, almost boneless hands, but after washing clothes and scrubbing floors, they had become dry and cracked from soaking in water. Now, the flesh on her hands was torn, and her middle and index fingers were swollen like carrots.
She gritted her teeth, enduring the pain, meeting his gaze. “You devil, perhaps you can occupy my body, but you will never think to possess my soul! You will never think that I will play the piano for you or smile at you!”
His pupils suddenly constricted, breaking away from her gaze. How could she read his heart through his eyes? In an instant, he seemed a bit flustered, but he quickly regained his composure. “Play the piano? Your fingers and tendons are already shattered; I fear you will never play again…” He cupped her face with one hand, the black hair on her forehead already damp with sweat. “If you want to cry, then cry as much as you want; your cries can excite me too!”
Her body was snow-white, half of her rigid form covered by the red velvet cloth draped over the piano, and the cloth was stained with splotches of blood, even more crimson than the fabric itself.
Abigail and another maid lifted her back onto the iron bed in the basement.
Abigail’s gray eyes trembled slightly as she softened her grip, evenly applying the ointment to Khanyi’s fingers, her tone noticeably gentler. “You… are really foolish. You shouldn’t always provoke him. You should know that men are like this. My damned husband beats me every time he gets drunk, so I’d rather work.”
Khanyi remained expressionless, and Abigail continued to apply the medicine. As she gently massaged, the cool brown ointment seeped into her flesh and joints, causing a sudden pain that felt like needles piercing her most sensitive nerves. “Mmm—” she wanted to pull her hands back.
Abigail stopped the massage, her thick, calloused palms gently holding Khanyi’s swollen hands, her gray eyes staring at her. The pain made tears instinctively well up in Khanyi’s eyes. “Maybe… it hurts a bit… This ointment was bought with contributions from everyone; it’s really expensive. Just this little bit costs 50 imperial marks…”
Abigail’s words stunned Khanyi for a moment, and she looked at her with tear-filled, dark eyes.
“You know, everyone actually enjoys listening to you play the piano. They often discuss it privately, guessing you must be a rich young lady. In these times, it’s rare to have any fun…”
