Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Departure

What happened after that day remained a blur in Liu’s memory.

It was as if she saw Lady Huang standing in front of her, only to be grabbed by Old Master Chang by the hair and thrown aside.

Then, she saw herself blocking in front of Bed, but it was still like trying to stop a car with a mantis' arm.

Zhongde, hearing the commotion, was awakened from his sleep, groggy as he stumbled over. At this moment, Liu was getting up from the floor, her forehead bleeding from the intense pain, and her vision was blurry. She only remembered desperately shouting at her second son: "Run, run fast!"

Zhongde stood frozen for a moment, staring at his mother, then at Lady Huang lying on the side, seemingly breathless, and finally at his father standing by his elder brother’s bed, a grim and dark expression on his face.

He moved his feet, but he didn’t run away. Instead, he stood in front of his mother…

In that instant, Liu closed her eyes in despair. For the first time in her life, she wished her son wasn’t so filial, still thinking of saving her in such a situation.

Even though Liu knew that, even if Zhongde had turned around as soon as she shouted "run", there was almost no possibility of him leaving the Chang residence. But... what if?

Liu was destined not to witness that “what if.”

That night, she lost her eldest son. Bed’s small body stopped breathing, and when he died, Old Master Chang stood beside him. Not only was there no sorrow or grief on his face for the loss of his child, but there was a strange sense of enjoyment.

It was as if with Bed's death, the vitality that originally belonged to him had transferred to Old Master Chang. The man’s withered, dark face suddenly became much more flushed, and the gloomy expression he had worn since his appearance was now strangely accompanied by a smile as he said to Liu: "Second Madam, you really did give me a good son."

Liu held her second son in her arms. Despite trembling all over, she still wanted to protect the only child she had left.

But she couldn’t do it.

That night, Old Master Chang planted a Yin talisman on both her and Zhongde. It was then that Liu realized what her husband had put into the protective charms he gave to her and the children when she came to Chang residence.

She had originally thought it was a small trinket symbolizing her husband's care for the family, but in reality, it was their death warrant. The longer the Yin talisman stayed near the target, the stronger the control it exerted. It wasn’t until Lady Huang and Liu clarified the truth that Old Master Chang truly took action.

Not long after, Zhongde also lost his breath in Liu’s arms.

She began to hate herself. If she hadn’t come to Guang’an Prefecture to find her husband, how could both her children have died? Moreover, if she hadn’t developed a competitive attitude when she first met Lady Huang and insisted on staying, her Bed and Zhongde wouldn’t have fallen to such a fate.

With both her children gone, Liu lived each day in a daze. The only time she could smile was when she was with Lady Huang.

She would hold the handkerchief given by Lady Huang and sigh with her: "Zhongde, this boy, is always so careless. He even left the handkerchief here with me!"Lady Huang was recovering from her injuries. Upon hearing her words, she immediately held her breath and remained still.

Liu looked at the handkerchief for a moment before suddenly saying, "What am I saying?"

Lady Huang dared not breathe.

Liu raised her head and smiled at the woman lying on the bed, saying, "What happened before was wrong, it was those two boys' fault. Here, I apologize on their behalf. It was clearly my sister’s good intentions, they should have cherished it!"

Lady Huang closed her eyes, hearing this, and whispered, "Elder sister."

Liu smiled unconsciously, then turned her head to check the time, muttering, "They should be finishing school soon, right? I need to hurry and prepare dinner for the two brothers..."

This confused, delusional state where she thought her two children were still alive lasted until after Lady Huang's miscarriage.

At first, when Liu heard Lady Huang was pregnant, she sincerely congratulated her. Then, she secretly worried: would Bed and Zhongde be unhappy when they heard the news?

But whether they were happy or not, it was still a good thing that her younger sister was pregnant. She needed to properly discipline them and ensure they didn’t offend her sister during this crucial time.

However, speaking of which, why hadn’t those two boys come home from school yet?... The last time she saw them, what had happened?

Liu became lost in her chaotic thoughts, and before she knew it, more time passed. One day, as usual, she went to visit Lady Huang to chat and share some pregnancy care tips. When she entered the courtyard, she suddenly heard cries of pain coming from the room.

In an instant, the scene from that night months ago flashed like lightning in Liu’s mind. She seemed to see her son’s body slowly losing breath, and then, Lady Huang lying on the floor, unconscious. Liu’s mind went blank, and without thinking, she pushed open the door and shouted, "Sister!"

Lady Huang was biting on her handkerchief, looking at her in immense pain, her skirt soaked in blood.

She didn’t want to give birth to a child who was destined to become a sacrifice for the biological father. Rather than going that far, it would be better to prevent the child from being born in the first place.

But Lady Huang never expected that Liu would walk in on such a scene.

The room fell silent. Liu didn’t know what to say or do. She was instinctively led out of Lady Huang’s courtyard. Later, she sorted through the events that had happened in the past few months. It was painful and sorrowful, but she still remembered the scene of Lady Huang’s miscarriage. She decided to visit her.

When she arrived, she overheard Lady Huang speaking with Wax Plum. At first, they were worried that Old Master Chang might find out about the miscarriage, and later, they began to worry that Liu might reveal it. The two of them were, in name, the first and second wives of Old Master Chang, but in reality, they were just his two slaves. Now that they had fallen to such miserable states, one could only step on the other to try and live a little better.

But Liu would never do that.She pushed open the window and said, "Don’t worry, I will never..." Suddenly, she remembered how abrupt her appearance must have been.

But regardless of whether it was abrupt or not, her attitude reassured Lady Huang, who gave a small, joyful smile.

The three women embraced each other, offering comfort and support: "Nothing will happen, we won’t be in danger."

Unfortunately, some things cannot be hidden just because they are not spoken about.

When Old Master Chang discovered that Lady Huang had lost the hard-earned child, he was furious. That was the last time Liu saw Lady Huang.

Afterward...

Old Master Chang's evil skills had progressed, and he began to entertain darker thoughts.

He learned a method of extracting a person’s soul and refining it into a spirit servant. He started by experimenting on a few servants—Wax Plum, who had helped Lady Huang with her miscarriage, was one of the first—but none of the attempts succeeded.

Old Master Chang became more and more frustrated, but after several attempts, he finally made some progress. Eventually, he gained confidence, feeling certain that he would succeed.

This time, the man chose to act against his original wife.

Old Master Chang was not wrong in his assessment. He did indeed succeed. Although the first spirit servant he created was terrifying in appearance and required a lot of talismans and magical formations to suppress it, it was still an improvement. In the years that followed, he controlled Liu to kill people countless times, and many others were brought into the "Chang residence" for the "invitation of experts to solve cases" trick.

Needless to say, those brought in either became Old Master Chang's "servants" or died and lost their breath. Liu, from initially struggling in pain, gradually became numb.

She thought that this was how her life would continue—becoming a tool in Old Master Chang’s hands, unable to live or die.

Until she met Bai Zhengliu—more precisely, until she met the knife in Bai Zhengliu’s hands.

Attacked by the sharp light of the Twenty-Eight Generals, Liu regained some control over her body for the first time in decades. She recognized that Bai Zhengliu was a truly skilled individual, and he might be the key to breaking the deadlock. She intentionally kept the handkerchief that Lady Huang had once given Zhongde. Unexpectedly, the group went in the wrong direction, and Old Master Chang spun a story about an elder brother. He then turned to interrogate Liu, eventually deciding to send her to "atone for her sins."

He showed Bai Zhengliu a fragment of a fabricated memory to convince the outsiders that "Lady Huang was cruel."

But Lady Huang’s younger sister was clearly the kindest of them all. Even trapped in her own misery, she still wanted to help her escape…

Liu wanted to resist, but she was powerless and could only comply.Fortunately, she still had a glimmer of hope.

One more strike! That way, she would have more control over her body! Though it would bring unbearable agony, she had already lost her child and Lady Huang; she had been merely surviving. If she could trade a moment of pain for the opportunity to avenge herself, she thought it was worth it!

But could the swordsman truly understand what she was trying to convey?

Liu felt nervous, anxious... and finally, she waited for the result.

The sun slowly began to rise, and as the sunlight grew stronger, her figure gradually became more transparent.

Liu felt an unprecedented sense of relief. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt this free, but at that moment, she could think, "If there is an afterlife, I would want to be true sisters with Lady Huang, and Wax Plum should be our little sister... But since they reincarnated many years before me, I might become their daughter instead..."

As for her own children, of course, she still hoped they would be entrusted to her womb again, so they could start a new mother-child bond.

Before she completely vanished, Liu deeply bowed to everyone present.

Looking at this scene, the crowd felt a mixture of emotions. After a long while, they realized: they seemed to have already "left" the Chang residence.

No longer were they in Liu’s cold and lonely courtyard, but instead, they found themselves in a lively and bustling small yard. The young master of the Liang County Magistrate's family was yawning and stepping out when he saw the group standing in his yard, and he paused for a moment.

Then, he saw the butcher, Hu, lying behind the group. The young master of the Liang family was stunned: "…!!!"

Early in the morning, the magistrate's residence descended into chaos.

The coroner rushed in a hurry and quickly concluded, "From the butcher’s skin, it appears he has been dead for two to three days..." In other words, something was off. Otherwise, why did the butcher's family claim he had been sleeping normally last night, only to vanish this morning?

As for why they examined the "skin"...

Naturally, it was because beneath the butcher’s rotting skin, there was no flesh or bones left—only clumps of straw.

Author’s note:

I’m back, I’m back!