Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Don’t Look Back (Seven)

It is autumn, and this is yet another autumn, the same season as the one when she first met Song Qi and Yu Manyi.

The rice is ripening again. These crops seem to never care about the turmoil in the city; they silently continue to grow and thrive on this land. This is Yu Manyi's first time traveling back to Shaoxing by road. Without the ripples of the canal or the smoothness of the railroad tracks, she is trapped in the carriage. Every roll of the wheel presses the ground harder, and every inch forward is accompanied by a jolt.

She inhaled too much of the gas that made her dizzy, and her consciousness is unclear. But during the few brief moments she regains awareness, she sees that her hands and feet are tightly bound with hemp ropes. They didn’t let her sit; instead, they threw her under the seat and covered her body with some rice stalks.

Yu Manyi can feel the pain in the back of her head. The blow she received was reckless and caused her vision to black out intermittently. Combined with the drugged air she inhaled, she is too weak and dizzy to escape from her fatigue and stupor.

The carriage’s curtains are also nailed shut with wooden planks, so she cannot see outside and has lost all sense of time. Yu Manyi tries to move her body, but the knots on her wrists and ankles have left bloody marks. She has no strength left… Why is she so weak?

The only thing she can sense is that the carriage has not stopped. The two drivers take turns driving, constantly heading back to Shaoxing from Shanghai without pausing. Yu Manyi doesn’t know why she knows they are headed for Shaoxing. Perhaps, after all, she is a child of this place. When she returns to her hometown and smells the soil and river of this place, her body instinctively reacts with recognition.

However, this is not her voluntary return.

The fourth time she struggles awake from the darkness, Yu Manyi finally hears the voices of the drivers outside the carriage. She is more certain of the destination because they are speaking with a local accent, just like hers.

"Don't move. She isn’t dead, is she?"

"No, I checked her breath just now."

"She really is tough."

"Yeah."

Yu Manyi senses they are about to reveal something important. With all her remaining strength, she brings her bound hands to her mouth and bites down hard, filling her mouth with the taste of blood.The darkness finally did not capture her again so quickly.

"By the looks of the sky, we should be there tonight. Boss Liu will arrive, right?"

"It’ll be early tomorrow morning. We’ll take the road by the Chancellor's Tomb, you know it, right?"

"Yeah, he’s in the neighboring county."

The Chancellor’s Tomb—Yu Manyi knows it too. She widened her eyes, trying to understand what they were talking about. There was no Boss Liu in the village where the Yu family lived, and there was no Liu family running a business there, so Boss Liu must be...

Yu Manyi suppressed the scream rising in her throat.

Liu Fengyan.

It was Liu Fengyan!

She remembered what the old rickshaw driver had said last time—Yu family had lost all their dowry, and Second Mother had given the Yu family estate to Liu Fengyan. So now they were going to...

Yu Manyi closed her eyes in despair.

Why was she being taken back to the Yu family estate? Why could she not escape this place! This place had clearly witnessed Third Mother’s madness, Third Uncle’s cruelty, Old Master Yu’s obsession, and a great fire that obscured the sky. Why had it now passed into new hands? Why couldn’t these people finish what they started, and why wouldn’t their restless spirits leave!

The bite on her wrist no longer worked, and the blood slowly coagulated. The darkness surged back into her mind again. Yu Manyi struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids refused to stay apart. The carriage raced, rolling over a piece of gravel, and her body was violently jolted upward, slamming into the bottom of the seat before crashing back down to the floor of the carriage.

In that moment of sinking into unconsciousness again, the last thought in Yu Manyi’s mind was: What about Song Qi? What happened to Song Qi?But she didn’t have time to think further.

When she opened her eyes again, the carriage was gone. Around her, everything had turned completely black.

The effects of the drug had finally worn off, and Yu Manyi could move her limbs. She tried to let her pupils adjust to the surrounding darkness. But this wasn’t normal darkness—she was clearly trapped in a pitch-black enclosed space. Her hands and feet were still bound. Yu Manyi rolled her body, trying to bump into something beside her, and after two collisions, she realized—this was the cabinet from the Yu family’s ancestral hall.

She was so familiar with this place that recognizing it wasn’t difficult. But there were clearly many ancestral tablets and offerings placed on the cabinet before. Every time it was touched, there would be a loud noise. Now, though, there was no sound at all.

In the dark, Yu Manyi realized that Liu Fengyan had thrown the Yu family’s ancestral tablets away. This ancestral hall was now covered in dust, unused, and no different from a storage room or a prison.

She wanted to try moving her limbs again, but suddenly, she heard strange footsteps outside the ancestral hall. This wasn’t the sound of a normal person walking; it was more like something heavy being dragged on the ground—dragging, dragging, dragging...

“Bang!”

The door was violently pushed open.

Finally, starlight poured into the hall through the open door. Along with the starlight, there were eerie red lanterns lit under the eaves of the Yu family house. The day before Liu Fengyan came to pick up the bride, these lanterns had been lit. On this day, they hung the lanterns up again.

So strange, the door was open, someone should have entered, at least a shadow should have been visible. But Yu Manyi saw nothing. The area outside the door was empty, as if some ghost had opened it.

Her gaze slowly dropped from above, down, down, until it fell to a place just half a meter from the ground. There, she finally saw a messy head of hair and a pair of eyes full of hatred.

In that instant, all her strength returned. She pushed herself off the ground with her feet and crazily retreated, retreating until her back slammed against the cabinet with a loud “bang.” The person sitting on the ground held a stick in their hand, silently crawling over the threshold of the ancestral hall, using their fingers to push against the ground, slowly inching closer.

Yu Manyi silently wept, as if seeing a vengeful ghost. The ghost grinned at her silently, laughing wildly, until tears also streamed down its face.

It spoke to her in a hoarse voice, scorched by fire and nearly lost. It wasn’t easy for it to speak, each word felt as if it were being scraped with a knife, but it still had to speak—pausing after each word, every syllable soaked in hatred."Manyi, this is not my good daughter..."

"Manyi!!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he grabbed the stick and struck it hard against Yu Manyi's knee.

When she had been unconscious, her body had been numb to everything, but now that the effects of the drug had worn off, every pain became sharp and excruciatingly clear. Yu Manyi screamed and bent over sideways, feeling as if her kneecap had been shattered with the blow.

"Does it hurt? Manyi, does it hurt?!"

Third Uncle started laughing again. He had been insane for a long time. In his madness, he still clung to his hatred. Now, his enemy had finally returned.

"That day when the beam fell down, I was like this too, it hurt the whole night!"

The beam had clearly done more than just break his leg; his voice had become eerily sharp. Yu Manyi tried her best to curl up her body, feeling the stick land on her arm, her back, and most painfully and precisely on her knee.

She didn’t want to scream. She didn’t want to show her pain and fear in front of this person, so she bit her lip hard, swallowing all the sounds along with her tears.

The pain in her left leg below the knee gradually caused it to lose all sensation.

"Luckily, luckily..." Third Uncle suddenly stopped and muttered to himself, "I saw you at the train station, hahaha, I saw you at the train station! They kicked me out, but I saw you! That train was going to Shanghai—going to Shanghai! So, you didn’t go anywhere, you were hiding in Shanghai!"

Yu Manyi shut her eyes tightly and remembered the last time she left Shaoxing by train, the screams on the platform and the staff’s attempts to drive her away.

"I was in the town, I thought I might have to crawl back! I crawled back to the Yu family and found Boss Liu, I told her you were in Shanghai!"

"Hahahahaha, Manyi, Boss Liu gave me back the storeroom to live in, I don’t have to sleep under the bridge anymore, I have a place to stay again, hahahaha! I don’t have to get rained on, starve, or be beaten as a beggar... Manyi!"His voice suddenly changed. He crawled over from the ground, grabbing her neck with both hands and interrogating her: "Do you want to eat? Have you ever been beaten in the street? You dress up beautifully, playing the good lady in Shanghai—ugh! You filthy slut!"

He was insane, not caring about the strength of his grip. Yu Manyi couldn’t make a sound. Her entire face turned purple from the pressure, and her throat made a gurgling sound. Third Uncle, with his face burned beyond recognition, moved close to her and spoke in a strange voice:

"Manyi, you have such a cruel heart. All we wanted was to marry you off, and you wanted to burn the entire Yu family alive. You said I was the worst—Yu Manyi! I see the worst person in the Yu family is you!"

Just a second before Yu Manyi suffocated, Third Uncle suddenly loosened his grip.

"But you can't escape," he said, pushing himself off the ground, backing away while laughing maniacally. "Heh, hahahaha, you can’t escape... Boss Liu sent people to search for you in Shanghai, searching everywhere for your name, and they found it on the calendar? The Commercial Press... so impressive... you're so accomplished... but what good is it!"

"You’re going to get married. You’re going to marry Boss Liu! You’re his concubine, the one he paid a betrothal gift and formalized the contract with. This is your fate, you can’t escape it!"

"Tomorrow morning, Boss Liu will be here. These lanterns in the courtyard are all lit for you. Look, they’ve even put up the double happiness character... Ah, I’m still his in-law. Does that mean I can ask for an extra mattress from that storeroom?"

Third Uncle spun around on the spot, his hands pressed against the ground, crying with joy over the unfulfilled promise of a mattress.

"Getting married! Drinking wedding wine!" he sang as he crawled forward, struggling to climb over the threshold of the ancestral hall. With a loud “bang,” he slammed onto the ground and closed the door behind him with a reverse motion.

The door wasn’t shut tightly, and a sliver of moonlight filtered through the crack. Yu Manyi’s face was illuminated by the moonlight, and she slowly, silently, let a tear fall.

Third Uncle’s singing faded away. The terror of facing that burned face dissipated, and the pain in her body gradually faded. The only constant, piercing pain, was the sharp, needle-like agony deep in her kneecap. Yu Manyi could not move, the pain holding her still. She slowly turned her head, avoiding the moonlight, and closed her eyes again, as the darkness gradually consumed her consciousness.

There was no way out.

She had no way out.

She was bound, her leg was too painful to move. Liu Fengyan would be here early tomorrow, and his servants filled the house. The red lanterns had been lit, she was going to marry him. This time, she didn’t have the time to fight it. He would marry her here. She was destined to become his concubine, locked away in that deep house—illiteracy classes, Shanghai, the Commercial Press would all become the past. Perhaps one day, someone would mention these terms to her, and she would only feel unfamiliar with them, unable to remember that they were once her personal experiences.She had to take advantage of the present moment to think carefully, to really think. Yu Manyi, with tears streaming down her face, thought that after this night, she might no longer have the right to think at all.

She began thinking of many people, many places, as images flashed through her mind like a movie—Su Wen’s studio, You Xiaoqing on the stone bridge, the boss lady’s fabric store, the steamy, iron-like machinery of the Commercial Press, You Hong arguing with her and then hugging her while crying, Jiang Yu, Song Qi... Song Qi... Song Qi...

Yu Manyi couldn’t control her tears; the hair at her temples was completely soaked with them.

She couldn’t bring herself to think about anyone else. In an instant, Song Qi filled all of her memories. She remembered the first time their eyes met, his black student uniform, like a jet-black bird. She remembered him lying in the cellar, arguing with her, urging her to practice hard. He stood on the wall and let her kite fly. He came back to the Yu family, standing in between her and the family. He wrote in the cellar, head lowered, setting up a table, chairs, and a sketchbook for her.

He took her away, standing beneath the wall, arms open, urging her to jump. He and she sat on a boat, and when she opened her eyes, the river was filled with endless stars. They met again in Shanghai, and she threw herself into his arms, crying out all the injustices she had suffered.

When Liu Fengyan searched for her, the first person she turned to for help was him. When she was accepted into the Commercial Press, he was the first to know. He gave her such a beautiful dress, and they argued because she wanted to alter the sleeves of the qipao. Why were they always arguing? Why couldn’t they just get along for a few days?

He was shot, lying quietly in bed, while she sat by her bed, pulling out notebook after notebook from her bag. You Hong was taken away, he bandaged all her wounds, and together they put on a good show. He finally fell in love with her, so careless that he forgot to confess, but he took her to the place where he grew up, teaching her how to shoot, how to ride horses. He said, "Yu Manyi, don’t be afraid. I’ve taught you everything you need to know. The only thing you have to remember is, don’t be afraid..."

Yu Manyi, don’t be afraid.

Yu Manyi, don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid...

The moon rose a little higher, and the moonlight flowed through the crack in the door, once again shining on Yu Manyi’s face. Her eyelashes trembled, and slowly, a little at a time, she opened her eyes. They suddenly turned so dark, as if swallowing all of the night around her.

All her senses came back to life, the pain doubled, the strength doubled as well. Her knee hurt even more than before, but she still curled her body, biting the knot on her wrist with her mouth, and began to tear at it with all her might.

This was a Shaoxing knot, used by the villagers to tie up livestock. But she knew how to untie it...She suddenly remembered that she knew how to untie knots!

She bit the rope loose with her teeth and used her uninjured knee to push. Yu Manyi arched her back, her wrists twisted and overlapping, and in her mind, all she could hear was Song Qi’s voice: “You need to loop it two more times.”

Loop it two more times, she had to loop it two more times.

Blood was twisted out of her wrists, and the hemp rope was much stronger than a towel. Yu Manyi used all her strength, pulling and biting, and at a certain moment, she suddenly felt the binding on her wrist loosen. The hemp rope fell weakly to the ground.

She immediately sat up, reaching for the knot on her ankle. The same knot, but her knee hurt too much. Standing up would double the pain. Yu Manyi bit her lip, a bloody taste in her throat and eyes. She used all her strength, her face pale, and finally managed to untie the knot on her ankle.

Her third uncle hadn't locked the door to the ancestral hall. He was a madman—how would he know to lock the door?

The wooden stick that had broken Yu Manyi’s kneecap was lying on the ground. She dragged herself using both hands and one leg, the other leg too weak to use, until she finally reached the stick’s position. She placed her body weight on the stick and, before standing, reached into her riding boots to pull out the gun Song Qi had last given her.

The gun was heavy, and Song Qi had already loaded it for her. Yu Manyi pulled back the gun’s bolt, using all her strength to hold herself up with the stick. She slowly moved toward the door of the ancestral hall.

There was no one in the yard; everyone was inside the house, the lights on, shadows reflected on the paper windows, like ghostly figures. She relied on her familiarity with the Yu family’s layout, walking through the dark, uninhabited places, avoiding all the paths where she might run into someone.

She couldn’t use the front door; there had to be someone there. Yu Manyi relied on her memory to head toward the back garden, but her heart was anxious—her current legs could never climb that fake mountain!

But she quickly realized, there wouldn’t even be a chance to try climbing the fake mountain.

Almost the moment Yu Manyi reached the back garden, a roar suddenly came from the other end of the Yu family yard: “Ancestral hall! Who opened the door to the ancestral hall? Yu Manyi has run away!”

Yu Manyi ran away!

This news was like a thunderclap, shaking the entire Yu family yard, which had been busy preparing for the wedding. Yu Manyi heard noisy footsteps from behind her, and many people began running in all directions. The back garden was empty for now, but what about the next second?She ignored the piercing pain in her knee again and hopped with one leg, jumping deep into the overgrown garden. The cellar door, quietly rusting, was covered by weeds. Yu Manyi opened the door, no longer bothering with the ladder. She stepped into empty space and fell straight in.

Her body hit the ground heavily with a "thud," followed by the sound of the cellar door closing. Yu Manyi was in excruciating pain all over but bit her lip and stayed silent, for soon the sound of people searching above her reached her ears.

"Is she in the back garden?"

"No! No!"

"Behind the fake mountain! On top of the fake mountain!"

"There's nothing there!"

People were walking above her, their footsteps echoing on the ground. She curled her body up, pressed her back against the wall, and raised the gun, pointing it directly at the cellar door.

Her arms ached from holding the gun, and just as she felt she couldn’t hold it any longer, the noisy footsteps finally faded away.

"She's gotten away again... Is Yu Manyi capable of flying? Does she have wings or something!"

"This is it, it's over. She’s gone again, and Liu Boss will be here tomorrow morning. If he finds out, we’re all done..."

"Keep looking! Keep searching! Get out and catch her! Go to the docks, the train station, every road out of the city—catch her! She's just a girl, how could she be so capable! I don’t believe it!"

Everyone was running, their footsteps thundering. Yu Manyi was utterly drained of strength, and suddenly she heard a familiar voice crying out, "My mattress! My mattress! I don't have a mattress anymore!"

The sound of someone crawling on all fours also disappeared.

Yu Manyi closed her eyes. She felt despair. Everyone had gone out to look for her, but she wasn’t safe. She didn’t even know how to climb out of the cellar now! Her knee wouldn’t allow her to climb the ladder she used to scale so easily!Song Qi, what should I do?

Song Qi, Song Qi!

She instinctively looked for Song Qi, but he was never going to appear. He just kept repeating in her ear, "Yu Manyi, don't be afraid. Yu Manyi, don't be afraid."

Right.

Yu Manyi opened her eyes, and her expression suddenly turned resolute.

She could still die.

She could never marry Liu Fengyan; she would rather die. She had a gun in her hand, and that was enough to end her life.

But her hand wouldn’t lift, as if someone in the cellar was pressing down on her. Was it Song Qi, the one pressing her?

Just as she thought this, the cellar door suddenly creaked open. The pressure on her wrist disappeared quickly, and Yu Manyi hastily raised the gun. Just as she was about to shoot at the door, a familiar voice suddenly reached her ears:

"Second Miss, Second Miss, are you there?"

Yu Manyi’s blood turned cold, then boiled!

It was Uncle Qi!

The same Uncle Qi who had been mentioned when the Yu family was going to sell her off, the one they said her father would have reacted to if he saw him today; it was the same Uncle Qi who always sat at the door of the Yu house, neglecting his duties and doing nothing!

Tears streamed down Yu Manyi's face again. Uncle Qi was climbing down the ladder, using both hands and feet, holding up an oil lamp. The oil lamp illuminated his wrinkled face. She hadn’t even been gone for two years, and Uncle Qi had already aged so much.He reached out to support Yu Manyi, helping her up. When he saw the dark barrel of the gun in her hand, he was startled and shuddered.

"Ah, Second Miss, why are you still holding a gun?"

"Uncle Qi, do you know I’m here?"

"Weren’t you always hiding here, chatting with that male student?"

He helped her climb the ladder. Yu Manyi was both alarmed and relieved, yet grateful. Uncle Qi had known all along. Uncle Qi knew everything. He wasn’t the negligent old gatekeeper; he had always known their secret. Every time he passed by, he deliberately made a lot of noise, but he never said a word...

Yu Manyi shed tears as he pulled her by the waist to climb the ladder.

Her knees hurt terribly, but Uncle Qi gave her most of the support from behind. Yu Manyi exerted all her strength to get to the surface, and just as she was about to fall, Uncle Qi caught her from behind.

"Second Miss, hurry and run," Uncle Qi said anxiously, "They’ve all gone out to search for you. You can run through the front door, just run."

But how could she run?

Yu Manyi leaned on the wooden stick with all her strength and asked, "Uncle Qi, do we have any horses?"

"Horses? There are no horses. The Yu family sold all the horses long ago. When Liu Fengyan arrived, I was the only old man left. If you need a horse, I..."

Suddenly, a furious screech came from outside the Yu family gate. Yu Manyi and Uncle Qi both turned around. The screech came again, piercing through the cold autumn air in the middle of the night.

Yu Manyi suddenly got excited, "Qilin!"Why was Qilin in Shaoxing?

Uncle Qi hurriedly went to open the door, and Yu Manyi followed behind with all her strength, limping. The gate of the Yu family opened, revealing a black horse panting heavily at the entrance. It had been running behind the carriage all the way, its dark, shiny coat covered in dust from the road.

Its chest was scratched in many places, marks made by iron objects. Yu Manyi froze for a moment, then realized it had leapt over the iron fence of Song Huazhang's garden—he had even knocked down the iron gate and followed the carriage! No wonder it had made such an angry screech when it heard her scream!

"Second Miss, do you know how to ride a horse?" Uncle Qi asked in shock, his gaze lingering on the gun in her hand, filled with unease.

"I can ride," Yu Manyi said, tears streaming down her face. This was all taught to her by Song Qi, he had taught her everything, "Uncle Qi, help me get on the horse, I can't do it on my own."

"Ah, alright, alright, Second Miss, I'll help you," he said.

He helped lift Yu Manyi, his aging hands trembling and breath ragged. Qilin bent its legs, allowing her to mount, and once she was settled, it snorted and straightened its body.

The moment the horse rose, Uncle Qi became very small and frail. He was the last person in the world to call Yu Manyi "Second Miss," and the only one she would never argue with when addressed in that way. She lowered her head to look at Uncle Qi, her throat choking, "Uncle Qi, I..."

"Go, Second Miss," Uncle Qi said, trembling as he stepped back. He raised the lamp toward her, "You really remind me of Fourth Young Master when he was little. All the scoundrels in the Yu family, only you two... Hurry, Second Miss, don’t look back!"

Yu Manyi, go, don’t look back.

He also wanted her not to look back!

Qilin snorted again. It had run all the way from Shanghai, and it was already exhausted, but it still held its hooves firm, waiting for Yu Manyi to take control. She bent down to stroke its neck, and her mind quickly ran through the possibilities: The roads to the town were full of Liu Fengyan’s men, at the docks, and the train station...

Her gaze suddenly cleared, and she sat up, pulling the reins. With her strong leg, she kicked Qilin’s side. The black horse’s eyes brightened, and it immediately galloped in the direction she guided.

It was so dark, but it would be dawn soon.The land here was vast and fertile, stretching endlessly into the rice fields of her homeland. Yu Manyi rode at breakneck speed along the boundary between light and shadow on the ridge, the horse’s hooves leaving deep marks in the soft soil. At the far end of the plain, faint mountains began to emerge, and the morning mist clung to the mountain paths.

This was not Yu Manyi’s first time on this road.

It was the desolate outskirts of Shaoxing, with lonely tombs scattered about, leading to the tombs of the Prime Minister and the young maiden. Yu Manyi rode furiously, her gaze growing fiercer with every passing moment, and the more she ran, the more murderous intent appeared within her!

Qilin began to sweat, its coat slicked with sweat, washing away the dust from its body. This divine black horse shattered the years-old mountain mist as it galloped. Yu Manyi held the reins with one hand and the gun with the other. Finally, in this dim world, she heard the sounds of gongs and drums coming from the mountain path.

Liu Fengyan was in such a hurry. Not only did he return himself, but he also brought the wedding procession with him. The drumming and gongs from the procession had failed to fetch Yu Manyi before, and now they came again, like a group of puppets swaying in the mist. At the front of the procession was a man riding a horse adorned with a red tassel, dressed in wedding garments!

This was the procession that had come to fetch her, so jubilant, yet so undisciplined. Liu Fengyan would have been better off bringing a servant instead. These disorganized men, shaking their heads and banging their gongs, gasped in surprise and laughter when they saw Yu Manyi slowly emerging from the mist. But the laughter froze as soon as they saw the gun in her hand.

Yu Manyi raised her gun and fired a shot into the sky.

The procession scattered immediately, and the flower sedan behind them fell onto the rocky mountain path. The people in the wedding procession screamed and fled in all directions, the only one who remained unmoved being the man riding at the front of the group.

His face was hidden in the mist, but Yu Manyi didn’t care to look. She had no interest in knowing what Liu Fengyan looked like, just as she had already forgotten what her cousin looked like. They were walking corpses, perhaps not even alive. They didn’t need faces, their greatest significance was to serve as a symbol in front of Yu Manyi, a symbol that stirred her murderous intent, a symbol of emptiness.

He was scared, he wanted to escape, but Yu Manyi’s gun was already aimed at him. Wherever his horse went, her gun pointed there. His horse was also terrified of Qilin, and how could it not be? Qilin was no ordinary horse! The giant black horse’s approach frightened the smaller wedding horse so much that it bucked its rider off and galloped away into the mist.

“Go, leave! For you, being complicit isn’t your sin. You can still repent in your later life. But Liu Fengyan!”

The Liu Fengyan who forced You Xiaoqing to her death, the Liu Fengyan who captured Yu Manyi, the Liu Fengyan who killed countless concubines to the point of needing to cross the Yellow River to find a new wife, he was not worthy of a way back. His face remained hidden by the mist, suffocating him. He rolled on the ground, crawling, wailing, and finally, at some point, straightened his back and ran towards the Prime Minister’s tomb on the side of the mountain road.

You Xiaoqing, watch, Yu Manyi is going to kill for you now. Liu Fengyan rushed towards the desolate Prime Minister’s tomb, and Qilin, with steady and heavy hooves, followed. Its hooves made a dull sound as it trod on the dirt. Yu Manyi didn’t get too close, she only needed to follow just a bit. She remembered how You Xiaoqing had hanged herself, how her throat had been slowly strangled by the rope, slowly suffocating.

At the end of the spirit path, the stone-carved statues of life had disappeared. At the end of the road were only the vast tomb mounds and collapsed gravestones. Liu Fengyan turned around in terror within the mist, seeing Yu Manyi riding her towering black horse, slowly advancing towards him with a pitch-black, ice-cold gun in her hand. Her eyes were just as dark, entirely black, as if her pupils had consumed her entire irises.The cries echoed from all directions. This was the road to the young maiden’s tomb, and they had all come to watch the spectacle, crying joyfully as they observed. Yu Manyi finally raised her gun, aiming it at Liu Fengyan’s forehead.

He still wanted to run. He actually still wanted to run. He bent over and crawled beneath Qilin’s hooves. For a moment, he even thought he had escaped—

But in the next second, the bullet passed through the back of his head, shattered his skull, and pierced through his brain. It ripped apart his face from the center of his forehead, tearing a large hole and destroying his entire face.

The mist surrounding his face finally dispersed, because his flesh and bones had been shattered together.

He didn’t lunge forward. His body tilted, and he fell sideways, crashing onto the Qing stone-carved grandmaster’s chair that Yu Manyi had passed twice.

Behind him, there was the long, dilapidated spirit path to the Prime Minister’s tomb, the mountain mist pierced by the sun’s rays, the smoking barrel of the gun, and Yu Manyi’s pitch-black eyes.