Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Zhao Fanhua wanted to hear Song Zhenzhu say, with her own mouth, that she regretted it. As if that alone could prove the woman he had married all those years ago was not beyond saving, and that he himself had not been utterly blind in both sight and heart.

But Song Zhenzhu’s refusal to admit defeat told him the truth: she was exactly that hopeless.

And back then, he had been the one to personally ask for her hand.

Song Zhenzhu said, “Zhao Fanhua, even if you cut me to pieces, I won’t feel the slightest fear. You and I have been husband and wife for so many years. You should have known long ago what kind of person I am. So what if you’re angry? So what if you want to kill me? Can you deny that the bond between us all these years was real?”

“You once said that the human heart isn’t made of stone. If you warm it long enough, it will soften.”

“Isn’t that exactly how I softened yours?”

“Yes, I killed the girl you loved when you were young. But you can’t deny it either: in these forty years, the person you loved was me!”

Zhao Fanhua’s figure trembled faintly.

This was why Song Zhenzhu could still smile even knowing she was at death’s door.

Why shouldn’t she smile?

The man she loved truly had fallen in love with her!

“Enough. Enough!”

Zhao Fanhua could not accept this Song Zhenzhu, and even less could he accept himself. The hand gripping his sword suddenly found its strength. Whatever affection had existed between husband and wife vanished completely in that instant.

“Come on, Zhao Fanhua. Kill me!” Song Zhenzhu had spent so many years by Zhao Fanhua’s side; how could she not understand him? “Kill me, then take your own life. Then we can count as having lived and died together, can’t we?”

Song Zhenzhu’s expression was deranged. She knew no fear, only threw back her head and laughed madly. “See? In the end, even in death, we’ll be together. Don’t ever think you can get rid of me!”

For someone like her, dying by Zhao Fanhua’s hand had instead become a kind of “happiness.”

When the cold gleam of a dagger suddenly plunged into Song Zhenzhu’s neck, the wet, sticky sound of flesh being sliced open was unbearably grating. It was as if a gash had been cut into Song Zhenzhu’s very soul, bringing her a pain even more intense than when her arm had been severed.

Song Zhenzhu could no longer speak. She could only widen her eyes in terror and stare at the girl who had somehow appeared there.

Qiao Ying straightened. “It’s Ah Yuan!”

Shen Qingyu did not look the least bit surprised. He leaned against the cold stone wall, his posture languid.

If Mu Yunshu wanting to kill Zhao Fanhua and Song Zhenzhu was nothing surprising, then Ah Yuan’s appearance was beyond everyone’s expectations.

Even Zhao Fanhua, who stood closest to her, had been too lost in turmoil to react.

Ah Yuan tightened her grip on the bloodstained dagger and smiled. “To someone like you, Old Madam, insignificant people like us who serve as maids and servants are nothing more than corpses to be rolled up in a straw mat and tossed into a mass grave at will. Our lives are like weeds growing by the roadside. You can step on us whenever you like. After all, who would feel guilty for trampling a weed to death?”

Song Zhenzhu opened her mouth, but all that came out was a hoarse, gasping “heh-heh.”

Ah Yuan bent down and drove the dagger a little deeper. “But even insignificant people like us have things we care about. Every day, we work so hard in the manor and serve you nobles with all our hearts, but why? Why did you have to harm my brother?”

Not long ago, a corpse had appeared in Zhao Manor.

The dead man was named Xiao Wu. His entire body had been covered in frost and snow, and the state of his death was horrifying and miserable. Because of that, the rumors of a demon in the manor had only grown wilder.
Ah Yuan saw the confusion in the Old Madam’s eyes. Softly, she said, “I know. You must have already forgotten who I am, and forgotten who my older brother was. But it doesn’t matter. Once you’re dead, you’ll remember.”

No. She could not die at the hands of a lowly maid!

A noblewoman like her-how could she die by a servant’s hand?

Song Zhenzhu suddenly tried to struggle, but the dagger in Ah Yuan’s hand had already carved a deeper, crueler line across her throat. Then, in the next instant, Ah Yuan was sent flying by an outside force. The dagger slipped from her hand and fell. Just before she hit the ground, Qiao Ying rushed over and caught her ice-cold body, but the impact drove her backward as well.

One of Shen Qingyu’s hands came to rest against her back. Qiao Ying steadied herself, then knelt on the ground, supporting Ah Yuan’s soft, cold body.

“Song Zhenzhu, Song Zhenzhu!”

Zhao Fanhua lifted the blood-soaked woman into his arms, trying to press against the wound on her neck, but the gash was too deep and too wide. Everything he did was useless.

Song Zhenzhu could not speak. When she opened her mouth, only broken, rasping breaths came out.

She could not accept it. She could not accept that her life would end at the hands of some insignificant nobody whose name she could not even remember.

She stared fixedly at Zhao Fanhua’s face, and a strange satisfaction rose within her.

In the end, he still cared about her.

Ming Caihua’s eyes darted wildly around the room, and he carried Xue Heting a little farther into a corner to hide.

Everything here had already descended into chaos. The less attention they drew, the better.

Qiao Ying touched Ah Yuan’s pale face. It was far too cold. She asked, “Ah Yuan, what happened to you?”

“She’s already dead.”

Qiao Ying raised her eyes and looked at Bai Xue, who had spoken.

There was pity in Bai Xue’s gaze, but also indifference. “She froze to death.”

Ah Yuan’s eyes trembled, and tears surfaced in them.

That day, when the Water Yaoguai invaded Zhao Manor, Ah Yuan had escaped disaster. Perhaps that should have been the start of something better, but fate was cruel. She still died.

It happened two days before the Old Master and the Old Madam came to the manor. The steward said the Old Madam loved chilled plum soup most of all, so he ordered a maid to go to the icehouse and fetch ice.

The icehouse was underground, cold and dark. No one wanted to go, but Ah Yuan volunteered because she wanted to earn a little more reward money.

Then the gatekeeper drank and neglected his duties. Forgetting there was still a maid inside the icehouse, he locked the door and went off to drink.

She was only a maid. Even if she went missing, no one would take it to heart-except her family.

By the time Ah Yuan’s older brother found her, three shichen had already passed.

For some reason, Ah Yuan’s body began to turn cold, and her craving for flesh and blood became especially intense.

Back then, when Aunt Wang said she had seen someone eating a live chicken raw, she had not been lying. She had merely mistaken the person. It was not Mu Yunshu, but Ah Yuan.

Ah Yuan felt that something was very wrong with her, but her brother told her she was only sick. Once Zhao Manor’s wedding banquet was over and he received his wages, he would take Ah Yuan away from Fangcun City and find a living somewhere else.

Her brother said he would definitely find a way to cure her “illness.”

That day, before he left, her brother told her this would be his last day working at Zhao Manor. Once he collected his wages from the steward, they could move somewhere else and start over.

But Ah Yuan waited for a long time, and all she received was news of her brother’s death.