Chapter 73
Chapter 73
The spring breeze was warm, and apricot blossoms crowded the branches.
A girl of six or seven sat in the courtyard reading a storybook. A petal drifted onto its pages while boys and girls laughed noisily outside.
The girl remained completely undisturbed. She read the fantastical tale with great enjoyment.
An elegant woman sat opposite her, worry clouding her exquisite face. “Yingying, won’t you go play with them?”
“Those are children’s games. I’m not interested.” The girl looked up with a smile. “Mother, I prefer stories. The fox demon in this one is fascinating. She seduces a scholar intending to eat his soul, then truly falls in love with him.”
The woman poked her forehead. “You’re only six, yet you speak like an adult.”
She continued, “From the moment you were born, you were never as noisy as other children. You lay quietly and whimpered only when hungry. Mianmian is a few months younger, yet she cried day and night. I once thought a tranquil nature suited you, but now you’re older, I find it worrying.”
“What is there to worry about?” The girl ate a pastry, brushed away the petal, and turned another page. “Mianmian and I simply enjoy different things.”
“Do you truly not understand, or are you pretending? Your grandfather wants a marriage with the Shangguan family. You, Mianmian, and Shangguan Lingxiao grew up together. That boy is excellent. As the eldest daughter of the main branch, your betrothal should have been settled first. Your grandfather had already agreed, but you insisted on opposing me and declaring that Shangguan Lingxiao was closer to Qiao Mianmian. Now the choice has been given to him.”
Hearing the laughter outside, the woman grew more dissatisfied. “Listen to how happily they play. If you never join them, of course Shangguan Lingxiao won’t choose you.”
“Shangguan and Mianmian are a match made in heaven. Mother, I’m only a background character. Stop trying to make me intrude.”
The woman seemed accustomed to unfamiliar words emerging from her daughter’s mouth. She still regretted the situation. “Shangguan Lingxiao is young, but anyone can tell he will achieve great things. You won’t find another chance like this. If you cannot find a satisfactory husband later, regret will come too late.”
“Then I simply won’t find one.”
Her daughter’s indifference irritated the woman. She pinched the girl’s cheek.
“Yingying, girls marry after their coming-of-age ceremony. Do you truly intend never to marry?” Seeing the storybook, her temper flared further. “Surely you won’t seek out a fox demon from a story and marry him!”
With her cheek pinched, the girl mumbled, “I might.”
“Yingying!”
As the woman struck the table in anger, Qiao Ying escaped the dream and opened her eyes.
The canopy was black. The curtains were black. Every color in Shen Manor felt oppressively dark.
Qiao Ying lay still for a moment, then sat up with a slight frown.
She seemed to have dreamed, but upon waking, the memory blurred as though covered by gauze. Some details had already escaped her.
The only thing she remembered was that, as a child, she had apparently decided to marry a fox demon.
Movement outside the window caught Qiao Ying’s eye and startled her. Then she remembered following Shen Qingyu into this oppressive, eerie estate the night before. This room was supposedly the most comfortable in the house.
She took a deep breath and dressed. The instant her feet touched the floor, someone knocked.
“Miss, we have come to help you wash and dress.”
Qiao Ying opened the door. Two maids in black stood outside, wearing identical smiles.
Still unnerved, she accepted the basin. “I can manage. I don’t need assistance.”
After closing the door, she secretly watched their shadows. Both figures remained motionless, like corpses that did not breathe. Qiao Ying felt like fragrant food tempting them to linger nearby.
Coming to this haunted place with Shen Qingyu was surely the worst decision she had ever made.
But she was already here and could not escape. She might as well give up resisting.
She had survived one night without incident, which proved her life was not in immediate danger.
After washing, she heard a commotion outside.
“Ant, how can you fail at something so simple?”
“We broke your legs, so crawl. Why are you trying to stand?”
“Hee-hee, Brother. Why don’t we break one of his arms too?”
Qiao Ying left the room, followed the voices through the courtyard gate, and discovered an appalling scene in the corridor.
A young man in black lay upon the ground. His legs twisted at unnatural angles, perhaps broken. He could support himself only with his hands, yet his tormentors had no intention of stopping.
A boy kicked him. “What does that unhappy expression mean? Do you look down on us? You should feel honored that we spend time playing with you.”
The girl smiled innocently. “That’s right. We came to make friends with you. You have friends now, Shen Chunqiu. You should smile.”
The boy reached down and deliberately pulled up the young man’s lips into a stiff smile.
The girl beamed in satisfaction. “Yes, yes! You look prettier when you smile. Brother, break his arm too. It will make him smile even more happily!”
The boy apparently liked the suggestion. Just as his foot descended heavily toward Shen Chunqiu’s arm, someone seized his collar and lifted him off the ground.
“Which blind son of a…” The boy turned, saw Qiao Ying, and instantly lost his vicious expression. The smile from the previous night returned.
“Yingying.”
Both children curved their lips at precisely the same angle, transformed into different people. Every trace of arrogance vanished.
After seeing so many eerie smiles, Qiao Ying no longer found them frightening. It was as though the longer she remained here, the more the surroundings assimilated her.
She shook the boy dangling from her hand. “What are you doing?”
The girl answered, “We are making friends with him.”