Chapter 97

Chapter 97

That day, Shen Qingyu had stormed Ding Manor like a God of Death.

Master Ding’s arms and legs were broken, leaving him unable to move. After Shen Qingyu departed, Ding Yanyu returned home.

Seeing the son he took such pride in, Master Ding saw hope. Lying in bed, he stared at the young man feeding him medicine.

“Yanyu, you must find your sister!”

Ding Yanyu held the medicine bowl and slowly stirred it with a spoon. “Don’t worry, Father. I will find my sister.”

After learning that Ding Fufu had disappeared, Master Ding forgot even his pain. His heart and mind were consumed by concern for her safety.

“Your sister has been pampered since childhood and never suffered hardship. She’s been kidnapped, and who knows what torment she’ll face? You must bring her back quickly, no matter how large a ransom they demand!”

“You must be growing senile with age, Father.” Ding Yanyu stopped stirring, lowered his eyes, and smiled. “How was my sister kidnapped? Did you not send her away yourself?”

Master Ding froze. “What are you talking about?”

Ding Yanyu smiled. “*The Tale of Soul Transference* has been performed for ten years. How much longer do you intend to continue?”

Master Ding’s face turned deathly pale.

Ding Yanyu’s voice remained mild, his smile warm as an April morning. “I was too weak to oppose you back then. I could only send people to search for Lingling in secret. Heaven rewards the persistent, and at last I have lived to see traces of Lingling appear.”

“You knew… You knew all along…” Master Ding trembled as though seeing his son for the first time.

“What did I know? That you frequented brothels while Mother still lived? That you kept a mistress and fathered a daughter while Mother lay gravely ill? Or that you were willing to sacrifice my Lingling to save the sickly daughter who was destined to die young?”

Terror rose from Master Ding’s bones, but his ruined limbs left him unable to hide.

Ding Yanyu laughed softly. “And what should you have known, Father? It seems you knew nothing. You didn’t know that your impotence ten years ago began with a cup of tea I handed you. Nor did you know that I protected Ding Fufu all these years and refused to let her marry Li Yuanzhi only because she was using Lingling’s body.”

All color drained from Master Ding’s face. His lips trembled. “Ding Yanyu… You… You concealed yourself so deeply!”

For ten years, he had believed Ding Yanyu to be a dutiful son who obeyed him in all things. Never had he suspected how much Ding Yanyu had done in secret.

Even as Ding Yanyu revealed these deeds, his face remained as calm and unruffled as ever. His son’s methods had far surpassed anything Master Ding imagined.

“Enough, Father. It’s time to take your medicine.”

The medicine in his bowl was unnaturally black, thick with malice.

That night, Ding Yanyu dismissed every servant from Ding Manor. No matter how Master Ding cried out, no one came to save him from the enormous residence.

He seemed forgotten in a place cut off from the world, hearing only the faint sound of his bones dissolving within his body. Unable either to live or die, he finally felt regret.

Now, all he could do was beg the two outsiders who had broken in to end his life.
After some thought, Qiao Ying said, “We asked around Willow Lane. They said Madam Zhao moved there with her daughter Fufu only after losing her husband. She had no means of supporting herself, yet she and her daughter never lacked food or clothing. People long suspected she was someone’s mistress. So she was your mistress, and Ding Fufu is your daughter. To save Ding Fufu, you sacrificed your other daughter, Ding Lingling.”

People in Willow Lane had said Madam Zhao’s daughter was born gravely ill. Her disease was incurable, and even if rare treasures sustained her life, she would not survive past ten.

Master Ding’s marriage to his first wife had been an alliance. When his business ran into trouble and he sought the daughter of a powerful family, he had to promise never to take a concubine. To protect both families’ dignity, he had kept that promise in name.

Perhaps he truly loved Madam Zhao. He likely planned to bring her home and openly marry her after his wife died, only for Madam Zhao to perish unexpectedly, leaving behind a young daughter.

Even flesh on the palm and back of the hand was not equally thick. Though both girls were his daughters, one mattered more, especially when Ding Fufu was the child of the woman he loved.

A performance of *The Tale of Soul Transference* gave Master Ding his inspiration.

With enough gold, crooked occultists flocked to solve his problem.

Before the ritual began, Master Ding could not help asking, “What will happen to Lingling after the exchange succeeds?”

The sorcerer answered, “Their souls will switch places. Miss Ding’s soul will naturally enter the sickly body destined to die.”

Master Ding hesitated for a moment. Ding Ling was his daughter too. But then he remembered that she was not close to him and refused even to call him Father. Timid, dull, and entirely unlikable.

In the end, he turned away. “Begin.”

And so his selfishness began an absurd tale of soul transference.

Ding Ling and Ding Fufu were half sisters connected by blood, which should have made the exchange easier than with strangers. Yet for some unknown reason, Ding Ling’s soul vanished.

Master Ding assumed she had become a wandering ghost who would soon scatter. She was still his daughter, and he grieved for several days. He never expected her to return ten years later.

Looking at the immobile man on the floor, Qiao Ying suddenly asked, “Master Ding, do you regret it?”

Master Ding blinked desperately as tears streamed from his eyes.

Qiao Ying looked up. “Do you think he’s truly sorry?”

Shen Qingyu smiled. “He merely knows he’s dying.”

Qiao Ying took Shen Qingyu’s hand. “Since he’s almost dead, let’s not meddle. It would be a shame to dirty your hands.”

Shen Qingyu answered obediently, “All right.”

“Let’s go.”

Master Ding watched helplessly as they left without looking back. His mouth opened, but only desperate gasps emerged. His eyes bulged as he sank into an abyss of despair.

No. He did not want to endure this torment, neither human nor ghost.

Let him die.

Please, let him die quickly!