Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Yao Jingnian had promised me that if I ever lacked grain, I could go to her.

On my way back, I stopped by the township of Mei County again to look for Lan Guan.

I found nothing. I began to think that something truly terrible had happened to him.

I returned to the manor in low spirits, only to find the doors to our house tightly shut. I frowned.

I stepped forward and pushed them open. The scene that met my eyes sent a rush of blood to my head, and my eyes nearly split with rage.

Inside the bed curtains, a man was pinning my mother down, engaged in a foul act of lust.

The lewd sounds made my scalp tingle with fury. My eyes turned bloodshot as I grabbed the butcher’s knife I used for dogs and swung it straight at him!

My mother saw me. Her eyes widened in terror, and she grabbed him by the neck.

Before he could even turn his head, I had hacked through half of his skull. He died right on top of her.

This man was the manor steward, Qian Zhang.

He was a corpulent, hideous man.

Even though this was the Li family manor, my mother, despite being a mistress of the house, had no say in anything. For years, she had allowed him to mistreat us.

Because he took his orders from my eldest maternal aunt and her kin, all the land records and ledgers were handed directly to the Li family.

I never imagined that while the Li family truly did send us grain, it was delivered into my mother’s hands through him.

He had long harbored wicked intentions toward my mother. Using the grain as leverage, he had violated her more than once.

And my mother, for the sake of those few pecks of grain, had actually endured it.

She had actually endured it.

My blood-stained knife nearly found its way to her throat.

Then, in her terrified eyes, I saw the reflection of a girl with a sinister face and a murderous gaze.

She was afraid of me. Her face was as white as a corpse’s, and she trembled, unable to utter a single word.

Eventually, I turned and left the room.

I felt like a madwoman sinking into despair.

Like a revolving lantern, my mind was flooded with scenes from the time we moved to the manor when I was seven, being bullied by the steward and his family.

He had a wicked-hearted wife who loved to gossip behind the tenants’ backs. She said that although my mother was a lady from a prestigious family and looked upright, she was actually nothing but a whore.

I had warned her once: if she dared to spread such filth again, I would kill her.

She had acted respectful on the surface but never changed, continuing to say such things in private.

I knew she relied on my aunt’s backing and wasn’t afraid of us at all.

I should have killed her long ago. I didn’t even know why I had restrained myself until now.

Now, finally, I took my knife and knocked on her door.

It was late. The woman thought her husband had returned. When she opened the door and saw me, she froze.

I plunged the long knife into her abdomen.

She gave a terrified shriek and turned to run.

I struck again from behind.

Killing a person felt completely different from slaughtering a dog.

With every stab, I felt an immense sense of catharsis.

Finally, with narrowed, sinister eyes, I slit her throat.

In a year of such great famine, their family had actually hidden away so much grain.

As they say, when one is warm and well-fed, their thoughts turn to lust.

This lucrative position as manor steward had raised two fat rats for me to slaughter.

Very well. There would be no need to borrow grain from Second Miss Yao in the future.

I returned to our courtyard covered in blood.

Qian Zhang’s corpse was still lying on my mother’s bed. The room reeked of blood.

And my mother… she had hanged herself from a beam.

Night fell. A deathly silence hung over the entire manor. I stood outside the door.

No one inside had lit a lamp.

From now on, there would be no one to light a lamp and wait for me.

That corpse hanging from the beam had its head bowed, hair disheveled.

I couldn’t see her face.

I laughed.

I had no mother anymore.

I was all alone.