Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Gu Weizhi scrambled to his feet.

Ignoring the blood soaking his shoulder, he lunged at me like an infuriated beast. I swung the spear shaft at him and used the ensuing chaos to bolt out of the old house.

Torrential rain was pouring outside.

The dense, rhythmic drumming of the rain drowned out my cries for help. The main road was too exposed, so I dove headlong into the dark, oppressive reed marshes by the river.

This was the place where three lives had once been lost.

“Shanshan, you can’t escape,” Gu Weizhi called out as he caught up, his mocking voice trailing behind me like a phantom.

I couldn’t tell north from south in the darkness. My feet sank into the sludge, making every step an agonizing struggle.

The reed leaves sliced across my cheeks like steel needles. My face was covered in blood and my body was riddled with injuries, but I couldn’t feel the pain at all; the primal urge to survive roared in my chest.

Suddenly, a hand reached out from the depths of the darkness.

“Ah-!!”

Gu Weizhi grabbed me. I let out a piercing scream as he kicked me hard in the stomach.

The strength left my body and I collapsed, curling into a ball from the pain.

Despite the injury to his shoulder, Gu Weizhi used his physical advantage to pin me down, straddling me. His fist slammed into my face, and blood choked my throat.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared, illuminating Gu Weizhi’s face.

He looked just as hideous and terrifying as his father had all those years ago.

“It’s over,” he told me triumphantly.

In a daze, I wondered: Is this really how it ends?

Grandmother gave me three chances, and yet I still can’t escape? Is fate truly so irreversible? Am I just destined to die at the hands of this father and son?

The rain fell in sheets. Just as Gu Weizhi raised his axe high…

A sharp whistle pierced the silence.

A woman with disheveled hair and a grimy face crawled slowly out from the reeds.

It was Huifang’s Mother.

It was that Madwoman who wandered the reed marshes.