Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ling Xu treated me better and better, even more tenderly than when we had first married.

It was as if we had never been separated at all.

Yet someone insisted on disturbing us as husband and wife.

No one from the Ling Family came. Instead, Ling Xu’s mistress did. Dressed in blue-green robes, she moved lightly through the woods like some woodland spirit.

Yao Niang knelt on the prayer cushion beside me and sincerely begged the Bodhisattva to return her Lord Ling to her.

I closed my eyes and silently recited the scriptures, unwilling to spare her even a glance. But after she finished pleading with the Bodhisattva, she came to plead with me.

Her face was streaked with tears, her eyes red-rimmed. Kneeling, she clutched my sleeve. “Madam, I’m begging you. Please, I beg you, give Lord Ling back to me. I can’t live without him.”

I could hardly hide my disgust. In my mind, the Divine Voice said, “Don’t let her provoke you. She’s testing you.”

I felt a little regretful. Why wouldn’t this Divine Voice let me slap her?

I pressed my lips together.

The Divine Voice sighed. “Fine. Slap her.”

I did not hesitate for even a moment. I backhanded her across the face.

She covered her cheek and collapsed weakly to the floor, then questioned me even louder. “Madam, was it you? You couldn’t bear that Lord Ling loved another, so you hid him away, keeping him all to yourself so he would never come see me again? But Madam, Lord Ling and I truly love each other. If you want to take your anger out on someone, take it out on me. Kill me if you must, but don’t hurt him. I don’t care what happens to me. Madam, please let Lord Ling go.”

Those words did not sound like they were meant for me. The rise and fall of her voice made it seem more like she was shouting for someone else to hear.

To make herself look pitiful in her devotion, and me vicious and cruel.

The Divine Voice said, “Cry.”

I closed my eyes. Clear tears slipped down my cheeks.

After two years in the Buddhist hall, crying was the simplest thing in the world to me.

“Yao Niang, you and my husband are so in love while I am confined here, unable to leave. And in the end, I still have to bear the crime you accuse me of. Will you only be satisfied if I die and make room for you?”

Yao Niang’s eyes flickered, as if she had not expected this.

After all, in her memory, even when Ling Xu coldly rebuked me, I would only stubbornly argue back, deny everything forcefully, or fall silent like a block of stone.

I gave people headaches. I made them think I was hopelessly obstinate.

But I would never sling mud.

I let out a long breath. “What kind of scheme is this between you and my husband now? He disappears, you push the blame onto me, and once I die to atone for it, will the two of you finally be satisfied? Will my husband be willing to come home then?”

She had no time to react.

I slapped her again, my voice shrill with grief. “You have gone too far!”

Yao Niang froze for a moment, then kept shaking her head. “No, we never planned that. Lord Ling really is missing. I didn’t…”

I cut her off sharply. “Do you dare say you weren’t trying to frame me?”

Yao Niang’s gaze darted uncertainly, guilt written all over her face. Right now, there was no one here to back her up.

Ling Xu had disappeared, and the Ling Family had laid the blame on her. She desperately needed some scapegoat to push the responsibility onto.

Though this time, by sheer accident, she had actually hit the truth.

“Servants!”

I shouted, and the servants who usually played dead came over with remarkable enthusiasm.

I pointed at Yao Niang like a madwoman driven beyond reason. “Drag her out and beat her to death. Once she’s dead, how could my husband bear to keep hiding?”