Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The livestream was suddenly cut off.
Jiang Yuan appeared silently behind me, taking my phone and switching it off.
“Don’t waste your time on these superstitious things. It affects the group’s image.”
I nodded obediently.
After marrying Jiang Yuan, he stopped all my public appearances on the grounds of maintaining my image as the Young Madam of the group.
My daily routine consisted of sleeping until noon, spending the afternoon at the beauty salon or having afternoon tea with other wealthy socialites, and serving Jiang Yuan well at night.
I would also go to the welfare home funded by the Jiang Family for staged photo ops to bolster the family’s image.
Seeing how compliant I was, Jiang Yuan smiled and slid a jade bracelet onto my wrist.
Though the jade was a vibrant green, it was marred by cloudy, speckled impurities.
For some reason, the moment the bracelet touched my skin, a shiver ran down my spine.
It felt as if someone was staring at me with pure malice.
“Madam Jiang gave it to you. Wear it well.”
“I have a business deal to discuss with the Li Family tomorrow afternoon. Accompany Mrs. Li to get a facial.”
Mrs. Li was a well-maintained, middle-aged socialite. Her husband had made his fortune in the jade trade in Myanmar, but everyone in their circle knew it was thanks to Mrs. Li’s keen eye.
While others gambled on stones to find jade, Mrs. Li could identify jade just by looking at the mountains.
She said that according to ancient texts, where there is jade in the mountains, the trees are lush; where jade is hidden in the rocks, the peaks glow with splendor.
She didn’t understand how experts appraised antiques, but she could tell a fake from a genuine piece at a glance, just as she knew if a mountain held good jade.
In the trade, this was called “Watching the Qi.”
When Jiang Yuan first introduced me to Mrs. Li, I had an embarrassing moment.
During my first visit, I saw building blocks and dolls in her living room and assumed she had children.
On our second meeting for a game of cards, I specifically bought some toys, only to be kindly warned by a neighbor that Mrs. Li had no children and that giving such gifts would be seen as a curse.
Fortunately, Mrs. Li didn’t mind. Instead, she accepted them warmly, saying with some embarrassment that she was just a child at heart-that because her family had been poor when she was young, she still loved children’s things even at her age.
While the other wealthy wives flocked to her, she took a special liking to me. She said I looked a lot like her when she was young, and since she had no children of her own, she would have adopted me as her goddaughter if that brat Jiang Yuan hadn’t snatched me up first.
I dutifully served Mrs. Li a cup of tea.
She noticed the jade bracelet on my wrist and frowned. “Jiang Yuan gave that to you?”
“Yes, Madam Jiang gave it to me.”
“For the sake of appearances, it’s fine to wear it in front of the Jiang Family, but remember to take it off when you sleep.”
“Why?”
“A person’s yang energy is at its weakest when they sleep. I can see a corpse…”
Before she could finish, the beautician entered with essential oils. Seeing an outsider, Mrs. Li immediately fell silent.
The beautician dimmed the lights, and the room plunged into darkness.
I couldn’t ask any more questions.
I lay on the bed as the beautician applied essence to my face.
My face felt a bit itchy. Was it the stinging sensation of carbonated mask bubbles bursting?
No, that couldn’t be right. I’d had a carbonated facial just two days ago, and my beautician knew I had sensitive skin; we only did deep cleanses once a week.
For some reason, my sixth sense warned me not to open my eyes.
In the dim room, I carefully squinted and caught a glimpse of a shadow on the wall.
A tall, thin shadow was standing at the head of the bed, leaning over to look at me.
I didn’t dare look up, but she lowered her head, inching closer and closer to my face.
Her features were nothing but pitch-black voids.
The stinging on my face was caused by her long hair brushing against me as she leaned down.
When a person is terrified to the extreme, they cannot move.
My body was frozen; I didn’t even dare to swallow my saliva as I gripped the bedsheets tightly.
“Xiao Zhi? What’s wrong?”
I snapped my eyes open, and the world was suddenly bright white.
Mrs. Li was looking at me with concern.
“The beautician asked you three times which essential oil you wanted, but you didn’t say a word.”
Only then did I realize my back was drenched in cold sweat.
“…It’s nothing.”
It must have been a nightmare.
Seeing me say this, Mrs. Li’s expression grew solemn. She untied a charm from her person and handed it to me.
“This is a protective talisman I wear. Keep it on you for safety.”
I took it, and the icy cold sensation clinging to me finally began to fade.
Once I was in the company van, my best friend Xiao Ya sent me a link.
“Look quick! The internet has been full of posts dissecting your wedding with Jiang Yuan these past two days.”
I opened the link. The title read:
[So creepy. Is the Jiang Family really into human sacrifice?]
It turned out that ever since that livestream with Leng Fan, netizens had started digging into my daily life with Jiang Yuan, and their theories were becoming increasingly occult.
They pointed out that our wedding date was set on the Zhongyuan Festival.
They noted that although the dramas I acted in all flopped, they were all funded by Jiang Yuan, suggesting he had set his sights on me long ago.
They even said the exterior of the villa Jiang Yuan gave me looked exactly like an altar, with three fountains positioned like burning incense sticks.
And when I knelt to serve tea, besides the teacups by his parents’ hands…
There was a plain, old white tea bowl placed behind them, completely out of place amidst the festive red decor.
They said that was the ‘concubine’s tea’ served to a first wife.