Chapter 620 - 229: "Haunted
Chapter 620: Chapter 229: "Haunted
Third Ms. Bai seemed severely traumatized, or perhaps the twisted life she had led all these years had finally driven her utterly mad. Now, with her terror reaching its absolute peak, all her repressed emotions erupted. She lost control completely.
Stepping out from the corner, she planted herself right in front of the female ghost. Her eyes were dark and gloomy, and she held a vase she had grabbed from the Hundred Treasures Pavilion high above her head.
"You are Xu Su Ying, aren’t you? You’re here to get your revenge, aren’t you? I won’t die. I won’t die so easily! Xu Su Ying, I’m not afraid of you. So what if you were a wealthy young lady? So what if your family doted on you? So what if you had quite a reputation in the Capital City? In the end, didn’t you still die by my hands!
"Come and kill me then! I won’t hide. I’ll just stand right here. I dare you to kill me! Come on, let’s fight to the bitter end. I’m not afraid of you. If I could kill you once, I can kill you a second time. Come on, Xu Su Ying!"
Xu Su Ying chuckled. "So it really was you who killed me. You had your foster brother smash through the floorboards of the boat. You noticed the undercurrent in the water. Even the matter of Court Chengyi Mansion wanting to arrange a wedding to ward off bad luck—did you instigate that too?"
"Yes, it was me! It was all me! I was the one who grew up accompanying my cousin. I was the one who painstakingly served Aunt since I was young. I curried favor with everyone in Court Chengyi Mansion, mingling perfectly with them until I became their good cousin, good niece, good master, and good sister. But all of that was destroyed the moment you appeared. What did you have? You just had a good background. And just because of your background, I was tossed aside like a piece of trash, left with no way out! If I couldn’t live, there was no way I’d let you live either! Hehehe... Who knew you would be so easy to kill! I merely employed a petty trick, and you took the bait. Originally, I wanted to have someone steer the boat to the center of the river, create the illusion of a capsized boat, and drown you directly. But even God was helping me. My foster brother went ahead to scout the way, and he found an undercurrent. Hahahaha! An undercurrent! If you fell in, you were guaranteed to die. And you did die, Xu Su Ying!"
Thinking of her foolproof plan, and how heaven’s favored daughter, Xu Su Ying, was now nothing more than a handful of dirt while she herself continued to live freely in this world, Third Ms. Bai laughed even more smugly and wildly.
"Liar! Murderer! You vile woman, you lied to me!"
Yan Cheng grabbed a nearby stool and hurled it at her, instantly smashing Third Ms. Bai’s head and leaving her bleeding profusely.
Third Ms. Bai snapped back to reality, yet she broke down even further.
This was the cousin she had loved for over twenty years. This was the wealth and status she had exhausted all her efforts to cling to. She had endured his monthly beatings and risked her life to bear him a son and a daughter. And in the end, he called her a "murderer." The moment he saw Xu Su Ying, his heart and eyes had room for no one else. Then what did her more than twenty years of companionship count for? Why had she risked her life to bear his children? Who would compensate her for the twenty years of terror, grievance, and pain?
The ferocity and madness vanished from Third Ms. Bai’s pitiful face, leaving only endless chilling despair, apathy, and mockery.
"I’m a liar? I’m a murderer? My dear cousin, is this the first day you’ve known about this? My foster brother obeyed my every command and was willing to die for me—didn’t you know that long ago? My foster brother took the fall for all the crimes, leaving me innocent in the eyes of the law. Outsiders knew I was the killer, but they simply lacked the evidence to punish me. And what did you do, Cousin? You pretended not to know any of this. You and Aunt worked together to prove my harmlessness and innocence, and then you sent me away to this estate in the suburb of the capital.
"If you didn’t know I was the murderer, why bother beating me every time you came over? Wasn’t it just because I harmed Xu Su Ying and severed your path to greatness? Yet you still couldn’t let me die. As long as I’m alive, you get to play the victim. If I died, you wouldn’t even be able to deceive yourself into believing you were innocent. You kept me alive because I allowed your conscience to remain untroubled, letting you maintain your pure and noble reputation. But search your heart, Yan Cheng, are you truly guiltless? You left her to die! Hahahaha! You were afraid of death, so when it came to your fiancée, you! Left! Her! To! Die!
"After all these years, you’ve feigned infatuation and faked your agony so well that even you believe it! But with Shu’er and Hua’er around, who else would buy your hypocrisy? You’ve been a laughingstock for a long time! Hahaha..."
The room echoed with Third Ms. Bai’s rampant laughter and Yan Cheng’s furious, humiliated wails after having his true colors exposed.
Clenching his fists, he rained punches and kicks upon Third Ms. Bai. However, Third Ms. Bai refused to endure it anymore. Channeling the hostility that had been suffocating her heart for years, she fought back, turning her rage into clawing strikes that left a multitude of bloody scratches across Yan Cheng’s face.