Chapter 56 The Girl's Heart "Huai Zhu, I've realized I kind of like him..."

When Cheng Huaizhu entered, Xue Chan was lost in thought, pen in hand at her desk.

She initially thought Xue Chan was painting, but upon closer inspection, she found ink and brushes scattered all over the desk and the floor.

She picked it up and looked at it; it was a copy of the "Qingxin Jue" (a Buddhist scripture for purifying the mind) that she had copied many times.

Cheng Huaizhu sighed inwardly. They had studied and played together since childhood, and she knew how troubled she was.

It's just that it's all bottled up inside...

Cheng Huaizhu led her outside, and the two sat side by side on the veranda.

"Huaizhu, if it were you, what kind of person would you like?"

Xue Chan's question came as a surprise.

Based on Cheng Huaizhu's understanding of Xue Chan, she was someone who rarely let the actions or emotions of others sway her own mind. It was unclear whether something had happened between her and Jiang Ce, or if it was simply the stirrings of young love that prompted her to ask such a question.

Cheng Huaizhu thought for a moment and said, "First of all, he must be good-looking. I'm so good-looking, so naturally the person I like can't be worse than me. Also, he must be interesting. I hate rigid people the most. Just imagine spending so many years with someone who's so old-fashioned, how boring would that be? I'd rather not get married at all."

"However, it's hard to say."

She sighed and said, "Maybe one day I'll meet someone I truly like, someone who's very different from what I want. Even so, it's not impossible that I'll still like them."

Cheng Huaizhu looked at Xue Chan, who seemed lost in thought, and asked, "Why are you asking such a question...?"

Xue Chan spoke directly.

"Huaizhu, I've realized I kind of like him."

When did this happen?

"What happened these past two days."

"I like him, but only a little bit. Now I dislike him more, but it's precisely because of this little bit of liking that I've hesitated until now, only adding to my troubles."

Cheng Huaizhu stroked her hand: "Qiaoniang, you like him, so do you want to marry him?"

Xue Chan said, "I don't know."

Cheng Huaizhu didn't miss a single change in Xue Chan's expression, but Xue Chan's "I don't know" was not confusion, but a clear and unambiguous lack of knowledge.

If this had happened before, Xue Chan would have told Cheng Huaizhu unequivocally that she did not like and did not want to get married.

They will definitely try every means to call off this marriage.

Now, she doesn't know, but she clearly understands the reason.

Ultimately, her wavering heart stemmed from her developing feelings for someone and harboring expectations.

Otherwise, she would never have allowed Jiang Ce to hop around on her head.

The current situation is nothing more than her own indulgence and lingering attachment. Even now, she still feels reluctant to let it go.

Xue Chan felt tired and rested her head on her shoulder.

Cheng Huaizhu turned her head slightly and noticed that Xue Chan had shed two tears.

"Having feelings is such a troublesome thing..."

“No, that’s not true!” Cheng Huaizhu couldn’t help but retort, earnestly telling her, “Love is such a wonderful thing.”

“Qiao Niang, I know you are a person who values ​​and cherishes relationships.”

Xue Chan gently closed her eyes.

So annoying.

She leaned on Cheng Huaizhu's shoulder for a long time, then fell asleep from exhaustion.

Cheng Huaizhu helped her clean up before leaving.

Not long after, Xue Chan lifted the curtain and sat up; there was no one in the room.

She got out of bed and went to her desk to organize her drawings. The lamp on the desk burned out quickly.

Moonlight streamed in through the small window, and Xue Chan saw many thin red threads floating inside the room.

Water gradually seeped up and reached her feet.

Xue Chan suddenly stood up, instinctively grabbing the painting and trying to escape.

Just as she was about to run, those thin threads seemed to come alive and wrapped around her, binding her tightly to that small patch of land.

Upon closer inspection, the threads were alive and growing. They slowly wriggled, trying to wrap around her arms and trap her there, suffocating her completely.

"The road ahead is too difficult, let's stay here."

"This place is wonderful; you have everything you've lost and everything you wanted. Why don't you want to stay?"

The silk threads binding Xue Chan's body tightened further, digging deep into her flesh.

She chuckled softly, her voice laced with disdain: "With my talent, whether I am famous throughout the world or renowned for eternity, it is only natural. Why should I need you to grant it to me?"

The scene before me has changed again.

In the courtyard, the couple watched the little girl and smiled, letting her run freely, leaping like the autumn light.

Xue Chan's eyes welled up with tears, and she clenched her fists tightly.

"How long has it been since you last saw your mother? Don't you miss her? You cry whenever you think about her. So why don't you stay?"

It kept speaking, and the voice of its mother in its memory changed.

"Qiao Niang, stay here, stay and keep your mother company."

Xue Chan lowered her head, listening to its constant temptations and deceptions. She began to tremble and closed her eyes.

Seeing that Xue Chan was wavering, it became even gentler and more affectionate, moving closer and closer to her.

"Stay, stay, stay..."

Xue Chan raised her face, her eyes becoming unfocused and unsteady, and she responded in a low voice.

"good"

The silk threads on Xue Chan's body began to break one by one, and once a crack appeared, it seemed to quickly meander and collapse.

She broke free completely, leaped up, and ran outside clutching the painting.

Xue Chan felt as if she were running through Fantai Mountain, rolling downhill, and wading through streams.

The stream was swift, and she could barely stand, but she protected the painting with one hand and groped her way across with the other.

From afar, Xue Chan saw a person standing on the bank of the stream.

"mother!"

She called out and struggled to wade through the water.

But the stream was getting faster and faster, rising higher and higher, and the thin threads caught up with her again, wrapping around her hands and feet and drowning her.

Xue Chan struggled and involuntarily let go, causing the paintings and calligraphy to be submerged in the water.

Those are all her paintings, each and every one of them... each a masterpiece of her heart and soul.

Tears streamed down her face, one by one rolling from her eyes and dripping onto the water, creating tiny splashes.

All of this was her hard work over more than a decade. Now it's all destroyed, turned to dust, gone without a trace.

Her traces in this world were erased along with the disappearance of the painting.

No one will know of her extraordinary talent, and no one will see her paintings.

Her name will only be submerged in the long river, becoming a drop of water, a grain of sand.

"mother!"

"mother!"

She endured the pain of choking on water, took out her hairpin, and used it to cut the silk thread. Once she had cut it, she stumbled to her feet and ran towards the shore.

After finally climbing ashore, Xue Chan tugged at her mother's sleeve: "Where are you going? Why won't you take me with you?"

Xue Chan wiped away her tears, crawled a few steps on her knees, and said earnestly, "I have always remembered those words all these years and have never let you down."

"Look at me, look at me."

Even though she was extremely earnest and yearning.

The mother still did not turn around.

Xue Chan knelt beside her, clutching her clothes: "I have never slacked off. Talk to me, look at me..."

"Qiao Niang, how could you let those paintings be damaged?" The mother suddenly turned around.

Xue Chan was taken aback, then explained, "But I want to live..."

The mother's expression changed, and her head drooped lower and lower until it was almost touching Xue Chan's face and eyes.

Boneless and skinless, it was nothing more than a mass of flesh and blood, constantly oozing sticky, fishy-smelling blood.

That was a ghost, not her mother.

Xue Chan jumped up instantly, pinning it down with her knees, her hands tightly gripping its sticky, wet arms, and placing her hands on its neck, pulling them inward.

She wanted to strangle the ghost clinging to her.

Once it dies, she will be free; she will be able to escape this endless nightmare.

It chuckled eerily, making a "hoho" sound.

"You won't kill me."

Xue Chan didn't say much, but she used even more force, and the animal struggled, twisted, and deformed in her hands.

But the ghost raised its face, which was covered in blood.

It began to change its appearance, transforming into a beautiful and spirited woman. It had a face exactly like her mother's, without the slightest difference.

She looked at Xue Chan with gentle and loving eyes.

She began to weep sadly, calling out Xue Chan's name softly.

"Qiao Niang"

Even their voices and emotions are the same.

Perhaps this is her mother; she hasn't seen her mother for many years.

She really...misses her.

The mother's face was flushed red and contorted from being pinched, but her eyes were full of tenderness and sorrow, and even her voice was soft and trembling.

"Qiao Niang, why did you kill me? I am your mother!"

"Qiao Niang, after all these years, you actually intend to kill me? Have you forgotten me?"

"Qiao Niang, are you really willing to kill your mother?"

Each sound was mournful and heart-wrenching, a lament that grieved the gods and broke their hearts.

Xue Chan stared blankly at the hand that was tightly gripping hers.

She unconsciously relaxed.

In an instant, the silk threads that burst forth from the water tightly bound her, binding her limbs, waist, and abdomen with these threads formed from flesh and blood, pinning her to the ground.

You can't break free, you can't escape.

It lay completely on Xue Chan's body, its face switching wildly between delicate beauty and indistinctness.

The ghost pressed her mother's face so close to hers that sticky, viscous blood dripped down her cheeks.

"Mother" whispered in her ear, "Didn't you say you wanted to become the best painter? Didn't you say you wanted to be famous throughout the world? Didn't you say you wanted people thousands of years from now to remember your name?"

The voice was ethereal, chilling, and shrill.

"You promised your mother, have you forgotten?"

Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?

Its voice, which had been as gentle as a mother's, gradually became sharp and sinister.

Have you forgotten?

It gripped Xue Chan's neck, its voice shrill and piercing.

"Have you forgotten!"

"I..." Xue Chan couldn't lift her hand and could only let herself gradually suffocate. She began to tremble uncontrollably and managed to roll out a few short and scattered words from her throat.

Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes, soaking her clothes.

Answer me!

She lost her strength and compromised.

"I...haven't forgotten..."

Because Xue Chan was in a bad mood, Cheng Huaizhu was unable to fall asleep for a long time. So whenever there was any noise in Xue Chan's room, she would jump out of bed and run outside.

Mingxia, carrying her shoes, hurriedly chased after her, saying, "Miss, it's chilly at night, put your shoes on before you go!"

Cheng Huaizhu snatched the shoes from Xue Chan's hand and, stumbling along, rushed into the room while putting them on.

Chu Tao lifted the bed curtains, and Yun Sheng, holding back tears, knelt by the bedside and softly called out to Xue Chan.

But Xue Chan just kept her eyes tightly closed, lying on the bed, clenching her fists and trembling all over.

She remained silent, trembling, struggling.

Only tears flowed, streaming down her face and soaking her pillow.

Cheng Huaizhu immediately knelt down beside her bed, held her hand, and her voice was already filled with sobs.

"Qiao Niang"

Xue Chan suddenly opened her eyes, abruptly escaping the nightmare, filled with the fear and pain of surviving a catastrophe. Like a fish that had been away from the shore for a long time and was about to die from a dry cough, she rushed to drink the rain that fell from the sky. She gasped for breath, her breath rising and falling rapidly.

She gazed at the canopy above her head, her expression mournful and lifeless.

That was silent pain and collapse.

Xue Chan turned her eyes and saw Cheng Huaizhu, who was lying by the bed crying incessantly. Only then did she realize that she was still alive and real.

She smiled.

"Huaizhu..."

Her voice was hoarse and strained, but she still tried her best to force a smile.

Cheng Huaizhu would rather she not smile; hot tears welled up instantly, mingling together so that no one could tell whose tears were whose.

She immediately gripped her hand tightly and said, "I'm here, I'm here, don't be afraid, I'll always be here."

Cheng Huaizhu sat on the edge of the bed, helped Xue Chan sit up, put her arm around her, and let her lie in her arms, leaning on her shoulder.

No one spoke.

Xue Chan leaned against Cheng Huaizhu's chest, staring blankly at the ram's horn palace lantern hanging above the bed, its light reflected on the copper hook.

The long night was silent, and she was like a withered plant, weak and powerless, with only tears flowing freely.