Chapter 30. What truly constitutes utter utter devastation? ...

There was blood on the ground.

Qingshan knew... what Miss Su meant to his master. He had messed up this extremely important task.

Qingshan kowtowed and knelt on the ground without moving, as if his spine had been pulled out, and his face was still completely bloodless.

The sun shone brightly at the entrance of the Anzhou General's Mansion, and the warm sunlight shone down, with a faint fragrance of flowers carried on the spring breeze. But at this moment, all of this was shut out, shrouded in an extremely terrifying shadow.

No one dared to speak; there wasn't even a sound of breathing.

Xie Linyuan lowered his head. The warm sun fell on him, but it seemed as if a layer of frost had been placed on him, making the back of his neck appear to be chilled to the bone.

The smile on his face froze instantly, then slowly twisted into an indescribable expression.

Xie Linyuan stood before Qingshan, the mechanism almost jammed. Slowly and stiffly, like a puppet, he tilted his head and asked again, "What did you say?"

Qingshan could only repeat the truth: "Master, when I arrived at the Xie residence, Miss Su was already gone... The west garden of the Xie residence caught fire, and Miss Su perished in the flames. Gone, gone..."

After Qingshan repeated his words, Xie Linyuan seemed to finally understand what Qingshan meant.

Only then did he realize what it truly meant to be utterly devastated.

"What did you say! What did you say..."

"Impossible, impossible..."

"Ying'er was perfectly fine when I left. I checked, I checked every day..."

"impossible……"

"impossible……"

Xie Linyuan lifted Qingshan from the ground, roared and asked a question, then lowered his hand and released him, muttering the same words over and over again.

He took two steps back, a strong smell of blood suddenly rising in his chest, and then he actually vomited blood.

The ground instantly turned a blinding crimson red. No one around had ever seen anything like it before, and they were all stunned for a moment.

They had never seen their general like this before.

They had walked through battlefields filled with swords and spears, mountains of corpses and seas of blood, yet they never frowned. Xie Linyuan was their backbone; as long as they saw their general, their morale would be steadfast.

They simply couldn't understand why their general reacted this way upon hearing the news...

Why did he vomit blood...?

A group of people rushed forward, and Qingshan wished he could die in Su Muying's place.

But Miss Su is gone...

What's gone is gone; no matter what he does, he can't conjure up a Miss Su.

Why has Master become like this ever since he met Miss Su...?

"General! General!"

"I don't believe it." Xie Linyuan raised his hand to stop the crowd from approaching. He slowly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and suddenly smiled.

He was dressed in black, his long hair flying with a red ribbon. His overly pale and beautiful face was bathed in darkness where the sunlight couldn't reach, giving off an extremely terrifying and chilling feeling.

It's like a vengeful ghost with such deep-seated obsession that it can't leave.

"Where is her body? Where is she buried? I want to...see her body with my own eyes..."

"Even if it means digging up a grave, I want to see Su Muying's corpse."

"She cannot die."

These words sent chills down the spines of everyone present.

Digging up graves...

The dead should be laid to rest in peace, and the deceased should be respected. What kind of obsession leads to digging up graves?

Xie's mother was also stunned by Xie Linyuan's extreme reaction and didn't react for a long time. Upon hearing this, she truly felt that her son had gone completely mad.

Spitting blood, digging up graves...

He is now a rebel, how can he go to the capital?

Besides, where did he get a grave to dig up?

Hearing Xie Linyuan's insane words, Granny Zhou couldn't help but feel worried for Su Muying. How could someone not let go of others even after death?

That poor child finally escaped; we can't let him be caught again.

Seeing that Madam Xie was still standing there in a daze, Granny Zhou whispered a reminder: "Madam, we can't go back to the capital now. For the safety of the Second Young Master, you must persuade him. The lives of the entire Xie family are now in his hands..."

Granny Zhou's words finally brought Xie's mother back to her senses. Xie's mother hurriedly stepped forward and scolded, "Lin Yuan! The dead should be laid to rest in peace. How could you say such a thing?!"

Xie Linyuan slowly raised his head, glanced at his mother with his bloodshot eyes that seemed about to bleed, and said calmly, "Mother, she is not dead."

He said this extremely calmly, without any emotion, as if he were talking about something perfectly normal.

If it weren't for Granny Zhou supporting her, Xie's mother would probably have been so frightened that she would have backed away.

"She's dead..." Xie's mother said in a dry voice, taking out a white jade hairpin that she had prepared beforehand and handing it to Xie Linyuan.

"This is the jade hairpin she often wore; you should have seen it before..."

"This hairpin was found on the corpse..."

Xie Linyuan took the hairpin, his fingertips gently caressing every inch of it. Then, with a forceful movement of his palm, the white jade hairpin crumbled into dust.

He let go, looked at the tiny fragments blown away by the wind, and smiled: "I told you, she's not dead."

"Just let her rest in peace!" Xie's mother was startled. She knew her son well; she feared he might really go mad and go to the capital to dig up her grave. She could only try to persuade him, "The capital is under martial law. Going there now is just suicide! Besides, the court now sees you as a traitor. If you expose yourself like this, they will use you to restrain and retaliate against you. The court will definitely dig up her corpse and whip it, so she can't rest in peace..."

Xie Linyuan suddenly froze.

"You tormented her so much while she was alive, and she died because of you. Do you want her to be unable to rest in peace even in death?" That was all Xie's mother could say.

She died because of you.

She died because of you...

These words struck Xie Linyuan like a series of thunderclaps, as if splitting him in two.

She was tormented, even in death, she could not rest in peace...

The girl he went to great lengths and used any means necessary to get, the girl who would carefully and excitedly carry a flower branch back into the house, the girl who would tremble in fear in the dark, the girl who had never provoked him in the slightest, was killed by him...

It killed him...

"Ha ha ha ha--"

Xie Linyuan laughed loudly, then spat out another mouthful of blood.

Then, he completely lost consciousness.

——

Xie Linyuan fell seriously ill and never recovered.

Or rather, this isn't an illness, but rather, he's trapped in a recurring, endless nightmare about Su Muying's death.

He locked himself in a dark room, just as he had locked her up before.

There were no lights on, and it was completely dark all around, without a single ray of light.

He lay on the ground with his arms outstretched, staring wide-eyed at the darkness, at the person he had killed... Su Muying.

Su Muying holding flowers, Su Muying swinging on a swing, Su Muying surrounded by incense smoke, Su Muying dressed in white with only a white jade hairpin, Su Muying quietly leaning against the window reading a book, Su Muying with her head down, diligently embroidering...

He saw the girl who appeared in his dreams every night, but without exception, Su Muying would eventually become a cold, lifeless corpse.

A charred corpse, or a corpse covered in wounds, still bleeding...

It's all because of him! It's all because of him!

He killed her with his own hands!!!

"Ha ha ha ha--"

To suppress the pain of watching her die again and again, he could only use a dagger to repeatedly cut his skin, even shaving off flesh, thinking that this would offset the pain.

But it's not enough, far from enough.

In the end, even the pain of having one's skin cut open and flesh removed turned into pleasure.

Xie Linyuan also began to lose the ability to distinguish between illusion and reality.

Over and over again, he began to relive the pain that Su Muying had experienced.

He kept seeing her dying, and then he kept cutting himself, crying and laughing at the same time.

Warm blood flowed out, quickly turned cold, and clung to his body like a net, completely trapping him inside.

For Xie Linyuan, time in the darkness stretched out infinitely, and nightmares and pain cycled endlessly, all because of that girl, whom he had killed.

The pain that had been hidden by twisted desires in the past, the pain that tormented her and herself, surged toward him with overwhelming force.

Just as Xie Linyuan was about to lose consciousness, Qingshan's shout came from outside the door.

"My lord, the imperial army is attacking! The commander is Wu Zizhuo, and the brothers need you to come out and stabilize morale..."

After saying this, Qingshan then used Su Muying to persuade him...

Perhaps only in this way would his master listen.

"Furthermore, Miss Su's remains are far away in the capital. You must retrieve Miss Su's remains so that she can rest in peace..."

Mother Xie was filled with remorse. She never imagined that her son would react this way after hearing the news of Su Muying's death, even to the point of losing his own life.

Just as Xie's mother was thinking of telling him that Su Muying was still alive, the door opened with a bang.

A strong stench of blood instantly filled the air, and everyone standing outside the door was shocked.

Xie Linyuan was wearing a long robe stained with blood, and his body was covered with bleeding wounds.

Blood continued to drip, his skin was so white it was almost transparent, his black hair was loose, and a red ribbon was loosely tied around his head. His blood-stained face gave off a ghostly, eerie, and sorrowful feeling.

Emaciated and emaciated, exuding an eerie aura.

——

At this very moment, Su Muying was tending to the flowers and plants outside a small wooden house.

He wore simple clothes and a cloth hairpin, his hair was tied up with a cloth belt, and he had no gold, silver or jade ornaments on his body.

Even so, it did not diminish her beauty in the slightest. Moreover, the paleness and frailty that had once plagued her were gradually fading away. In the bright spring sunshine, her radiant smile was more beautiful than the spring itself.

"Ying'er, you're pregnant now, so you should rest peacefully. I'll take care of you."

Upon seeing this, a man dressed in white quickly put down what he was holding and went to help her.

Su Muying's pregnancy was becoming more and more obvious, which made it difficult for her to move around, but she loved doing these things, so she didn't feel tired and felt happy.

"Cousin, don't worry, it's nothing," Su Muying replied softly with a smile.

The woman's smile made all the flowers pale in comparison, and the handsome man's ears turned slightly red as he hurriedly looked away.

“You’re frail, you should take good care of yourself. Sit down, your cousin will go and cook for you.” After saying this, Meng Yangqiu still helped the woman and carefully led her into the house.

"It's alright, it's not that inconvenient. I can cook by myself. My cousin has already taken such good care of me," Su Muying politely declined.

After Su Muying sat down, Meng Yangqiu poured her a glass of water. As if remembering something, he paused in handing it to her, and a rare look of anger appeared on his fair face.

"Fortunately, Ying'er was quick-witted and asked me to place you here so that your parents would not know. Now the rebels in Anzhou have been wiped out by Xie Linyuan. He has occupied Anzhou and stationed troops here, daring to defy the imperial court."

"The Xie family treated you this way, so it can be considered that they got what they deserved. I heard that General Xie heard something or was stimulated by something, and he is unconscious as if he is possessed."

"The imperial court has already dispatched troops to the outskirts of Anzhou City, but the commander-in-chief has yet to appear..."

Su Muying seemed to have heard some insignificant rumor. She smiled faintly, took a sip of tea, and said casually:

"Is that so?"

But it's no longer her concern.