Does he really... know nothing at all?

Just seeing the obedient yet seemingly clueless smile on Xiao Jiang Shihe's face, for some reason, Ji He felt a chill run down her spine, and a terrifying coldness emanated from her back.

She felt as if she were not facing a child, a child who barely reached her waist, but rather—a wild beast, a vengeful ghost, a terrifying abyss.

When she came to her senses, Ji He realized that her hands were trembling uncontrollably. She silently looked away and subconsciously glanced at the woman, wanting to know her opinion on her child.

But... the woman remained silent, and it was unclear whether she believed her or not. She simply lowered her head and stopped speaking.

Just then, the uncouth peasant woman who had run away earlier returned, looking menacing and as if she could devour someone alive.

She pointed her stubby finger at the woman and said sharply, "Alright, now that the old master of the Jiang family is gone, your good days are over!"

"..."

The woman ignored her and kept her head down.

But the peasant woman completely lost her patience and slapped the woman across the face, causing the already frail woman to fall onto the dirty bed.

But the rope binding her pulled the woman straight back, and soon red, swollen handprints appeared on her face.

The peasant woman, being a farmer, naturally possessed considerable strength. Ignoring the woman's delicate appearance, she stepped forward and grabbed her hair, saying, "Don't push your luck!"

"I know you've always held a grudge against me because I'm the one who brought you to Fengxian Village, but you should also thank me!"

"If it weren't for me, would you have been able to see clearly that the kid you were with was a coward who would abandon you to be humiliated while he was thinking about running away for his own life?!"

"I found you a good family. Apart from being a cripple, what's wrong with the eldest son of the Jiang family! Now that he's dead, you won't have an easy time either!"

Finally, after listening to the peasant woman's incessant chatter, the woman uttered her first words: "You...you are committing a crime..."

Hearing this, the peasant woman was taken aback, then couldn't help but burst into laughter: "I thought you were mute, but it turns out you can talk! What did you say, a crime?"

“They pay to marry wives, and you married into Fengxian Village. Where is the crime? This is our family matter. You are doing this willingly. Don’t talk to me about crime or not. It’s pointless!”

Just as the peasant woman was cursing, footsteps came from outside, followed by a series of rapid coughs, as if she could cough up her lungs, a cough that shook the heavens and the earth.

For a moment, it also attracted the attention of the two people in the small room. The woman who had been silent all along seemed to finally react, and she couldn't help but shrink back, looking at the doorway in horror.

And she was still muttering softly and mechanically, as if the fear was branded into her heart.

"Kill, the murderer..."

"The murderer is here, he's here to kill... to kill me..."

Upon hearing this, Ji He subconsciously looked up and, sure enough, saw the old man who had previously chopped off the man's head with an axe walk in from outside.

He seemed to have aged decades in an instant, exuding a deathly stillness, especially when he coughed, blood seeping from his mouth...

He was clearly only around sixty years old, but he looked like he had one foot in the grave. It was probably because of the sudden accident that happened just now. The fact that the eldest son of the Jiang family fell into the river and drowned had dealt him a huge blow.

After the old man came in, he shook his head at the peasant woman: "Stop hitting her, that's enough. My son is dead now, as for this woman—"

"Don't cripple her. Now that she's married into our Jiang family, she's useful, whether she likes it or not, hmph!"

The old man snorted coldly, his aged and cloudy eyes fixed on the woman, as if he wanted to squeeze every last drop of value out of her, right down to her very marrow.

Even from an outsider's perspective, Ji He felt that his gaze made it seem as if he saw the woman as a piece of meat on a chopping board, to be cut up at will.

Before the woman could resist, the old man grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the small room, saying, "This bastard you gave birth to is that man's."

"I didn't know back then, otherwise how could I have let you give birth to this bastard? And if you hadn't threatened to kill yourself, I would have beaten this bastard to death long ago. Don't push your luck!"

“You came to our Jiang family, to this Fengxian Village, to carry on the family line. Now that my son is dead, you must give me another one!”

When Ji He heard those words, she couldn't help but widen her eyes and curse, "Beast!"

The woman, who had been numb all along, began to struggle uncontrollably, but the old man grabbed her by the hair and slammed her against the wall, leaving her face covered in blood...

After that blow, it seemed as if all hope and everything for the woman had been shattered. She collapsed to the ground like a dead dog and was dragged away by the peasant woman and the old man.

Standing in the corner, Xiao Jiang Shihe simply watched the scene with cold eyes, without moving an inch.

Ji He felt a chill creep into her heart, but then she noticed that Jiang Shihe seemed to be looking at something. She followed his gaze and then noticed the woman being dragged away.

She was staring at them, her empty eyes filled with a deathly stillness, tormented beyond recognition, and her lips moved slightly, forming the shape of—

"Kill me."

"No, don't, save, me."

As she read the lip shape, Ji He pronounced each word carefully, but in that very instant—

She felt as if she were locked onto by something cold and sinister, and Ji He couldn't help but look in the direction of Xiao Jiang Shihe.

Ji He, who should have gone unnoticed by anyone, should have been merely a hallucination of past scenes replaying themselves, but Xiao Jiang Shihe's gaze fell upon her, truly and unmistakably, not by chance.

On his young, innocent face, the smile gradually widened and twisted, and the dark green gleaming in his obsidian eyes made him look like a vengeful ghost.

"Welcome to my...ghost realm."

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