Heart stolen
The old man, holding a bowl of chicken blood, circled a spot in front of the altar with the blood. He looked up at Wang Kun and said, "If one day you absolutely must come here, stand in this circle, and she will be unable to harm you."
The area marked by the chicken blood was precisely at the front of the stairs; as long as one didn't stray too far from the stairs, it was fine. Whether it was Xiuya's intention to arrange the positions of Wen Dai and Lai Wenyi was unclear, but they were also within the circle.
The red thread binding the urn fell onto Xiuya and became an iron lock. Her hands and feet were bound by chains. She stood silently in front of the altar, not hysterically pounding on the invisible wall separating her from Wang Kun, but simply watching coldly.
She did not resist the path she was born into—even when the maid informed her of the arranged marriage, she remained indifferent.
She seemed indifferent to the long period after her death.
But it seems that's just an assumption.
After Wang Kun and the so-called master left, she turned her head slowly, her gaze meeting that of Wen Dai and Lai Wenyi, who had witnessed everything. A soft, distant voice drifted over: "I'm very lonely here."
Xiuya raised her hand, causing the iron chains binding her wrists to tug and clang. She tilted her head, looking at the chains on her wrists—the chains that bound her soul—and suddenly asked, “Times are changing so fast. How do you view me now?”
"We will grieve for you." The scenes just now had shocked Wen Dai. She calmed herself down and took several deep breaths to try to calm her body, but her heart was still racing. She looked up and stared into Xiu Ya's eyes, then grabbed Lai Wen Yi's arm and pulled her in front of her. "I thought she made it very obvious just now. We saw a part of what you experienced when you were here, and we will grieve for you."
She released Lai Wenyi's arm and boldly crossed the line drawn by the master with chicken blood.
The outstretched hand stopped in front of Xiuya's iron chains. Wen Dai's gaze lingered on the ghost-binding chains, her burning eyes blinked a few times, her raised arm fell, and her eyelids were lifted. She looked at Xiuya with complicated eyes, "What do you want?"
The chains rattled again, and Xiuya lowered her arms. She smiled gently and asked instead of answering, "Aren't you afraid?" Two dark pupils moved in her eye sockets and swept over the dark bloodstains on the ground.
“Why be afraid? Besides, being afraid is useless. Your current abilities are more than enough to break through this barrier, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to create illusions; Lai Wenyi is a child you’ve watched grow up, and your consciousness can see what’s happening in this villa; in other words, you can hurt me anytime you want. Am I right?” Wen Dai’s gaze was fixed precisely on Xiu Ya’s pupils, her back not bending an inch, her calmness astonishing, as if she wasn’t facing a ghost that could turn her fate around at any moment.
The woman's blood-stained, tattered cheongsam instantly became clean, the pure white skirt featuring a Western-style pleated design. She turned to face Wen Dai in her high heels, walking slowly forward while smiling, "You're really interesting. I almost want to keep you here with me." Her voice remained soft and melancholic.
"Don't you look at your own fate?" She stopped in front of the unpainted, rough wall, raised her hand to stroke the rugged surface, and turned her eyes back to focus on Wen Dai's face.
Wen Dai shrugged twice, crossed her arms, raised her chin, and said in a nonchalant tone, "What's there to see? Am I watching to see when I'll die? I'll die when it's my turn. I haven't seen if I'll be in danger today, and I don't know if you can hurt me, but at least Lai Wenyi will be fine. As for Uncle Lai Yuan... I don't know about the feud between you and him yet, and I don't want to pry into it too early, but no matter what, I will protect him with my life."
Xiuya seemed very interested in her, turning around to look at her with great interest in her voice: "Do people in your line of work go to such lengths for their customers, even sacrificing themselves for others?"
She raised her hand, her slender fingers half-covering the lower half of her face, a faint smile playing on her lips. "Once... Wang Kun came down here with the wizard he found. He had already gotten enough. At that time, war broke out, and he had to go to the other side of the ocean. This house couldn't be kept, and he couldn't bear to let others benefit from it for nothing, so he came here specifically to try to eliminate me—guess what happened to them?"
Xiuya slowly raised her eyes and smiled at Wen Dai. Even from this strange angle, her tilted face looked beautiful, and her almond-shaped eyes held a hint of mockery.
In a near-self-destructive tone, she said, "Did you kill me?" Wen Dai mimicked her by tilting her head and talking to her as if nothing had happened.
The sound of giggling laughter echoed in the space. Lai Wenyi, who was inside the circle, had already soaked her undershirt with sweat. Her back was covered in cold sweat, and her palms, which had been pinched until they were purple, were still suffering.
After laughing enough, Xiuya said "Ai," raised her hand and pointed to the wall in front of her, speaking slowly and deliberately: "They crashed into this wall and died, their souls were torn apart by me bit by bit; I didn't make them disappear completely, that would have been too easy, the spiders you saw when you came down—those are their fragments."
"Human hearts are unpredictable, so unpredictable..." A long sigh rolled out of Xiuya's mouth. In an instant, she teleported from in front of the wall to in front of Wen Dai, reached out and pinched Wen Dai's cheeks, her sharp nails lightly tracing Wen Dai's face, her eyes dragging her gaze over Wen Dai's cheeks, "You, you are also a pitiful person. However, I like your heart."
Her seemingly composed peach blossom eyes suddenly widened in disbelief as Wen Dai stared at the person before her. She slowly lowered her gaze and saw that Xiuya's other hand was already inside her chest cavity. They could be said to have entered this world as souls, and what Xiuya had grasped was what could be called the heart of her soul.
The feeling of being torn apart is too weak to be described with the word "pain." Seeing her own heart suddenly appear before her eyes is even more shocking. Wen Dai's face turned pale instantly after her "heart" was taken away. The coldness emanating from her inside out made her shiver uncontrollably.
Lai Wenyi, who was standing behind, was so frightened that she froze on the spot. Then she rushed over and hugged Wen Dai. Tears fell onto Wen Dai, and her raised hand hovered over Wen Dai's chest. "Wen Dai... Wen Dai, are you going to die? Waaah... Don't scare me. What will I do if you die? What will we do?"
The spreading pain and cold left Wen Dai barely able to speak. She cursed softly, forcing herself to reassure Lai Wenyi, "Don't worry, I won't die. She didn't take a real heart." It would only cause her some pain, but…
Wen Dai glanced up at Xiu Ya, who was holding her heart. The woman was curiously admiring the still-beating organ in her palm, then looked up at Wen Dai and smiled, saying, "Your heart is just like you. Want your heart back? Then let me see what you're capable of..." Her voice trailed off as she spoke.
"Damn it!" Wen Dai couldn't take it anymore.
"Damn it." Chen Sizhe could no longer contain himself.
Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Chen Sizhe held a tissue and wiped the blood splattered on his cheek. His clothes were also covered in dark ochre blood.
Lai Yuan, who was bending over and rinsing his hair with water at the sink, wasn't in much better shape.
While they were exploring, blood droplets inexplicably began to fall from the ceiling. Chen Sizhe and Lai Yuan found a high table and hid under it. Unexpectedly, a seductive melody suddenly came from above the table. When they couldn't stand it and came out from under the table to see what was going on, the blood droplets from the ceiling turned into blood clumps. They were forced to move quickly around the room, but even so, they could not escape the fate of being smashed into bloody messes.
However, Chen Sizhe fared better than Lai Yuan. Lai Yuan was hit on the head directly by a ball of blood, while the blood splattered on Chen Sizhe's face was a result of being caught in the blast.
After washing his blood-stained hair, Lai Yuan casually picked up a towel from the washstand to dry his wet hair. He sighed, turned to Chen Sizhe, and asked, "I feel like I've been played a trick on. Even ghosts play pranks?"
"Yes, and we are being played." Chen Sizhe, expressionless, rubbed his skin until it turned red before stopping. He glanced sideways at the bathtub where an ambiguous sound suddenly rang out.
In an instant, the walls around them turned into a bloody mess, blood gushed from the bathtub, and inside was a naked woman being tortured by three obese men. Blood flowed from the crisscrossing wounds on her body, and even the places that had been repeatedly abused were gushing blood.
The exaggerated visuals convey an overwhelming sense of despair.
But the woman lying in blood was still beautiful; the crimson color even added an eerie beauty to her. But—
Chen Sizhe frowned, glancing at the three beast-like men. He clicked his tongue and said, "You've tainted my eyes." He tossed aside the paper he was holding and began to form a hand seal. "Lingbao Tianzun, comfort my body, my soul, my five internal organs..." The purification incantation was useless against the ghosts that created the illusion, but it was extremely insulting. He knew very well that he was doing it on purpose.
But the reaction from the ghost hiding in the shadows confirmed his identity as the mastermind.
After his actions cleared the way, the group that was engaging in a disgusting act of venting dispersed, and the bloody surroundings also changed.
The bedroom decoration style in the early 20th century is presumably from the period when Western culture was gaining popularity in China. The Western European-style decoration and the oil paintings hanging on the walls show the owner's wealth, while music is playing on the ivory bed.
The woman's voice held the same pain as before; the sadistic man was the same as before, treating people as less than human.
Two men stood before the bed, their eyes fixed on the scene, but neither showed any lust. Chen Sizhe's eyes held contemplation and disgust; Lai Yuan's eyes held doubt, his brow furrowed in deep thought.
Lai Yuan spoke first, raising his chin slightly and saying hesitantly, "I feel like... I've seen this woman before, there's a strange sense of familiarity about her."
In the silence, Chen Sizhe swiftly deduced the cause and effect, then slowly turned to meet Lai Yuan's puzzled gaze. He raised one eyebrow and asked, "Anything else?"
Lai Yuan placed his hand on his chest, his brows furrowed, his eyes staring blankly into the distance. "Seeing her being... by these people... I felt like I couldn't breathe, like my lungs were blocked."
Instead of an answer, Chen Sizhe remained silent. The tall, slender man lowered his head slightly, casting a shadow over his jade-colored face. After a moment, his rosy lips parted slightly: "Oh." His response was utterly perfunctory.
"If that's all you're planning to show people is this kind of footage, then I'm sorry, I'm not interested." Without clearly indicating who he was speaking to, Chen Sizhe glanced at Lai Yuan beside him and raised his voice, asking, "Are you interested in seeing this?"
Subconsciously glancing again at the view on the bed, Lai Yuan quickly shook his head, shrank his neck back, and his furrowed brows revealed a look of disdain. "Any normal person with a shred of humanity would not want to see a woman being forced and abused."
As they wished, the environment collapsed and changed, eventually coalescing into an elegant bedroom.
A woman in a cheongsam held a round fan in her hand. She leaned against the windowsill, the top of the fan resting on her nose, her forehead against the window frame, her lonely eyes gazing out the window. The night wind rustled the stray hairs at her temples, a sliver of moonlight shone on her cheek, while the other half of her face was shrouded in gloom.
"Is it so hard to control one's own body..." she murmured sadly, then vanished with the night wind.
The next scene is a private room in a restaurant, where a man and a woman sit facing each other in silence. The man opposite the woman exudes a scholarly elegance and is slightly shy as he serves her food—his ears are turning red.
"Xiuya, I've discussed it with my parents, and they agree to our relationship." The man gripped his chopsticks tightly, looking at her expectantly, unable to suppress the joy on his lips.
However, Xiuya's face was filled with sorrow. She held her chopsticks and gently stirred the food in her bowl, her eyes glancing out the window. "...I'm afraid I can't."
The man's lips drooped, the forced smile unable to hold back his joy, and he could barely grip his chopsticks. "Why?" he asked, his voice trembling.
She seemed unable to meet the man's eyes, her face remaining still as she brushed them aside. "Why so many whys? If it can't be, it can't be. In this world, how many people can achieve their wishes? Li Yuan, today is the last time we meet. From now on—don't contact me again." She abruptly released her chopsticks, and as she hurriedly stood up, the chair slid backward from her impact, its legs scraping against the floor with a harsh sound.
The scene shifts as Xiuya leaves. After leaving the restaurant, the resolute woman in the private room bursts into tears, one by one rolling out of her eyes and falling to the ground. She covers her mouth and walks briskly down the street, tears streaming down her face.
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