Chapter 70. Chapter 70. It brought him down to earth.
She reached out and touched the black piece in front of her.
The moment her fingertips touched it, the black stone suddenly emitted an extremely intense light, almost blinding. But when Meng Chiwan looked over again, it was just a dark, empty void. Then, the darkness gradually stripped her consciousness away.
A void.
dark.
And... a faint, tingling pain. Like a few needles subtly pricking my body.
The pain intensified, as if someone was crushing my body with their feet, causing the needles to penetrate completely, like yellow sand being swept into a river.
Meng Chiwan opened her eyes.
All I could see was darkness, and my whole body seemed to be blind for a moment, perhaps because I was in so much pain that I was about to faint.
"Hey, stop playing dead. Aren't you an immortal monster?"
Someone kicked her hard.
Finally, some faint light appeared in my vision, like clumps of fuzzy, bewildered hairs.
Meng Chiwan didn't make a sound, nor did her body. They were so quiet that it was as if the pain wasn't happening to her, as quiet as if she were an outsider to her own existence.
Looking up, there were several faint shadows painted into human shapes, which gradually coalesced into several small boys.
“Chen Zhuo, do you know why your father named you Chen Zhuo?” one of the boys asked again.
The body naturally did not respond to him; it simply lowered its head and, in complete silence, pulled out the needles embedded in its bones and blood one by one.
The silver needles were stained bright red, and streaks of bright red blood flowed down the skin.
Meng Chiwan was in excruciating pain, almost suffocating. Yet her body remained still, as if she had lost all five senses.
The boy received no answer, but as if he were used to it, he scoffed: "Naturally, it's because you're like mud on the ground, always dirty and filthy!"
The needle was taken back from his hand, and then a new needle eye was carved out in his bones and blood, becoming a new spring.
This time, Meng Chiwan heard heavy breathing, the kind of breathing that comes from extreme pain and can't be controlled.
Even the slowest-witted Meng Chiwan realized at this moment that she seemed to be inside someone else's body again.
Yes, again… this seems to have happened many times; she's always being forced to play someone else. But this time, something seems different.
She cleared her throat. Then, to her surprise, she found that she could speak this time.
Regardless of whose body it is in right now, it is clear that this person is being bullied.
So, Meng Chiwan cleared her throat and deliberately reassured him, "Don't listen to him. What if he's the calm and collected Chen Zhuo? Even if your father really named you Chen Zhuo, you can define those two words yourself."
Even though this body hadn't shown much fluctuation, Meng Chiwan could still clearly feel it stiffen for a moment the instant she spoke.
The body became quieter, as if trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.
Meng Chiwan then spoke again, asking him to confirm, "I'm inside your body, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you... if you won't hurt me either."
Meng Chiwan thought she had spoken quite gently, but she still couldn't be sure whether a person could accept having another person inside their body in a short period of time.
After all, if it were her, she might be terrified and would do everything in her power to expel the person from her body.
Meng Chiwan thought for a moment, then realized that this might still scare people to death, so she spoke again, trying to make her voice as gentle and soft as possible: "The fact that there is someone else inside your body may indeed be very scary, but don't be afraid, I will definitely leave."
This body still doesn't speak. Like a mute.
Meng Chiwan couldn't help but begin to wonder if the body she had transmigrated into was truly that of a mute.
"Hurry, hurry, his father is here!"
Someone suddenly looked into the distance and whispered something. The crowd then shoved the body and rushed outside.
The last person to fall behind muttered, "What's there to be afraid of? His dad doesn't care about him at all!"
“But his father is the head of the family! It’s not appropriate to do it in front of him!” someone retorted.
Just like suddenly drowning or suffering from heatstroke, all sounds faded away. After a few words, Meng Chiwan precisely picked up on a few key pieces of information.
First of all, this person has been constantly bullied.
Secondly, this person's father is the so-called head of the Yun family.
In the end, only one name came to mind.
"Was Xiao Zhuo good today?"
Meng Chiwan felt her head being stroked, very lightly and slowly, yet very noticeably, like a snake crawling across her scalp.
The body didn't raise its head, but silently pulled out the needles from its body, and then let the small blood holes slowly seep out, with red beans falling to the ground with a "plop".
It was a truly bizarre scene: the son was covered in needle marks and dripping with blood, but the father seemed oblivious, only casually asking, "Were you good today?"
Even without a reply, the so-called father did not seem angry. He simply said in a gentle voice, "Didn't I tell you before that when someone talks to you, you should look them in the eye and not ignore them?"
The body remained silent. But Meng Chiwan felt her chin being forcefully pulled up.
The first thing that catches the eye is a pair of clear eyes, like two pieces of ice that have not melted for millions of years, followed by a young face.
This face is absolutely gorgeous, with a face like jade, a long waist, and bushy temples.
Seeing a beautiful woman should be pleasing to the eye. But Meng Chiwan felt a jolt in her heart, as if something had suddenly fallen from the sky.
This face is so... too similar to Yun Xianqing's, it's like a potato giving birth to a potato.
The name that had previously come to mind was Yun Xianqing.
My father is the head of the Yun family.
His name is Chen Zhuo.
Dust and turbidity...envying purity...the dust on the ground envies the purity in the sky.
So, was Yun Xianqing the one who brought her here?
But she really wasn't interested in Yun Xianqing's past. If it were before, knowing that the poor wretch in front of her was Yun Xianqing, she would only feel sorry for him. But now, it was like hearing a fabricated story, and she felt nothing at all.
The affection has expired, so there's no longer any sense of heartache about it.
She stopped speaking, no longer addressing the young Yun Xianqing before her. If she could take back what she had said, she would.
"Mud, it's just mud."
Meng Chiwan looked up in surprise. That voice... it was clearly her voice.
But she didn't say a word.
Is that... her true feeling?
Could this little Yun Xianqing hear it too? She wasn't sure, because the body wasn't giving any response whatsoever.
Unlike his later gentle and insightful self, he is now more like... a worn-out mirror, reflecting no emotions or feedback, only scratches.
To put it nicely, he was indifferent; to put it bluntly, he was like a living corpse.
Just when Meng Chiwan thought he would not react anymore, she heard him suddenly say, "Father, I want to change my name."
The Yun family patriarch was taken aback, seemingly not expecting him to speak: "...Change your name?"
The pain in her body showed no signs of abating, but Yun Xianqing simply wiped the blood off her arm with her hand, spreading the streams of blood into a crimson blanket, which she then covered her arm with.
He nodded: "I want to change my name."
The head of the Yun family asked him, "Why change your name? Isn't 'Dust and Turbidity' better?"
His voice was still immature, but his tone was like a ripe strawberry, with a hint of decay and listlessness: "I am not mud."
The Yun family patriarch chuckled softly, his gentle voice flowing naturally: "If you are truly a piece of trash, then changing your name will be useless. Or rather, simply changing your name cannot change a person's essence."
Yun Xianqing frowned, not because of his wounds, but simply because of those words. He repeated, "I am not mud. Nor am I a worn-out mirror."
He heard Meng Chiwan's words. He reacted to them.
It wasn't until the phrase "the faded mirror" that Meng Chiwan truly realized he could hear her entire innermost thoughts.
"So, what name do you want to change to?" The Yun family patriarch clearly had no intention of arguing with him about this issue, and released his hand from his chin.
This time, however, he didn't lower his head. Instead, he raised his head and said, word by word, "Yun Xianqing."
Yun Xianqing. It was the name he heard from her heart.
Meng Chiwan suddenly felt a sense of confusion. Was everything that was happening here real? The name Yun Xianqing…was that how it came about?
"But do you remember that when you made your request to me, you asked for payment?" The Yun family head spoke again, his voice still gentle and smooth, like woven silk.
Yun Xianqing fell silent again.
The Yun family patriarch looked at him and sighed softly: "Look, mud is mud. It can't remember anything and knows nothing. Or rather... are you going against me?"
Yun Xianqing remained silent.
"So, you're prepared to pay the price, right?" The Yun family patriarch's voice remained gentle. "But today, I've also decided to punish you."
Yun Xianqing's body seemed to tremble slightly. His eyelashes closed slowly for a moment, but he still did not speak.
Just like the Yun family patriarch said, he is resisting him.
A chill ran through his body. The Yun family patriarch's clear eyes seemed to transform into icicles, piercing him all over.
Yun Xianqing was blindfolded. In the pitch black, someone held his small hand and led him in all directions. He couldn't tell which way was which, so neither north nor south was his destination.
Meng Chiwan heard her own voice asking him, "Why are you going against him?"
It was a question in her mind. She wasn't curious about what the payment would be, nor what the so-called punishment would be.
She was simply puzzled as to why such a gentle and intelligent person would, as a teenager, knowingly defy his father.
It wasn't curiosity about Yun Xianqing, but curiosity about the boy at this moment, about this boy covered in blood, whose future was uncertain.
Or rather, what she really wanted to know was whether she had ever truly understood Yun Xianqing? That's why she reacted with such disbelief at his killing her to prove his Dao.
If he has always been a person with a firm Dao heart and his own principles, then wouldn't everything make sense? It is only natural that Meng Chiwan cannot hinder his path to enlightenment.
Could all of this tear away his last mask and turn her past absurd affections into a joke?
That's ridiculous.
Is revenge not enough? What she should really do is completely destroy his Dao heart, make him fall into the dust, make him lose all his so-called persistence, break all his pride, and utterly crush him into the dust.
Envy the clear sky; you'll always only deserve to envy the heavens' clarity. You'll always only deserve to stay in the mud.
She changed her mind. Killing him was still necessary. But more importantly, she wanted to crush him into the mud, torment him at her mercy, and leave him forever in a state of anxiety and uncertainty.
Dusty and murky. Just a pile of mud.
Author's note: Mud is mud. [Milk tea]
I've been on a business trip lately and haven't had time to write... [chin resting on hand] When I'm less busy, I'll write like crazy and finally settle my goal of crushing the male lead into the dust! [milk tea emoji]
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