Chapter 21 "Even if you can't stand it, you have to endure it, until..."
The door opened and closed again, and the light flashed before Su Muying's eyes. A moment later, she watched the light disappear.
Xie Linyuan is gone.
After Xie Linyuan and his mother left, Xiao Rong heard the commotion and rushed over after asking around.
The backyard was located at the far west end of the mansion. She was covered in sweat from running, and when she saw the room hidden by several peach trees, she wiped her sweat with her sleeve and quickly ran over to push open the door.
The door was locked, and she couldn't open it, so she could only pound on it and call out to her young mistress:
"Miss! Miss!"
"Are you inside, Miss?"
"Miss, would you please answer Xiao Rong's question?"
"Miss! Miss, are you inside?!"
Xiao Rong's shouts were loud and could be heard through the tightly closed door and the four walls. Su Muying immediately raised her head. She groped her way off the bed in the dark and followed the sound to the door.
"I'm here! Xiao Rong! Can you hear me?"
Su Muying's weak voice came through, and Xiao Rong finally breathed a sigh of relief. She wiped away her tears and quickly asked, "Miss, how are you inside? What happened? Why were you locked up like this... I asked the servants in the manor, but they all said they didn't know anything and dared not say much, only that the Second Young Master brought you here..."
"Why did the second young master lock you up? He really is a monster! Compared to the eldest young master, he's like heaven and earth. How could he treat you like this? My young lady hasn't done anything wrong. My young lady is such a good person..."
Xiao Rong cried even harder, frantically banging on the door, but it was locked and she couldn't open it no matter what she did: "Miss, what should I do? Xiao Rong is stupid, Xiao Rong can't think of any way, Miss..."
"What can Xiao Rong do to help Miss? Miss, please tell Xiao Rong, Xiao Rong will do it no matter what, sob sob..."
"How about I go find Young Master Biao?"
Hearing Xiao Rong's voice, Su Muying finally felt somewhat relieved.
Cousin...
Xiao Rong's words reminded her, and she slowly sat down on the floor, leaning against the door, her thin, reddened eyelids drooping.
Cousin...
She had written a letter to her cousin before, and was counting down the days. If her cousin had received the letter and written back to her, then she should have received it by now.
For some reason, Su Muying suddenly had a bad feeling. She quickly asked Xiao Rong, "Xiao Rong, have you received any replies from your cousin recently?"
"No..." Xiao Rong also found it strange, "I also felt that I should have received a reply from Young Master Biao these days, but I haven't seen it at the gatehouse every day..."
Su Muying's heart skipped a beat, and her half-closed eyes immediately widened, her panic and fear spreading uncontrollably.
Xie Linyuan... it must be him.
This letter must have fallen into Xie Linyuan's hands...
I wonder what my cousin wrote in his letter, and if anything offended him...
The image of the corpse chopped in two at the banquet flashed before my eyes again.
Blood and entrails were spilled all over the ground; the large patches of red and the stench of blood assaulted the eyes, almost making one want to vomit.
Xie Linyuan, sword in hand, walked towards her step by step. His face was stained with blood, and the corners of his eyes were also stained with crimson. He looked at her through the mist of blood...
Then... he swung his sword down.
Su Muying's body went limp, and she kept saying, "He must have intercepted the letter, he must have intercepted it..."
Xie Linyuan kills without blinking an eye, and his mind is extremely unstable. He is truly capable of anything.
In these chaotic times, he is a general. If he says he wants to kill, then he really means it.
My cousin is a scholar, unlike Xie Linyuan who is so cruel. If my cousin were here, Xie Linyuan would be even more ruthless...
If Xie Linyuan also killed his cousin...
Su Muying felt a chill run down her spine at the thought. She steadied herself and immediately said to Xiao Rong, "Xiao Rong, go to Anzhou and find my cousin. Tell him not to come to pick me up. Just say it's at the Xie residence..."
As she said this, even in the darkness, the light in her eyes dimmed little by little: "I'll say that the funeral arrangements in Lin'an haven't been completed yet. Once they're settled, I'll return to Anzhou."
After saying that, Su Muying paused, then smiled and said, her face pale but her voice gentle as water: "After you arrive in Anzhou, stay here. For my sake, your cousin will arrange a place for you."
After saying that, Su Muying seemed to remember something and added, "There's still some silver in the room, in the dressing case. Xiao Rong, take this silver with you and hurry up!"
Upon hearing these words, Xiao Rong immediately shook her head: "No, Xiao Rong wants to stay here with Miss, Xiao Rong is not going anywhere!"
"That second young master is too terrifying. If Xiao Rong leaves, what will happen to Miss all by herself..."
Xiao Rong had grown up with her since childhood. Rather than being mistress and servant, they were more like sisters. After their parents died, she wandered here, adrift and helpless, and Xiao Rong was always by her side.
She treated her like a sister, like family, so naturally she wanted to protect her.
Her cousin was one of the few people who were good to her, and she couldn't let him be implicated and let Xie Linyuan kill him.
Su Muying thought that she had survived to this point, having abandoned all her self-respect and shame to beg him, and now trapped in this darkness, all she wanted was to live.
She remembered her mother's words: she must live. So she endured it all, but...
Mother, life is so hard...
You are all gone, and Lin'an is gone too...
She misses them so much...
I long to go back to Anzhou and live a simple, peaceful life.
She could read, embroider, grow flowers—anything was fine as long as her parents were by her side.
All she ever wanted were these small things.
But Su Muying also knew that the kind of stability and tranquility she wanted was the hardest thing to find in such a chaotic world.
Lin'an... is already dead, he died for her.
Her parents died because of her...
Therefore, Su Muying would protect whoever she could.
"Aren't you going to listen to me anymore?" Su Muying changed her tone, her voice carrying an unusual sharpness. "Go now! Don't delay any longer! Otherwise, your cousin will be in danger!"
"It's dangerous for you to stay here!"
After saying that, Su Muying felt a chill run down her spine...
Yes, Xie Linyuan is used to tormenting her, and he might hurt Xiao Rong in the future, using Xiao Rong to threaten and torment her.
Xiao Rong can't stay here!
Thinking about it, Su Muying became even more anxious. She said sternly, "You should leave now! Besides, you can't help me here. Xiao Rong, go find your cousin. Don't make me worry anymore."
"Besides, Madam Xie promised me that as long as I can conceive a child of the Xie family, nothing will happen and she will let me leave. Don't worry."
Thinking of this, Su Muying lowered her hand, touched the aphrodisiac she always kept at her waist, and gritted her teeth.
There's nothing we can do.
This is the only way.
If she can conceive a child of the Xie family, Xie's mother will definitely care about the Xie family bloodline. She can then use Xie's mother to put pressure on Xie Linyuan and make him release her.
Later, after the child is born, she will be able to leave.
Even Xie Linyuan would consider the Xie family bloodline and let her go for the time being, right?
Su Muying wasn't actually sure.
She couldn't be sure of anything about Xie Linyuan, who was a... madman.
She didn't even know why he had locked her up here.
What did she do?
But right now, this is the only glimmer of hope, and Su Muying has no choice but to give it a try.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Rong knew she could no longer be a burden to her mistress. She wiped away her tears and quickly got up.
Yes, she's going to find the young master; maybe he has a way to save the young lady!
"Miss, Xiao Rong will listen to me. I'm going to find Young Master Biao. I'll go find him right now. Miss... wait for me, wait for me..."
"Xiao Rong, just wait for me in Anzhou... Remember, wait for me in Anzhou."
"I will definitely go back. My parents are still waiting for me there..."
"I will definitely go back..."
After Xiao Rong left, and the house fell silent again, Su Muying slowly stood up, groped her way back to bed in the dark.
She huddled in a corner, muttering those words over and over again...
"I will definitely go back, I will definitely go back..."
"Father, Mother..."
"I want to go back to Anzhou..."
After all the sounds around her disappeared, Su Muying was once again completely enveloped in darkness and silence.
After Xie Linyuan left, and after that door opened and closed again, Su Muying never saw the light again.
He locked her in the dark and left.
Su Muying really couldn't understand why Xie Linyuan had locked her up here.
She clearly did nothing at the banquet; she kept her eyes straight ahead, sat upright, and didn't look at anyone.
She dared not anger him, dared not disobey him, she was careful and tried her best to please him, so why, why did he still treat her like this?
seduce?
Apart from that one time she knocked on his door and offered herself to him, when had she ever seduced anyone?
Apart from that one time, she never seduced him.
Su Muying actually... didn't even know how to seduce people.
Why, why did you have to do this to her...?
Su Muying couldn't understand it, but at this moment, she was unable to think or figure these things out.
Alone in the darkness, she gradually felt her consciousness being swallowed by the immense darkness, sinking deeper and deeper into an abyss that could drown her.
At first, Su Muying neither cried nor screamed. She simply bent her knees, quietly hugged herself, and buried her face in her knees, as if in this way she could resist the fear...
In this way, those terrifying images, those images she dared not recall, would not appear in her mind.
But it didn't work.
When she was in complete darkness and there was no sound around her, the more she tried to ignore it, the more those images would appear in her mind.
Gradually, she began to hear sounds.
Fire, the crackling sound of fire burning wood, and then... she heard the sizzling sound of flames burning human flesh.
Su Muying suddenly raised her eyes, staring intently into the darkness. The blood vessels in her bright almond-shaped eyes began to spread little by little, and the non-existent firelight seemed to be reflected in her eyes.
She saw the fire, and she saw the fire burning people's flesh.
She saw... her parents.
She saw her parents in the fire, shielding her from the flames, which were burning them.
They smiled and told her not to be afraid, to hide well, and not to come out...
"Father and Mother may not be able to... won't be able to stay with Ying'er anymore. Ying'er promises Father and Mother that she must live on, live well..."
"My daughter, your parents are so sorry..."
"I'm sorry..."
...
In the darkness, Su Muying stared wide-eyed as she watched her parents being burned by the fire, the flames growing brighter and brighter until they were gradually consumed by the flames.
She can no longer hear her parents' voices.
She can no longer see her parents.
Su Muying screamed in terror:
"Father! Mother!"
"Father! Mother!"
"Father, Mother..."
"Don't go!"
"Mother...please don't abandon me!"
"I'm scared..."
"I'm scared..."
"Ying'er is scared..."
...
The horrific scene of her parents being burned to death played out repeatedly before her eyes in the darkness. Fire and darkness alternated constantly before her eyes. Su Muying's eyes turned red, and the usually clear and bright eyes seemed to turn into blood. She began to scream, shout, and cry incessantly.
Completely devoid of her usual gentleness and quietness, she cried and screamed with all her might and dignity, her voice hoarse from crying and screaming, yet she remained oblivious to it.
Su Muying was trapped in darkness, trapped in this enormous shadow and terror, and time seemed to stretch on endlessly.
The torment and suffering were also stretched out indefinitely.
But after only a short while, she felt as if an eternity had passed...
It went on for so long that she could hardly bear it anymore.
She could no longer distinguish between illusion and reality, darkness and fire.
"Father! Mother!"
"Wait for me! Wait for Ying'er! Don't abandon Ying'er, okay..."
So, when Su Muying saw her parents being engulfed in flames again, subconsciously, she wanted to follow them and... to end this terrible nightmare completely.
She wanted to stay with her parents...
Father, Mother, Ying'er misses you so much...
Ying'er will come find you, okay...?
Su Muying charged straight into the raging fire and the immense darkness.
She didn't realize she had crashed into a wall.
Or perhaps, subconsciously, she knew it.
She crashed into it, thinking that all the pain and terror would end.
She will find her parents...
Lin'an will also be waiting for her.
However, at that very moment, in that instant, the intertwined darkness and fire vanished.
Light shone in.
"Su Muying!"
Someone is calling her.
The sound was very loud, more like the roar of a wild beast, and her ears were sore from the vibration.
Immediately afterwards, something seemed to fall to the ground, and the aroma of food wafted out.
Light shone through, and the surroundings were no longer bottomless darkness. Su Muying's consciousness, which had been overwhelmed by fear, gradually returned.
In an instant, a gust of wind and snow swept over her, soaking her entire body.
She couldn't help but shiver.
This scent... it's so familiar, it's...
Once Su Muying realized whose aura it was, her somewhat dazed consciousness completely cleared.
Clearly, she had no idea what she had just done, nor did she know why Xie Linyuan had grabbed her by the neck in the blink of an eye.
"Su Muying, is this the only method you can use?" His veins bulged as he gripped the girl's neck, his beautiful face twisted with a distorted expression.
It looks like a smile, but it doesn't quite look like a smile.
But if you said she was crying, Su Muying would never believe you.
How could someone like him cry?
"Is this the only way you can threaten me?"
"How dare you..."
Su Muying had no idea what he was talking about.
Many times, she was puzzled by what he did and said.
Including right now.
With his hand gripping her neck, Su Muying was forced to tilt her head back. Her eyes were still red and wet with tears.
She looked at him with a puzzled expression and asked blankly, "How did I threaten you, Second Young Master?"
She didn't understand, she really didn't understand.
In an instant, a gust of wind seemed to rise outside, followed by a deafening roar and another thunderbolt crashing down.
Xie Linyuan stared at the pale and bewildered face of the girl in front of him, and suddenly froze, his hands trembling.
The next moment, a flash of white lightning streaked across their faces, and Xie Linyuan clearly heard the sound of something piercing his heart.
"Su Muying, you're really something." Xie Linyuan chuckled softly and lowered his hand.
He looked at her, his pupils extremely dark and deep. When he stared at her, it was like a starving beast that wanted to bite her firmly in its mouth and then tear her apart and eat her piece by piece.
Su Muying was still trapped in those fears.
Su Muying has suffered from this hysteria since her parents died.
Normally, it wouldn't flare up, but whenever she was alone in the dark, for a long time, the tragic scene of her parents' deaths and the great fire would constantly replay before her eyes.
Su Muying saw that glimmer of light, and after her hazy consciousness returned somewhat, her mind was filled with the desire to escape from this place.
She didn't want to stay here anymore, didn't want to see her parents burned to death again and again. She wanted to leave, she wanted to leave.
She was willing to do anything to leave.
Yes, yes!
Su Muying was already delirious, tormented by the fear of her parents' deaths. In this chaotic state of mind, her head was constantly filled with the sounds of fire, the sound of flames burning flesh, and the voices of her parents...
She couldn't take it anymore, she really couldn't take it anymore...
Upon seeing her parents in the fire once again, Su Muying desperately wanted to leave.
She didn't want to stay in the darkness, she didn't want to stay in this cage anymore.
She wants to go back to Anzhou, she longs to go back to Anzhou...
So, in her near despair, Su Muying remembered the promise Xie's mother had made to her: as long as she conceived a child of the Xie family, she could leave...
right……
She touched her waist, where she had once bought aphrodisiacs.
At that moment, in a state of panic and delirium, Su Muying took the aphrodisiac as her only life-saving antidote.
As Xie Linyuan turned around to pick up the food box on the ground, Su Muying swallowed the medicine.
The medication took effect quickly.
When Xie Linyuan turned on the room light, carried a bowl of still-steaming food to Su Muying, and sat down on the edge of the bed, the delicate and pitiful girl suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck, coiling around him like a water snake.
The girl's soft body, like a falling petal, carrying a faint fragrance and boneless lightness, landed in his arms.
The man froze, his muscles tensing, his burning breath sounding like a wild beast's panting in the dim light. His peach blossom eyes drooped slightly, his long eyelashes trembling, and a hazy look replaced his usual coldness, sinking into a deep gloom.
No matter how Xie Linyuan tried to cover it up or use the monster as an excuse, his dirty, despicable, shameful, and filthy desires would surge out like a tidal wave when he faced her.
That's how it was when he first met her.
That's what the girl holding the flower branch looked like.
Before, when his elder brother was still alive, she was his sister-in-law.
He suppressed his emotions, cutting himself with a knife every night until he bled.
And now, his brother is dead, dead, hahaha...
He will never... will never let her go again.
It's impossible.
She had better like him, like she was now, obediently pleasing him, clinging to him, pitifully hooking her arms around his neck and humming softly, obediently letting him... completely control her.
If not, he would make her one.
He can teach her.
Teach her patiently.
But it's impossible for him to let her go again.
It's impossible to release the prey out of his territory.
When the girl's soft, jade-like hand gently brushed across Xie Linyuan's neck, his pale, cold skin gradually turned red.
The bluish veins bulged, and blood surged beneath them.
His Adam's apple bobbed heavily.
A swallowing sound was heard.
It was already late at night outside.
The door, which had been opened, was half-closed, and a cool, damp breeze blew in from the spring night, but it couldn't dispel the humid heat.
Su Muying was in a daze, but her body was driven by the effects of the drug. She abandoned all shame and scruples and spontaneously did things that could relieve the pain and make herself more comfortable.
As Su Muying sat up, clinging to the man's shoulders, the heat from the medicine flushed her cheeks, making her look just like a beautiful peach blossom in spring.
The man's hand gripped her waist tightly. He looked up at her, his handsome face veiled in mist, the more hazy the look, the more his face appeared as beautiful as a ghost.
In this dim darkness, under the flickering lamplight, it was indeed so.
His appearance is indeed captivating.
But this physical appearance took on a different form in Su Muying's eyes at this moment.
Su Muying cupped his face in her hands, her almond-shaped eyes brimming with moisture. The longing and joy in her gaze brought her to life.
Her rosy lips parted slightly, murmured, as if a thousand words were stuck in her throat.
Xie Linyuan blinked, the mist in his peach blossom eyes almost condensing into water vapor, yet the longing within them burned intensely.
Those hands pressed on the girl's slender waist, the veins of which bulged out in a terrifying way, as if they wanted to break her completely and then crush her bit by bit.
Then, eat it.
In this way, it would completely belong to him...
It belongs to him now...
This thought lingered in his mind, exciting him but also filling him with apprehension.
Su Muying suddenly felt that the hand pressing on her waist was very hot, so hot that it felt like it was burning off a layer of her skin. The force pressing on her waist was also extremely heavy, as if she was about to be broken.
She felt pain, but at the same time, she felt joy looking at the person in front of her.
She finally saw him again...
The girl's hand slowly touched the man's thin lips, and then she lowered her head, drawn closer and closer to those lips by the effects of the drug.
She murmured in a daze, her voice carrying a seductive, unwitting quality:
"Lin'an..."
"Let's have a child."
"Me and your child..."
"Lin'an..."
In an instant, the mist in those peach blossom eyes vanished completely.
These two words, like a blade, pierced Xie Linyuan's heart.
When he was moved.
And so, with remarkable ease, her emotions turned into anger, resentment, hatred, and a prison that would utterly confine her.
Especially after Xie Linyuan saw the tiny powder wrapped in paper that had fallen to the edge of the bed.
As the girl murmured his brother's name and cupped his face to kiss him, Xie Linyuan turned his head away and unexpectedly saw the powder wrapped in paper.
The paper was open, with a few specks of powder scattered along the edges.
Xie Linyuan turned his head to the side, grabbed the girl's waist with one hand, and placed her on his lap. His large hand enveloped her buttocks. Su Muying, who was suffering from the effects of the drug, twisted her body, but could not break free at all.
She hummed and kept calling out for Lin'an.
Xie Linyuan was annoyed by what he heard. His sword-like eyebrows furrowed, and the redness on his face faded, leaving behind a cold, pale complexion.
He reached out, dabbed some powder, and brought it to his nose, smelling an extremely unusual fragrance.
Upon hearing this, Xie Linyuan lowered his long eyelashes, and after pondering for a moment, his eyes darkened.
He remembered that day when she walked out of a pharmacy. He sent Qingshan to find out what she had bought at the pharmacy.
Aoyama later reported that she had gone to the pharmacy to buy aphrodisiacs.
He thought that she intended to put the aphrodisiac on him to seduce him.
I see.
Xie Linyuan lowered his eyes and looked at the girl lying on his lap.
Her eyes were brimming with spring-like allure, her cheeks flushed pink, and she seemed to be extremely hot. Her lips were slightly parted, and her bright red tongue was faintly visible.
He had never seen her like this before.
It turns out that this aphrodisiac was for her own use.
To do such a debauched thing, one must take aphrodisiacs, treat him as another person, treat him as his older brother, right?
Xie Linyuan gently massaged her buttocks, watching her alluring eyes and serpentine body, listening to her whimpering calls for Lin'an. His peach blossom eyes lowered, and he curled his thin lips into a smile, his anger turning into a cruel laugh.
Then, he leaned down and whispered in her ear in an extremely gentle yet terrifying voice:
"Su Muying, since you want to get pregnant so badly, then just accept it obediently."
"You have to endure it, even if you can't, until you get pregnant..."
"Is it alright, my sister-in-law..."
As he finished speaking, the man's well-defined knuckles touched the girl's head, holding her face in his hands.
His fingertips brushed across the girl's chin. As the girl half-closed her eyes and unconsciously rubbed her chin against his fingers, humming "Lin'an, Lin'an" between her lips, his clearly defined fingers suddenly bulged with veins and abruptly turned the girl's palm-sized face, which was covered with a thin layer of sweat.
The girl, still in a daze and tormented by the drug, was suddenly forced to tilt her head back high. In the next instant, the air in her mouth was roughly snatched away.
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Author's Note: I'll be posting tomorrow, so please respect the timing. No update tomorrow, update the day after. [dog head with rose in hand]
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