Except for Qing Wu, no one else in the Duke Dingguo's Mansion could sleep or stay idle that night.
The woman's hysterical scream broke the dead silence of the night.
Snap——
The woman's slap landed hard on Xie Shu's face, and her nails left two bloody marks on his face.
"Ziyuan!" Xie Yun pulled his son who was standing in front of him and yelled at Chu: "Aren't you tired of making trouble?"
Chu accidentally hit Xie Yun and was extremely regretful. She had lost her usual elegance and decorum so early in life, with her hair disheveled, like a mad woman.
"Xie Yun, you and I were husband and wife, and I gave birth to your children. Yet you want to open a clan temple and call the elders over. You are so cruel and heartless!"
Chu said in a trembling voice: "You are trying to force me to death."
Xie Yun was extremely disappointed with her, but before he could speak, Xie Shu said calmly, "Mother, it was my idea to put my sister's tablet in the ancestral hall and make this public."
Chu staggered and looked at her eldest son in disbelief.
"What did you say?"
Xie Shu looked clear-headed: "It's me."
Chu's lips and teeth trembled. After a long while, she choked up and uttered a sob. She pointed at Xie Shu and laughed in a shrill voice as if she was mocking herself:
"It's you? It's you! I'm your mother!!"
"Xie Shu, Xie Ziyuan!! How could you do this to your mother!" Chu's eyes were filled with hatred: "You are truly a good son that I raised."
Xie Shu lifted his robe, knelt down facing Chu, and kowtowed three times with such force that blood appeared on his forehead.
Chu was trembling all over, feeling both hatred and pity.
Xie Yun wanted to get Xie Shu to get up, but he couldn't persuade his son, and he was heartbroken beyond words.
"A son should not criticize his parents' mistakes. If a son violates filial piety, he should be reprimanded and punished."
"But if you don't correct mistakes, even if your mother keeps making mistakes, you won't be a son or a brother!"
"Mother, I am the son of you and father, and the elder brother of Xie Ling and my younger sister."
"Mother, it's wrong if it's wrong."
Xie Shu knelt on the ground with his back straight. The blood on his forehead flowed down his straight nose, but his eyes were firm and unwavering.
"When my mother gave birth to my younger brother Ling and my younger sister, she was left alone. This was my and my father's fault."
"My younger sister died in vain. My father and I were completely unaware of this, leaving her soul without a place to go and her spirit without the right place to return to. This is my and my fault."
"We were all wrong. My father and I were also responsible for the mistakes made by my mother. We are all sorry to my little sister."
"Immoral, irresponsible, unkind, unfilial, and unfraternal."
When Mrs. Chu heard this, she could no longer remain calm. She staggered, fell to the ground, and kept shaking her head.
"Ziyuan...Ziyuan, stop talking. It's mother's fault. What does this have to do with you?"
If Xie Shu were charged with these crimes, he would be completely ruined.
Although Chu was heartless to her daughter, she was willing to risk her life for her son.
She just felt resentful and hateful, and was unwilling to accept that Xie Shu had disobeyed her for the sake of the child.
"Forget it, forget it. I owe that kid a life."
Chu burst into tears: "Let her take my life!"
"Xie Yun, I deserve it! But this ancestral temple cannot be opened. If this matter gets out, I will die, but what do you want Ziyuan and Ling'er to do?"
"With a mother like me, what future can they have?"
Xie Shu shook his head.
"Does mother really think that my little sister wants to kill you?"
Chu looked at him blankly, opening her mouth several times but unable to speak.
The man's jade-like face was stained with blood, and there was compassion in his eyes, as if he was mocking himself, or sighing.
"She shouldn't be nameless. She is the daughter of our Xie family."
Xie Yun also knelt down and held Chu's hand, "Minghui, our daughter shouldn't die in obscurity."
"I once thought that if we had a daughter, she would be the apple of our eye, pampered and brought up well."
"No matter what she looks like, human or ghost, she is our daughter."
Chu burst into tears and curled up in Xie Yun's arms.
She was wrong. She was totally wrong from the beginning. She killed her own child with her own hands. She destroyed this family...
Outside the yard, Ye You was chewing a piece of dogtail grass, looking at the full moon in the sky, his eyes full of indifference.
"What a boring and lively place..."
Ye You muttered to himself, no wonder dead Ah Wu didn't come out to watch, it was really boring.
He looked into the distance with his hands in his sleeves, as if he saw something, and there was a bit more interest in his eyes.
"My little disciple is quite courageous~"
Over there by the lake.
The boy clumsily grabbed the branches, stepped on the rocks, and carefully approached the lake.
But there was a lot of moss here and the night was dark. The lantern he hung on the branch at the back was dim and the light made it difficult to see the road clearly.
"Ouch." Wang Yulang let out a short scream, his feet slipped, and he was about to fall into the lake.
Something must have suddenly pulled his collar, and he fell backwards, landing on his butt on a pile of rocks, which made him grimaced.
When he opened his eyes again, a pale little face was right in front of him.
The girl's whole body was snow-white, her hair and eyelashes seemed to be dyed the same color as snow, even her pupils were white, and she looked particularly terrifying in the night.
She was wet all over, stained with damp moisture, like a ball of snow that was about to melt.
Wang Yulang was startled, but soon he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at the girl, "Thank you, I almost fell into the lake."
The girl stared at him intently, and then she floated back a little bit to the surface of the water. Her body slowly sank into the water and was about to disappear. Wang Yulang hurriedly called her:
"etc!"
Only half of the girl's face was exposed. She spoke in a chilling voice, "Are you here to ask me to forgive her, too?"
Wang Yulang shook his head: "No, I just wanted to ask if you are hungry."
The girl was stunned.
The next moment, Wang Yulang was seen frantically taking things out of his arms, including melon seeds, sugar beans, and candied haws wrapped in a handkerchief.
The girl stared at him expressionlessly.
Wang Yulang scratched his head and said, "Oh, there's this." He took out a candle from his arms.
"I will light these for you, and you can eat them, right?"
The boy said innocently, "Sister, can you please come up? The water is so cold. Let's eat something delicious together."
The girl looked at him for a while, hesitated, and finally floated up.
She looked only three or four years old, sitting beside the food with her knees hugged. Before Wang Yulang was about to light the candle, she said quietly, "I can't eat it."
"Why?"
The girl looked at him and said, "I have no name or surname. That woman hates my birth and my existence. I am only fit to stay in this lake and compete with fish and shrimp for food. I am not fit to eat offerings."
The girl said this with a tut and tilted her head with a bit of disdain.
"Now they're trying to give me a name, but I don't want it."
Wang Yulang scratched his head and said, "If you don't want it, then just don't have it." He didn't know how to comfort this little sister.
"Then I'll give you a name, since you're all white."
Hearing the word "white", the ghostly aura in the girl's eyes became noticeably stronger, and the temperature around her began to drop.
But Wang Yulang obviously didn't sense the danger. He thought seriously, and suddenly clapped his hands in surprise: "How about calling you Bai Xue?"
The girl's chill stagnated for a moment: "White... snow? Snow?"
"Yes, have you ever seen snow? It's white, cool, clean and beautiful."
"But I'm not clean, nor am I pretty." The girl said faintly, staring at Wang Yulang with her empty white pupils: "That woman thinks I'm a monster."
"But you are not."
The boy's eyes were sincere and beautiful. "I think you are beautiful and special, just like snowflakes, sparkling in the night."
The girl was stunned.
She rested her chin on her knees, looking a little dazed.
She was abandoned by her mother at birth and drowned in the lake. At that time, she did not know hatred or resentment. An unknown bond turned into chains that bound her under the lake.
She saw her brother, who was supposed to be her half-brother, growing up, and she also saw the two men whom she should call big brother and father, but they didn't know of her existence.
She also saw the woman, but every time, the woman stayed away and refused to approach the lake.
She had heard him speak to her eldest and second brothers in an extremely gentle voice.
That was the first time she felt unwilling. Why... couldn't the other party be gentle to her?
And the turning point of everything started when the second brother fell into the lake.
She broke free and rescued her second brother, and the woman finally knew of her existence.
She saw her panic, fear, and disgust, and heard the curses and insults coming from her heart day and night.
Those voices turned into sharp blades, leaving scars on her body.
Only then did she understand what had trapped her at the bottom of the lake since she was born and after her death.
She was bound by the chains called blood ties and turned into a ground-bound spirit. She was not allowed to stay here and was not allowed to leave.
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