Xie Tingzhou stood behind Ye Zhen. For some reason, as soon as he arrived at the Taoist temple, he could feel her deep sorrow and hatred just from her back.
He didn't approach or offer any further explanation; he simply followed quietly.
Ye Zhen suddenly unleashed a palm strike, slamming it into the plaque of Qingxu Temple, splitting it into three pieces.
In the next instant, she leaped up and kicked the two stone lions at the entrance to shatter, followed by the incense burner, the stone tablet, and the Bagua diagram embedded in the ground.
Amidst the swirling dust, Ye Zhen entered the Taoist temple, kicking open room after room as she searched for the room where she had been imprisoned in her previous life.
Ye Zhen stopped in a storage room in the backyard.
At this time, the room had no chains embedded in the beams, nor a bed supported by two benches; there were only some odds and ends and thick dust.
This tiny place has trapped Ye Zhen for many years.
Ye Zhen walked to the window and looked out. Behind a patch of greenery, he could see a small thatched hut, which was the outhouse for the Taoist temple's worshippers.
There was a vegetable garden next to the outhouse, and other houses as well.
In her past life, when she was locked in, the window was nailed shut, leaving only a tiny crack that limited Ye Zhen's view. That lush greenery was the only world Ye Zhen could see.
She judged the passage of time by the changes in the emerald green. Countless times, she wanted to escape, but her daily meals and drinks contained muscle relaxant.
If I don't eat or drink, I'll die; if I do eat and drink, I'll become like a useless person with rickets, unable to even pry open this back window.
Ye Zhen wanted to live, but she didn't want to live in such humiliation. She endured her hunger and thirst to regain her strength and wanted to escape at all costs.
However, Ye Wantang, who came here for leisure, discovered them.
Ye Zhen always remembered how she looked that day: elegant and noble, high and mighty, crushing her fingers on the ground.
She laughed contemptuously, "Ye Zhen, do you think I kept you alive so you could escape?"
No, I just want to see you beg me like a pathetic dog.
Ye Zhen, beg me, beg me to let me go. For the sake of having taken your identity for so many years, I will…
She paused, then said slowly and mockingly, "I'll make you even more desperate."
No more medicine was added to the food and water, but incense was lit in the room, burning in a corner where the chain around Ye Zhen's neck couldn't reach.
Inhaling that fragrance every day, Ye Zhen's strength dissipated more and more each day. At its worst, she couldn't even get out of bed to look at the scenery outside the window through the crack.
At this time, the old women would stop burning incense for a few days to allow Ye Zhen to gradually regain his strength.
Just as Ye Zhen's hope was rekindled, the incense in the room began to burn faintly again, mingling with the air, repeating itself endlessly, tormenting and destroying Ye Zhen's will.
And the tragic state of the nunnery, the horrific deaths of Yin Yue and the others, all of this...
Ye Zhen then channeled his inner strength and slammed a palm into the corner where incense had been burning in his previous life.
She couldn't really blame Xie Tingzhou.
She rescued the man voluntarily, unaware of her own identity, and mistook Ye Zhengqing and his wife for her own parents. Entering the Marquis's mansion to repay the debt of gratitude was also her own choice.
Her failure to detect the conspiracy of the Liu mother and son was entirely her own fault.
But some things can't stand up to close scrutiny. If Xie Tingzhou hadn't left alone back then, and they had stayed together, she wouldn't have married into the Marquis's mansion.
Then none of those things would have happened.
Ye Zhen suddenly squatted down on the ground, hugging her knees, letting the tears fall.
Now that she knows Xie Tingzhou's situation, she believes he was telling the truth; he was indeed powerless to do what he was told back then.
She also recalled everything that had happened since their reunion. Xie Tingzhou was initially cold and wary of her, then he tested her, and then his attitude changed. He began to protect her and help her, all because he recognized her.
Ye Zhen also recalled the complaints she had made to Xie Tingzhou when she saved him.
She said, "That hairpin cost me ten taels of silver. Remember to pay me back later."
He agreed.
So that night he carried a box of treasures to her room, saying it was for her to play with.
But none of those things were bad, and where did he, a man, get so many good things on short notice?
Combining this with the white horse called the Ring-Bearing Horse, Ye Zhen understood that Xie Tingzhou had been saving those things for her little by little, remembering his promise.
If the assassins found the temple's storeroom that day, Xie Tingzhou didn't lure them away, but instead went to find her.
Then the rest of the people in the temple might suffer, and Ye Zhen would also be discovered by the assassin.
Then she fled with Xie Tingzhou; perhaps she died, perhaps she survived.
But if it were just a hypothetical, Ye Zhen wanted to complain, but couldn't bring herself to.
So she squatted on the ground and cried in anger, unsure whether to be angry at herself for being too clear-headed or not clear-headed enough.
Xie Tingzhou carefully embraced her.
Silent weeping turned into sobbing, and finally into loud wailing.
"You're despicable."
Ye Zhen choked back tears and cursed Xie Tingzhou, then bit his shoulder.
He recognized her long ago, but dared not tell her the truth. Only after finding her a master and winning her heart did he tell her, so that she would not blame him or be able to let go.
"Yes, I am despicable and shameless. Just now, I was afraid you would abandon me, so I tried to gain your sympathy."
Xie Tingzhou's eyes also reddened, and his voice became hoarse.
“I was thinking that even if I explained what happened back then, I couldn’t erase the harm I caused you, but I could spend the rest of my life making amends.”
Today, I finally understand that there are some things I can never make up for. Zhen'er, tell me, what can I do to make you feel better, to keep you from leaving me?
After reuniting with Ye Zhen, he investigated her unusual behavior and her hatred towards the Marquis's mansion and the Ye family.
Knowing that Ye Wantang was an imposter, he hated her intensely, but he didn't expose her, not because he didn't want to, but because he had no evidence.
So how did Ye Zhen find out the truth?
She said the assassin in the mountains was Xie Yunzhou's man, but he still hasn't found any connection between the two. It's not that he's incompetent, but that the assassin wasn't Xie Yunzhou's man at all.
He could also tell that Ye Zhen wasn't lying, so where was the discrepancy?
The pain and overwhelming hatred Ye Zhen felt during her nightmares, as well as her speculations about Cui Yihuan, all gave Xie Tingzhou a vague idea in his mind.
Until today, her actions of rushing into this Taoist temple have convinced Xie Tingzhou.
Ye Zhen is also someone who has lived two lives.
In this life, she had no connection with this Taoist temple, yet she destroyed it with such great hatred.
Xie Tingzhou thought of the cat torture on the manor.
Wanxing claimed that Ye Zhen had an upset stomach and vomited his food, which is why the medicine was less effective and he regained consciousness in time.
He had never believed that reason, but now he speculated that Ye Zhen must have been reborn at that time.
Having just escaped the cat torture, he managed to kill Granny Feng and Xie Yunzhou in time.
What about the previous life?
In his previous life, the Liu family's conspiracy succeeded, and Ye Zhen was doomed.
She hates this place so much; it's probably the place where she suffered in her past life.
All of this was not his doing, yet it is inextricably linked to him.
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