“Your parents knew I was struggling and invited me to live in your house.”
Ye Lan continued, her fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of her ring, “I refused, but I let my parents go. My father worked odd jobs, my mother was a servant.”
Fragments of broken memories flashed through Mu Xi’s mind.
A kind middle-aged woman, always wearing a warm smile, would comb her hair and tell her stories….
“You liked my parents very much, especially my mother.” Ye Lan’s voice grew hoarse.
“You were not even ten years old, yet you clung to them all day. They treated you like their own child too.”
A strange, dull pain occupied Mu Xi’s heart, and she couldn’t understand where this feeling came from.
“Then, one day, there was an uprising in Wu City.”
Ye Lan’s tone suddenly turned icy, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes.
“You were playing outside with friends when you were shot. My mother… to save you, she…”
Ye Lan’s voice choked, and she turned away, not daring to face her.
“She carried you home, shot multiple times.”
Her tone was terrifyingly calm “She died in your room, blood everywhere. You cried like a little tear-streaked doll.”
A stabbing pain twisted through Mu Xi’s abdomen, and a vague memory surged up.
Sticky, warm blood on her palm, the words “Don’t be afraid” repeated by her ear, and a pair of eyes gradually losing their light.
She stumbled back a step, her back pressing against the cold wall.
“After that, you treated my father even better, as if to make up for it.” Ye Lan turned back, the tears in her eyes already dried.
“In just a year, he almost saw you as his second daughter.”
Mu Xi felt dizzy.
In her memory, a tall figure surfaced, rough hands, and endless fairy tales.
“That day, Wu City captured a few criminals and kept them temporarily in your family villa.” Ye Lan’s voice grew cold and sharp.
“You were too young, too naive. You were tricked by them, and let them go. They even beat you half to death.”
Mu Xi’s breathing grew rapid, her heart pounding so hard it seemed about to burst from her chest.
Fear and guilt tangled together, weaving a net that trapped her.
“Your father was a decisive man. He immediately started investigating the truth.”
Ye Lan stared at Mu Xi, her gaze as sharp as a blade, “My father found out. He took the blame for you. He knew better than anyone that if the truth came out, your father would execute his own daughter in public to prove his fairness.”
Mu Xi’s legs lost all strength and she slid to the ground.
Something inside her was collapsing, shattering, turning to ashes.
“He was already your family’s steward, but he was beheaded in public.” Ye Lan stepped closer, looking down at Mu Xi.
“All because of your foolish naivety.”
Mu Xi looked up, her vision blurred by tears, but she saw the hatred and pain in Ye Lan’s eyes—so real, so deep, as if the scars were carved into her very bones.
“So you hate me.” Mu Xi’s voice was hoarse, as if burned, “So you want to imprison me, punish me, torment me… for revenge.”
“I hated you. I hated you so much it drove me mad.”
Ye Lan squatted down, her fingertips gently brushing Mu Xi’s tear-stained cheek.
“I climbed up, step by step, all for the day I could destroy you with my own hands. I killed your parents, burned your family villa, took you away….”
A chill crept up Mu Xi’s spine, but she did not shrink from Ye Lan’s touch.
“But I realized—I couldn’t hate you, and I couldn’t kill you.”
Ye Lan’s voice grew soft, broken, “I kept you by my side, but my soul was the one imprisoned. I wanted to hurt you, but all I did was hurt myself.”
Mu Xi lifted her eyes and met Ye Lan’s gaze.
What she saw was not just hatred, but also a twisted, frenzied, and genuine love.
“So we are both each other’s enemies, both the ones who killed each other’s parents.” Mu Xi gave a bitter smile, tears sliding down her cheeks and dripping to the floor.
“What an absurd, cursed fate.”
“Yes, absurd.” Ye Lan stepped back, her expression conflicted, “But I can’t stop myself from loving you. I can’t tell love from hate anymore.”
Mu Xi struggled to stand, her heart soaking in brine, aching and bitter.
Those twisted grievances and blood debts, those scattered fragments of memory, were like sharp knives gouging her heart.
“So you drugged me, treated me like a pet, tattooed my body…” Mu Xi’s voice trembled, her chest heaving, “Is that how you love?”
“I don’t know how to love.” Ye Lan reached out as if to touch Mu Xi, but drew back, “All I know is possession and control—that’s my instinct for survival.”
Mu Xi suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Ye Lan’s wrist, her grip so strong her nails nearly dug into the skin.
“If all this is true, then I owe you.” Determination flashed in her eyes, “But you owe me too. We owe each other nothing. From now on, let’s not be entangled anymore.”
Panic flickered in Ye Lan’s eyes in an instant, like an abandoned child, “You’re leaving me?”
“Why not?” Mu Xi let go and took a step back, “We only bring each other harm.”
“I can change!” Ye Lan desperately grabbed Mu Xi’s hand, like a drowning person clutching the last straw.
“I’ll learn to love you properly, not hurt you, not control you anymore.”
Looking into Ye Lan’s eyes, full of despair and longing, a complex emotion welled up in Mu Xi’s heart.
She remembered the days tormented by Medicine Bath and Chun Medicine, the fear and humiliation, the endless time spent in captivity.
“It’s too late.” Mu Xi said softly, every word forced from the depths of her heart.
“Some wounds will never heal.”
Ye Lan’s expression suddenly turned wild, her pupils dilating sharply, like a beast cornered.
She lunged at Mu Xi, her slender fingers clutching the delicate neck so hard her knuckles turned pale blue.
“You dare to leave?” Ye Lan pinned Mu Xi to the ground, leaning over to restrain her, silver hair spilling across the cold floor.
Her voice was low and hoarse, a creepy calmness in every word, “Did I say you could leave?”
Mu Xi’s throat was squeezed tight, her slender wrists weakly scratching at Ye Lan’s forearm, her nails leaving faint red marks on that snow-white skin.
Her chest heaved violently, but she couldn’t get enough air; black spots began to dance before her eyes.
“We aren’t done yet.”
Ye Lan tightened her grip, lowering her face until her nose nearly brushed Mu Xi’s ashen cheek.
Her breath was hot on Mu Xi’s ear, “Trying to run? You can’t. You are mine. Only mine.”
Mu Xi’s consciousness began to blur, survival instincts driving her to struggle, but compared to Ye Lan, her strength was insignificant.
Uncontrollable tears slipped from her reddened eyes, falling to the floor and scattering into tiny droplets.
She looked into Ye Lan’s eyes, seeing inside them a madness of possessiveness, and a bottomless fear.
Fear of loss, fear of abandonment, fear of loneliness.
In that moment, Mu Xi suddenly understood—Ye Lan’s rage was just another form of fear.
“Let’s die together, shall we?” Ye Lan’s voice suddenly softened, sharply contrasting with the cruelty of her hands.
“That way, you’ll never leave me. Our souls will be together forever.”
Tears blurred Mu Xi’s vision, the suffocation growing stronger as her resistance faded.
On the edge of consciousness, a hazy thought flickered through her mind: ‘Is this the end?’
Trapped in twisted love and hate, until death finally separates them?
No—not separates, but binds them together forever.