The cold moonlight spilled onto the path back to the manor, stretching the shadows of the sisters, Ji Siyu and Ji Qingyu, long and thin.
Unlike the faint anticipation they had felt upon arrival, the air now seemed frozen, carrying a bone-chilling coldness.
Ji Siyu remained silent, her beautiful face covered in a layer of frost.
Those eyes, once as clear as autumn waters, now held only a raging fire from betrayal and deception, alongside a disappointment that reached her very marrow.
The image of Chen Chuan’s ill intentions toward her sister gnawed at her heart like a venomous snake.
The mere thought that she had felt a ripple of emotion for his brief, hypocritical change made her skin crawl.
She felt incredibly disgusted and foolish for having harbored even a sliver of unmerited hope back at the Drunken Wind Tower because of his momentary display of responsibility.
Anger drove her, making her want to leave this place filled with wretched memories immediately.
To leave behind everything associated with that name.
"Sister..."
Ji Qingyu followed behind, her voice still raspy from crying.
Looking at her sister’s tense back, her heart was filled with lingering fear and a deeper resentment toward Chen Chuan. "Are we really packing our things right now?"
"I don’t want to stay for a single moment longer." Ji Siyu’s voice was icy, without a hint of hesitation. "Everything here makes me feel suffocated."
Returning to the manor they once barely called "home," the oppressive atmosphere grew even heavier.
Ji Siyu went straight to her room and began mechanically packing her clothes.
She moved quickly, as if being slow would allow the filth of this place to stain her.
She didn’t even want to look at the things Chen Chuan had once touched; she only wanted to discard them all.
Ji Qingyu helped with the packing.
As she opened a drawer to take out her sister’s belongings, she unexpectedly saw a stone about the size of a pigeon’s egg, its surface shimmering with a faint luster.
"Sister?" Ji Qingyu picked up the stone and looked at Ji Siyu in confusion. "Is this shadow recording stone yours? What’s recorded inside?"
Ji Siyu looked up and saw the shadow recording stone in her sister’s hand. Her brow furrowed slightly, and a trace of confusion appeared on her cold face.
"A shadow recording stone? I don’t own such a thing."
She knew very well that she had never purchased anything of the sort.
"It’s not yours?" Ji Qingyu found it even stranger. She looked at it closely. "It seems to have been activated."
The sisters glanced at each other, both seeing the confusion in the other’s eyes.
In this sensitive moment, the mysterious appearance of a shadow recording stone piqued an uneasy curiosity in them.
"Let’s see what’s recorded inside."
As Ji Qingyu spoke, she injected a faint trace of spiritual power into the shadow recording stone.
Buzz!
The shadow recording stone glowed slightly, and a screen of light was projected onto the wall.
The image was shaky at first, showing the background of a room.
Then the image cleared, revealing Lin Hu’s loathsome face with a lewd smile.
He walked toward the unconscious girl on the bed, roughly tearing at her collar.
That girl was none other than Ji Qingyu.
Ji Siyu’s pupils suddenly constricted, and her breath hitched.
In the recording, just as Lin Hu was about to go further, a figure burst into the frame like a gale, unhesitatingly delivering a brutal kick between Lin Hu’s legs.
Lin Hu didn’t even let out a grunt before fainting instantly.
The person who had intervened turned around, and their face was clearly revealed—it was Chen Chuan.
At this moment, there was no wretchedness or greed on Chen Chuan’s face, only cold sternness and urgency.
He quickly checked Ji Qingyu’s condition, his brow tightly knit, clearly sensing the abnormality within her body.
Next was the process of him clearing the medicinal power from Ji Qingyu’s body.
However, due to the effects of the medicine, Ji Qingyu’s consciousness was blurred, and her body writhed uncontrollably.
Her hands clawed and stroked at Chen Chuan haphazardly, her mouth letting out unconscious murmurs.
Seeing this, Ji Qingyu’s face instantly turned deathly pale.
She finally recalled some blurry fragments from before she woke up that day; it wasn’t a nightmare, but her actual reaction under the influence of the medicine.
In the recording, faced with Ji Qingyu’s wandering hands, Chen Chuan’s face showed no sign of enjoyment or taking advantage; instead, he looked quite troubled and awkward.
He tried several times to pin down Ji Qingyu’s flailing hands, but to little effect.
Finally, he seemed to make a decision, a flash of helplessness appearing in his eyes.
He raised his hand and delivered a precise chop to the back of Ji Qingyu’s neck, knocking her into a deep sleep.
Only then was he able to focus on continuing to clear the remaining medicinal power from her body.
After completing everything, Chen Chuan performed a careful inspection.
Once he confirmed Ji Qingyu was fine, he carefully picked up the still-unconscious girl and left the room.
The recording of the shadow recording stone ended there.
The light screen dissipated, and the room fell into a dead silence.
The shadow recording stone in Ji Qingyu’s hand fell to the ground with a clack.
She felt as if all her strength had been drained, stumbling back to lean against the doorframe.
Her face turned from white to a burning red, as if she had been slapped dozens of times.
Shame!
Regret!
Incredulity!
Various emotions flooded over her like a tide.
"It... it was him who saved me..."
Ji Qingyu’s voice trembled uncontrollably.
She turned to Ji Siyu, her tears instantly bursting forth.
"Sister! It was me. I misunderstood him."
"He saved me, and I still called him scum, a beast! I... I’ve wronged him."
Ji Qingyu covered her face and crouched down, sobbing uncontrollably.
By this time, Ji Siyu’s face was already covered in tears.
Her whole body shook violently, as if she were in an ice cellar, or as if ten thousand arrows were piercing her heart.
It turned out the truth was so cruel.
What was cruel was not Chen Chuan’s baseness, but the sisters’ self-righteousness and returning kindness with enmity.
She remembered how, under the gaze of everyone and fueled by the anger of being deceived, she had fiercely slapped the benefactor who had truly saved her sister.
She remembered that deep look Chen Chuan gave her as he left—the self-mockery, coldness, and finality in his eyes.
At the time, Ji Siyu thought it was Chen Chuan’s wordless admission of guilt.
Now she realized how much grievance from being misunderstood and how much heartache were contained in that look.
"How much pain must he have been in at that moment..."
Ji Siyu murmured to herself.
At this moment, her heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand. The pain was so intense she could barely breathe, every breath bringing a tearing agony.
She was disappointed in him?
The one who truly should be disappointed was him.
How disappointed must he be in her, a wife who acted without knowing right from wrong and struck him.
"Sister, it’s all my fault. I didn’t make things clear. I caused you to misunderstand Chen Chuan."
"Hit me, Sister! Scold me!"
Seeing her sister in such a state of collapse, Ji Qingyu rushed over to hug her, her heart filled with bitter regret.
Ji Siyu, however, didn’t seem to hear her sister’s cries.
One image in her mind was becoming clearer and clearer.
That hairpin she had fiercely discarded as proof of his hypocrisy.
"The hairpin..." She suddenly looked up, her eyes bursting with a near-manic obsession. "Right! The hairpin!"
As if possessed, she pushed her sister aside and rushed out of the room, out of the manor, sprinting desperately toward the Drunken Wind Tower.
The night wind blew against her hair and dress, and tears scattered in the wind, but she was oblivious. Only one thought remained in her mind:
Find that hairpin. It was the birthday gift Chen Chuan had given her—his only sincere offering before they treated him so cruelly.
Seeing this, Ji Qingyu hastily wiped her tears and chased after her.
The Drunken Wind Tower was still brightly lit.
Ji Siyu rushed into the private room, heedless of her appearance.
The room had already been cleaned and was empty.
She searched frantically in every corner of the room like a headless fly.
Under the tables and chairs.
By the windowsill.
Even next to the potted plants in the corner.
It wasn’t there.
The hairpin she had personally thrown away was gone.
"It’s gone. I can’t find it."
Despair flooded over her like cold water. Ji Siyu’s legs gave way, and she slumped to the floor.
She could no longer suppress the grief and remorse in her heart and began to wail loudly.
Her cries were shrill and desperate, attracting the manager and several workers of the Drunken Wind Tower.
"Dear guest, what is the meaning of this..."
Seeing the situation, the manager hurried forward to inquire.
Ji Siyu raised her tear-blurred face, grabbed the manager’s sleeve, and pleaded incoherently:
"A hairpin, a blue one, adorned with crystals."
"I left it here. It’s very important to me. Please, help me find it. You must find it."
Seeing her extreme agitation and that she wasn’t faking, the manager comforted her. "Don’t worry, I’ll ask the workers."
He turned to the waiter responsible for cleaning the room. "Have you seen a blue hairpin?"
The waiter thought for a moment and then realized:
"Oh! I remember now."
"When I was cleaning, I found an exquisite blue hairpin in the corner."
"Right, there was also a small bundle. I thought a guest had left them behind, so I put them away together."
"A bundle?" Ji Siyu was stunned.
"Yes, a small gray bundle." The waiter nodded.
Ji Siyu’s heart skipped a beat, and an inexplicable premonition surged within her. "Quick! Quick, let me see it!"
The waiter quickly brought the bundle.
Ji Siyu recognized it at a glance; it was indeed the small bundle Chen Chuan had been carrying with him today.
She took it with trembling hands and opened it impatiently.
Inside were only a few simple changes of clothes and a document stamped with a prominent red seal.
Ji Siyu picked up the document and unfolded it.
The four large characters "Pill Slave Contract" felt like a red-hot iron searing her heart.
The terms of the contract clearly stated that during the testing period, the Pill Slave must endure the suffering of medicinal backlash, regardless of life or death, with the payment settled in a lump sum.
And at the end of the contract, in the signature space for Party B, were those two familiar yet stinging words: "Chen Chuan."
In an instant, all the clues connected.
The reason Chen Chuan suddenly had the money to return her three thousand gold tickets.
His hesitation and embarrassment when faced with the expenses at the Drunken Wind Tower.
His shriveled coin purse at the end.
It turned out that everything he had done, the money he used to celebrate her birthday, and perhaps even the money to buy that hairpin, were all exchanged for by risking his life as a Pill Slave.
And she, Ji Siyu, had used this feast—which he had nearly died for and which symbolized his rebirth and farewell to the past—to utterly humiliate him, strike him, and push him into an even deeper abyss.
"Ah..."
Ji Siyu let out a cry of extreme agony.
Her heart felt as if it were instantly torn apart. Immense guilt and self-reproach flooded over her like a landslide or a tsunami, completely drowning her.
She clutched the Pill Slave Contract tightly, her nails nearly sinking into her flesh, as tears poured out like a broken dam.
"I am not human."
"I am a venomous woman."
"I deserve to die..."
She cursed herself over and over, crying her heart out.
Ji Qingyu also saw the contract. She covered her mouth, and tears flowed once again.
She finally understood exactly what price Chen Chuan had paid to return her sister’s money.
"Sister, I’m sorry! It’s all my fault..."
Ji Qingyu’s face was covered in tears.
Ji Siyu could hear nothing now.
She suddenly grabbed the bundle and the contract and rushed out of the Drunken Wind Tower again like a madwoman, running toward "home."
A faint, slim hope still existed in her heart.
Hope that Chen Chuan hadn’t left yet.
Hope that she could still apologize to him in person and beg for his forgiveness.
However, when she pushed open the manor gates while gasping for breath, only dead silence and emptiness greeted her.
The moonlight shone coldly into the room; Chen Chuan’s room was completely empty.
All traces of him seemed to have been completely erased, as if he had never existed.
Ji Siyu stood blankly in the empty hall, her spirit crushed, as if her entire Soul had been drained away.
The evening breeze blew through, carrying a chill that couldn’t compare to a fraction of the coldness in her heart.
"Sister..."
Ji Qingyu caught up, and seeing her sister in this state, her heart ached.
She tried to think of a solution:
"Maybe... maybe Chen Chuan went back to the Chen Family in Qingya City?"
"He can Cultivate now, so the Chen Family might accept him again."
Ji Qingyu’s words were like a spark that instantly lit up Ji Siyu’s darkened eyes.
Yes!
Qingya City!
He might have gone back there.
This thought made her nearly stagnant heart start beating again.
She suddenly remembered she still had one more thing in her possession.
The divorce letter Chen Chuan had given her.
She took out the divorce letter and looked at her name, which she had not yet signed.
And Chen Chuan’s already signed, somewhat lonely-looking name. A flash of incredibly determined light appeared in her eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, she used both hands to rip the divorce letter, which symbolized separation and an end, in half with a shred sound.
Then she tore it repeatedly until it turned into countless fragments, scattering on the ground like snowflakes.
"There is no divorce."
Ji Siyu’s voice still carried a sob, but it was exceptionally clear and resolute.
She looked at the fragments on the ground, as if announcing to heaven and earth:
"There wasn’t one before, and there won’t be one in the future."
"I, Ji Siyu, am Chen Chuan’s wife for this lifetime. He is my husband."
Her eyes no longer held hesitation or loss, only a rock-solid determination and an urgent need to make amends.
She had decided that no matter where he was, no matter what price she had to pay, she would find Chen Chuan.
She would tell him the truth in person, apologize to him, and beg for his forgiveness.
What she had torn up was not just a piece of paper, but all the past barriers and misunderstandings.
From this moment on, there was no longer any doubt about her identity or her feelings.
She was Chen Chuan’s wife—she was before, she was now, and she would be forever in the future.
"Sister, then let’s go to the Chen family to find him," Ji Qingyu said softly.
Ji Siyu nodded slightly, her gaze firm. "I must find him."
"Sister, tomorrow is your last chance for your Spiritual Root Awakening," Ji Qingyu reminded her. "Once that’s over, I’ll go to the Chen Family with you."
Thinking of tomorrow’s Awakening assessment, Ji Siyu temporarily suppressed her urgent desire to find Chen Chuan.