“The imperial physician said the young… young Junzhu’s condition is extremely critical. If there’s no way to reduce her fever, I’m afraid… I’m afraid…”
She dared not continue, but her tearful voice struck deeply into everyone’s hearts.
Su Tan’s face instantly tightened.
Lu Zhiheng remained silent, yet his footsteps grew noticeably erratic. Moments earlier, he had been standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Su Tan, but now a considerable distance had opened between them.
Su Tan quickened her pace, leaving hurried footprints in the snow.
Song Tingchen hadn’t even had time to tell her not to push herself too hard before he could only see the blurred outline of a green cloak in his vision.
Song Tingchen’s expression turned frosty. In the next instant, he had already created significant distance between himself and Liu Qingyin.
Liu Qingyin dug her nails into her cloak, barely able to control the distortion of her features.
Gritting her teeth, she called out, “Brother Song, wait for me!”
Song Tingchen didn’t pause his steps. He didn’t hear Liu Qingyin’s delicate, vulnerable plea, his gaze fixed intently on Su Tan.
He hadn’t missed the flash of concern that had briefly appeared in Su Tan’s eyes moments earlier.
A snowflake settled on Song Tingchen’s brow, melted by the wind, as if his mood had been touched by the same chill.
So it turned out Su Tan wasn’t completely extreme, unfeeling, and cold-hearted after her family died in battle.
When she heard a child was ill, she could still feel concern and urgency.
Then why had she been able to abandon the frail Xiao Xiao without a second thought and walk away?
Song Tingchen radiated a low pressure around him. By the time he reached Princess Zhaoyang’s courtyard, the door to the princess’s room was already tightly shut.
All the servants and maids who normally attended the courtyard had been withdrawn.
Only a group of guards remained, their blades gleaming coldly, guarding the door so tightly not even half a fly could escape.
A faint foul odor hung in the air, and even the scent of blood seeped from the room.
Song Tingchen’s expression abruptly turned icy, his dark eyes narrowing as a cold gleam flashed within them.
As a seasoned general who had spent years on the battlefield, his perception of danger far exceeded ordinary people’s, and his sensitivity to the scent of blood was likewise different from others.
No—to be precise, that wasn’t the scent of fresh blood.
It was the rusty odor of dried blood.
Yet the guards at the door remained expressionless as iron, seemingly unaware of the unpleasant smell.
Song Tingchen’s gaze darkened.
The guards of Chen Wang Mansion were certainly no incompetents, but such a strong, distinct blood scent—why couldn’t they— “Waaah—!”
A sharp cry pierced the silent night sky.
The guards at the door abruptly changed expressions.
That wasn’t the young Junzhu’s cry!
“Brother Song, why… why didn’t you wait for me?”
Liu Qingyin gasped for breath, leaning weakly against the wall, a thin sweat beading on her forehead.
Song Tingchen frowned deeply, too preoccupied to answer, his gaze fixed on the closed door.
Liu Qingyin’s eyes darkened as she followed his line of sight.
That woman Su Tan was inside.
Liu Qingyin unconsciously clenched her palm tighter.
…
“Su Tan, be careful!”
Lu Zhiheng held his daughter in his arms. Princess Zhaoyang had just fainted, her forehead still burning hot.
Inside the room, the doors and windows were tightly shut, the candle flames undisturbed by any breeze. A thick, foul stench filled the air. A crimson, infant-shaped creature bared its pale, sharp fangs, its bulging eyes fixed intently on Su Tan.
“Bad woman, go away!”
“Don’t disturb me playing with my little sister!”
“Do not take my sister! Sister is mine!”
Su Tan held a long sword, its tip gleaming with a chilling cold light under the candlelight.
She slowly raised the sword, her expression blank as she stared at the Night Wailing Ghost before her.
“Humans and ghosts walk different paths. You cannot be playmates.”
The Night Wailing Ghost had a long umbilical cord wrapped around its neck and limbs, its body emitting a foul stench that pierced the nostrils. Grinding its sharp teeth, it turned and lunged toward Princess Zhaoyang in Lu Zhiheng’s arms.
Sister was its!
It just wanted to play with sister!
Lu Zhiheng’s eyes sharpened. He turned sideways to shield his daughter, the jade pendant at his waist emitting a golden light. The Night Wailing Ghost was thrown back, a cut appearing on its hand from which green fluid continuously seeped.
“I will kill you all!”
“You are all bad people!”
“All of you are scumbags trying to steal my sister!”
The Night Wailing Ghost’s piercing, shrill voice seemed capable of rupturing eardrums.
It charged at Su Tan. Her gaze turned cold as she held the sword in her left hand while her right fingertips glowed with faint golden light, drawing a talisman in the air. “By the command of the Five Peaks, known across the Eight Seas, demons bow their heads, guardians attend my abode, be still!”
“Waa—”
The Night Wailing Ghost froze in place, its bulging eyes flashing red as it tried to bite through its restraints. But its limbs would not obey, and it could only let out wave after wave of sharp cries.
Princess Zhaoyang, who had been in a deep sleep, was awakened by the wailing. She opened her grape-like round eyes, staring unblinkingly at everything in the room.
Su Tan pointed her sword at the Night Wailing Ghost, her brow furrowed tightly. “Why are you so fixated on the Junzhu?”
If it were any other ghost, she might have simply slain it with her sword. But this Night Wailing Ghost had not committed any grave sins—or rather, it had not yet had the chance to.
“Sister!”
“She is sister!”
The Night Wailing Ghost opened its mouth, its cries growing louder. It was the transformed spirit of a child who died young, with little intelligence. Seeing how lovely Princess Zhaoyang was, it had decided in its heart that she was its sister.
Its playmate.
“You are a bad woman!”
“I will bite you to death!”
“Bad woman, bullying Mother, bullying Sister, bad!”
Su Tan focused her gaze, momentarily caught between amusement and exasperation. It seemed she just couldn’t escape the label of “bad woman.”
Her own biological son called her a bad woman.
Now this Night Wailing Ghost she encountered also called her a bad woman.
“I have never bullied your mother or your sister. Even children shouldn’t spout nonsense.”
She glanced at the Night Wailing Ghost, then sheathed her sword. Instead, she took out a Mind-Calming Talisman from her pouch and handed it to Lu Zhiheng, signaling him to tuck it into Princess Zhaoyang’s little pocket.
Princess Zhaoyang opened her big, round eyes, her small hands clapping chaotically as she babbled with laughter.
“Pwetty fairy sister—”
The little Junzhu pouted, then looked at the Night Wailing Ghost, her small face instantly stern. “Sister not bad woman, is fairy!”
“I not pway wif you!”
Lu Zhiheng’s temple twitched violently. He immediately freed a hand to cover the little girl’s eyes.
“Don’t look randomly. That is a child ghost. Seeing it at night will give you nightmares.”
Hearing that the little Junzhu would not play with it, the Night Wailing Ghost let out a mournful, piercing wail.
Su Tan shot it a glance, and it dared not cry anymore, only whimpering softly.
Just as it was about to call her a bad woman again, Lu Zhiheng, holding the Junzhu, expressionlessly swept a cold gaze over the little ghost.
“You just said that beautiful women are bad women, who bully your mother and bully your sister?”
The Night-Wailing Ghost trembled, cautiously glanced at the jade pendant worn on his person, and lowered its head.
“I have this jade too.”