“Sister-in-law, you’re finally here. I’ve been holding it in for so long, I’m about to burst!”
A cold wind whistled past her ears, yet Meng Xizhou felt as if she were hugging a brazier, the heat forcing her eyes open.
Her vision was filled with the night, and a man’s lewd, buck-toothed grin was inches from her face, his chest nearly pressing against her skin!
It was her “brother-in-law”! Liu Ming!
From behind a tree came the sharp, displeased voice of her “sister,” Zhang Sanjiao. “Do you have to be in such a rush? Be gentle. She’s my sister, after all.”
Though her words sounded magnanimous, the jealousy in her tone was like a poison-laced needle.
Meng Xizhou felt as if she had been struck by lightning, instantly wide awake!
She had been reborn, sent back to the time she had just been trafficked into Xiaohe Village!
She was originally the legitimate daughter of a marquis’s manor, yet in her previous life, she was personally sold by her own mother to the Zhang family in this mountain hollow. That good mother of hers even sent the family’s steward with silver every month, afraid they might slacken in their efforts to torture Meng Xizhou!
All of this was to transfer her Phoenix Fate to her younger sister, Meng Nanyi! The more she lived like a pile of mud, the more securely Meng Nanyi could steal her Phoenix Fate.
Meng Xizhou and Meng Nanyi were clearly twin sisters, yet their mother was paranoid, believing the younger sister was the child of her and an old flame. She poured all her love onto the younger sister, leaving Meng Xizhou with torment that felt like having her bones scraped and her heart gouged out!
In her last life, while she was being boiled in the oil cauldrons of hell, Meng Nanyi, with their mother’s help, had taken her identity, ascended to the throne as Empress, and ruled over the world!
When she finally escaped that den of demons, she was no longer human in form. Yet, Meng Nanyi had casually declared, “Your purity is gone. The clandestine brothel is a place I found for you to live and settle down. I’ve done all I can for you,” pushing her into an even deeper abyss!
Done all she could for her? What a fine way to put it!
Hatred churned her heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys into shreds! In this life, she would repay the suffering and humiliation she had endured a hundred, a thousand times over! She would crawl back to the capital if she had to! And she wouldn’t spare a single demon or ghoul along the way!
Meng Xizhou looked at Liu Ming’s nauseating face, murder and hatred roiling within her. Let’s start with you, you beast!
It had been the same in her past life. Before the wedding night, her brother-in-law Liu Ming had been overcome with lust, and her sister Zhang Sanjiao had wanted to use her womb to bear a child. The couple had lured Meng Xizhou out into the night.
But once the plan began, Zhang Sanjiao’s pitiful scheme was consumed by jealousy, and she had actually gone to call her mother, the Zhang Family’s Old Woman, to come and catch them in the act!
After the villagers arrived, Zhang Sanjiao had seized the opportunity to viciously slander her, claiming that not only had she seduced her brother-in-law, but she also planned to entice the village men to take turns in her bed!
What was the fate of a woman with a ruined reputation in the village?
It was only because buying her had emptied the family’s coffers that the Zhangs hadn’t drowned her in a pig cage outright. But the days that followed were a true living hell on earth…
This den of vipers, this husband and wife!
And soon, the Zhang Family’s Old Woman would bring people over to catch them!
Meng Xizhou’s eyes darkened. She rolled away, dodging Liu Ming’s hand, her sharp gaze sweeping over the rope net in the grass.
That was the trap Zhang Sanjiao had set.
“Trying to hide, are you?” Liu Ming flew into a rage from the humiliation. “Half the women in this village belong to me, let alone my own sister-in-law! Even if I fuck you to death, everyone will just cheer me on!”
But Meng Xizhou smiled and draped her arms over his shoulders. “Don’t be in such a hurry, brother-in-law. Just follow my lead, and I guarantee you a taste of heaven.”
Liu Ming was half-paralyzed by her smile and nodded his head like a fool.
Zhang Sanjiao, who was watching in secret, felt her eyes would split with rage. How dare this damn girl seduce her husband right in front of her! Fortunately, she had already made arrangements!
However, in the next instant—
“Ah—” The ground beneath Liu Ming’s feet gave way, and he fell hard into the trap. The hemp rope instantly tightened, trussing him up like a pork dumpling ready for slaughter!
Zhang Sanjiao was stunned! Before she could react, she saw the smile on Meng Xizhou’s face turn icy, her eyes as fierce as a wolf’s! She dragged the struggling, howling Liu Ming and viciously pulled him toward the nearby dry well!
The well was bottomless. A fall meant certain death!
“You little slut! How dare you!” Zhang Sanjiao’s soul nearly fled her body. She shrieked and lunged forward to grab him. “You’re trying to kill your brother-in-law?!”
“He’s not the only one!” Meng Xizhou’s voice was as cold as ice shards. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you both fall face-first and get smashed to a pulp. You’ll still look like a couple even in death!”
Before her words had even faded, Meng Xizhou gave the rope net a savage tug, then abruptly let go! Zhang Sanjiao, who was pulling back with all her might, was caught completely off guard. The immense inertia sent her tumbling backward! And Liu Ming, still in the net, let out a blood-curdling, desperate scream as he plummeted straight into the well!
“Ah—!” Zhang Sanjiao didn’t care how much the fall hurt. Overwhelming terror seized her, and she scrambled on all fours, trying to get up and flee for her life.
But how could Meng Xizhou give her the chance! Like a phantom, she closed in, snatched Zhang Sanjiao’s sash, and kicked her hard in the lower back!
Plop!
Another dull thud echoed, like a death knell from hell.
Not far away, a sea of light formed by the torches of many villagers grew brighter, and the clamor of voices became clearer as they surged in this direction.
“Good night, sister, brother-in-law.” Meng Xizhou expressionlessly tossed the sash into the well and turned to walk toward the Village Chief’s house.
In her previous life, before she was caught in the act, she had been treating the Village Chief’s sick son.
Her medical skills back then were rudimentary at best, but in order to establish herself in the village, she had taken the risky job. There were no doctors in the village, so the Village Chief was willing to try anything.
Who would have known that on the very night she was lured away, the Village Chief’s son would die suddenly!
The sordid reputation of a wanton woman, coupled with the crime of causing the death of the Village Chief’s son, had instantly turned the whole of Xiaohe Village into a den of ravenous beasts for her!
Rushing as fast as she could, she finally arrived. Meng Xizhou climbed in through the back window and threw herself toward the bed.
The Village Chief’s son’s small body was convulsing violently. His face was purple, and his breathing was so faint it had almost stopped!
He was on the brink of death!
Meng Xizhou’s heart pounded. She swiftly twisted one slender silver needle after another into the major acupoints all over the boy’s body! Faster! I have to be faster! I have to finish before the Zhang Family’s Old Woman brings people here, only then can I prove I never left!
Just as the last needle was about to be placed—
Bang! With a loud crash, the door was violently kicked open!
The Village Chief burst in, followed by the venom-faced Zhang Family’s Old Woman and a group of menacing villagers!
The torchlight illuminated the dim room as bright as day, and it also cast a glow on Meng Xizhou’s calm, placid profile.
She steadily inserted the final needle, a mocking curve playing on her lips. “What is the meaning of this, Village Chief? Have you brought all these people to ask me to be your master and learn my skills?”
The Village Chief’s face was grim. He didn’t answer, his narrowed eyes scrutinizing her from head to toe.
The Zhang Family’s Old Woman suddenly darted out from behind the Village Chief, pointing at Meng Xizhou’s nose and cursing, “You shameless dog! You haven’t even married into my Zhang family, and you already dare to seduce your brother-in-law! Speak! Where did you take Ming’er and Sanjiao?!”
The Zhang Family’s Old Woman had led people to the “adultery” spot, but she hadn’t found so much as a ghost. She immediately sensed something was wrong and led her group straight to the Village Chief’s house to settle scores with Meng Xizhou.
Meng Xizhou looked at the old woman’s deeply wrinkled face, the hatred in her chest biting like a venomous snake, almost bursting from her throat! In her past life, the Zhang Family’s Old Woman had chained her up like a dog, fed her slop worse than a pig’s, and beat and cursed her at will. She was even forced to be a shared wife to brothers, and only allowed to step into the Zhang family’s dilapidated hut after she became pregnant!
Even dismembering her would not be enough to quell the hatred in her heart!
Death? That would be too easy for this old crone! In this life, she would make her watch with her own eyes as the sons she cherished like her own life died one by one before her! She would let her taste what true living hell was!
Meng Xizhou forcibly suppressed the surging hatred in her eyes, her face showing only confusion. “It’s the middle of the night. Naturally, brother-in-law is with sister! Coming to me for them? Old Woman, have you gone mad? Do you need me to give you a couple of needle pricks to clear your head?”
“Bullshit!” The Zhang Family’s Old Woman spat as she spoke. “Sanjiao told me herself! She said you wrote a note to seduce your brother-in-law to the west end of the village for some fun!”
Meng Xizhou pointed to the child on the bed, who was covered in silver needles. “I have been watching over the patient the entire time and haven’t left for a single moment. Sister and brother-in-law… I’m afraid they wanted to drag you along to catch an affair for a bit of excitement, so they used a pitiful person like me as a scapegoat, didn’t they?”
That last sentence was like a drop of water hitting boiling oil