Song Xubai halted his steps, urgently asking, “Sister Meng! Aren’t you coming with us?”
Song Chengji also stopped and turned to look at her, his deep eyes filled with undeniable concern: “Though I don’t know why you ended up here, now that we’ve found you, it’s only right to bring you safely back to Jingcheng.”
“I still have unfinished business that needs tying up,” Meng Xizhou said firmly, though it would be foolish not to use the Crown Prince’s influence when available. “Would Your Highness please send someone to the entrance of Xiaohe Village at hai hour the day after tomorrow to receive me?”
That mother-daughter pair wouldn’t let her escape this hell so easily. Borrowing the Crown Prince’s power would make returning to the capital much simpler.
This place was like a demon’s den—anyone who entered might be stripped to the bone. Though Song Chengji hadn’t said it explicitly, he would certainly investigate. The question was, how far would his investigation go? Would it… reach the Meng Family?
She would wait and see.
But her blood debt must be settled with her own hands! Only by personally dragging those people into hell would she not be awakened by nightmares of her past life in the dead of night.
Both Song Chengji and Song Xubai’s eyes showed disapproval. But Meng Xizhou’s gaze remained resolute, leaving no room for negotiation.
Song Chengji silently watched her for a moment before finally uttering a single word: “Fine.” Then he led the frequently glancing-back Song Xubai and the guards away, escorting the Princess to safety.
He left several elite guards to protect her in secret. Only later, when he received news of Xiaohe Village’s complete destruction, would he wonder if he had misheard Meng Xizhou’s “wrapping up” as “tying up.”
But that would come later.
In the carriage, Song Xubai looked at his unconscious mother and murmured quietly: “Sister Meng really resembles mother, though her tongue is sharper than mother’s…”
Hearing this, Song Chengji’s mind flashed to the image of the young woman holding a sharp sword with icy eyes, then recalled her sharp retort at that banquet years ago when facing harassment: “Words are merely my tools. Good people get honeyed dates, rotten ones get the blade.” The corner of his mouth unconsciously lifted slightly.
Sharp tongue, ruthless heart, precise killing. She hadn’t changed one bit…
Meanwhile, after parting ways with Song Chengji’s group, Meng Xizhou drove Zhang Cheng’s carriage but didn’t immediately return to Xiaohe Village.
Because today was also the agreed delivery day for Zhang Cheng’s messages to the Meng Family!
Arriving at the secret meeting point deep in the desolate forest, Meng Xizhou placed the richly detailed cloth strip deep into the designated tree hollow.
Its contents were enough to make that mother-daughter pair in the capital… lose sleep and sit on pins and needles!
How could she not send her… regards across the distance with such a perfect opportunity?
A smile playing on her lips, Meng Xizhou mounted the horse and rode off.
By the time she returned to the Zhang Family in Xiaohe Village, it was already afternoon.
Zhang Family’s Old Woman was pacing like an ant on a hot pan, watching from the doorway. Seeing only Meng Xizhou return, she immediately shrilled: “Where’s my Cheng’er?! Why hasn’t my Cheng’er come back?!”
Meng Xizhou nimbly dismounted: “Big brother? He’s serving important people now.”
Zhang Family’s Old Woman missed the deeper meaning, assuming her son was busy with another big deal. She slapped her thigh: “Aiya! He promised to buy medicine for Zhi’er! How could he forget?!”
Meng Xizhou’s eyes flickered as if suddenly remembering: “Medicine? Oh, it was bought.” She turned and climbed into the carriage compartment, pulling out a medicine package to toss to Zhang Family’s Old Woman.
Inside was something wonderful that would accelerate the festering and suppuration of wounds.
Zhang Family’s Old Woman, who was completely illiterate, clutched the medicine packet, her face breaking into a gratified smile: “I knew it! Cheng’er truly cares for his younger brother!” She cradled it like a treasure and rushed back to the room to apply the medicine to the unconscious Zhang Zhi.
Meng Xizhou clasped her hands behind her back, leisurely entered the room to change into clean clothes, then dragged a broken stool into the courtyard and sat down, waiting at her ease.
After having that thing cut off, some did survive. Didn’t all the eunuchs in the palace live just fine?
But with that medicine, the fifty percent chance of survival would turn into a one hundred percent death sentence!
Sure enough, shortly after Meng Xizhou changed her clothes and came out, heart-rending, inhuman howls of agony erupted from the neighboring room!
“Ah—! Mother! It hurts! It’s killing me—!”
Zhang Family’s Old Woman was scared out of her wits, scrambling out of the room in a panic to find Meng Xizhou, but she tripped hard over the doorstep and fell flat on her face with a solid thud!
“Aiyo!” she cried out in pain.
Meng Xizhou feigned alarm and stood up: “Oh dear! Granny! This doorstep must have mistaken your swift, imposing stride for a fierce tiger charging into the house! Let me see where you’re hurt? We mustn’t damage your tiger-like majesty~”
Zhang Family’s Old Woman trembled with rage at the sarcastic remarks, struggling to get up from the ground, her head hurting even more than from the fall! The hatred and fury in her heart could no longer be contained!
“You little bitch! I’ll fight you to the death!” She viciously lifted her foot and kicked with all her might toward Meng Xizhou’s chest!
Meng Xizhou’s eyes turned cold as she grabbed the old woman’s ankle mid-kick, using the momentum to swing her hard.
“Off you go!”
Zhang Family’s Old Woman was flung far away like a ragged sack, lying motionless on the ground.
Knocked out again.
After checking her breathing, Meng Xizhou couldn’t help but marvel: “It seems I am the modern-day Wu Song.”
Having marveled, she turned and entered Zhang Zhi’s room.
The sheets were a mess of blood and pus, but he was still breathing—truly tenacious.
But Meng Xizhou wasn’t worried. With the wound festering like this, death was only a matter of time.
What mattered more now was eliminating the last threat in the Zhang family—the third son, Zhang Zhuo, who was studying at the academy and preparing for the Tong Sheng Exam!
There were only two days left until the Crown Prince’s rendezvous.
Zhang Zhuo was the only one in the Zhang family with any academic talent. In her previous life, he had actually passed the exam! So much so that when she later escaped back to Jingcheng against all odds, she ran into him again. By then, she was already scarred and broken, yet Zhang Zhuo publicly exposed all the humiliations she had suffered in the Zhang family!
He even went to the magistrate to sound the grievance drum, claiming she was the shared wife of his three brothers, who had run away right after giving birth, no different from a fugitive slave!
Rumors spread through Jingcheng like plague! She became a despised adulteress! Even the beggar women on the streets would spit at the sight of her! Completely cutting off all her means of survival, which gave Meng Nanyi the perfect excuse to sell her into a secret brothel!
She had barely clawed her way out of hell, only to be pushed by Zhang Zhuo himself into a deeper, more hopeless abyss!
“Now it’s your turn… to taste the depths of hell,” Meng Xizhou murmured into the distant void, her eyes filled with bone-deep hatred.
She went out and found the village’s dedicated courier, instructing him to immediately deliver a message to Zhang Zhuo: his second brother had died, and he must return home quickly to handle the funeral arrangements!
The news spread through Xiaohe Village as if on wings, and in an instant, everyone was talking about it.
“Ah, the Zhang family’s new bride is truly unfortunate—barely through the door and already facing widowhood…”
“I think there might be something truly sinister about this new bride! A husband-killer! The Zhang family is nearly wiped out in just a few days!”
“Bah! What husband-killer! Clearly, being a Zhang family bride means being destined for widowhood! Didn’t Zhang Family’s Old Woman herself become a widow at a young age?”