My heart was instantly filled with confusion. What had Song Lin taken from me?
Hearing the red-clad man’s words, Song Lin suddenly burst into unrestrained laughter. He glanced at me, then turned to the red-clad man and said, “As for Xue Jingyao, I am determined to have her. Yu Qingzhou, you can’t always be by her side, can you? Don’t you think about how a young girl could willingly follow a thing like you that isn’t even human?”
Yu Qingzhou!
He really was the man engraved on the ancestral tablet—my husband, Yu Qingzhou!
Song Lin’s words were infuriating. If I were Yu Qingzhou, I would definitely be angry, especially since Yu Qingzhou was already petty by nature!
Upon hearing this, Yu Qingzhou’s gaze shifted, and he glanced at me sideways. In those pitch-black, profound eyes, there seemed to be a trace of resentment.
His stare made me shrink back, my heart trembling. I lowered my eyes, not daring to meet Yu Qingzhou’s gaze.
Seeing this, Song Lin taunted Yu Qingzhou, “Tsk, Yu Qingzhou, your little bride doesn’t even dare to look at you. Do you think she’ll truly follow you? If I were you, I’d just swallow her whole to keep others from coveting her.”
Yu Qingzhou’s face darkened further, and my body trembled even more violently.
“You’re… really asking for death.” Yu Qingzhou clenched his fingers, and with a muffled thud, Song Lin’s body was crushed by him.
Yet, in the moment of being crushed, I saw a wisp of black energy swiftly escape, vanishing into the darkness in an instant.
A feeling crept into my heart—Song Lin wasn’t dead. The look he had given me earlier told me he would come for me again.
I stood frozen in place, my eyes darting to the flash of red beside me. My heart pounded so hard it felt like it might leap out of my chest. This was Yu Qingzhou, my husband. No wonder he had been so angry last time—he must have thought I had cheated on him!
Although he had saved me now, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill me if he were displeased.
His way of killing was so simple and brutal. Thinking of the scene where Song Lin’s head had shattered, I felt a chill run down my spine.
“Scared stiff?” a mocking voice sounded above my head.
“No, no,” I flinched, lowering my head even further.
Yu Qingzhou’s voice grew even more mocking, tinged with a sinister tone. “That dog said you don’t dare to look at me?”
I truly didn’t dare to look at him—I was terrified! When had I ever encountered something like this? If there were a hole in the ground, I would have gladly crawled into it right then.
“Look up,” Yu Qingzhou commanded, his tone leaving no room for refusal.
For the sake of my own life, I forced myself to raise my head, though my eyes still refused to meet his.
“Look at me directly.”
How could I dare?
“Heh.” A cold laugh echoed, followed by Yu Qingzhou’s self-mocking voice. “That dog was right. If you don’t even dare to look at me, you certainly won’t follow me wholeheartedly. In that case, I might as well devour you to keep you from falling into someone else’s stomach.”
Tears welled up in my eyes from Yu Qingzhou’s words. What were these beings? Why were they always thinking of eating me?
Couldn’t they eat someone else?
I steeled myself and looked at Yu Qingzhou before me. His features were still as stunningly handsome as before, but his gaze was icy cold. At this moment, he was looking down at me from above—he stood a full head taller than me, practically looking at me through his nostrils.
“Am I that frightening?” he asked.
I nodded, then quickly shook my head. For a moment, I didn’t know whether to nod or shake my head.
I was afraid of Yu Qingzhou because, to me, he was an unknown. Yet, he had saved me twice.
I thought to myself that if it weren’t for him, perhaps things would have turned out just as my mother once told me—I would have died young as a child.
So, I shouldn’t be afraid of him.
Thinking this, I straightened my back and said seriously, “I’m not afraid!”
“But your legs are trembling,” Yu Qingzhou remarked lightly.
I didn’t want my legs to tremble either, but I couldn’t control them at all. It was utterly frustrating, almost enough to make me cry. “My legs have a mind of their own.”
Seeing me on the verge of tears, Yu Qingzhou waved his sleeve impatiently. “I can’t stand it when women cry. Get back home now, and don’t take off the Yupai again.”
“If you dare remove the Yupai again, I’ll twist your head off.”
“I didn’t—”
I was about to say I hadn’t taken off the Yupai again, but when I touched my neck, it was empty. Where was my Yupai?
I remembered wearing it when I returned home, but now it was gone.
A cold Yupai was pressed into my hand. When I looked up again, Yu Qingzhou had vanished. Not daring to stay in the back hills any longer, I mustered all my strength and ran home. Just as I reached the yard, I saw my mother hurrying out with a flashlight.
It seemed she had come out to look for me.
“Mom!” I shouted, running toward her.
When my mother saw me, her eyes instantly reddened, her face filled with lingering fear. She grabbed me and smacked my butt twice. “You naughty child! Didn’t I tell you to kneel for eight hours? Where did you run off to in the middle of the night?! You scared me half to death!”
Then she hugged me tightly. Feeling the warmth of her embrace, all the fear in me seemed to dissipate in that moment.
“Thank goodness you’re alright,” my mother sobbed with relief before asking, “Where did you go?”
I had no choice but to tell her everything that had happened. When she heard that I had fainted after eating the food my grandmother brought, her eyes widened instantly, her face filled with terror.
I quickly asked, “Mom, what’s wrong?”
My mother’s voice trembled violently as she said to me, “Jing Yao, don’t be scared when I tell you this.”
My heart tightened, but I replied calmly, “Mom, go ahead. I’m not afraid.”
“You don’t have a grandmother!” my mother said fearfully. “Your grandmother died in an accident when your father was eight years old. How could you have seen your grandmother?!”
My mother’s words struck me like a bolt from the blue, freezing me in place.
My grandmother died when my father was eight?
Then why did I have memories of my grandmother in my mind—memories so vivid, so warm, and even the fights between my mother and grandmother remembered so clearly?
"But I have memories of Grandma in my head. Mom, is it you who's mistaken, or is it me?" I asked in disbelief.
My mother's expression changed, and she said sternly, "How could I possibly be mistaken? How could anyone get something like this wrong? Do you know why I married your dad in the first place? It was precisely because there wouldn't be any troublesome mother-in-law issues!"
I, "…"
Her words left me speechless.
But if Grandma never existed, then who was the grandmother in my memories?