Meanwhile, after the Duke and the Duchess woke up, they had barely opened their sleepy eyes when they caught sight of each other’s appearance.
They both screamed at the same time.
“Ah! A ghost!”
Their cries were so loud they nearly burst everyone’s eardrums.
The two maids waiting outside immediately rushed in after pushing open the door.
“Master! Madam! What’s wrong?”
The maids anxiously reached for the bed curtains.
The Duke quickly came to his senses and barked,
“Nothing! All of you, leave at once!”
Fortunately, he had reacted quickly.
Otherwise, they would have completely disgraced themselves.
When he had first woken up, all he had seen was a bald head covered with drawings and writing. It had taken him a moment to realize what he was looking at.
Now he finally recognized the person in front of him.
Neither he nor the Duchess could allow anyone to see them like this.
The Duke immediately ordered the maids to leave.
The two maids lowered their hands, full of suspicion, but obediently turned around and left the room, closing the door behind them.
The Duchess raised a trembling hand to touch her head.
Sure enough…
Just as she had feared, not a single strand of hair remained.
“Master, what are we going to do? How can I show my face like this?”
Her voice was thick with tears.
Looking at the mangy dog painted on the Duchess’s bald head, along with the words Female Dog, the Duke didn’t even need to look in a mirror to know that his own forehead must have been painted as well.
The only difference was probably one word.
He was so furious he nearly exploded.
Who was targeting the Duke’s Residence like this?
Was robbing them once not enough?
First they had stolen everything.
Now they had come back to torment people.
With no other choice, the Duke and the Duchess got dressed and each found a hat to cover their bald heads before leaving.
They had just finished getting ready to go eat breakfast when a servant hurried over to report.
“Master! Madam! Something has happened to the Young Master’s courtyard!”
The couple immediately forgot about breakfast and rushed toward their youngest son’s courtyard.
The masters from the other courtyards had also heard the news and hurried over.
Soon, chaotic footsteps echoed throughout the estate.
Before long, a large crowd had gathered outside the room.
They were all members of the Duke’s Residence.
The moment they reached the doorway, they were stunned by the horrifying sight inside.
This…
Why was it so bloody?
The men managed to hold themselves up, though several of them felt dizzy.
They barely remained standing through sheer force of will.
The timid women were another story.
Some rolled their eyes back and fainted on the spot.
Others turned deathly pale, swaying as if they would collapse at any moment.
No one paid any attention to the women who had fainted.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the room.
The scene inside was simply too eerie and terrifying.
It gave them the unsettling feeling that they were being watched by a malicious ghost.
Especially the four blood-red characters written across the floor.
Blood Debts Must Be Repaid with Blood.
They were truly shocking.
The Duke forced himself to take several deep breaths, trying to calm himself.
He was the head of the Duke’s Residence.
He absolutely could not collapse.
Standing beside the bed, Bai Yan stiffly turned toward his family at the doorway.
His voice trembled.
“Father! Hurry and call a doctor! Little Brother has been seriously injured!”
He deliberately avoided saying that Bai Wu had been crippled.
He simply couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud.
His younger brother’s condition was too miserable.
Hearing that his youngest son was still alive, the Duke finally breathed a sigh of relief.
His expression eased slightly.
As long as his son was alive, he wasn’t quite as frightened.
The Duchess, who had been forcing herself to stay conscious, also sighed in relief when she heard that her youngest son was still alive.
Then she fainted.
As she fell, the hat slipped off her head.
Everyone’s attention was instantly drawn to it.
Her shiny bald head was impossible to ignore.
Every pair of eyes widened as they stared at the picture and words painted across it.
An eerie silence filled the room.
What…
What had happened?
Seeing his wife’s hat fall off, the Duke closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
He bent down, picked it up, and carefully put it back on her head.
Then he turned to everyone present.
“Not a word about today’s events leaves this room.”
Everyone nodded rapidly.
Yet their eyes still drifted toward the Duke and the Duchess’s hats from time to time.
There was no need to guess.
The Duke’s head must have been painted as well.
Anyone with half a brain could tell where everyone was looking.
The Duke swept a cold glance across the room.
Everyone immediately lowered their heads and didn’t dare look again.
Seeing the unconscious women lying on the ground, the Duke let out a deep sigh.
“Someone, escort Madam and all the young madams back to their rooms to rest.”
Women truly were timid.
Such a small scene had frightened them into fainting.
He had completely forgotten that if he hadn’t forced himself to stay calm earlier, he might have collapsed too.
After watching the servants carry them away, he turned to the steward with a solemn expression.
“Move the Young Master to another room.”
“Yes, Duke.”
Even the steward had been badly frightened.
His voice trembled as he answered.
Deep down, he truly believed this was revenge from the girls who had been abused and killed.
Hadn’t the Duke realized that?
The steward suddenly wanted to leave the Duke’s Residence.
The place felt increasingly cursed.
A servant had already gone to summon a doctor.
The steward entered the room with two servants, preparing to carry the Young Master to the neighboring room.
But as they approached the bed…
They saw that Bai Wu’s entire lower body was soaked in blood.
His clothes below the waist had been stained completely red.
Everyone’s eyes widened in shock.
This wasn’t just a serious injury.
He had clearly been castrated.
From now on, he would never again have the “tool” he used to violate innocent young women.
Serves him right!
For some reason, both the steward and the servants suddenly felt a trace of satisfaction.
The steward had daughters.
The servants had sisters.
The thought that one day their own daughters or sisters might have crossed paths with Bai Wu—that beast who was worse than an animal—
Made them want to kill him.
At that moment, they all came to the same conclusion.
Whoever had crippled Bai Wu…
Must be a truly good person.
…
Meanwhile, Shen Qingyao was sleeping soundly in her room at the inn.
She had no idea that someone had just given her a “good person” label.
In fact…
More than one person had.
By the time she woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.
She rubbed her growling stomach.
After getting out of bed and dressing herself, she first drank a cup of Spiritual Spring water.
Then she walked to the door and opened it.
She was about to go downstairs to eat when, by coincidence, the waiter was coming upstairs.
Their eyes met.
The waiter immediately walked over with a respectful smile.
“Honored Guest, do you need anything?”
Oh?
The service here was pretty good.
If she could eat in her room, why bother going downstairs?
Smiling, Shen Qingyao took three copper coins from her sleeve and handed them to the waiter.
“Bring me three dishes, one soup, and a pot of tea.”
“Right away, Honored Guest. Please wait a moment. I’ll have it brought up immediately.”
The waiter happily accepted the tip, nodded, and hurried downstairs.
Shen Qingyao returned to her room and closed the door.
She went into her Space to wash up and changed into a fresh set of clothes.
Only then did she return to the inn room.
She wondered how things were going at the Duke’s Residence now.
She didn’t even have to think about it.
It had to be incredibly lively.
She really wanted to go watch the excitement.
Still…
She decided to eat first.
The food arrived quickly.
Shen Qingyao immediately dug in with great enthusiasm.
The food in ancient times was completely natural.
There were no artificial additives or chemical ingredients.
It was absolutely healthy.
…
Downstairs, several people were drinking tea and chatting.
One middle-aged man in his forties looked around cautiously.
Then he leaned close to his friend and whispered,
“Have you heard? Bai Wu, the Duke’s youngest son, was crippled last night.”
“What?”
His friend stared at him in shock.
“Really? Who told you? You didn’t hear wrong, did you? The Duke’s Residence is heavily guarded. Didn’t anyone notice?”
Everyone knew Bai Wu was an ignorant brute who was worse than an animal.
Relying on his family’s power, he committed every evil imaginable and treated everyone else with contempt.
He had ruined at least fifty young women—if not seventy.
He was a complete beast.
A scumbag through and through.
Lowering his voice even more, the middle-aged man continued,
“Of course it’s true. I have a relative who works at the Duke’s Residence. The news can’t be wrong. I also heard they’ve summoned nearly every famous doctor in the city.”
His friend sighed.
“Good. He deserved it.
“There was a beautiful girl in our village who was abducted by him. He kept her imprisoned and tortured her for months before she finally died. When they returned her body, they simply threw it at her family’s door and handed her parents ten taels of silver.”
After saying so much, he paused for a sip of tea before continuing.
“You should have seen her body when they carried her home. She was covered in wounds. There wasn’t a single patch of uninjured skin left. It was absolutely horrifying.”
Thinking back to the girl’s miserable condition, he let out another helpless sigh.
The middle-aged man continued,
“That beast has ruined countless girls. Getting crippled is exactly what he deserved.
“But I also heard that it was the ghosts of those girls who crippled him. They say his room was covered with bloody handprints, and four huge words were written on the floor in blood—
Blood Debts Must Be Repaid with Blood.”
Although he hadn’t seen it himself, just imagining the scene made his skin crawl.
His friend turned to him with wide eyes.
“Really?”
“Yeah! Is it really true?”
The middle-aged man froze.
Why were there so many voices?
He turned around.
Only then did he realize that he and his friend were now surrounded by a crowd.
Both men jumped in fright.
When had so many people gathered?
Neither of them had noticed.
“Go on!”
“Was that beast from the Duke’s Residence really crippled by the ghosts of those dead girls?”
“I don’t believe it. If it really was the ghosts taking revenge, why didn’t they just kill him instead of letting him live?”
“Yeah, exactly…”
Everyone began asking their own questions one after another.
The constant chatter made the middle-aged man’s head ache.
He gave up trying to whisper.
Clearing his throat, he raised his voice so everyone in the inn could hear.
“I don’t know whether ghosts really did it.
“But one thing is absolutely true.
“Bai Wu’s room really was covered with bloody handprints.
“And the words Blood Debts Must Be Repaid with Blood really were written across the floor in blood.”
He was completely certain of that.
After all…
His relative had been the very first person to rush into Bai Wu’s room.
That relative was the servant who had first discovered the bloody handprints and the blood-written message.
The poor servant had been so terrified that he fell ill on the spot.
After taking leave and returning home, he told his family everything that had happened at the Duke’s Residence.
And naturally…
His family spread the story everywhere.
“That beast deserved it. After ruining so many innocent girls, getting crippled was letting him off easy.”
“Exactly! Bai Wu is worse than an animal. He deserves to be Sliced a Thousand Times!”
“That’s right! Whoever carried out justice on Heaven’s behalf and crippled Bai Wu is a true hero. No matter who they are, they deserve everyone’s thanks for ridding society of such a scourge.”