The Sun Family's daughter-in-law was no heroine from a great sect or school.
But her family was wealthy, and she had grown up clad in fine silks and fed on delicacies. To give his daughter some means of protecting herself, her father had sent her to a martial arts school to learn a few skills.
She had lived up to his hopes and trained well.
Later, drawn by the jianghu, she had joined an escort agency alongside her fellow disciples from the school.
She had intended to make a trip or two, see something of the jianghu's splendor, and then return home obediently.
Who could have imagined they would run into bandits on the road? A fight broke out, and the people from the escort agency were scattered.
She had been injured herself. Struggling onward, she had eventually found the Sun Family and, just like Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei, had planned to spend the night there.
That single night... drew back the curtain on a nightmare that lasted nearly twenty years.
She had been a young girl fresh out of the nest, lacking experience in the jianghu and even viewing the jianghu so many people spoke of through naturally rose-colored glasses.
As a result, she hadn't noticed that a knockout drug had been mixed into her food.
When she woke up, she found that she had been tied up.
The man surnamed Sun broke her legs and used the blunt side of an axe to smash her shoulder blades bit by bit. Even now, her hands lacked the strength to truss a chicken.
She was violated.
At first, she naturally refused to submit. She wanted to escape, but her legs were crippled, her hands were weak, and everything she had learned was of no use.
Slowly, she learned to endure.
She did everything she could to win the Sun Family's trust, and at last she succeeded.
When the man surnamed Sun went into the city, he took her along.
But at first, she made no rash moves. She continued to bide her time.
Her legs were crippled and her hands were weak, so she needed someone to help her.
She behaved herself on several trips into the city and finally gained their complete trust.
Only then did she seek out the person who seemed most suitable and tell him about her plight, hoping he would rescue her and help her escape.
But she hadn't expected that the person who seemed most suitable would report her and collect two taels of silver from the man surnamed Sun.
Those two taels of silver sent her straight back to hell.
The man surnamed Sun flew into a rage. He called her promiscuous, said she couldn't be content at home, and accused her of trying to seduce men in the city.
In his fury, he disfigured her face with a knife. He used so little restraint that he accidentally injured one of her eyes.
After that, her life grew worse and worse. The man surnamed Sun loathed her face, as though it were not his handiwork at all, and he was forever beating and cursing her.
Had they not discovered then that she was pregnant, she probably would not have lived until now.
But even so, nothing remained of her life but purgatory.
What drove her to even greater despair was that the son she carried for ten months and bore was exactly like his father.
He looked just as harmless to man and beast, and was just as vicious.
Whenever someone came to spend the night, she tried every way she could to warn them, but it was no use.
The man surnamed Sun succeeded time and again as though aided by the gods. When she urged her son not to be like his father, her own flesh and blood answered her with fists and kicks.
Slowly, she gave up too.
She was nothing but a cripple. She couldn't change anything.
But she still believed that the man surnamed Sun and his family would face retribution.
And in fact, she lived to see it.
Sitting on the steps in the Sun Family's courtyard, she recounted her experiences in a calm, unruffled voice.
She had originally thought she would be happy to see the Sun Family receive their retribution.
But now she felt no happiness at all.
Her whole life had been ruined... and her future was nothing but darkness and despair.
What was there to be happy about?
Now, only deathly silence remained in her heart.
Zhou Qingmei was silent, and Fang Shuwen didn't know what to say either.
He only felt that those who cultivated demonic arts were not the only evil people in the jianghu. Some people, even without martial arts, were cruel and vicious enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Fang Shuwen hesitated for a long time before asking:
"Would you like us to take you home?"
By rights, he shouldn't have asked.
They were already burdened with troubles of their own.
The Black Sha Cult was relentlessly pursuing them, and those people were far more terrifying than the man surnamed Sun.
Bringing her along would not only burden them, but might also drag her into their troubles.
But Fang Shuwen simply couldn't bear to leave her...
Though he had suffered in his youth and seen the warmth and coldness of human nature, that bit of conscience in him had never been completely extinguished.
He knew that if they left her here, she would soon die.
Once a person's heart was dead, it was only a matter of time before their body died too.
The disfigured woman shook her head, slightly but firmly:
"No."
Just that one word, without the slightest hesitation.
Zhou Qingmei wanted to say more, but Fang Shuwen waved a hand:
"All right, we understand."
The woman gave a rare smile:
"Thank you both."
With that, she stood, hobbled back to her room, and closed the door.
"Why didn't you try to persuade her again?"
Zhou Qingmei looked somewhat sorrowful:
"She can't survive alone in a place like this."
"Tell me... what would happen if we took her home?"
Fang Shuwen asked in return.
Zhou Qingmei was taken aback.
"If her family is still alive, they'll be very happy to see her, won't they?
"She's suffered so much... her family will surely feel terrible for her and take good care of her."
"But it's also possible they'll see her as a disgrace."
Fang Shuwen's words carried an unfeeling coldness:
"If things go as you say, she might live a few more days. But the better her family treats her, the more specially they treat her, the more likely she is to feel unworthy. Sometimes, material things cannot change the pain in a person's heart.
"But if things go as I said, she'll only die faster, and with even less dignity."
Zhou Qingmei fell silent.
What Fang Shuwen had said was not mere conjecture.
It was a bloody reality.
"Then are we... just going to leave her alone?"
Zhou Qingmei was reluctant to accept it.
Fang Shuwen patted her on the shoulder:
"Have you forgotten your own predicament, Eldest Miss Zhou?"
"...Even so, I can't bear it."
Zhou Qingmei raised her head. Her brows, usually somewhat sharp and stern, looked especially delicate at that moment.
"That's why I left the question to her and let her make her own choice."
Fang Shuwen sighed:
"She's already made her choice... Eldest Miss, eight or nine things out of ten in life don't go as one wishes. Not everything can unfold as we expect.
"What we take for kindness can also become the dark hand that pushes someone else into the abyss.
"So it's enough to stop there."
Zhou Qingmei knew Fang Shuwen was right, so she nodded.
Then she went over to the Black Sha Cult member who could neither die nor escape.
She drew her shattered sword and stabbed down hard, only for a ding to ring out.
Zhou Qingmei's eyes grew grave.
"Speak. Is the Black Sha Cult in Guangning City?
"What exactly are you plotting?"