Facing her sisters' smiling faces, Jiang Nan forced out a smile. Her whole being felt muddled, her head buzzing, and she did not know how she returned to her own loft.
After returning to the loft and lighting the lamps in the secret chamber, Jiang Nan looked at the cramped, oppressive room. An indescribable sense of suffocation shrouded her heart, and loneliness drowned her like a rising tide. In this vast, anxious world, she had no family to look to. In the end, she was all alone. What sorrow could be greater than this?
Jiang Nan slowly closed her eyes. The scene of Zhang Chen questioning her in the loft that day resurfaced in her mind, and a wave of regret welled up, seeming ready to devour her.
After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Nan's gaze gradually hardened. "I, Jiang Nan, have no family to rely on, and my family's great vengeance remains unavenged. The man I marry must be a great hero, a mighty champion with real ability—not some powerless, penniless loser like Zhang Chen. Zhang Chen is not a bad person, but his family circumstances are too poor. He simply cannot help me complete my revenge! Father, little brother, wait for me. I will avenge you!"
Not far from Jiang Nan's secret chamber, Shen Ling was likewise sitting in a secret chamber. Looking at the dim lamplight before her, she suddenly drew the Treasure Sword at her waist and slashed down at the prayer cushion before her. In an instant, the cushion was chopped to pieces, and countless strands of Rice Straw flew wildly through the chamber.
"Zhang Gaoqiu, you ruined me! I will fight you to the death!" Shen Ling's voice was filled with despair, echoing endlessly through the secret chamber like a cuckoo crying tears