This would be a reckoning.
(I) What could not be obtained
That night, the river of stars was enchanting. Red Adornment thought of her senior sister, who had come from a thousand miles away, and weighed the filthy affairs of the Ji Family. Ji Hanchu stayed beside her. After all they had experienced of life and death, he had still chosen her, chosen those things he had forgotten.
Yet all was not peaceful within the Gusu Ji Clan.
As early as Ji Hanchu's disappearance, Ji Zhiyuan and Qi Jin had realized something was wrong. They had people search the Ji Family estate inside and out, yet still found no trace of him.
Only one person in this world could come and go within the Ji Family without leaving a trace. Ji Chengxuan had gone to the Southern Frontier; if he returned, the Ji Family would probably no longer be able to maintain even its outward peace.
But unexpectedly, though they remained on full alert for a long time, Ji Chengxuan never returned.
Qi Jin still harbored doubts. He would rather kill as a warning to the rest, slaughtering every former member of the Ji Clan imprisoned in the dungeon. He had never been one to show mercy. When they had first washed the Ji Family in blood, dealing with Xie Liyou's disciples had been manageable, but Ji Jingsheng's subordinates had proved exceedingly troublesome. In the end, he had spent a fortune buying off hidden agents, while Ji Zhiyuan had used an "apology" as a pretext to lay a treacherous banquet, tricking Ji Jingsheng into drinking a drug and imprisoning him. Only then had they barely stabilized the situation.
Qi Jin wanted to purge the sect completely, leaving no worries behind.
But Ji Zhiyuan stopped him. Ji Zhiyuan could harden his heart against Xie Liyou, yet he still retained a measure of mercy toward Ji Jingsheng. The spies and assassins of that branch had been killed or crippled. Ji Jingsheng alone remained, merely imprisoned, with nothing further done to him.
Qi Jin scoffed at this affection of Ji Zhiyuan's. He had intended to press him further, urging him to cut out the weeds by their roots and eliminate Ji Jingsheng as well. But before he could speak, another matter threw his plans into complete disarray.
Yin Qingyan had disappeared.
She knew nothing of the undercurrents surging through the Gusu Ji Clan, only that the cousin she loved was nowhere to be found. When she asked Ji Zhiyuan, he refused to answer. When she asked Qi Jin, he talked around the subject. Left with no choice, she left a letter and went to find Ji Hanchu herself.
Anxious and helpless, Qi Jin could only shelve his plans and set off alone to find Yin Qingyan.
Finding this young lady was easy, requiring almost no effort at all. Bringing her back was the difficult part. Qi Jin could not prevail against her, and in the end, faced with her tear-filled eyes, he agreed to take her to find Ji Hanchu.
That evening, they found a small boat. Qi Jin worked the oars as the two drifted quietly across the lake.
She had only agreed to come with him because he had promised to take her to look for Ji Hanchu the next day.
Green mountains encircled the lake along both shores, and the little boat skimmed between countless peaks. Before them stretched a vast sky and an open world, the moon bright and the stars sparse. It deserved to be called "a fine night and beautiful scenery," yet as Qi Jin sat in the boat, his heart was far from carefree.
Yin Qingyan sat at the stern, propping up her head, dispirited. From the moment she slipped away, she had actually been waiting for Qi Jin to find her. She had no ability to search for Ji Hanchu herself; in the end, she still had to rely on him.
Her eyelids felt heavy, her head muddled. Perhaps she was tired. She leaned back languidly, asking now and then, "Where do you think my cousin went?"
"I don't know," Qi Jin answered stiffly.
Judging by the information from his hidden agents, Ji Hanchu might have headed south. If they wanted to find him, they only needed to keep going south.
But according to their conjecture, if Ji Chengxuan really had taken Ji Hanchu away without alerting anyone, why? If he had truly returned, surely Ji Zhiyuan should have been the first person he sought. Why would he go to Ji Hanchu?
Besides, where was Ji Hanchu heading as he traveled south?
Qi Jin thought of the information his hidden agents had sent, of the young woman who had appeared beside Ji Hanchu...
Was it her?
Impossible.
She was clearly dead. How could the dead come back to life?
Qi Jin suppressed his suspicions and comforted Yin Qingyan. "Miss, get some rest. I'll take you to find the Third Young Master tomorrow."
"I'm worried about my cousin," Yin Qingyan said. "How could I sleep?"
Qi Jin's fingers tightened around the oar. A moment later, he gave a self-mocking laugh, its sound scattering into the long night until no trace could be found.
"Miss..." Qi Jin rested his hands on the oars, his expression hidden indistinctly in the moon's shadows. He murmured, "There are many things you cannot force. Why must you? Since you cannot obtain it, wouldn't it be better... not to seek it anymore?"
His voice grew lower and softer, until by the end, it was impossible to tell whether he was speaking to Yin Qingyan or himself.
In truth, he dimly understood that even if he stained both hands with blood and sanctimoniously claimed he only wanted her wishes fulfilled, he was merely making his concealment more conspicuous.
Whenever he committed those despicable crimes, whenever he sat alone beneath a lamp and remembered his youth, sorrow would rise within him despite himself.
He had not been born so utterly devoid of conscience. He, Xie Liyou, and Ji Hanchu had once shared good times and treated one another sincerely. But he had destroyed all of it with his own hands, destroyed it through the demonic nightmare of an unattainable desire in his heart.
The lake water flowed, and the trees rustled in the wind. Yin Qingyan's face remained unruffled, as though she had not heard his words.
Qi Jin gazed at her profile and called, "Miss..."
She did not move. Her eyes were half closed, as though she had fallen asleep.
Qi Jin put down the oars and leaned forward, calling even more softly, "Qingyan..."
The sky stretched high and the waters far. No one answered.
From the beginning until now, he had only ever spoken his feelings to himself.
Qi Jin shook his head with a bitter smile, turned back, picked up the oars, and slowly rowed the little boat toward shore.
Behind him, for some unknown reason, the lashes of the young woman who should have been deep in sweet dreams suddenly trembled. It was as though a nightmare had startled her awake, or as though she was awake and pretending to sleep, merely to evade feelings she found difficult to face.
Following the information from his hidden agents, Qi Jin traveled south with Yin Qingyan. After almost half a month, they finally found traces of Ji Hanchu.
They sat in the bustling main hall of an inn, where people of the jianghu came and went. Several injured ruffians, whose faces plainly betrayed their disreputable nature, clustered at one end, heedless of what anyone thought as they loudly vented their grievances.
"It was that pretty boy in white. He and that little beauty are a couple. To think he looks so upright and decent. Pah! A sanctimonious hypocrite!"
"All right, keep it down," his companion said.
"Keep it down? Why should I? Look at these injuries! Just you wait. One day, I'll kill him!"
"Kill him? How? Do you know who he is?"
"Who is he? The Heavenly Emperor himself?"
"You know the Gusu Ji Clan?" His companion waggled his brows. "I asked around. That pretty boy's surname is Ji. From what I saw of those moves he used to hit you, his techniques were exactly like the Ji Clan's. Nine times out of ten, he's one of their disciples."
No one paid attention to what followed. The moment Yin Qingyan heard "Ji Clan disciple," delight filled her heart. She hurried over to the ruffians in a few steps and asked, "Are you talking about my cousin? Where is he?"
Startled, the men looked up. When they saw the delicate, flowerlike young girl before them, frail and lovely, improper thoughts immediately arose.
Still, they had suffered before, and feared that some expert might be following this girl too. As they considered this, a glance out of the corners of their eyes revealed another man walking toward them. He pulled her behind him and shielded her firmly.
Qi Jin understood the rules of the jianghu. Though their covetous gazes disgusted him utterly, he still courteously bought them wine. Having suffered enough losses they could not complain of, the men knew when to take a good offer. Especially when they saw Qi Jin's unfriendly expression as he mentioned the young master in white, they became all the more eager to watch the show. Thus, they told him what they had seen and heard, leaving out the beginning and the end.
Once Yin Qingyan learned their whereabouts, how could she sit still? She immediately pulled Qi Jin toward the inn where they were staying.
That inn was not far away. By noon, Yin Qingyan and Qi Jin had reached its entrance.
The moment she stepped out of the carriage, that familiar flash of white passed before her eyes. Following it with her gaze, she saw a young man standing with his hands behind his back by the open door of the inn's little kitchen, his features handsome, his bearing naturally refined.
Yin Qingyan could contain herself no longer. She beamed, her voice sweet as honey. "Third Cousin!"
(II) People from those years
"Third Cousin!"
Red Adornment turned.
Yin Qingyan.
That name was hardly unfamiliar to Red Adornment. After all, a sea of blood and deep vengeance lay between them. She had killed Yin Qingyan's mother and maternal grandfather, then stolen away the man Yin Qingyan liked. If their positions were reversed, she would probably hate herself to the bone.
Reality proved that this was indeed the case.
Yet compared with hatred, their reactions held rather more horror.
Red Adornment stood beside the road where people came and went, the inn's main entrance behind her. Ji Hanchu had borrowed the little kitchen inside to brew medicine.
With her arms folded, she watched the man and woman nearby. A year was not long; time had left no marks on any of them. The little white rabbit was still pitiful and delicate, and Qi Jin remained unsmiling.
Yin Qingyan finally saw Red Adornment blocking the doorway. Her steps stopped short, and she stared as though she had seen a ghost. The joy and sweetness in her heart abruptly vanished, replaced by vast astonishment and a sudden surge of rage.
Red Adornment smiled and said teasingly, "Long time no see."
Qi Jin narrowed his eyes, disbelief written all over his face.
Red Adornment walked forward onto the grass, her words barbed. "Want to ask why I'm not dead?"
With that, she kicked at the grass beneath her feet. Green blades flew, and Qi Jin warily pulled Yin Qingyan back.
Qi Jin narrowed his eyes. "You really didn't die?"
At this, Red Adornment smiled mockingly. "You're both still alive. How could I bear to become a ghost?"
"Ah-!"
Yin Qingyan suddenly came to her senses. With a piercing scream, she broke free of Qi Jin's arms. Qi Jin only had time to call, "Miss!" before she escaped his grasp.
Like someone gone mad, her eyes red, she seized Red Adornment's collar and tackled her onto the grass, clamping both hands around her throat.
The grass was wet, and stones dug into Red Adornment's back, pressing painfully against her.
"You, let go-"
Red Adornment had completely underestimated Yin Qingyan's strength. Though they were roughly the same size, Yin Qingyan was using far too much force, while she herself was injured and weakened, leaving her almost no room to fight back.
Yin Qingyan strangled Red Adornment, her nails digging viciously into flesh, deeper and deeper. Red Adornment grew increasingly dizzy, as though those fingers might pierce her blood vessels the next instant.
"Let go!" Gritting her teeth, she slowly moved her fingers toward the hidden pouch at her waist.
If Yin Qingyan showed no humanity, she could hardly blame her for showing no loyalty.
Yin Qingyan stared into her eyes. The once bright-eyed, radiant girl's gaze was filled with cold darkness. Hysterically, she cried, "Die! Die! Die-!"
She looked down at Red Adornment from above. Regardless of how Red Adornment had come back to life, she wanted her dead again, right now.
Once was not enough! Ten thousand deaths would not be enough!
Just as Red Adornment grew dizzy and her breathing became increasingly difficult, the restraint on her suddenly vanished, and she heard someone say-
"Qingyan, let go."
Red Adornment could barely draw breath. She coughed and choked, her face flushed scarlet. Ji Hanchu bent down to help her up and gently patted her back to ease her breathing. Only after she finally caught her breath did he notice the two purplish-red strangulation marks already rising on her neck.
Red Adornment's head was still muddled, and her palms were sweaty. Looking at Yin Qingyan, whose eyes were filled with astonishment, as though she had lost her soul, she gently touched her own neck.
It hurt like death, yet she still smiled brazenly, her unbridled spirit unchanged, just as it had been before.
"See? It's not that I won't let you kill me. Your cousin can't bear to lose me."
How arrogant those words were. Yin Qingyan's grievance was indescribable. Her eyes reddened as she sobbed, then she wiped furiously at her tears, rubbing her eyes even redder.
Frowning, Qi Jin pulled her behind him and shielded her.
Seeing this, Ji Hanchu likewise stepped forward without a word, turning sideways to stand in front of Red Adornment.
At once, the two sides faced each other in a standoff.
Red Adornment peered out. Yin Qingyan was crying pitifully, her tears falling like pearls from a broken string, her whole body shaking as her sobs turned into loud wails. Finally, she raised her voice and cried herself hoarse. "Cousin, how could you! How could you-" One hand pointed fiercely at Red Adornment. "She killed my mother and grandfather! She's a murderer! How can you still help her? I'll kill her! Kill her!"
Red Adornment watched her cry with cold eyes, then turned to meet Ji Hanchu's scrutinizing gaze and innocently raised her hands. "I really didn't kill her grandfather."
Heaven knew, why was everything Kaiyang did being dumped on her head?
Ji Hanchu silently withdrew his gaze.
So that meant she had killed Yin Fangchuan.
But he had no memory of that incident.
Red Adornment watched the two opposite her indifferently. Detecting Qi Jin's barely perceptible glances, she raised a brow and smiled, delivering a threat with her eyes. Qi Jin had also played a part in Yin Fangchuan's death. Though it had been a coincidence, it was hardly true that he had nothing to do with it. Yin Qingyan could believe without reservation that Ji Hanchu was uninvolved because she loved him and willingly let herself be deceived. But she would not be so generous toward Qi Jin.
If Yin Qingyan learned that Qi Jin also had something to do with her mother's death, that would be entertaining.
At this thought, Red Adornment stepped out and looked at him with a smile.
Qi Jin stiffened slightly. From Ji Hanchu's behavior, he knew he could do nothing to Red Adornment. This demoness was formidable; even after losing his memory, the Third Young Master still had his soul hooked by her. Supporting Yin Qingyan, he said quietly, "Miss, let's leave first."
But how could Yin Qingyan agree? Wave after wave of anguish assailed her. At that moment, only one thought remained in her mind-she wanted Red Adornment dead.
Yet with just the slightest movement, it felt as though a knife plunged into her chest, stabbing into her flesh, followed by a second stab, a third...
Blood seeped from the corner of Yin Qingyan's mouth, and she collapsed, convulsing. She stared wide-eyed at Red Adornment, unable even to understand when she had been poisoned. She had clearly held Red Adornment beneath her the entire time. If her cousin had not arrived, Red Adornment would already have been dead...
When had Red Adornment poisoned her?
The question was unimportant. The moment Yin Qingyan spat blood, Qi Jin drew his long saber and pointed it at Red Adornment, his eyes stretched wide with fury.
Red Adornment spoke first. "I won't give it to you."
"Red Adornment." Ji Hanchu seized her wrist and looked at her reproachfully, as though she should not have done this.
"Want to try curing it?" Red Adornment's lips curved in a wicked smile. "I just made it."
Qi Jin's eyes reddened slightly as he struggled to conceal his emotions. Beside him, Yin Qingyan clutched her chest, already convulsing and rolling in pain.
Red Adornment said, "She should have thought of this when she lunged at me to kill me. If she dares come near me, she has to be prepared to lose her life."
She raised her hand and stroked her nails, their sharp tips resting against her throat. Two livid strangulation marks stood out shockingly against her fair skin.
"What, she's allowed to kill me, but I'm not allowed to kill her?"
(III) All of it was sin
Red Adornment's voice was always so distinctive, soft and sweet, its final notes lingering. When she wheedled, she particularly liked putting on a coquettish voice, but that deliberate affectation was actually less appealing than her natural voice, so soft and tingling that it could make a listener's chest go numb.
But she rarely spoke to him with such chill in her voice. By the time she finished, Yin Qingyan was already close to fainting from pain.
Ji Hanchu quickly went to Yin Qingyan and crouched beside her, taking her wrist to check her pulse.
Yin Qingyan was truly in unbearable pain. The sensation of needles stabbing spread from her chest throughout her body, and cold sweat broke out in layer after layer.
"Cousin, it hurts! It hurts so much! Brother A-Jin, save me..." she moaned, her feet scraping against the grass until that patch had been worn down to bare, muddy earth.
This was a new poison Red Adornment had developed in her idle time. Its purpose was not to kill, only to cause pain, making its victim live in hell for two hours every day, day after day.
Ji Hanchu pondered, his brows tightly knitted, the solemnity on his face a little piercing.
As Red Adornment watched, she found it utterly dull. Her gaze gradually darkened, and though the spring breeze was mild, it chilled her to the bone.
Ji Hanchu raised his eyes and met hers. Before long, he looked away again.
It lasted only a few blinks, but the faint reproach within was like a raging fire, sweeping over Red Adornment from all sides and burning her to ashes.
Perhaps he merely felt she had been too harsh. Perhaps he thought Yin Qingyan had already been punished. Perhaps he thought the poison she had administered was meant to take Yin Qingyan's life.
But that elusive blame, and his fingers holding Yin Qingyan, were already enough to disgust Red Adornment.
Reproach.
Yes, he was reproaching her. Because the way she was acting now made her look like a villain.
Then why should she keep pretending? Since when had she truly become someone kind?
Without thinking, Red Adornment stepped forward and kicked Yin Qingyan viciously in the chest.
She moved too fast, her entire body trembling with anger. Neither of the other two could stop her.
Why should she cure Yin Qingyan's poison?
Why should she suddenly overflow with kindness?
Her rage was like boiling lava, holding all her resentment, regret, and sorrow within it, erupting together.
"Go die!"
Because she had poisoned Yin Qingyan, she had to be a villain? But Yin Qingyan had stolen her man too. Yin Qingyan had even wanted to kill her.
Yet everyone under heaven loved to side with the weak. Such was the world, and so it had always been.
Red Adornment mocked herself. This world, rotten to its roots, wanted to snatch away even what she loved most, yet still had the shamelessness to condemn her?
This world did not like her, and she did not like this world either.
Then they might as well stink and rot together.
She sneered, looking at Yin Qingyan with contempt. "Go die."
By the time she came back to herself, Qi Jin was already blocking her path. He raised a hand and struck her hard across the side of her face.
A crisp smack.
Red Adornment turned her head aside, her neatly bound hair falling loose and covering the side of her face.
She reached up and touched the corner of her mouth, staining her fingertips with specks of bright red.
She was not dead, so she could still bleed, and she could still feel.
It hurt so much.
A light rain had fallen last night, leaving the grass muddy. A drop of bright red fell into the dirt, quickly seeped beneath it, and vanished.
The man beside her shifted and sprang to his feet without a thought. His sleeve blade, still in its sheath, swept out with broad, powerful force and slammed into the back of Qi Jin's hand.
Then came a heavy punch, charged with tremendous force, driving hard into Qi Jin's ribs.
The next few moves were simple, yet flowed together like drifting clouds and running water, effortless and poised to swallow mountains and rivers. Qi Jin's martial skills had never matched Ji Hanchu's, and now he was forced back step after step. Ji Hanchu struck hard, picking the pressure points that hurt the most, leaving him in agony.
Ji Hanchu stood in front of Red Adornment, shielding her behind him, and said coldly, "How dare you!"
Qi Jin stood motionless for a while, looking at Ji Hanchu. The viciousness on that man's face was chilling.
In the deathly silence, Qi Jin suddenly laughed. His throat shifted, and a savage voice squeezed out, mocking him one word at a time. "You've actually gone mad again."
Ji Hanchu said, "Stay away from her. If you dare touch her again, I won't hold back."
Red Adornment touched her cheek. At the end of her patience, her indifference turned to undisguised loathing, her whole body like a block of ice, radiating cold.
She frowned. "Done arguing? All of you, get the hell away."
This time, she wanted no more trouble. Without so much as glancing at the three behind her, she turned and entered the inn.
Ji Hanchu reached out to catch her, but she deftly dodged him.
His hand hung awkwardly in midair, grasping at nothing.
Red Adornment stepped back and pointed at Ji Hanchu's face, saying bluntly, "Don't touch me." With that, she turned and left, not even sparing a glance at his expression.
She still remembered what Ji Hanchu had told her last night. He had said he did not want to remember.
Today, he had blamed her again for Yin Qingyan's sake.
The marks on her neck still throbbed faintly. The little white rabbit had truly shown no mercy earlier.
That idiot. Was he blind?
And he'd even talked about breaking off the engagement.
Red Adornment gave a cold snort.
Bullshit. All of it was bullshit.
Red Adornment went up to the inn's second floor. Her hand had only just touched the door, and she had yet to push it open, when her ears twitched slightly. Without turning around, she asked, "You still dare come here?"
It was Qi Jin.
Qi Jin loathed her just as much, and his expression was ugly. They were not on the same path, and she held leverage over him. How could he possibly look pleased?
Red Adornment turned and leaned against the door, disgust written all over her face. "What, here to kill me and silence me?"
Blood still clung to the corner of her mouth, staining her lips red and making them look exceptionally vivid. She looked very petite, yet her beauty was dazzling in the extreme. When she cast someone a sidelong glance, the corners of her eyes tilted slightly upward, carrying a primal wildness.
This was the real Red Adornment. Stripped of all those romantic entanglements, this was who she had always been, toying with lives and hearts, a ruthless, venomous she-demon from beneath the earth.
"I want the antidote," he said.
Red Adornment suppressed the urge to laugh and toyed with a lock of hair, mocking him in return. "You think I'll give it to you?"
She reached out and touched the swollen red corner of her mouth. "This alone is enough to leave you without an intact corpse."
Qi Jin stared hard at Red Adornment. After a long while, he bent his knees and knelt.
Red Adornment laughed without restraint. As she laughed, she began coughing violently again, covering her mouth and coughing for a long time before she caught her breath.
She raised her leg and kicked Qi Jin hard in the shoulder with a dull thud.
Qi Jin silently let her beat him. Only when his clean white clothes were covered in footprints did he raise his head and say, "I want the antidote."
Given time, Ji Hanchu might well have been able to cure it, but the poison flared up once a day, and Yin Qingyan was too frail to endure such suffering. Qi Jin feared that before Ji Hanchu could make an antidote, Yin Qingyan would kill herself because she could not bear the pain.
Otherwise, with his foul temper, he would never have knelt before Red Adornment.
Red Adornment bent down until her gaze was level with Qi Jin's. Her eyes were filled with ice, piercing him like a sharp knife.
"Who gave him the drug that made him lose his memory?"
Qi Jin answered quickly, "I did."
Red Adornment asked, "Whose idea was it?"
Qi Jin pressed his lips together. "The second young master's."
Red Adornment straightened, her jaw tight, her whole body cold and fierce. Looking down, she said indifferently, "That cripple Ji Zhiyuan is quite capable."
She had crawled out of piles of corpses and tasted blood. Beneath her beautiful skin lay the heart of a snake and scorpion. She had never feared tongues that could melt gold or accumulated slander that could dissolve bones. Repaying every grudge was her true nature.
This was a grudge she would remember.
"The antidote," Qi Jin said quietly.
"That's not enough." Red Adornment's smile was icy as she said softly, "Tell me everything that happened in the Ji Family before."
Since her senior sister was returning to the Ji Family, she had to follow, and that meant she could not simply sit and wait for death. Everyone who deserved to die was already dead. She truly could not imagine what her senior sister intended to do.
But if her senior sister went, she had to go, no matter what.
And this time, Red Adornment had a feeling that this would be a final reckoning. Everything would be settled here, every debt of gratitude, grudge, love, and hatred that needed settling would be settled, and everything that had to reach its end would reach its end.
Naturally, those who deserved to die could not be allowed to live.
Silence spread little by little.
Neither spoke, but Red Adornment was in no hurry. She was very patient. She knew Qi Jin would speak.
Ji Zhiyuan was a false gentleman, while Qi Jin was a true scoundrel. He would do anything for Yin Qingyan, give up anything. Everything else was beneath his notice.
He would certainly speak, unless he no longer cared whether Yin Qingyan lived. But that was utterly impossible. In his heart, Yin Qingyan's life mattered hundreds, thousands of times more than his own.
After a long while, Qi Jin finally spoke. His voice was very low. Getting the first sentence out was difficult, but what followed came naturally. His relationship with Ji Zhiyuan had always been one of mutual use, built entirely upon Yin Qingyan. Just as he had said when he first met Red Adornment, he had never wanted his own satisfaction. All he had ever wanted was for her wishes to come true.
At first, he picked out the things related to Ji Hanchu. Red Adornment interrupted him and demanded that he explain everything, so he started over.
The inn had high windows, and daylight spilled in from outside, brushing across Red Adornment's face and casting shadows of varying depths.
The sun sat high in the sky. Only a small corner of the blue heavens was visible. Sunlight enveloped her painfully thin body, making the little patch where she stood gleam.
Qi Jin knelt in the dark corner. Though the red sun poured down its light, none of it could reach him.
No matter, Red Adornment thought. There have always been plenty of places in this world that cannot bear the light. Darkness and filth hide there, human hearts turn to overflowing pus, and heaps of white bones lie buried underfoot. When the wind blows, there is nothing but the stench of festering rot.
Red Adornment gazed at the sky. It seemed about to press down upon her.
Without betraying anything, she withdrew her gaze, a desolation as boundless as the sky faintly showing in her eyes.
Ji Zhiyuan was more ruthless than she had imagined. Fate had robbed him of so much, and he had turned around to rob others. He had made himself into a twisted monster, able to feel the slightest pleasure bestowed by heaven only through this deathlike struggle. Hateful and pitiful.
Red Adornment asked, "Is Xie Liyou dead?"
Qi Jin shook his head, lowered his eyes, and stared at a spot on the floor. "Not yet," he said quietly.
She sneered and murmured, "Why don't you give him a quick death?"
A life little different from that of a human swine, turning him from a man into a dog, all to gain complete control of the Ji Family.
Ji Zhiyuan was the one who had truly gone mad.
Red Adornment asked again, "Does Ji Hanchu know about this?"
Qi Jin shook his head. "He was abducted not long after he woke up. We'd only just started then."
Red Adornment could no longer smile. She did not know what expression she wore now. Her hands shook violently from clenching too hard.
She did not care about Xie Liyou, but she knew Ji Hanchu did.
If Ji Hanchu found out...
He would go mad. Without a doubt.
Qi Jin did not look up. Kneeling on the floor with his back bent low in a humble posture, he reminded her, "Give me the antidote."
Red Adornment gave a cold snort, an icy, broken sound escaping her throat.
Just then, a waiter came up from downstairs carrying food: a large, steaming bowl of noodles topped with a fried egg and sprinkled with tender green scallions, sending up appetizing wisps of steam.
Holding it steadily, he had just reached the second-floor landing when he suddenly saw a man kneeling before a woman. Before he could react, his hands abruptly grew light.
Red Adornment snatched the bowl of noodles and, as the waiter stared dumbfounded, poured all the scalding noodles over Qi Jin's head. White strands tangled in his hair, and broth ran down his jaw into his collar. Fresh from the pot, the noodles were still piping hot, and faint steam wreathed his hair.
The waiter cried out, "What are you doing-"
But Qi Jin did not move. He did not dodge or even raise his head, as though he felt nothing.
The waiter did not dare approach rashly, afraid this might be some private jianghu feud. After looking between them for a while, he chose to protect himself, cautiously gripping the stairs and scurrying downstairs.
He had just run a few steps and reached the main hall when a tremendous crash suddenly sounded behind him. Instinctively, he turned to look-
The young woman's eyes were bloodshot. Her beautiful face was no longer cold and detached; instead, she was panting heavily as she glared at the man before her. Thick blood flowed from the back of his head, red flowers spreading across the floor, blooming over the shattered white porcelain around him.
That blow to the head must have carried vicious force. The bowl lay shattered across the floor, and the woman stood among its fragments like the most vivid flower blooming on a blade's edge, every petal a bleak, brilliant blood-red.
Poison-steeped branches and leaves sliced open human skin, revealing that every last one was an ugly beast.
A crow's caw suddenly rang out nearby. It circled by the window, mourning who knew what-perhaps the endless debts of gratitude and vengeance, and the lamentable affairs of the world.
The woman stepped through the blood and seized the man's collar. He had said nothing throughout, and nothing could be read from his expression. Only his eyes were somewhat hollow, holding no pain, only torment, filled with his unease and guilt.
One word at a time, she said, "You'd be better off as a dog."
Even a dog lived with more dignity than he did.
With every word she spoke, her blood grew colder.
Qi Jin's back had never straightened, as though he bore heavy shackles. The crow on the eaves cried louder and louder. Red Adornment stared at him, and after an unknown length of time, she finally stood.
Breathing in low gasps, she said, "I don't want your life."
Qi Jin seemed not to hear.
Red Adornment took a small bottle from her clothes and lightly dropped it. It rolled and rolled, slowly coming to a stop against his knee.
Qi Jin stirred and, for the first time, raised his head to gaze at her.
Red Adornment stepped on the bottle and looked down at him. "Don't you all like feeding people drugs? Taste the bitter fruit yourselves."
Grievances repaid with grievances, sins breeding sins, without end.
They made her feel that all living beings were evil, that some karmic debts and sins could not be paid for by dying once, that even after death, one had to crawl out of purgatory to exact vengeance for them.
"When I made this poison, I never thought I'd use it on her." Red Adornment curled her lips, her smile cruel and cold.
For a moment, Qi Jin did not understand. He reached for the bottle and asked in a hoarse, broken voice, "What do you mean?"
Red Adornment fell silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled, her smile full of mockery and anger.
"This medicine can cure the poison I gave her, but..." She deliberately paused.
Under Qi Jin's terrified, uneasy gaze, every word she spoke was chilling. "This medicine severely damages the mind. Once taken, it leaves the person with the mind of a young child."
With that, Red Adornment raised her foot and kicked the bottle toward Qi Jin.
He did not catch it.
He seemed crushed into the ground beneath his shackles, his anguish reaching its limit, a trace of bewilderment on his face.
Qi Jin's lips trembled, his fingers clenched, and he asked, "What do you mean?"
Red Adornment said softly, "You understand."
Qi Jin did understand, and so he could not utter a single word.
Having said this much, she had no need to spell it out further. It was already clear enough, especially since Qi Jin himself was an intelligent man.
In some ways, he was very much like Red Adornment, willing to use any means to achieve his ends.
Red Adornment said coldly, "You said Yin Qiqi went mad. Who knows whether she suffered a shock or was already sick in the head? Perhaps defective brains run in their Yin Clan."
Qi Jin gripped the bottle tightly, his knuckles turning a bleak white, his grip so fierce it creaked.
Red Adornment's words ignited the desire hidden deepest in his heart.
If, if...
"What if Yin Qingyan no longer recognized anyone?"
Red Adornment bent down, malice glinting in her bright eyes, her words full of temptation. "As she is now, there is absolutely no chance she'll fall in love with you. But think about it. What if she were merely a simple-minded Yin Qingyan? A foolish Yin Qingyan who recognized no one but you, a Yin Qingyan whose world held only you..."
After a pause, her voice sank lower. "Qi Jin, would you like a Yin Qingyan like that?"