Upheaval

Shen Yingzi felt a pang of heartache looking at her mother's fierce expression.

My mother really left us too soon.

Over the years, Shen Yingzi has often thought that her mother back then was only a young woman in her early twenties.

He was in the prime of his life, yet he passed away far too soon.

Of all the flavors of life, she probably only tasted regret.

"Mother... son, is it really possible to save your life?"

"Yes, you can."

The woman's spirit reached out and gently touched his face. Although they were separated by the barrier between humans and ghosts and could not touch, she seemed to feel the warmth under her palm.

That's the warmth that only the living can have...

It's truly fascinating.

"So, Yingzi, let your mother live, okay?"

Shen Yingzi looked at her hand raised to the side of her face and felt a slight chill.

My mother must have been down there for too long. She must be so lonely and sad...

He lowered his trembling eyelashes and thought of his father.

If Mother were alive, Father would surely be very happy...

He was about to agree when he suddenly noticed the bamboo flute in his hand.

Once he opens his mouth, his life will be completely over.

Really? Is that okay?

He gripped the bamboo flute tightly, and a wave of reluctance washed over him.

He hasn't finished writing the new score yet.

Noticing his hesitation, the woman smiled faintly, about to say something.

Suddenly, dark clouds rolled in the sky, accompanied by bursts of lightning and thunder!

Those thick bolts of lightning seemed to cleave the sky in two, and the dark clouds were so thick that the bottom could not be seen.

Before long, it seemed as if the sky had truly cracked open, revealing fissures from which blinding light burst forth, so intense that it was impossible to look directly at them.

Wisps of inconspicuous black energy peeked into the world from the edges of those cracks, slowly meandering and mingling with the churning dark clouds.

With this sudden change, Shen Yingzi felt that the pool of blood beneath her had also changed.

The once calm pool of blood suddenly began to bubble and churn, as if it had been evaporated.

It burned his knees and calves with a searing pain.

The woman's spirit beside her also changed drastically in the blink of an eye!

Her originally dark eyes had somehow become tinged with a bewitching red light, and her once pale skin had begun to turn a cold, hard blue.

Her neatly styled hair was instantly scattered and blown about in the air by the howling wind.

She walked behind Shen Yingzi, and her already misty body suddenly expanded, tightly enveloping Shen Yingzi, who was kneeling on the ground, from all sides.

"Since you don't want to, then come down and keep your mother company..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Shen Yingzi felt the pool of blood beneath her, which had been shallowly flowing on the ground, suddenly turn into a bottomless, thick swamp of blood!

His body was sinking uncontrollably.

He leaned forward and reached out to grab the flat ground outside the blood swamp, but the moment his hand reached out, the place that was originally yellow earth was instantly engulfed by the blood swamp!

His body, which had tilted outwards, had no support, and the loss of weight caused him to fall.

The nauseating smell of blood instantly filled his mouth and nose.

In that instant, his vision blurred, and he felt as if the whole world had been distorted.

Just as he was being slowly swallowed by the blood swamp, Xuanyuan Haoyue on the other side was also facing something she thought wouldn't be more disorienting and terrifying than the confiscation of the Xuanyuan Household's property and their exile.

Not long ago, although their family's life in exile was poor, they lived a peaceful and stable life.

Xuanyuan Haoyue thought that life would continue like this from now on.

But unexpectedly, the peaceful life was shattered by the sudden flash of lightning and thunder in the sky.

Just as she finished rinsing the rice and stood in the small courtyard, looking up in shock at the roar in the air, the courtyard gate behind her was suddenly pushed open with a "bang".

Her father and brother walked in, accompanied by a middle-aged man with a fierce face.

The moment the middle-aged man saw her, his eyes lit up, his gaze like that of a vicious viper, filled with greedy amazement.

Before Xuanyuan Haoyue could react to what was happening, he heard his half-brother fawningly say to the middle-aged man:

"Master Wei, look, is she the one you're looking for?"

Xuanyuan Haoyue was somewhat confused. Why did she have to catch the eye of this man whom her half-brother called "Master Wei"?

Master Wei stared at her intently and nodded with great satisfaction.

Then Xuanyuan Haoyue saw her father, who had never been kind to her, take a thin piece of paper from his pocket with a fawning expression and hand it to Master Wei.

She had seen that thing a few years ago when her mother still held the reins of the household.

She knew it was a contract of indenture.

Almost the instant she saw the contract, she knew what had happened.

The small basin of rice in her hand fell to the ground, and Xuanyuan Haoyue immediately tried to run away.

But how could a little girl of about ten years old possibly escape from three adult men?

The three men grabbed her with almost no effort, tied her up with thick hemp rope, and put her into the carriage that had been waiting outside.

Madam Xuanyuan rushed out upon hearing the commotion, but no matter how much she pleaded and cried, she could not change anyone's mind.

Through the gap in the carriage curtain, Xuanyuan Haoyue saw his usually dignified and gentle mother pounce on his father like a madwoman, scratching his face until it bled.

Then his father slapped him to the ground.

Tears streamed uncontrollably down Xuanyuan Haoyue's face.

She knew her mother couldn't save her.

She desperately wanted to speak up and tell her mother to stop struggling, that she would get hurt, that she couldn't do anything but get hurt, and that she couldn't save herself.

But her mouth was tightly gagged with burlap, so she could only make muffled sounds as she watched her mother get up again and pounce on her tyrannical father.

Then the carriage started moving, taking her to an unknown place.

In the last part of her vision, she saw her mother, her mouth full of blood, being beaten to the ground again by her father.

In her eyes, it was as if the whole world had suddenly been covered by a veil of darkness.

It was as if everything was being dragged towards an abyss.

Xuanyuan Haoyue had no idea what her father had traded her for.

But none of that mattered after she was led into a backyard where seductive music constantly emanated from the front, and into a bedroom filled with the smell of cheap perfume.

She was roughly carried and thrown onto the bed, which was covered with red and green curtains.

After that person left, not long after, the middle-aged man with a fierce face, who was called "Master Wei," walked in.

This was the first time in Xuanyuan Haoyue's life that she had been pinned down on a bed.

She looked at the man on top of her and felt a wave of nausea.

But her struggles, screams, and resistance were nothing more than a tickle to this man.

He could even use it as a form of intimacy, which further aroused his lust.