CH 43.2

It appeared to be night time. A woman was trapped in a narrow and dark place. She saw a sliver of light from a fire pass through the windows that had been blocked by paper. It should be a light from a fire torch, since the light source was erratic. 

The woman was filled with fear. She called for help, wanting to escape from here, but no matter how she struggled, beat the door, or called for help, the people outside didn’t seem to hear her voice. They didn’t walk over, and even seemed to be going farther and farther away. 

The woman used all her strength to grip the wooden board, and scratched out a thin line. She scrabbled at the wooden board until her nails broke and she started bleeding. She continued to struggle, but the ropes on her body kept her trapped. 

This story didn’t seem to have any sort of logic behind it. Gu Xizhou felt that the time must have been fast-forwarded to somewhere–

Somewhere around the third day.

“Zheng Xianggong, we can’t find your wife! She didn’t encounter some dangerous people, right?” A man dressed in ancient clothes frowned as he spoke.”

The man who was named Zheng Xianggong said anxiously: “I’ll go search for her again, no, my wife…”

“But we really can’t find her, Zheng Xianggong, you passed the imperial examinations, Magistrate Ya wants to marry his daughter off to you, but the young lady would never be willing to be the concubine…” The government official pulled Zheng Xianggong to the side and said: “How about you take this opportunity to marry Magistrate Ya’s daughter, Qian Jin, as the first wife?”

“What, what are you talking about?! Shameless!” Zheng Xianggong shook his hand away from the government official and said righteously. 

Zheng Xianggong searched for a whole day, but he still couldn’t find his wife. He dragged his tired body to say goodbye to his friends and relatives, and closed the door to his courtyard. His friends and relatives could be heard discussing quietly outside. 

“Hmph, that Zheng Xianggong is still trying to find that woman. That woman looks so pitiful and seduces people very well, isn’t it possible that rather than getting lost, she had run away with that wild man?”

“Maybe, that Zheng Liushi looks so beautiful, she definitely can’t govern a family properly.”

“I heard that Magistrate Ya’s Qian Jin likes Zheng Xianggong, who knows if that’s true?”

“It’s true, I overheard some of my friends talking about this previously. Magistrate Ya’s Qian Jin said that if it’s not Zheng Xianggong, she won’t marry! It’s just that Zheng Xianggong’s family already has that Zheng Liushi, Zheng Xianggong is an upright man, and he wouldn’t abandon his wife, so he refused. I think the situation might be changing now, though.”

Several people whispered as they walked, and Zheng Xianggong listened for a while until he couldn’t hear the discussion any further. Then, he returned to his home, entered his room and took down the heavy objects pressing the doors of the cabinet close. He opened the cabinet in his house–

Gu Xizhou’s mind was very clear on the situation at this moment. The woman’s body had no temperature, and the originally soft body had already turned into a block of ice. When the man opened the door to the cabinet, Gu Xizhou finally saw his appearance. 

His hand hurt, it hurt. Gu Xizhou looked down at the woman’s hand. The blood on her index finger had solidified. She was angry, and thought she had finally been saved when the light grew close, but when she saw who had opened the cabinet door, she burst into tears. 

Suddenly, the fear of death disappeared. It wasn’t painful anymore. She couldn’t feel anything at all. 

Then, Gu Xizhou saw a memory, the woman’s memory–

In the yard, a beautiful and gentle woman was sitting on a small wooden bench and washing her clothes diligently. There were many clothes in front of her, but they didn’t seem to belong to her, since they were gorgeous and glamorous, not clothes that the woman could wear. 

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After cooking, the gentle woman respectfully served the paralyzed mother-in-law her dinner, and carefully helped the old woman turn around, preventing her body from getting ulcers. 

The old woman couldn’t move, but her mind was clear. She looked at the woman and said: “Xiao Lian, my family’s Zheng Lang is so lucky to marry someone like you! By the time he’s working in the imperial palace, you’ll be the wife of a minister!”

The woman named Xiao Lian smiled shyly. “It’s my fortune that the official would like me.”

“You’re really such a good girl.”

About two years later, the old lady died, died from a plague. 

…

Time progressed, and Gu Xizhou heard the sound of gongs and drums. Xiao Lian stood in front of the door, looking forward expectantly. 

“Zheng Xianggong has passed!”

Hearing this sentence, Gu Xizhou could feel the heartfelt happiness of the woman, and the woman who didn’t usually like to laugh suddenly smiled like a blooming flower. 

This woman, who took care of her husband, respected and cared for the elderly in the family, worked hard to deal with household chores, studied hard for her husband, and never gave up on her painful life. 

Her entire life was filled with numerous housework, and the only other thing she cared for was her scholar husband. 

…

But at this moment, the woman was locked in such a cabinet, and it was the person that she treated whole-heartedly who had locked her in. 

“Xiao Lian, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” The man knelt in front of her and wept bitterly. I really need the help of Magistrate Ya, sorry, I’m sorry…”

“Forgive me, I beg you, I’m sorry. Please promise me, promise me to leave. As long as you pretend to have run off with someone else, then I’ll let you go, just nod your head, okay?” The man cried, snot and tears running down his face. 

The woman looked at him weakly, but shook her head firmly: She didn’t find a wild man, she didn’t leave… She would divorce him, but she never ran away!

While the man cried, he never untied the rope around the woman, and never let her eat anything. The woman also refused to agree to the man’s demands. On the fourth day, Gu Xizhou felt hunger pierce his stomach, and knew that the woman couldn’t hold on for much longer. 

The woman curled up in a dark and narrow cabinet and choked on her last breath.

Since he really ‘couldn’t find’ the girl, Zheng Xianggong gave up. After drinking one day, he pretended to be drunk and complained about her to his friends, saying that when Zheng Liushi disappeared, a lot of wealth disappeared from the house as well, and everyone gave him surprised gazes. The next day, just as Zheng Xianggong had planned, the entire neighborhood was filled with the rumor that Zheng Liushi had really run off with a wild man. 

In the eyes of his others, his actions made him look like a good man who loved his wife deeply and wanted to give his wife a chance to repent. Everyone sighed and shook their heads. After Zheng Liushi disappeared for half a year, Zheng Xianggong finally married Magistrate Ya’s daughter, Qian Jin, and his position rose, until he became the official of City Jing. 

Time fast-forwarded, and Gu Xizhou suddenly heard the sound of arguing. 

Gu Xizhou suspected that he was still attached to Xiao Lian’s body. After many years, Xiao Lian’s body had dried up, but because Zheng Xianggong tossed her corpse in a special environment, Xiao Lian’s corpse didn’t rot, just like the mummies in Egypt. 

There were two young men quarreling outside. They had a dispute because of Xiao Lian’s body. Since the body wasn’t rotten or weathered with age, they mistakenly thought that Xiao Lian was a person who had just died. In the end, they decided to report it to the official!

The new magistrate official was a 40-year-old man. After seeing Xiao Lian’s corpse, he froze for a while. When court ended, he found his uncle who had just resigned from his office, Zheng Xianggong, and told him about this. 

“Uncle, I saw a bracelet on that woman’s hand, and it looks like the one grandmother had. It looks exactly the same as the one my mother has.”

Zheng Xianggong was frightened upon hearing this sentence, and didn’t want to go and see, but his wife insisted: “Then let’s go and take a look, to see if it’s her!”

Finally, based on that bracelet, it was determined that this was the ‘Xiao Lian’ who had run away with the wild man all those years ago, her husband’s former wife. 

Everyone said that this was karma. If Xiao Lian hadn’t run, she would be the wife of a government official by now, and would be living in wealth. Then, someone mentioned–

“Zheng Xianggong has generously offered to renovate the ancestral hall. We might as well embed this dirty woman’s face on the ground, burn her body and smear her ashes on the wall, in order to let her see her face being trampled by tens of thousands of people!”

“Yes, yes, and we can also warn those who marry into the Zheng family to observe the virtues of women and be good.”

At this time, Zheng Xianggong opened his mouth, but the people around him were filled with indignation, and he couldn’t say a word. 

So, just like this, the woman’s face was embedded on the ground, the ashes were burned and mixed in the mud and smeared on the wall. After that, people stepped all over the floor, and as the years went by, more and more wives ended up like that in the Zheng ancestral hall as well. 

At first, there was only one woman crying in the shrine, then two…

“Why did you wrong me like this?”

“I just chose the person I like, what’s wrong with not listening to the words of my parents or the matchmaker, I won’t listen, I won’t believe it!”

…

Gu Xizhou heard the quiet whispers, and they slowly grew louder and louder. 

“Why should women have to rely on men?”

“I’m also a human being, why do I have to be split into three, six, nine parts? You can have three wives and four concubines, but I have to be faithful to one man my whole life?”

“On what basis!”

When Gu Xizhou heard this sentence, a familiar voice sounded in the air. Countless chains slid at the same time, as if falling from the sky, hitting the ground heavily. 

Gu Xizhou grew agitated, and wanted to take another look at the woman behind him, but he realised he had already returned to reality. 

Those women…

Gu Xizhou sat on Si Yu’s sofa, a blank look in his eyes, unable to let go of what he had just seen. 

When he opened the door and returned, it was as if he had suddenly joined them on the wall. He watched the women being pushed into the ancestral hall, one after another, and people pierced their faces with needles, peeling their skins off and putting them on the ground. At first, only dirt covered their face, but then it became marble…

Those women. 

Watched with wide eyes as their faces were trampled on.

They could only cry, and simply keep crying.

Gu Xizhou thought of the crying sounds in the ancestral hall, and felt as if those crying noises could still be heard in his ears. 

“Do you want something to drink?” Si Yu patted Gu Xi’s shoulder and smiled at him.

Gu Xizhou nodded and drank two mouths of steaming coffee, feeling more comfortable. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Gu Xizhou drank two more cups, and then felt the urge to go to the toilet. He walked towards the bathroom, and felt like there was something in his pocket. He touched his pocket. 

A note?

He was sure that this wasn’t his! When he entered the mission world, he didn’t have any note on his body, only a pair of handcuffs. 

Gu Xizhou took out a note that was thick as an index finger from his pocket. He unfurled the note, and read what was written on it–

‘6’ means life, ‘1’ means death, good luck.