Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Haunted House 22

Qian Ji’s words left Jing Hua frozen in place.

“Don’t listen to him spouting nonsense.” Even though Qian Ji had now fused with several dread creatures, Su Man still did not take him seriously. And with a stronger Jing Hua beside her, she shoved him aside with one hand and asked, “Do you really not care about the rumors outside? Even if you do not want to clear your own name, have you never thought of exposing the things Qian Ji has done to the outside world?”

At that, Jing Hua finally reacted. Her emotions surged at once. “How could I not have sought help from the outside world? No one helped me!”

“The moment Ai Ji got into trouble, I immediately asked someone to catch that little devil. But what did I get in return? No one helped me. They all thought I was insane! No one believed a word I said!”

Because of her emotional upheaval, the space around them began to tremble.

Su Man felt reassured. So the test had its answer after all. This was indeed Jing Hua’s realm of obsession, and her true obsession was to expose Qian Ji’s ugliness to the world, to make sure the one who deserved punishment received it.

After all, when she died, she had never imagined she would become a dread creature. At the moment of death, what one clung to most was always the thing one had been unable to accomplish in life.

“I’ll help you,” Su Man said earnestly. “I’ll help you clear things up with the outside world and tell them everything that happened here.”

Jing Hua stared at her fixedly.

Su Man repeated, “I said I’ll help you.”

After a pause, she added with regret, “If only the other two who came with us were here too.”

From what she remembered, one of the two who had not come had once unintentionally revealed that he was a reporter. And even if neither of them was, having one more person here would mean one more witness to what had happened, so she would not end up delivering the whole account alone.

“You think I’ll let you tell everything that easily?” Qian Ji, ignored as these two women spoke as though he did not exist, felt a surge of pent-up fury. When he looked at Jing Hua again, his gaze had turned even more venomous. “It’s all your fault. If you hadn’t allowed this place to keep existing, then I wouldn’t have to worry that its secrets would one day be discovered and exposed! I wouldn’t have had to take the risk of coming here!”

“Die, die! All of you die!” he shrieked, unleashing his power in a frenzy, the sinister energy in his hands swirling outward like his life depended on it.

Jing Hua lifted her hand, instantly forming a protective barrier around herself and Su Man, keeping the sinister energy outside.

Seeing Qian Ji raging wildly beyond the barrier and Jing Hua only defending herself, Su Man could not help saying, “If I were you, I’d slap him twice.”

Jing Hua snapped her head around to look at her, stunned. But on second thought, Su Man had a point. And yet the next moment, she was again filled with uncertainty. In this house, she had always been the one who watched others’ expressions, the one who swallowed her dissatisfaction no matter how much resentment burned in her heart. She had long played the role of someone meek and resigned. Could she really hit him?

Su Man seemed to read her thoughts and nodded. “Of course you can. If you still think of yourself as his mother, then you can discipline a wayward child in a mother’s name. If you no longer intend to be his mother, then even better. He’s only your enemy now.”

From the way Jing Hua had dared to secretly kill Qian Ji the night before, Su Man could tell she was not entirely without courage. She probably only needed someone to lend her that courage, to give her a legitimate reason to strike. She had simply been enslaved for too long, too timid to act.

Sure enough, Jing Hua’s eyes grew brighter and brighter. Su Man’s words were like a lamp lighting the darkness before her.

She turned back toward Qian Ji, who was still swaggering arrogantly, and swung hard across his face.

A sharp crack rang out. All sound seemed to vanish from the world, leaving only that clear, stinging slap. A strange feeling rose in Jing Hua’s heart. She thought that sound might be the most satisfying sound in all the world.

That crisp blow also knocked all of Qian Ji’s arrogance clean out of him.

Stunned, he clutched his face and stared at Jing Hua in disbelief. “You actually dare to hit—”

The final word never made it out. Jing Hua struck him again, this time without the slightest hesitation.

“Qian Ji, I’ve long had it in for you.”

Jing Hua wore a lightness she had never known before. She looked at Su Man, her eyes reddening slightly. “So this is what it feels like to stand up for myself.”

She was not seeking sympathy from Su Man; she was only voicing the grievances she had borne for so many years. She did not know when it had started, but from some point on, she had had to watch everyone’s face before doing anything, afraid to speak loudly to anyone. She had only ever wanted everyone’s approval, never imagining that in doing so she would not only wrong herself, but in the end even hurt her own daughter.

Su Man understood her well enough. “How is it? Was that step really so hard to take? Madam Jing Hua, aside from Ai Ji, you owe none of these people anything.”

She pointed at Qian Ji, who was still dazed from the slap, and gently gave Jing Hua’s shoulder a push. “Don’t you want to taste the pleasure of taking revenge on your own?”

Qian Ji finally came to his senses and shouted furiously, “You dare? You dare, woman? I’m Qian Yuan’s son. Believe me, I’ll make him divorce you!”

Jing Hua stopped where she stood and instinctively looked to Su Man. She had been bound by this family for too long and no longer had any will of her own. Even now that she had become a dread creature, the word divorce still filled her with fear. If she left Qian Yuan, the prospect of having no source of income made her uneasy.

“You’re already dead,” Su Man said. She was not disappointed by Jing Hua’s weakness, only spoke to her with quiet seriousness. “Divorce has nothing to do with your kind anymore.”

After a pause, she added, “Even if it did, you should leave a man like that. A three-legged toad may be hard to find, but aren’t two-legged men everywhere?”

Then she delivered the blow that struck at the very heart of the matter.

“You can’t bear to leave him?”

Jing Hua shook her head repeatedly.

Su Man’s voice took on an almost bewitching quality. “If you don’t have any lingering attachment, then it’s time to act.”

“You have the power to do it. What Ai Ji went through, you can make Qian Ji go through all over again.” She murmured in Jing Hua’s ear like a demon tempting her onward. “Go on. You can do it.”

Jing Hua’s gaze hardened instantly.

Yes. She could do it. She was already dead; there was nothing left for her to lose. Her hatred, her grievance—if even she herself would not put them in her heart, then who would help her?

With a feral roar, as if she were screaming out every injustice she had ever suffered, Jing Hua reached across the void and seized Qian Ji’s throat in a crushing grip.

“Before, your grandmother would still shield you. But now, who’s left to protect you? Qian Ji, I’ve wanted you dead for so long!!”