Xie Liangchen's last conscious thought lingered at the moment her little brother walked towards her.
She wanted to take her little brother home.
Her hand reached out as far as it could, and finally, she grasped her little brother's hand, holding it tightly, vowing never to let go no matter what happened.
The warmth of his palm felt so real. Xie Liangchen let her guard down, and her consciousness slowly faded away...
She didn't know how much time had passed when she vaguely heard someone talking nearby.
"Miss Xie is truly pitiable, always calling for her little brother and saying she wants to go home."
"That's just bad luck. She was abducted at six, and her parents heard from someone that she was sold overseas. They set sail to find her, but their ship sank halfway, leaving nothing behind."
"Where did the master find her?"
"In a village in Yu Yao. That family had some land and lived fairly well. The mistress liked her and bought her to raise as a daughter. This year, there was a flood there followed by an epidemic. Everyone else died, and only she survived."
"She must have an exceptionally hard fate."
Listening to this, Xie Liangchen recalled her own background: abducted at six, her parents died at sea searching for her, and afterward, the family that took her in perished due to the flood and epidemic. Fortunately, the eldest master of the Su Family, to whom she was betrothed, found her and returned her to the Xie Family when she was fourteen.
This time, during the flood and epidemic, she wasn't unscathed. While gathering herbs for her foster parents, she fell down the mountain. Though she survived by sheer luck, her head was severely injured, and she remembered nothing of the past—not how she had been abducted nor what her adoptive family looked like or how she had lived all those years.
Why was she dreaming of these things? Wasn't she already dead?
"Is the master really going to marry her back home? The Xie Family's standing isn't high, and she was sold. Who knows if she's still pure? Even if nothing happened, her reputation is tarnished!"
"Naturally, the decision is up to the master and madam. How would we servants know? If you gossip and cause trouble at the Xie Family, just wait to see how the madam punishes you."
The conversation stopped there, and Xie Liangchen slipped back into darkness. In truth, she did marry into the Su Family, but it was only after the eldest master of the Su Family died that she was ceremonially wed to his memorial tablet.
In a daze, Xie Liangchen once again dreamed of ambushing Ji Yuan. After killing him, she searched everywhere for her little brother. For some reason, this time he was far away, and she couldn't reach him no matter what.
"Little brother..."
The strength in her body reached her throat, and when she opened her mouth to speak, the moment the words escaped, Xie Liangchen's eyes opened, and all her dreams vanished in an instant.
Xie Liangchen panted heavily, calming down after a while. Everything around her was silent, with only a dim lamp on the desk casting a faint light in a corner of the pitch-black night.
What was going on?
Just as Xie Liangchen was about to take a closer look, a shadow suddenly loomed over her, completely blocking her view of the surroundings.
Xie Liangchen hadn't expected anyone else to be in the room. Her heart tightened as she instinctively tried to retreat. But as she moved slightly, dizziness overtook her, and she struggled to steady herself. She looked up warily; the person's face was not clear in the dim light.
"Ji Yuan is dead, and you survived."
The low voice resonated, and Xie Liangchen was taken aback. A myriad of emotions flickered through her eyes. She knew Ji Yuan was dead, but she couldn't fathom why she had survived.
Where was she now? Who was speaking to her?
Xie Liangchen tried hard to make sense of it: "Who are you?"
The man took a few more steps forward, seemingly intent on letting Xie Liangchen see him clearly. His lips were slightly pursed, his expression cold, and his eyes bottomless, exuding a sense of danger like a drawn blade. Xie Liangchen felt that he seemed both unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar, unable to recall where she had seen him before.
As their eyes met, footsteps sounded from outside, growing closer.
Xie Liangchen opened her mouth again to speak, but before she could say anything, she saw the man leap agilely onto the bed, lift the quilt, and hide beneath it.
Almost simultaneously, a dagger was pressed against her neck, tightly against her skin.
Xie Liangchen instinctively wanted to resist, but before her fingers could rise, pain shot through her wrist, leaving her fingers suddenly immobile. Then the man's elbow came across her chest.