Volume One, Chapter Fourteen: She Is a Cold and Heartless Woman

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Sure enough, two hours later, Lu Yanci’s mother, Meng Jingxian, slowly regained consciousness.

It seemed she had just endured a terrifying nightmare; the fear and lingering dread in her eyes had yet to fade.

As though she had suddenly thought of something, she shuddered violently and sat bolt upright.

“Yanci… How is my Yanci?”

Meng Jingxian was frantic with worry, desperate to see that her son was safe and unharmed.

Lu Yanci immediately reached out and tightly enclosed his mother’s hands, which were groping blindly through the air. “Mom, I’m here. I’m all right now.”

“…Yanci?”

Tears glimmered in Meng Jingxian’s eyes as she slowly turned toward the source of his voice.

When she truly saw her son standing before her, the tears she had been holding back could no longer be contained. They streamed down her face.

“You’re all right? You’re really all right? You frightened your mother to death. If anything had happened to you, I truly wouldn’t have wanted to go on living. Sob…”

With trembling hands, she reached up to caress Lu Yanci’s face.

“You’re awake. You’re awake at last. For three whole years, your mother knelt before the Buddha, hating that I couldn’t endure this suffering in your place. Now you’ve finally awakened. The Buddha must have answered my prayers!”

“Mom… I’m fine now. You don’t need to worry anymore. And you don’t have to keep praying to the Buddha.”

Lu Yanci could not bear to tell her the truth about the statue.

“How could I not worry? We must keep praying. We can’t be ungrateful and leave the Buddha disappointed.”

Meng Jingxian could not help pulling Lu Yanci into her arms. Her burning tears seared her eyes. “Yanci, without you, I wouldn’t be able to go on living…”

Feeling the fabric over his shoulder grow damp beneath her hot tears, Lu Yanci slowly raised a hand. His movements were slightly awkward and stiff as he gently patted his mother’s back.

Nearby, Lu Shixin’s eyes were red, tears welling in them. At last, she could not hold back a sob. “Mom, you’ve only just woken up. You shouldn’t become too emotional. The doctor has already given my brother a complete examination. He’s perfectly fine, with no problems at all.”

“Jingxian.” At that moment, Lu Yanci’s father also stepped forward, soothing his wife in a gentle voice. “Don’t worry too much. Yanci is all right now.”

Looking at his wife, who had grown noticeably thinner over the past few days, his eyes were filled with heartache and self-reproach.

“All these years, you’ve exhausted yourself worrying over Yanci, and now you’ve worn yourself down as well. These past few days, Shixin was so worried about you that she could hardly eat, and she stayed by your bedside day and night. Now that you and Yanci are both safe and sound, the burden weighing on Shixin and me has finally been lifted.”

Only then did Meng Jingxian slowly turn toward her daughter, whose face was streaked with tears.

She raised a hand, signaling for Lu Shixin to come closer, then gently drew her into her arms.

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Looking at the two children on either side of her, she finally smiled with relief. “Silly children, I’m fine now. Don’t worry so much.”

At that moment, Xie Wanling stood leaning against the doorframe, her hands lightly folded before her chest. Her eyes were as cold as frost as she silently watched the warm scene unfolding before her—the family of four gathered together.

Her thoughts drifted away before she realized it, and memories from her previous life surfaced in her mind.

She had never met her parents.

All she knew was that she had been abandoned in the depths of the mountains the moment she was born.

She did not even know why her parents had been cruel enough to cast her away.

If her master had not found her when she was on the verge of death and taken her back, she would probably have starved or frozen to death—or been carried away by wolves in the mountains.

She had possessed no great talent. Only by cultivating desperately, day and night, had she managed to barely meet her master’s expectations.

Her master’s standards for her were exceedingly high. Whenever she failed to satisfy him, he would throw her into the Ten Thousand Beasts’ Den to train.

When she performed well, he would reward her with a jar of strong liquor and drink with her.

Her master had told her that in this world, where the weak were prey to the strong, only the powerful had the right to speak. Only the strong could hope to seize control of their own fate.

And so she cultivated even more desperately.

She did it so that, once she became powerful enough that no one would dare provoke her, she would no longer fear anyone in this world abandoning, betraying, or harming her.

In her previous life, the only familial affection she had ever experienced was found in the scenes of drinking and sparring with her master.

Now, gazing at the warmth overflowing from the Lu family, she suddenly understood. True familial affection meant standing up for one’s loved ones in the face of danger, even when doing so meant confronting endless peril without hesitation.

She did not linger. Turning around, she walked away.

Inside, Lu Yanci’s father watched his wife and children clinging to one another in tears. Unable to hold back any longer, he turned away and secretly wiped his eyes.

Only after staring up at the ceiling and composing himself did he turn back and gently pat his wife on the shoulder.

“All right, Jingxian. You and Yanci are both safe now, and that’s something to celebrate. Don’t cry anymore, all right?”

Hearing Lu Boshang’s words, Lu Shixin finally emerged from her mother’s embrace. She raised a hand to wipe the tears from Meng Jingxian’s eyes. “Mom, don’t cry.”

“All right, good girl. None of us will cry.”

Meng Jingxian also raised a hand to wipe away Lu Shixin’s tears. Then she looked toward Lu Yanci.

“Yanci, your condition was so critical that the doctors and nurses were frightened senseless. What exactly happened?”

“I was afflicted by an evil presence, and the doctors were helpless. It was Xie Wanling. She saved me with mystic arts.”

“Yes, Mom. She saved you too.”

Lu Shixin hurriedly added this.

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“What?”

Meng Jingxian looked bewildered. She stared blankly at Lu Shixin and asked, “Which Xie Wanling are you talking about?”

Lu Boshang let out a soft sigh and explained, “The girl from the Xie family.”

“How could it be her?”

A flicker of confusion and astonishment passed through Meng Jingxian’s eyes. “When did she acquire such abilities? And if she had them, why didn’t she come to save Yanci sooner? Why did she choose to abandon him?”

“Exactly.”

Hearing her mother say this, Lu Shixin could not help voicing her own confusion. “If she could save my brother, why didn’t she come earlier? Why wait until now?”

At the thought, indignation flashed through Lu Shixin’s eyes. “I think she was driven out of the Xie family, then abused by her husband until she could no longer endure living that way. Only then did she remember my brother.”

“Shixin!”

Lu Boshang swept a stern glance across his daughter’s face, displeasure hidden in his eyes.

That girl had just saved the Lu family. How could they speak of their lifesaver like that?

“No matter what happened in the past, when our family was in danger, she was the one who stepped forward at the crucial moment and saved your mother and your brother. To our family, she is a great benefactor who saved our lives.”

“Then does that mean all the affection she once showed my brother was merely an act?”

Under her father’s imposing gaze, Lu Shixin continued, “Dad, I told you—she’s nothing but a cold-blooded, heartless, ungrateful woman with a heart of stone!”

Lu Boshang was furious. “You child—!”

Without realizing it, Lu Yanci raised a hand and brushed his fingertips over the faint mark on his neck—the very spot where Xie Wanling had bitten him earlier that day.

“Mom, there is absolutely no possibility between her and me. But regardless of her motives, she did, in fact, save us.”

Hearing this, Meng Jingxian realized that her reaction had perhaps been excessive, and she hurriedly explained, “Yanci, I’m only upset on your behalf. You’ve protected her ever since you were little, treating her even better than you treated Shixin. Your father and I sincerely regarded her as our future daughter-in-law. Even after learning that she wasn’t the Xie family’s true daughter, we never looked down on her.”

“But what about her?”