Shao Yutong was puzzled, but she did not dare ask too many questions.
After a long while, Gu Wangchuan finally seemed to come back to himself. He withdrew his gaze and said indifferently, “Take her away and see that she is well looked after.”
“But, Valley Master…” Shao Yutong began.
Before she could say anything more, Gu Wangchuan waved his hand.
The maids immediately stepped forward and led her away.
She was then settled in an exquisite, comfortable guesthouse, where she was served fine food and drink as though she were an honored guest.
Shao Yutong asked the maids about the whereabouts of the physician who had been captured with her, but they claimed not to know. Whenever she asked about anything else, they remained just as tight-lipped.
Shao Yutong grew increasingly uneasy. She felt as though she were being fed a final meal before execution. She was restless and terrified, and within two days, she had become haggard and drawn.
That afternoon, an elegantly dressed old woman with somewhat clouded eyes entered carrying a tray of pastries. The moment she saw Shao Yutong, she froze. The tray slipped from her hands and crashed to the floor.
She suddenly rushed forward and seized Shao Yutong’s hands, tears streaming down her wrinkled face as she cried, “Miss! Is it really you, Miss?! You’ve come back! I… I’m not dreaming, am I?”
The sudden turn of events startled Shao Yutong, but she quickly realized that the old woman must have mistaken her for someone else.
Her thoughts raced. She immediately played along, putting on an expression of excitement and grievance. She clasped the old woman’s hands in return, as if she wanted to say something but found the words stuck in her throat.
She hesitated meaningfully, her acting flawless. In an instant, tears filled her eyes, and she perfectly portrayed the tragic young lady who had finally returned home after being separated from her family for years.
She was doing it to draw information out of the old woman.
Even if the woman suddenly came to her senses, she would have no grounds to accuse Shao Yutong of impersonating the “Miss,” since Shao Yutong had not actually said anything.
The old woman was overjoyed. She hugged Shao Yutong and wept bitterly again, rambling on about how “the Miss has suffered” and how “the Valley Master… the Valley Master has always been thinking of you,” along with other vague, disjointed remarks.
Shao Yutong could tell that the old woman’s mind was not entirely clear, so she began speaking to her, doing her best to calm her down.
But the old woman kept repeating the same few phrases. Whenever Shao Yutong asked about anything important—such as the “Miss’s” exact identity or why she had left home—the woman’s eyes darted away and her answers became evasive.
Shao Yutong was filled with doubts, but she did not dare press the old woman too hard. For the time being, she could only suppress her many questions.
That evening, Shao Yutong took a walk through the garden outside the guesthouse to aid her digestion, but more importantly, to familiarize herself with the surroundings.
Zhan Yurong was resting inside and did not wish to come out. The old woman, however, followed Shao Yutong without leaving her side.
The moonlight was cold and clear, and the scent of flowers hung heavy in the air.
Just as Shao Yutong reached the back of a rockery, a dark figure suddenly shot out from the shadows and lunged straight at her!
Shao Yutong screamed and stumbled backward. When she got a clear look at the figure, she was utterly horrified.
It could scarcely be called a person.
It looked more like a skeleton wrapped in human skin.
From its shape, it appeared to be a woman. Her clothes were tattered and barely covered her body, revealing a gaunt, emaciated form crisscrossed with fresh and old scars. Some of the wounds were even oozing pus and blood.
Her hair was dry and tangled like a nest of weeds. Her face was filthy, but her eyes shone with terrifying intensity from their deep sockets. They were filled with madness, hatred, and a strange, sinister smile that sent chills down the spine.
“Hee-hee…” The woman’s voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against stone. She stretched out claw-like fingers toward Shao Yutong. “You’ve finally come back. I don’t have to be a substitute anymore. Hee-hee… Come here…”
Shao Yutong trembled violently and backed away again and again. “Wh-who are you?! Stay away!”
The woman did not pursue her. She merely fixed Shao Yutong with those feverishly insane eyes, a twisted, frenzied smile spreading across her face as she said, every word distinct, “Remember this: the incense here is made from ground bones, and the flowers… are watered with blood! He isn’t human. He’s a ghost, a man-eating ghost! Hee-hee… Everyone but you will end up like me. Everyone will end up like me…”
She let out a string of deranged laughter that made Shao Yutong’s scalp prickle. Shao Yutong screamed for help, and the maids who came running at the sound forcibly dragged the woman away.
Even after she was gone, her laughter continued to echo through the night.
Still shaken, Shao Yutong collapsed onto the ground, drenched in cold sweat.
She grabbed one of the maids, whose face was pale with fear, and asked in a trembling voice, “Th-that madwoman… who is she?”
The maid’s eyes flickered. Lowering her voice, she whispered fearfully, “Th-that’s… the Valley Master's wife…”
“What?” Shao Yutong felt as though she had been struck by lightning. Her eyes widened in utter disbelief.
The Valley Master's wife? Gu Wangchuan’s wife?
Wasn’t it said that Gu Wangchuan’s wife had contracted a terminal illness and had been bedridden for years? That Gu Wangchuan loved his wife more than life itself, and had even stolen a secret medical text from the Imperial Medical Bureau in his desperate efforts to save her, all while searching tirelessly for the Seven-Leaf Flower?
But the woman she had just seen…
That madwoman, worse off than a beggar, her body covered in wounds, reduced to skin and bones and clearly subjected to inhuman torture—she was Gu Wangchuan’s wife!
What in the world was going on?
What horrifying secrets lay hidden beneath the splendid exterior of Heartless Valley?
Shao Yutong felt a chill shoot from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head. All her earlier excitement and anticipation had vanished without a trace, replaced by bone-deep terror and a powerful sense of impending doom.
She scrambled to her feet and ran toward the exit in panic.
But a tall, refined figure suddenly appeared before her like a ghost, blocking her path.
In the dim night, his handsome face looked cold and mysterious.
Most terrifying of all were his eyes. They were unfathomably deep, and now they were fixed firmly upon her, filled with some extraordinarily complicated emotion she could not understand.
Their eyes met, and the air seemed to freeze.
Shao Yutong could hear her own heartbeat pounding like thunder. Instinctively, she backed away.
Yet this inscrutable Valley Master took a square brocade box from inside his robe.
When he opened the lid, a jade pendant lay quietly on a bed of white silk. The white jade glowed with a hint of green, its warm, noble radiance flowing softly in the darkness.
He held out the pendant to her with an almost reverent air.
His voice remained cold, but beneath that coldness lay a calmness that seemed to have compressed his emotions to their very limit. Each word struck clearly into the deathly silence.
“This is ‘Xiyue.’ I give it to you.”
He paused, his gaze sharp as a hook, watching every minute change in Shao Yutong’s expression.
“Don’t leave me, all right?”
Shao Yutong’s pupils contracted, and she froze.
“Xiyue” was both a piece of jadeite and a priceless treasure of the world—something even the imperial family had been unable to find. Yet it was in Gu Wangchuan’s possession!
And now, he wanted to give it to her!
All she had to do was reach out, and it would be hers…
All around them lay a darkness so deep and oppressive that it seemed impossible to dispel. Only the lanterns beneath the covered walkway cast a dim, yellow light, lending the scene an eerie, ghost-haunted air.
The silence was absolute.
Shao Yutong’s mind had gone blank. Everything she had experienced here was so bizarre and shocking that she could not make sense of even the smallest part of it.
Gu Wangchuan closed the brocade box and slowly stepped forward, placing it in her hand.
Then, ignoring her soft, startled cry, he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her into his arms.
