Chapter 693

My life was completely ruined from that moment.

The ones who violated me were the Dou family, but I know the Dou family are merely puppets; the instigator is that yellow weasel standing in the rain on the eaves ahead.

I hate him.

I stared at him with blood‑red eyes, from my initial fierce resistance to collapse, then to a dead‑heart calm later, I realized something even more terrible might have happened silently.

I thought of that familiar figure flashing by in the dark alley that day.

So it wasn't that I was mistaken; it was Zhao Zixun.

He had come back, but he kept things hidden from me—why?

Now I seem to have an answer…… Zhao Zixun has met with misfortune.

That yellow weasel first set its sights on me after I dug up that doll from the temple and buried it again.

But for years it never moved against me, and I know that's because Zhao Zixun was there.

Marshal Chen has a deal with that yellow weasel; they're a community of interest, and Marshal Chen needs Zhao Zixun to secure his power base.

If they moved against me, it would surely provoke Zhao Zixun's displeasure.

So the reason it dares to move against me now must be that Zhao Zixun has met with misfortune and can no longer protect me.

But what happened to Zhao Zixun? Why is there not a whisper of it?

I had just received his letter not long ago, and Marshal Chen's victory reports kept coming… I was wrong; my understanding has been fatally mistaken from the start.

Marshal Chen's troops winning battles doesn't mean Zhao Zixun is safe, right?

The Dou person is right: Zhao Zixun is merely a pawn in Marshal Chen's hand, a useful blade.

In the letters I received recently, Zhao Zixun kept mentioning that Marshal Chen was preparing to withdraw.

After the battle at Small Camp Mouth, Marshal Chen would retreat to Wufu Town and thereafter only defend, not attack.

When the birds are gone, the bow is put away.

But Marshal Chen's speed of hiding seems a bit too fast, after all, the battle at Small Camp Mouth isn't over yet?

Could it be…… that because the Small Camp Mouth battle is tough, Marshal Chen pushed Zhao Zixun out front?

This is a crueler tactic than 'when the birds are gone, the bow is put away'—it's called… abandoning the chariot to save the commander.

A tear slid to the corner of my lips, seeped into my mouth, carrying a bloody taste.

Why?

Zhao Zixun is not only strong in combat, his troops are also fiercely loyal; if Marshal Chen really wanted to move against Zhao Zixun, he'd have to weigh his own strength.

In a fight where both sides perish, Zhao Zixun might not lose to Marshal Chen.

I also don't think Zhao Zixun is blindly loyal.

But what if we add a layer of leverage on top of loyalty?

For example…… me!

I widened my eyes in shock.

The pain in my body and the mental humiliation vanished at this moment.

Only one thought filled my mind…… the Grand Madam!

Regarding the marriage proposal, the Grand Madam acted urgently throughout.

She used the excuse 'next year is a widow's year, unsuitable for marriage' to gain control over everyone, then rushed to complete all the marriage proposal procedures.

After the exchange of birth characters, these days she has calmed down again.

Hehe… hehe…

I suddenly sneered.

Laughed in despair.

Zhao Zixun and I, what damned naivety.

A man like Marshal Chen, who absolutely controls power, money, and women, at his age, didn't he even snatch a troupe actor back to the Marshal's Mansion?

Even so, the Grand Madam's position in the Marshal's Mansion remains unshakable.

What does she rely on?

Her looks? Or her family background?

No, the Grand Madam relies on her ruthlessness!

Someone who can send her own biological daughter to be sacrificed—how could she care about the fate of two pawns?

She is the sharpest blade behind Marshal Chen!

The birth characters contain the eight characters of my birth time, my handprint, and much vital information about my fate.

Once the Grand Madam gets my birth characters, she can tamper with me; she has an expert guiding her behind the scenes—the doll used years ago to suppress the Second Young Lady was exactly that.

The Grand Madam thus covertly controlled me, then used me to control Zhao Zixun—everything fell into place.

This whole scheme kept Zhao Zixun and me in the dark the entire time.

From the start, they never counted Zhao Zixun and me as part of their side; otherwise, Zhao Zixun couldn't have known so little about the shady dealings hidden in the Marshal's Mansion.

His role is simply that of a soldier sent to charge into battle.

He is a warrior, not a strategist.

Zhao Zixun, what on earth has happened to you?

The violent rain kept pouring down, blood continued to flow down my legs, and my consciousness grew ever more hazy.

The silver ring on my hand slipped off at some point, fell onto the counter, and made a dull thud.

I felt very drowsy, as if my soul were floating up.

The man behind me had already collapsed, unconscious.

My soul floated in a dazed, half-aware manner toward the outside of Dang Pu, but before I could even exit the Dang Pu gate, I was knocked back by a powerful force.

My soul was knocked back into my own body again; I couldn't stay attached, and was about to drift out again.

Only then did I truly realize that I was dead.

My soul and body were repeatedly tugged at each other, extremely painful.

At that moment, the yellow weasel jumped down from the eaves, transformed into a human, and walked step by step into Dang Pu.

He was a thin, white-haired old man with a beard, and he actually had a hint of immortal wind and bone about him.

But I knew, this was a demon!

As it approached, my soul was forced back into my body again.

Just as another round of tugging began, the old man raised his hand and forcefully drove a long Coffin Nail into the space between my eyebrows.

I fell to the ground with a thud.

Before I plunged completely into darkness, I heard someone say to the old man: "The Dou Family side has already been settled; they will fully cooperate with us to calm this matter, and the coffin you want will be delivered soon."

The old man grunted and said: "Everything will proceed as before according to the old procedure; don't let anything go wrong."

The old procedure?

Water burial?

In the end, I still couldn't get a definite answer.

I was dead.

My soul was tightly sealed within the corpse by a Coffin Nail smeared with yin-sha qi.

How did they handle my aftermath? What was Zhao Zixun's fate? Would they attack my parents… I had no way of knowing.

My brief life ended in such humiliation and unwillingness.

Perhaps because my obsession was too deep, the sacrificial ritual they intended to perform on me seemed to have failed.

I don't know how long passed, nor what happened afterward; but suddenly one day, a heavy rain washed away the seal of the Red Coffin on me, and I crawled out of the Red Coffin.

Everywhere was water.

From the river to the shore, I waded through the water, my mind filled with only one obsession… my letter… I had to send the letter.

When that thought arose, the blood-stained clothes on my body turned into a student uniform.

I clutched a book in one hand and held the letter in the other, rushing through the downpour toward that Green Mailbox...