Chapter 22: How, in the end... did you die?

"...Sister?"

The young girl’s eyes widened in bewilderment, her lips trembling uncontrollably.

The female ghost slowly raised her head at the sound. Her delicate, painted-like brows were knitted in sorrow; it was none other than her cousin, Yingrou, who had been dead for quite some time.

"Sister... Sister!!" Cheng Yingxue’s mind exploded in that instant. Before she could even process it, she lunged forward, clutching the sleeve of Su Changling’s robe. "Sister Su!"

The latter, having ceased her hand seals the moment the girl murmured that first "Sister," looked back at the girl with a complex expression.

"I know," Su Changling said, her gaze drifting over the faces of the woman and the ghost—they did indeed share a three-part resemblance, though their temperaments were worlds apart. It was hard to believe at a glance that they were cousins by blood.

"Th-thank you, Sister Su," Cheng Yingxue said hurriedly. Once finished, she reached out with trembling arms, attempting to touch her pale, gaunt sister.

But how could a spirit separated by the veil of life and death possess a physical form that the living could touch? The girl watched helplessly as her fingertips passed through Yingrou’s ethereal form, time and again—feeling nothing.

"Sister... Sister Yingrou... how did you end up like this?" Cheng Yingxue’s eyes turned completely red, her voice thick with sobs as she slowly sank to her knees before her.

That name seemed to finally awaken the ghost’s consciousness. A glimmer of light appeared in her hollow, dark pupils. She stared intently at the girl who was on the verge of tears, and after a long silence, her lips parted slightly. "Are you..."

"...A...xue?" The woman struggled to articulate the name, her voice dry and hoarse, as if she had not spoken in ages, no longer possessing the clear, melodic tone of her living days.

At the sound of "Axue," the girl burst into tears. She could no longer hold back, burying her face in her hands and weeping aloud. "It’s me, Axue, Sister... I’m Axue!"

"Axue... it’s Axue..." the ghost murmured, her hand rising stiffly to trace the girl’s features in the air. "Axue... Axue has grown up..."

"Grown up... and become even more beautiful." Recognizing her little sister, Cheng Yingrou curled her lips in a mix of tears and smiles, her gaze lingering on the girl’s face with profound reluctance.

"It has been years; I almost didn't recognize you."

"Axue has grown up," the girl sobbed, crying even harder. "But why did you end up like this, Sister... how did you become like this!"

"The Luo family claimed you had followed your husband... that you had, that you had died for love?" Cheng Yingxue gasped for air between sobs. "Or were they... were they lying to us back then?"

"The Luo family..." At the mention of the name, Cheng Yingrou froze, and a boundless, baleful aura erupted from her.

Seeing this, Su Changling furrowed her brows and tapped the ghost’s forehead with a finger. As spiritual light sparked, the inky malice was pulled back and calmed by that faint glow. The ghost stood stunned for a long while before her consciousness returned.

"So... they really did!" Cheng Yingxue covered her mouth in disbelief. Tears streamed down her palms, soaking her sleeves, while a fire of rage ignited in her eyes. Seeing Yingrou in this state, how could she not have guessed the truth of those years!

"...How did you really die, Sister?" The girl gripped the woman’s withered hand, her fingers trembling with indignation. "Tell me, please?"

"Sister, how... did you actually die?"

What kind of death could turn her naturally gentle and kind-hearted sister into such a vengeful, man-eating ghost?

Cheng Yingxue’s eyes were filled with desperate pleading, locked firmly onto the woman’s gaze.

Cheng Yingrou had not intended to revisit the buried past, but under the girl’s persistent, sorrowful gaze, she finally relented. "I was... locked in a room by them and starved to death."

"Starved... to death?" Cheng Yingxue’s pupils trembled, unable to believe what she had just heard.

Tears welled in the woman’s eyes. "Yes, they locked me in a room and let me starve to death."

"Wh...why?" The girl’s face crumbled, her question directed either at the woman or the moon above. Cheng Yingrou looked at her and shook her head with a bitter smile. "Because... my brother-in-law had passed the provincial examination, and he was about to enter the officialdom."

"But he passed the exam—what does that have to do with you!" Cheng Yingxue stared in shock. Cheng Yingrou looked up at the rotting wooden beams above with the same bitter smile. "I, too, wanted to know... what his success had to do with me!"

"Axue, you know," the woman said, her eyes filled with misery. "Though I never intended to defy the social rites, I always believed that a woman’s life should not be spent solely for her husband, nor should she waste her days confined to the inner chambers, only raising children."

"When Yan-lang passed away, though I was grief-stricken, I did not lose the strength to go on living."

"I had no objections to remaining a widow—I had my parents-in-law to serve, and a young brother-in-law yet to come of age. Moreover, the Luo family owned many embroidery workshops... and I happened to love the craft."

"So, even without children of my own, I spent my days serving my in-laws, guiding my brother-in-law, and working in the workshops to create new patterns not yet seen in the market. I taught the young, illiterate servant girls to read and write. Seeing the business thrive and watching those girls learn to read—those days were actually quite fulfilling."

"I once thought my life would continue like that," Cheng Yingrou sighed deeply. "Until that day, when my parents-in-law suddenly summoned me to the front hall."

"They were usually indifferent to me, but that day they were unusually amiable. I was terrified, thinking I had done something wrong, but they only wanted to sit and chat."

"They told me stories of Yan-lang’s childhood." The woman wiped the tears from her eyes with a finger.

"They spoke of how he used to climb trees to hunt for bird nests, and how he looked when he first went to school... Hearing those stories, I couldn't help but relax..."

"—I thought they had finally moved past the shadow of Yan-lang’s death, but then they suddenly brought up that my brother-in-law, who had just turned twenty, had passed the provincial examination."