Chapter Forty-two: I Have No Face to See Her

Mentioning his short-lived daughter, Cheng Mingye's posture visibly caved inward with a deeper hunch. "Yunniang, to be honest, the person I have wronged the most all these years... is your ill-fated eldest sister."

"Back then, she... ah." Cheng Mingye's sighs grew heavier one after another. Seeing this, Cheng Yingxue lowered her head and pondered for a moment. "Uncle, would you like to... see her?"

"Who?"

"Eldest Sister Yingrou."

Cheng Mingye stared in astonishment. "You have seen her recently?"

"Yet isn't she..."

"I have seen her ghost," the young girl lightly interrupted the man, "at Su's—no, at my master's place."

"Because her death was too unjust, her soul still lingers in the mortal realm to this day and has yet to enter the cycle of reincarnation."

"Rou niang's soul... has still not been reincarnated?" Cheng Mingye was stunned, a surge of uncontrollable thoughts rising within his heart—he was tempted.

"Yes, but Master will send her back to the underworld tomorrow," Cheng Yingxue nodded.

"So, would you like to see her?" The young girl hesitated and twiddled her fingers. "If you'd like to... Yunniang can help you ask Master."

"No... better not, Yunniang." The momentary temptation vanished as Cheng Mingye suddenly slumped, looking as though he had aged ten years in the blink of an eye. "I, I have no face to see her."

"I have no face to see your sister, Yunniang."

"——Let it be." Cheng Mingye reached out once more to cover his face, and the eye sockets beneath his palms turned completely red. "It is enough for me just to know that she can safely return to the underworld with the help of the Immortal of Changling."

"Thank... your master for me."

"Alright." Cheng Yingxue nodded. Neither of them mentioned the true cause of Cheng Yingrou's death, yet both understood it clearly in their hearts.

"Also, Uncle, those bank notes... Yunniang would rather not take them." As the young girl spoke, she cast a sidelong glance at the stack of bills in the man's hand. "You don't need to open any accounts at the money shop for me either."

"——Lest Grandfather and the others find out, and the clan stirs up more opinions again."

"It doesn't matter, Yunniang. Just take the bank notes your uncle gives you," Cheng Mingye shook his way, decisively shoving the bills into the young girl's palms. "Before your father entered this trade, the Cheng family never dabbled in these industries."

"Therefore, you need not carry any burden in taking this money. Those are several shops; strictly speaking, they belong solely to your father, not the Cheng family."

"Minghuai lacks the ability to guard them," the man stated the truth with utmost calmness. "I might as well give all this silver to you."

"At least by holding them, you can make them fulfill their proper value, rather than having them treated as gambling stakes and squandered away casually at cockfighting rings or gaming tables."

"——My brother," Cheng Yingxue paused for a moment, "is indeed lacking in drive."

"Perhaps he never grew up, and has no sense of responsibility," Cheng Mingye sneered softly with lowered brows and eyes. "After all, he is the seed spawned by Heng'di—your father was once a great prodigy in the commercial firm."

"I can sense that Minghuai is not an utter fool."

"But he always lacks a certain ineffable drive."

"If he has good luck, he might still experience a sudden awakening in this lifetime; if his luck is poor... then the Cheng family can simply support him like this for the rest of his life." Cheng Mingye closed his eyes. "Alright, Yunniang, let's not speak of him."

"Let's talk about you instead—have you thought about what you plan to do after leaving the Cheng family? And tomorrow's ancestral hall ceremony to sever family ties."

"Even though the Immortal is here, your grandfather and the others wouldn't dare to truly deal a fatal blow... but once those twenty-odd family discipline rods come down, you will inevitably suffer a bitter ordeal." Worry involuntarily surfaced in the depths of the man's pupils. "Have you thought of countermeasures for this in advance?"

"Uh... to be honest, Uncle, Yunniang has no countermeasures." The girl hugging her sword scratched her head somewhat sheepishly. Having held the heavy longsword in her arms for too long, her arms ached, so she shifted it to her other hand.

"However, with Master around, it should not be a big problem."

"Those practitioners always have some life-saving secret techniques and miraculous medicines in their hands... I already experienced that when I jumped off the cliff earlier, so she should be able to pull Yunniang out of the fire this time too."

"Your answer really leaves one at a loss for how to comment." Cheng Mingye's eyes twitched uncontrollably. "What about your livelihood after leaving the Cheng family? Is there still anything your uncle can help you with?"

"I have a rough idea about that, but the specifics still await your niece's field investigation," Cheng Yingxue scratched her head even faster. "Speaking of things you can help with..."

"Uncle, do you know where Mr. Shao Gezhi, the ink-maker, lives?"

"Or you can just give me Mr. Luo Hanzhang's address."

"Shao Gezhi and Luo Hanzhang... both of these are masters of ink-making in the present age." Cheng Mingye's gaze flickered with surprise. "Are you... wanting to enter the ink trade?"

"Heh... I have a small idea, but it's not quite fully formed yet," the young girl grinned and bared her teeth. "I want to try if I can open up new sales channels in the ink trade, but before that, I must first find an established ink-making master willing to cooperate with me."

"Open up a new sales channel... Very well, I will go back immediately and have someone sort out a list of usable materials for you based on the things you asked for." Cheng Mingye nodded, without prying further into the specifics of her "new sales channel." "Do you have any other needs?"

"No more, Uncle. The address is the most troublesome part." Cheng Yingxue shook her head sincerely. "As for the rest, I'll figure it out myself."

"Alright." Cheng Mingye tucked in his chin solemnly, unexpected tears welling up in his eyes. "Then Yunniang, take good care of yourself from now on."

The young girl paused slightly at his words, taking a moment to recover her wits.

——Having long been at loggerheads with her uncle, she found herself momentarily unaccustomed to the uncle and niece quietly sitting down for a heartfelt conversation. "..., I will, Uncle."

"Take good care of yourself too."

With that, Cheng Yingxue clutched her sword and fled the veranda as if escaping. Blood ties were always the hardest thing to explain in this world, and she dared not linger there for too long.

When she first learned the news of Eldest Sister's death and first heard of that arranged marriage, she had also genuinely resented her uncle.

Yet this resentment crumbled and disintegrated as she gradually came to understand her uncle and the Cheng family further, ultimately leaving only a shallow scar carved deep within her heart.

——She could not articulate what kind of taste that truly was.

Yet it undoubtedly caused her to feel painful and sour.

Thinking this, the young girl tightened her grip around the longsword in her arms, burying her head as she ran toward the small courtyard where her mother resided.

The sweat oozing from her palms soaked the sword until it was damp, yet she remained utterly unaware that every single movement of hers had long been taken in by the female ghost leaning against the wall.