"Is this enough?" Qingle saw Qingli address an empty space beside her.
Who is she talking to? Qingle thought to herself.
Qingli turned to Qingle, "your elder sister."
What? What does she mean my elder sister?
"Right, you cannot see. Hold on a minute," Qingli nodded to herself as if she just forgot. She came nearer to Qingle and sat by her bedside before placing her hands over Qingle's shrunken eyes. Qingle's eyes closed on instinct and she felt a slightly sharp pain before Qingli removed her hands.
When Qingle opened her eyes, she almost screamed in terror. Standing before her were two Qingli(s). One was the Qingli who just removed her hand and the other was standing by the window. If she was there from the beginning, she would have been able to see the entire happenings of her courtyard from her position. The Qingli standing near the window did not have the scar on her face and she did not wear a veil. She was dressed in her favorite pale blue dress and her hair loose as if she was getting ready for bed. It can be said that this was the most beautiful Qingli Qingle has ever seen her.
But what was going on?
"Now that you can see, we can continue our conversation." The Lady in Qingli's body smiled.
"So, is this enough?" The Lady glanced at Qingli who seemed to be lost in thought.
"It seems like I was wrong?" Qingli saw how pitiful her younger sister has become and her bottom lip trembled a little.
"I guess you can say you were half right," the Lady shrugged. As she saw Qingle's confused expression, she gave a soft chuckle.
"Little girl, are you lost? It's okay, this Lady shall give you a summary." The Lady patted Qingle's head as if she was comforting a small child.
"Remember the scheme you hatched to kill off your sister? Well, it did work and your sister died. She then went to submit an application to take revenge against you because she knew it was you who arranged for her to be killed. I took up the job and possessed her body to take her revenge for her, aren't I kind?" Qingle could feel her eyes widen slightly as she processed what she had just heard.
"So the truth is that I actually did feed you poison but it was the poison that your dear mother has been feeding your elder sister all these years. To take revenge, I only added one extra ingredient to speed up the whole process which is why you are in this state. You really liked the soup, didn't you?" The Lady was enjoying Qingle's expression as she told her the truth and she continued.
"All along, your dear sister had never left your side. She watched as you drank the poison these few days and slowly withered away. This is her revenge, to make you die a miserable death for causing her to die in such a tragic way. How do you feel after hearing the truth?" The Lady waited for Qingle's answer happily but the answer was unexpected.
"I am sorry," Qingle croaked out.
The Lady and Qingli moved glanced at Qingle. Tears running down her cheeks, Qingle used the last of her strength and pushed her fragile body towards her elder sister.
Qingli moved instinctively to catch Qingle and they both laid on the cold ground.
"Elder sister, I am sorry." Qingle cried and bawled like a baby after she landed in her sister's embrace.
Qingle did not seek forgiveness. Simply because she understood that what she has done is not something that could be forgiven. When she dies and her soul passes through judgment, the sin of taking a human life would still be counted even with the victim's forgiveness. To add on, would a victim forgive their murderer? A person has taken away their futures, their lives, their everything, can they ever forgive them?
Qingli bit her lips hard before she hugged her crying sister.
"Forget it, it's elder sister's fault that has caused younger sister much grieve. I did not notice the pain you were in, this is entirely my fault." Qingli cried along with her sister. When she was in the room, she could hear all of Qingle's thoughts and feel all of her emotions. Qingli thought that she would be happy to see Qingle's downfall and was extremely excited. The Lady had offered Qingli an offer and that is to listen to Qingle's thoughts and emotions when they enter the courtyard. Qingli was going to decline. Why would she want to know how Qingle was feeling? All she wanted to see was her misery. But she saw the Lady's look on her face, it was as if she would regret it terribly if she were to decline and hence, she accepted. Now she can't be gladder that she accept the offer.
Just as Qingle was about to refute her elder sister's words, the Lady hushed them.
"You can have your happy ending whatsoever but we still need to deal with someone," the Lady meant Qingle and her. Since Qingli is dead, whoever that is coming back into the courtyard with such murderous intent would not be able to see her.
The door of the inner chambers burst open with force and Duchess Qian strode inside with an imposing aura. Her hand held a sharp knife and the moment she saw Qingli, she gave an eerily smile.
"How nice, you are here as well." Duchess Qian lifted her knife and lunged at Qingli.
The Lady shoved Qingle to the side of the room with a kick and dodged the attack from the Duchess narrowly.
"Is this what Mother meant by preparing?" The Lady asked as she landed nimbly beside the Duchess.
The Duchess refused to reply to the Lady's snide comments as she continued attacking recklessly. The Lady let out a soft sigh before her hands reached out to counter the coming attack. She did not put in much strength but the place where she tapped was an acupuncture point. It caused the Duchess's hand to swerve outwards and the knife that was aiming at the Lady sliced the cheek of the Duchess instead. It was a deep long cut that would leave a permanent scar similar to what Qingli had when she was alive. Blood gushed out and the Duchess began to wail uncontrollably.
"I'll kill both of you today!" The Duchess's eyes suddenly shone with determination. She took out a hidden knife under her sleeve and plunged it into Qingle's stomach. Qingle's eyes widened in shock as she stared at her Mother who had stabbed her.
Qingli had wanted to shield her sister but there was nothing she could do. She was a ghost. While humans cannot touch her, she cannot touch them either. The only reason why she could touch Qingle was that the Lady had allowed Qingle to see the dead which allowed interactions. Qingli could only watch in horror as the Duchess's knife landed into Qingle's body.
The Lady pulled the Duchess by her hair and dragged her away from Qingle. She could have stopped it but she didn't because she wanted those naive girls to see who was the real mastermind behind this entire farce from the beginning.
"You must have panicked the moment you smelled the soup, Mother." The Lady's voice above her head made the Duchess feel chills crawling down her spine. She who was noble since birth and has gotten her way with everything till now was scared of the current Qingli.
"Because the poisoned soup you gave me has been consumed by your daughter in huge amounts. You had once hope for her to marry the Crown Prince but now that she is dying, all that is left is to get rid of the evidence right? If you killed Qingle here and announce to everyone that you found her dead when you came back, nobody would doubt you and nobody would know that the poison that killed off the daughters of the Qian Family came from you." The Lady threw the Duchess against the door of Qingle's inner chambers and she fell onto the ground, unconscious.
"I've knocked you out because you were too noisy for your own good," the Lady turned towards Qingle and flicked her hand. All the items that fell onto the ground returned to their original positions and Qingle's stomach wound healed. The bloodstains on the furniture and floor all disappeared and everything returned back to normal except for the Duchess who laid on the ground trembling in pain.
"Do you still want her to die?" The Lady asked Qingli who hovered over her sister worriedly.
"No, let bygones be bygones." Qingli shook her head. The Lady nodded and placed her hand on Qingle's arm and retracted the dark energy she previously injected into her.
"Leave the poison," Qingle choked out her words forcefully. "Let this be a means to serve my atonement and a reminder of my sister," the Lady nodded in response and she left Qingle's bed.
"After tonight, your sister's soul will return to the Underworld." The Lady then teleported the fainted Duchess back to her room. She then left the sisters to themselves before she exited.
After the Duke sent off the Imperial Physician, he wanted to go back to Qingle's courtyard to take a look at her. No matter how much he disliked her, he was still his daughter. But just as he was halfway about to reach Qingle's courtyard, he was met with the servant which collected the sample of the soup for poison testing. As expected, there was no poison in the soup. Duke Qian gave some sliver to the servant as thanks for his work before proceeding to Qingle's courtyard. By that time, it was past midnight and other than the servants guarding the courtyard, there was nobody awake.
By normal customs, a father entering a daughter's inner chambers this late at night would be wrong but since it is a sick daughter, it cannot be helped. Duke Qian entered his second daughter's inner chambers and saw Qingle sleeping soundly on her bed and sighed. With one of his daughter sick and the other dying, he really feels like he has aged twenty years in that short span of time. Shaking his head slightly, he left the courtyard.
The next morning, Duke Qian received the second greatest shock of his life. The first shock would be when he received the news of his childhood lover passing.
During the 58th year of Qin, on the 6th day of the 10th month, the eldest daughter of the Qian Family passed away due to sickness.