I'm out of my mind! Thought MingYu, as he rubbed his head like a crazed person. He stumbled, and the people walked through him like he was air.
Why am I invisible? What is going on? Did I die? I-
MingYu froze as he spotted a young woman carrying a worn-out basket. She was standing by the vegetable shop, holding tiny potatoes in her hand. Her robes looked battered and any colour it might have held was long faded. Her hair had a simple wooden pin as a decoration. Slowly, MingYu walked over and as her face came to view, MingYu gaped at her with a mixture of horror and surprise. She was the same ghost lady from the Hsu house!
"You- What are you doing here?" MingYu said, but the woman didn't answer. Instead, her eyes fixated on the tiny potatoes, weighing them in her hands. Putting the two tiny potatoes she purchased in her basket, she moved to the next table.
MingYu trailed behind her, now curious of the situation. His fear quickly faded away. No matter what he tried to touch, his hand went through. MingYu wasn't stupid in the least. He soon figured out that either he was dead and a ghost, or this was somehow connected to his recently opened third-eye. And seeing the ghost lady here in full flesh and bone, he leaned towards the latter option.
His observations were disrupted as the woman he was trailing stopped in her tracks and MingYu walked right through her. A young man had just stepped out of Huixiang, fanning himself with an impossible big fan, an air of arrogance surrounding him. A heavy jade pendant swayed in his waistband. His robes were of the highest calibre of stitching and embroidery. The corpse propped up in the main hall was here, in full health and glory. MingYu nearly dislocated his chin. Its Hsu LiShit- no - LiChen!
LiChen seemed to have spotted the rare beauty and made his way over her somewhat lazily and with a swing to his wide steps, like a peacock showing off his assets. MingYu wanted to ram his straw-slipper in this pompous bastard's widely grinning mouth. He only needed to take one look at the man's condescending face to understand Zho LanLin's dislike towards the guy. If this was LiChen, then this young woman was none other than Wei LiXue.
MingYu saw visible discomfort in the way LiXue reacted to the childe. She was constantly looking at the ground, flinching away from his advancing touch, shrugging her entire body, trying to make herself small and invisible. MingYu wanted to come between them, but he couldn't, as he realised he was merely watching LiXue's memories. But shouldn't he be seeing things from her eyes? Why was he watching everything as an outsider?
His thoughts halted when suddenly, something pulled MingYu by his collar and he was swept away from LiXue's side and thrown against a hard wall. MingYu groaned, he felt like his brain was leaking through his ears. Frantic voices slapped him awake, and he realised he was in the Wei's little home.
The old man Wei was sitting at their tiny dining table, holding a paper in his hands, looking ecstatic. Madam Wei was beside him, thanking the ancestors and the gods for their luck. MingYu crept closer until he could see what the paper said. It was a marriage proposal for Wei LiXue, from none other than Hsu LiChen. But where was LiXue?
MingYu walked through the table, the walls and straight into the backyard like a ghost. Now that he knew what was going on, why not use it to his advantage, he thought.
LiXue was sitting on the straw bed, holding another girl's hand and weeping silently. The other girl must be YueQin, MingYu deducted.
The two girls looked nothing alike. While LiXue was frail and fairy-like, YueQin seemed more stern. Her eyes had determination in them, and even though she was painfully average in the looks department, she had a fire in her that seemed to peek through the plain shell. MingYu looked as YueQin comforted her sister, promising to take them away from this pathetic existence.
MingYu was getting used to the feeling of being thrown around like a piece of trash. Once again, he was pulled by his collar and thrown out of balance and back over the front yard of the Wei house.
"Wonderful, just wonderful..." MingYu muttered under his breath as he was, once more, crawling on the dirt, struggling to get up. Someone was screaming as if they were being murdered. A chill run down MingYu's spine as he quickly scampered into an upright position and looked around.
The tiny front yard was packed with people dressed in red with gold ribbons adorning their clothes. A red carriage stood waiting, and a veiled bride was on her way to mount it. YueQin was being held back by her parents, screaming and kicking. A stream of tears was running down her cheek. When she didn't stop fighting, madam Wei gave her a painful slap across her face.
MingYu shouted for them to stop when he was pulled through the air and flung to the main hall of the Hsu household. He laid spread out on the floor where he had seen childe Hsu propped up like a dead puppet. That gory scene didn't disturb him anymore. He was too tired, disoriented, and miffed to care. Staring at the ceiling with nothing but contempt, he heaved and finally got up.
The room looked perfectly harmless when no blood or bodies were littered across it. The altar had now many finely crafted nameplates, all made of expensive, dark wood with gold lettering. Nothing like the self-made wooden slap with carved on letters for Wei LiXue. MingYu sauntered over and could see many centuries' worth of Hsu family members here. He grimaced as he thought how the long line of Hsu's came to such a sudden end.
Servants lazily came in and out of many doors across both sides of the hall. None of them seemed to have a worry in the world. They were giggling and gossiping with each other leisurely. Only one servant seemed to do their job properly. The girl was busy wiping the chairs, tables, and door frames. MingYu walked over and jumped as he realised the girl was none other than Wei LiXue. MingYu couldn't help but say, "You are the fourth wife of childe Hsu! Why are you dressed as a servant and doing their job while they loiter around?"
But of course, he got no answer, LiXue couldn't hear him. She wiped the sweat that had gathered at her hairline and continued to wipe down the chair. MingYu looked on, stunned. Then, from the room behind the altar, three finely dressed women stepped out, gliding over to where LiXue was scrubbing the table and one of them tipped over a teapot, spilling hot tea everywhere before crashing into hundreds of tiny pieces next to LiXue. Hurrying to clean it up, she cut her palm over the shards.
MingYu grew up to respect all living beings, especially women, but at that moment he wanted to give each of childe Hsu's three wives a satisfying slap. What they did was simply incomprehensible! A few servants walked by, but only snickered under their breaths and hurried away. LiXue sobbed silently as she held her bloodied hand.
Another pull and he was now lying face down in the yard where he and ZhiYi had seen the ghost and the well. But ZhiYi was not there. For the first time in MingYu's life, he thought dying wasn't that bad after all.
He wouldn't be surprised if his brain was now upside in his skull. He certainly felt that way. Staggering and barely standing upright, MingYu noticed a line was strung across the yard, and a worn-out and tired LiXue was hanging clothes on the string. Bluish-purple rings under her eyes told of sleepless nights. She looked alarmingly thin as she struggled to hang the larger pieces of clothing upon the line. Her frail arms trembled under the weight.
MingYu shook his head as he stepped closer. Never in his life had he felt so helpless and useless. He wanted to reach out to comfort her, but in the end, he could only watch her suffering.
As he took another step closer, LiXue suddenly turned around to face him with her eyes wide open with fear, and for a brief moment, MingYu froze. Not that LiXue could suddenly see him, no. He was marvelling at the rounded stomach, inclining that she was reaching halfway through her pregnancy.
"You-," MingYu's words died out as the three wives of childe Hsu walked through him and took hold of LiXue. He ran over to pull them off her, but he only stumbled through them. He could only hopelessly watch as the three clawed at LiXue like wild animals, kicking and screeching in her face. The words they screamed became a jumbled up mess, as MingYu stood rooted in place, struggling to understand why someone would do this to LiXue.
LiXue was crying. Her frail arms were trying to shield her abdomen, but to no avail. Each kick sunk painfully to her side. Taking hold of her hair, they pulled her across the yard like a bag of dirt. Her cries died out as she was too weak to produce sounds. Instead, she sobbed silently as the unrelenting assault continued and never seemed to end. When the wives finally had enough, they left her sprawled on the stone steps, barely breathing, bleeding heavily.
MingYu's feet seemed to move on their own. Something wet trailed down his cheeks, and touching his face, he realised he was crying. He kneeled next to her, his hands shaking, reaching out to help her, but he touched nothing.
Tears streamed down her cheeks when LiXue suddenly convulsed and held onto her stomach, screaming. Before MingYu was pulled away, a terrifying realisation dawned on him. LiXue was giving birth right then.