In that moment, her heart turned completely cold towards Huo Ci.
Returning to the secluded courtyard, she held Xiao Ya’s feverish little body in her arms. She prayed to all the gods in the heavens, begged her late grandfather’s spirit for protection, and knelt on the ground throughout the entire night.
The next day, Xiao Ya’s fever finally broke.
But Jiang Xingyan fell ill herself, remaining bedridden for three full days.
Grandfather must have been so worried, pacing anxiously in the heavens.
His gaunt frame must have been bowing and begging people endlessly again, just to protect her and Xiao Ya through this ordeal.
She used her fingertip to wipe away the tear welling in the corner of her eye.
Lowering her gaze, she saw those servants who acted bully because of their master’s influence. A wave of fury, from some unnamed source, shot up from the depths of her heart.
She abruptly lifted her foot and kicked over a matron who was sitting on the corridor railing.
This one had always been the most vicious when hitting her.
“Aiyo! Who—”
The other matrons, startled awake, caught sight of “Huo Ci” and panicked, dropping to their knees in a fluster.
Jiang Xingyan’s eyes glinted with a cold light. “Gathering here so late at night. What is your intention?”
The lead matron sensed trouble and stammered a reply, “R-Reporting to the Young General, we were just guarding the safety of the estate.”
Jiang Xingyan let out a cold laugh. “Oh? Is that so?”
“Then this General will see for himself if your skills are qualified enough to protect me!”
Jiang Xingyan had never learned any flashy techniques; that series of moves she used to save Xiao Ya was just muscle memory born of desperate urgency.
She casually picked up the very wooden stick that had once struck her, put eighty percent of her strength into it, and lashed it towards the matron.
Crack!
The stick snapped clean in two.
The matron didn’t even have time to cry out in pain before the agony rendered her unconscious.
The others were terrified, their faces deathly pale, kowtowing repeatedly and begging for mercy.
Jiang Xingyan threw aside the broken stick, her gaze dark and unreadable. “Get out of my sight. Now.”
The matrons thanked her profusely, dragged the unconscious woman away, and fled as if escaping for their lives.
Jiang Xingyan exhaled a heavy, turbid breath.
She strode out of the main estate.
The moonlight was bright and clear, stretching her shadow long and slender.
She walked, step by step, measuring the distance to the secluded courtyard.
For Huo Ci, with his nine-foot stature, it took only a quarter of an hour.
For her former self, beaten black and blue, supported by Xia Feng and Qiu Yan, it took a full two hours of painful shuffling to get back.
With every step she took, her heart grew colder by an inch.
Her plans for the future gradually crystallized in her mind.
Taking the final step, all confusion vanished from Jiang Xingyan’s eyes, leaving only resolve.
“A-Yan?”
A soft, delicate female voice suddenly broke the deep silence of the night.
Jiang Xingyan turned her head and saw Huo Ci standing in the courtyard of the secluded residence, staring dumbfounded at her.
He seemed like someone trapped in a lifeless wasteland who had suddenly been pierced by a beam of light—his eyes lit up.
For a fleeting moment, under the flowing moonbeams, both of them saw the other’s soul through their own physical bodies.
A sense of time having passed, of seas changing into mulberry fields, spontaneously arose.
Everything was different now.
Huo Ci’s eyes stung.
This was the first time they had been alone together since their souls swapped.
He had originally wanted to say so much to her, but now it was all stuck in his throat; not a single word could come out.
Just a moment ago, he had been sitting in the courtyard, utterly despairing.
He had done everything he could to resist.
The reward was beating after beating, each one harsher than the last.
The hunger in his stomach had become a numb ache. He still had to wait until he finished his chores tomorrow to get the vegetables and rice to cook a meal.
The only thing he had any control over was his tears.
And then, she came.
Was she here to take him away from this endless hell?
Huo Ci stood up, wanting to walk to Jiang Xingyan’s side.
Jiang Xingyan merely shot him an indifferent glance, then turned to leave.
“A-Yan, wait.”
Jiang Xingyan clenched her fists. “Don’t call me that. It disgusts me.”
Huo Ci hung his head, tears dripping onto the back of his hand.
“I’m sorry!”
“A-Yan, I’ve wronged you!”
Jiang Xingyan felt an inexplicable irritation rise within her, seeing her own body making such a pathetic expression and saying such meaningless words.
“Stop that foolish act. Don’t disgrace my body.”
Huo Ci held back his tears, looking at Jiang Xingyan earnestly. “It’s all my fault for blindly trusting my mother’s slander and letting you suffer so much.”
“Now, you don’t need to consider me anymore. Let me bear the charge of being an unfilial son. Let’s leave the family and live on our own.”
“If… if our souls can switch back one day, I will treat you well, I promise! I’m willing to do anything for you, be your ox or your horse!”
“Take me away, A-Yan.”
Jiang Xingyan stared fixedly at the tearful Huo Ci before her.
So this was how humble she had looked when she used to beg him.
What had he said back then?
“Leave the family? Heh. Wishful thinking!”
Huo Ci was stunned.
The dead memories gradually came back to life.
He had just returned victorious. Jiang Xingyan, seizing a moment when Old Lady Huo wasn’t paying attention, had grabbed his lapel, her eyes brimming with tears, and begged him, “Ci-ge, can’t we leave the family and live on our own?”
“I’ll give all the shops to Mother. I just beg you, Ci-ge, take Xiao Ya and me away from the Huo Manor. Let’s buy a courtyard—”
Huo Ci, shocked and furious, had cut her off. “How can you utter such treasonous words!”
He shook off her hand, looking at her with profound disappointment.
“Mother told me you were willful, spoiled, and that the Huo Manor couldn’t contain you. I didn’t believe it.”
“Now I see that everything Mother said was true.”
“You not only crave pleasure and luxury, you are also selfish!”
“You’re not even willing to support and serve my only mother. It shows your heart is cold and ungrateful to the extreme!”
“That’s not it, Ci-ge, listen to me—”
Huo Ci interrupted her impatiently. “Enough!”
“Instead of indulging in wishful thinking, you should repent and learn to get along properly with Mother.”
“Do not mention leaving the family ever again!”
Huo Ci remembered now.
Those memories he had buried suddenly became painfully clear, attacking him until his defenses crumbled.
He had no defense, no argument.
And Jiang Xingyan? She was no less perplexed.
Huo Ci was a righteous gentleman, that was true, but how could he be so foolishly filial?
Even with the facts right before his eyes, he always found excuses for his mother.
Now, at this point, one could only say he had brought this upon himself.
“Since you are so filial, I will fulfill your sincere devotion.”
“No, no, A-Yan, let me explain—”
Jiang Xingyan frowned and snapped softly, “Enough!”
In this moment, their roles were completely reversed.
“I don’t want to hear any more of your excuses, and I don’t want to see you degrading my body like this any longer.”
Jiang Xingyan turned her back to Huo Ci and enunciated each word clearly: “The day our souls return to their rightful places is the day you and I will divorce.”
Huo Ci panicked. “I don’t want a divorce!”
“A-Yan, please, I know I was wrong.”
The heart-rending agony he felt in his previous life when he saw Jiang Xingyan take her own life surged back into his heart.
He finally realized how deeply he loved Jiang Xingyan, so much so that he couldn’t imagine a future without her.
Even when he had been furious in the past and blurted out that he wanted to divorce her, it was because he was certain she would never leave.
But it was too late.
He realized it too late.
Her heart was thoroughly broken, and it could never return to what it was before.
Just as Huo Ci had once shaken her off, Jiang Xingyan now shook off the hand clutching her lapel.
“The Jiang Xingyan from the previous life is already dead.”
“The Jiang Xingyan of now feels only hatred for you, and for the entire Huo family.”
“A hatred etched into my bones, a hatred that makes me wish I could kill you all!”