Chapter 4

He went rigid, as though struck by lightning.

“What did you say?”

His eyes bloodshot, he rushed over and seized me.

“How could you be A-Yue? She died ten years ago!”

Blood kept pouring from my chest. I still curled my lips into a smile.

Shen Zhiwan forgot to pretend she was in pain and hastily caught his arm.

“Don’t believe her! She must have heard us mention A-Yue. She’s calling you that to deceive you!”

“Have you forgotten? When we returned to the ancestral hall, you took care of your sister’s body yourself!”

“Have you forgotten how horribly she died?”

His pupils contracted.

He thrust me away.

“Yes! I gathered her remains! I buried her myself!”

“How dare you use A-Yue to deceive me!”

He cursed furiously. Yet when he looked back at my chest wound, he scrambled outside.

“Physician! Come back and stop her bleeding! Quickly!”

The room fell quiet.

Zhiwan stopped crying. Her earlier panic vanished.

Her maid leaned close and lowered her voice.

“Don’t worry, my lady. Even if something unexpected happens, no god could save her with that wound. Even the highest immortal could only collect her corpse.”

Zhiwan breathed out in relief.

But whenever Linyuan met anyone resembling Xie Linyue, he lost control of himself.

She had to be careful.

“Watch the door. She mustn’t say another word!”

I wanted to ask whether she had a heart.

We had practically grown up together. Why was she determined to treat me this way?

But there was nothing I could do.

I was dying.

My hearing grew hazy.

Linyuan’s hurried footsteps came from the end of the corridor. He was dragging the physician with him.

“Save her!”

The physician examined me and drew a sharp breath.

“General, her fate is in heaven’s hands!”

Linyuan dropped to his knees beside me and pressed hard against the wound.

Blood rushed between his fingers. He couldn’t stop it.

His hands were warm, his movements frantic and clumsy. All he knew to do was push harder.

“You dare deceive me? Who gave you permission?”

“Wake up! Explain yourself!”

Zhiwan tried to draw his attention.

“Linyuan, it hurts!”

He seemed not to hear.

Only terror remained in his eyes as he held my wound.

“Hold on! Do you hear me? I won’t let you die!”

I opened my mouth. With all my strength, I reached for his hand.

The old scar lay across its back—the scar he had received blocking a blade for me.

Brother.

The body was false.

Shen Zhiwan lied to you.

I wanted to tell him.

I wanted him to know the truth, to know she had deceived him for ten years.

My lips moved with difficulty.

“Bro…”

Blood welled up, choking off every word.

I could make no more sound.

His eyes reddened.

“What did you call me? Say it again!”

I used the last of my strength to cling to him.

Just as my consciousness began to dissolve, Zhiwan gave an agonized cry behind him and fell to the floor.

“My lady has fainted!”

His back stiffened.

The flicker of hope in his eyes was swallowed by concern.

“Physician, attend to Wan’er! Make sure nothing happens to her!”

Before leaving, he cast another anxious look at me.

“Fetch another physician. Settle her in the side hall. She must not die!”

But once he was gone, Zhiwan’s people threw me into the woodshed.

The lock clicked outside, and my consciousness sank into darkness.

Pain seared my chest.

I opened my eyes.

Everything was still black.

I wasn’t dead.

But my nose was filled with the stench of rotting bodies and blood.

The burial ground.

I knew that smell.

Ten years ago, when the rebels threw me outside the city, it had been a place like this.

Of course.

Linyuan cared only for his Wan’er. Why would he care where someone already dead like me was discarded?

Footsteps approached.

A servant carrying a torch grumbled.

“Leaving her here was enough. She should be dead by now. Why come back to stab her again?”

Xia Lian snorted coldly.

“What do you know?”

“Before she died, that blind woman called him Brother. His face went white. He looked as though he’d lost his soul.”

The servant sneered.

“So what if he recognizes her?”

“Even if he suspects something, the dead can’t testify. Will he go down to the underworld to question her?”

Xia Lian’s voice turned vicious.