"Get married?! How can we still get married?!"
I lifted my arm.
Even I was terrified by this horrifying sight. How could I bring misfortune to Si Jiangchen?!
Moreover, he once said that it was my father who begged the Si family to arrange this marriage. Back then, when our family was still a prominent clan and I was still a normal person, he already disliked me so much.
Now I'm not only a homeless stray but also an ugly and disgusting monster. With Si Jiangchen's character, how could he possibly want to live with me?!
"Miss, the Si family has been a Taoist family for hundreds of years. Maybe they have a way..."
Before A Wen could finish his sentence, I interrupted him. "What if they ask me to kill you?!"
I shook my head. "Not getting married to him... How could the Si family want a monster as their daughter - in - law?"
As I was speaking, a sudden thought popped into my mind. Since I was born with the in - decaying bones, didn't the Si family know about it when we exchanged the betrothal gifts? Or... were they actually my "buyer"?
"My wife is mine. Who asked others to butt in?!"
Suddenly, Si Jiangchen's soft voice came from the direction of the head of the bed.
Since I woke up, I had been in a state of extreme shock and didn't notice that there was another person in the room at all!
Before I could look up, Si Jiangchen picked me up in his arms.
"Du Xinghe, since we have a betrothal, you're mine."
Si Jiangchen pressed his forehead against mine. The strength in his hands almost broke my waist. "You're mine in life and my ghost in death. If you're not going to marry me, what do you want to do?!"
"I, I want to..."
What did I want to do?! What could I do? All I wanted was to escape! Escape to the deep mountains and forests, to a place where no one knew me and hide.
But before I could say a word, Si Jiangchen's kiss, with a faint smell of tobacco, came crashing down on me.
I was so busy being kissed by him that I had no time to breathe. My whole body went limp and hung on him.
I don't know how long it took before Si Jiangchen finally let go of my lips. There was a dark red flame flickering in his eyes. The desire to devour me made my heart flutter with fear...
"Don't even think about running away from me!"
His voice was hoarse as he leaned in again, biting my lips. The pain made me moan involuntarily as I grabbed his shoulders. Fortunately, he let go of me quickly this time. He wrapped his arm around my waist and sat on the edge of the bed. "Remember, I'll find a way to cure your poison! The Great Supreme Soul - Returning Spell has been found. The seven souls in your body can be unfrozen like a normal person... In the future, even if you really die..."
Si Jiangchen gently rubbed his nose against mine. "You won't turn into that disgusting mess."
"..."
I was silent for a while, then slowly lifted my arm, exposing the skin on it. The dry and cracked skin felt like a burnt tree trunk attached to my body, looking both strange and disgusting.
"Don't be afraid. It's just Du Peiyun's thunder spell that triggered the corpse poison in your body since you were born. Granny Bai has temporarily suppressed it. If you don't want to eat Du Wenzhong, I'll just create another medicine man for you to eat!"
To Si Jiangchen, all the big problems about me seemed to be easily solvable. But each of his solutions was so cold - blooded and terrifying!
"......Granny Bai!!"
I wanted to find Granny Bai. She was kind - hearted and the solutions she came up with would never be as terrifying and inhumane as Si Jiangchen's. But when I turned my head, Granny Bai and A Wen had already left the room without my noticing.
"Don't look for her. She doesn't have a better solution either!"
Si Jiangchen naturally knew what was on my mind. He tightened his arm around me and his voice was a bit seductive. "Du Xinghe, you don't have to suppress your desires. If you want to taste the one who did this to you, I can take you there!"
"The... one who started all this?"
I was even more surprised. Weren't my biological parents the ones who did this to me? One of them died in childbirth and the other died at my hands! Who else could be the culprit?
"If it weren't for that guy's idea to your father, you wouldn't have ended up like this, and Duyang Town wouldn't have become a dead place with no living people."
Si Jiangchen didn't like to be explicit when he spoke, but I wasn't stupid. What he meant was that all of this was instigated by someone!
"Do you know?"
Si Jiangchen pulled down my sleeve to cover my unsightly skin. "Although our Si family has inherited the Taoist tradition and produced the most powerful Taoist priests for generations, we've revealed too many secrets of heaven and killed evil spirits. Almost every family head in our family has a short lifespan. I... am the future clan leader of the Si family, so someone came up with an idea for my father..."
"Using the Du family's corpse - driving skills to raise an in - decaying bones can help your Si family live a long life... or even achieve immortality?"
I asked.
"Yeah."
Si Jiangchen twirled a lock of my hair that had fallen in front of my forehead behind my ear. "Your Du family raised you to be by my side for life... Unfortunately, your father changed his mind in the end. He contacted another buyer."
"No! My father didn't contact another buyer."
I felt like a commodity that could be bought and sold at will in Si Jiangchen's words, but I still endured the pain in my heart and defended my father. "He went to your Si family to see you and talked about the marriage..."
As soon as I said this, I immediately noticed something strange.
The last time I saw my father, he seemed to say, "How can I rest assured to marry you into the Si family..."
At that time, I just thought he was worried about my health and afraid that I would suffer if I married into the Si family while being seriously ill.
"Do you know? Du Peiyun instigated your father to sell you as a concubine to that restored old emperor of the Republic of China."
Si Jiangchen sneered. "If I hadn't gotten the news, your father would probably have sent you to Beijing right away after making you eat A Wen."
"......It's Du Peiyun? All of this was instigated by Du Peiyun behind the scenes?!"
It turned out that whether it was me, my father or Si Jiangchen, we were all pawns in Du Peiyun's hands. No matter the outcome, his side branch of the family wouldn't suffer any losses... Moreover, he made my father break the engagement, probably to achieve the current result. Nine times out of ten, the news that Si Jiangchen got was leaked by him!
Du Peiyun wanted to be the clan leader of the Du family and wanted to make a fortune in the troubled times and become a prominent figure!
... But his plan went wrong with me. Not only him but also my father didn't expect that I would be unwilling to hurt A Wen, who had grown up with me since childhood. According to Granny Bai, if I absorbed the medicine man completely, I would lose all my original memories. I... would no longer be me!!