Chapter 1: The Evil Ghost Has Been Reborn!

"Heavens! Second Sister, in broad daylight, how could you be embracing a man who is not your kin?"

"How scandalous! Have you no shame? Let go of him at once!"

A man and a woman cried out in succession, their voices filled with shock and reprimand.

Song Lan’s head felt heavy and muddled, as if it had been filled with countless turbid vapors. Her consciousness drifted, and it took a long while for her to clear her head.

She was alive again?

She looked at the faces before her—some strange, some familiar. The cousin who had ruined her beauty, the husband who had pushed her off a cliff, the cousin who had spread rumors that she was unchaste and frequently invited men to stay the night at the manor before she was even wed, and... so many, many others.

Song Lan’s eyes widened slightly, still unable to believe it.

She completely ignored the fact that she was still limp, nestled in the arms of a strange man.

While she was still dazed, the two of them were already surrounded by people drawn in by the loud exclamations and rebukes of Xie Yuyao and Zhang Chi.

From the depths of her distant memories, Song Lan recalled that today seemed to be the Spring Banquet at the Princess Royal’s manor.

She had drunk a cup of wine given to her by Xie Yuyao, and her head had grown dizzy. Thinking it was just a low tolerance for alcohol, she had walked to the edge of the water pavilion to catch a breeze and sober up, only to suddenly feel her limbs go weak and her mind grow foggy, causing her to tumble into the pond nearby.

The sound of her falling into the water had brought the nearby guards, who rescued her.

It had also brought the well-prepared Zhang Chi and Xie Yuyao.

After she fell into the water, she had been limp and powerless, completely unaware of how Zhang Chi and Xie Yuyao had sung in harmony to slander her purity, ruin her reputation, and paint her as the disgrace of the noble families—a loose woman who, having taken a fancy to a handsome guard at the Princess Royal’s manor, had engaged in a tryst in the back garden without a shred of restraint.

By the time she woke up and learned of these things, such filthy talk had already spread through half the capital.

Even the guard who had kindly saved her was beaten to death with clubs, his body tossed into a mass grave to feed the wild dogs.

Recalling the events of the past, the invisible resentment on Song Lan’s body gradually grew thick and heavy.

The crowd began to murmur.

"What is going on here?"

"Why is the Xie family’s cousin leaning in the arms of a strange man?"

"I heard long ago that this cousin of the Xie family was a restless one. I thought it was just malicious slander, but I never expected to see it with my own eyes today."

Amidst the malice, Song Lan pushed the man beside her away, swayed twice before managing to stand steady, and, ignoring the gossiping crowd, walked quickly toward Zhang Chi.

Zhang Chi was still acting indignant, singing in harmony with the terrified and seemingly worried Xie Yuyao to misinterpret her falling into the water and being rescued.

Just then, the girl with the serene face stood before him like the cold snow of a high mountain, lifting her eyes to look at him.

His breath hitched. He was both startled by how she had arrived before him as if by teleportation, and captivated by her beautiful features.

Beautiful!

Zhang Chi looked down. The girl was drenched, her clothes clinging to her body, faintly revealing her exquisite figure.

A wicked fire rose in his heart, a desire to lock her away in a cage.

Remembering where they were and that many people were watching, he felt as though his property had been violated and profaned. He frowned in displeasure and opened his mouth with a condescending, patriarchal lecture: "Look at the state you’re in. Have you no sense of shame? How could someone like you ever be a proper wife of the Zhang family..."

*Slap!*

Song Lan raised her hand and delivered a strike, leaving five finger marks on his face.

"A filthy heart sees filth in everything."

"In reality, you are the truly filthy thing."

Zhang Chi was stunned, frozen in place. Realizing he had been slapped by Song Lan in public and hearing her call him a filthy thing, he was instantly consumed by rage.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists: "Aren't you dressed like this just to seduce men!"

*Slap!*

Song Lan slapped him again, hard enough to loosen his teeth.

"A gentleman does not act improperly; his actions must be upright! Young Master Zhang, having read the books of the sages, should know what it means to 'look not at what is improper, and speak not of what is improper'!"

Her tone turned slightly flippant: "Or is it that Young Master Zhang has read all those books into a dog's belly?"

Zhang Chi was bewildered.

Did this woman just insult him again?

Xie Yuyao’s eyes widened in terror, filled with disbelief: "Second Sister, have you gone mad?"

Yet, she couldn't help but feel a secret joy.

This stupid woman must have gotten water in her brain along with the pond water.

To actually slap the Second Young Master of the Zhang family in public—she had caused him such a loss of face that she would surely suffer when she returned.

The Second Young Master would likely despise her even more now, right?

Xie Yuyao looked at Zhang Chi as if inadvertently, her eyes alluring, her heart already pledged to him.

"How could you hit the Second Young Master! He was only doing it for your own good!"

Afraid that Zhang Chi wasn't embarrassed or resentful enough toward Song Lan, Xie Yuyao deliberately raised her voice.

*Slap!*

Song Lan swung her hand back and delivered another slap, five finger marks deeply etched onto Xie Yuyao’s fair, egg-shell-like face.

"You hit me?"

Xie Yuyao was filled with disbelief, looking at Song Lan as if she had seen a ghost.

Song Lan frowned slightly: "Didn't hit you hard enough?" Did she need to ask to confirm?

She raised her hand and added another slap.

Xie Yuyao screamed, covering her face and retreating several steps, feeling as though the Song Lan before her had become an evil spirit.

Song Lan was indeed an evil spirit.

After the Xie family had seized her inheritance, ruined her reputation, and tortured her to death, leaving her body exposed in the wilderness, she had died with her eyes wide open, her resentment soaring to the heavens.

She had turned into an evil spirit and bathed the entire Xie family in blood.

But it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough!

Her heart was filled with unresolved resentment, and she had become entangled in karma and lives.

Even the entire Underworld had been stirred into a state of shrill ghostly wails and unstable spirits by her overwhelming resentment.

Many new souls hadn't even had the chance to cross the Naihe Bridge or drink the soup before her resentment shattered them into fragments.

If she were left to continue with her resentment unspent, all the spirits in the Underworld would likely be scattered by her.

Yet, she had accumulated a hundred lifetimes of merit, and her soul could not be dispersed.

Even the King of Hell was helpless, so he could only arrange for her to stay by the Naihe Bridge to help Meng Po brew soup, hoping that time would purify the resentment within her.

Who would have thought that the resentment of a worker would be heavier than that of a ghost?

Two thousand years passed; her soup-brewing became better and more practiced, but her resentment only grew heavier!

"Is that why I’ve come back to life?"

Song Lan looked at the hands that had just struck the scumbag man and woman, feeling a sense of unreality.

Hands of flesh and blood, with warmth.

How wonderful!

Zhang Chi, who had watched Xie Yuyao get slapped as well, snapped out of his shock and roared: "Song Lan, you are being presumptuous!"

"Didn't hit you hard enough either?"

*Slap!*

Song Lan raised her hand and, with great fluidity, added another slap to Zhang Chi.

Symmetrical.

Comforting.

Song Lan was very satisfied with her masterpiece.

In her past life, she had wanted to do exactly this!

Constrained by rules, etiquette, the dignity and magnanimity expected of a noble lady, and the "careful guidance" of the Xie family, she had swallowed every grievance and anger, digesting them in silence, even blaming herself.

In her past life, the thing the Xie family said to her most often was, "So many people say you are in the wrong; you really ought to reflect on yourself," and "Why don't they talk about others? Why don't they talk about Yuyao or us, but only you?"

Song Lan had reflected.

She had reflected for over two thousand years.

The conclusion: Enduring for a moment only makes you angrier, and taking a step back... step back to hell!

If you're in the wrong, you should still argue your case; if you're in the right, why should you ever forgive anyone?

Not a single bit of forgiveness!

Provoke her?

Kill them! Kill them! Kill them all!

While lost in thought, Song Lan had already walked up to another familiar face and raised her hand...

"Song Lan, have you lost your mind!"

The only male heir of the Xie family’s third branch—the only concubine-born son, Xie Siming—was currently gripping Song Lan’s wrist, blocking the slap she had intended for someone else’s face.