Chapter 8: Are You an Evil Spirit!

Song Lan seemed to have heard some hilarious joke and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Hahahahaha~"

Her silver-bell-like laughter echoed through the seemingly empty prison, giving off an inexplicably hair-raising sensation.

"Y-you, what are you laughing at!"

Zhang Chi was so scared his legs went weak.

Could this woman be possessed by something? Why does her laughter sound like a ghost wailing...

"Stop laughing."

"Song Lan, can you stop laughing?" His voice was already laced with a sob.

Song Lan stopped laughing abruptly.

She looked even more like an evil spirit now.

An eerie feeling inexplicably sprouted in Zhang Chi's mind—the feeling that Song Lan was coming for his life.

A chill ran down his spine for no reason, and he was so terrified that his legs gave out, causing him to collapse to the ground.

"Young Master Zhang, what are you talking about?"

Song Lan chuckled softly. "Who in the capital doesn't know that my fiancé is the legitimate second son of the Zhang family?"

Zhang Chi:???

The legitimate second son of the Zhang family... isn't that him?

"The marriage between the Song and Zhang families was settled by the Zhang family's matriarch herself, who came to our home in person while my mother was still alive."

Zhang Chi was completely bewildered, having no idea what medicine Song Lan was selling in her gourd.

Seeing his still-blank expression, Song Lan blinked, looking surprised.

"Forget it, I overestimated you."

He looked quite brainless, rather stupid.

Zhang Chi:???

Wait, was this woman calling him stupid?

But she hadn't even said anything!

It couldn't be that he wasn't born to his mother, or that he wasn't the legitimate second son of the Zhang family, could it?

"I heard that the eldest master of the Zhang family was sent to serve as an official in Qingzhou many years ago."

"The Liu family of Qingzhou is a merchant family that started out in the grain business; they are considered quite prominent local gentry."

"The Liu family has a daughter named Yue Niang..."

Upon hearing the name Liu Yue Niang, Zhang Chi's eyes turned sharp.

"How do you know about this!"

For the sake of domestic peace, even within the Zhang family, very few people knew that his father kept a mistress.

Even those who did mostly only heard rumors that the Zhang family had a sickly young master raised outside.

It was precisely because of this that his grandfather planned to let that bastard born of the mistress die in his place.

And he, in turn, would take on the identity of that illegitimate son to leave the capital.

Thinking of this, Zhang Chi still felt very displeased.

It was such a waste to let that wild seed off so easily!

Just by losing one life, he could possess the status of a legitimate Zhang family member and be buried in the Zhang family's ancestral grave with dignity.

And him?

He could only survive in this world using the identity of that lowly mongrel.

No one knew that the person who hated that wild seed the most wasn't his mother, but him!

Because that wild seed actually looked seven or eight parts similar to him!

Yet, with a face that looked almost the same, that wild seed was actually much better looking than him!

And he was even better at his studies!

By the age of fourteen, he had already taken first place in the provincial examinations.

If not for the little trick he played, causing him to miss the metropolitan examination twice in a row, he might have already been brought back by the Zhang family to serve as the face of their scholarly household!

"Does Young Master Zhang still not understand?"

Song Lan chuckled a few times. "With a brain like yours, how exactly did you manage to make a name for yourself among the Top Ten Talents of the capital?"

"Did you take the back door?"

Her gaze shifted downward, as if she were questioning whether Zhang Chi was the one who had been "taken" through that back door.

Zhang Chi sensed a highly offensive and uncomfortable gaze, and his brows furrowed tightly.

What did Song Lan mean?

Did she find out about that wild seed's existence and want to report it?

Wasn't she being a bit too overconfident?

A mere orphaned girl, actually wanting to go against the Zhang family?

She couldn't possibly think that just by saying a few words without any power or influence, she could contend with the Zhang family's reach that covered the sky, could she?

Ridiculous!

The mockery and contempt in Zhang Chi's eyes turned entirely into panic after hearing Song Lan's calm narration!