Chapter 14: It Is Time to Fulfill One's Filial Duties

A sudden clap of thunder in the winter.

Lang Jiuchuan glanced out the window. Snow needles were falling densely, and a chill seeped through the cracks of the window frame, making her shiver involuntarily.

It was a cold winter.

Lang Jiuchuan bit into a steaming vegetarian bun, then picked up a bowl of hot soup, taking a sip and swallowing. As the warmth flooded into her stomach, she let out a comfortable sigh.

This was the first meal she had eaten since coming back to life.

The taste and the calories finally made her feel as though she were truly alive.

To be alive—it was wonderful.

Only by being alive could one feel the warmth of human life and find hope within it.

Just like right now—

The soup was hot and savory, not the bland, tasteless scent of a funeral candle.

It would have been even better if there were meat, but unfortunately, she was in mourning. No, rather, the days of vegetarianism were still far from over.

Lang Jiuchuan swallowed the entire bun in one go, drawing a sidelong glance from the maid serving her. The girl thought to herself: *She looks so delicate and frail, yet she eats so much. But... is there a certain smell clinging to Ninth Miss?*

Catching the maid's movement of covering her nose out of the corner of her eye, Lang Jiuchuan blinked and looked down at herself.

She was in trouble.

She had just crawled out of a pile of corpses in a mass grave. Before she even had a chance to wash up at the manor, she had been picked up by someone from the Marquis's estate. She had only been able to cast a Dust-Cleansing Spell. Come to think of it, she hadn't actually bathed or washed herself properly yet.

The scent of the dead was the hardest to remove!

Lang Jiuchuan set down her utensils and said, "Have someone bring water. I need to bathe."

The maid froze. It was currently the period of mourning; while everyone else was keeping vigil, the young lady wanted to bathe. She feared this would invite gossip.

Seeing her hesitation, Lang Jiuchuan’s gaze swept over her. The look in her eyes was so cold that the maid couldn't help but shudder. She folded her hands across her chest, bowed deeply, and quickly retreated.

Half an hour later, Lang Jiuchuan stood before the full-length bronze mirror in the cleansing room. Under the dim orange candlelight, she examined the corpse in the mirror... oh, her body.

Lang Jiuchuan wouldn't reach her coming-of-age ceremony until next year, but she had grown quickly, standing more than half a head taller than her peers. Her figure was slender and her skin was pale and cold; her delicate complexion didn't look like that of someone who had suffered. But was that really true?

What were these thin calluses on her palms and fingertips?

According to Nanny Wang, although she was at the manor, the Old Madam provided protection, and there were always people attending to her. One of the senior nannies had been the Old Madam's personal attendant, but she had died of illness two years ago, leaving her without anyone by her side.

Furthermore, the Old Madam herself suffered from dementia and could not look after her. Moreover, the Marquis's estate had never shown any intention of bringing her back, which had left her living like a discarded, pitiful thing for the past two years.

People are fickle; they flatter the high and trample the low. Seeing her as a discarded pawn, they simply stopped caring.

So, she had died all alone in the mass grave. If the Marquis's estate hadn't suddenly sent someone to fetch her, would she have remained there until she rotted away in that pile of corpses?

With a wave of her hand, Lang Jiuchuan withdrew her intent, and all the sorcery applied to this body vanished instantly. The person in the mirror changed in a heartbeat: two hollow, blood-red eye sockets, the tendons in her hands and feet severed and scabbed over, the area beneath her left breast sliced open with a missing rib, and her heart area pierced with several tiny holes, as if blood had been extracted from it.

"What on earth happened to you?"

Looking at the mutilated, broken body before her, Lang Jiuchuan's eyes turned blood-red. A surge of hostility swirled in her gaze, and the temperature in the cleansing room plummeted instantly.

What kind of grudge or resentment could lead someone to be so cruel to a young girl?

As if the body itself still held lingering resentment, two lines of bloody tears flowed from the eye sockets.

The hostility suddenly overflowed.

*Bang!*

The bronze mirror shattered, shards flying outward and slicing her skin.

"Ninth Miss?"

Hearing the commotion in the room, the maid serving outside called out hesitantly.

With a wave of her hand, Lang Jiuchuan covered herself in sorcery, restoring the broken body to its original state. Looking at the various reflections presented by the shattered mirror, she murmured, "Since I have used your body, I will, in the end, bring you justice."

She turned around. The dim candlelight flickered in the wind, but no one noticed that in the reflection of the mirror, a flash of golden light flickered across her neck and vanished instantly, so fast it seemed like a mere illusion caused by the candlelight.

After dressing, Lang Jiuchuan was panting heavily. Simply switching the sorcery back and forth was enough to exhaust this body. It was so weak.

Hmm?

She suddenly looked toward the direction of the mourning hall, her eyes narrowing slightly.

It was time to fulfill her filial duties!