Chapter 168: Stripped of the Halo, You Are Merely a Bastard
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Yu Zhi Yi, along with the woman and Du Zi Heng, turned their attention to Liu Fei Yang.
Liu Fei Yang hastily waved his hands, a sheepish smile spreading across his face as he explained, “I didn’t mean anything by it, truly! I’m just genuinely curious.”
Yu Zhi Yi didn’t say much in response. Her gaze fell on the injury on the woman’s head, her expression filled with compassion. “She was indeed beaten to death, but it wasn’t because of this incident.”
Cao Zhao Di was ultimately given to Cao Da Li’s family as a daughter-in-law.
Although she found it hard to accept this outcome, she consoled herself by remembering that Sister Fan still had a five-year-old son. She thought of it as atonement—caring for Sister Fan’s child.
However, the son she sought to care for didn’t want her care.
After that day, everyone in the village whispered that it was she who had caused Sister Fan’s death, robbing Cao Yao Zu of his mother.
Though Cao Yao Zu was only five years old, he absorbed these words. Do not underestimate the malice of a five-year-old child.
His heart was consumed with hatred for Cao Zhao Di. Coupled with the ill-treatment she suffered at the hands of Cao Da Li’s family, who berated and beat her at every turn, her position in the household was nonexistent. This further emboldened Cao Yao Zu, who encouraged the family to mistreat her even more.
Sometimes, he deliberately sought out her faults. Whether it was poorly washed clothes, meals not prepared on time, or her accidentally eating too much—any trivial reason sufficed for him to provoke attacks against her.
During her two years with the Cao Da Li family, her body bore countless scars.
She hated the Cao Da Li family. She hated the villagers. But she never resented Cao Yao Zu, for he was Sister Fan’s child.
Yet it was this very child she didn’t resent who ultimately cost her her life.
Cao Yao Zu, consumed by hatred for Cao Zhao Di over his mother’s death, frequently incited the Cao Da Li family to harm her. He longed for them to beat her to death. Yet, despite two years passing, she lived on.
Unwilling to accept this, one day, while playing with friends, he overheard a tale about a girl from the town who was drowned for eloping with a man.
Unaware of what “eloping” meant, he only understood that drowning equaled death, and an idea formed in his young mind. He rushed home to accuse Cao Zhao Di of planning to elope with a man.
Without a shred of evidence, the villagers decided she deserved to be drowned.
That very night, Cao Zhao Di’s younger sister sneaked into the ancestral hall of Cao Nan Village, untying the ropes binding Cao Zhao Di and urging her to flee.
Unfortunately, fate did not favor the wretched girl. The same man who had spotted her two years earlier during a nighttime trip to the lavatory saw her again.
This time, Cao Zhao Di had no will to live. Surrounded, she screamed herself hoarse, telling Cao Yao Zu that it wasn’t she who had caused his mother’s death. She revealed to him that his mother and uncle had once been the children of a prominent official, destined for bright futures. But it was the selfishness, greed, ignorance, and cruelty of the people in Cao Jia Village that led to the tragic demise of his mother and uncle.
She explained that had his mother escaped, he would have been taken away to live a good life.
All of this had been ruined by the villagers of Cao Jia Village!
Fixing a hateful gaze on each villager, it seemed she sought to etch their faces into her memory.
She cursed them under the heavens, vowing not to spare anyone who had caused the deaths of Sister Fan and her brother, even in death.
She longed to meet the same fate as Sister Fan, to dash herself against that old locust tree. But this time, the villagers were prepared. They stopped her.
Before dawn broke, they dragged her to the river by the village entrance and submerged her into its depths.
Liu Fei Yang listened, his mouth agape and eyes wide. “This… this is absurd, isn’t it?”
He was skeptical. “I mean no offense, but… how can you tell it like you’ve seen it all yourself?”
A coarse, raspy voice answered. “Because it did happen—it all happened to me!”
As she recounted the events, the fury surrounding her seemed to swell, a tempest of malice. “Those wicked people… I’ll make them pay! I’ll kill them all! Avenge Sister Fan!”
She threw her head back and laughed maniacally. “But I won’t just kill them; I’ll plant seeds of hatred deep within their hearts!”
Before her death, she had vowed to sow the seeds of vengeance in Cao Yao Zu’s soul. Even if she could not return as a fierce ghost to exact retribution, she ensured that Cao Yao Zu would bear the hatred needed to avenge his father and uncle.
“And sure enough, Cao Yao Zu began to doubt.” Her lips curled into a cold smile. “Without the halo of being Sister Fan’s son, he was nothing more than a twisted, selfish wretch spoiled rotten in South Cao Village.”
“He clung to the idea of his mother being the daughter of a great official. Afterward, he questioned his father and grandfather about it, but neither would say a word.”
“That brat always had a mind of his own. At just five years old, he could lie in wait for two years to kill me. For the sake of a better life, he chose to bide his time again—this time, for eight long years.”
“At fifteen, he got his father drunk and unearthed the truth.”
“Then…” She suddenly grinned. “Guess what he did to seek revenge?”
Seeing the woman remain unexpectedly composed, even speaking with a hint of dark humor, the crowd’s fear began to wane. You Bing Yue ventured, “Could it be… using ghostly means to kill?”
The woman chuckled again. “Exactly!”
“He was only fifteen, yet he already planned to use me as his weapon!”
“Back then, I had not yet awakened. It was he who led people to the river’s edge, pushed them in, and offered me tributes, forcibly summoning me.”
“Later, I learned he had stumbled upon a spirit-summoning technique from who knows where.”
“He said he had uncovered the truth about the past, acknowledged my wrongful death, and discovered that his mother and uncle had indeed been killed by the villagers. Alone, he was powerless to avenge them, so he sought my help.”
“In the end, he even asked if I knew his grandfather’s official rank.”
Her laughter turned hoarse and eerie, filled with boundless sorrow. “Oh, I knew. How could I not know? But I refused to tell him.”
“I understood that he never truly wanted to summon me. What he really sought were the spirits of Sister Fan and Young Master Fan. But he couldn’t reach them and had to settle for me in the end.”
“He brought those people to the river not out of a desire for revenge, but to earn my favor, to convince me he genuinely loved his mother and truly wanted to avenge her and his uncle.”
Her voice suddenly rose. “So I just stood by and watched him perform!”
“I might lack experience, but I’m no fool. His killings weren’t for Sister Fan or Young Master Fan; they were to please me. So, I watched as he murdered his own grandfather, grandmother, father, Cao San Er, who caused Sister Fan and me to flee, the village chief and his wife, and even their three-year-old grandson.”
“Finally, to clear himself of suspicion, he staged his own accidental drowning, making everyone believe he, too, had fallen victim to the ghost in the river.”