Zhou Qingfang's saliva trickled down with her words, yet she lacked the strength to even lift her head.
"Innocent? Does the blood on my hands make me less innocent?" Jiang Ling'er suddenly stood up, pacing slowly to Zhou Qingfang's side and crouching down. The bloody back of the knife continuously scraped against her wrist. If the sober Zhou Qingfang were present, she would surely have turned pale with fright.
"Hey, Aunt Zhou, I've never killed anyone in my life. Let me try. I want to know what killing feels like. Hey, is that okay? Is that okay?"
Jiang Ling'er gripped the hilt of the knife, feeling the rabbit's blood seep into Zhou Qingfang's tiny pores, sensing the blood coursing wildly through her beating veins, feeling her frail heartbeat and shallow breaths. An urge to torment surged into her mind like a phantom!
Her knife traced its way up Zhou Qingfang's arm, slowly moving towards her neck. The throbbing carotid artery was like the Grand Canal, carrying blood towards the skull.
If one were to sever this canal...
Jiang Ling'er swallowed, her innocent face wearing an indescribable excitement.
"Yes, my sister is right. A forcefully picked melon isn't sweet, but I like them forcefully picked."
Jiang Ling'er smiled and plunged the blade into Zhou Qingfang's arm. Those paralyzed by the Soul-Losing Incense felt no pain, not even the slightest sensation of their blood gushing out. All they saw was their vision blurring, eventually becoming a mass of murky air.
She understood what her daughter was going through. She was furious, wanting to roar, but found she couldn't even open her mouth. Every part of her body felt an almost deathly chill. She was in despair, even wishing she could claw out her own eyes, wishing none of this had ever happened.
She had once so desperately wished her daughter could marry such a refined and prominent man from a powerful family. But now, witnessing everything before her, all her hopes had turned into fleeting illusions. All that remained was the boundless sighing and pain of a mother for her daughter's fate.
Perhaps, from the moment Ouyang Rui had firmly rejected Jiang Li, this outcome had been inevitable. Fate was like mechanical, precise gears, and only death could end it.
Her consciousness gradually faded. In the last moments of her life, as her blood drained away, she could only faintly hear Jiang Ling'er's increasingly hollow and indifferent voice.
"Broken already? Never mind, let me give you a quick end~"
Zhou Qingfang, the only woman to bear offspring for the Ouyang family, finally had her head severed by the innocent girl.
Jiang Ling'er should have been happy. According to normal circumstances and everyone's wishes, wasn't she supposed to marry this man? Now, he had merely gotten his hands on her body a step earlier. Although his methods seemed somewhat shameful, wasn't this something that was bound to happen sooner or later?
Yet, the more she thought about it, the more distressed she felt, as if a huge void had opened in her heart. She couldn't quite articulate what this void was, but she instinctively felt immense sadness, tears streaming down her face like rain.
"What are you crying for? Are you regretting that the man didn't get you?"
—That man?
Ouyang Rui's mind exploded as if a crack had been torn open in the chaos. Brilliant rays of light pierced through the dust, striking her soul. Within that dust and heavenly light, a figure slowly emerged—
—Who is he?
For some unknown reason, the silhouette of the man appearing in her mind struck her like an electric shock, her breath catching in her throat. Although she couldn't see his face clearly, just looking at his back filled Ouyang Rui with a profound sense of contentment. With him, it was like walking in a world filled with light. Even if she had to look up at his back for her entire life, she would be willing. With just one word from him, she would follow him to heaven!
—But, who is he?
An unknown force granted Ouyang Rui a sliver of resistance, but such strength was insignificant before a mad beast!
"Trying to resist? Is it because of that man named Ren Yuanhao? It's useless. He's nothing but a good-for-nothing. You picked the wrong person, such a shame, isn't it?"
Jiang Li's face contorted, completely oblivious to the sudden glimmer of brilliance in Ouyang Rui's unfocused eyes!
—Ren Yuanhao?
The name pierced her heart like a bullet. She frantically called out the name in her illusion. She still couldn't recall the face of the man known by the name 'Ren Yuanhao'. She only knew that this name had caused her heart, like a stagnant pool, to boil with fervor.
"Ren~ Yuan~ Hao~"
Ouyang Rui, with all her might, squeezed these broken syllables from her throat, as if uttering a spell to call her heroic savior.
However, her heroic savior was currently lying on the bed, gazing out at the clear night sky, lost in thought.
"DiDi, Ren Yuanhao, do you feel a slight unease in your heart?"
"How did you know? Is it because you've absorbed too much 'Extreme Yang Qi'?"