Chapter 51: The Peacock Flies Southeast (7)
I was thoroughly shocked, what kind of family is this? Loving the brother, the brother who married and ruined his husband's family, then this one again harmed the brother's love and son. How many secrets of sin and love were buried in the Zi Xiu Mountain Villa? Now that it has been uncovered, how can it be shocking and terrifying.
But Yu Qingwu lowered her eyelids, her slender fingers gently wiping the umbrella handle, carelessly erasing the bloodstains on it, and said faintly: "Continue."
"I don't know what kind of feelings Father had for you, but later when he found out that Mother was wronged, he didn't look for you to argue or do anything bad to you. Instead, until the end when the entire Ming family was destroyed, he still tried every way to save you out. For so many years, he has been constantly searching for you and whenever he mentions you, it's with both love and pity. Father often mentioned Auntie, saying that you were born out of wedlock, and that your mother used to be an opera singer who passed away early. When you were young, Grandfather didn't take good care of you, and as a child, you didn't even have a decent toy, so you had no choice but to talk and sing to the copper bell."
Yu Qingwu was stunned: "So second brother remembered," she muttered to herself: "When I was five years old, second brother had someone bring me over to live together, that's when I met Ming Lang."
"My father once told me that when my aunt was young, she had a kind heart and wouldn't even hurt an ant, which is very similar to my mother."
"Shut up! Don't mention your mother, how dare she be compared to me!" Yu Qingwu suddenly yelled at Fei Bai again.
Fei Bai didn't argue with her, but continued calmly: "As time went on, Auntie sometimes talked to herself, sometimes gentle and kind, sometimes cold and harsh. Father said that it's as if there are two people inside you, and the older you get, the more obvious it becomes."
I was secretly shocked, this is clearly a split personality, no wonder she was sometimes melancholic and sometimes furious, that is to say, she had this disease from childhood, did the miserable case of the Ming family completely turn her into a schizophrenia?
"Your heart has been divided into two, and given to two people. One is Ming Fengyang, and the other is given to Fu Hou. However, your body cannot do so. You married the one you loved, Ming Fengyang, but couldn't let go of your original family's Fu Hou. You hated that Ming Fengyang went mad with his cultivation and wronged my mother, but you hated even more that Fu Hou only had my mother in his heart. So, your strong jealousy and resentment made you decide to make the disloyal Ming Fengyang lose all his martial arts, to have my mother die at Fu Hou's hands, and for Fu Hou to live forever in pain." Yuan Fei Lang said loudly, with a somber expression.
I am certain that if Yuan Fei were alive today, he would definitely be an excellent psychologist and a top-notch detective. This young man has experienced the cruelest twists of fate at such a tender age, which is why his thoughts are so profound and meticulous. That's why Yuan Qingjiang praises him so much. But thinking again, I feel a chill run down my spine - he must have been paying attention to my every move all along, no wonder he can easily see through what I'm thinking and what I want.
Yu Fei was staring at Yu Qingwu, who finally stopped stroking the white umbrella handle and raised her head, saying softly: "Yes, I have practiced the Wu Xiao Jing, a more wonderful martial art. Before I married into the Ming family, I had already started practicing it."
She smiled faintly, with a hint of self-mockery and boundless sorrow. "I originally wanted to practice with Second Brother," she said. "If only Second Brother had practiced with me, he wouldn't have married me off, and I would have stayed by his side forever." Two lines of clear tears slowly fell from her eyes: "But at that time, Second Brother's heart was filled with Xie Mei. He merely advised me not to practice that martial art, saying it wasn't suitable for me. Later, I found out that one had to practice the Wu Lei Jing together with the Wu Le Quan to achieve an unparalleled divine skill. By chance, I discovered that the Wu Lei Jing was actually a treasured heirloom of the Ming family. So, I persuaded Second Brother to marry me off to Ming Lang. My intention was to wait until Ming Lang mastered the Wu Lei Jing and then practice the Wu Xiao Jing together, achieving an unparalleled martial art. Alas, he has become foolish, and what's more heartbreaking is that he also seems to have taken a liking to Xie Mei? Even when his mind is clear, he spends every day staring blankly at the plum blossoms he planted himself. I know he's thinking of her. How can this be possible?"
"I don't understand, what's wrong with the men in this world? Why do they all like that mediocre girl? Not to mention her martial arts skills, she can't even read or write, and doesn't care about dressing up. All she likes to do is plant vegetables, cook, and do needlework. This kind of person who only likes doing rough work, apart from looking a bit prettier, isn't better than me in any way. Even that jealous Qin Mingyi is a hundred times stronger than her."
"What did I do wrong?" Yu Qingwu shouted angrily: "And my second brother, who loved me the most, actually broke with Qin Shangye for her sake, and kept saying that our family helped the Qin family kill Father. It's clear that he was the one who killed Father for personal reasons. Since he married me to the Ming family, why did he want to destroy the Ming family? My relatives were left dead on the streets, my Yang'er was beheaded, Second Brother, how could you make me so homeless? You did all this just for that cheap woman, Second Brother is a real madman."
Fei Bai looked at me with eyes full of infinite sadness and sorrow, yet her voice was light as she said, "Auntie, don't you know that in this world, all sorts of calculations sometimes can't compare to a single pure heart."
My heart skipped a beat as he said this, but Fei Bai had already slowly turned his gaze back to Qing Wu.
She secretly wrapped a water sleeve, her two hands tightly grasped the throat of Yuan Fei, who was not white, and pulled him closer. The killing intent in her eyes grew thicker: "I want to kill all the people of the Yuan family to avenge me and the Ming family."
Yuán Fēi's expression didn't change as he gazed at Yuán Qīngwǔ, smiling faintly with a detached air: "Aunt wants to kill everyone in the Yuán family? I won't have any complaints. You're absolutely right; perhaps everyone in the Yuán family is crazy and deserves to die. You can take my life too." His eyes suddenly turned cold as ice, sharp as needles: "But you shouldn't have harmed Mù Yīng, and even more so, you shouldn't have poisoned and killed my mother."
His words had barely fallen when a white shadow flashed in his hand, and the right wrist of Yu Qingwu was pierced by a white jade hairpin, blood flowing like a fountain, which was exactly the hairpin held tightly in Ming Fengyang's right hand.
Yu Qing let out a miserable cry, and Fen Bai was flung to the wall corner beside me. As I crawled over, Fen Bai was already there, spitting out large mouthfuls of blood, but Yu Qing's face didn't have a single drop of blood on it.
"You little monster," the original Qingwu's face twisted with malice, looking at the jade hairpin on her wrist with disdain. She gently pulled it out and with a slight effort, broke it into two pieces, throwing them onto the golden bricks. The sound was crisp and pleasant. Her feet stepped on top of them as she slowly walked towards us, her eyes filled with cold contempt: "You were born a lowly creature. Back then, I had someone sabotage your horse, but you managed to survive by luck. I spared your life at that time, but now it seems that when cutting grass, one must also remove the roots."
Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, she sat up on my shoulder and sneered: "Auntie is so kind? You just want to see how miserable I am for the rest of my life. But if that's the case, then my mother and Yuan Qingjiang will be even more miserable than you, won't they?"
"Unfortunately, my father is that kind of man. He always puts his private affairs first," he said with infinite fatigue. "Back then, you were clearly by his side, but he still had eyes for my mother. After my mother passed away, Father quickly brought back the illegitimate child and was busy remarrying, taking one wife after another. Those women were either beauties or useful to his career, Auntie. If you really want to kill him, can you do it cleanly?"
"Even if it's not a clean kill, I'll still give it a try. Not just Second Brother's people, but every single person in the Yu household must die, including Second Brother himself." Yu Qing's face broke out into an absolutely enchanting smile, that smile seeming to be merely sweetly saying she was going to put up her hair in a morning glory hairstyle today, rather than indicating she was about to carry out a brutal and inhumane massacre. She moved with lotus steps, elegantly and refinedly flinging out her long sleeves as she floated over to us, then crouched down: "You little monster, unfortunately you're going to die right away, or else you would have been able to see how I drain the blood from every single one of your Yu household members."
Vampire, is it true?
"Perhaps Auntie doesn't have much time left," Fei Bai suddenly laughed, his laughter extremely cold. "Ming Feng rushed here to see his mother for the last time, he was shot by multiple flying arrows, and those arrows were all coated with the Yuan family's unique poison. Logically, with his martial arts skills, he could have found a secluded spot to stop and force out the poison, but he didn't do that. He just killed his way here, his blood is full of poison, and the white jade hairpin in his hand was also stained with his poisonous blood, covered in deadly toxin. Auntie was just stabbed by this white jade hairpin by your nephew, Auntie, calculate it yourself, how much longer can you live?"
Yu Qingwu stood there, raised her right wrist, and it had already turned a dark black. The terrifying darkness was still spreading upwards. She let out a terrified cry: "No."
She secretly pulled out a bright short sword from the white umbrella, cut off the poisoned hand at the root, and then quickly pressed the acupuncture points to stop the bleeding.
I was so frightened that I shouted loudly, but Yuan Qingwu yelled even louder: "You villain, I'll have you torn to pieces!"
She swung that short arrow like a startled goose, rushing towards us. Fei Bai remained calm and exchanged blows with her, always standing in front of me.
Yuanni coldly smiled and said: "Aunt, even if you kill me here, you won't gain the hearts of Uncle and Father. Although Father may not only take Mother as his wife, no matter how many women he takes, in his heart there is only my mother."
Yu Qingwu suddenly remembered something, her eyes full of shock and horror. She kicked away Fei Bai with one foot, turned around and rushed towards Xie's wife in the tent: "You wretched woman, quickly get up and see what your good son has done! Let me see how old and ugly you are now, and how you can still seduce my second brother and Ming Lang!"
Yu Fei suddenly lashed out with his whip towards Yu Qing, but just as it was about to reach her, he swiftly changed its direction, and the whip tip flew towards the emerald jade incense burner on the tent head. He quickly pulled me into hiding behind the only screen in the room.
A countless number of arrows shot out from the pink account, and the original Qing Wu Gong was high-powered, but it could not withstand all the flowing arrows. The heavy blood flowed out, and her mournful cries were endless.
The original non-white pressure on me, densely protecting me. The screen we hid behind was thin and transparent, but incredibly resilient. Those sharp arrowheads were completely blocked outside the screen.
After about half a time, the sound of arrows outside disappeared. Non-white hugged me and walked out, only to see that the entire room was shot by arrows, and Mrs. Xie's account had all collapsed. Yuan Qingwu lay on the ground like a hedgehog, with three arrows inserted in one eye, staring at Non-white with her remaining eye, spitting black foam: "You actually deliberately lured me into the dark palace, deliberately made me put down my guard, followed you into your mother's fake tomb, and used these arrows to kill me."
"Is it Second Brother's intention to have you bring me in here and kill me?" she asked tremulously.
He tightly hugged me, I felt his muscles tense all over, his chest heaving constantly, his body even trembling slightly, yet he didn't say a word, just smiled faintly at her, that smile exactly the same as when Qing Jiang and I were inseparable.
Yu Qing danced with her sword, slashing towards Fei Bai, but was pinned to the ground by a silver arrow. She tried several times but failed, and the wound began to bleed black blood uncontrollably. She finally gave up struggling, "Second brother really won't forgive me," she said, looking at Fei Bai with a bitter smile: "You look like Second Brother when you smile, you're very much like him, you really are his son."
She gazed at the distant skull with one eye and wept, saying: "My poor Minglang, you didn't even get to see her one last time before you died, did you? You silly fool."
Her tone was sincere and heart-wrenching, just like when she told me about her new marriage outside the dark palace, how she and Mingfeng Yang were deeply in love, and how Yuan Qingjiang spoiled her when they were young, full of warmth and emotion.
Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to sit up, using her remaining hand to pull out all the arrow shafts, crawling in a trail of blood until she finally reached Mingfeng Yang's skull. She hugged the skull tightly and murmured: "Don't worry anymore, Minglang, Qingwu has finally found you, our family of three can finally be reunited, from now on, you don't have to be afraid, I won't hit you or leave you again, nor will that slut or Second Brother hurt you, we two will never be apart again."
Yu Qingwu's mouth was curved with a hint of a smile, and her eyes suddenly shone with an unprecedented joyful sparkle, making her originally intimidating face appear calm and serene. She sweetly called out to the empty air: "Ming Lang! You've come to pick me up!"
Then she closed her eyes happily and slowly, and let out her last breath.
I let out a soft sigh in my heart, I think at the moment of her death, she finally understood who was the one she loved most in life.
Yu Qing chose the half that loved Ming Lang, choosing to fulfill her mother's wish and not being infatuated with Yu Qing Jiang, the other half of the love. Only then did she obtain peace of mind, she smiled so happily, she must have seen her Ming Lang, and her Ming Lang also forgave her. May her next life not be entangled in the hatred between her husband's family and her natal family, may she not suffer the pain of losing her husband and child.
I turned my head, blankly staring at the original green dance and Mingfeng's bones on the ground. After a while, he withdrew his gaze, turned to me, stared for a moment, and softly asked: "Are you okay?"