Phoenix's Requiem

Almost everyone found it acceptable for Yun Ruoyan to carry Rong Yuehong on her back. After all, Rong Yuehong did appear quite pitiful. Given that Yun Ruoyan did have some role to play in Rong Yuehong’s downfall, wasn’t it reasonable for her to carry out Rong Yuehong’s request?

All that Yun Lan and the Yun matriarch were considering was whether or not they could quickly resolve the matter, and Rong Yuehong could hardly hurt Yun Ruoyan with everyone watching.

The only thing that Yun Ruoyan had to do was carry the skeletal Rong Yuehong a few steps. Then, the Rong carriage would stop blocking the eastern entrance to the Yun manor, all the other carriages stuck behind the blockade could finally move forward, and the banquet could proceed as planned.

No one really cared about how Yun Ruoyan herself felt about the matter. Carrying someone as ghastly as Rong Yuehong on her back? Someone whom she detested, and who detested her in turn?  Even with her past life’s experience, Yun Ruoyan still found this to be a humiliating and nauseating affair.

She slowly walked toward the carriage. Surely Lin Zainan wouldn’t have allowed her to suffer such abject humiliation! It was lucky that Li Mo wasn’t here; she would have hated for him to see her sorry figure now.

A large group of scions from the Yun family were standing near the entrance to the manor, some whispering, some silent, and some laughing and enjoying the show. Yun Ruoyao, Yun Ruoyu, and Yi Qianying watched on without hiding their amusement at Yun Ruoyan.

By this time, Li Qianxiao and Li Qianyuan had reached a nearby intersection. From a distance, they could see a crowd gathered near the road to the Yun manor. Li Qianxiao wanted to send someone forward to drive the crowd away, but Li Qianyuan quickly stopped him. “No, no! If there’s such a large crowd ahead, there must be something going on. How about we go watch too, Brother?”

And so the two brothers commanded their escort to remain behind as they proceeded forward on foot.

Li Qianxiao commented, “What’s there to watch? I heard the Yihong brothel just imported a shipment of female slaves from the Mo kingdom. How about I treat you to that lovely view tonight, hmm?”

There were four kingdoms on the Chenyuan continent: Li, Yue, Chen, and Mo. The Li and Yue kingdoms were the most powerful; Li had the strongest military might, and Yue the largest merchant coalitions. Chen was close to the eastern seas, from which they routinely found all sorts of rare treasures. Mo was barren, but filled with beauties. Any established brothel on the Chenyuan continent would have female slaves from Mo.

When Li Qianyuan heard Li Qianhan’s words, however, he simply smiled, leaned over, and covered his mouth with a folding fan as he whispered a few sentences to Li Qianxiao.

“Really?” Li Qianxiao looked toward Li Qianyuan, his face filled with undisguised shock and delight.

“When have I ever lied to you, Brother?” Li Qianyuan pointed at the sky with his fan. “I promise you’ll be satisfied.”

They squeezed into the crowd. Because they weren’t dressed formally, no one paid them much attention; instead, everyone’s attention was on Yun Ruoyan at the front.

“Look, that’s Yun Ruoyan.” Both brothers were tall, and Li Qianxiao was easily able to spot the girl. But as he pointed at her, he began to frown. “What’s she doing?”

Li Qianyuan looked in the direction that Li Qianxiao was pointing and saw her carrying another well dressed girl on her back.

“There are so many servants standing around. Why aren’t they doing anything?” Li Qianxiao continued.

When a youth by his side saw the two princes, he gaped and immediately tried to bow, but Li Qianyuan motioned him to stop. The youth froze for a moment, terrified, before beginning to blush.

By this time, Yun Ruoyan had gotten Rong Yuehong on her back and was beginning to walk toward the front doors of the Yun manor. She continued smiling gracefully, hiding all her emotions deep within her heart. To the crowd, it looked as if she were perfectly calm and bearing no ill will to Rong Yuehong. The Yun matriarch nodded in satisfaction, and even Yun Lan felt that his daughter could be counted on in a pinch.

Just then, Rong Yuehong began to cough forcefully. A curious, rotting stench emanated from her mouth and assailed Yun Ruoyan’s nostrils.

“Ha, haha.” She made a few guttural sounds before continuing hoarsely, “Yun Ruoyan, the reason I look like this is because of you! Do you know what all my past lackeys said to me? That I’m worthless, no better than dog shit, a withered husk of a girl! Yun Ruoyan, you’ll suffer retribution for doing all this to me!”

“Ha!” Yun Ruoyan, who had remained silent the entire time, finally began to speak. In an equally low tone, she began, “Miss Rong, I’ve heard all these remarks time and time again. I’ve even heard worse—shall I repeat them to you?”

She intentionally slowed down as she continued, her whispers in so hushed a tone that only Rong Yuehong could hear her. “No matter how noble your birth, you’re ultimately the one in control of your life. If you don’t take advantage of your resources, then you would have fallen into dire straits even if you were the crown princess herself! If there’s anyone to blame, it’s yourself—your blind eyes, your perverse heart, your dim-witted mind! That’s why, Miss Rong, rather than blaming others for your downfall, you’d best reflect on your own actions! What have you done in all these years as the eldest daughter of the Rong family?!”

“You… you… no, I’ve done nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all!” Rong Yuehong was so enraged by Yun Ruoyan’s words that tremors wracked her entire body. Even if she refused to admit her wrongdoing, Yun Ruoyan’s words penetrated her soul. These last few days, she’d blamed her lackeys, her father, even heaven and earth. All this blame was now concentrated on one target: Yun Ruoyan.

In Rong Yuehong’s mind, Yun Ruoyan was the one who had orchestrated her downfall. If not for Yun Ruoyan’s presence, she would still have been the talented eldest daughter of the Rong family, the genius lauded for her cultivation. Yun Ruoyan’s appearance had ruined everything, and she herself had done nothing wrong.

“Has no one ever mentioned anything like this to you?” Yun Ruoyan continued. “Ever since your childhood, you’ve been called a genius. Who would dare tell you to reflect on your own actions, to understand their consequences? Well, I’ll give you a lesson out of kindness, Miss Rong. Your downfall was due to your pride and arrogance. During the flower-viewing party, did Yun Ruoyao incite you to pick a fight with me?”

“You… how did you know?”

At the time, Yun Ruoyan was paying particular attention to the fact that, while Yun Ruoyao and Rong Yuehong conversed, they were also covertly sneaking glances at her. When Rong Yuehong challenged her, it must have been on account of Yun Ruoyan.

“My dear sister loves manipulating others, and she naturally wouldn’t let go of so pointed yet brainless a tool as you. Being so idiotic that you would let someone manipulate you so simply is your first mistake, Miss Rong. Your second mistake was to imagine that everything would have continued as it was even after being crippled. Rather than exercising restraint, you picked a fight you knew you would lose.”

Yun Ruoyan could easily picture the crippled Rong Yuehong still trying to act bossy and domineering, followed by an ignominious defeat at the hands of her once-underlings.

“Even without your cultivation, you would still have been the eldest daughter of the Rong family, and your father would have continued doting on you. You could easily have begged him to find a good groom to marry you off to—and if you didn’t want to marry anyone, he would hardly have forced you. But you, you chose the method that would be harshest on yourself: consuming poison! This was your third mistake!”

By some trick of fate, the stench from Rong Yuehong’s breath was exactly the same as the poison that Yi Qianying and Pei Ziao had fed her in her past life.

“Worse, even after you decided to kill yourself, you chose to do it in a location where someone easily found you! And here you are now, revived in agony, halfway between human and ghost. This was your fourth mistake, Miss Rong!”

“I… no, you… I… I’ve done nothing wrong! It’s all… it’s all your… I…” Rong Yuehong’s face, originally a waxy yellow, now became the deep purple of pork liver. She had spoken in a stuttering fashion, as if she were constantly out of breath, but now it took her long seconds just to choke out a word.

“Rest a little, will you?” Yun Ruoyan mocked her and continued, “Three mistakes would have killed a regular person, Miss Rong, but you’re well past your fourth! Aren’t you tired? Save your breath and rest, and you might even end up rebirthing like I did.”

Rong Yuehong’s present circumstance was very similar to Yun Ruoyan’s past: a wife-born daughter, robbed of her status and designated as trash, then forced to ingest poison. But others had schemed against Yun Ruoyan, and the one who had schemed against Rong Yuehong… was herself.

“But even if you were to live again, with this sort of personality, you’d still end up reliving your tragedy!” Yun Ruoyan continued mercilessly. “With your blind eyes, your perverse heart, and your dim-witted mind!”

By this time, Rong Yuehong had become so incensed that her body felt as if it were burning up. With the last of her energy, she raised her head high. Like a monstrous beast, she seemed as if she would take a bite out of Yun Ruoyan’s slender neck at any moment.

“You… you… I’m going to kill you!” Rong Yuehong shouted to the skies so hoarsely that it seemed her vocal cords would break. Then she raised an arm and clawed at Yun Ruoyan’s face, her slender fingers pulling off her gauze patch and revealing the fake birthmark on her cheek.

Rong Yuehong waved her hands around madly, trying to use her remaining life to deal Yun Ruoyan a vicious blow.

Subconsciously, Yun Ruoyan tried to fling her off, but the thin and emaciated Rong Yuehong held on tightly to Yun Ruoyan’s body as though she were a squid. In a blink, Yun Ruoyan’s face became bloody.

Clearly, no one in the crowd had anticipated Rong Yuehong’s sudden bout of madness.

“Xiao Lan, go help Ruoyan out.” The Yun matriarch’s gaze had been fixed on Yun Ruoyan. Although she couldn’t hear their conversation, she noticed Rong Yuehong’s increasing agitation and eventual outburst.

Xiao Lan hurriedly ran over and somehow managed to drag Rong Yuehong off Yun Ruoyan’s body.

“Yun Ruoyan… I… I won’t forgive you…!” The ornaments affixed to Rong Yuehong’s hair came loose, and her gown was in shambles. As the Yun servants took hold of her, she called out, “Yun Ruoyan, even as a ghost… I will… pull you down with me!”

With a final exclamation, Rong Yuehong’s heart gave out. She spurted out a mouthful of blood, her body fell limply to the ground, and she died.