After Encountering My Deceased Wife, I Became the Male Lead's Love Rival - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Madman

The environment outside the safe zone was atrocious; the rainwater pooling on the ground washed up various kinds of garbage.

The woman, who had been exuding a withered aura like decaying wood, recovered a hint of vitality in the torrential rain. She stepped through the puddles, heading all the way east.

Acaintances out on business saw her from a distance; they cursed her for bringing bad luck while racing back to the safe zone to inform Liang Xiuyue.

“Ah Yue! That crazy old woman of yours has run out of the safe zone! Go take a look!” The neighbor’s shout reached Liang Xiuyue’s ears from afar.

Liang Xiuyue, who was currently in a sweet, intimate moment with Gu Qiaorou, immediately had a change of expression. He stood up with an unhappy face and dressed himself with a grim look.

That damn crazy woman his family being saddled with such a thing was truly eight lifetimes of bad luck!

Gu Qiaorou, whose mood had also been spoiled, had a look of disgust and hatred on her otherwise cute and obedient face. She angrily threw the pillow beside her onto the floor and hissed, “Brother Liang, how many times has this been?!”

Every time she came to the Liang house wanting some private time with Liang Xiuyue, that crazy woman would make all sorts of commotions to disturb them!

“If this keeps up, can we ever be happy?” Gu Qiaorou gritted her teeth in fury, wishing she could tear that crazy woman apart.

Seeing his sweetheart so upset, Liang Xiuyue hurried forward to embrace her, coaxing her in a low voice: “Rourou, don’t be angry. We won’t bother with her anymore. Just let her die outside the safe zone.”

That crazy woman had been forced upon the Liang family by his father on his deathbed. If not for his father’s sake, Liang Xiuyue would have kicked her out long ago.

Gu Qiaorou knew Liang Xiuyue’s filial nature. She couldn’t bear to vent her anger on him, so she directed it all toward the lunatic she despised. She leaned into Liang Xiuyue’s chest and pouted, “If you really let her die out there, you’ll never get over that hurdle in your heart, Brother Liang.”

Gu Qiaorou knew exactly how to manipulate Liang Xiuyue’s soft spots. This man was a weakling, a spineless coward who only knew how to listen to his father. But his father had left him enough property to squander for a lifetime. Knowing full well that Liang Xiuyue was a coward who bullied the weak but feared the strong, his father had even given up a flourishing career on the Imperial Planet to live on this Desolate Planet where the standard of living was extremely low.

Gu Qiaorou knew the elder Liang feared that after his death, Liang Xiuyue wouldn’t be able to hold onto the family assets and would starve on the Imperial Planet. But the Desolate Planet was different; here, the elder Liang had participated in the construction of the safe zone. Currently, most of the control over the safe zone was in Liang Xiuyue’s hands. As long as the people on this planet wanted to live comfortably, they had to protect him.

The elder Liang had played a ruthless hand; he made sure everyone in the safe zone knew that if anything happened to Liang Xiuyue, the safe zone would be finished.

But Gu Qiaorou didn’t care about any of that. She didn’t want to stay in this godforsaken place for the rest of her life. She was going to the Imperial Planet, and she was taking this easily controlled man with her. Once there, with her abilities, what kind of good life couldn’t she lead?

Gu Qiaorou curled her lips smugly. Since she could remember, she knew she had a miraculous ability. As long as she wanted something done, there was nothing she couldn’t achieve.

Except for that lunatic in Liang Xiuyue’s house…

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. If she wasn’t worried that violating the late Father Liang’s wishes would weigh on Brother Liang’s conscience, she would have hired someone to toss that crazy old woman into the sea to feed the fish long ago!

“Rourou, you’re so good to me.” Liang Xiuyue’s heart softened at her words. He hugged her tightly, moved by her “kindness.”

Gu Qiaorou, seeing that Liang Xiuyue had taken the bait, began to urge him: “Brother Liang, how about I send someone to bring her back? It’s not safe outside the safe zone, and she’s always talking nonsense. If she’s left out there, who knows what lies she’ll spread about you.”

Seeing Gu Qiaorou’s look of righteous indignation, Liang Xiuyue’s heart melted. He hugged her and sighed from the bottom of his heart: “Rourou, you’re the only one in this world who is truly good to me.”

His father died to save that crazy woman, yet all she did was ruin his plans and slander his reputation. Liang Xiuyue had thought of kicking her out many times, but every time he saw his father’s portrait, he was forced to endure it. He understood Gu Qiaorou’s intentions; she wanted the woman dead. He would just turn a blind eye. After all, it was clear who treated him best.

You’ve lived off the Liang family for so long; don’t blame my lover for being ruthless, Liang Xiuyue thought. As long as the lunatic didn’t die by his own hand, he wouldn’t be violating his father’s last wishes. Once he figured this out, he suddenly felt refreshed.

The burden weighing on him could finally be tossed away!

“What a heavy rain.” Sitting by the window, Fang Ziyue sipped on a glass of tomato juice. She looked at her vegetable garden; fortunately, she had built a shed earlier, otherwise these poor little sprouts would have been battered to pieces by the storm.

However, the fact that such heavy rain couldn’t stop those busybodies from gathering to gossip was truly speechless. The system had woken her up when they gathered near her house. Fang Ziyue had observed them with full vigilance for a long time, only to realize they hadn’t discovered her vegetables they were talking about some lunatic?

“I thought people outside the safe zone were too busy struggling to survive? How do they have time to gather for gossip?” Fang Ziyue couldn’t understand it. Their lives were on the line, yet they had the energy to mind other people’s family affairs? They certainly were big-hearted.

Through the curtain of rain, Fang Ziyue saw those people gesturing excitedly. If it weren’t for their protective shields, the moisture on their faces would be indistinguishable between rain and spit.

“Hey, I say, how much longer until that crazy woman arrives?” The man who spoke first was shivering from the cold. If not for the reward of a tube of F-grade nutrient solution offered by Miss Gu, he wouldn’t be standing here like an idiot in the rain.

“Who knows?” a plump woman snapped. “The Gu girl said the lunatic would arrive today, but she didn’t say exactly when.” Her family had things to do; if not for her son’s severe mental riots, she wouldn’t have come to do this immoral work.

Of the twenty or thirty people gathered here, half had come against their conscience. But on the Desolate Planet, when you can barely stay alive, what is conscience?

“That lunatic is quite unlucky. Leaving the safe zone in this weather… it’s not even certain she can make it this far.”

The most lethal things outside the safe zone aren’t just people with fully erupted mental energy who turn into monsters attacking indiscriminately until they burn out and die but also Star Beasts, monsters that survive by feasting on human mental energy. Encountering them means either suppressing and killing them with powerful mental energy or being suppressed and drained until death. This rainy weather is the Star Beasts’ favorite time to be active.

“If she dies in the mouth of a Star Beast, it would be a mercy,” a scrawny woman muttered. Her nails were full of dirt, her hair was dry and filthy, and her body was covered in scars. She was a woman living under someone else’s roof; her parents died early, and she lived with her uncle’s family, working everywhere to make money for them. She’d even take this “wicked money.” She picked at her nails, thinking numbly: In a life like this, death is better than being alive.

“Oh, give it a rest,” a plump auntie sneered. Her house was right next to this woman’s; did she think she didn’t know her? A coward who didn’t dare to die herself, constantly imposing her own misery on others and trying to incite them to suicide. If that crazy woman wasn’t part of the Liang family, this dirty woman might have killed her long ago.

The filthy woman remained silent and dull, staring blankly at the hem of her mud-splattered trousers. Seeing this, the plump auntie let out a light snort and turned to talk to someone else, clearly finding her disgusting.

Meanwhile, the subject of their discussion was lying in a deep puddle, entangled by vegetation at the bottom, motionless as a corpse. The falling rain had dispersed the energy that was luring her; the target that had sustained her forward momentum suddenly lost its direction, forcing her back into a deep slumber.

There were massive Star Beast footprints crisscrossing around the puddle, yet the beasts—usually highly sensitive to mental energy completely ignored the person submerged in the water.

The woman “merged” with the water and slept for three full days.

During those three days, the storm’s runoff accumulated in front of Fang Ziyue’s house, nearly forming a pond. The gossiping crowd, failing to see the so-called lunatic, cursed their employer and left on the second day.

Fang Ziyue looked at her fence very good, very sturdy. At least she didn’t have to worry about the wall collapsing and could focus on clearing the water. Opening her small vegetable shed, another batch of vegetables had matured. Clutching two large eggplants, she thought about adding a dish for lunch to celebrate her settling into this world.

With the curtain of rain gone, the energy invisible to ordinary people wafted like catnip, stirring the person sleeping in the puddle. The awakened woman’s throat moved slightly, and beneath her long hair, her eyes shone with the light of desire and greed.

“Want… to eat…” Her voice was dry and raspy, her words slurred perfectly fitting her identity. A lunatic who had run away from the Liang family…

“Drive faster.” Sitting in the aircraft, Gu Qiaorou impatiently urged her housekeeper.

But since the aircraft was already at its maximum speed, the housekeeper could only explain miserably: “Miss, I really can’t go any faster.”

Gu Qiaorou’s face darkened, and she slammed her fist onto the seat. This was the godforsaken Desolate Planet, so poor it didn’t even have a decent aircraft! She gnashed her teeth; she had to deal with that crazy woman quickly, then take Liang Xiuyue away to the Imperial Planet.

She had made up her mind. Not only would she leave that crazy woman on this planet forever, but she would also make sure everyone believed the Liang family had to abandon that lunatic!

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