After Encountering My Deceased Wife, I Became the Male Lead's Love Rival - Chapter 59.2

Chapter 59.2: Dissolution of the Contract

The scene was deathly silent. No one dared to be the first to speak, fearing they would be treated as the “bird that pokes its head out” and get shot down.

Liang Xiuyue came from the Imperial Star and had seen much more of the world than those on this desolate planet; he naturally knew that those with high-level spiritual power could “do whatever they pleased.” He just hadn’t expected that after arriving on this desolate planet, he would be so ruthlessly suppressed. They hadn’t even left him a shred of dignity.

“What? You were all clamoring so loudly just now, why is everyone silent now?”

A flicker of impatience crossed Fang Ziyue’s brow. She said coldly, “Someone in charge come forward and speak. If you’re not willing to state your purpose for coming here, then hurry back to wherever you came from. Don’t make me personally ‘invite’ you to leave.”

Hearing this, Liang Xiuyue felt a breath catch in his chest, his face turning red with suppressed fury. Who on this desolate planet didn’t recognize his face? Whoever he encountered would have to call him “Young Master Liang” and treat him with utmost respect, wouldn’t they? Furthermore, even if they didn’t know him, they should at least know the Liang family had a “madwoman,” right? Gu Qiaorou had just left that lunatic here a few days ago—could this Fang Ziyue have forgotten already?

She was clearly, intentionally treating him like he was nobody!

Liang Xiuyue was both anxious and angry, yet helpless. He could only speak from behind a wall of mercenaries: “I only came to see Sister Liang. Miss Fang, I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood us.”

“Misunderstood?” Fang Ziyue clapped her hands mockingly. “Kicking my front door down is called a ‘misunderstanding’?”

She could kick her own unlucky door, and Ling Qiu could kick it, but others?

“Hmph, you from the Liang family—speak plainly. I’m still sleepy.” Fang Ziyue let out a yawn and ruffled the little mermaid’s hair, thinking about going back inside to take a nap with her wife.

Liang Xiuyue clenched his fists, his face burning with humiliation. He looked at Fang Ziyue with near-loathing, and then shot a hateful glance at Ling Qiu in her tattered clothes. He should have kicked this “scourge” out of the Liang family long ago, throwing her out to feed the star beasts earlier so she wouldn’t have found a backer like Fang Ziyue!

At this moment, Liang Xiuyue even blamed the father he had always respected. If his father hadn’t told him to take good care of this lunatic, he wouldn’t have been humiliated like this today. Seeing the crazy woman dressed so shabbily, Liang Xiuyue felt relieved. It seemed this woman named Fang didn’t care much for the madwoman; just as Qiaorou said, she probably wanted to fatten the lunatic up to harvest her organs for sale.

Thinking of this, Liang Xiuyue’s irritation and resentment smoothed out considerably. He calmed his tone and said to Fang Ziyue, “I came today because I want Sister Liang to speak a word of justice for me. Everyone on the desolate planet is saying Sister Liang helped stabilize my spiritual power. This is a rumor in itself, but people won’t listen to me alone. Today, I want Sister Liang to say for herself whether this is true or false.”

But what would a madwoman say?

Liang Xiuyue’s plan was to bank on Ling Qiu being unable to say anything. He would record this video and broadcast it across the entire desolate planet. He would let everyone know Ling Qiu was a lunatic; how could a lunatic help someone soothe their spiritual power? As long as Ling Qiu stayed silent, the rumor would collapse on its own.

Unexpectedly, Fang Ziyue interjected, taking over the conversation: “I’ve heard about this too. What? You from the Liang family—if she really helped you soothe your spiritual power, would you really stop using her? You wouldn’t be so stupid as to push away such a good ‘tool,’ would you?”

Fang Ziyue said this specifically to provoke Liang Xiuyue. Sure enough, blinded by anger, Liang Xiuyue gritted his teeth, inwardly cursing Fang Ziyue for being meddlesome and trying to smear him!

He said directly: “Sister Liang doesn’t know the first thing about spiritual soothing. Everyone has seen her level of intelligence. Besides, even if she could, I would never use her help. My spiritual power is naturally stable.”

People are vain, and that is their greatest weakness. As soon as Liang Xiuyue said those words, Fang Ziyue knew the goal was achieved.

She replied leisurely, “Well, who knows if your stability is natural? I only know everyone says she helped you.”

Fang Ziyue’s nonchalant, palms-upturned attitude made Liang Xiuyue want to have her killed on the spot! But powerful spiritual energy could even turn into tentacles to block interstellar weapons; Liang Xiuyue wasn’t sure if Fang Ziyue had that capability, but for the sake of his own life, he didn’t dare act rashly.

“I’ll say it again: even if she could soothe spiritual power, I don’t need it! My spiritual power is naturally powerful and stable; I don’t need anyone’s soothing!”

The stability of spiritual power is proportional to its strength. And the level of spiritual strength is the symbol of whether a person is powerful. Powerful people are pursued and admired wherever they go; this was the treatment Liang Xiuyue craved most.

Everyone present heard these words, and Fang Ziyue even recorded a copy. Once Liang Xiuyue finished speaking, Fang Ziyue patted Ling Qiu on the shoulder.

From this day forward, her wife was free. When the beneficiary of a contract unilaterally destroys the agreement, the party fulfilling the agreement gains their freedom.

A flash of joy appeared in the little mermaid’s eyes, but her dark blue eyes were hidden behind her damp, long hair, so nothing could be seen. Liang Xiuyue’s inquiry received no response from Ling Qiu. The little mermaid remembered what Fang Ziyue told her: do not make a sound, and let this smart human handle everything.

Out of everyone’s sight, the little mermaid’s hand quietly grabbed a corner of Fang Ziyue’s clothes, leaning against the human with joy and reliance. But in the eyes of others, she was just a dull, stupid madwoman who understood nothing and couldn’t speak. If a madwoman could treat a spiritual riot… ha, then the Star Alliance would have been hollowed out by woodworms long ago.

Do you know what woodworms are? They were a creature from the Ancient Earth era. They went extinct long ago; how could they appear in the Star Alliance? Everyone present knew the rumor was just a rumor, but they didn’t expect the young master of the Liang family to actually take such a small matter to heart and come personally to debunk it. In fact, if you ignore such rumors, people stop talking about them eventually. It’s this kind of “management” that makes people talk longer.

Since Liang Xiuyue lost face to Fang Ziyue again, from now on, what others whispered would surely be about how powerful this Fang Ziyue was—able to make the second-in-command of the Safety Zone suffer a setback. Fang Ziyue’s life would likely get better and better. Who else would be blind enough to come looking for trouble with someone even the second-in-command didn’t dare provoke?

In the past, people dared to call Fang Ziyue a “black-hearted beast” or a “counterfeiting bitch” to her face. Who would dare say that now? The desolate planet didn’t care for the political factions or morality of the Imperial Star. Here, the level of your spiritual power was your bargaining chip for survival. With high spiritual power, you were the boss. If not for Liang Xiuyue’s outstanding spiritual power, even with his family wealth and control over the Safety Zone, people wouldn’t have bowed and scraped to him like that. Admiring the strong was something etched into many people’s bones.

Liang Xiuyue had achieved his goal, and he couldn’t stay in this suffocating place for another second! The same scene that happened with Gu Qiaorou repeated itself—the large group of people scattered like startled birds and beasts, running off and leaving only the blinded man lying motionless on the ground. If he hadn’t still been breathing, people would have thought he died there.

Fang Ziyue called out to one of the fleeing men, glanced at the ground, and said with disgust: “Carry him away.” Her house wasn’t a trash pit; don’t throw just any garbage here.

The man quickly grabbed someone nearby to help carry the half-dead man away, not daring to look back. They tripped in the middle of their escape and tossed the man quite a distance. Tsk, that looks painful.

Fang Ziyue clicked her tongue, turned around, and put her arm around her little mermaid to head home. Whether they could get that blind man home was none of her business.

As soon as they stepped inside, the little mermaid couldn’t wait to jump up, her fair arms firmly encircling Fang Ziyue’s neck, her face blossoming with joy.

“The contract is dissolved! I’m free!” Ling Qiu hugged Fang Ziyue, jumping and skipping with excitement. This way, she didn’t have to go back to the Liang family; she could soothe the spiritual power of this human who was so good to her and weave the most beautiful dreams for her!

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking.” Unexpectedly, Fang Ziyue narrowed her eyes dangerously. She pinched the soft flesh of the little mermaid’s cheek and pulled gently. Her tone was strict and solemn: “I’m telling you in advance—you are not allowed to do spiritual soothing for me again.”

Her wife didn’t even look at how overextended her current spiritual power was. Daring to soothe her spiritual power—it seemed she had a death wish.

“Eh???” Ling Qiu stared with wide, dark blue eyes, looking pleadingly at the other, wanting this human who had suddenly turned stern to tell her why.

She knew from her inherited memories that the end result of a human spiritual riot was death. That was why humans had captured mermaids on a massive scale back then, wanting them to treat their riots. But mermaids were a very pure and aloof race; they expected to exchange heart for heart, rather than exchanging their songs for money or flashy decorations. This was also a major factor in the extinction of mermaids.

Mermaids who left their homeland sensed the cluttered thoughts of humans every day, which eventually turned into pitch-black sewage. When other mermaids saw this, they began to resist, intending to kill the humans. But having left the ocean, they could only die under human weapons. The death wails of the mermaids reached the Emperor through dreams; the Mermaid Emperor and the Elders used magic to seal away the remaining clansmen.

The passage of ten thousand years caused the deep-sea ice crystal sealing Ling Qiu to loosen and crack. Ling Qiu woke up during an undersea tremor. After waking, she encountered sea monsters, and after that, she came to the desolate planet and nearly died. She was just lucky to meet a human willing to offer a sincere heart in exchange for her own.

For such a human, a mermaid was willing to sing, to let her tears turn into pearls, and to accompany her and soothe her spiritual power. Fang Ziyue wanted Ling Qiu to be well, and Ling Qiu wanted this human to be well.

So, hearing Fang Ziyue refuse her spiritual soothing, the little mermaid was so anxious her eyes turned red. It was as if she would drop pearls on the spot if Fang Ziyue’s answer didn’t convince her.

This aggrieved little look was truly heart-softening. Fang Ziyue quickly hugged her wife, rocking her slightly to coax her: “I’m not rejecting you, I’m just worried about your body.”

The little mermaid flailed, but her hands—which originally possessed great strength—lost their power the moment they touched Fang Ziyue’s body. She was cautious, fearing her struggles might hurt the human. How could she not be moved by a wife who was so soft even in her resistance?

But the little mermaid was incredibly sad; she did not accept Fang Ziyue’s answer. Why worry about her? She was clearly a mermaid with a strong body and stable spiritual power. Compared to a fragile human, there was no need to worry, was there?

But innate strength didn’t mean immortality. Currently, there were vegetables and fruits to nourish the recovery of Ling Qiu’s spiritual power. The desolate planet was inherently unstable; many people from other planets would come here to “pick up scraps.” Beautiful slaves, abandoned weapons, and star beasts that desolate planet people couldn’t kill but had high-quality meat—these were all things people from other planets wanted to claim.

The people of the desolate planet couldn’t find her garden or crack the defense system made by the original body, but people from technologically advanced planets could. At that time, what awaited them would be endless pursuit and flight. Therefore, before that, Fang Ziyue needed to develop a powerful force of her own. Also, her wife’s spiritual power depletion had to be fully replenished.

Knowing the little mermaid was currently in a semi-childlike state and wouldn’t understand many logical arguments, Fang Ziyue held her mermaid, kissed her forehead, and used her gentle voice to calm the agitated little creature.

“I like you, so whether you are powerful or not, I want you to be better and healthier. Sometimes, even if you aren’t injured, I still worry. I’m afraid that soothing my spiritual power will cause you injury, and that would break my heart.”

Fang Ziyue placed a finger against the little mermaid’s lips as she tried to open them to argue. She looked down at her lover and whispered, “Just as you want me to be well, I want you to be better too.”

The warmth from the woman’s fingertips made Ling Qiu’s heart tingle. She looked up, her dark blue eyes gazing into the other’s pitch-black eyes. In the depths of this human’s eyes, she saw a sky full of stars, the flowers covering the hillsides described by the Elders, the most beautiful coral in the undersea palace, and the brightest pearls. She saw Fang Ziyue’s “liking” and the emotion called “love.”

In human fairy tales, the Little Mermaid discarded her tail for love, enduring the pain of being skinned and deboned to grow legs just to see the Prince again on land. In the end, even knowing the Prince loved someone else, she couldn’t bear to hurt him; she gave up her only chance to survive and dissolved into foam in the waves at dawn.

Ling Qiu didn’t understand why the Little Mermaid did that. That Prince hadn’t given her sweet fruit or cooked her delicious meals, so why would she go from life to death for him? The story only said it was because of love.

Ling Qiu didn’t understand love at first. Even “liking” was something she heard from Fang Ziyue—she liked her, and she liked Fang Ziyue. But now, the little mermaid felt this human loved her, not the kind of love for cabbage or fruit. A mermaid’s keen intuition told her that if one day she encountered a life-threatening danger, this fragile human would stand in front of her without hesitation. Just like the Little Mermaid, even if she turned into foam and disappeared in the end, she wouldn’t let her be hurt.

The little mermaid held her breath, her nose twitching, her eyes red but refusing to cry because she was afraid the human would worry. She only awkwardly hugged Fang Ziyue, mimicking the other’s actions by patting her back one stroke at a time, telling her: “I am not a Prince, I will like you very well.”

Even more than she liked fruit.

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