My Senior Sister Says She Will Marry No One But Me - Chapter 1

Du Yunge was dead.

In truth, she had sensed an impending doom for several months. He Zhenzhen was no good person, and the He Family Manor was no righteous sect built from scratch. Their methods were inevitably sinister. Since marrying Du Yunge, He Zhenzhen had never bothered to hide the blood-soaked deeds from her. Du Yunge had witnessed many instances of betrayal and ingratitude over the years, but since being with He Zhenzhen, the cruelty she had seen in the He Family Manor surpassed half of all the ruthless acts she had ever encountered in her life.

He Zhenzhen had even teased her about it: “What have you been doing all these years in the Miaoyin Sect, my dear? Meditating and chanting sutras? How have you never seen such things?”

At the time, He Zhenzhen hadn’t yet torn off the mask of affection, addressing her as “my dear” with smooth, honeyed words. Coupled with her naturally alluring fox-like eyes, a single coquettish glance from her could mesmerize anyone into a daze, making them forget the passage of time.

Even though Du Yunge would admire her own beauty in the mirror every morning, she couldn’t resist the enchantment of those fox eyes. She could only murmur meekly:

“You just do as you please. Don’t mind me.”

Little did she expect that one day, those very tactics would be turned against her.

Du Yunge had never been particularly clever, and her memory was poor. Under constant mistreatment, her already sluggish mind grew even duller. The only memory she retained from that time was the fragrance of osmanthus blossoms in the He Family Manor. It must have been autumn.

And yet, her thoughts would drift further, lamenting that she probably wouldn’t get to eat mooncakes that year. Truly a model of composure in the face of danger.

In truth, at the beginning of that autumn, Du Yunge had been terrified, far from composed. She was a typical prisoner, too anxious to eat or drink. She wouldn’t even touch the food brought to her cell, instead catching a mouse to test it first, fearing that any meal might be poisoned. She was terrified of dying an unclear death, only to feel ashamed when reporting to the underworld.

Hadn’t she endured enough ridicule in the mortal realm? Must she be laughed at by the ox-headed and horse-faced guards, or the Black and White Impermanence, in the afterlife?

But as time passed, she grew less afraid. She even found the leisure to tap her broken bowl and hum tunes in her cell. If she had to live another day, she would live it happily. It seemed the saying “a fool’s heart is carefree” held some truth.

There’s a phrase for it: “A broken jar is beyond repair.” It might as well have been coined for her.

She had always thought she would be terrified in the face of death, unable to avoid breaking down and weeping no matter how calm she tried to be. But when the moment arrived, she found herself performing exceptionally well, remaining remarkably composed.

If Du Yunge had had the presence of mind to keep track of time, she would have realized that the day she died was the first day of Frost’s Descent.

The last solar term of autumn bridged the transition between the two coldest seasons of the year, turning the daily temperature from a directly felt “so cold” into an “oh my god, freezing cold.” And no one understood this better than Du Yunge, who shivered every day as she slept in a corner of the dungeon, covered with straw.

When He Zhenzhen personally brought a bowl of hot soup into the dungeon, the first thing she saw was Du Yunge huddled in the corner, clutching the straw and trembling so rhythmically it was almost musical. He Zhenzhen sneered, condescendingly crouching down to push the bowl of hot soup through the gaps in the iron bars:

“Silly fool, get up. Drink this hot soup before you go.”

Only then did Du Yunge slowly lift her head from the damp, moldy straw, scrutinizing the person before her with her uniquely delayed reactions and gaze. Her eyes were strikingly clear, black and white distinct, so vivid and radiant that even the finest mutton-fat jade and black agate would pale in comparison. When she looked at someone so intently, her eyes took on a watery quality, as though a few harsh words or even a slightly raised voice would ripple the calm surface of that deep pool. Yet, humans are inherently flawed and drawn to beauty, so they felt compelled to make her cry, just to see how exquisite those eyes would look in tears.

Even in her current state, and despite He Zhenzhen’s genuine hatred for her, she had to admit the truth:

A true beauty, even when fallen to such depths, could not be diminished by the filth and wretchedness around her.

It was only when Du Yunge spoke, her voice weak and hoarse, that one could remember she was truly a prisoner and one who had been mistreated for some time:

“Did you find the treasure?”

Listen, just listen. What a pointed reply. Du Yunge almost made He Zhenzhen want to praise herself inwardly.

But her question seemed ill-chosen, for upon hearing it, He Zhenzhen, who had been relatively calm, suddenly erupted in fury. Her charming, fox-like eyes twisted for a moment before she forcibly suppressed her emotions, sneering coldly at Du Yunge:

“If I hadn’t found it, I wouldn’t be bringing this to you.”

She pushed the bowl further in. Du Yunge slowly shifted her gaze to it and realized it was her favorite Longquan celadon lotus-petal bowl, the one she had cherished most when she was still the mistress of He Manor. Usually, such a bowl would hold something light and clear, like a translucent sweet soup, not this greasy, pitch-black concoction:

“Hurry up and eat. It’s your last meal, I have to take care of you somehow.”

Knowing full well that if she didn’t drink it willingly, He Zhenzhen would likely force it down her throat, Du Yunge took the bowl. As she lifted it, she noticed her hands trembling ever so slightly. Though barely perceptible, the faint ripples in the dark soup betrayed her. She smiled bitterly to herself, realizing that deep down.

She was still a little afraid.

During this time, Du Yunge had thought long and hard. She couldn’t blame herself for being too cunning after all, even the deputy sect leader and the four guardians of the Miaoyin Sect had never held much faith in He Zhenzhen. The fault lay entirely with her own foolishness, her misplaced trust in the wrong person. A single glance from He Zhenzhen’s fox-like eyes, coupled with a few sweet, intimate words, had been enough to make her stubbornly believe in her, refusing to turn back until she had hit the wall. From that moment on, she had trusted the wrong person, and one misstep had led to countless others.

“Fine, I’ll drink it. But why are you so determined to kill me?”

He Zhenzhen was taken aback for a moment, then a look of mockery spread across her face. She stared at Du Yunge as if she were the most ridiculous fool in the world, unable to conceal her scornful smile.

“Du Yunge, you really are a lucky fool. But since things have come to this, there’s no harm in telling you.”

She locked eyes with Du Yunge and spoke slowly, word by word: “From the very beginning, my goal was the treasure map of your Miaoyin Sect.”

Du Yunge was stunned for a long while. Then, from her face once breathtakingly beautiful but now only delicately pretty under a layer of dust, a flicker of anger emerged.

“He Zhenzhen, you beast!”

He Zhenzhen was genuinely stunned by the sudden insult, frozen in place for a long moment before she snapped back to reality. Then, she burst into wild, uncontrollable laughter, nearly choking with mirth as if she might laugh her internal organs out. Between gasps, she sneered in disbelief:

“Oh heavens! Du Yunge, Du Yunge, don’t tell me you actually thought.”

She gripped the cold iron bars tightly, her eyes meeting Du Yunge’s. The distance between them was less than a foot, a space that had once been filled with ambiguity and allure. But now, not a trace of that rosy sentiment remained. In its place was one side’s overwhelming fury, finally realizing the truth, and the other’s triumphant smile.

“Don’t tell me you actually thought that when I married you back then, it was love at first sight?”

To be honest, up until that very moment, Du Yunge had indeed thought so.

She had always believed that she and He Zhenzhen had fallen in love at first sight, that their feelings were mutual. Even now, as He Zhenzhen sought to kill her, she had assumed it was merely the allure of the rare treasures that had clouded her judgment, that deep down, He Zhenzhen still loved her.

But could she be blamed for this? Her mind had never been the sharpest, and it wasn’t a recent development. It wasn’t that she was illiterate or incapable of taking care of herself, it was a kind of childish naivety: if you were good to her, she would be twice as good to you; if you treated her poorly, she would despise you intensely; if you said you loved her, she took it as the truth, and naturally, she would love you in return.

Du Yunge’s hand, holding the bowl, was trembling noticeably. Her eyes were red with suppressed emotion, yet not a single tear fell. Years of living in comfort and privilege had cultivated in her such refined manners that she didn’t even know how to curse properly. The word “beast” earlier had been the limit of her vocabulary there was no way she could utter anything filthier.

After a long silence, she finally lifted her head and, with what she believed to be a threatening tone, said to He Zhenzhen, word by word:

“Don’t get too arrogant, Manor Lord He. When my Senior Sister Xue returns, you’ll regret this!”

Upon hearing these words, a subtle expression flickered across He Zhenzhen’s face, a mix of mockery and pity. If the dungeon weren’t so filthy, she would have dragged Du Yunge out, pried open her skull, and checked whether it was truly filled with nothing but water. This wasn’t just a case of having water in the brain; it was more like housing the entire eight-hundred-li Dongting Lake inside her head.

“Du Yunge, oh Du Yunge you really are a hopeless fool. Do you truly not know? Your senior martial sister has already married beyond the frontier she wed Mayila, the holy maiden of the Wuzhaka tribe. They’ve been deeply in love for a full year now. How could she possibly spare a thought for a traitorous fool like you?”

After saying this, He Zhenzhen truly had no desire to hear another word from this foolish girl that might make her question her own sanity or laugh in sheer exasperation. Without hesitation, she reached through the iron bars, seized Du Yunge by the neck, and with a firm grip, forced her mouth open. Pressing down on her hand, she poured the bowl of soup down Du Yunge’s throat.

The moment the soup touched her lips, tears finally welled up in Du Yunge’s eyes.

Much of the grime on her face had been rubbed off during the struggle, especially around her eyes, revealing clearly how captivating the former number one beauty of the martial world looked when she cried. Even with only her eyes visible, one could be utterly enchanted, yearning to serve her faithfully and brave any danger for her sake. Even knowing she was a fool, it was impossible to suppress the admiration stirred by her beauty.

And let no one doubt the sheer power of such beauty wasn’t Du Yunge’s eternal Senior Sister Xue, the former deputy sect leader of the Miaoyin Sect, Xue Shuyan, the perfect example?

He Zhenzhen watched expressionlessly as Du Yunge’s tears continued to flow, unmoved. What a pity, she thought coldly. For the peerlessly skilled and fiercely loyal Deputy Sect Leader Xue to pledge her life to this fool she might as well have pledged it to me.

Once the entire bowl of soup had been forced down, He Zhenzhen took out a plain, jade-colored handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped her hands. She raised an eyebrow at Du Yunge, who was now writhing on the ground.

“Any last words? Speak now.”

At the same time, she felt a flicker of surprise. The brew she had prepared wasn’t some fast-acting lethal poison but a slow-acting one that would cause the victim’s insides to rot over a day and night meant to prolong Du Yunge’s suffering. Why, then, did she look as if she had just swallowed arsenic?

Gasping for breath, Du Yunge lifted her head from the ground, her face contorted beyond recognition. To He Zhenzhen’s utter astonishment, the fool’s first heartfelt cry was:

“It’s so hot! Manor Lord He, did you mean to scald me to death?!”

He Zhenzhen: ??? This is truly a fucking idiot!! A brainless, heartless fool!! You wretched creature!!

By the time He Zhenzhen regained her senses, she had already cleanly pierced Du Yunge’s heart with her sword. Staring at the lifeless body on the ground, she realized that Du Yunge had somehow tricked her making her act against her original intention of “slowly torturing her” and granting her a swift death instead. Fury erupted within her, so intense that describing her as “bristling with rage” would be an understatement:

“DU! YUN! GE!!”

This goes to show that you really shouldn’t stoop to the level of fools, because they’ll quickly drag you down to their level and then use their extensive experience in foolishness to outmaneuver you.

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