The Ghost Insists on Giving Me a Beautiful and Powerful Wife! - Chapter 54.1

I never said I was innocent. I deserve to die, but Jiang Huaining deserves to die too!”

Xia Yu’s sore spot had been stepped on, and her voice grew louder and louder. It felt as if the higher her volume, the more justified she was.

“She should have stayed with us, not you! If she hadn’t given all her time to you, how could we have… Haha, she actually didn’t think she was wrong at all. She ruined A-Chun’s attempt to gather the soul for Miss Zou, saying that what A-Chun did was unpardonable. She led us to side with the Underworld to oppose A-Chun, grandiosely claiming she wanted to return peace and tranquility to the world! What does the Underworld have to do with her? She should have led us to stand with A-Chun instead! We are the family, you are not! The Underworld is not!

You’re just a short-lived ghost who dies quickly and suddenly every time; you can’t accompany her for long at all. The Underworld relies on her power yet fears it, and they even sent Lu Qingzhen to monitor us. Only we trust her unconditionally, only we obey her absolutely, and only we can stay by her side forever! Yet, for the sake of people like you, for the Underworld, for people who have nothing to do with us, she ruined A-Chun’s plan. She sealed A-Chun’s five senses, making her a deaf-mute who can only passively accept the work of the changing seasons! How can she not deserve to die!”

Whenever Xia Yu spoke of things related to Yu Ruoyin’s past, she couldn’t stop coughing up blood, and her voice became intermittent. Yet Xia Yu refused to give up, speaking faster and more urgently: “She blames Chun for using any means necessary to gather a soul, but what about herself? Has she spent a single day in all these years giving up the search for you? Isn’t she even more obsessed than Chun? If she felt the Four Spirits shouldn’t talk of feelings, she should have managed A-Chun from the start. Then A-Chun wouldn’t have met Zou Ruolian. If A-Chun hadn’t known Zou Ruolian, she wouldn’t have taken her away from the village, and I wouldn’t have… If! If she had stopped Chun Shen in time, that would have been fine too. Clearly, Chun Shen had forgotten; she only had to prevent Zou Ruolian from getting close to A-Chun again, and nothing that followed would have happened.”

Yu Ruoyin felt that Xia Yu pushing all the responsibility onto Jiang Huaining and herself was already excessive. She hadn’t expected that when Xia Yu mentioned Zou Ruolian, guilt only played a minor part—she was actually blaming Miss Zou.

Zhuang Ciyue couldn’t listen anymore. At some point, she had broken free from the “plot” and come to Yu Ruoyin’s side. Pointing at Xia Yu, she said, “Hey, how did Boss Jiang end up with an employee like you? If you did something wrong, just admit it. Why are you pushing it all onto others? You won’t even let the dead rest. Miss Zou was a victim, okay!”

“A victim?” Xia Yu laughed. “Do you know the price the Four Spirits pay for the ability to remember? It is bone-piercing pain! Only when it is painful enough can one begin to remember! She used her life to make A-Chun perceive pain, to make A-Chun remember her. It was she… she who caused the tragedy that followed.”

Zhuang Ciyue patted Yu Ruoyin’s shoulder. “Xiao Yu, she seems to have gone mad.”

Yu Ruoyin shared the sentiment. Her gaze circled Xia Yu, and her desire for Xia Yu’s power grew heavier. She felt that Xia Yu didn’t deserve to hold such power.

Xia Yu was a very strange spirit. Yu Ruoyin could clearly sense that Xia Yu, having experienced the pain of the past scenes, felt guilt toward Zou Ruolian and resentment toward herself. But before hating herself, she seemed to hate everyone else equally—not just her and Jiang Huaining, but also Zou Ruolian and Chun Shen. She actually resented Chun Shen for falling in love with a short-lived mortal, and she resented Zou Ruolian for making Chun Shen remember her.

Although Yu Ruoyin didn’t know the full story, she could piece together a general idea by combining the old scenes with the stories Jiang Huaining had told.

Jiang Huaining and the Four Spirits existed in a symbiotic relationship. The primary task of the Four Spirits was to control the seasonal transitions, ensuring the cycles continued normally. Jiang Huaining existed to supervise them in completing their tasks.

The Four Spirits would wake up during their corresponding season and fall into a deep sleep once the season ended. To ensure their absolute impartiality and better performance, they were like programmed software. Their only inherent memories that wouldn’t be forgotten were the existence of the other three spirits and Jiang Huaining’s name. But that was it. Even after thousands or tens of thousands of years, all they could remember was the “setting” that the others were colleagues and Jiang Huaining was the leader. Everything specific that happened would be forgotten.

While on duty, they had the right to remember the present, but once they fell into sleep, their memories would reset. When the seasons changed, they would inherit the memories of the previous spirit’s time on duty—but only the previous one’s. For example, if Xia Yu received memories from Chun Shen, those memories wouldn’t include the ones Chun Shen inherited from Dong Yan. It was like receiving a work log and process from a colleague, only to be told that all older files had been shredded.

Under this setting, it was very difficult for them to have romantic love. But fate is a curious thing; destiny would guide them to love.

Yu Ruoyin didn’t know how or when she had stepped into Jiang Huaining’s life, but she must have been very important.

More than four thousand years ago, Jiang Huaining found one of her past lives. During a certain spring when Jiang Huaining was accompanying her, Chun Shen met Zou Ruolian in the mountains. They fell in love, driven by fate. But after falling in love, what awaited Zou Ruolian wasn’t sweetness and happiness, but the disappearance of her lover. Her romance lasted only three months—not because Chun Shen had a change of heart, but because Chun Shen was forced into sleep.

The following year, Chun Shen naturally did not remember Miss Zou. If Zou Ruolian hadn’t met Chun Shen again and used her life as a price to make Chun Shen feel enough pain to remember her, their story would have likely ended there.

It seemed as though if Zou Ruolian hadn’t been persistent, none of the later events would have happened. Xia Yu felt that Zou Ruolian’s use of any means to make Chun Shen remember her was a sin, but she failed to consider that a naive, innocent girl had been tricked of her heart and body by a spirit, had offered her everything, only for her lover to suddenly vanish and forget her upon reunion.

Just putting herself in Zou Ruolian’s shoes, Yu Ruoyin felt a pain that could crush a heart. If it were… if it were Jiang Huaining who forgot her…

Yu Ruoyin didn’t dare think further. She didn’t think Zou Ruolian was using death to force Chun Shen to remember. Zou Ruolian was just an ordinary person; how could she have known that the prerequisite for the Four Spirits to have memory was to feel sufficient pain? At that time, Zou Ruolian might have simply lost the will to live.

Xia Yu’s accusation of Zou Ruolian was truly unreasonable. By any account, Zou Ruolian was innocent.

The only “mistake” Zou Ruolian might have made in this story was thinking of returning to Ming-Shan Village. She should have understood that since Chun Shen had given her longevity, she was destined to be different from others. This was also why Chun Shen had taken her away. Perhaps she did understand, which is why she never snuck back during the twenty years she was away. Even when she finally wanted to return, she asked Chun Shen to take her, rather than acting on her own. Yu Ruoyin didn’t think Zou Ruolian was stupid; she must have understood the impact that returning to the village with a face and body that hadn’t aged for twenty years would cause.

Her insistence on returning wasn’t a sudden loss of sanity, but because the old village chief had died.

Zou Ruolian was a child raised by the charity of the whole village. The old village chief had played a key role in ensuring she was fed. He was her benefactor. What could be wrong with wanting to light incense at her benefactor’s grave?

Chun Shen’s initial love wasn’t wrong either. Her mistake was trusting Xia Yu and using unscrupulous means to resurrect her lover. But since Chun Shen destroyed Ming-Shan Village and killed so many people, why didn’t she think of seeking revenge on Xia Yu?

Yu Ruoyin felt that Xia Yu was the one with the most problems. One should see a promise through to the end, yet she had been so absorbed in drinking that she forgot her duty.

One must realize that Xia Yu didn’t just forget Zou Ruolian at Ming-Shan Village for a day or two. From the time Zou Ruolian visited the grave, to being discovered by the villagers, to the villagers realizing something was wrong with her body, to them teaming up with a Taoist to kill her—none of this sounds like it happened in a short time.

Just how long did Xia Yu forget Zou Ruolian in Ming-Shan Village? Seven days? Half a month? A month? Whatever the answer, Xia Yu was enough of a scoundrel.

Yu Ruoyin suddenly thought of something. Xia Yu was still a drunkard to this day. Because of alcohol, she had caused the death of her friend’s lover, yet she hadn’t quit. Instead, she drank even more heavily under the guise of drowning her sorrows.

Is she really a Guardian Spirit?

Yu Ruoyin doubted it again. She believed a Guardian Spirit should be like Nan He—with a foundation of gentleness and kindness, and a heart as clear as glass.

Xia Yu should hate herself, because even Yu Ruoyin found her loathsome.

Yu Ruoyin decided to withdraw her sympathy for Xia Yu’s suffering in the reenacted past. This was something Xia Yu ought to experience; she should know how much pain the person she killed felt at the time. However, there was still one thing she didn’t understand: if memory for the Four Spirits requires pain, how did Xia Yu get her memories?

Xia Yu knew that Jiang Huaining was with her at that time, which meant that shortly after Zou Ruolian’s death, Xia Yu gained the right to remember things going forward. Since she was now pushing the responsibility away so cleanly, it couldn’t be that she felt pain out of self-reproach for Zou Ruolian’s death.

She didn’t beat around the bush and asked Xia Yu directly: “Xia Yu, Chun Shen got her memories because she saw Miss Zou commit suicide. What about you? Why do you have memories?”

Yu Ruoyin felt Xia Yu would answer her, because at this moment Xia Yu was like a madwoman, speaking of things whether they should be said or not.

And Xia Yu did indeed answer: “Blame Zou Ruolian! It’s all Zou Ruolian’s fault! Why did she have to die! No! Blame Jiang Huaining! Why did she stay with you? Why didn’t she care about me? Why didn’t she even care when Chun woke up early? It’s all her fault! Without her interference, A-Chun would have had the chance to lead me to kill everyone in Ming-Shan Village. Killing the villagers was one thing, but she actually killed all their relatives and cousins too! She forgot that killing so many ordinary people would lead to punishment… It hurts… I hurt so much.”

Oh.

It sounded like besides Jiang Huaining’s supervision, they were also bound by the punishments of natural laws. So this was the “accident” Jiang Huaining had mentioned. It wasn’t the pain of emotional love, but actual physical pain.

Chun Shen was the first to gain memory. It wasn’t likely she had forgotten the rules; she probably just hated too much. She hated the villagers, she hated Xia Yu, and she hated herself. So she killed the villagers and everyone related to them, letting herself and Xia Yu be punished. The reason she didn’t kill Xia Yu was probably also because of the rules, the same reason Jiang Huaining didn’t kill her later.

How strange. She could actually understand them so quickly. Everyone except Xia Yu.

Yu Ruoyin felt there was nothing left to talk about with Xia Yu, especially as Xia Yu continued to recount her agony. She couldn’t help but interrupt: “Xia Yu, I think Miss Zou felt more pain than you did.”

Because she was speaking up for Zou Ruolian, Xia Yu immediately caught the implied accusation: “No! It’s not my fault! It’s Jiang Huaining’s! You should blame Jiang Huaining! Zou Ruolian should blame her, and A-Chun should blame her too! Since Jiang Huaining didn’t care about A-Chun’s romance or A-Chun waking up early, then she shouldn’t have cared about A-Chun killing people! As long as she didn’t interfere, we would have collected enough Jade Corpses back then! Why would she have needed to ‘kindly’ take me to collect those two Jade Puppet Pellets last time? How can Jade Puppet pellets compare to Jade Corpses! If it wasn’t for her… she said that gathering souls by any means is unpardonable, but what about her? She can search for you continuously, extend your life continuously, she’s even willing to extend the life of Qiu’s lover—why couldn’t we gather the soul for Zou Ruolian? Is it just because she has the power to manage us?”

“Cough, cough, cough!”

She seemed to have touched upon some very serious taboo. Not only did she cough up more blood, but her breathing rhythm became increasingly chaotic. Xia Yu should have stopped, but she didn’t. She seemed to feel that as long as the guilt was pushed onto Jiang Huaining, she herself was an innocent party. The more she spoke, the more she hated: “Short-lived ghost, is only Jiang Huaining allowed to have a lover and do everything for them, while others cannot?”

Yu Ruoyin couldn’t help but look at Xia Yu’s head several times. Not only was her desire for Xia Yu’s power intense now, but her urge to crack open that head and see what was inside was equally strong.

Xia Yu didn’t realize she was being targeted by Yu Ruoyin. She urged: “Short-lived ghost, say something! You think Jiang Huaining deserves to die too, don’t you!”

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