The Ghost Insists on Giving Me a Beautiful and Powerful Wife! - Chapter 57.2

Kang Nanhua’s grip tightened again. “Sister, you’ll help me, right? You want her to be miserable too, don’t you? You’re so bad now, you must be thinking exactly like I am!”

Yu Ruoyin ignored the taunts and asked through grit teeth: “Where… where is… Mother?”

Yu Ruoyin had so much she wanted to ask, but Kang Nanhua’s grip was too violent. Her voice was broken and staggered; simply managing to ask one key question had exhausted her. She felt as though Kang Nanhua truly intended to strangle her, yet strangely, she was always allowed just enough breath to survive.

“Sister.” Kang Nanhua let out a couple of eerie laughs and released her. “So, you really don’t have your memories. It seems the curse of those gods is quite effective. Why don’t you come with me? Stay away from the person who is harming you.”

“Cough, cough.” Yu Ruoyin coughed raggedly several times before her breathing smoothed out. She asked with great effort, “What do you mean?”

Kang Nanhua pressed down on Yu Ruoyin’s shoulders and stroked her ear. “Sister, listen. They are cursing you.”

Following her movement, a sound actually manifested in Yu Ruoyin’s ears. It was an ethereal, distant voice, exactly like the imagined voice of a deity or Buddha.

“Little Chun Xian, death is not the end. Your soul shall not enter the Underworld; you shall condense flesh and blood to be born according to the seasons, and you shall be destroyed according to the curse…”

Kang Nanhua knew the contents of the curse perfectly. she deliberately leaned against Yu Ruoyin’s ear, her voice gradually overlapping with the ethereal chant: “You shall have no parents or blood kin; you are destined to be born lonely. As an infant, you will die if unattended. If you luckily grow up, you will die if you are too happy; you will die if you are in too much pain. Too much joy kills; too much sorrow kills. If you laugh, you die; if you cry, you die. With every year you age, the curse deepens; even if you survive by luck, you will never live past eighteen… with every reincarnation, your temperament will drift further from your true self. You will become less and less like yourself. Little Chun Xian, this is your destiny from now on.”

At this moment, everything—the extreme bad luck on her birthdays, her sudden death on her eighteenth—finally had an explanation.

A curse. It really was a curse.

Yu Ruoyin stood frozen. Kang Nanhua continued: “Sister, the old you was so sunny, so brave, so selfless and fearless. You loved to laugh. The current you must be sensitive, suspicious, and prone to overthinking, right? Oh, you might even be weak and cowardly, with occasional impulses to kill or harm someone. Sister, you are so pitiful.”

Kang Nanhua didn’t sound like she was sympathizing; she sounded like she was mocking. “You’re already this pitiful, and yet Jiang Huaining still wants to deceive you with ‘feelings.’ Look how wicked she is!”

Yu Ruoyin snapped back to reality and shoved Kang Nanhua away. “I won’t let you speak about Auntie Ning that way!”

Kang Nanhua’s smile vanished, her expression turning hideous. “She ruined you! Why don’t you hate her?”

“What right do you have to say Auntie Ning ruined me!”

“Yu Ruoyin, are you truly stupid, or just acting?” Kang Nanhua walked toward her step by step. Watching Yu Ruoyin retreat, her face grew dark and terrifying. “The Four Spirits control the seasons, and she controls the Four Spirits. She is the last god in this world… oh, no, the last demigod. After all, she only has half a divine bone left, hahahaha!”

She has a grudge against Jiang Huaining, so she is slandering her.

Yu Ruoyin had never been so brave and clear-minded. She immediately found the flaw in the logic: “The one hurt most deeply by a curse is the one with the memories, isn’t it? I don’t have Little Chun Xian’s memories, but you can’t bully me just because I’m forgetful! If the curse is real, it wouldn’t be Auntie Ning cursing me. According to you, my soul doesn’t enter the Underworld; I just reform at a specific time as a baby with no family. A tiny body like that would die in a day if no one cared for it. Even if I survived, I couldn’t feel normal emotions—I’d have to keep my joy and sorrow perfectly balanced just to stay alive. To be unluckier every year and never pass eighteen… that version of me is indeed pitiful… but… but isn’t Auntie Ning, who has been searching for me all this time, even more pitiful? She…”

Yu Ruoyin suddenly choked up. She had no memories, but she knew from Xia Yu that Jiang Huaining had been searching for her reincarnations. For a soul that doesn’t enter the cycle but simply dissipates—even for someone like Jiang Huaining—finding her couldn’t have been easy.

How long did Jiang Huaining have to search just to find one of her lifetimes?

And when she found her, how much longer could that version of her live?

Since no living human can keep their emotions perfectly balanced, how exhausting must it have been to raise her? Giving her candy the moment she felt pain, or bringing her sorrow the moment she felt joy… Kang Miaoxian was right: the curse is only truly agonizing for the one who remembers.

Was the target of the curse really Yu Ruoyin?

Yu Ruoyin didn’t think so. She had no memories; even with the past laid out before her, she couldn’t remember a thing. The one who held the memories was Jiang Huaining. Jiang Huaining, who found her over and over again.

How many times had she found her? How many times had she watched her die?

The number must be staggering. And not only that—Jiang Huaining had to watch her once brave, bright lover slowly drift away from her original self, becoming sensitive, fragile, suspicious, and prone to extremes… becoming a “patient.”

Yu Ruoyin thought of the girl with the flying skirt again. She felt unworthy of being the same person as that girl—so what was Jiang Huaining thinking?

No wonder Jiang Huaining wasn’t surprised when Yu Ruoyin used her power to kill that disrespectful man; she even moved to stop her beforehand. She must have witnessed it many times. It wasn’t that Yu Ruoyin specifically had drifted from Little Chun Xian—it was that all the reincarnations had. Yu Ruoyin had likely been a cowardly person without power, and a petty, murderous one with power, in life after life.

She suddenly wanted to ask Jiang Huaining: Why… why do you still look for me? Why do you still love me?

If she didn’t look, she wouldn’t have to face the changes in her lover. If she didn’t love, she wouldn’t be hurt over and over.

Previously, Yu Ruoyin felt meeting Jiang Huaining was a stroke of luck bought with all her misfortune. Now she realized it wasn’t “luck” at all; it was Jiang Huaining’s relentless perseverance. Jiang Huaining was much more pitiful than her, and Yu Ruoyin didn’t believe anyone would be stupid enough to curse themselves like this.

Kang Nanhua was lying. At least about Jiang Huaining, nothing she said was true.

Hearing Yu Ruoyin’s inner shout, Kang Nanhua froze. She stopped moving and suddenly forced a smile. “Sister, you don’t need memories. You only need to know that I am the only one who truly loves you.”

“You’re lying.” Yu Ruoyin shook her head with absolute certainty. “Auntie Ning is the one who truly loves me.”

“She doesn’t love you! She loves Little Chun Xian!”

“No, she loves me.” Yu Ruoyin bit her lower lip so hard she nearly drew blood. “She loves Little Chun Xian, she loves me, and she loves… every one of our lifetimes.”

She finally said “our.” In this moment, Yu Ruoyin accepted that all those reincarnations were her, even if she still viewed herself and Little Chun Xian as separate—not because Little Chun Xian wasn’t good, but because she felt unworthy. She no longer doubted whether Jiang Huaining loved her or the bright girl; to think that way was too narrow. Jiang Huaining loved every single reincarnation, even as they drifted further from the memory. Jiang Huaining’s love was too painful, and Yu Ruoyin couldn’t bear to be petty with her anymore.

Kang Nanhua rushed forward, shaking Yu Ruoyin’s shoulders. “Sister, you’re wrong! She doesn’t love you at all! She was the one who planted the Soul-Loss Gu in you! She took your father, your mother, and your grandmother, leaving you a helpless orphan! You should hate her!”

“I don’t hate her…”

“Sister!” Kang Nanhua spiraled further out of control. “Don’t feel sorry for her! She could have told you the truth and let you remember. Do you know why she won’t tell you the truth and insists on taking your memory? Because if you remember, her power will vanish! Sister, she doesn’t love you; she can’t even bear to part with her power! Not like me—I’d kill them all for you!”

Kang Nanhua tapped Yu Ruoyin’s forehead hard, reminding her of the green mist drifting from the corpses. “Sister, look! See how much I love you!”

“You’re lying.” No matter what Kang Nanhua said, Yu Ruoyin stuck to those three words. “You’re just lying to me.”

“…”

“A-Yin, A-Yin.”

A gentle call reached her ears. Yu Ruoyin shuddered and suddenly woke up. She saw Jiang Huaining’s eyes, a mix of anxiety and tenderness.

It had been a dream.

Yu Ruoyin instinctively touched her forehead, but it felt as if she were touching that fruit. It wasn’t a dream. Kang Nanhua had likely brought a sliver of consciousness through the green mist of the corpses.

Which meant… Yu Ruoyin lowered her hand and looked at Jiang Huaining nervously. She had so many questions. Why didn’t she give up? Why did she arrange parents for her only to take them away? Why did she keep lying to her instead of telling her how much she loved her?

But when the words reached her lips, Yu Ruoyin found she could only say one thing: “Auntie Ning, I love you so much.”

“Hmm?” Jiang Huaining was dazed for a moment, but soon a smile appeared—sweet and very tender. “A-Yin, I…”

Yu Ruoyin guessed Jiang Huaining wanted to say she loved her too, but her voice stopped.

Yu Ruoyin felt sad for a second, but then realized the difficulty of her own “high-maintenance” constitution. A person as smart and powerful as Jiang Huaining had likely spent years trying to find a way to make her feel sad when she was happy, or happy when she was sad. She couldn’t tell the truth, so she had to weave lies to deceive her; she had to stay distant; she had to give and then take away family… she only dared to let her emotions out in moments of impulse. Her remaining logic controlled all her actions.

Everything seemed to have an explanation. Jiang Huaining had it harder than she ever imagined.

The smile Jiang Huaining just gave was real—a genuine, tender smile, so different from a practiced one. Jiang Huaining loved hearing those words.

Yu Ruoyin suddenly felt regret. Why did she always ask how much Jiang Huaining loved her? She should have said she loved Jiang Huaining more often. She could have asked where her parents and grandmother were, but she didn’t want to ask anything anymore. She just wanted to say what Jiang Huaining loved to hear.

She wrapped her arms around Jiang Huaining’s waist and shouted into her ear: “Jiang Huaining, I really, really love you!”

Zhuang Ciyue and the others were startled, but the person closest to her didn’t mind the shouting at all. Jiang Huaining’s ears and neck turned completely red. She didn’t respond in words, but the corners of her mouth curled up, uncontrollable and light.

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