Transmigrated as the Villain and Driven Crazy by the Vengeful Male Lead - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Family Bereavement — His Living Nightmare.

Without warning, a gale-force wind began to howl, but the dark clouds overhead did not scatter; instead, they gathered thicker and faster, eventually swallowing the sun entirely.

“How did it turn dark so suddenly!”

Feng Yingying was still worried about her companion in the tree: “Hey… whoever you are, climb down quickly! It’s too dark to see!”

The white figure became eerily prominent amidst the black, spindly branches. It seemed to sway with the wind, writhing weightlessly, yet never falling—looking exactly like a specter preying on the living.

“Hehe.”

The white figure seemed to be laughing.

The voice was a complete departure from the sweetness of a moment ago. It sounded as if countless bubbles were trapped in a throat that smelled of rot and stench, as if her chest and windpipe had been soaked until they decayed, producing these damp, swollen, and festering syllables.

“It’s dark. Come play.”

The man was still asking: “Which girl is up in that tree?”

The white figure said: “Uncle Chang Yong, have you failed to recognize me so quickly?”

She slowly turned her face, giggling, letting the living people below look at her.

Two seconds later.

“Ah!”

“AAAAAAHHH—!”

From the man to the young girls, every face turned white, eyes bulging with terror. Aside from Lü Shuyao and Su Cheyue, the only man present couldn’t even manage a second scream.

In that instant, Lü Shuyao felt the blood run cold in his back; his heart skipped a beat. The white figure’s face couldn’t even be called a face because there were no features! No—it would be more accurate to say there were so many pits and protrusions that one couldn’t distinguish what was a feature and what was not!

“Could it be—”

The two shared a look.

Climbing trees. Oranges.

The story Chang Huaichen told Jiang Zhiqing!

It was her!!

The girls screamed and scrambled behind Chang Yong. Chang Yong, paralyzed with terror, took a step back, his legs giving way as he collapsed onto the ground: “You, you—who are you?!”

“You took my oranges, yet you still can’t remember who I am?” the white figure said. “Uncle, I’m unhappy.”

Yet no one could tell if she was happy or not. Whatever expression she made looked like the heaving of bloated mold-craters on damp bread; whatever tone she used sounded like a sewer gurgling with back-flowing filth!

Chang Yong stared at the orange in his hand, dazed: “Lu… Lulu…” He shook his head violently. “Impossible! Lulu couldn’t be like this!”

“I didn’t want to be like this; it wasn’t my wish,” Liu Lulu said. “Uncle Chang, I remember you were the one who praised my cuteness most often. You said I was charming. Aside from Xianni, out of all the girls in Huailing, you liked me best.”

As she spoke, she suddenly began to sob, “Wu wu wu…”

“You said you liked me most, but why didn’t you save me?”

Lü Shuyao finally heard the notes of mourning beneath that bubbling, rotten tone. Despite this, there were no traces of tears on her face.

Chang Yong closed his eyes, trembling, not daring to look at her again: “Is it… is it really Lulu?”

Liu Lulu said: “Uncle Chang.”

Xianni crawled toward her father, looking up: “Lulu! You’ve come back?”

Feng Yingying also said: “Lulu, we missed you so much!”

The white figure in the tree paused before saying: “I missed you too. Every moment of every day. That’s why I’ve returned.”

Perhaps the girls were too deeply influenced by their environment, for they seemed surprisingly comfortable with the supernatural. Feng Yingying said: “It’s great that you’re back! But why do you look so uncomfortable? Are you cold? Hungry? Do you want to bathe? How long can you stay?”

Liu Lulu suddenly covered her face and screamed in a breakdown: “I don’t want to bathe! I don’t want to bathe! I don’t want water! Ah!”

Chang Yong propped himself up and slammed his head against the ground in a kowtow: “It’s my fault! Lulu, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Liu Lulu said: “It’s a bit late for apologies, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry!” The man kowtowed more violently. “That day of the Ghost Festival, I wanted to save you, but they all said…”

Liu Lulu said: “After I became a ghost, I asked other ghosts: on the Ghost Festival of the third year of Tianxi, did any ghosts visit the Huailing River? They all answered me—no. No ghosts went there.”

Chang Yong’s palms pressed against the ground; his finger bones trembled as if they would break.

“Uncle Chang, that day, in the waters of the Huailing River… there were no ghosts at all.”

Chang Yong stared fixedly at the bloodstains on the ground, stopping his kowtowing. He murmured: “So…”

“Father, what are you and Lulu talking about?” Chang Xianni watched cautiously. “Lulu, are you… coming down?”

Liu Lulu didn’t answer her. A stone fell from the tree: “Feng Yingying, didn’t you want to play stones? Come here.”

It couldn’t be said that Feng Yingying wasn’t afraid. Although the being before her was her old playmate, she had changed too much to be described as a stranger.

She was a horror. A horror that human instinct could not override.

But after hesitating for a few seconds, she walked over.

“Yingying!…”

“Don’t go!” Lü Shuyao instinctively reached for her, but as expected, his hand passed through her phantom.

“Feng Yingying,” Liu Lulu called from the tree. “At the game of ‘Seven Stars Gathering,’ only you and I were the best. Since I became a ghost, no one can compete with me. I’m very lonely.”

Feng Yingying felt heartbroken. She wanted to cry but couldn’t. Ignorant of the danger, she asked: “Then… shall I play with you one more time?”

“Sure.” Liu Lulu seemed to smile.

Suddenly, Feng Yingying let out a howl and fell to the ground, violently vomiting black blood.

“Ah—ah!”

“Lulu, what are you doing?!” Chang Xianni scrambled forward on hands and knees, wanting to approach but being scared back by the sight. “Yingying??!!”

Su Cheyue stepped forward to protect her but could not. They could only watch, helpless. Lü Shuyao was shaken: “To be able to strike her playmate so cruelly, this female ghost is truly heartless!”

Su Cheyue replied: “Do not judge someone’s evil without knowing their suffering. You can defeat her or punish her, but you cannot judge her right or wrong.”

Lü Shuyao turned to look at him. Su Cheyue’s eyes were clearly filled with shock and sadness, yet he still spoke such detached, objective words.

Chang Xianni watched with a heart-wrenching gaze but could not cry. She turned and screamed: “Father!!!”

Chang Yong snapped out of his daze, remembering he was the only adult present. He used every ounce of strength to overcome his terror and crawled up unsteadily: “If you want revenge, you should seek her father, or seek me!! She… she was your companion, you grew up together—Yingying!”

Lü Shuyao realized: “Feng… her father was the one who said not to save Liu Lulu!”

“Weren’t you and my father also raised together? Didn’t you still watch him die, watch his daughter die!” Liu Lulu said. “Uncle Chang, don’t worry. Out of the five uncles, I won’t miss a single one. But before that, I want you to personally taste what it’s like to lose your own flesh and blood!”

“How can you be so cruel and selfish…”

A gurgle of bubbles rose in Liu Lulu’s throat; the sound was loud—she must have been laughing uproariously.

“Uncle Chang, for a living person to speak of cruelty and selfishness to a dead one… isn’t that too ridiculous?”

“Who should be next?”

Chang Yong’s eyes suddenly widened.

He instantly turned, scooped up the already catatonic Chang Huaichen, and ran toward the house! Liu Lulu said: “Chang Xianni, you’re so pitiful! Your father only wants your brother; he doesn’t care about you!”

Chang Xianni watched blankly, her thoughts unknown.

When she didn’t respond, Liu Lulu grew angrier: “No one is getting away!”

Lü Shuyao: “No!”

In the courtyard, those who had touched or eaten her oranges suddenly collapsed like Feng Yingying, spitting black blood!

At the moment he stepped through the door, Chang Yong’s body also ruptured. He threw Chang Huaichen aside and clung to the doorframe. After scratching through the wooden panels, he began to laugh maniacally and tear at his own flesh.

Five girls, one man.

Liu Lulu clapped her hands: “Fun, fun! You’ve all come to accompany me!”

Then she turned back to sobbing: “But I still can’t find my parents. Where did they go?”

That day, the river water had poured in like the four seas. Even if she and her parents died in the same river, they had been swept apart, never to be found again.

“Waaaaah—”

A horrifying upheaval beyond ordinary imagination was taking place, yet only now did the first sound of desperate crying finally ring out.

Liu Lulu’s laughter and sobbing stopped simultaneously.

“Who is crying?!”

“Uwaaa—” The crying grew louder. “Father, Sister, waaa…”

Liu Lulu, in her white dress, leaned down from the tree trunk. Her eyes were deformed and swollen; she likely couldn’t see clearly and had to distinguish by sound: “Little Chen?”

Chang Huaichen was streaming tears—out of sheer terror. He crawled toward Chang Yong, but Chang Yong, spitting out bits of his own flesh, roared: “Get lost!” He crawled toward his sister. Chang Xianni was already convulsing from blood loss, stuttering: “Little…”

The sister had been sweet-faced, the floral design on her forehead making her beautiful even if it was drawn poorly. But now, she was making a permanent “ghost face” at her brother, never to be pretty again.

Liu Lulu called him Little Chen. Chang Huaichen cried and begged her: “Sister, don’t bully my sister! Don’t bully them… wu—”

Liu Lulu said: “Why can you still shed tears?! Where is my orange?”

Chang Huaichen hadn’t taken her orange!

The current Liu Lulu was not yet that powerful. She feared water—she feared it to the point that she even feared her own tears. In the hundreds of days and nights she had spent as a ghost, she couldn’t even have a good cry over her tragic fate.

So she used oranges—the gift she was most proud of in life—to control everyone, turning them into “flesh oranges” and preventing them from crying even if they wanted to.

Chang Huaichen’s crying made her increasingly agitated and panicked. She rasped: “You can’t cry! Don’t cry! Eat the orange!” She dug at the holes in her face; as she pulled her hand away, they turned into small oranges that fell. But the oranges were the flesh from her body; the oranges were her incarnations. Sensing the tears on Chang Huaichen’s face and the dampness from his earlier face-washing, they recoiled.

Liu Lulu said viciously: “I hate it! How hateful!”

Chang Yong said: “Little Chen, get water… drive her away… ah!” He suddenly ripped out his own tongue and collapsed, blood covering his face as he made muffled sounds.

Chang Huaichen immediately stopped crying and stood up unsteadily: “Water, water!”

There was a well nearby. Liu Lulu roared: “You dare!”

He was just about to run to the well. Liu Lulu said coldly: “Take another half-step and see what happens.”

Chang Huaichen actually took that half-step. Feng Yingying, who was closest to him, stood up and lunged at him!

Chang Huaichen froze in place. By a fraction of an inch, Feng Yingying’s hands were about to seize his neck.

“No—”

“Whoever kills Little Chen for me,” Liu Lulu commanded the flesh-oranges on the ground, “I will let that person live.”

Feng Yingying’s face was covered in blood. She whispered: “I won’t…”

Liu Lulu said: “Yingying, you’re still so stubbornly annoying.”

With that, Feng Yingying snapped her own wrists and tore at her own throat with her fingers!

It was too tragic.

Lü Shuyao’s legs felt numb as he watched.

He could only watch with the despair of the powerless. If only this weren’t an illusion, but time flowing backward!

“Little Chen, are you scared?” Liu Lulu giggled again. “Sister Yingying won’t kill you, but will Sister Qiaoqiao? Will Sister Yuyu? If none of them kill you, then I’ll make them kill themselves.”

“Little Chen, go on, get the water.”

Chang Huaichen broke down. He knelt on the ground, clutching his head: “What do I do! What do I do—”

A loud splash!

Lü Shuyao looked up. Chang Huaichen was alone by the well. The outer wall of the stone well was covered in small, bloody handprints—Feng Yingying’s handprints!

Lü Shuyao rushed over and glanced into the well. His stomach churned. But being in an illusion, he couldn’t vomit.

Twelve-year-old Feng Yingying had thrown herself into the well, covered in filth and blood.

Liu Lulu froze: “Bitch!”

The remaining girls struggled and crawled toward Chang Huaichen. They might have been smiling gently at him, but it was no longer visible.

They prostrated themselves before him, surrounding him. Controlled, their strength was extraordinary—strong enough to tear flesh apart, strong enough to kill him with ease. But they didn’t.

Chang Huaichen looked at Chang Xianni: “Sister… Mother…”

Chang Xianni said: “Little Chen.”

Liu Lulu: “Kill him!”

The others also said: “Little Chen.”

Liu Lulu: “Reach out!”

The four girls reached out their hands together. Chang Huaichen: “Sister!”

Chang Xianni said: “Live.”

The others also said: “Live!”

This was the most tragic and bloody, yet most certain prayer Lü Shuyao had ever seen.

Like Feng Yingying, even though they were being controlled, some burst of will took over. Holding hands, clinging to the edge of the stone well, they climbed onto the rim one by one and threw themselves in. The last was Chang Xianni. Her bloody palm pushed away the approaching Chang Huaichen, leaving a red handprint on his chest that would never be erased.

Liu Lulu said: “Fine, fine! None of you fear death!”

Chang Huaichen stopped crying. He stared blankly at the well, repeating like he was possessed: “Water… I need to get water…”

He muttered it like an incantation, reaching out to grasp the handle of the windlass. Liu Lulu suddenly said: “Chang Yong.”

The man clinging to the door stared at his tongue on the ground, his eyes seemingly devoid of a soul. The tongue looked like a dead fish. He should have fainted from pain long ago, but Liu Lulu made sure he stayed awake.

“Uncle Chang, is it painful enough that it’s broken up there? How about we try down there?”

What kind of child—not even ten when she died—must have experienced what in hell to be able to say such cruel and filthy things?

“Sister… I need to get water…” Over there, Chang Huaichen was frantically turning the windlass. The bucket swayed as it went down.

Chang Yong let out a laugh and moved. His crawling posture was even more grotesque than the five girls, his legs twitching, leaving a long trail of blood on the floor. When he reached Chang Huaichen’s side, the boy was too weak; the bucket was swaying and wouldn’t come up. Seeing his father, tears welled up again: “Father!”

He held his breath, his small arms straining until they turned blue.

“Chang Yong!”

Chang Yong reached out a trembling hand and placed it on his son’s shoulder by the well. In this position, if he didn’t fear pain, he could have used all his strength to help Little Huaichen pull the bucket up.

But he could also just as easily have pushed Little Huaichen down.

Lü Shuyao was so tense his jaw ached.

Suddenly, a sharp light flashed across the sky. The dark clouds surrounding the sun were split in two as if by a sword!

Lü Shuyao and Su Cheyue looked up to see a swordsman in flowing robes descending like an immortal! He faced the evil ghost in the tree, leaving only his back to the others, but Su Cheyue instantly cried out: “Father!”

They really saw him!

The long-repressed grief finally dissipated slightly. Lü Shuyao followed suit: “Su… Uncle!”

Su Chen held his sword and spoke sternly to Liu Lulu: “For an evil ghost to be this rampant!”

Seeing him, Liu Lulu was neither panicked nor afraid. She mocked: “I am an evil ghost, so what are they? Evil people? Since everyone is doing evil, what’s the difference between human and ghost? You, Daoist? You hate ghosts for doing evil, but do you care when humans do evil?”

Su Chen said: “Naturally, I care.”

“Fine,” Liu Lulu pointed at the dazed Chang Yong. “Does watching someone die without saving them count as evil?”

Su Chen didn’t answer her. He said: “You have taken so many innocent lives; the laws of heaven decree your destruction!”

Liu Lulu snorted: “Humans are just birds of a feather.”

Su Chen took to the air, and Liu Lulu leaped from the tree. Two white shadows clashed across the massive, dark-green canopy. Thunder rumbled down, and the “oranges” Liu Lulu fired off like needles swarmed Su Chen, but he dodged them all!

Su Cheyue wanted to help him, calling out “Dangyan,” but Lü Shuyao’s brow twitched—the Dangyan sword did not manifest. Su Cheyue recited the flight spell, but after rising only a little, his spiritual power was insufficient to support him. As he fell, Lü Shuyao caught him.

“Second Young Master, stay calm. This is an illusion; these are events from decades ago. It’s already passed!” He helped him stand. “Trust Uncle Su. He can handle it! It was because of him that Chang Huaichen survived!”

Su Cheyue couldn’t listen: “Trust him to handle it… you all say that… everyone says that! So the Ghost Purgatory opened, and not one of you went to help him! Only my father and mother went to their deaths!”

“They didn’t go to their deaths! They sealed the Ghost Purgatory; the world is at peace!”

“At peace!” Su Cheyue suddenly turned to him, his eyes turning fierce. “In just ten years, your Lü family reopened the Ghost Prison! Lü Shuyao! Your family made their resolute deaths a giant joke—and made me a giant joke!”

“…”

Lü Shuyao’s breathing was heavy. He held Su Cheyue tightly, his expression shifting from anxiety to guilt and bitter pain.

“Let go of me!”

“I’m sorry.” Lü Shuyao let him go.

Su Cheyue didn’t even try to summon his sword anymore. He tried to fly up again and again, only to fall each time. Lü Shuyao didn’t say another word, catching him steadily every single time.

After another fall, Lü Shuyao said: “I’ll go.”

He summoned Zhanquan and approached the two figures fighting intensely, but he truly couldn’t help.

Furthermore, using spiritual power in an illusion was actually fighting against the power of the one who created it and the Bounty Order. It consumed far more than was actually released. Before long, Lü Shuyao felt his dantian empty and his strength fail.

But he stayed suspended in the air, hoping only to trade his effort for a bit of comfort or forgiveness from Su Cheyue.

Fortunately, Su Chen’s cultivation was high, and dealing with a ghost of moderate power was within his capabilities. Liu Lulu was gradually overwhelmed. Just as Su Chen was about to capture her, she retreated to the tree and spoke softly: “Uncle, Uncle!”

Su Chen’s sword didn’t stop halfway. Liu Lulu added: “Uncle, I’m only ten.”

A flicker crossed Su Chen’s handsome, sharp eyes. His sword slowed. Seizing this chance, Liu Lulu laughed aloud, threw out several blood-oranges, and used the gap while Su Chen dodged to leap from the canopy into the dark abyss of thunderous purple clouds.

“Rotten Daoist! If the Prison Master wasn’t in seclusion and my power weren’t lacking, why would I fear you! My great revenge was at hand, yet you ruined it! Wait until the Prison Master emerges—he will surely settle this score with you!”

Su Chen held his sword behind his back, gazing into the abyss. He said calmly: “I’ll be waiting.”

The thunder faded, and the clouds vanished.

“Father!”

Lü Shuyao felt relieved. His vision darkened for a moment, and he fell from mid-air.

Hearing Su Cheyue call for Su Chen, he felt comforted. If he fell, he fell.

But even though Su Cheyue was calling his father’s name, he still reached out and caught him.

Su Cheyue held him by the waist, his face tense as he waited for him to stand steady. Once the dizziness in Lü Shuyao’s head passed, he felt a mix of surprise and joy. Su Cheyue tried to pull his hand away, but Lü Shuyao held it, smiling like he was begging for mercy.

“Don’t be angry anymore. I was wrong, okay?”

Su Cheyue’s brow twitched slightly, but he pursed his lips and said nothing.

The hand still couldn’t be pulled back.

Su Cheyue finally said: “Are you very fond of grabbing people’s hands?”

After running in the rain last time, he had also held on and wouldn’t let go.

“Not at all.” Lü Shuyao let go.

Su Chen also landed. Only then did Lü Shuyao have the chance to look at his appearance. From behind, Uncle Su looked heroic; from the front, even more so. His features were solemn and elegant, naturally imposing and inviolable.

By comparison…

Lü Shuyao glanced at Su Cheyue.

Lady Su must have been a great beauty without a doubt.

Su Chen walked to Chang Huaichen. Seeing Liu Lulu driven away, the child finally dared to wail aloud: “Immortal, save my father! Save my sister!”

Su Chen knelt to check the breathless Chang Yong, then peered into the well.

He didn’t say he would save them, nor did he say he couldn’t. He sighed and said in a low voice: “Come back with me.”

Chang Huaichen raised tear-filled eyes, confused: “Back where?”

“Yangshuo,” Su Chen said. “A beautiful place with clear mountains and rivers.”

Chang Huaichen wasn’t stupid; he understood.

From now on, out of the Chang family, only he was left.

If he agreed, then in the near future, he would become Su Cheyue’s older brother and the glory of the Baoshan Sect.

But he didn’t agree.

Su Chen thought he was afraid and comforted him: “There are no evil ghosts there.”

Wiping his tears, Chang Huaichen said: “Then I especially cannot go.”

Su Chen frowned: “Why?”

In the small courtyard where blood flowed like a stream, Chang Huaichen knelt to Su Chen: “Immortal Uncle, can you teach me magic?”

Su Chen looked at him: “I can, but you must return to the Baoshan Sect with me.”

Chang Huaichen shook his head: “I learn things very quickly. You only need to look in on me whenever you pass by here.”

Su Chen: “Then how will you live?”

Chang Huaichen stood up and turned the windlass. His small face turned red as he pulled the bucket up and dropped it on the ground with a thud, splashing bloody water everywhere. Holding that bucket of water, Chang Huaichen looked up at Su Chen and smiled through his tears.

“Immortal Uncle, look. I can take care of myself.”

Su Chen sighed again and said: “Alright.”

Chang Huaichen had asked him to come whenever he passed by, but from the traces of life in this house, he had visited often and stayed for long periods.

This was the disciple who lived far away, who never returned to the sect, and for whom Su Chen cared deeply yet never spoke of.

Su Chen turned to leave. Su Cheyue cried out in surprise: “Father!” In the illusion, he couldn’t keep him there. “Father, wait for me!”

Just as they were about to follow that heroic figure, everything before them collapsed and shrank without warning, receding into the mirror they had entered from!

“Father…”

They were thrown out of the mirror. Turning their heads, they were back in the room. Chang Huaichen, in his red robes, was sitting on the bed, gasping for breath.

What had just happened was his nightmare.