Unvergleichliche Erbin

Kapitel 25

"..." A deep sense of guilt suddenly welled up in my heart, and I didn't know what to say.

"I heard from Xia that you and A-Kang have been seeing each other for more than half a year, is that right?" the woman asked quietly.

I was shocked. How did Xia know about us? Why had she never told me about it?

"No wonder Ah Kang has been going there so frequently in the past six months, and his firm has been quietly closed down. I've been kept in the dark the whole time. If Xia hadn't come and told me, I don't know how long I would have been deceived by that bastard!" The woman's voice gradually grew angry. I gasped. My relationship with him was extremely secretive; no one around me knew about it. How did Xia find out? I suddenly felt betrayed.

"Miss Su Yun! If you're hoping to get his money from him, you've miscalculated!" the woman suddenly said coldly. I had been listening to her with a sense of apology, but now I was enraged: "You're wrong! I'm with him for no reason—I don't want any of his money. You've underestimated him!"

"Hahaha..." The woman laughed as if she had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. "Did I hear that right? You're playing emotional games with him? Is he worth it? Do you know what kind of person he was when he was pursuing me? Back then, he completely swooned me, all to use my father's connections to open his firm in Shanghai. He even went so far as to fall out with his parents for that!"

I coldly interrupted her: "I don't want to know about your past. All I know is that there are truly no feelings left between you two!"

"Feelings? Do you know what feelings mean to that bastard? It's money! It's all sorts of connections he can use to climb the social ladder! A year ago, after my father retired, all those connections gradually drifted apart. That bastard saw that our family's fortunes were over, so he started looking for other ways out. Do you really think he's a gentleman like he claims to be? He started thinking about divorce after my father retired. Do you know why he hasn't asked me for a divorce yet?" the woman asked.

When I heard what she said, I could hardly believe my ears. Was the "bastard" she was talking about really him?

Seeing that I remained silent for a while, the woman sneered, "He's a lawyer! He's been thinking about how to get all the assets we have in our prenuptial agreement! If he files for divorce now, he won't get a single penny of all our properties in Shanghai, including the more than two million yuan worth of stocks! Because all those assets belong to our family! Before he married me, he was a complete pauper!" The woman's voice was full of contempt.

I didn't speak, listening to the woman continue: "So, he came up with a vicious plan! Knowing I was timid, he conspired with others to frame me when I was completely unprepared, making everyone around me, including my friends and colleagues, believe I had a mental illness! In the end, even my father and mother believed him and sent me to a mental hospital!"

I was at a loss when the phone was suddenly snatched from my hand: "Save your breath! Don't think I can't handle you! You're a madman!" With that, the phone was hung up, completely ignoring the last shrill scream coming from the other end.

I stared blankly at the man in front of me. Was this the man I loved most? Why did his expression look so unfamiliar, and why were his eyes filled with something that made me shudder and terrified?

I started trembling all over and couldn't help coughing repeatedly.

He quickly hugged me tightly and began to comfort me softly. I didn't hear a word he was saying; I only felt an endless fear waiting for me. Suddenly, I asked him in a low voice, "I'm going to die! Do you know that?"

He froze, a very unnatural expression appearing on his face: "What nonsense are you talking about?"

I looked at the man in front of me, who was both familiar and unfamiliar, and tears streamed down my face. I told him everything about my illness and waited quietly for his response.

A look of panic suddenly crossed his face. He instinctively pulled away from me, sat on the edge of the bed, and shook his head repeatedly: "Impossible! Impossible!"

I lowered my head and began to cry. I didn't know if he didn't believe what I said or if he couldn't accept the fact. He remained silent, and only my sobs echoed in the room.

I suddenly looked up: "Is what she said true? You conspired with others to send her to a mental hospital to get her money?" He suddenly stared at me with an extremely cold gaze: "She's a madwoman! How could you believe a madwoman? Hmph! Are you testing me?"

I don't understand his last sentence.

"You deliberately fabricated a lie about having a terminal illness to test me, didn't you?" He suddenly moved closer to me, a glint in his eyes that was both unfamiliar and terrifying to me. I instinctively stepped back.

"You want me to pity you, don't you?" He suddenly grabbed my hair and pulled it back forcefully. I cried out in pain, unable to believe that he had become so violent in such a short time.

"Do you want to split the shares of this club with me?" His grip didn't loosen at all because of my shouting; instead, he yelled in a chilling voice.

I was so shocked that I didn't know how to start a conversation. My scalp was throbbing painfully, and tears streamed down my face.

He stared at me quietly for a while, then suddenly let go of my hand, sat down beside me, and stared at me with an extremely gloomy gaze. I was so exhausted that I collapsed to the ground.

After a while, he suddenly stood up, quickly put on his clothes, and said in an extremely cold tone, "I have to get back to Shanghai right away! I'm warning you, you'd better keep your mouth shut for the next few days!" The last sentence was almost a threat.

He left very quickly, and I collapsed to the ground and burst into tears.

I don't know how long I cried, but it was already broad daylight. I got up from the ground and suddenly thought of Xia. Should I tell her what happened? And all of this was because of her. Why did she betray me?

The diary ends here; the next page is blank. Judging from the time, Su Yun jumped to his death from the third floor of the small inn in Black Town the night after he wrote this entry.

The diary slipped from Ningxia's hands and fell to the ground. Ningxia didn't know how to describe her feelings at this moment. Fear, confusion, grief, sorrow... it seemed that all the most painful emotions were concentrated in this moment. Ningxia was at a loss. She simply couldn't believe everything Su Yun said in the diary, including the strange behavior of the self she saw, or the actions of Ning Kang mentioned in the diary. It seemed unbelievable, so bizarre that it was impossible to believe.

Could there be two versions of herself? Ningxia couldn't shake off this terrifying thought! Not long ago, she knew nothing about Su Yun and Ning Kang, let alone went to Shanghai to rescue Jian Na from the mental hospital. Was everything Su Yun wrote down about Jian Na's words just Su Yun's delusion? Unfortunately, Su Yun and Jian Na were both dead. Would everything written in this diary become an unsolvable mystery?

"I am!"

"This is your package! Please sign for it!"

Ningxia signed the document, took the package, closed the door, and felt a little strange. Who would send a package to her?

The package wasn't big, about the size of a book. Ningxia looked at the sender's name on the package, which read "Ji Xue." Ningxia thought for a moment, and the name seemed somewhat familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. After opening the package, Ningxia discovered that it contained a digital camera.

Ningxia was very curious, so she turned on the camera lens and pressed the play button...

Fang Jian felt a chill run down his spine, wondering what had happened. He quickly looked in the direction Ning Xia was looking and saw a digital video camera sitting quietly on the coffee table opposite her, playing something.

Ningxia suddenly raised her head, her gaze darting around Fang Jian, and said in a very strange voice, "You've come!"

Fang Jian nodded, then frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ningxia suddenly revealed a smile that sent a chill down Fang Jian's spine, and said in a low voice, "Didn't you want to know the answers to everything?"

"What is it?"

"Everything, everything!" Ningxia looked at Fang Jian with an extremely strange and unfamiliar expression, which somehow gave Fang Jian goosebumps all over his body.

"There's someone! They can tell you everything!" Ningxia continued.

"who?"

"Her!" Ningxia pointed to the camera on the coffee table.

Under Ningxia's direct gaze and prompting, Fang Jian awkwardly sat down on the sofa and pressed the play button on the camera. A cable connected the camera to the television opposite, and a picture suddenly appeared on the television screen, seemingly showing the living room where Fang Jian was currently sitting, with the image facing directly at the sofa.

Fang Jian suddenly felt very strange. Why was Ningxia taking pictures of his living room?

The scene was quiet, without any movement. Judging from the lighting, it was nighttime. The entire room was shrouded in darkness, with only a sliver of daylight coming through the window.

Ningxia sat motionless beside him, not saying a word. Fang Jian felt a strange feeling that was hard to describe.

The screen flickered slightly, as if someone had walked past. Sure enough, a dark figure walked to the sofa and sat down. The moonlight from outside the window quietly spilled onto the floor of the room, but the figure sat in the corner of the sofa, its face shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to see who it was.

But Fang Jian immediately recognized the figure from the shadowy silhouette as Ning Xia. What did she mean by filming him in the middle of the night? Fang Jian was somewhat surprised. He turned around and looked at Ning Xia with a questioning gaze, but Ning Xia remained fixed on the screen, seemingly unwilling to answer Fang Jian's question.

"Hello! Ningxia!" A voice suddenly came from the television, a young woman's voice that sounded extremely unfamiliar and very strange.

Fang Jian was shocked. The person inside wasn't Ning Xia? Who had been in this room before?

The woman's face in the picture is still shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to see who she is.

"You must be very surprised to receive this gift from me, right?" The woman's tone was slow and her voice sounded very gentle, but Fang Jian felt an unbelievable strangeness about it, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

"Where should I begin? This matter is far too complicated, and you won't understand unless I explain the whole story clearly. I think I should start from when I first arrived here! That was when I got married!"

Hearing this, Fang Jian felt even more puzzled and confused. He glanced at Ning Xia, who was sitting silently to the side. Her face was expressionless, but she must have already seen the contents of the camera. He swallowed his doubts and continued to listen to the woman on the television.

"If I remember correctly, it was the fourth year of the Yongle reign! I was just seventeen years old that year!" the woman said softly.

"Yongle?" Fang Jian felt a sense of familiarity. What? The Ming Dynasty? He was so shocked he almost fell off the sofa. This woman got married in the Ming Dynasty? This was even more astonishing than an alien appearing before his eyes. If this woman was really born during the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty, she would be hundreds of years old now. Was she human or something else? The unbelievable doubt made Fang Jian cry out.

"You must be feeling very strange right now, aren't you?" the woman asked, as if she had noticed Fang Jian's actions. Fang Jian suddenly couldn't breathe and felt a chill run down his spine.

"The day after my seventeenth birthday, my father returned home with news that made the whole family very uneasy! That is, Master Wei from the Wei family in town proposed marriage to my father!" The woman's voice became sad.

Fang Jian stared wide-eyed at the indistinct black shadow in the image, feeling a chill emanating from it, and dared not even breathe.

"My father loved me dearly and couldn't bear to marry me off to that Master Wei! Firstly, because Master Wei was only marrying me as a second wife, and secondly, because of the rampant rumors circulating in town about the Wei family. Master Wei's two previous wives had both lost contact with their families less than six months after their marriages, seemingly forever lost in that terrifying mansion. And the families of those two wives—the former county magistrate and the town's largest tea merchant—were mysteriously burned to ashes in a fire one night. These rumors terrified everyone in town, and no one wanted to marry their daughter into the Wei family."

However, Master Wei was said to be a man of influence in the imperial court, and no one dared to offend him. Therefore, every family in the town with a daughter of marriageable age wanted to marry her off as soon as possible to prevent Master Wei from taking another wife.

My father was the same; he contacted several matchmakers, hoping to marry me off as soon as possible. But fate played a cruel trick on me; on the very day I was helping my father manage the family pharmacy, I actually met Master Wei!

That day, my father arranged to meet a matchmaker to discuss my affairs and asked me to temporarily manage the shop for a day. However, he did not expect that on that very day, Mr. Wei would accidentally wander into our family's pharmacy and see me!

The patriarch of the Wei family looked to be in his thirties, with the appearance of a scholar, refined and cultured. At that moment, I only felt that this man, who had suddenly appeared before me, was looking me up and down with an extremely uncomfortable gaze, and after looking me over, he left with a satisfied smile. I felt utterly bewildered and extremely strange, but I never expected that from that moment on, my fate would be changed.

The next day, my father brought back news that made the whole family uneasy: Master Wei had taken a liking to me and proposed marriage to my father, and demanded a reply within half a month! In fact, our whole family knew that Master Wei was forcing my father to agree. On the surface, he was giving him half a month, but in reality, if my father did not agree to the marriage, he would make it impossible for our family to stay in this place.

After sighing and lamenting for more than ten days, my father couldn't bear it any longer, because during those ten days, no one came to our family's pharmacy to buy medicine. Our whole family knew that this was a warning from Master Wei to my father. That night, my father drank too much and cried uncontrollably in front of my mother, telling her that he had no choice but to marry me off to Master Wei.

When I heard the news, there were only two days left before my wedding. My mother hugged me and cried bitterly when she told me. I sat blankly in the room, thinking about the scene with Master Wei that day. He didn't seem as terrifying as the rumors said. He seemed to be just an ordinary man.

I was startled. Why was I locked up? Was this one of Master Wei's strange hobbies? My stomach was growling with hunger, and I felt weak. In a state of incredible panic and despair, I climbed onto the bed, which was as cold as ice, and fell into a deep sleep.

I don't know how long I slept, but I woke up groggily and saw a figure in front of me. The figure seemed to have been there for a while. I forced myself to open my eyes and found that it was a middle-aged woman!

Her eyes were extremely cold. She stood by the bed, looking down at me with a condescending and indifferent gaze. I suddenly felt as if I had been stripped naked.

"Dinner's ready!" The middle-aged woman slammed the plate down on the table with an almost rude attitude, turned and left, quickly locking the door behind her.

"Wait!...Wait!" I hurriedly got out of bed, but the extreme weakness caused me to fall to the ground. I had no choice but to crawl towards the door, shouting at the top of my lungs as I crawled: "Wait!...Wait!" I wanted her to let me out.

But before I could even reach the door, the middle-aged woman's footsteps had already faded into the distance. I burst into tears of disappointment. Why were they locking me up like a prisoner?

I glanced at the food on my plate. To be honest, it was only slightly better than what beggars on the street got. But I needed to fill my stomach so I could get out of here. I hastily swallowed the cold food and peered out through the tightly sealed window.

The window couldn't be moved, but the paper window could be torn. Through the hole, I could see a courtyard outside, surrounded by a row of enclosed traditional courtyard houses. From the window, I could see that my room was on the second floor. In the distance, beyond the courtyards, there were many dense groves of trees, planted by the Wei family. I recognized that beyond those groves lay Black Town, where my relatives lived. But now, I was trapped in this small building, living like a prisoner! The woman began to sob softly. Fang Jian was immediately filled with boundless sympathy. He looked at Ning Xia beside him; her face remained unmoved.

"Under the table I saw a red bundle, the box and bracelet that my father had personally handed to me, wrapped in a large red cloth embroidered by my mother. But now, the bundle was like a piece of trash, discarded in the dark corner under the table."

I nodded hastily.

"I'm so sorry to have made you suffer here!" he continued.

I was momentarily bewildered, and cautiously asked him, "Why did you lock me up here?"

A hint of apology flashed in his eyes, as if he wanted to tell me something, but he didn't say anything and turned to leave.

I froze for a moment, then realized what he meant and lunged at him: "Wait! You can't lock me up here!"

But I was too late. The door slammed shut, followed by the sound of a lock clicking shut. A surge of anger welled up inside me, and I yelled, "Let me out! Let me out!"

The footsteps in the corridor quickly disappeared. I rushed to the window and looked through the opening. Wei Quan and a man dressed as a servant went out through a small door next to the courtyard. After they left, they closed the door. Then I heard the sound of a door being locked.

I was both shocked and furious, and I didn't know how to describe my feelings at that moment. This Wei Quan, did he force me to marry him just to lock me up here like a rat?

As darkness fell again, the middle-aged woman who delivered my breakfast that morning came over again, bringing me another cold meal. I couldn't take the opportunity to run out because she was accompanied by a burly male servant who blocked the door with his wide-set body as she handed me the food.

I stared silently at the expressionless middle-aged woman, then suddenly spoke: "Who are you?"

The middle-aged woman was as cold as ice. She glanced at me and said icily, "Call me Aunt Wang!"

"Did you come here specifically to serve me?" I asked as I watched Wang Ma change to a clean chamber pot.

"It's hardly a matter of serving! I only do what my master tells me to do!" Wang Ma said coldly.

"Who is your master?" I subconsciously sensed that the master she was referring to was not Wei Quan.

"You'll see her soon!" Wang Ma brought a basin of hot water from the doorway, then pushed the door open, locked it with an iron lock, and the towering male servant left.

I swallowed the pig feed, hastily wiped myself down with the hot water in the basin, and lay down in the darkness. There were no candles in the room, so I could only sigh helplessly in the dark.

It was well past midnight, and I still couldn't fall asleep. Everything here was so astonishing. Why did Wei Quan lock me up in this place? I recalled the scene when I saw him this morning. It seemed that he had something he couldn't say. It seemed that this was not his true intention.

The next day, I asked Wang Ma, who came every day, for candles, but she refused: 'You can't light a lamp in this room!'

"Why?"

"There's no why! It's simply impossible!" Aunt Wang coldly interrupted me.