Husband-stealing story - Chapter 83
Her beautiful face was exposed to the blowing wind, and the fine downy hairs on her face trembled. Tianxiu tilted her head slightly to look into those large, dark eyes, but unfortunately, the person in those dark pupils was not him.
Tianxiu asked, "Nineteen, how much do you know about Shen Yuntan?"
Mentioning Shen Yuntan, a hint of melancholy appeared in Tang Shijiu's clear eyes. After thinking for a moment, Tang Shijiu lowered his head and said, "I know nothing about it."
He said he was a scholar who was ruined and killed by the Sangmen. That's a lie.
He once said that he was born into a scholarly family, was physically weak, and that he was afraid of blood and killing, but that was also a lie.
Everything he told her was a lie. As for Shen Yuntan's background, there were only Tang Chongli and Tang Yu's intermittent and vague guesses and various legends about Shen Yin in the martial arts world—but how much of that was true?
Tianxiu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said, "Shen Yuntan, Tianshu and I are fellow disciples. Our master... you know a little about him. In fact, people like us originally had no future, no hope, only slaughter."
“From the day we became fellow disciples, we had to constantly kill and deceive in order to survive... so... there was no trust in our lives.”
"No friends, no family, trust... that's just a pipe dream." Her bright eyes suddenly dimmed as she gazed into the distance. "So, I've always known what I really want."
Tang Shijiu bit her lip and remained silent.
“Or perhaps Shen Yun doesn’t even know what he wants.” He laughed heartily, but Nineteen noticed that often the moments when he laughed the most heartily were the moments when he was most desolate.
Even her smile was a facade.
Even their expressions were full of deception.
It has become a habit, ingrained in my blood and bones.
Just like Shen Yuntan... even when he kills someone, he does so with a gentle smile.
“Shen Yuntan and Tang Weiqi were never actually in love.” Tianxiu’s smile grew wider. “Whether it was with me or with Shen Yuntan, it was all fake. The person Tang Weiqi actually liked was my brother.”
The name Tang Shijiu hated hearing the most was "Tang Weiqi". Regardless of whether she was a relative or an aunt, in Tang Shijiu's heart, Tang Weiqi was a curse, tightly binding her and Shen Yuntan.
So she said coldly, "I have no interest in knowing about her affairs."
Tianxiu raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "Really not interested?"
Tang Shijiu kept a straight face, and after a long while sighed: "Alright, actually I really want to know. Hurry up and tell me everything you know, don't leave anything out, otherwise I'll pretend you're a woman again and find you a husband to marry!"
"So you're not good at lying at all. Next time you say you don't want to know, don't look at people so expectantly." Tianxiu laughed at her mercilessly. "Actually, lying is human nature, there's nothing wrong with it. You're not used to it once, you're not used to it twice, but if you keep doing it, you'll just start making things up. How many people can go their whole lives without ever lying?"
Seeing Nineteen staring at him, he quickly returned to the main point: "Tang Weiqi and Shen Yuntan's relationship is more of a mutual exploitation. They're birds of a feather, but calling them lovers isn't quite right. It's more accurate to say that Tang Weiqi is an irreplaceable friend in Shen Yuntan's heart." Tianxiu sighed, "Actually, in this complicated relationship, the one who suffers the most is me."
"The Tuanfu Heart Sutra was taken away by Ge Yang, but he disappeared from the martial world and his whereabouts are unknown. The last known place he stayed was the Tang Clan. And besides the Tang Clan, another person who might have possessed the Tuanfu Heart Sutra is our master, who is also Ge Yang's junior brother, Ge Qiang." He looked at Shijiu's surprised face and nodded, "Yes, so strictly speaking, we can be considered half fellow disciples."
"At the time, we suspected that the Tang Clan possessed the Tuanfu Heart Sutra, while the Tang Clan members suspected that we had the sutra's whereabouts, leading to mutual suspicion. Shen Yuntan's intervention to save Tang Weiqi was a setup, and also our second collaboration as fellow disciples after killing our master. My martial arts skills were weak, making it inconvenient for me to come and go, and my brother's cold face could scare children to tears. The only person I found agreeable was Shen Yuntan. At the time, we thought Tang Weiqi was a pure and innocent young lady, so we staged this hero-saves-the-beauty story, allowing Shen Yuntan to successfully infiltrate the Tang family."
Tang Shijiu gave them a disdainful look: "A bunch of bastards."
Tianxiu shrugged, not denying it, and continued, "The Tang family didn't see through his identity. After all, Ge Qiang and Ge Yang are elusive, and we don't often travel in the martial world. However, Tang Weiqi saw through it—when she was young, she had seen Ge Yang's martial arts at Tang Qingliu's place. Who would have thought that a frail young lady who knew nothing about martial arts could recognize that Shen Yuntan's kung fu and Ge Yang's kung fu were from the same source based on a little impression from her childhood?"
Tang Shijiu couldn't help but shudder: "She...knew from the moment Shen Yuntan stepped in to save him?"
Tianxiu nodded: "Yes, I recognized him from the very beginning. So, the two of them each had their own ulterior motives."
Tang Shijiu was taken aback: "Then... how did you come to know Tang Weiqi?"
"Don't be impatient, let me explain slowly." Tianxiu patted her hand. "Shen Yuntan never expected that Tang Weiqi, who was as obedient as a little white rabbit, could see through his scheme. At that time, he stayed at the Tang residence as his savior and secretly investigated. My brother and I also assisted from the side. I don't know how, but Weiqi learned the contact code. She was just a little girl who didn't know any martial arts, yet she dared to contact us by herself using the code."
“It was a late night, the moonlight was bright, and I followed the code to the rendezvous point—there was a peach tree there, it was springtime, and the tree was full of peach blossoms. She stood under the peach tree, the moonlight shining on her, her eyes so bright, yet so deep…” A look of longing appeared on his face, as if he had returned to that day when he first met this little girl who loved to wear white and was full of mischievous ideas. In the crystal-clear moonlight and amidst the falling petals, that girl who rarely smiled was like a fairy descended from heaven. “I thought to myself, thank goodness… it was me who came, if it were my brother…” Tianxiu said with a self-deprecating laugh, “I thought that if she met my brother, she wouldn’t survive. I didn’t expect that she would use it again and speak with my brother. My brother… actually didn’t kill her.”
“A woman like that is bound to evoke pity. Shen Yuntan thinks he likes her, but I've never felt that way.” This time, it was Nineteen's turn to pat his shoulder, and Tianxiu gave him a reassuring smile. “Sometimes I think, if she hadn't died, maybe I wouldn't have thought about her so much. Or maybe, it's because she died…”
His voice gradually lowered: "Who could have imagined that she would like a man who never smiled and had no feelings? Even after she died... my brother didn't feel anything at all. That's how things are in this world. The person I like likes my brother, but my brother doesn't like her."
Tang Shijiu wanted to ask Tang Weiqi how she died, but seeing Tianxiu's expression, she swallowed the words back. Although her resentment towards Tang Weiqi had lessened considerably, she still hoped that one day Shen Yuntan could tell her the truth himself, word by word.
While she was lost in thought, Tianxiu suddenly asked, "Nineteen, do you still have the jade pendant I gave you?"
Tang Shijiu subconsciously touched his neck, but found nothing there.
……………………………………
Tang Chongli's hand was still trembling as she closed the door of the thatched hut. She stared blankly at the incoherent man inside.
Shen Yuntan was following someone, unaware that his movements were also being monitored. Just as he mounted his horse and headed back, the Tang Clan received the news. She intercepted the message, kept it from her second and third grandfathers, and, alone with a helper, quietly traveled to the nearest village, waiting for Shen Yuntan to arrive.
That bowl of pumpkin porridge contained the most deadly and poisonous aphrodisiac from the Tang Clan.
She loved this man, loved him for so many years. After Tang Weiqi died, she thought it would be her turn, but unexpectedly, Tang Shijiu appeared out of nowhere.
She was unwilling to accept it.
His sleeping face was serene and handsome, his brows slightly furrowed, as if he were having a complicated dream or thinking about someone complicated. Her slender fingers gently traced his brows, his eyes, and his high nose, finally landing on his sharply defined lips, where she gave a cold smile.
Shen Yuntan, you can only be mine.
Chapter Fifty-Two: My Deception
Tang Chongli's hand slowly slid down Shen Yuntan's collar, gently feeling the strong muscles beneath the cotton fabric. Her tears, which she could no longer hold back, fell drop by drop. She knew that even after this night, this man before her wouldn't feel a shred of affection for her; he might even crush her like an ant, easily killing her with a single blow, or punishing her in every way imaginable. But she didn't care. She had waited far too long; there couldn't be any more delay.
Just as she was about to kiss him, Tang Chongli suddenly hesitated. She wasn't afraid of death, nor was she afraid that he would kill her. She was afraid that she would never see Shen Yuntan again once he regained consciousness.
She wanted to stay with this man for the rest of her life, never make him angry, and never hurt him.
She heard her grandfather say that the Tang Clan had a poisoned needle that, when inserted into the Baihui acupoint, would allow the poison to invade the meridians, causing paralysis of the victim's limbs and rendering them unable to move.
Coincidentally, she had just the right kind of needle in her purse. Tang Chongli thought for a moment, then turned to the side, opened her purse, and slowly took out the silver needle that shimmered with a blue light.