Chapter 44 (2/2)

Princess Kang Hua looked at everyone around the well.

‘Madam, I don’t know who,’ Yan Shi Ting’s personal maid said. ‘Earlier ninth prince’s wife came to the gardens to see second mistress. Then I went to brew medicine for second mistress in the kitchen. When I came back here, I didn’t see second mistress anywhere. So I walked around the gardens and found second mistress dead in the well. I don’t know who killed second mistress.’

Princess Kang Hua turned around and she wanted to kill Yan Shi Ning.

Yan Shi Ning stepped back away from Princess Kang Hua.

‘I didn’t kill her,’ Yan Shi Ning said.

‘She’s like this and you still didn’t spare her!’ Princess Kang Hua said. ‘I want to kill you!’

Princess Kang Hua pulled out a dagger and stabbed Yan Shi Ning’s chest.

Xiao Zai jumped out of the shadows and pushed Princess Kang Hua away from Yan Shi Ning.

‘Shi Ning!’ Yan Jing cried out.

Princess Kang Hua stood up from the ground. ‘I should have killed you sooner! That year I killed your mother, I should have killed you too! You’re a cruel demoness! I want to kill you!’

Yan Jing thought he misheard Kang Hua’s words. What that year killed your mother? What did that mean?

Yan Shi Ning’s chest hurt and her face whitened. ‘Didn’t you try to kill me? You used Fu Gui to poison me.’

‘Fu Gui?’ Princess Kang Hua asked and looked confusedly at Yan Shi Ning.

Yan Shi Ning was confused why Princess Kang Hua didn’t know what Fu Gui was.

‘Shi Ning, how did your mother die?’ Yan Jing asked.

‘How my mother died?’ Yan Shi Ning asked. ‘She ordered widow Li to poison my mother to death!’

‘Widow Li?’ Yan Jing asked. ‘How is that possible?’

Yan Shi Ning laughed coldly. ‘Father, didn’t you know you’ve been living with a cruel woman for many years? Even now, do you truly don’t know you married a black hearted woman?’

Yan Jing was saddened by his daughter’s look of hatred toward him.

Yan Shi Ning cried. ‘I have a good father. My father let my innocent mother be killed. My mother was killed by you and that woman!’

‘That’s why she wants to take revenge on her father and me,’ Princess Kang Hua said and she laughed bitterly. ‘Yan Jing, did you hear your daughter say she hates you? Yan Jing, you’re in your position today because of your good daughter. Everything was her plan. She sent the letters, she’s the one that ruined our marriage and she’s the one that killed Shi Ting! Yan Jing open your eyes and look at your good daughter. She destroyed everything you have.’

Yan Jing heard everything and his heart froze. He didn’t want to believe his daughter did everything Kang Hua said. In that moment he felt like he lived his whole life in vain and everything bad that happened was his retribution.

‘Shi Ning, go home,’ Yan Jing said and looked at his daughter for the last time.

A lot of blood flowed out of Yan Shi Ning’s stab wound. She felt her body weakened, the sky darkened and she fainted.

‘Mistress!’ Xiao Zai cried out.

Xiao Zai ran to Yan Shi Ning and carried her to the horse carriage. He knew after they returned to the manor, ninth prince was going to skin him alive.

After Yan Shi Ning left the Yan Manor, Yan Jing ordered the servants to bound and lock Kang Hua in her chamber.

Later that night Yan Jing gathered all the old maids and servants. He poured wine for everyone until they were all drunk and collapsed on the table. Then he used the three white fabrics to make a noose and suspend it from the ceiling of Kang Hua’s chamber.

Yan Jing wrapped the noose around the bound Kang Hua’s neck. She screamed but he stabbed her heart with a dagger and she died.

Yan Jing picked up the small bottle on Kang Hua’s table, lit the Yan Manor on fire and ingested everything in the small bottle.

Before Yan Jing died, he remembered the ten years he studied and Dung Thi was by his side. She loved him, cooked for him and supported him. He wanted to give her everything in the world, money, status and for everyone to envy her. He studied day and night and thirsted for success. Finally he passed the imperial examination, earned money and status. But afterward his fate changed for the worst, he lost her… he watched the fire burn everything and everyone inside the Yan Manor and he laughed. Everything that happened in the past became a dream. If that was so then he accepted all his wasted energy to pursue everything was pointless.

***

End of Chapter Forty-Fou