Chapter 32: I Want You to Return Everything
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Light shimmered in Shen Yuan’s eyes, her emotions impossible to read.
Before she could speak, Liuyan found an excuse and left first.
Shen Wanning also sent Green萝 away, then led Shen Yuan in the opposite direction from the flower path.
They entered Hidden Beauty Mountain.
Mist layered itself through the mountains, while the trees tangled together in confusion. The slightest lapse in attention could lead one to lose their way.
Not far away yawned an unfathomably deep cliff, enough to make anyone’s blood run cold.
Worried that Shen Wanning might harbor ill intentions, Shen Yuan had secretly taken a handful of incense powder from the banquet and tucked it into her purse beforehand.
“The hunting grounds are just ahead. Aren’t you afraid of being shot?” she asked.
Shen Wanning did not slow down. Instead, she glanced around and quickened her pace.
She hurried so much that she began to breathe slightly heavily as she spoke. “What exactly is this Jiang family you keep mentioning, Sister?”
At the renewed mention of those two words, Shen Yuan’s fingers trembled faintly.
“Are you truly going to let the existence of an outsider ruin the deep bond between us sisters?” Shen Wanning finally stopped and turned around, her eyes filled with sorrow.
Shen Yuan seemed to have heard a joke. Her eyes reddened as she demanded, “What sisterly affection is there between us? You needn’t put on an act in front of me. I won’t believe a single word you say.”
“The way you speak makes it sound as though you truly blame me. But you seem to have forgotten that I am the daughter of the Shen family. You are nothing.”
She wiped away her tears, and in an instant, a sinister smile appeared on her face.
The change in her expression was astonishingly swift.
There was no longer any need for her to pretend.
Shen Yuan’s brows drew together deeply, and her gaze sharpened with force. In a low voice, she asked, “If you truly are the daughter of the Shen family, why have you obstructed my return time and again? Why did you set fire in the dead of night to harm the Jiang family who adopted me? Shen Wanning, I am not like Mother, who plays favorites; nor like Father, who cares only for himself; nor like Eldest Brother, who turns a blind eye to everything. And I will certainly never be like Second Brother and Shen Yu, both blind in sight and heart! Since you provoked me and incurred a blood debt, you should have known that one day I would make you repay every bit of it!”
She knew!
She actually knew everything?
Shen Wanning’s face suddenly twisted into something vicious and malevolent. Grating her teeth, she forced the words through clenched teeth. “What else do you know? Why did you come back?”
The wealth and glory she had obtained with such difficulty, the pampered life she had fought so hard to secure—
Was Shen Yuan truly going to destroy it all?
“Your mother was once the housekeeper of the Shen residence, Nurse Yun. Because she was dutiful and honest, Mother favored her greatly. As fate would have it, the two of them even gave birth on the very same day.”
Shen Yuan advanced slowly. The pressure of her steadily approaching figure forced Shen Wanning to retreat several steps.
Her cold questioning continued to ring in Shen Wanning’s ears. “Because both of them had given birth to daughters, Mother was exceedingly generous toward Nurse Yun, rewarding her with fine clothes, jade, and countless other gifts. Later, when Nurse Yun fell gravely ill and was nearing death, she could not bear to see her frail daughter dragged down by a gambling-addicted father. So she had you pretend to be the true eldest daughter of the Shen family. Isn’t that right?”
The dark past had been exposed. Shen Wanning’s gaze turned venomous, and she wished she could lunge forward at once and tear Shen Yuan to pieces.
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“How did you find out?” she asked.
Shen Yuan’s expression was indifferent, but suppressed hatred gathered in the depths of her eyes. “From the moment I decided to return, I knew every truth clearly. Shen Wanning, you could hinder me and obstruct me as much as you pleased—but you should never have endangered the lives of the Jiang family.”
“You don’t know what it feels like to glimpse a sliver of light in a dark, freezing night.”
“They are wonderful relatives.”
The distant roar of a man and the rapid pounding of hooves gradually reached their ears.
Shen Wanning suddenly let out a cold laugh. “Since you cannot bear to part with them, then go down and reunite with them!”
She had bribed the attendants in Hidden Beauty Mountain and ordered them to drive the game toward this place. Shen Lang would come along as well.
As the thunder of hooves slowly drew nearer, a snow-white rabbit suddenly appeared from nowhere. It leaped into the air, then raced desperately between Shen Yuan and Shen Wanning.
Before the spring hunt, Shen Wanning had made countless arrangements, all for this very moment.
She wanted Shen Yuan dead.
She wanted a corpse that could never speak.
The man on horseback took aim at the rabbit, and a cold arrow shot swiftly through the air.
Shen Yuan instinctively stepped backward, attempting to turn aside and evade it.
“Second Brother, save me!”
Shen Wanning suddenly let out a shriek. Her body went limp, and she collapsed into Shen Yuan’s arms.
The cry startled Shen Lang on horseback. From where he was, it appeared that Shen Yuan was attempting to harm Wanning.
Shen Lang knew the terrain of Hidden Beauty Mountain extremely well. Seeing that a cliff lay immediately beside them, he hastily fired a sharp arrow, hoping to force the two apart.
Shen Wanning clung tightly to Shen Yuan’s wrist, refusing to let go. Her grip had already left bloody marks in the flesh.
“Shen Yuan, go to hell!” Shen Wanning rasped in a low voice, endless viciousness bursting from her icy eyes.
The sharp arrow was about to strike her.
Shen Yuan lowered her head and bit down hard on Shen Wanning’s hand. The pain made Wanning release her at once.
Shen Yuan then snatched the incense powder from her purse and flung it into Wanning’s face.
The rabbit’s corpse, pierced by the first arrow, slid past her eyes. Immediately afterward, the second cold arrow came streaking in. Unable to dodge in time, it grazed her arm.
Spots of blood seeped into her clothes.
Amid the throbbing pain, Shen Yuan caught sight of a dark figure racing wildly through the luxuriant forest. The marks left by the horse’s hooves flashed like dazzling blades.
She looked at Shen Wanning, whose face was covered in incense powder and whose eyes were squeezed shut, and gave a mocking laugh. “You’ve lost.”
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Then, with her flowing sleeves fluttering, she leaped from the cliff.
Like the rabbit that had been struck, she vanished without a trace.
Shen Wanning’s vision blurred. She heard only the three words Shen Yuan left behind, followed by the endless howling of the cold wind.
Almost at that exact moment—
The black silhouette of a galloping horse rushed into view. Before Shen Wanning could see clearly, Pei Ji suddenly spurred toward Shen Yuan below the cliff.
“Commander Pei, don’t!”
Shen Lang arrived moments later and threw himself at the edge of the precipice. Below, mist coiled and drifted like a fairyland, concealing whatever lay at the bottom.
Only then did Shen Wanning understand.
Pei Ji had actually followed Shen Yuan over the cliff?
Remembering Shen Yuan’s final words, Shen Wanning’s face turned livid with humiliation. She even wanted to jump after her and force her to explain herself.
But the bottom of the cliff was unfathomably deep. A single glance made her whole body tremble. How could she possibly dare to jump?
“Go and inform His Majesty and the Empress Dowager! Send people to rescue A-Yuan and the commander!” Shen Lang shouted, urging the companions behind him to return for help.
“Second Brother…”
Shen Wanning hesitated before stopping him. She gently shook her head. “Second Brother, the commander is my fiancé, yet he fell from the cliff together with Sister. If they died, at least their bodies could silence the tongues of the world. But what if they aren’t dead? How am I supposed to face everyone then?”
“Wanning! How can you think that way? A-Yuan is your sister, no matter what! And the commander is the man who will one day stand beside you! If he dies, how could you possibly live with it?”
Shen Lang knew that Shen Wanning had always loved Pei Ji. Otherwise, she would never have cared for him so deeply.
If the person she loved truly died, how would she go on living?
As for Shen Yuan, regardless of whether she had deliberately tried to seduce Pei Ji, and regardless of whether she belonged to the Shen family or was an outsider, Shen Lang could no longer abandon her a second time as he had in childhood.
“I’m going to save A-Yuan!”
Shen Lang strode forward several paces, mounted his horse, and prepared to return at once to ask the emperor to send men to search for them.
“Second Brother! Do you really intend to save Shen Yuan?”
Shen Wanning’s voice suddenly turned shrill.
Shen Lang had never heard her speak to him in such a tone.
He turned back instinctively, only to see that she had removed a hairpin and was holding it against her neck. Step by step, she retreated toward the edge of the cliff.
“What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?” Shen Lang demanded in panic.
“If you insist on sending people to save Shen Yuan, then I’ll die right here!”