174: Chapter 174 Leaving the Wu Family

The little boy fell silent for a moment, and then he began to laugh.

The laughter was shrill and piercing, like nails scraping across a stone slab.

“Interesting. Truly interesting.”

He tilted his head back, looking at Ye Yun with eyes filled with malice and resentment.

“You and I are both Rebirth-ers; we could have joined forces.”

“This small Tianyang Kingdom, even the entire Great Xia Imperial Dynasty, would have been in the palm of our hands.”

“Yet you want to kill me for a woman?”

Ye Yun drew the burning snow sword.

“You talk too much.”

The little boy's smile froze, immediately turning into a hysterical roar.

“You can't kill me! I am the Child of Destiny! I lived for three hundred years in my past life! I—”

A flash of sword light passed.

The voice stopped abruptly.

The small body collapsed to the ground, blood gushing from the neck, staining the high-quality jade pendant red.

Ye Yun sheathed his sword, not sparing the corpse even a single glance as he turned to leave.

Fang Hansu stood not far away, staring at him in a daze.

She had seen the scene just now clearly.

A child of five or six years old had shown a sinister expression that only an adult would possess, speaking of things like "Rebirth-er," "past life," and "three hundred years."

She didn't understand it.

But she understood Ye Yun's sword strike.

Decisive, clean, and without the slightest hesitation.

Just as he had killed Wu Zhen, Wu Hao, and Wu Tianxiong.

Just as he killed all those who deserved to die.

Fang Hansu watched Ye Yun walking toward her, his grey figure growing closer in the morning light.

Her heart was beating fast, not out of fear, but with a throb she had never experienced before, one that made her whole body feel hot.

This man.

Decisive in killing and ruthless.

He left no room for his enemies and eradicated every threat at its roots.

Yet, for her, he would tell her to stand behind him before he ever made a move.

Fang Hansu's fingers unconsciously clutched her skirt, and as she looked at Ye Yun's blood-stained yet still handsome and elegant face, a voice echoed wildly in her heart.

[This man, I want to follow him for the rest of my life.]

Ye Yun walked up to her and looked down at her.

“Let's go.”

Fang Hansu snapped out of it and nodded quickly, picking up her skirt and jogging to keep up with him.

After a few steps, Ye Yun suddenly stopped.

He turned his head, frowning as he looked at Fang Hansu's bright red wedding dress, which was covered in blood and had a hem long enough to drag on the ground.

Then he reached out, grabbed the hem of the wedding dress, and ripped it forcefully.

“Riiip—”

A large section of the bright red skirt was torn off, revealing Fang Hansu's snow-white, slender calves.

Fang Hansu let out an “Ah,” her cheeks instantly burning; her hands instinctively moved to cover herself, yet she didn't know where to cover.

Ye Yun casually tossed the torn fabric onto the ground and said calmly.

“It's easier to walk this way.”

Having said that, he turned around and strode toward the main gate of the Wu Residence.

Fang Hansu stood in place, looking at his tall, straight back.

She then looked down at her exposed calves, her cheeks so red they looked as if they might drip blood.

Then she bit her lip, stepped out, and jogged to catch up.

The morning light fell, stretching their two shadows very long.

One grey, one red.

They gradually disappeared at the end of the long street outside the Wu Residence gate.

...

In the first-floor lobby of the Yuelai Inn, it was the busiest time of noon.

Most of the eight tables were full, occupied by merchants staying at the inn and Loose Cultivators taking a rest.

There were also a few local idlers from Qingzhou City who had taken the tables by the window.

They had been drinking a pot of strong liquor for over an hour, their tongues wagging even faster than they were drinking.

“You should have seen the pomp at the Wu Family; tsk tsk, the bright red silk stretched from the street corner all the way to the residence gate, and over a hundred red lanterns were hung in two rows. Qingzhou City hasn't seen such a grand wedding in years.”

A man wearing a grey cloth short jacket held his wine bowl, speaking with great excitement, spittle flying across the table.

“What use is such pomp? Taking a concubine isn't the same as marrying a primary wife, and she's the tenth one at that.”

A tall, thin man beside him was peeling peanuts; he sneered and casually tossed the peanut shells onto the floor.

“What do you know? Taking a concubine also depends on who is being taken. That's Miss Fang, our Qingzhou City's number one beauty! Do you think just anyone pulled off the street can enter the Wu Family's gates?”

“Miss Fang? You mean Fang Hansu? I've heard of her; they say she looks like a Heavenly Immortal, though it's a pity I've never seen her with my own eyes.”

“I've seen her! One year during the Lantern Festival, Miss Fang's sedan passed through the street. The wind blew up the curtain, and I caught a glimpse from a distance. Just that one look, and I couldn't sleep well for three days.”

The man in the grey jacket smacked his lips, his eyes squinting into slits as if he were reminiscing about something.

“That face, that figure, tsk tsk... to be disrespectful, in my thirty-plus years of life, I’ve never seen such a stunning woman.”

“What a pity, a beautiful flower planted in cow dung. Does that playboy from the Wu Family even deserve her?”

“Deserve her or not, he's got her now. Tonight is the wedding night; Young Master Wu will certainly be busy.”

The men looked at each other and chuckled, their smiles filled with a tacitly understood lewdness.

“Tell me, what do you think Miss Fang would look like in bed?”

“That kind of cold beauty, once she's in bed, tsk tsk, she'll surely be more exciting than the girls from the brothel.”

“Enough, enough, keep it down. If this reaches the Wu Family's ears, how many heads do you have?”

The speaker was pulled back by the man next to him; only then did he restrain himself a bit and took a large gulp from his wine bowl.

Just then, the inn door was pushed open from the outside.

A grey figure walked in.

The light in the lobby dimmed for a moment and then brightened again.

Everyone instinctively glanced toward the door.

Then, the entire lobby seemed as if someone had pressed the pause button.

Chopsticks stopped in mid-air, wine bowls were held at lips, and fingers peeling peanuts froze in place.

Everyone's gaze was glued to the woman following behind the grey figure.

Fang Hansu stood half a step behind Ye Yun, most of her face hidden by his shoulder.

Only a glimpse of her pointed chin and a section of her snow-white wrist were visible.

The bright red wedding dress she wore had half of its skirt torn away.

Revealing her slender, pale calves, her skin dazzlingly white in the dim lobby.

The wedding dress was stained with blood and dust, and the collar was slightly open, revealing a delicate collarbone.

And on that collarbone was a patch of skin that appeared even whiter against the contrast of the dress.

Her hair was somewhat disheveled, with a few stray strands clinging to her cheeks, and the remains of undried tear stains still on her face.

Her eyes were slightly red, and tiny tear droplets hung from her eyelashes.

Yet it was this bedraggled appearance that made her entire being exude an indescribable beauty.

Like a winter plum blossom that had been plucked from its branch and trampled underfoot.

The petals were broken and stained with mud, but that cold fragrance remained, and that soul-stirring color was still there.

Shattered and broken, yet even more breathtakingly beautiful.

“So beautiful...”

Someone in the corner murmured, the voice so soft as if afraid of waking something.

“Is this Miss Fang? I... I've never seen such a beautiful woman in my life.”