Chapter 18: When Destiny Meets, Karma Returns to Oneself

In the neighboring courtyard, after Ding Suian threw the Kunwu saber and killed Third Hu, Granny Zhang, who was by Lin Hansu’s side, reacted extremely quickly. She immediately bolted the room door and, together with Granny Xu, moved a cabinet to block the door.

At that time, the fighting outside was still ongoing.

Their actions were almost futile. If Ding Suian won, everything would be fine.

If he lost, even if they sealed the doors and windows with stones, it would only cause the bandits a little more trouble.

Lin Hansu’s enchanting face was covered in specks of blood, generously provided by Old Woman Li.

At this moment, she sat in a chair, looking at Madam Wu, who was sitting cross-legged on the heated brick bed with her eyes closed, and spoke first: “Mother, you arranged today’s events, didn’t you?”

Madam Wu opened her eyes upon hearing this and met Lin Hansu’s gaze for a few breaths. This time, Lin Hansu didn’t shy away as she usually did; instead, she stared directly back with a more aggressive gaze.

“What does it matter who arranged it? Anyway, you and I are both going to die here tonight,” Madam Wu lowered her slack eyelids.

“How can Mother be so sure that I will die here tonight?” Lin Hansu tucked a strand of hair, matted with blood, behind her ear.

Madam Wu met Lin Hansu’s gaze again. Perhaps it was because of the latter’s blood-soaked appearance, but it made her heart pound.

“Last month, when the Prince of Lanyang passed away, if you had simply complied, why would there be such terror tonight?”

Madam Wu was certain that Ding Suian and his men couldn’t hold out, and everyone here tonight would die, so she spoke without many reservations.

“Hehehe~” Lin Hansu, however, seemed to have heard something amusing, and with a hand shaped like an orchid, she covered her mouth and chuckled.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Do you think I am terrified right now? Do you think I’m scared to death?”

“Isn’t that so?”

“Hehe, I’m not afraid at all. I believe Young Master Ding can protect me!”

“Hehe, then let’s wait a moment.”

“I can wait, but Mother cannot.”

Lin Hansu suddenly stood up.

Madam Wu frowned, not understanding Lin Hansu’s meaning.

But the next second, Lin Hansu lightly twisted her waist and walked gracefully to the dead bandit, Third Hu, who had a knife in his back.

Just as the others were confused, she bent down and picked up the knife from Third Hu’s hand.

Although it was a single-handed saber, it was still a bit heavy for a woman. Lin Hansu held the saber with both hands in a very unfamiliar posture and slowly walked towards Madam Wu.

“Your Ladyship!” Granny Xu’s face turned pale with fright.

If killing one’s adoptive mother were known to outsiders, the outcome would be public humiliation and execution by drowning or burning.

But Granny Zhang, usually quiet and reserved, immediately rushed forward and tightly embraced Madam Wu from behind without any hesitation.

This was to prevent Madam Wu from resisting.

“You want to kill me?” Madam Wu, however, remained calm. Even when Granny Zhang held her, she didn’t move, just calmly looking at Lin Hansu.

“Mother has the kindness of raising the Prince of Lanyang. How could I commit the great sin of murdering a senior?” At this point, Lin Hansu smiled charmingly, then pointed back, “The one who killed you is this bandit.”

“You!”

Madam Wu immediately understood.

Just now, Third Hu had broken into the room and killed Old Woman Li with a knife.

But the people outside were in another courtyard and couldn’t see what was happening on their side. Now the door was bolted, and the fighting outside hadn’t ended. No one knew what was happening in here.

Lin Hansu only needed to say afterwards that the bandit broke in, killed Old Woman Li first, then Madam Wu, and finally was killed by Ding Suian’s thrown saber. As long as Ding Suian didn’t object, who else would know?

Madam Wu hadn’t expected the Lin family, who had been docile as a lamb in front of her for six years, to have such a ruthless side.

But then she thought, since she was going to die sooner or later anyway, she became composed again, “Go ahead, I’ll wait for you on the Yellow Springs Road.”

“Then please, Mother, be on your way!”

Lin Hansu spoke decisively, but her hands holding the knife trembled slightly. The tip of the knife slowly moved forward but finally stopped three inches from the throat.

“Heh~ scared again?”

Madam Wu sneered, her long-standing contempt for Lin Hansu’s merchant daughter background once again gaining the upper hand.

“Phew~ Killing really isn’t something just anyone can do.”

Lin Hansu retracted the blade, let out a long breath, her bosom rising and falling.

Just as Granny Xu thought she was going to give up, Lin Hansu said again, “I have one more thing I want to ask Mother. Was the matter of my accompanying him in death truly Du Jue’s last wish, or did Mother use his name to harm me?”

Madam Wu’s cloudy eyes stared at Lin Hansu for a few breaths, finally saying, “It was his last wish. The Prince of Lanyang once told this old woman that the Lin family’s beauty was enchanting and seductive, with eyes full of charm. After his death, you would surely not remain chaste for him your entire life, and if you were to cause scandalous affairs in the future, damaging the Prince Lanyangs Estate’s reputation, it would be cleaner to have you accompany him in death.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Hansu’s face immediately flushed with anger, clearly furious.

But then she laughed as if relieved, “Bah! Your Prince Lanyangs Estate is full of male thieves and female prostitutes; what reputation do I have left to ruin!”

With that, Lin Hansu leaned down, whispered intimately into Madam Wu’s ear, “Please, Mother, when you reach the Underworld and see Du Jue, help me deliver a message. Tell him, ‘I will surely grant his wish and find a Young Master who loves and cherishes me to live a joyful life.'”

“Shameless—”

Before Madam Wu could finish the word’shameless,’ Lin Hansu’s hands, holding the knife, suddenly thrust forward. Although unprofessional, with Granny Zhang holding Madam Wu for her, the blade still pierced Madam Wu’s neck.

It didn’t hit the trachea but pierced the carotid artery, resulting in another spray of blood like rain.

Granny Xu was stunned on the spot. Madam Wu hadn’t died completely yet and struggled desperately, making incoherent roars from her mouth.

Granny Zhang quickly freed one hand to cover Madam Wu’s mouth, but with one hand, she couldn’t fully control Madam Wu anymore.

“Granny Xu, why are you just standing there! Come help!” Granny Zhang hissed. Granny Xu then recovered from her dazed state and quickly stepped forward, pressing down on Madam Wu’s constantly kicking legs.

Although Madam Wu resisted fiercely, her cloudy eyes, not yet completely unfocused, stared fixedly at Lin Hansu. Besides hatred, there was also a hint of satisfaction, probably because she felt Lin Hansu wouldn’t survive either.

‘Thump-thump-thump~’

But just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Who!” Lin Hansu, holding the saber to her chest, was trembling all over from the surge of adrenaline, her face flushed red.

“It’s me, Ding Suian. The bandits outside have been cleared. Are you all right?”

Inside, Madam Wu, who was being held down on the heated brick bed by Granny Zhang and Granny Xu, suddenly widened her eyes.

The bandits cleared?

Failed?

The Third Place Scholar Li should have easily killed Ding Suian; how could he have been counter-killed?

Where did it go wrong?

Madam Wu’s fingers formed a claw, reaching out to Lin Hansu as if to drag her down to Hell together.

As her life force rapidly drained, she suddenly recalled a scene from years ago when she heard a high monk lecture on the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.

‘Even after hundreds of thousands of eons, the karma created does not perish; when Destiny meets, the retribution still falls upon oneself.’

Madam Wu’s pupils gradually dilated, and her withered hand, stiff in mid-air, unwillingly dropped.

The ebony Buddhist beads on her wrist fell to the ground with a clatter.

The string broke, and the beads scattered.

‘Clink, clank, plink~’

They bounced on the green brick floor, making a series of pleasant, crisp sounds.

The second quarter of the Hour of the Rat.

Goatee led Wang Xigui and others out of the temple to pursue the fleeing bandits. Ruan Guofan had already returned to the room, sitting in front of the brazier, roasting a piece of cold venison.

The stench of blood outside was overwhelming, not even the vast snowstorm could suppress it.

Who knows where he got the appetite from.

Ding Suian knocked on Lin Hansu’s door in the next room and waited for dozens of breaths before the door finally opened.

Granny Xu, her face pale, peeked out and, seeing no one else in the quiet courtyard, quickly pulled Ding Suian inside and re-bolted the door.

“You didn’t…” After entering the room, Ding Suian’s gaze sharpened.

Seeing the bodies of the bandit and Old Woman Li was not surprising, but Madam Wu… was also lying dead on the spot.

Ding Suian turned to look at Lin Hansu, who had her head slightly bowed, covered in bloodstains.

“Squad Leader Ding…” Although Granny Xu’s legs were trembling, she still stood in front of Lin Hansu in a protective stance, stammering, “Old… Old Side Consort was harmed by the bandits just now.”

Granny Xu had lived most of her life in the inner quarters and had seen countless intrigues among women, but the brutal scene of a woman’s rage and blood splashing five steps was her first experience.

That she could still think to cover for Lin Hansu immediately was extremely rare.

Granny Xu tried her best to explain, but Lin Hansu on the other side slowly raised her head, looked into Ding Suian’s eyes, and whispered, “Young Master, I killed Madam Wu.”

“Your Ladyship!” Granny Xu exclaimed, then dropped to her knees in front of Ding Suian, pleading, “Young Master Ding, don’t listen to her nonsense. Her Ladyship was scared silly by the bandits just now; she didn’t kill anyone.”

Ding Suian was noncommittal. He bent down, picked up the bandit’s knife from the ground, walked to the now-dead Madam Wu, and slowly and steadily pushed the tip of the knife into the wound on Madam Wu’s neck.

“!”

Granny Xu, still kneeling on the ground, thought this Young Master had a necrophilic tendency and felt her scalp tingle. “Squad Leader Ding, what are you doing!”

“The Princess Consort has little strength; the wound is small and shallow, not like a bandit’s doing. Make the wound deeper, lest a coroner performs an autopsy.”

After doing this, Ding Suian put the knife back into the dead Third Hu’s hand and quipped, “When will revenge ever end? Cutting the weeds at the root eliminates trouble. The Princess Consort and I think alike.”

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