Chapter 30: Ghost Mountain Villa 30
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Although letters handwritten by her lover from a hundred years ago were in the hands of others, Xi Shuang’s first reaction was to inquire about what the nanny had said before leaving.
Sure enough.
Yan Shixun silently chuckled.
He guessed it right.
Xi Shuang’s deepest resentment, the power that sustained her transformation into a vengeful spirit, was not because her lover never returned.
It was the nanny.
When the nanny told Yan Shixun that for a hundred years, Xi Shuang had been waiting on the fourth floor, refusing to see her no matter how much she begged, Yan Shixun began to have suspicions.
From the fear the old steward and those blood-red monsters displayed toward the fourth floor and the garden, it was clear that Xi Shuang had not been doing nothing for a hundred years, staying confined to the fourth floor out of fear. As a vengeful spirit trapped here, she had enough power to intimidate even the most ruthless bandits.
Yan Shixun even suspected that what that Taoist had mentioned about dead bodies walking in the mountain but unable to leave the mountain’s boundaries might also be connected to Xi Shuang.
So, the nanny had said that Xi Shuang’s resentment not only trapped her enemies but also imprisoned herself.
The actor who had ventured outside the villa, trying to descend the mountain but encountering blood-red monsters all over the mountain and being unable to reach the mountain’s foot, had confirmed this suspicion.
——The blood-red humanoid monsters in the villa and in the mountains are all related to the bandits of that year. After they died, they were trapped in the prison of the evil spirits because of Xi Shuang’s resentment. They bred new resentment and merged with the entire Ghost Mountain, making the ghost energy here even more gloomy.
As a result, anyone who enters Ghost Mountain will be trapped here by this resentment and will not be able to find the way to Gui Mountain.
However, even Xi Shuang, who was so powerful that she was feared by the old steward and those monsters, did not take a step down from the fourth floor.
In the first three floors of the villa, she can only manipulate the living to self-harm and commit suicide through hallucinations, or appear in front of the living through the mirror.
No matter how furious Xi Shuang was, Yan Shixun had not been able to successfully provoke Xi Shuang to appear on other floors.
Even when he wanted to go to the fourth floor on his own, Xi Shuang, who should have taken this opportunity to lure him to the fourth floor and take the opportunity to kill the person who had enraged her again. But instead, it was like stepping on a sore spot, making her even more furious, causing the natural phenomena of the entire Ghost Mountain.
Xi Shuang seemed to be not only afraid of the villa where she died, but also did not want anyone other than her to go to the fourth floor to see her.
She seemed to be afraid of exposing her own ugliness to others, concealing herself completely.
——She was a renowned Cantonese opera singer from a century ago, with her pride and unparalleled beauty. Her beauty and singing were like the fragrant roses blooming in the old city of Shanghai.
So, why was she afraid? Why was she scared to meet her nanny?
…….Or was it that she was like a child in front of her mother, hiding herself out of fear?
This formidable ghost, so powerful that even the Taoists of Haiyun Temple found her challenging, behaved like a child who had done something wrong, avoiding her nanny for a whole century.
Yan Shixun sat on the exquisite velvet dressing stool in front of the vanity, looking at Xi Shuang, who was still waiting for his response in the dressing mirror. He leisurely raised his rosy lips.
“Nanny said she loves you very much,” Yan Shixun said, lowering his eyes slightly and looking at the letter on the dressing table.
Despite her constant complaints about her lover and her night-time possession of Bai Shuang with the melancholic love song, Xi Shuang hadn’t even glanced at this letter, nor did she notice that he had tied it into her long hair.
She was only focused, anxious, and fearful, eagerly awaiting the final words from the nanny.
“She worries if you’ll go hungry, if you’ll feel cold, and if you’ll be lonely without someone to talk to. She’s concerned that you’ll never let go of what happened a hundred years ago, which has kept you trapped here, unable to enter the next cycle. She hopes you can forget death and resentment. Whether it’s the lover you’ve been waiting for or the bandits you resent, just leave them here. Then, welcome the next life, enjoy peace and happiness in the mortal world once more.”
Perhaps it was because the expressions of love from people a hundred years ago were too restrained, and the nanny was confined by the limitations of her status, resulting in her never directly expressing her deep maternal affection for the young lady she regarded as her own daughter. Even as a ghost after her death, when facing Yan Shixun, the nanny had discreetly concealed her love for Xi Shuang beneath layers of concern, never speaking it outright.
But now, Yan Shixun had laid bare the nanny’s profound love and presented it directly to Xi Shuang.
Xi Shuang, who had never expected to receive such an answer, was left completely stunned.
In the blood-red mirror, the vengeful spirit’s chaotic and swirling long hair fell down. The hidden anxiety and guilt in her eyes turned into glistening teardrops, one by one.
“She loves you, no different from an ordinary mother deeply loving her child.”
Yan Shixun deliberately softened his deep and magnetic voice, infused with a comforting tone. “She has never blamed you. In fact, instead of blaming you, she blames herself for not protecting you better. She was heartbroken that you kept her out for a hundred years. In reality, she really wanted to see you, to touch your face again, and tell you that everything has passed, and you don’t need to be afraid anymore…..”
“Your nanny, whom you regarded as your mother, loves you just like you love her. She actually missed you very much.”
Tears of pure sincerity flowed down from Xi Shuang’s beautiful phoenix eyes.
She looked at Yan Shixun in a daze, perhaps it was because Yan Shixun’s current expression and tone were so reassuring and trustworthy that she didn’t doubt his words.
Xi Shuang trembled, clutching the corner of her qipao, her bright red lips quivering so much that she could hardly speak. “How could it be… I thought, I thought nanny would surely resent me. I thought she would look at me with hatred and disgust, so I didn’t have the courage to meet her. I was afraid… I was afraid she would dislike me.”
“Because it was me, it was me who insisted on waiting here to marry him. That’s why nanny ended up dying here with me. She didn’t have to go through all this. It’s all because she wanted to be with me…”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, nanny. I didn’t not want to see you. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”
Xi Shuang cried so much that her makeup was almost ruined, her vision blurred. It felt as if nanny was standing in front of her again, just like that night, just like when she was a child. Nanny reached out to her with the same loving gesture, wanting to pull her into her arms.
“I missed you too, nanny. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I should have been braver so that I could see you again. But I was really too scared. I was afraid you wouldn’t love me anymore. I’m sorry…”
Xi Shuang, like a guilty child waiting for punishment and scolding, stood before her mother, filled with remorse and unable to lift her head. Yet, unexpectedly, all she received was a mother’s loving pat on the head, and a smile as her mother asked if she was hurt.
Then, the hidden wounds on her arms, which had been concealed behind her, suddenly ached unbearably. The pent-up grievances overwhelmed her, and all she wanted to do was rush into her mother’s warm embrace and cry out all her grievances from these years.
Yan Shixun silently gazed at Xi Shuang, understanding everything from her incoherent and upside-down explanation in a low voice.
——What had turned Xi Shuang into a vengeful spirit wasn’t her resentment for not being able to wait for her lover.
It was the guilt and anger she harbored over the death of her nanny.
On that fateful night a hundred years ago, her nanny had died right in front of Xi Shuang. She had watched her nanny’s tragic death, unable to avenge her against the bandits. This anguish persisted even after her own death, etched into her soul, transcending the boundaries between life and death, becoming her final obsession before dying.
As a result, she had become a vengeful spirit, returning to the Ghost Mountain.
The message brought by Yan Shixun was a devastating blow to Xi Shuang. She paid no attention to Yan Shixun’s presence, trembling all over as she cried in front of the mirror, repeatedly murmuring, “I’m sorry.”
If she hadn’t stubbornly left the city to stay in the secluded villa in the woods, she wouldn’t have encountered the bandits, leading to her nanny’s tragic death.
If she had been braver, if she had mustered the courage to apologize to her nanny on one occasion when her nanny stood outside the fourth floor, perhaps they could have resolved their misunderstandings earlier and avoided suffering in separate spaces.
If only…
Time could be reversed.
“Drip, drop…”
At that moment, Yan Shixun’s keen ears picked up a faint sound of something dropping.
He looked in the direction of the sound with a sharp gaze.
It was the crystal hourglass that had remained still on the dressing table. Suddenly, a grain of sand fell from it, striking the empty crystal base, producing a barely audible sound.
Yan Shixun paused for a moment, then smiled faintly.
He had found the only way to leave the Ghost Mountain.
——The obsession that had kept Xi Shuang as a vengeful spirit was wavering.
Time, frozen due to the hatred that trapped her beyond the realms of life and death, began to flow again as her long-held emotions crumbled.
The fourth floor, isolated from the other spaces in the mansion, the entire mansion, and even the entire Ghost Mountain, would disintegrate like a sandbank.
Xi Shuang’s tears fell on her blood-red rose-patterned qipao. The crimson color slowly faded from the once vibrant roses.
She cried out the tears of a child for her parents as memories of her life and death began to resurface.
—A teardrop of blood, falling from the corner of Xi Shuang’s eye.
—There were no tears in a vengeful spirit; those were the resentments and pains within the soul, the blood that flowed from the body at the moment of death.
A violent wind suddenly rose, swirling the curtains and canopies in the room, causing the candle flames to flicker wildly. The elongated and eerie shadows danced on the walls, resembling vengeful spirits with gnashing teeth and claws, rushing forward.
However, Yan Shixun remained seated in front of the dressing table, motionless, quietly waiting for something.
Tears of blood streamed down Xi Shuang’s face, reflecting in the blood-red mirror, creating a terrifying ghostly visage in the shifting light and darkness.
She was no longer trembling in pain; her beautiful face was now filled with hatred.
——Hatred towards the bandits, and hatred towards herself.
“Zhou Shi…”
“Zhou Shi………”
Xi Shuang went into a furious frenzy, her distorted face contorted in a sharp howl, “ZHOU SHI—!!!”
The entire room shook violently under the force of this piercing scream laden with intense hatred. Objects and furniture in the room crashed to the ground, beams and stone walls collapsed. The cage Xi Shuang had built for herself finally crumbled due to the instability of her emotions.
Yan Shixun, however, did not dodge or evade, letting the massive, heavy redwood wardrobe crash toward him.
On the dressing table, the crystal hourglass resumed flowing, with sand particles rising and falling.
“Boom—!”
In front of Yan Shixun’s eyes, everything finally turned pitch black.
When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer on the fourth floor of the villa.
Instead, he found himself in the cold earth, gazing up at the waning moon in the night sky.
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