CH 23.2

“Miss Ma.”

Chi Yiyin walked to the female ghost and stood still. He nodded slightly to her and said, “I heard the sound of the piano. It made me think, perhaps, you learned the piano when you were in school at Shanghai?”

The female ghost didn’t expect Chi Yiyin to ask such a question. She was stunned and her eyes also drifted subconsciously and glanced at the western style cabinet beside her.

Chi Yiyin followed her gaze. When he opened the drawer, he was surprised to find that there was a thick stack of certificates of honor inside.

He gently picked up the stack of certificates and looked over them one by one.

Chinese language, foreign language, law, piano, western painting, ballroom dancing, all with excellent transcripts… From the years between Ma Yuze’s youth to her return to Gushu Town, she had obtained almost all the certificates, which had proved her excellence in the new school at Shanghai, where there were more men and fewer women.

However, Chi Yiyin remembered clearly that in the memory of Ma Yuze, the certificates were torn to pieces by the housekeeper as soon as she got off the train.

It seemed to deny all her efforts over the years.

“When I was very young, my father did business with foreigners in Shanghai and sold the treasures stolen from the imperial palace overseas.”

To the surprise of everyone before the live broadcast, the female ghost took the initiative to speak to Chi Yiyin.

He turned to look at her, but saw her eyes fall on the certificates in his hand with eyes full of nostalgia and reluctance.

Chi Yiyin understood that it was his own inquiry that touched the memory of the female ghost.

For Ma Yuze, the happiest time in her life was during her study in Shanghai.

Everyone has weak points. As long as the right starting point was found, even cast iron can open its mouth.

After seeing the oil painting, Chi Yiyin judged that Ma Yuze yearned for freedom and something new, and she loved new things.

Therefore, the topic of piano became the starting point for him to understand the female ghost.

“The businessmen in Shanghai said that the most fashionable thing now is to send the girls at home to study, so that in the future they can marry those new officials with foreign ink in their bellies. So my father was moved and paid a lot of money to send me to Shanghai.”

The female ghost’s voice was low and hoarse. As if she hadn’t spoken to others for many years.

She stretched out her hand and took the stack of certificates from Chi Yiyin’s hand. She rubbed her fingers gently on the paper, as if she was gently touching the memory of that time.

Even though his father’s purpose was not pure at the beginning, it really gave Ma Yuze light in her gloomy life.

Her father heard that the girls in the new school didn’t like to wrap their feet, so he waved his hand and asked Ma Yuze not to wrap them. The new girls drink foreign drinks and wear beautiful clothes. They were truly beautiful when they go to the dance, so her father also bought them for Ma Yuze.

She took off her loose old skirt and put on the uniform for the female student. When her father took her to buy things, she looked up at her chubby father and thanked him sincerely for a moment.

Even though she knew that her father just wanted to make her look better and sell her at a higher price.

If I am good enough, so good that I am not inferior to the men, and not inferior to those new officials – even if I can be a new official myself, will my father change his mind and stop forcing me to marry?

Ma Yuze thought this way, held her breath and buried herself in her study in the school.

While others were dancing in beautiful clothes, she was studying. While others were talking about love, she was making friends with new people and actively running with classmates to make voices for dockers and textile mills, and for those who died in vain.

But every year when she came home during holidays, her father was not interested in the certificates of honor she had brought back. He just asked her urgently if she knew the son of a certain family, and if she knew which faction they were from.

“I always know my fate, I’m just… not reconciled.”

The female ghost looked up and asked Chi Yiyin hoarsely, “Obviously, I can do better. Why didn’t my father choose me? If I don’t marry, I will have greater value, but in this era, I am not even given a chance.”

Chi Yiyin was silent.

He already knows the reason for the torn certificates will reappear here, because these certificates represent Ma Yuze’s unreconciled obsession.

What she wanted was not understood by her relatives and not allowed by the time.

So she fought desperately – like a butterfly stuck by a spider’s web.

“Miss Ma, do you hate your father?”

Chi Yiyin asked softly, “You could have not come back. You could have stayed in Shanghai. Even if the Ma family cut off your financial source, you can go to a rich family in Shanghai as a family teacher just with these certificates. This is enough to keep you going.”

“You are vaguely aware of something, but still want to come back.”

Chi Yiyin looked at the female ghost quietly: “Why?”

At first, he thought that Ma Yuze was cheated back by Master Ma’s letter under the condition of total ignorance.

But as he learned more about her, he found that she was far more intelligent than ordinary people. Master Ma’s letter was not during school holiday, nor the Spring Festival. It just said that Madam Ma was sick and wanted to see her.

Chi Yiyin doesn’t believe Ma Yuze was unaware.

But, since she knew it, why would she come back?

In those days, there was no telephone monitoring. It was not difficult for a person to disappear from the crowd and change their face.

If Ma Yuze realized that something was wrong and left the school in Shanghai immediately, the Ma family would no longer find her wherever she went.

The world is vast and there are many things to do.

But Ma Yuze came back – and also welcomed her death.

With Chi Yiyin’s question, the female ghost gradually accumulated tears of blood which cascaded down from her pale cheeks.

“After all, he is my father. He once took me by the hand, took me to the market, and proudly introduced me to others, saying that I was his favorite child.”

The female ghost choked: “They are my family and my mother… Even though I know this may be a lie, what if it is true? What if my mother is hurt because of my distrust of my family?”

She once placed expectations and love on the family, and regarded the people living here as her family. Even though he knows the possibility of danger, she is willing to gamble on trust.

Willing… 

“It was your family that killed you.”

Chi Yiyin recalled what he had seen in the nightmares and sighed softly: “Your sister is jealous of you. A lie in her mouth has finally become the mountain that crushed you.”

“Your father wants to use you for profit, and your brother is secretly glad that your marriage will pave the way for him. Your mother died of vomiting and suffocation after excessive drinking.”

Chi Yiyin looked at the female ghost and asked, “Do you still love such a family? Do you still have nostalgia?”

After hearing Chi Yiyin’s words, the female ghost suddenly widened her eyes and asked in amazement, “What did you say? How did my mother die?”

Chi Yiyin frowned and found something wrong: “How do you think your mother died?”

“My father told me that it was because of my bad reputation that my mother was so angry that she hanged herself in shame.”

The female ghost said in a trance, “Isn’t it?”

“Absolutely not.”

Chi Yiyin gave a firm answer.

With the help of her aunt, Chi Yiyin was able to visit Madam Ma.

In Madam Ma’s room, he saw her body, which had become a corpse, but there was no marks from hanging on her neck. The cause of death was a foreign object in her throat that blocked the trachea.

He carefully checked that it was a vomiting reaction caused by excessive drinking. The vomit blocked the trachea and she died of suffocation. However, no one came to collect her body and let her slowly dry up in the forgotten room.

Empty wine jars of Red Daughter rolled down all over the room.

No matter what the truth was, Madam Ma must have been extremely disappointed with Ma Yuze’s marriage. She thought that the person her daughter was going to marry and the marriage she was going to have could not match the Red Daughter she prepared for her daughter, so she drank it herself.

Chi Yiyin recalls that when the newlywed left home in the nightmare, Madam Ma was not present. He gave farewell to the aunt.

Perhaps at that time, Madam Ma was already dead.

After hearing what Chi Yiyin said, the female ghost was silent.

She was in a trance with an unbelievable look.

“I really believed that it was me who killed my mother…”

The female ghost looked at Chi Yiyin in despair: “Did my father lie to me? Did he even lie to me about this?”

The long hair danced wildly, and the whole air was covered with black hair that was crisscrossing. The face of the female ghost gradually turned ferocious. Her anger and despair made her power run wild.

Those long hair even curled up at Chi Yiyin, trying to strangle him, who brought the bad news.

It seemed that as long as this was the case, the things that gave her pain would exist no longer.

Chi Yiyin did not struggle, but let the long hair trap him and calmly looked at the female ghost.

“Miss Ma, if you do this, what’s the difference with those who killed you in back then?”

He lowered his eyes slightly and asked in a low voice, “Now, I am you. If you kill me, it is the same as destroying your yearning for a beautiful possibility. Do you really want to do this?”

“The Ma Yuze I saw is strong, optimistic, powerful, and progressive. But she is definitely not someone that would attack innocent people.”

Chi Yiyin’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was clear and firm enough. Even in the chaos, the female ghost still heard it.

Her pale face was full of blood and tears, and her dull eyes were full of despair.

For a long time, her mother’s death was her heart disease, which made her feel more indebted to the family, so she went crazy and wanted to make it up.

She never doubted when her father and housekeeper had told her the cause of her mother’s death, so she lingered in the mansion day and night, looking for her mother’s trace at a loss.

She wanted to apologize to her mother and tell her that she didn’t want to kill her. She really didn’t mean it and didn’t do any of the things in the gossip.

But she was nowhere.

No matter how many times she entered her mother’s room, what she saw was always a mess on the ground and an empty bed, without her mother’s shadow.

Until now, when Chi Yiyin realized the truth and told it to the female ghost. She suddenly realized that it was all a lie.

A complete lie!

The father who wanted to use her marriage to make profits and therefore refused to come, the sister who was jealous of her and made lies to spread rumors, and the housekeeper who was loyal and wanted to maintain the status of the Ma family

These accomplices killed her mother, but blamed her for her mother’s death.

Unforgivable, unforgivable!

“Aaaahhhh!!!”

The female ghost’s eyes were red, and she covered her head in pain and screamed like crazy.

The black hair billowed in all directions and poured out from the cracks in the door and windows of the boudoir. Like a fine spider web, tightly trapping everything in the boudoir to not be able to break free.

But Chi Yiyin, who was standing beside her, left an empty space beside her.

The female ghost did not attack him.

When Chi Yiyin noticed this, he slowly put down his hand to the notebook and sighed silently.

Ma Yuze used to be a kind and good girl. It was the era that drove her crazy, and it was her relatives that made her lose her kindness.

“Yuze.”

He stepped forward and whispered, “What those people have done wrong should not become the net that binds you. You can leave here to find your world.”

“The Ma family is not worthy of you, and Gushu town is not worthy of you. Perhaps your path lies elsewhere.”

When the voice fell, Chi Yiyin wanted to reach out to the female ghost.

But at that moment, the female ghost’s figure collapsed like smoke and disappeared before his eyes.

At the same time, the system’s prompt sounds: [Congratulations to the survivor! “The Hatred of The Female Ghost” has been removed, and the “Spirit behind it” has been removed! Your current instance’s comprehensive hatred value has dropped to 42/100, and the live room’s popularity ranks is at 2nd. Please keep it up!]

Chi Yiyin’s outstretched hand was frozen in the air. The system’s prompt made him realize something. He was stunned for a moment, then slowly turned the direction and turned to try to touch the interwoven black hair in the air.

At the moment of his touch, the hair that should have been extremely powerful turned out to be like a false projection. It couldn’t be touched physically, but let his fingers pass through.

Is this… hallucination?

Chi Yiyin was shocked at first, and immediately understood what was going on.

Ma Yuze couldn’t see the truth. Why couldn’t he? All those shackles were actually his thoughts, and when he wanted to leave… 

He was calm and took a step forward.

Sure enough, those long hair did not hurt him at all and did not stop him from leaving the boudoir.

Just as he walked, the paper bound boudoir made a slight sound, like a paper rolled into a ball slowly stretching.

It turned from a paper house to a real building.

At that moment, Chi Yiyin felt as if a film had been removed before his eyes, and his vision became clear. Even the air in his breath became fresh and smooth.

When he crossed the threshold, he saw the bride in wedding dress waiting outside early.

She was dressed grandly, and the pearl and gold ornaments in her hair were moved lightly. She nodded slightly to Chi Yiyin, as if to thank him for his previous actions.

Then, the hand of the bride that had been crossed in front of her abdomen slowly lifted and pointed to the courtyard gate behind her.

Chi Yiyin looked in the direction she pointed to, and found that the direction was actually near the banquet hall, and seemed to be the place where the sound of piano came from.

With the wave of the bride’s hand, the gate of the courtyard suddenly opened, and the gates in the distance opened one after another, guiding Chi Yiyin to the path there.

[Congratulations to the survivor for helping the female ghost complete their wish, ending the non-triggered plot of “Birth of a child and harming the mother,” obtaining 1 favorable point of an important NPC of the instance, and obtaining the help of an important NPC.]

Chi Yiyin nodded back to the woman in wedding dress. As she passed by, he turned his eyes to her and whispered, “In the nightmare, you saved me once, right?”

Dressed in Ma Yuze’s body, he was forced into the sedan chair by the Xi po, but the woman in wedding dress sat in it early. If it was not for the woman in wedding dress to let him leave by weaving her sleeves, he might become “Ma Yuze” forever in the nightmare.

He would die on the night of the marriage, then turned into a ghost, and trapped in the Ma’s mansion for decades and hundreds of years.

“Thank you.”

Even though the woman in wedding dress kept silent, Chi Yiyin still solemnly thanked her and asked with a smile before leaving: “The person I just talked to and you are actually Ma Yuze, right? It’s just that one is the Ma Yuze who was a student and had good faith in the Ma family and others before marriage, and you are the Ma Yuze who died on the night of her marriage.”

The woman in wedding dress was noncommittal, and her figure slowly faded into the air.

Chi Yiyin looked at the quiet courtyard and saw a red light not far away.

He looked up and saw that several of the boudoirs were lit with red candles, and even the word “囍” were pasted in front of the door, with red silk hanging.

As he saw in his nightmare.

Chi Yiyin squinted his eyes and smiled lightly. Then he followed the path pointed out for him by the woman in wedding dress and walked to the direction where the sound of piano came from.

Long after he left, the swing in the courtyard began to swing again.

“Creak, creak…”

The red figure slowly appeared on the swing, but the hemp rope originally tied on the swing had turned into long black hair.

The female ghost pulled her long hair and shook it gently. When she looked at the courtyard with the door open, she murmured: “Who let you not let me kill my aunt before? You deserve it.”

It’s only fair to scare you too. Although… it seems to have failed.

The female ghost’s eyes were no longer as cloudy as before. As if her spirit had been crushed by excessive pressure, and despair.

After learning that her mother did not die for herself, the female ghost only felt that a mountain that had been pressing on her body had been moved away, allowing her to breathe.

Mother loves her, and she also loves her, and wants to be her mother’s pride.

In front of the dressing mirror, her mother gently combed her hair and told her to study more and make more progress outside.

” All my life, I’ve been like this. Yuze, your mother is too old to walk out of Ma’s house and Gushu Town.”

Her mother’s sigh was still in her ear: “But you can, Yuze, Leave this place, and you can become a free bird in the sky.”

For a child who loves her mother, what is more cruel than telling her that she killed the mother she loves most?

Ma Yuze was overwhelmed by great guilt and regret. She was lying in front of her mother’s bed, crying like a lost child, begging for her mother’s forgiveness.

In this way, when her father told her that marriage could wash away her bad reputation and save the harm she did to her mother, she nodded with tears.

——Guilt tied her feet and shut her up. Even if she had wings, she could not fly out of the small world.

Until now, the rope was finally broken.

The female ghost laughed.