Chapter 222: The Best Fangyin

The candlestick in the room had already been knocked over and fallen to the ground, extinguishing into a sea of darkness. Only the light from the courtyard faintly filtered through the snow-white paper of the window, casting a dim glow into the room.

Jiang Xuening didn’t even know how she made her way there.

What kind of force was supporting her body, preventing her from collapsing midway, she couldn’t understand.

Dao Qin’s face had a wound, and even his hands were covered in blood, as though he had just been urgently pressing down on someone’s wound. Blood dripped down from his fingers.

As Jiang Xuening walked past him, this quiet, reserved young man almost choked on his words: “It’s my fault… I was slow…”

But Jiang Xuening seemed as if she couldn’t hear him.

All she could see was the blood spreading through the gaps in the floor tiles.

The once orderly room was now in disarray, with boxes, books, and ledgers scattered everywhere. Several ledgers and a stack of rice paper were thrown all around. The former concubine’s daughter of the Duke of Qingyuan, the girl who had endured so much suffering in the past, lay there, on the brink of death. Her eyelids drooped weakly, her head leaning gently against the bottom of a treasure shelf. Her delicate face had already lost all color. The deep, vicious wound on her abdomen, which had been stabbed from behind, was being held by her fingers, but blood still flowed quietly, gradually taking away the little life she had left.

How could this be?

It shouldn’t be like this.

Jiang Xuening still remembered the day she went to the Duke of Qingyuan’s mansion for a banquet. A group of vicious maids had chased her from the corridor, frantically trying to catch her. She was scared and anxious, and as she bumped into one of them, she dirtied her perfume pouch. A tear had fallen from her large, clear eyes, reminding one of a dewdrop on a grass blade.

Clumsy, soft, awkward.

But like that blade of grass, insignificant, yet possessing a tenacious life force.

Even when those bad people caught her and shoved her into the water, she struggled, beating the surface of the lake, sending ripples that disturbed the water. Even the sky reflected in the water seemed to wrinkle.

After she saved her, she had once misunderstood her, thinking she was unqualified and not ambitious.

But she had surprised her.

On the day she left the palace, she had carefully handed her a box containing silver notes and a perfume pouch, gazing at her with hope, unaware of the waves it stirred in her heart.

That moment marked the true beginning of Jiang Xuening’s rebirth.

Two years away from the capital, almost all that time had been spent with You Fangyin by her side.

From Sichuan to Jiangnan.

To the outside world, she may have seemed like an insignificant concubine’s daughter from a noble family, the gentle wife of a salt merchant, or even the president of the guild who valued sincerity and trust. But in her eyes, she was forever that stubborn, simple girl who, once determined, would give her whole heart to others…

Jiang Xuening felt as if her body and soul had been torn in two, and it gave her an odd kind of calm.

She knelt gently in the pool of blood beside her, then reached out to help press down on the slowly bleeding wound. Her voice was dreamy, almost as if in a trance, saying: “Fangyin, Fangyin. I’m here. It’s okay. They’ve gone to call the doctor. With Zhou Qihuang’s medical skills, you’ll be fine.”

You Fangyin’s lashes drooped as she heard the voice. Slowly, she lifted her head.

But everything in front of her was blurry.

Jiang Xuening sat with her back to the door, her vision also dim, as if her soul had already been half-dragged into an endless abyss or the soul-hunting realm. She could barely make out her appearance.

But she could still recognize her voice.

At this moment, she showed the same expression as before, as if this wasn’t a moment of life and death. She hoarsely called, “Second Miss, you’ve come.”

Jiang Xuening said to her, “Don’t speak.”

Tears gradually welled up in You Fangyin’s eyes. “Dao Qin didn’t lie to me. I asked him to find you, but I was so afraid he wouldn’t listen and go to find the doctor instead, wasting time, and I wouldn’t get to see you…”

Jiang Xuening’s voice trembled. “Don’t speak…”

But her tears suddenly rolled down, moistening her dark lashes, revealing an unprecedented sorrow. “He took the seal! He took our seal, the business in Sichuan and Jiangnan must have gone wrong…”

“Don’t say anymore!”

At that moment, the fragile calm and composure Jiang Xuening had barely managed to hold together was finally shattered by her clumsy persistence. She interrupted her loudly, but right after, her thin shoulders began to shake, and her voice became hoarse, as if something was blocking it.

It was unclear whether she was speaking to her or to herself.

She repeated again and again.

“It’s fine. How could anything happen to you? The salt field, the guild, there are so many people waiting for you, and so many businesses to handle, how could anything happen to you? Don’t speak, don’t cry, Zhou Qihuang will be here soon…”

But as she spoke, her eyes reddened.

Tears unexpectedly fell.

She struggled to tilt her head back, trying to stop them, not wanting to appear weak at such a moment. But the unrelenting grief, like waves crashing on the shore, came at her, one after another, until she was overwhelmed. She was not the stone on the beach, but a wounded waterbird lying on the stone, continuously being pushed under the fierce waves, sinking entirely.

The world seemed to lose its foundation.

She couldn’t grasp anything, couldn’t hold on to anything. In her endless battle with the turbulent waves, she gained nothing, only leaving behind bloody wings, broken claws, and countless wounds…

Jiang Xuening could no longer hold back her sobs. She reached out her arms and pulled You Fangyin tightly into her embrace, but all she could feel was the coldness surrounding her, making her tremble. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, it will be alright…”

You Fangyin smiled faintly.

But her tears were burning hot, unlike anything before.

She was clearly on the verge of leaving, but she had become the one comforting, trying to leave behind a little strength with her weak words: “Fangyin was always going to die. Back then, it was you who saved me, pulling me back from the gates of hell. The years I’ve lived, they’re years I shouldn’t have had. Heaven must have shown mercy, bringing me to meet you. Miss, don’t cry…”

Jiang Xuening could no longer speak through her tears.

Yet, You Fangyin seemed to be brought back by her own words to that past time.

In her dark and desolate past, she had never seen such a bright and beautiful person, nor had she encountered such a clear and bright sky.

“I died once before. It didn’t seem so scary down there; it was just dark, and I couldn’t see anything, not even the darkness…” You Fangyin weakly raised her finger, as if trying to trace something in the cold, empty space, but it shattered into pieces, “At that time, I think I saw someone, she looked like me, just staring at me. Then you pulled me out of the water, and she vanished. I never… saw her again…”

Her dark pupils reflected the light from the window paper.

Her gaze slowly turned and landed on Jiang Xuening’s face.

She seemed to become that helpless and awkward girl again, speaking in a voice as soft as gossamer. “It’s all my fault for being so foolish. You had warned me to be careful of him, but I thought… he saved me…”

Jiang Xuening tightened her arms around her, gripping her shoulder with all her strength, but couldn’t suppress the sharp, heart-wrenching pain that suddenly surged within her.

Zhou Yinzhi!

If it hadn’t been for Zhou Yinzhi, back then, she wouldn’t have been able to save You Fangyin from danger and take her out of the capital. But it was precisely because she saved Zhou Yinzhi that today, You Fangyin had to suffer such harm, facing this disaster!

Fate had played a cruel joke on her!

She choked as she said, “No, no, how could you be foolish? You’ve made such a big business deal, you even came to Xinzhou, preparing supplies. Even someone as formidable as Lu Xian had to yield when meeting you. Master Ren has spoken highly of you… It’s not your fault, you didn’t do anything wrong… No one is better than you…”

The pain she had felt earlier seemed to gradually fade away.

You Fangyin felt that, at this moment, something miraculous happened—she felt as though she had regained a burst of vitality. She then spoke, filled with a bit of hope: “Am I better than that person?”

Jiang Xuening looked at her.

In her eyes, there was that dreamy, dazed look: “Sometimes, I feel like you’re not really looking at me. When you’re lost in thought, it’s as though you’re looking through me, seeing someone else. I’m so scared, so scared, so scared that person might appear and drive me away. I can’t do math, I’m not good with words, I don’t know how to do business, I can’t manage those calculations. I’m so afraid I won’t be able to help you, so afraid you’ll not want me, so afraid I’ll never be able to compare to her…”

Jiang Xuening froze.

Then her tears fell like rain.

In this life, except for the time with Xie Wei, she had never mentioned anything from her past life. Those were secrets that should have been buried in the past. She never imagined that, when she saw the face of You Fangyin that was identical to the one from her previous life, when she thought of the You Fangyin from that life, someone would detect a clue from the smallest change in her expression.

This unfortunate girl was so fragile and sensitive, yet she silently hid everything.

She remembered the oil lamp lit in the prison.

She remembered the old ledgers under the dim light.

She remembered the timid girl who had grown up in the Duke’s manor backyard, who one day suddenly came to her and said that she wanted to fake a marriage with Ren Weizhi in order to escape the capital, to step into a wide world and do business.

…

Jiang Xuening trembled uncontrollably.

Her bloodstained fingers lifted and tried to wipe away the tears on You Fangyin’s cheek, but not only did she fail to wipe them away, but the bloodstains left behind on her pale face were even more shocking.

For the first time, she felt utterly helpless.

She held this foolish girl tightly, like a sinner, sobbing as she confessed to her: “No, no. You’re the best. You made me realize I can help others, I can fight fate. You made all of this start. I didn’t save you; you saved me. You’re the kindest, most benevolent person… If Heaven gave me another, I wouldn’t want it. You’re the only Fangyin in the world, the best Fangyin…”

You Fangyin smiled.

It was a smile of almost satisfaction and happiness.

In the dim, grim darkness, there was a brilliance that shone like the blazing sun or a bright moon. But it quickly faded, as though this smile had drained the last of her strength, burning the remaining embers in her body.

In the final moments of her life, she gripped her hand tightly.

It was like when she had struggled on the surface of the lake.

She cried out, “Miss, I don’t want to leave, I really want to live…”

But even that struggling strength faded, just like the dimming light in her eyes.

The pool of blood had stopped flowing, frozen.

It was as if the wick of the overturned candlestick had finally extinguished. You Fangyin, who had once shone brightly in this world, also quietly faded away.

Zhou Qihuang arrived with his medical kit. Hearing the sounds from inside, he dared not enter.

From afar, the frantic cries of Ren Weizhi echoed.

Lu Xian approached the door, and when he saw the scene inside, his body swayed. It felt as if the world was spinning, and he took slow, unsteady steps backward, retreating away from the horrifying sight.

Jiang Xuening was covered in blood, kneeling in a pool of it, holding the now-cold body of You Fangyin.

Around them was an oppressive silence, thick with darkness.

The wind blew in, carrying with it a sense of evil, as if a thousand or ten thousand demons were hiding in the shadows, their mocking laughter echoing, ridiculing the mortal belief that they could control their fate, which in truth was in the hands of the heavens.

But she was unwilling to accept it.

So unwilling!

Why?

Why was it happening to her?

The overwhelming hatred tore at her heart, sharp and unyielding, wrapping around her like a suffocating cloak. Jiang Xuening trembled, her eyes red from crying, staring up at the stifling darkness above, her voice filled with hysteria as she cried out to the void: “She’s the one I saved—why should you take her away from me? You spared her, so why dare you so coldly snatch her back? Do you want to tell me that nothing can be changed when fate returns to its original course? I tell you—dream on! Unless you kill me too, open your blind eyes and see! In this life, I will never—never kneel before you!”

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