Chapter 9: Why?

The Lu family courtyard was deathly silent.

The moment Lu Shijiu returned, she saw the pitch-black coffin standing in the main hall.

“Kneel down before me!”

Caught off guard, she was slapped hard by Lu Tianming and knocked to the ground.

“Tell me! Was it you who revealed the secret of the cellar?” Lu Tianming glared at her with eyes full of fury.

“I was severely injured and unconscious before. How could I have leaked anything if I was barely alive?” she said, expressionless as she got up.

Madam Xue saw this, grabbed her arm fiercely, twisting it hard.

“You damn jinx! Always so stubborn! If it weren’t you, how would they have thought to search the cellar?”

“I don’t know,” Lu Shijiu said coldly.

“Don’t know? Looks like you won’t tell the truth unless you get beaten,” Lu Tianming raised his foot, ready to kick.

“Go ahead! I’d rather die right here!” Lu Shijiu stared at him coldly.

“You’re such a curse, yet you dare to threaten me!” Madam Xue grabbed the flesh on her arm again, twisting hard. “I told you not to threaten anyone! I told you to come home!”

Lu Shijiu stood there impassively, motionless and silent.

“Smack!”

“If I can’t kick you, then I’ll whip you!” Lu Tianming suddenly pulled out a soft whip and lashed her three or four times fiercely.

“How many times have I told you, don’t have contact with others! You never learn!”

Lu Shijiu glared at him with hatred.

Since childhood, this family had called her a jinx, all so everyone would distance themselves from her and despise her.

Wasn’t that enough already?

“Smack! Smack!”

Whip after whip landed hard; her clothes quickly soaked with blood.

Clenching her teeth, Lu Shijiu didn’t let out a single sound.

The pain began to cloud her consciousness; her past and present lives flickered before her eyes, gradually merging...

“Let me out! Let me out! I want revenge! I want to kill them!”

“After all this time, your resentment hasn’t lessened! The matters of this life end with this life. Why can’t you see through it?”

“You, stinking Taoist, without feeling my pain, how dare you tell me to let go?”

“The past is past. Why persist so stubbornly?”

“I can’t let go! If I don’t kill them, my hatred won’t be quenched!”

“Life is but a cultivation journey; love, hate, anger, and desire are fleeting clouds. When the body dies, thoughts vanish. Why hold onto such hatred?”

“They tortured me alive, and even in death, they used my bones to frame my own father and family. Should I not hate them?

They trample on my innocent family’s graves to climb high and live recklessly! Should I not hate them?

They…”

Her legs trembled, and Lu Shijiu suddenly woke with a start from the dream, but the lingering hatred still churned wildly in her chest.

They deserved to die!

After a few deep breaths, her thoughts gradually settled. Looking around, she realized she had been thrown back into the woodshed.

Good! These people were monsters with cruel hearts!

“Third child! Third child!”

“Father, what is it? Didn’t you already go this morning?”

“You ungrateful! Can’t your fatherI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.