Chapter 7

Zhuning pointed at the woman and boldly yelled, “Don’t think I can’t recognize you just because you’re a woman in this lifetime! I clearly remember your eyebrows, that mole by your ear, and the birthmark next to your nose! You’re my betrothed from the Great Jin Dynasty 300 years ago, the man who was set to marry me, Princess Zhuning!”

Sixteen gaped at the woman. So…the betrothed was someone else…

The husband and wife exchanged glances before they looked at Zhuning oddly. “Miss, what are you talking about?”

Each and every one of Zhuning’s words sent tears streaming down her face. “I was sickly since I was a child in my past life. When I turned seventeen years old, I fell so ill that I became bedridden. It was you! All you! After I fainted, you broke into bitter sobs and held me so tightly that I died from suffocation! You murdering a.s.sa.s.sin! I loved you in vain! I loved you so much and yet you…you still…you actually…”

Sixteen was stunned. “Dead from suffocation?” He was a simpleminded person, but even his expression was currently caught between laughter and tears. No wonder she said she’d been holding her breath until now.

Meanwhile, the couple had caught on something else entirely. “Past life?” they asked.

Zhuning fell silent before her hands clenched into fists. Her wrathful face held traces of sorrow. “What’s even more unforgivable is that you got married not long after I died.”

Sixteen gave a start, before realizing this was the true source of Zhuning’s hatred. Zhuning and her betrothed had been engaged since they were young. As a child, she loved to chased after her finacé and call him ‘big brother Xiaoran[1], big brother Xiaoran.’ Her body had always been weak, and a serious illness left her bedridden and unconscious when she was 17. Everyone had a.s.sumed that she died, but she still had a single breath left. Her betrothed had been so heartbroken that he’d taken her into his arms and wailed with grief. She had trouble breathing to begin with, but his embrace effectively made her expire.

After she was buried, her discontent soul kept lingering around Xiaoran. She a.s.sumed that he would still harbor feelings for her even after she died, but never expected her childhood companion would end up marrying another woman by next spring.

“You heartless, unfeeling man! Today I’m going to make you regret everything!” Zhuning prepared to jump, but Sixteen grabbed her by the waist from behind. Furious, she cried, “Let me go! I want to turn her into a zombie! How come she gets to reincarnate and spend each lifetime so happily! Why did I have to turn into something like this? I can’t accept it!”

Sixteen kept silent as the sound of Zhuning’s sobs and screams filled the courtyard.

“Why did he forget me so soon? Why did I have to keep remembering him? How come he gets his happiness so easily!?” she struggled for a bit before realizing that Sixteen really was much stronger. Zhuning’s head drooped before she murmured, “I just…didn’t want to be forgotten.”

Her tone was akin to the day she said the sun was beautiful. Sixteen’s breath caught, his heart aching painfully.

“This…Miss,” the wife’s voice said quietly, “Although I don’t quite understand your words, I know that if I died, I’d still want my husband to find someone who treats him well. Missing the dead is already painful enough. He shouldn’t spend the rest of his life suffering because of me. If he can let go of his grief and spend days filled with hope again, it’s not wrong. Even if….even if I’m afraid of being forgotten, too.” She turned back to look at her husband, and the two of two shared a smile. Zhuning hung her head and didn’t speak.

A long time later, she tugged on Sixteen’s sleeve. “Let’s go.”

-o-

[1] Xiaoran (蕭然) – “desolate, empty.”