Chapter 25 Part 4

It wasn’t far from the villa, but it was clearly more opulent, with a richer sense of history. The whole area was filled with villa estates.

Almost like warlords claiming their own mountains.

The Liang family’s building was Gothic in style, standing out among the other villas.

The moment her car pulled into the courtyard, someone came out to greet her.

As she stepped out, the servant bowed and extended a forearm: “Third Miss.”

Liang Shi rested her hand on the servant’s arm and alighted.

The entrance was carved and painted with ornate beams, giving the impression of stepping into a museum. The Liang family must have spent a fortune building this place.

Two rows of maidservants stood at the entrance. As she walked past, they bowed in perfect unison, calling out respectfully: “Third Miss.”

Quite the show of status.

Since she was returning to the ancestral home, Liang Shi had deliberately gone out and bought something appropriate to wear.

She couldn’t really stomach any of the original host’s clothes.

Today she wore a light apricot-colored long dress with a white blazer over it. Her hair was down, and she wore silver earrings.

A slightly more polished look of makeup, though not overly lavish. Paired with the minimalist white blazer, it was understated but not dismissive.

When she walked in, the second sister-in-law was the first to notice her. She stood up with a smile. “A-Shi, you’re back.”

At the gilded long table, everyone was already seated. Though there were empty spots, the extra dishes and chopsticks had been cleared away. Everyone had assumed she wasn’t coming.

Father Liang was past sixty, in good health, sitting at the head of the table. When he saw her, he merely grunted: “So you remembered to come home.”

Liang Shi replied awkwardly, “Sorry, I got caught up and forgot.”

Her tone was distant.

She actually wanted to build good relationships with these people, but the truth was, she hadn’t had family for so many years that she had no idea how to interact with them. All she could do was be as polite as possible.

Besides, everyone was already used to the original host’s wild, unrestrained behavior.

Though the original host had been relatively well-behaved at home.

So Liang Shi didn’t give anything away.

She just stood there, feeling a bit awkward.

No one told her to sit. Apart from the second sister-in-law, no one greeted her. A girl sitting at the very edge of the table, with a fresh and innocent face, pressed her lips together and said, “Third Sister.”

“Mm.” Liang Shi smiled at her. “Wanwan, has school started?”

Liang Wanwan was the youngest sister in the family. She’d just started her third year of university this year. Her personality was far more likable than the original host’s.

“Not yet,” Liang Wanwan said. “Day after tomorrow.”

Liang Shi nodded.

Small talk was really difficult.

Especially in a situation like this where everyone was practically strangers. It was a real skill.

“What are you all standing around for? Get Third Miss some chopsticks and a bowl,” Liang Xinhe finally spoke up. “Not a single one of you has any sense?”

The servants hurried to comply, and one pulled out a chair for Liang Shi.

Liang Shi sat down. Across from her was a little girl.

Three or four years old, with a pink hair clip. She looked at Liang Shi with timid eyes.

Probably Liang Xinhe’s daughter.

The second sister-in-law prompted her: “Lingdang, say hello to your aunt.”

The child bit her lower lip and, after a moment, said: “Auntie.”

Liang Shi smiled. “Mm, long time no see. You’ve gotten even prettier.”

The little girl’s expression relaxed slightly.

Liang Shi had been watching her face. She’d originally assumed the original host couldn’t have done anything to such a small child, but now she thought otherwise. It seemed the original host hadn’t spared even a girl this young, leaving the child still reading her mood.

She tried to keep her smile as gentle as possible.

Today was Liang Xinzhou’s birthday. The moment she’d walked in, she’d recognized this eldest brother.

A textbook business executive: black suit, glasses. Beside him sat a cold beauty, the eldest sister-in-law.

Qiu Zimin sat with Father Liang at the head of the table.

Probably because of their argument on the phone earlier, Qiu Zimin gave her no pleasant expression today, her gaze gloomy.

Liang Shi didn’t bother trying to curry favor.

She’d cut ties with the Liang family eventually anyway. She just needed to wait until they found their real daughter; her connection to this place would be over.

For now, she was just going through the motions. It was clear that no one in this family particularly welcomed her return.

Though both Liang Xinzhou and Liang Xinhe were married, they still lived at the ancestral home. Neither had set up their own household.

Only she had moved to Chuanlan Villa right after getting married.

Was it because there wasn’t enough room?

Certainly not.

In a mansion this large, even if Liang Wanwan married and everyone lived together, there’d be more than enough space.

And there were enough servants to look after everyone.

It was simply because they didn’t like her and wanted her out.

But it was understandable. The original host would stir up trouble out there every now and then, and Father Liang was strict about disciplining his children. Father and daughter would inevitably clash.

The food at the table was delicious. Liang Shi politely stuck to just the one or two dishes in front of her.

There was a dish of crystal pork aspic in front of her. When she saw the little girl across the table eyeing it longingly, she hadn’t meant to interfere, but the child’s expression was so pitiful that she couldn’t help herself. She used the communal chopsticks to place some in the girl’s bowl.

Lingdang liked the dish, but since it was Liang Shi who’d served her, she hesitated, unsure whether to eat it.

She looked uncertainly at Liang Shi, who gave her a warm smile. “Go ahead.”

The second sister-in-law beside her also patted her head. “What should Lingdang say?”

Lingdang was smart. She smiled and said: “Thank you, Auntie.”

Liang Shi was unconsciously caught up in her smile, and her voice grew lighter. “You’re welcome.”

Children generally didn’t hold grudges.

If you were a little kind to them, whatever unpleasantness had come before was forgotten.

Lingdang was just like that.

Afterward, Liang Shi served her a few more times, and the little girl’s voice grew even sweeter.

The second sister-in-law said: “A-Shi, eat your own food. Don’t worry about her.”

“It’s fine, I’m full,” Liang Shi said. “I had breakfast.”

It was only just past twelve. She’d eaten a sandwich around nine, hadn’t done any strenuous exercise since, and wasn’t very hungry.

The second sister-in-law didn’t say more.

But Liang Xinhe glanced over and remarked drily: “Really turned over a new leaf, getting up early and everything.”

Liang Shi: “…”

She suspected this second brother couldn’t open his mouth without being passive-aggressive.

But at the dinner table, she didn’t fire back. She just shrugged as if to say yep.

And the topic passed.

The meal was a bit stifling. Though it was a reunion dinner for Liang Xinzhou’s birthday, hardly anyone spoke. It wasn’t lively at all, so quiet you could hear the clink of chopsticks against plates.

Liang Shi felt like needles were pricking her back.

It was probably the karma from the original host’s years of being too conspicuous.

While she ate, the servants’ gazes were likely all fixed on her.

After the meal, Father Liang and Liang Xinzhou and Liang Xinhe chatted about company matters for a while.

The others sat around doing their own things in various postures.

Then Father Liang suggested the family play golf. There was a large golf course behind the villa.

Liang Shi tagged along to see.

Her golf game was average. To be precise, she wasn’t great at any ball sports.

As far as she knew, the original host wasn’t much better.

Even though she was an Alpha, she rarely exercised.

She didn’t even have firm abs.

They wasted away the afternoon until past five o’clock, when everyone finally went back inside.

Dinner was at seven. By then, Father Liang said he was tired and heading back to his room to rest.

Everyone else dispersed to their rooms as well.

Liang Shi was finally starting to see the pattern: in this family, Father Liang’s word was law.

Qiu Zimin was very subdued around him, nothing like the chatty woman on the phone. Even the occasional glance she shot his way carried a trace of fear and deference.

Not normal.

Nothing in this family was normal.

Though Liang Shi had lost her parents early, she’d lived with her paternal grandparents before high school.

A normal family didn’t have this kind of atmosphere.

It was more like a strict hierarchical institution.

Turning these thoughts over in her mind, Liang Shi returned to her bedroom.

The original host’s bedroom was at the far end of the third floor, behind a code lock.

She entered the code, pushed the door open, and was stunned.

The room was dark. Not the darkness of lacking outside light, but an oppressive, suffocating blackness.

The bedroom was sealed tight. Every window was completely covered by curtains. But on the opposite wall was a fluorescent golden totem: a wolf.

It looked disturbingly like some kind of ritual setup.

She switched on the lights and found that all the walls were black. The carpet, bed sheets, blanket, and pillows were all black too.

There were no decorative items in the vast room. The only thing that could be called décor was the lamp on the bedside table.

And even the lamp itself was black.

The room’s lighting wasn’t bright white or warm yellow but something indescribable, with a faintly eerie quality.

More like the kind of lights you’d see at a nightclub.

She pressed the switch a few more times. The lighting cycled through several settings, none of them normal.

The most normal one was probably the dimmest setting that barely illuminated the whole room.

Suppressing her shock, Liang Shi walked into the room and closed the door. She felt a chill run down her spine.

So she went to pull open the curtains, only to discover the curtains were purely decorative.

Behind the curtains was a wall. The wall was covered in crisscrossing scratch marks, and some of the markings were stained with blood, like crude talismans scrawled by a madman.

This was a windowless room. Given the original host’s personality, why would she live in a room like this?

There were plenty of empty rooms in the house. Why give her one without windows?

And the decor was far too sinister.

Had Liang Shi decorated it herself, or had her family done it?

When she’d come upstairs earlier, Lingdang had pulled her toward the left side of the third floor. Through a slightly ajar door, she’d seen that Lingdang’s room was perfectly normal, with bright, warm, comfortable tones.

And Liang Xinhe’s room was a normal business-professional style.

Only the original host’s was different.

Liang Shi didn’t even dare lie on that bed. But right now, this was the only place where she could have some peace and quiet.

So she had to stay in this room until dinner.

While she was at it, she’d look to see if the original host had left behind a diary or something.

Weren’t protagonists always the type to keep diaries?

In the original host’s closet, a row of flashy clothes hung neatly. She rummaged through them but found nothing. The bedside drawer was plainly empty to the eye. In the bottommost drawer, she found two packs of cigarettes.

Just the most ordinary brand you could find in any store.

She searched the entire room but found nothing useful.

Getting tired of the search, she simply sat on the carpet.

She looked up at the ceiling.

The ceiling’s structure was also different from normal. Pure black, not flat but arched, hanging downward.

It looked familiar to Liang Shi, but she couldn’t quite place it.

Her phone buzzed. She took it out and checked.

A browser notification, the headline reading: Female Corpse in Mountain Village Mysteriously Disappears, and the Secret Behind It Is Shocking!

Pure clickbait, but the accompanying image caught her attention.

Because the photo showed an open coffin.