Chapter 37 Part 2

He drew in a deep breath. “I looked into it. The problem with her was most likely because… the Ming Family’s blood is faulty.”

“The Ming Family?” Tong Renfei’s expression went blank for an instant, as if she had no clue what he was talking about. But she recovered quickly and pressed on with a hint of urgency. “Ahem, oh—the Ming Family. You mean, what’s wrong with the Ming Family?”

Aiwen’s brows furrowed slightly. “This family seems plagued by some ancient curse.”

“A curse?” Tong Renfei frowned in bewilderment. “But Ming Luyin, her father, and all their ancestors going back generations—they were all exceptionally gifted, weren’t they?

“What does the curse do to their magic aptitude?”

Aiwen shook his head. “I haven’t figured out the details yet.”

He looked down at Tong Renfei. “But that’s the Ming Family’s problem, not ours.

“If you trust me, I can say with certainty that back then, it was almost certainly the Ming Family’s blood that caused the cultivated child to be born without any magic aptitude at all.”

“Ah… y-yeah, is that how it is…” Tong Renfei lowered her head.

Aiwen couldn’t see her face, but from Meng Yiran’s vantage point, she could make out Tong Renfei’s slightly parted lips and the look of utter confusion on her face.

It was quite some time before Tong Renfei lifted her head again. “Of course I trust you.”

She drew in a deep breath. “I don’t want to dwell on the past anymore, but now…” She clutched at Aiwen’s sleeve. “Aiwen, we went to such lengths to find a second ninth-grade life fruit. I really don’t want to waste something this precious on a low-tier family like the Yekis Family—especially when we have a far better option right here.”

Her voice thickened with longing and entreaty. “Please, just help me out one more time, alright?”

Aiwen remained silent for a long stretch before asking, “Are you sure?”

Tong Renfei nodded. “Yes. I want to use your blood.”

Aiwen opened his mouth as if to speak, then finally turned his face away.

At last, he relented. “Fine.”

Tong Renfei’s face lit up with joy. “You’ll do it?!”

Aiwen nodded and took her uninjured hand in his. “Extracting heart blood will take some time. I need to go into seclusion for two days.”

Tong Renfei rose to her feet. “I understand.” She asked, “Will you be doing it alone? Do you need any help?”

Aiwen shook his head with a smile. “No need. I can handle it myself.”

He reached out fondly and caressed Tong Renfei’s cheek once more. “Two days from now, we’ll begin cultivating the second child.”

“No rush,” Tong Renfei replied. Eagerness shone from the corners of her eyes and the tips of her brows, but she held back her excitement out of concern. “Your health comes first. Take a couple extra days to rest after extracting the heart blood.”

Aiwen merely smiled and said nothing.

The two exchanged a glance, and he departed without another word, leaving Meng Yiran alone in the room with Tong Renfei.

The surroundings fell silent in an instant, filled only with the faint rustling sounds of Meng Yiran bandaging Tong Renfei’s wounds with feigned seriousness.

The bandaging soon finished. Tong Renfei raised her hand to inspect it and smiled. “Not bad at all.”

Meng Yiran lowered her head. “Thank you for the praise, Madam.”

Tong Renfei turned to face her. “Now, you did such fine work. How exactly should I reward you?”

Meng Yiran nearly retched at the woman’s insincere posturing.

Tong Renfei had singled her out and let her overhear such remarks precisely because she had no intention of letting this maid live. Meng Yiran had held her temper this long only in pursuit of the truth. “No need for rewards. I have a few questions.”

This time, it was Tong Renfei’s turn to freeze.

She recovered quickly and burst into laughter. “Hahaha! I knew I hadn’t misjudged you—you really are entertaining.” Her good mood made her willing to indulge Meng Yiran a bit longer. “What questions? Speak freely.”

Meng Yiran dropped her deferential facade and asked flatly, “You’re not Tong Yuwu’s mother, are you?”

Tong Renfei stroked the wound on her finger through the bandage. “What makes you think that?” She drew a deep breath. “I’m your madam, and she’s your young miss. I’m not her mother. Where on earth did that little bastard come from?”

Meng Yiran clenched her fists. “What kind of mother behaves like you?”

She gritted her teeth. “You… you gave birth to her… No, she wasn’t even carried in your womb, was she? You raised her just so you could seize her body—her Magic Aptitude!”

Tong Renfei’s eyes narrowed as she slowly closed in on Meng Yiran. “Who sent you? How did you gather this information?”

Meng Yiran glared at her. “You’re utterly repulsive.”

Tong Renfei’s face darkened, and she lunged forward to clamp her hand around Meng Yiran’s throat.

Meng Yiran had yet to begin formal magic training. In a real death match, she would lose decisively and without grace.

But this was Tong Yuwu’s dream, and thanks to the Dream-Entering Potion, she was utterly immune to harm.

Even with her windpipe crushed, Meng Yiran felt no suffocation or pain.

Drawing on a series of defensive techniques she had seen in her previous life, she counterattacked with a sharp knee to Tong Renfei’s unguarded abdomen.

Tong Renfei quickly realized something was wrong. “You—you can’t be hurt?!”

Meng Yiran sneered.

She grappled fiercely with Tong Renfei and declared her intent. “Come with me. Back to that room. Release Tong Yuwu, or I’ll kill you!”

Tong Renfei stared blankly for a second before snapping back to herself. She threw her head back and laughed. “Hahaha! Very well. I’ll go with you.”

Meng Yiran’s teeth ground together in fury. Without a word, she shoved Tong Renfei toward the door.

The pair made their way back to the large room where Little Tong Yuwu lay. Midway there, the ground beneath them shuddered violently. Clods of earth came pattering down from the ceiling, throwing both women off balance.

“What’s going on?” Tong Renfei demanded with a frown.

Meng Yiran had no idea and reeled in momentary confusion.

Seizing the opening, Tong Renfei shoved her away and bolted toward the large room. Meng Yiran gave chase at once.

Their pursuit lent them greater speed, and they soon burst back into Little Tong Yuwu’s chamber.

The room, pristine and orderly when they had left, now resembled the aftermath of an inexplicable bombing. Splintered wood and debris littered the floor amid choking clouds of dust. The steward lay collapsed at the threshold, a pool of gore spreading beneath him. Spotting Tong Renfei, he stretched out a trembling hand. “Mad—Madam—”

Tong Renfei rushed to his side. “What happened?”

Blood bubbled from the steward’s mouth as he spoke in halting gasps. “It… it was the young miss!

“After the Blood Exchange… she… she died…”

The words struck Meng Yiran like a thunderbolt.

She and Tong Renfei had been gone only a short while. Part of the reason Meng Yiran had felt safe leaving was her certainty that the Blood Exchange ritual could not possibly conclude so quickly.

She had forgotten, however, that this was Tong Yuwu’s dream. Time did not flow at a normal pace here—the Blood Exchange had somehow been accelerated.

“She died? That’s impossible! She can’t die!” Meng Yiran cried, frantically seizing the steward’s collar.

The steward rasped for breath. “She died… then… she came back to life.”

Meng Yiran exhaled in relief, only then noticing the cold sweat soaking her back.

“Where is she?” she demanded.

The steward raised a quivering hand and pointed into the room, where smoke and dust still roiled.

Meng Yiran released him and dashed inside.

She heard Tong Renfei’s voice behind her. The woman was still confirming with the steward whether those explosions had been caused by Tong Yuwu, whether Tong Yuwu had awakened her magic aptitude. But she no longer had the energy to care.

Relying on the Golden Marten Clan’s keen eyesight and her memory from before, she stumbled her way to the stone slab bed.

“Tong Yuwu? Tong Yuwu? Are you here?” Meng Yiran waved her hand in front of her eyes and carefully groped around on the stone slab bed. Suddenly, the sensation under her hand changed. She looked down and saw a thin, slender hand.

Meng Yiran grabbed it. “Is that you?”

She leaned in close, squinting to observe. Sure enough, there was Little Tong Yuwu, now awake.

The little girl’s face was deathly pale, but those purple eyes of hers seemed far deeper than what Meng Yiran remembered seeing before. Meng Yiran noticed the wound on her wrist had split open, thin trickles of blood flowing from it. Her eyes instantly stung, and she couldn’t help sniffling.

“Does it hurt?” The words slipped out, and she immediately felt it was a stupid question. She changed the subject at once. “I’ll get you out of here. That wound needs bandaging.”

Before Meng Yiran could act, Little Tong Yuwu looked up at her.

“Where’s Mother?”

Meng Yiran swallowed her resentment. “Don’t worry about her. She… heh, that woman doesn’t deserve to be your mother.”

She actually had a bellyful of curses she wanted to unleash, but she truly couldn’t confirm whether the dream had been real. In the end, she could only force out that one line of judgment.

Just then, Tong Renfei came looking as well.

Her eyes locked onto Tong Yuwu sitting on the stone slab bed right away, the anticipation in them impossible to hide. “Yuwu? You… did you awaken your magic aptitude?”

Tong Yuwu spotted her and immediately ignored Meng Yiran beside her.

She reached out toward her. “Mother.”

Tong Renfei hurried to her side and shoved Meng Yiran aside.

The smile on her face was impossible to suppress. “Those explosions were all your doing? You… what magic aptitude did you awaken?” She murmured to herself, “What kind of magic aptitude grants power like this the moment it awakens?”

Tong Yuwu shook her head gently. “I don’t know.”

She tilted up her delicate little face and said innocently, “I don’t like the things in here, so I crushed them all.”

Tong Renfei narrowed her eyes, not pursuing the matter at all. “Well crushed. Crush whatever you like.”

As she spoke, she even hypocritically squeezed out two glistening tears from her eyes. “I never imagined you’d actually awaken one day… It’s been so long, truly so long. I gave up hope ages ago. I never expected… I truly never expected…” She wiped away her tears. “You’ve lived up to my expectations after all. You’re Mother’s good daughter!”

Meng Yiran finally snapped back to her senses and let out a mocking laugh.

Gritting her teeth, she demanded of Tong Renfei, “Are you even human?! She’s awakened, so now you can just conveniently exploit…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence before Tong Renfei cut her off with a shrill voice. “Shut your mouth!”

Tong Renfei turned to Little Tong Yuwu. “Good child…” She coaxed her like one might tempt a baby. “This person just tried to hurt me. Yuwu, just like you crushed the things in this room, help Mother crush her!”

Meng Yiran was just about to mock her delusions when her shoulder clamped tight, as if gripped by some invisible force.

This level of power wasn’t enough to injure her, but trapping her was effortless. Realizing what was happening, Meng Yiran looked toward Tong Yuwu. “Tong Yuwu?! What are you doing?!” She stared in disbelief. “Don’t you remember what she said before she left? Haven’t you seen what kind of person she is? Don’t let a few fake tears fool you!”

“Hahahaha—” Tong Renfei laughed heartily, reveling in it.

Looking at the immobilized Meng Yiran, she asked delightedly, “Do you know why I was so cooperative about coming back with you?” Under Meng Yiran’s shocked gaze, she revealed a triumphant smile. “I wanted you to see it clearly for yourself—whether my good daughter would side with me or with someone like you, who wants to harm her mother.”

She sauntered over to Meng Yiran. “Well? See it clearly now?”