The Debt Written in Her Blood

“My sister is already dead… and she died like that.”

“How can you even say something like that?”

Mu Ning’s tone gradually shifted from its initial fury to complete calm.

“When it comes down to it, Father, Mother… you never treated my sister as your own daughter.”

When he was little and too young to understand, Mu Ning had never once said something like, “I’m going to marry my sister.”

Yet whenever the topic came up, Mu An’an would always wear a far more complicated expression.

As he grew a little older, he finally understood.

His sister wasn’t like other people’s sisters.

Because she wasn’t his biological sister.

To Mu Ning’s parents, the opinions of outsiders meant they could never openly keep their adopted daughter as a convenient future daughter-in-law.

So it was only natural that she should be made useful when the time came.

For example, marrying her off.

At the very least, they could collect a decent bride price.

As for what sort of monster she would marry…

Or what kind of life she would live after being married off…

None of that mattered.

Even if Mu An’an walked out alive because of some unspeakably dark reason, only to return lying in a coffin…

To them, a single human life was nothing more than something compensation money could settle.

Besides, Mu Ning’s parents had never cared about the daughter they had picked up.

Otherwise, they would never have willingly sent her to become the concubine of that debauched nobleman.

Nor would they have arranged her funeral in such haste.

They had even tried to keep their biological son, who had always been close to Mu An’an, from discovering the real cause of her death.

Just because they didn’t care about Mu An’an didn’t mean Mu Ning didn’t.

Otherwise, after buying that hairpin, he wouldn’t have hurried home almost day and night without rest.

“That beast killed my sister.”

“I won’t let this end here!”

“Son, don’t do anything foolish!”

“This compensation money is already enough for our family to live comfortably for years!”

“The Longxing Marquis’s family already owes us a favor!”

“The Marchioness will definitely give us even more in the future!”

Mu Ning couldn’t bring himself to listen anymore.

As he spoke, he gripped the newly purchased hairpin in his hand so tightly that his knuckles turned white, as though it were an irreplaceable treasure that could never be let go.

It was a wisteria blossom hairpin.

Something unimaginably precious to him.

After finishing the imperial examination, he had only casually bought a few souvenirs in the capital before rushing home.

The person he had been so desperate to see…

His sister…

Was already dead.

Thinking about it now, it was almost laughable.

If Mu An’an hadn’t died, given his family’s financial situation, he would never have been able to afford a wisteria hairpin like this in the capital.

When he was young, he had been frail and severely nearsighted.

He had grown up surrounded by ridicule.

Only his sister had never looked down on him.

She had even saved her own spending money to send him to the county school.

Only then had their parents begun treating him a little better.

Only then had he realized that he wasn’t a completely worthless failure.

So Mu Ning made up his mind.

He would seek justice for his sister.

He was a clever scholar.

He simply lacked experience and didn’t yet understand how to adapt to reality.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have rashly rushed to the county office to file a complaint.

But no matter what…

His determination to seek justice that very day was destined to end in failure.

Inside the county yamen of Longxing County, after Mu Ning finished recounting his grievance, the so-called upright magistrate merely uttered a single sentence.

“Causing a disturbance in court?”

“Beat him!”

At that moment, Mu Ning couldn’t understand.

Why…

Why had something like this happened to him?

Just then, an unexpected voice shattered the noise and jeers filling the entrance of the county office.

“How dare you!”

A bright, clear voice rang out from the entrance.

Someone had actually stepped forward to defend him.

“Y-Young Master, it’s you!”

The county magistrate recognized the newcomer and instantly plastered a fawning smile across his face.

“What brings you here today, Young Master?”

But the only person who could openly shout in the courtroom without being punished had no interest in responding.

The young man walked straight ahead, grabbed the still-frozen Mu Ning—who remained rooted to the spot in shock and fury—and dragged him out of the county office.

“Tch!”

After Mu Ning had been dragged away and the crowd gradually dispersed, the current magistrate of Longxing County spat in the direction the man had left.

“So what if he’s the richest man in Longxing?”

“So what if he’s a cultivator?”

Of course, those were words he only dared to say after the man had already left.

After venting his frustration, he turned toward the eager adviser beside him.

“What are you staring at?”

“If we keep wasting time, the wine warming over at the Marquis of Longxing’s residence is going to get cold.”

Only after the one dragging and the one being dragged had reached a secluded spot outside the county office did the young man finally let go.

“Brother, are you stupid or what?”

He looked every bit the refined young master from a wealthy family, yet what came out of his mouth couldn’t have been more down-to-earth.

“Don’t you know the saying?”

“Commoners don’t fight officials, and they certainly don’t fight the Son of Heaven.”

There was probably some truth to those words.

But as Mu Ning listened to the lecture, he neither agreed nor argued.

“…Young Master Cheng.”

Mu Ning stared blankly at him for a long while.

Then, all of a sudden, his knees bent as he prepared to kneel.

But before he could, Young Master Cheng caught him and stopped him.

“Don’t kneel to this humble Daoist.”

“I didn’t actually do anything that truly helped you just now.”

“So your kneeling would be completely meaningless.”

“A real man stands tall beneath heaven and earth.”

“It’s enough to kneel to the gods once in a while, and to your parents at home.”

“At most…” he said with a grin.

“You can add kneeling to your wife to the list.”

“We’re both grown men.”

“If you suddenly kneel to me, what kind of sense would that make?”

His words subtly steered the conversation in a rather strange direction.

But Mu Ning didn’t notice in the slightest.

His mind was occupied by only one thing.

His sister was dead.

She had been tortured to death by those cruel nobles.

The mangled body lying inside that coffin…

He knew he would never forget it for as long as he lived.

He had never imagined…

That after falling into those nobles’ hands, his sister would suffer such unimaginably brutal torment.

Ever since learning of her death, there had been only one thought in Mu Ning’s heart.

Revenge.

“Young Master Cheng…”

“You’re a cultivator, aren’t you?”

“So please… help my sister—”

But the moment he looked into the other man’s face, the rest of his words caught in his throat.

Of course.

No one would help another person so easily.

The man before him was a lofty cultivator.

The fact that he had been willing to pull Mu Ning out of danger after he caused a scene in the courtroom was already an act of the utmost kindness.

Expecting anything more would simply be too much.