Chapter Sixteen: Past Events Like Smoke

  The autumn girl stretched out her hand to tuck the scattered hair behind her ear, revealing a delicate profile, with the corners of her mouth slightly raised, and half-raising her head to gaze at the empty hall, only after a long while did she smile and say: "It's been decades since I've chatted with someone like this."

  "Are you alone?" I asked.

  There was a hint of confusion in Qiu Niang's eyes, which immediately dissipated: "How can I be lonely? The flames of hatred are still burning fiercely in my chest..."

  I shrugged: "Such a big house, for decades only you have been wandering around alone, won't you get bored? Every nook and cranny has been seen dozens of times, the great-great-grandsons of ants should already be dead."

  Qiu Niang was amused by me: "Girl, what do you know." She paused for a moment, and a sinister smile appeared on her face: "I want to dye every corner of this house with my aura, and erase all the marks of the Tang family!"

  "What then? After wiping it away, what are you going to do?" I asked again.

  "After erasing?" Qiu Niang lowered her eyelids, "After erasing, this place will be mine."

  "Isn't this place yours now?"

  "Not long ago, there was a woman who didn't know any better and wanted to take over this mansion." Qiū Niáng hooked the corner of her lips, unable to conceal her smile, "I stole her soul, now she should be dying soon, hahaha!"

  Her current state is somewhat delirious - if she still has her wits about her. I wonder what would happen if I were to remind her now: I'm the one who came to rescue that ungrateful woman - Autumn Girl?

  Before I could think, Autumn Girl said: "I don't know which capable person it was, but they actually snatched away a few souls again, trying to save that woman. It's really unknown how there can still be Daoist priests with such formidable skills in this world."

  "Cough...cough..." I really want to tell her that our kind isn't called Taoist, but Soul Hunters, and the style is at least one level higher!

  "But what's the difference." Qiū Niáng continued to mutter to herself, "As long as the last soul doesn't return to its rightful place, that woman will never wake up again. Daring to compete with me for this house, I'll make her wish she were dead."

  I secretly wiped away a sweat drop, all the mortgage slaves in this world put together can't compare to her alone.

  "Autumn girl." I raised my hand and asked, "Do you actually love Tang Mowen or hate him?"

  If love, why resentment so deep?

  If you hate it, why insist on stubbornly guarding this empty house and suffering all kinds of hardships?

  "Tang, Mo, Wen." Qiu Niang read out the name word by word, smiling bleakly. "It's been a long, long time since I've heard this name. You're speaking it out loud, and I almost think you're a stranger."

  Will it be a stranger? I looked at her expression and didn't believe it in my heart.

  "He humiliated me, and in the end, he had someone kill me, leaving my corpse exposed in the wilderness, my bones covered in dust and devoured by wild dogs. With such a deep grudge, you still ask if I love him or hate him?" Qiu Niang sneered coldly, "Haha, I wish he would die and fall into the eighteenth level of hell, suffer all kinds of torture, and never be reborn for eternity!"

  I hesitated for a moment and then suddenly smiled: "No, you love him."

  The expression on Qiu Niang's face was frozen, and for a moment it looked very comical.

  "If you don't love him, why did you choose to live in his master bedroom? If you don't love him, why would you wear his wife's cheongsam dress? If you don't love him, why do you take care of everything in the house so carefully? If you don't love him, you wouldn't stay here. Extreme hatred leads to choosing to forget. And the reason for not wanting to forget is that one still wants to remember."

  My words made Qiu Niang suddenly become flustered.

  Her face was stiff, but her eyes seemed to thaw from the deep ice, cracking inch by inch, revealing emotions from the deepest part of her heart, like melting spring water, first seeping out a little, then bursting forth in an unstoppable torrent.

  "Do you want to be his wife?" I smiled with satisfaction.

  The autumn girl smiled bitterly, the black fog on her head also trembled slightly, and the red gas entwined in it began to fade slowly. She said, "Yes."

  A single word can express all the love, hatred, emotions and grudges.

  Qiu Niang and Tang Mo Wen had known each other since childhood, with Qiu Niang being eight years younger than Tang Mo Wen. One was the young master of a wealthy family, while the other was the daughter of a tofu seller on the street. Every day after finishing his studies at the private school, Tang Mo Wen would go to Qiu Niang's stall and drink a bowl of bean flower soup. Over time, they began to chat with each other.

  At that time, Tang Mo-wen would tell her stories about what he had heard in school every day. He talked about the hard work of scholars before the abolition of the imperial examination system; the drawbacks of the eight-legged essay and its relevance to the benefits of modern schools today; also mentioned were various measures used in Western education.

  At that time, Qiū Niáng didn't understand anything and had no money to attend school. Listening to Táng Mò's lectures on those unattainable knowledge, she felt that the time was incredibly fulfilling.

  She also didn't know when it started, but the idea of marrying Tang Mowen had taken root in her heart.