Liu Caiyun snapped back to reality but looked at her with schadenfreude, saying, "Well, Chiang Xiao, you’ve always acted as if you didn’t care about your parents’ affairs. Can’t keep up the act anymore, can you? What should I tell your grandmother? Simple. Someone said that your mom is already dead! Do you know how she died? Do you want me to tell you?"
As she spoke, she waited for Chiang Xiao’s anger, sadness, or shock, but Chiang Xiao remained unnervingly calm.
Chiang Xiao’s expression stayed the same, but her gaze turned colder, "Fine, go ahead and tell me."
Liu Caiyun was shocked, "Do you really want to hear it?"
"Why not?" Chiang Xiao said, her hands casually tucked into her pockets as she stood there with an easygoing stance, "Go ahead."
Liu Caiyun steeled herself and immediately stood up straight, saying, "Alright, you asked for it! Desheng had a distant cousin come back from City N, who had invited us to a banquet in the county. He mentioned your mom, said she’s dead, died a horrible death, a major case in City N. After your mom ran away, she caught the eye of human traffickers—they drugged her with a sleep-inducing drug and sold her to a filthy place."
She glanced at Chiang Xiao with a hint of pity, mixed with pride and satisfaction, feeling that when compared to the once stunning Chiang Qingzhu, she, who had only lost a husband, was much happier and more dignified.
Fearing Chiang Xiao didn’t understand what that filthy place was, she explained, "You don’t know what kind of place that is, do you? It’s the kind where men pay money to sleep with your mom. Your mom worked there for a few years, met a thug on the outside with a bunch of followers, became his hidden mistress. Later, when that man grew tired of her, he threw her back to those places he controlled, and it was there your mom got into trouble while sharing a bed with a man who had just gotten out of prison."
At this point, she no longer cared whether Chiang Xiao understood what kind of place she was referring to; talking about Chiang Qingzhu’s wretched and miserable experiences was giving her a bizarre thrill.
Even now, recalling how Desheng’s cousin had that same excited look in his eyes when he told them the story, Liu Caiyun suddenly understood how he had felt back then.
Especially since she was telling it to Chiang Xiao.
"That man was ruthless. After sleeping with your mom, he wanted to hand her over to a big bad guy, but your mom refused. They tied her up and took her away. That big bad guy injected her with drugs, forced more drugs down her throat and whipped her skin open! He slept with her in front of many people, then let his underlings take turns with her! In the end, they say your mom couldn’t take it anymore, went mad! She tried to bite that big bad guy and he chopped her to death with a knife—her half-her head was split open, her brains spilled out everywhere!"
Chiang Xiao listened with an expressionless face to Liu Caiyun becoming increasingly excited as she described Chiang Qingzhu’s dreadful death. Despite goosebumps covering her skin, Liu Caiyun couldn’t help but describe the grisly details. Chiang Xiao’s voice was cold as she said, "And then?"
Liu Caiyun had not expected her to still be able to ask "and then?" after hearing all that, paused for a moment, then continued, "And then the Public Security Officers went to catch that big bad guy. Guess what happened to him? When they surrounded him, he threw your mom’s body out of the upstairs window! At that time, she didn’t have a single piece of clothing on her! Even in death, she was exposed for all to see!"
"So, these are the words you originally wanted to tell my grandmother without missing a single one, isn’t that right?" Chiang Xiao looked at her.