Pei Yu cursed as he belched from his drink, then grasped a whip and lashed it fiercely toward Gao Jian, who was tied up on a wooden frame.
"Gao Jian, Ga Cefu," Pei Yu hummed, "How glorious and proud Ga Cefu was back then? But what about now? Aren’t you just the same, fallen to be my Pei Yu’s prisoner?"
"You are pretty tough, holding on for so long, yet you still don’t die!"
"You blind man, your eyeballs have already been gouged out by me. What are you still fighting for, still struggling for? I want to see what you can use to compete with me for favor!"
"He Su, that shameless woman, for the sake of Phoenix Blood, for Liang Shujun that cheap woman, drove me out of He Mansion back then. But now? Seeing that I’ve gained power, she flatters me every day. She should take a good look at her own ghostly conduct!"
"She caught that strange disease, her skin festering inch by inch, healing then festering again, stinking like a latrine. I, Pei Yu, am no longer the Pei Yu of the past!"
"If only Mother had not been so stubborn, forbidding me to remarry and insisting on sending me back here to remain faithful till the end, what would He Su count for?"
"I’m rich now! I can have any woman I want—loads of them. Anyone I fancy has no chance of escaping my hands!"
"Gao Jian, do you hate this? Do you really hate it so much? You are treated this way by me, while He Su doesn’t make a peep, not even daring to let out a fart. Heh! He Su? She’s a fucking cheap woman, cheap woman, cheap woman—!!"
Drunk, Pei Yu whipped Gao Jian like a madman. Gao Jian endured the pain, the torment, in silence.
In this dark room without sun or moon, he had lost track of how long he had been locked away. He only knew that during those early days, he had called out, he had yelled, but no one came to save him. He had long realized that he was as if abandoned by the whole world, a discarded citizen.
He had married into He Mansion because He Su seemed genteel, not vulgar like other women, and he had fallen for her because of that.
But after these ordeals, he came to understand too late that in selecting a woman, it’s not necessarily about how beautiful she is or her capabilities, not even about wealth or status. First and foremost, it’s about responsibility. Not like He Su, who changed direction with the wind, even though she fully knew how much he and Luo Yang were suffering, she remained silent, watching Pei Yu do as he pleased.
Regrettably, his realization came too late; he had already paid the price for his youthful recklessness, and this price was still ongoing, with no end in sight.
When Pei Yu left the dark room, it had already turned dark. From afar, he could see He Su and Luo Yang standing together.
"Ah Yang, I’m sorry, it’s not on purpose, I can’t help it..."
These were the days when He Su’s "disease" was at its worst; her skin festering terribly, her face, neck, and hands, all wrapped in white cloth. There was a bitter smell of herbal medicine on her, as well as a foul smell coming from the festering skin.
Yet even so, when she spoke, her tone, her voice, was still gentle, even with a pitiful air to it.
Luo Yang forced a wry smile, "My wife did no wrong, what fault can she have."
Previously unseen, now understood, but it was too late.
Back then, when she was obsessed with a cinnabar mole, obsessed with Pei Yu and the Phoenix Blood, he had felt injustice in his heart. But because he was her husband, he still harbored some hope, thinking that someday she might see the good in him.