With the departure of the siblings, Xu Jingan and Xu Zhaoyue, only a heavy silence remained in the main hall.
Madame Xu sat upright in the seat of honor. She raised her hand and gave a low command to those outside the door, her tone leaving no room for argument.
“Everyone, withdraw.”
Hearing this, the maids and older servants waiting at the door dared not utter a single word. They bowed and quietly retreated.
Just like that, everyone around the main hall was dismissed, leaving an empty buffer zone. This provided the perfect opportunity for a certain young lady to sneak back unnoticed to eavesdrop.
Standing to the side, Jinghong felt her heart tighten. Recalling how both Bai Ci and Madame Xu had acted strangely this morning, she grew worried for Bai Ci and instinctively wanted to stay.
However, Madame Xu swept a cold gaze over her and dismissed her as well.
“You leave as well. Guard from a distance, and do not allow anyone to come within half a step of the main hall.”
“Yes, Madame.”
Jinghong did not dare to disobey. She cast a deep, lingering look at Bai Ci, who sat motionless, her mind filled with doubts and anxiety.
But in the end, she was only a maid of the Xu household. She had no right to question what her masters did. Bowing, she withdrew and gently closed the wooden doors of the main hall.
In an instant, only Madame Xu and Bai Ci were left in the vast main hall, standing in confrontation.
A heavy silence spread, creating an oppressive atmosphere where whoever spoke first would seem to yield in presence.
After a long while, Madame Xu could no longer suppress the anticipation and joy in her heart. She was the first to speak, breaking the silence.
Looking at the frail figure before her—whose aura had completely transformed—she spoke in a gentle voice, enunciating each word softly: “My child.”
This single call was saturated with months of torment, obsession, and longing.
Bai Ci raised her eyes and quietly gazed at the woman on the high seat. Her voice remained unchanged, but her tone was gentle yet distant, carrying a hint of interrogation.
“Mother, when you call out 'my child,' just who are you calling?”
Madame Xu's eyes trembled slightly. She leaned forward, her gaze locked tightly onto Bai Ci's face.
From that unfamiliar face she had never looked closely at before, she greedily traced the contours of the flesh and bone buried beneath, the child she had yearned for day and night.
Without the slightest hesitation, she replied, “Naturally, my child Huaining.”
Receiving this definitive answer, a trace of disappointment flickered in Bai Ci's eyes. She slowly lowered her gaze and let out a soft sigh.
That sigh was helpless, weary, and carried a touch of desolation from seeing through the illusions.
If Xu Qinghe were truly here, his reaction would have been virtually identical to what Bai Ci was displaying now.
A gentleman as pure as jade was always thus.
“So that is how it is.”
Bai Ci looked up again, her eyes clear and sharp, piercing straight toward Madame Xu.
“Before, I thought I was merely being paranoid, needlessly doubting Mother. It was truly unfilial of me.”
“Mother, what exactly is going on here?”
Bai Ci frowned slightly, her tone tinged with a touch of bewilderment and confusion.
He had keenly sensed some of the underlying causes, yet he was still perplexed by the supernatural scene before him, wondering how things had progressed to this point.
“I have clearly been dead for a long time. Why am I trapped inside the body of a strange woman?”
“Moreover, by some twist of fate, this woman has become my lawfully wedded wife. Why did Mother go to such great lengths to orchestrate all of this?”
The word “dead” instantly shattered Madame Xu's joy of reuniting with her eldest son. Images she wished to forget resurfaced before her eyes.
The cold body, the dried tear tracks, the unwilling final words—her deepest fear of loss surged in her heart once more.
It was not merely the loss of a blood relative, the loss of a life, but also the hope for their future and glory.
Madame Xu's eyes instantly reddened. Her previous composure vanished without a trace as she hurriedly stood up, stepped down from the high seat, and rushed to Bai Ci's side.
She grabbed Bai Ci's arms tightly, her grip urgent and frantic, terrified that the person before her would vanish once more.
“You are not dead! Huaining, you are absolutely not dead!”
Her words were hurried, carrying a near-obsessive certainty as she repeatedly argued, as if trying to convince Bai Ci, or perhaps more like self-hypnosis.
“It was just that your physical body couldn't hold out anymore and completely collapsed!”
“Your soul is perfectly intact and still vibrant. As long as you endure this period, you will be able to truly come back to life, returning completely to how you were before!”
Bai Ci allowed her to grip her arms, her expression cold as she let out a bitter laugh.
“Come back to life?”
She softly repeated those words. Her subsequent questions were sharp and piercing, striking straight at the heart.
“How am I to come back to life? By wearing my wife's face, occupying her body, and dragging out a miserable existence in the world as a woman?”
Madame Xu shook her head repeatedly, her face filled with stubborn determination. “No, absolutely not!”
“That cult's secret technique is boundlessly profound. I spent a vast fortune to acquire this method; I will never let you remain in this state forever.”
“Once your soul is completely stabilized and your essence is fully nourished, this physical body will slowly undergo a transformation, shedding its original appearance and gradually turning back into your original form.”
“When that time comes, you will still be the peerless eldest son of our Xu family, and no one will detect the slightest anomaly.”
Madame Xu's words confirmed the accuracy of the information Lin Wenyu had uncovered during her investigation.
“Turn back into my original form?”
Bai Ci raised an eyebrow, a flash of anger passing through her eyes. Her voice dropped, carrying a suppressed reprimand in its cool tone.
“Mother, how absurd you are! From beginning to end, this body belongs to someone else's daughter. She is a living, breathing person of flesh and blood!”
“Even if the physical form and appearance completely change in the future, and I am reborn just as you say, what about the original her?”
“She will dissipate completely, vanishing from this world without a trace.”
Bai Ci's gaze was heavy as she stared directly at the obstinate woman before her, each word carrying immense weight. “Mother, you are not extending my life. You are committing murder.”
The accusation from her son did not bring Madame Xu to her senses, nor did it shake her resolve in the slightest.
Her resentment and obsession were entirely self-righteous.
“Murder? How have I harmed anyone?”
Madame Xu raised her hand to wipe the moisture from the corners of her eyes, her expression stubborn.
“My Huaining is the Wenqu Star descended to earth, highly educated, of noble character, and possessing unparalleled beauty in this city. He is a rare genius the Xu family has not seen in a century, the glory that supports our entire household.”
“He was born to scale the heights and display his brilliance. How could he die young and be buried in the dust?”
“But what about that Bai Ci? She is merely an ordinary girl raised in the countryside.”
“Of humble birth and illiterate, the best end she could hope for in her life was to marry some peasant, facing the yellow earth all day, working herself to the bone, and ending her life in obscurity.”
“To be able to use her own meager body to fulfill my son's life, to preserve a scholar for this world, and to ensure the continuation of the Xu family's legacy—this is her fortune, a blessing she could not have earned in several lifetimes!”
In Madame Xu's current worldview, human lives had always been divided into ranks.
A genius's life was as precious as gold and jade, while a country girl's life was as cheap as weeds.
Using a worthless life to exchange for a precious one had always been the natural order of things. How could it be considered a sin?
Bai Ci abruptly raised her hand and forcefully broke free from her grip. Her eyes were filled with disappointment and chilling dismay, her tone sharp: “Enough, Mother!”
“You occupy a high position, are well-versed in etiquette and law, and have spent half your life abiding by benevolence and morality, yet now you utter such absurd and cold-hearted words.”
“There is no distinction of noble or lowly in human life. Being born in the countryside is not a sin, and a humble background should not be a reason to be sacrificed.”
“As long as she is alive, she has the right to live. No one can callously strip away her life just to fulfill someone else's. Not you, not the Xu family, not anyone!”
Rebuked so harshly once again by her own child, Madame Xu's heart swelled with bitterness. The grievances and regrets accumulated over many years collapsed in an instant, and she could no longer stop her tears from falling like rain.
“It was Mother's fault...”
Had she realized her mistake?
No, she had not.
“It was Mother who made a mistake back then...”
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