Chapter 145 | Playing Goddess in a Dying Dynasty

“A'shuo, you're finally back.”

A young woman accompanied by her maid hurried into the main hall, dressed in mourning hemp with a white silk flower in her hair.

Her face was pale, and her eyes were red and slightly swollen. Her chest heaved heavily as she stopped in front of Fang Shuo.

“M-Madam Lan?” Fang Shuo was taken aback.

This Madam Lan was named Lan Yi. Four months ago, the Lan family had forced her into the Fang family to become his father's second wife.

The Lan family was the wealthiest merchant family in Chaoyang City, equal to if not wealthier than the Fang family. The two families were old family friends.

Lan Yi was only a year older than him. Initially, the Lan family had intended to betroth her to him as his fiancée, which had scared him so much that he ran away from home for nearly a month.

Later on.

For some bizarre reason, the Lan family suddenly changed their minds and actually married Lan Yi off to his father.

By the time he ran out of money and returned to the Fang family, Lan Yi had already become his stepmother.

During that time, he always felt that things at home were very strange.

His father was strange, and Lan Yi was strange too.

In short, it was an indescribable sort of weirdness.

Lan Yi raised her hand and dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief. The cloth had been soaked in ginger juice, so the moment it touched her eyes, tears began to flow uncontrollably, making her look absolutely devastated.

“A'shuo, when your father passed, there was no one by his side. I was the first to find him. I called for help, but it was already too late, sob, sob...”

Seeing Lan Yi drawing closer and closer, Fang Shuo instinctively hid behind Cui He and whispered to her, “Senior Sister, this woman is my stepmother. I feel like she has some bad intentions. You have to believe me, my intuition is very accurate.”

Cui He: “...”

Is this guy an idiot?

She was just a child. What was the use of hiding behind her?

Lan Yi's expression stiffened for a moment.

She glanced at the little girl in front of Fang Shuo, then at the Yecheng Academy students waiting outside, and asked despite already knowing the answer, “A'shuo, these people look very unfamiliar. Who are they to you?”

“They are my classmates from Yecheng Academy.”

Realizing that Cui He probably couldn't protect him, Fang Shuo quietly shuffled behind Chen Zhi.

“Madam Lan, how did my father pass away? Why was it that only you were by his side when he died?”

Hearing the suspicion in Fang Shuo's voice, Xu Miao, who was standing nearby, let out a soft sigh. “I can testify for Madam Lan. This matter has absolutely nothing to do with her. It was simply an unfortunate turn of fate.”

“You might not know this, but a month ago, while Governor Fang was discussing city affairs with us, he coughed up blood. The city's medical official diagnosed the Governor with illness from overwork. At the time, the Governor was afraid you would worry, so he gave strict orders forbidding us from telling you.”

Fang Shuo instantly felt a pang of guilt. “Madam Lan, it's my fault. I shouldn't have doubted you blindly.”

“I know that you and your father never truly regarded me as family. It's fine, I've long since gotten used to it.”

“I didn't mean it that way, please don't misunderstand...”

Seeing Fang Shuo's growing guilt, Lan Yi continued, “There is something that I shouldn't be mentioning at a time like this, but if I don't make it clear early on, I'm afraid you might misunderstand again.”

She lowered her head, gently placing her palm over her lower abdomen. Her stomach was slightly protruding, but because of her slender frame and the mourning hemp covering it, it hadn't been very noticeable before. Now that she turned slightly to the side, the curve became quite obvious. “I am pregnant, over three months along. It is your father's...”

“A'shuo, you are going to have a younger brother or sister.”

Hearing this, Cui He stared thoughtfully at Lan Yi's slightly protruding lower abdomen, her brow furrowing slightly.

This was simply too much of a coincidence.

Fang Shuo's eyes widened, his mind buzzing.

What on earth? His father had a posthumous child?

That wasn't right. Didn't his father say he only loved his mother? He had even told him that marrying Lan Yi was solely for the cooperation between the Fang and Lan families. Besides, his father was already in his fifties, could he still...?

However, with the lesson from just now still fresh in his mind,

he only dared to think these thoughts in his head.

“Did my father know?” Fang Shuo choked out after a long pause, finally asking this rather trivial question.

Lan Yi looked at him with red eyes, her tone sorrowful.

“Of course your father knew.”

“A'shuo, I know this is hard for you to accept all at once, but I am indeed carrying your father's flesh and blood in my womb.”

“If you don't believe me, you can ask the servants in the estate, ask Uncle Fu, ask the doctor. They all know about it.”

Fang Shuo looked at the people around him. Seeing them all nod one by one, he had a bit of a breakdown.

“So in the end, you and my dad only hid it from me!”

He was definitely angry, but not at Lan Yi, nor at the fact that he suddenly had a younger sibling out of nowhere. Rather, he was angry that everyone in the Fang family, from top to bottom, had been deceiving him.

His anger overrode his grief. He didn't even offer incense anymore, turning around to host the Yecheng Academy students for dinner.

Of everyone at the table, he ate with the most gusto.

He devoured three large bowls of rice.

Just as he wanted to go for a fourth bowl, Cui He, who was sitting next to him, snatched his bowl away. “How can you only think about eating? Can you use your brain for once? You don't even know you're being plotted against.”

“Ar He is right, Junior Brother Fang. That stepmother of yours indeed has issues.” Seeing that Fang Shuo still looked completely blank, Chen Zhi felt somewhat helpless and decided to tell him bluntly, “She probably wants to use the child in her womb to fight you for the family estate.”

Fang Shuo understood this time. “Oh, so Madam Lan only wants the family estate. I thought she wanted to harm me.”

“If she wants the family estate, she can just tell me. The Fang family doesn't have much money anyway, so wouldn't it be fine if I just gave it all to her?”

In his eyes, the Fang family's modest estate was nothing compared to Yecheng, where every household used glass for their windows.

Cui He: “...”

Chen Zhi: “...”

The other Yecheng Academy students: “...”

An awkward silence stretched out.

Lan Yi walked over and said softly, “A'shuo, I was just discussing with Chief Administrator Xu. The weather is truly too hot, and I fear your father's body cannot withstand it for long. Since you have returned home, why don't we lay the Master to rest tonight?”

Upon hearing this, Cui He and the others immediately sensed something fishy.

Fang Shuo had just arrived home and hadn't even caught his breath yet, and she was already in a rush to hold the funeral? And at night?

They were just about to hint to Fang Shuo when they heard him say, “Yes, yes, yes, let's hurry up and bury my dad.”

Everyone: “...”

There was really no hope for him.

Lan Yi seemed to have long expected Fang Shuo to agree.

“Your father's spirit in heaven will surely be comforted.”

She turned to instruct her maid.

“Go tell the servants to prepare for the funeral procession.”

The funeral procession was prepared in the blink of an eye.

It was unbelievably fast.

White paper money, white funeral banners, white lanterns, and white mourning clothes were all fully prepared, as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.

Supported by her maid, Lan Yi walked at the front, dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief from time to time, her weeping never ceasing.

Dressed in mourning hemp, Fang Shuo kept his head lowered, his eyes red as he held Governor Fang's memorial tablet in his hands.

Xu Miao led several subordinate officials close behind.

The students from Yecheng Academy were also among them.

The large group of people walked down the quiet street in a grand procession.

Handfuls of white paper money were thrown from baskets, swirling down in the night wind and covering the ground in a ghostly white.

The dim light of the lanterns cast long, faint shadows of the crowd, giving the scene an incomparably eerie feeling.

The doors and windows of the commoners' houses along the street were tightly shut, with only an occasional sliver of dim yellow light peeking through the cracks.

No one dared to watch a funeral procession at night.

Just as the procession reached the city gates, the wind suddenly died down.

The flames in the lanterns stopped flickering. The paper money floating in midair froze in place. The steps of the pallbearers were suspended in midair, and the mouth of the man chanting funeral dirges remained open, unable to make a single sound.

Fang Shuo remained in his posture of holding the memorial tablet. Although he was still conscious, he couldn't even lift a single finger.

Everyone was frozen in place.

From the night sky, a voice descended, cold as frost, falling clearly into everyone's ears.

“An immortal reincarnate underwent a trial, yet passed away before completing it. His overwhelming resentment reaches the heavens, and he is accepted by none of the three realms.”