Chapter 146: The Shattered Aunt
Gu Fan stood in the center of the quiet pavilion with his arm wrapped securely around Song Yan’s slender waist, effortlessly supporting her weak, trembling body against his broad chest as the terrifying, icy cold of the Yin-Consuming Heart-Rotting Gu violently radiated from her incredibly pale skin.
Song Yan was completely frozen in his embrace, her dark, beautiful eyes Her dark eyes remained fixed on Gu Fan.
Confusion.
Suspicion.
Disbelief.
All three emotions swirled within them.
His gibberish about her brother letting a thief into her bedroom, not stealing, him stealing nothing of it made any sense to her, causing her brow to furrow deeply as she weakly tried to push herself out of his grip but failed entirely since the Qi inside her meridians was completely chaotic and suppressed by the parasite actively eating her dantian.
[Master, Do you want to make her your host? Should I plant the parasite inside of her?]
’No...’ Gu Fan rejected the idea at lightning speed, ’Absolutely not.’
[But master you have already rejected the two ladies at the brothel, and now her. At this rate your cultivation will become slow and stagnant in no time. You need to keep searching for new hosts.]
’I know what I am doing,’ Gu Fan shut the system up. And in the meantime, Song Yan found her voice as well.
"What... what nonsense are you talking about?" Song Yan whispered breathlessly, coughing slightly as a sharp chill wracked her body, "What thief? What does my brother have to do with any of this?"
Gu Fan looked down at her and sighed.
"Madam Song," Gu Fan shook his head, "You claim to be intelligent. Far more intelligent than your nephew."
"Yet somehow..." His gaze drifted toward the jade hairpin resting on the stone table, "...you have spent decades believing the most ridiculous lie imaginable."
Song Yan’s brows furrowed, "What lie?"
Gu Fan’s smile slowly faded, "The lie that anyone in your life ever truly loved you."
Song Yan’s expression instantly darkened, "You are crossing a line."
"Am I?" Gu Fan pointed toward the hairpin, "That worthless piece of glass is fake."
Then he pointed toward the ceiling, "The husband who gave it to you was fake."
Finally, he pointed toward her chest ,"And the tragedy you have carried for all these years?"
"That was all manufactured. Manufactured by someone very close to you. Someone you trusted with your eyes closed."
BOOM!
The words struck Song Yan harder than any tribulation ever could.
"Nonsense," Her voice trembled, "My husband..."
"Your husband was a paid actor," Gu Fan interrupted mercilessly pouring water on her words, "He was hired to make you fall in love with you. He was never yours."
"Did you think you crossing path with him at the most unexpected of places or him finding him when everything and everyone felt against you was all fate?"
"How naive..."
Song Yan’s entire body froze, and a burst of chaotic Qi erupted from her body, "My husband loved me!"
Gu Fan laughed, "Then tell me. If he loved you so much... Why did the Yin-Consuming Heart-Rotting Gu appear shortly after he entered your life? Or should I say, exited your life?"
"Stop!" Song Yan tried to slap him for the blatant disrespect of her husband’s memory, but Gu Fan simply caught her delicate wrist with his free hand and held it firmly against his chest, refusing to let her look away as he dropped the ultimate bomb.
"Decades ago, Song Tianming, your dear older brother feared you... Yes, he did not love you. He feared you."
"Why you must ask," Gu Fan grinned and before she could reply he continued, "Because..."
"You surpassed him in... Talent... Cultivation... And Reputation."
"Something he could not digest."
"No... You are wrong. My brother would never..." Song Yan vehemently tried to retort, but how can Gu Fan let her?
"Well, ask yourself."
"Who benefited the most from your downfall?"
Song Yan’s pupils contracted, "No..."
"Who benefited when your cultivation began to decline?"
"No..."
"Who became Patriarch after your future was destroyed?"
"No..."
"Who has spent decades sitting comfortably upon the seat that should have belonged to you? And you know it. It was yours."
Song Yan’s entire body trembled. The answer was obvious. Way too obvious.
Tears slowly appeared within her eyes.
"No..." Song Yan spoke one last time, but this time the word sounded more like a plea. A plea for Gu Fan to stop. To say it was all a lie..
Unfortunately for her. he wasn’t finished.
"So he did what any reasonable brother with an inferiority complex would do. He drew a plot."
"You see him always fighting with that second elder of yours, don’t you?" Gu Fan smiled as he looked at her, "Well... How should I say... Things are a bit complicated."
"Because the person who helped your brother stage it all was none other that the second elder."
"Your loving brother conspired with the greedy Second Elder to permanently ruin your future," Gu Fan explained coldly, watching the absolute disbelief wash over her pale features, "They deliberately hired a sweet, handsome, sweet-tongued guy to court you, and slowly gain your trust so he could secretly plant that vicious Gu worm inside your body to completely drain your vitality."
"No... you are lying! My brother would never do that, and my husband loved me!" Song Yan hissed angrily, tears of absolute denial welling up in her eyes because she simply refused to accept that her tragic romance was nothing but a cruel political assassination.
"Your husband loved the massive pile of spirit stones they paid him, but since the rogue cultivator couldn’t keep his mouth shut and tried stretching his legs out of the sheets, your brother and the Second Elder quietly murdered the bastard on your wedding night to tie up the loose ends, leaving you to grieve over a cheap glass hairpin while they happily stole the clan’s absolute authority," Gu Fan mocked ruthlessly, completely breaking every single precious memory she had ever held dear as the horrifying logic of his words finally clicked in her highly intelligent mind.
"Let me tell you one thing, Madam Song."
"The man you loved."
"The husband you mourned."
"The memories you treasured."
"They were all tools."
Gu Fan’s voice softened slightly.
"For decades you have been grieving a performance."
And with those final words of his, the final shred of strength left Song Yan.
She completely stopped struggling in his arms, her body going entirely limp as the crushing, agonizing weight of the betrayal crashed into her Dao heart, causing tears to freely spill down her pale cheeks as she realized her entire life of suffering and isolation was orchestrated by the family she trusted with her eyes closed.
But Gu Fan did not console her, comfort her. He had to let her break the shackles of the past to invite him in.
So while Song Yan quietly sobbed against his chest, Gu Fan mentally opened the newly acquired System Shop Beta.
While he sympathized with her a bit, it was also the perfect time to act. He did not want this beauty to suddenly drop dead from the freezing Gu acting up in her veins.
’System... it is time to increase my Harem.’
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