On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

A few days later, at dusk.

The setting sun was like a huge, bloody egg yolk, slowly sinking to the end of the Yangtze River.

The turbid river water and the gray sky were dyed into a sad and gorgeous golden red.

Wang Youde stumbled out of the hellish slum at some point.

He was barefoot, and the dirty official uniform on his body was torn into even more tatters, like a dirty shroud.

His eyes were empty and his face had a strange calmness, like a last glimmer of light.

He walked aimlessly, as if being pulled by an invisible thread, and finally came to the site of the royal residence that once belonged to him but has now turned into a huge ruin.

The carved beams and painted buildings, pavilions, towers, rockery and flowing water of the past... have long since disappeared!

All that was left were broken walls, shattered bricks and tiles, burnt beams and overgrown weeds!

In the afterglow of the setting sun, the ruins looked particularly desolate and dilapidated, like a huge cemetery that had been completely forgotten!

Wang Youde stood blankly in front of the ruins, looking at the shocking scene before him.

A cold wind blew, blowing up the dust and dead leaves on the ground, making a whimpering sound.

Suddenly, his cloudy eyes widened!

The body began to tremble violently!

He seemed to have seen something extremely terrifying!

He saw it! On the ruins! Next to the remaining half of the door lintel with the words "Wang's Residence" engraved on it!

On the burnt foundation of the warm room where his favorite seventh concubine once lived!

At the place where the Luohan bed and Persian carpet used to be placed... he saw it!

He saw Widow Li and her eight-year-old son!

Their bodies were charred black, their skin and flesh were rolled up, like two pieces of burnt charcoal!

Staring at him with those hollow eyes, making a silent accusation!

He saw Zheng Xiucai!

He was lying on a broken bed, with a dagger stuck in his chest (he had falsely accused him of tax evasion and sent someone to assassinate him), and his blood had stained the Analects beneath him red! He was staring at him with resentful eyes!

He saw the tea farmer Zhang Ada, whose legs were broken and tongue was cut off by him!

His mouth was full of blood and he was crawling on the ground in pain, leaving a long trail of blood behind him!

He saw the maid who was forcibly taken into his house and who jumped into a well and died due to the humiliation!

She was soaked all over, her face was pale, with water plants wrapped around her neck, and she was slowly climbing out of the well!

He saw the concubine he had given to the salt merchant as a gift and who had been tortured to death! She was in rags, covered in wounds, and was stretching out her withered hands to him!

He saw all the people he had killed, tortured, and destroyed! They were like demons crawling out of hell! They were so dense! They surrounded him! They stretched out their rotten hands! They wanted to drag him into the endless hell!

"what--!!!!"

Wang Youde let out a howl that was so shrill that it didn't sound like a human voice, like a dying beast!

He held his head tightly with both hands and tore his hair frantically!

The body was shaking violently like a sieve!

The huge fear and the guilt that penetrated deep into his bones were like a cold poisonous snake that completely devoured him in an instant!

"It's not me! It's not me!!" He screamed incoherently, tears streaming down his face. "It's... you who forced me to do this! It's... you who deserve to die!!"

"Forgive me! Forgive me!!" He fell to his knees with a thud and kowtowed madly to the void!

His forehead slammed heavily onto the cold, hard gravel, instantly tearing his skin and flesh apart, blood gushing out! But he was completely unaware!

"Prince... Your Highness! Spare me! Spare me!!" He seemed to see Lin Zhen's cold and ruthless eyes, looking down at him from the void! Like a god judging an ant!

The huge mental shock completely destroyed his last bit of sanity!

He suddenly raised his head, his face covered with blood, tears and dirt, mixed into a hideous and terrifying grimace! A crazy and desperate light burst out of his eyes!

He staggered to his feet and searched through the ruins like a madman!

He pushed aside the rubble and dug through the debris!

Finally, under a pile of burnt charcoal, he found a palm-sized piece of blue and white porcelain fragment with sharp edges and covered in black ash!

That was the remains of the large porcelain plate with the inscription "Fu Shou Shuang Wan" that he had spent five hundred taels of silver to customize from Jingdezhen and placed on the antique shelf in the main hall!

Wang Youde tightly grasped the sharp piece of porcelain. The cold touch and sharp edge made him tremble all over!

He looked down at the porcelain fragments, then looked up at the ruins that buried all his sins and glory, and at the outline of the new city rising from the ground, full of vitality, in the setting sun...

Suddenly, an extremely complex and indescribable light flashed in his eyes - fear, regret, despair, relief... In the end, it turned into a dead silence.

He used all his strength to use the sharp edge of the porcelain to scratch a few words crookedly and in blood on the lining of his dirty official uniform:

"The sin... is... mine..."

Before the blood had dried, he suddenly raised the porcelain shard and, using his last bit of strength, slashed it across his neck!

"Pfft——!"

A barely audible sound!

Warm blood spurted out like a fountain!

Under the golden glow of the setting sun, a sad, beautiful and short red arc was drawn!

Wang Youde's body suddenly stiffened!

Then, it was as if all the bones were pulled out, and he collapsed to the ground!

He stared wide-open, hollow eyes at the sky dyed blood red by the setting sun. The last thing reflected in his pupils was the silhouettes of a few crows circling above the ruins...

Blood gushed out, soaking the soil beneath him and the dirty official uniform with blood words written on it.

The cold wind blew through the ruins, rolling up dust and dead leaves, making a whimpering sound, as if playing the final elegy for this sinful and pitiful soul.

In the distance, towards Huxian New Town, the silhouettes of the harbor cranes were clearly visible in the twilight. Lights in the textile workshops gradually lit up, and the faint sounds of the workers calling off work could be heard...

......

Wang Youde's adobe house, which was emitting a foul smell, was now shrouded in a dead and cold silence.

The early morning sunlight filtered through the dilapidated window frames, sparingly casting a few specks of light, illuminating the shocking pool of blood that had already solidified and turned black, and the body curled up in the pool of blood, already stiff and cold.

Lin Ge'er's small figure, like a frozen stone statue, stood blankly in front of Wang Youde's body.

He didn't know who brought his father's body back, but he knew that the body was cold and stiff.

He was still holding the bowl of turbid cold water in his hand, his little face was pale, his lips were trembling, and his big eyes were filled with extreme fear and confusion.

He had spent the night in a straw hut at the port construction site. He ran back before dawn to bring some food to his father, but saw this hellish scene.

The huge impact made him lose all reaction. He just stared blankly, tears flowing silently, but he couldn't make a sound.

The neighbors were alarmed and gathered around.

Seeing the tragic situation in the house, some people screamed in horror, some covered their mouths and retched, and some showed complicated expressions - there was disgust, pity, but more of it was numbness and a sense of relief that "I am finally free."

In this slum, Wang Youde's name has long been synonymous with evil.

For most people, his death was just one less scourge.

"A sin..."

"It's better to die... to avoid causing harm to others..."

"This child... is so pitiful..."