Kill That Transmigrator Woman - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Dongfang Mosang

The Empress Dowager stroked her face, her kindly brows softening with tenderness, a smile lifting the corners of her lips. “Good. From now on, Aijia will be Wanwan’s support. If my precious darling ever runs into something she can’t resolve, just come find Aijia to stand up for you. And if there’s anything you want, don’t hold back—just come ask Aijia for it. If Aijia can bring happiness to her darling, that’s Heaven’s gift to bless Aijia’s later years.”

Wanwan truly looked so much like her Yuanyuan…

Cui Wanwan raised a smile, took one of the Empress Dowager’s hands in both of hers, and gently rested her cheek against it with her head tilted. “Grandmother is so good to me. Wanwan can’t help but want to become spoiled with all this favor.”

The Empress Dowager was amused and burst out laughing, throwing her head back in mirth for quite a while.

The old matron who had accompanied the Empress Dowager for most of her life also smiled at the scene.

Her lady had not laughed this heartily in a very long time.

After chatting with the Empress Dowager, Cui Wanwan was free to wander around the palace at will. The Empress Dowager did not restrain her—in fact, she hoped she would enjoy herself fully.

The imperial palace was very large, but the scenery was mostly similar: red walls, stone tiles, artificial hills and flowing water. These things existed in the Cui Mansion too, just not on the same scale.

After all, when it came to wealth and grandeur, the place where the Son of Heaven lived was naturally far superior.

Spring had not yet arrived, so there were no blooming flowers to see.

Thus, there wasn’t much fun to be had even in the Imperial Garden.

So, wandering aimlessly, Cui Wanwan found herself once again at the Cold Palace.

She had come to the palace in the first place for the sake of her husband from her previous life—Dongfang Mosang.

Halfway there, someone came to inform her that someone from the Cui Mansion had come requesting to see her. Cui Wanwan did not agree and instead instructed the palace servant delivering the message to go back and say she would not receive them.

In truth, she secretly hid in a corner, watching from the shadows beyond the palace walls.

Out on the broad palace road stood both her father and mother.

Judging by the time, it should have been shortly after the morning court ended.

The palace servant delivered her reply, bowed, and left.

Cui Wanwan saw that her parents did not leave right away. Instead, they stood there, gazing off into the distance, as if they refused to leave without seeing her.

She didn’t know how to describe the feelings churning within her. To be honest, she wasn’t even sure what exactly she was feeling.

She couldn’t make sense of those emotions. If she had never been loved by her family from birth, she might have resigned herself to it.

But that wasn’t the case. She had been the treasured jewel in the palms of her parents and older brother, cherished above all.

Until the appearance of Wei Qingyu—ever since she showed up, the people who once loved her inexplicably began to neglect her, speaking of her with increasing criticism, as if everything she did was wrong.

If Wei Qingyu said something was white, then it was white.
Even if she herself said it was black, even if it truly was black—no one would choose to believe her.

Her parents had given her life and flesh, so naturally, Cui Wanwan couldn’t just sever ties with them. She couldn’t do it, and she wasn’t capable of doing it.

The Cui couple waited by the palace path for a long time.

Half an hour passed…

An hour passed…

At last, Madam Cui’s body began to sway, on the verge of collapse.

Master Cui grasped his wife’s hand, sighed helplessly, then turned his head to look ahead. Anger rose in his eyes as he spoke bitterly, “That unfilial wretch, she’s really going to deny her parents over a moment of temper?”

Madam Cui had already been feeling miserable. Hearing this, her tears slid directly down her cheeks.

She only wanted the two sisters to be treated fairly. Yu’er had suffered so much in the past, barely surviving in this world was already a struggle. She felt pity in her heart and thought Wei Qingyu was pitiful, which naturally led her to show a bit more favor.

But why couldn’t Wanwan understand?

If only she were more sensible, she should have known better than to be jealous and quarrel with her elder sister.

“Let’s go,” Master Cui turned around. “Come on, let’s go home. That unfilial thing—next time she returns home, I’ll make sure she’s punished by the family rules. What does she look like? A little girl with such a temper toward her own parents, what an unfilial daughter!”

After they left, Cui Wanwan, who had been hiding in the corner all along, finally loosened the fist she had clenched so tightly between her teeth.

She had been trying hard to suppress her emotions just now, stuffing her fist into her mouth and biting down hard, only then did she manage not to make a single sound.

Her fingers fell limp as she lifted her head to gaze toward the boundless sky.

The girl in the red cloak whispered softly, “You were the ones who were biased first… You were the ones who didn’t want me first…”

———

In a run-down little courtyard, Dongfang Mosang, dressed in worn-out clothing, was drawing water by the well.

He was a prince who was not favored—in fact, it could even be said that the emperor hated and detested him. Thus, there wasn’t a single person attending to him.

No matter what it was, Dongfang Mosang had to do it all by himself.

He washed his own clothes, cooked his own food, and even when his clothes tore, he picked up a stolen needle and thread to mend them little by little on his own.

When Cui Wanwan returned to the broken little house, what she saw was Dongfang Mosang in ragged clothes, rubbing his frostbitten hands.

It was still the familiar face, the familiar brows and eyes, but somehow, it wasn’t quite the same.

This time, she had come in broad daylight, and what she saw was clearer, more detailed.

His clothes were covered in patches, the right sleeve shorter than the left, and on his feet were discarded shoes that didn’t match—two different sizes, and one of them was even a women’s shoe.

No one knew where exactly Dongfang Mosang had sneaked off to pick up such a getup—likely some forgotten, filthy corner.

Even the lowest-ranking palace maids and eunuchs inside this palace were dressed more decently than him, a dignified prince.

Seeing him so pitiful and miserable, Cui Wanwan felt not the slightest trace of pity, instead, she was quite pleased.

Someone like him deserved to be this wretched. Heaven truly had eyes.

Dongfang Mosang was the male lead in Wei Qingyu’s mouth, and he was also Cui Wanwan’s husband in her previous life.

It clearly wasn’t her who forced him to marry her—it was him who did it willingly. He had approached her deliberately to use her, and once she had no more value, he tossed her aside.

Her face had been ruined by the bone-dissolving potion created by Wei Qingyu, but the one who had actually destroyed her face—was him.

It was he who couldn’t bear to see the hands of the woman he loved stained with blood, so he personally ordered someone to disfigure her face.

She never regretted calling that woman a “whore,” and she never regretted taking up a sword to kill her.

Back then, she hated Wei Qingyu too much.

Her reputation was ruined, she bore the scorn of the people, was regarded as a disgrace, the only disgrace in the hundred-year history of the Cui clan. Her family completely abandoned her, her dearest friends hated her, and the man she loved—he despised her even more.

While Wei Qingyu?
She didn’t have to do anything at all, just stand there and smile faintly. With the system’s help, she could take everything from her.

Everyone said Cui Wanwan had gone mad, that she was a lunatic and a vicious woman.

Of course she was mad!

She wanted nothing more than to kill Wei Qingyu.

And later, she did. She went straight for the root.

The final straw that broke her was when her husband cast her aside and turned to marry Wei Qingyu. What came after was her legs being crippled, her hand bones shattered, she could no longer practice martial arts, nor could she play the pipa she loved most.

When affection was deep, he had said he would love her for a lifetime, that he would hold her in the palm of his hand.

And when it all ended, he told her that all his kindness had been for profit, that he never loved her—from beginning to end, it had all been for his own gain.

She had insulted the woman he loved, so he flew into a rage, broke her legs, severed her tendons, and forced her to kneel before Wei Qingyu in repentance.

She went to beg Ling Xun, but Ling Xun loathed her and refused to see her. She wanted to go home, only to realize belatedly that she had long since been cast out of the Cui clan, her name erased from the ancestral records.

She truly hurt then—hurt so much her whole body trembled, hurt until she couldn’t help but sob and wail.

The proud bones of the Cui clan’s legitimate daughter were broken cruelly by the man she loved, crushed into the dust.

On a night of thunder and rain, in the long streets of the capital, she had once crawled along the wet and freezing ground, inch by inch with all her strength—just to find someone to save her.

Even if it was only for a moment of pity.

But there was none.