"Get in there, you wretch!"
A furious shout echoed in the pitch-black night, causing Yuqing Luo to stumble before being roughly thrown into the shed by the mistress of the Yu family. The resounding slam of the door being locked left her in darkness.
Trying to protect her belly, Yuqing Luo hastily felt the closed small door. Her pupils constricted in fear as she cried out, "Mother..."
"Silence! Don't you dare call me mother. You have disgraced yourself, involved in an illicit relationship, and even dragged in a bastard child, utterly humiliating our Yu family. Wait till the master returns tomorrow, you’ll be drowned in the pond."
The voice outside the shed was that of the lady of the Yu family, her tone cold and devoid of any affection. Her eagerness to dispose of her daughter-in-law was palpable, as if Yuqing’s mere presence offended her.
A pond drowning? Yuqing's already pale face now seemed translucent, bloodless. Unbelievable. Since marrying into the Yu family six months ago, she had kept her head down all along, carefully staying out of matters, nearly transparent — yet she still had become someone's obstacle. Time and again, she fell prey to plots and now, even pond drowning awaited her.
"Mother, don’t bother with such a shameless woman. Leave this matter to me to deal with. It's late, you should rest now." A deep male voice rang out from outside the door.
Yuqing looked up sharply. She recognized the voice instantly. Her own husband, Yu Zuolin, who left her on their wedding day for another woman. He certainly picked a time to return. After a six months absence, he brought back a physician only to establish that she was pregnant.
Yuqing gnashed her teeth secretly. The entire situation was odd, especially when Yu Zuolin brought the physician into her room. His expression then was unmistakably malicious.
The voices outside gradually faded. Yuqing's heart skipped a beat as she heard Yu Zuolin's voice again, "Yuqing Luo, I warned you not to covet entering the Yu family. You didn’t heed my advice, and this is the result."
The low, slow words seemed to drift through the cracks of the door. Although spoken softly, to Yuqing, they felt like the chill of severe winter boring into her body. An unexplained shiver ran down her spine.
"I just wanted the physician to find out that you weren't pure. I didn’t expect such a turn of events."
Yuqing's eyes widened, a thought flashing in her mind. She gasped incredulously, "It was you, you designed that night, that man... you sent him, you..."
"Enjoy the night. You're undoubtedly pregnant; whatever the reasons, you won't escape tomorrow's pond drowning. Heh, heheh..." Yu Zuolin gave a sinister chuckle, stood up, took a woman waiting for him in his arms and left with a triumphant look in his eyes.
Yuqing stared blankly, clenching the sleeves of her dress tightly. Everything seemed to spin around, and she abruptly collapsed to the floor.
"Drowning pool. Drowning pool... It had come to this, that her end would be the drowning pool?
What an outcome Yu Qingluo had never expected no matter how much she thought about it.
Who would have thought that Yu Zuolin would be so ruthless? To bring her down from her position as the young lady of the Yu household, he was willing to ruin her reputation and even take her life. What part of such a man looked like the young general? He was no different from street thugs.
With each breath Yu Qingluo drew, the thought of the drowning pool brought on a desolate feeling.
However, no one had expected that the anticipated execution through the drowning pool had not yet taken place. That same night, a sudden bolt of lightning struck the decayed firewood room where Yu Qingluo was. The fire that ensued was fierce, illuminating the entire Yu compound.
Yu Zuolin's room was close by. Upon hearing the news from a servant, he comforted the woman lying beside him, threw on his clothes, and rushed out of the room.
The area surrounding the firewood room was already in chaos. The housekeeper directed the servants to put out the fire. But given the intensity of the fire, how could they extinguish it immediately? Thankfully, the storeroom was isolated; flames weren’t likely to spread to other buildings in the residence.
Upon seeing Yu Zuolin appear, the housekeeper rushed to his side wiping his sweat, and anxiously said, "Young master, the mistress...she's still inside, we should first—"
Before he could finish, Yu Zuolin glanced at him coldly. "Who is the mistress? She is a lowly whore.”
“Yes, yes, the lowly whore...she's still inside. Shouldn’t we unlock the door and let her—”
“Unlock what door?" Yu Zuolin snorted coldly. Looking up at the sky, he noticed that despite the continuous lightning, not a single drop of rain had fallen. With this, his eyes narrowed, the corners of his mouth gradually forming a smile. "This is the heavens not being able to tolerate her any longer, striking her accommodation with lightning. Since that's the case, we must follow fate and prevent the others of the Yu House from suffering."
As he said this, his gaze quietly shifted to the firewood room. Yu Qingluo, inside, was pulling hard on the locked door. She exerted so much force that the door seemed to be on the verge of breaking free. It seemed that given some more time, she could escape.
Observing this, Yu Zuolin's eyebrows knitted tightly. He slightly raised his hand and said to the housekeeper, "Tell the fire-fighters to be careful not to let the fire spread elsewhere. As for the firewood room, it’s beyond saving, don't worry about it.”
The housekeeper lowered his head and replied, "Yes."
Just as he was about to leave, Yu Zuolin called him back, "Find two trustworthy people to seal the door of the firewood room for me."
The butler was taken aback, but he didn't raise any objections, and he turned to leave.
With a low chuckle, Yu Zuolin's gloomy face, under the light of a not too distant fire, seemed exceptionally ominous and cold. It seemed the person struggling on the brink of death inside the firewood room was no different from an ant, his life worth as much as a sheet of paper.
Yet at this moment, Yu Qingluo in the firewood room was still holding onto a sliver of hope. Seeing that the fire hadn't spread to the entryway, she used every last bit of strength to try to pull open the door of the firewood room.
Just as the door showed signs of loosening, a hint of a smile spreading on her face, the sound of 'clink, clink, clink' came from outside.
Yu Qingluo's complexion paled instantly; she understood the situation right away. Her strength drained from her; she could no longer budge the door a single bit.
The fire in the firewood room grew bigger and the heavy smoke quickly blurred Yu Qingluo's vision, making her dizzy. Before long, her consciousness too started to blur. To her already pale, thin face, a layer of black was added.
The noise of the door being sealed continued from outside, and she, choked by the dense smoke, slowly began to lose consciousness, her eyes rolling back, unable to remain awake.
The rats and cockroaches, scared chaotically by the fire inside the room, started jumping all over and scurrying directly over her body, squeaking away into oblivion.
Yu Qingluo thought, being drowned and burned alive were the same. All she could blame was her misfortune of having encountered such a ferocious person...
