Chapter Thirty-Four: Willow Frost Punishes Moonlit Bamboo

Liu Shuang'er stepped forward, lowering her voice, "Is Lin Xiaoyue in your room?"

"Mother, how did you know?" Chu Hengyang asked in surprise, though he quickly deduced the answer. "Did you run into my little sister on your way here?"

"Yes," Liu Shuang'er replied, her gaze softening slightly. "I have already sent your sister back to her room to eat and rest."

"That is good." Chu Hengyang felt relieved, but his expression soon turned icy. "Mother, Lin Xiaoyue is indeed in my room. However, I advise you not to enter to check on her right now."

"Oh?" Liu Shuang'er asked, puzzled. "Why is that?"

The sounds echoing from within the room soon provided her with the answer.

"Ah!!!" A piercing, shrill scream erupted—a sound of such profound agony and wailing that it seemed as though she were being tortured by someone.

Chu Hengyang’s eyes remained calm. He had originally intended to use his sixth brother's men to investigate whether Lin Xiaoyue had been sent by someone, but her sudden reaction made it clear that no further investigation was needed. Shortly after his little sister had left, a pungent stench had begun to radiate from Lin Xiaoyue’s body. This odor, mixing with her cloying perfume, fermented into something even more foul and acidic. Before he could even process the sudden stench, Lin Xiaoyue had let out that throat-shredding scream.

Fortunately, he had always disliked having servants hovering around his courtyard, so no one else had heard the commotion. However, the sight of Lin Xiaoyue’s twisted face and the increasingly unbearable smell in the air confirmed a grim reality: the mastermind who had given her the potent aphrodisiac had also poisoned her. As long as her mission remained incomplete, the poison would trigger, subjecting her to torture.

*Hmph.* That was letting her off too easily. He would not let his sixth brother’s men take her to a secret prison; he wanted to torture her himself to avenge the fact that she had nearly ruined his image in his little sister's eyes.

The stench in the room grew so thick that he could no longer bear to stay and stepped outside. Lin Xiaoyue was writhing in agony; he doubted she would even have the strength to escape his room once this bout of poisoning subsided. A faint, imperceptible trace of ruthlessness flickered at the corner of Chu Hengyang’s gentle, sun-warmed face.

Liu Shuang'er understood and chuckled softly. "It seems I no longer need to send anyone to watch her to see if she was sent to our estate by someone else."

"Mother, since she has already been exposed, I suspect we won't be able to get much information out of her," Chu Hengyang said, his lowered eyes hiding a murderous intent. "Do you need me to kill her?"

She had attacked him twice; the first time failed, and the second time had nearly... Recalling what had just happened—the scene of Chu Ying walking in on them twice—the murderous intent in his eyes intensified.

"Hengyang, you know I would not allow that," Liu Shuang'er said.

Chu Hengyang paused and said no more.

His mother and father had always understood their nine children best. The bloodthirsty cruelty buried in his heart could never be hidden from her.

"However..." Liu Shuang'er listened to Lin Xiaoyue’s screams, her graceful face cold and stern. "Even if she was sent by someone else, she has caused you genuine harm. I will not let her off easily."

The screaming in the room gradually subsided. Liu Shuang'er pushed open the door. The stench hit her, causing her to frown slightly, but she did not stop and walked deep into the room.

On the bed, Lin Xiaoyue, having endured a minute of the system’s lightning strike and a penalty of minus 100 favor points, felt only hatred and fury.

*This damned ancient person!*

Not only was she blind to his charms, but because of a younger sister, he had ruthlessly slashed her favor points—all the way from -30 down to -100, where they could no longer drop! This triggered the system’s physical and appearance penalties, and because the system detected she had no way to pay back the debt, it had accelerated the one-minute lightning strike punishment. She had been subjected to such inhumane torture in just one minute!

And the system was useless, too! It hadn't accomplished a single thing for her, only providing shallow detections!

Aching all over and trembling, Lin Xiaoyue saw Liu Shuang'er walking toward her through a veil of cold sweat. The older woman’s eyes were filled with undisguised indifference, and she seemed visibly incensed by the sight of Lin Xiaoyue lying there naked.

*Hmph...* Lin Xiaoyue gasped, curling her lips in a look of arrogance and disdain. So what? Even if she couldn't pretend to be an idiot anymore because of this, so what? Hadn't she still successfully infiltrated the room of this old woman’s beloved son and exposed her skin to him? Hadn't she ultimately won?

She was just an old woman over forty; did she really think she could fight her? She was a transmigrator from the modern era, and she possessed a system! What did they have to compare with her?

The malicious, surging smile on Lin Xiaoyue’s face only made Liu Shuang'er angrier. Her younger daughter had only said that Lin Xiaoyue was in Hengyang’s room. She hadn't known that she was in there like this—completely unclad! If any outsiders had been present, wouldn't Hengyang’s reputation have been ruined?! Now that she thought about it, her daughter must have walked in on the scene of Lin Xiaoyue shamelessly seducing her eldest brother.

The chill in Liu Shuang'er’s eyes deepened. It seemed her measures and plans to deal with this girl were truly timely.

"If you don't want to die, get up," Liu Shuang'er said coldly.

Lin Xiaoyue struggled to breathe. Her fair skin had turned somewhat dark due to the system’s punishment, and her facial features had become coarser, making her look like someone who had spent decades working in a mine.

*Heh.* This old woman certainly had a big mouth! "If you don't want to die, get up"? *Bah!* Did she, an ancient person, think she could kill her, a person of destiny who possessed a system?

However... she still needed to conquer her eight sons, raise her appearance value, and obtain more items from the system so she could beguile other men—even those of the imperial family. Only then, with the help of their "love" and "obsession," could she pick any man to be the emperor and seat herself on the throne as Empress. Since the old woman said so, she would just pretend to comply.

"Yes, Madam~" The moment the words left her lips, Lin Xiaoyue’s face turned ghastly. Where was her soft, cute, doll-like voice? Why had it turned into a croaking, duck-like rasp?!

Lin Xiaoyue’s expression twisted further. The system’s punishment hadn't just left her smelling like a decade of rotting trash and blackened her skin—it had ruined her voice too?! Lin Xiaoyue was furious to the point of death. It was all that ancient woman’s fault! She was the one who had reduced her to this state! Lin Xiaoyue gritted her teeth.

Liu Shuang'er did not care about her inner turmoil. She merely looked at her altered appearance and said, "The taste of the poison taking effect is not pleasant, is it?"

Lin Xiaoyue’s eyes were filled with confusion. What was this old woman talking about?