CHAPTER 199: CHAPTER 198: THE SECRET OF THE BAMBOO GARDEN

"Boom!"

Lin Wanwan, caught in a haze, suddenly heard an explosion near her ear. She instinctively turned her body to the side, then felt a sharp pain in her head. Just as she was about to look back, her head was struck again.

The assailant’s speed and skills were incredibly quick; Lin Wanwan had no time to react.

A warm sensation trickled down from her forehead, flowing into her eyes. Lin Wanwan couldn’t see anything; her head buzzed, and all she saw was red.

"Crash!" She fell heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Gaining freedom, Xiao Yixun coughed fiercely, then suddenly looked up furiously at the Witch who ambushed Lin Wanwan and shouted, "Old witch, who told you to hit her!"

The Witch withdrew her jade platform sheepishly, stepping back in panic as she said to Xiao Yixun, "Hehe, she... she was going to strangle you. I did it to save you."

Xiao Yixun picked up a broken teacup from the ground and hurled it at the Witch, "Even if she strangles me, that’s my choice! What does it have to do with you? You just want to drive me away so your master can return, right? Hmph!"

The Witch closed her eyes and took the hit without dodging; thankfully, Xiao Yixun wasn’t very strong, only managing to bruise the Witch’s head without breaking it.

In the darkness, a silent mute girl knelt, staring intently at the Witch with a fiery impulse to rush up and fight if the Witch dared resist.

"I know you all prefer her, you dislike me. Hehe, but what can you do? Now I’m the one who’s got the upper hand." Xiao Yixun laughed coldly, speaking words that outsiders wouldn’t understand. It was all muddled talk of hers and her own.

But the Witch and the mute girl understood well.

They had been with Xiao Yixun for over ten years, witnessing all sorts of bizarre occurrences, so how could they not comprehend!

Xiao Yixun’s body housed two souls, both with entirely independent thoughts.

One was Xiao Yixun at five years old—back then she was still the apple of her mother’s eye, though she was entirely snow-white and different from ordinary people, her mother still held her and called her baby.

The other was Xiao Yixun at sixteen years old—by then, she had been banished to a foreign land by her biological parents, not allowed to return home. Her parents focused their attention solely on her completely normal brother, never glancing her way again.

On the surface, it was said she went to Lingyin Temple for treatment, but in truth, not a single relative accompanied her. Only a group she’d gathered over the years, abandoned by close kin, and sadly afflicted by Heavenly Defects and Earthly Defects, stayed with her.

These two souls both rejected and depended on each other.

Xiao Yixun, at five years old, loved using poison, naturally sensitive to all kinds of scents and toxins, and possessed the power to control people’s minds, causing illusions. Sixteen-year-old Xiao Yixun loved calculations, had an extraordinary sensitivity to numbers, able to spot mistakes in account books from a glance, leaving all vermin nowhere to hide.

Yet, no matter if she was five or sixteen, both versions of Xiao Yixun were not normal.

"Go carry my mother to the Imperial Concubine Couch; bring the gauze, I want to dress her wounds myself." Five-year-old Xiao Yixun had an unparalleled obsession with her mother, for some reason considering Lin Wanwan her mother.

Maybe it was because Lin Wanwan was the only outsider who didn’t scream in horror upon seeing her.

From the first time Lin Wanwan met Xiao Yixun, there was never fear or disgust in her eyes—instead, there seemed to be pity and compassion. Perhaps it was just this tiny bit of sympathy that fostered an obsession in five-year-old Xiao Yixun.

In the Bamboo Garden, Xiao Yixun was wiping the blood on Lin Wanwan’s forehead with warm water brought by the mute girl. The Witch had struck with lethal force, but if Lin Wanwan’s body hadn’t been transformed by the Space-Time Gate to be as strong as steel, her skull might have shattered with the first blow.

After all, when she was choking Xiao Yixun earlier, she appeared as if she genuinely intended to strangle her.

No matter how eerie Xiao Yixun was, her status was noble; her life was equivalent to the lives of everyone in this courtyard afflicted by Heavenly Defects and Earthly Defects. If Xiao Yixun died, every one of them here would surely be buried with her—including their families.

The Witch did have a cute little grandson! She wasn’t alone—she fled to Jinling with her grandson to escape hardship, using her witchcraft to be invited into the mansion by Xiao Yixun’s mother to treat Xiao Yixun’s illness.

Though the illness wasn’t cured, she still thrived beside Xiao Yixun, living a worry-free life; her grandson even attended school with the mansion’s young master.

Thus, Xiao Yixun’s life was more important than her own. How could she watch helplessly as Lin Wanwan strangled her!

"So strange, mother, why are your hallucinations so different! What elevator, what car, what police, what are they?" After cleaning Lin Wanwan’s wound, applying gauze, and tying a nice knot, Xiao Yixun whispered, looking at her.

Twice poisoning Lin Wanwan, using hypnotism, she heard strange words from Lin Wanwan both times, words she didn’t understand at all, belonging to a world she knew nothing about.

In the Bamboo Garden, Xiao Yixun knelt before the Imperial Concubine Couch, her head resting near Lin Wanwan’s leg, placing her hand in Lin Wanwan’s limp grip, quietly watching her sleeping face.

Outside the Bamboo Garden, Xiao Chong and others had already started heading over.

"Dear nephew, do you really think Wanwan would be in here? The resident here prefers silence and doesn’t associate with Wanwan." Xiao Yan stood behind Xiao Chong, somewhat conflicted.

The resident of the Bamboo Garden had a peculiar temperament; their whole family treated her like a god.

After all, she lived there and gave them a hefty sum every month, more than their own business and farm incomes combined. So even if she was odd, the Xiao Mansion didn’t care—they simply avoided contact.

Xiao Chong looked coldly at the courtyard gate and said, "The trail ends here; inside there must be a highly skilled master. Uncle, knock on the door; if it’s a mistake, I’ll plead for forgiveness."

"It’s not necessary, it’s not necessary," Xiao Yan laughed dryly and then glanced at the servant behind to indicate he should proceed to knock.

The servant hadn’t yet moved when Kun Lun already understood from Xiao Chong’s expression, stepping forward to kick hard and violently, making a hole in the courtyard gate.

Xiao Yan’s mouth twitched, unable to bear seeing it—this brutish Kunlun slave was simply unbearable.

With the courtyard gate opened, a harelip boy glared angrily at Kun Lun and shouted, "Impudent! Who told you to kick the door? Compensate me!"