Coming Kingly Son-in-Law: Don't Provoke the First Daughter - Chapter 138

Chapter 138 Their Past

Shen Qianshan must have forgiven her, or he wouldn’t have released her. Once Gu Qiang was gone, she could have Shen Qianshan all to herself.

Gu Qiang looked at this woman, whose hair was tied neatly behind her head, and clean clothes made of the most expensive silks in the capital. These shops only provided goods to the imperial family, and their prices were astonishingly high.

Smelling the same as the fragrance left in the room where Gu Qiang slept, she must have been the one living there before. No wonder this woman showed up outside her window in the middle of the night, it was her room.

Well, it was only about a room. As someone aloof with the world, Gu Qiang didn’t mind letting her take it back.

But why would Shen Qianshan let her dwell in this woman’s room?

According to the instructions left by her future self in the diary, Sun Linhua was the one who killed her child. How could this woman be so powerful that she was even able to kill her child?

Was there anything between her and Shen Qianshan…

Miscarriages caused by the storm of jealousy among women for men were never strange in the imperial palace. As a noble lady from the capital, Gu Qiang couldn’t be more familiar with it.

A picture of her future self scraping with Sun Linhua suddenly appeared in her mind. If that was real, Shen Qianshan must have cherished some special feelings for this woman as well.

To be honest, her love for Shen Qianshan was not very strong. But if she were destined to marry him… as no one could escape the destiny… she indeed needed to get rid of this woman.

It was not only for her future child, but also for herself, in the future, and at present.

“You know, you should have died,” said Gu Qiang, looking coldly into Sun Linhua’s eyes, which were flickered with joy and complacency. It seemed like she was going to meet her long-parted valentine, who should be having a good dream in his chamber palace at the moment.

But her eyes got sharpened after she heard Gu Qiang’s words, and her smile vanished. “Gu Qiang, don’t think my master truly loves you. His heart has been broken by women since he was young. Do you think you have the ability to change his mind? You are not even qualified.”

Her voice was a bit hoarse. Apparently, she knew a lot about Shen Qianshan’s past.

But what happened in the past would only grow more unimportant, and gradually fade away over time. Those who clung to it would only hurt themselves.

“So you are the one that deserves to be loved and trusted by him again?” asked Gu Qiang, thinking she had heard a big joke.

Was she the only one who could cure Shen Qianshan’s heart? Nobody could control the feelings of love.

“That’s right. I was brought up by him and trained into the kind of woman he likes, fierce and intelligent. I am the best of them. I am the first one that gets my own room. People in Xiaoyao Mountain all agree that I am their hostess. Hadn’t been you, I would have been with him by now,” said Sun Linhua.

She remembered how she was at her last gasp by the road at the age of eight.

She was from a desolated village far away from the capital. Due to a severe drought, her family hadn’t reaped a single grain that year, while her three old brothers all needed money to get married. After a whole night’s crying, her old parents had no choice but to sell her who was only eight that year as a child bride for the son of the village head.

Although she was still a child, she knew that there had been several girls sold to the village head’s home as brides already, not for his son but for him, a man of his prime time, because his wife was so weak that she couldn’t give him any baby.

Her parents were only selling her to get some food for exchange.

Young as Sun Linhua, she understood that she could never pay back the love and care she had received from her parents. But still… she chose to run away from home.

Compared with being tortured by that lecherous man and earning food for her parents and brother, she would rather go to live on the streets.

If her parents could be so heartless to abandon her, why couldn’t she do the same?

But on the third day after she left the village, she fainted on her way to the capital due to starvation.

She had never considered finding food would be a problem in the capital, as she could always get some even if it meant to search in the trash. Who would have known that she was starving to death even before she made it to the capital?

Dying there, she squinted and saw the sun was the same big as it had been when she left home. She felt like a fish struggling on land, with her mouth opened so wide to breathe, but there was no air coming in; the feeling of suffocation was spreading across her whole body.

How pathetic! She had never thought her rebellion would end up this way. Destiny was really a mystery.

She didn’t know how long she had been lying there. Finally, there was some sweet water pouring into her body, like a good rain finally falling upon the long-dried land. She felt life come back to her again.

Almost choked by the water, she came back to her senses, and then, she started her service for Shen Qianshan.

Like the girls who believed in romance, she believed in fate. The man who saved her from her suffering must be the one.

It was this piece of memory and her endless illusions that supported her to make it through all these years.

Gu Qiang nodded her head. She knew nothing about Sun Linhua’s past, nor did she have any interest. Life was short, she had to look into the future instead of wasting time shedding tears over the past of others, especially when she had lost her memories.

“You are right, but unfortunately, here I am. Sun Linhua, you should have learned this from the very beginning. Had Shen Qianshan cherished any feelings for you, he would have chosen you without any hesitation no matter how many women like me are around. But he hadn’t,” said Gu Qiang.

She was as calm as still water while she was saying this. And the words were not only said to Sun Linhua but also herself.

Sun Linhua fell into silence. The insects were chirping around them, and the moon was hidden in the clouds. Seeing the sky turning bright in the east, Gu Qiang knew this mountain would wake up in just three hours.

“Qiang, why are you here?” Someone approached, his footsteps were slow and steady.

Shen Qianshan walked out of the darkness, with nobody following him.

This mountain was covered in dead silence, but he was wide awake like a cat.

He had heard them here for long, as he couldn’t fall asleep due to the pain caused by Su Shuangning’s stab.

Actually… It was because Gu Qiang was here in his palace. His drowsiness would completely be gone every time he remembered that she was within his eyesight.

This was the second time she slept over here in Xiaoyao Mountain, which was very different from last time. But something remained the same.

At the sight of Shen Qianshan, Sun Linhua found she lost her breath, like what had happened ten years ago when she was lying on the ground with her eyes half-closed, her dry mouth widely opened, but couldn’t breathe in any air.

For years, he had become the water for her, flowing across her body drop by drop.

“Sun Linhua, do you know why I released you from the water dungeon?” said Shen Qianshan as he walked toward Gu Qiang, blocking the moonlight shining upon her. Gu Qiang quietly tidied her clothes in the darkness; she hadn’t found time to get neatly dressed up after getting off the bed.

Sun Linhua shook her head. She had been in that water dungeon for years. In fact, she couldn’t figure out how long she had been there, as there was only complete darkness. Sometimes, she would stare at the surroundings, counting how many plants were living in it.

Sometimes, she would close her eyes, imaging becoming Shen Qianshan’s wife… There was no end to her grand blueprint. Every time she thought about it, she would be filled with happiness.

The more she dreamed about it, the more likely she took it for real.

“No, I don’t,” replied Sun Linhua.

For a moment, many possibilities swept across her mind. Was he planning to let her be his consort?

She had dreamed of that a thousand times. But Gu Qiang just reminded her that she should wake up from it now. It was this sweet dream that she worked so hard to put up together that supported her to sail through those struggling days and nights. But now, it was broken.

“Go to the Sentence Room and end your life there yourself,” said Shen Qianshan, word by word.

Sun Linhua fell onto the ground at once. She opened her mouth, without saying a word.

She should have expected this instead of turning a blind eye to all the facts.

Then someone walked out of the darkness and dragged her away. It was a long journey. Sun Linhua thought she would cry and yell like what she had done last time, but she didn’t, only in shocking calmness.

The love she had imagined was only wishful thinking.

Around the corner, she shouted back to Shen Qianshan with all her strength, “Shen Qianshan, do you have any feelings for me, even a bit?”

Even a little bit?

“Never!” answered Shen Qianshan, his hands tied behind his back, and his eyes were looking up into the sky. The darks clouds had flown away, revealing the moon hiding behind them, the light of which was now shining upon the ground like water, only much colder.

Feeling quite discouraged, Sun Linhua lost all her strength and stopped struggling.

If she could have a second chance and be sent onto that village head’s bed on that dry day, would her life be any different?

The woman would never defeat the man.

Gu Qiang also looked up into the sky, she felt her heart lightened and become as bright as the moon.

However, there was suddenly a scary and familiar voice reaching her ears from nowhere. She couldn’t help having a shudder the moment she heard it.

“You should take a look at what kind of monster you have become, Gu Qiang.”

She was a monster? She was a monster!

Suddenly, she felt her heart throbbing. Shen Qianshan turned back and saw her was trembling in great pain.

“Qiang, what’s wrong? Anywhere feeling uncomfortable?” asked Shen Qianshan full of worry, the indifference he showed to Sun Linhua disappeared completely.