Becoming the Empress: Golden Finger Set Under My Bed

“You can merely live for one year.”

The Bereaved. 𝑓𝘳ℯ𝒆w𝘦𝘣𝙣𝘰ѵ𝘦𝚕.c𝗼𝓶

Did you know its meaning? The one she loved deeply abandoned her, so she turned into a living dead with her heart decaying and her body going numb. Though still alive, she was unable to walk, see, speak, or listen, let alone laughing.

She was put into the coffin and buried under the ground, because everybody thought she was dead. Lying in the small and dark space, she felt that the air disappeared gradually. As breathing became increasingly difficult, she was lost in her past and met her final doom in the end.

Sitting in the carriage with her face ghastly pale, An Rushuang remembered grandma Gu’s frustrated face. Though wrapping herself tightly with the cape, she still couldn’t help shivering.

With a frown, Xiaotao kept the doors tightly closed and the curtain was drawn completely, but she still couldn’t prevent An Rushuang from trembling.

Hong Yu had found out all the clothes available at hand and wrapped them around An Rushuang’s body, but it was also in vain. It seemed that the freezing rain didn’t just pour on her body, but insinuated into her bone. Even the most fiercely burning fire couldn’t drive the chillness away.

They glanced at each other in panic.

Their lady had been like this since she returned from the First Pharmacy. Wrapped herself tightly with the cape, she just ordered, “Go back”, and boarded the wagon at once. No matter what they asked, she just kept silence.

Ye Chengzhi also had no idea what happened to her. In his opinion, given her weakness, An Rushuang must have suffered a serious cold in the icy room. He asked Hong Yu to make her some brown-sugared ginger tea to drive away the chillness in her body. She would recover tomorrow after having a good sleep.

With the horse neighing violently, the wagon hurried forward in the rain. There were rarely people on the street due to the downpour, so they reached the An family’s Mansion very smoothly.

Planning to return to the Eastern Street, Ye Chengzhi intended to borrow a straw rain cape and a bamboo hat from the An family. Hong Yu asked Xiaotao to accompany An Rushuang to Liuxi Pavilion before turning around to scold him with a frown, “Since Miss An has caught a serious disease at the moment, you should take care of her, instead of going back to that dangerous place and put yourself in danger. What if you were kidnapped by the woman in black?”

She couldn’t help feeling frightened when remembering what the woman living next to Ye Chengzhi once said. It was beyond her expectation that this fool actually intended to put his feet into the trap voluntarily!

Frustrated by Hong Yu’s reprimand, Ye Chengzhi nodded after casting a glimpse of An Rushuang’s figure, as well as the heavy rain outside. “All right. I will stay here and wait on Miss An. It was, after all, for the sake of my master that Miss An has fallen ill...”

Thinking of his master whose whereabouts was still unknown, Ye Chengzhi couldn’t help sighing heavily.

Enraged by his listlessness, Hong Yu turned her back on him and set off to Liuxi Pavilion in a hurry. Following her closely at back, Ye Chengzhi murmured, “Where should I live tonight...”

Liuxi Pavilion was a very sophisticated courtyard which presented its utmost beauty in the rain. Though the rain had turned less heavy, the whole courtyard had been washed by the downpour just then. The color of the rockery turned deeper, and ponds scattered around rose a little, too. Colorful fishes played joyfully in the water, producing numerous froths with their bulging mouths.

However, An Rushuang ignored all of these, seemingly to be alienated from the whole world.

Zhao Xiaotao helped An Rushuang cross the little bridge in great discreetness, in case she would fall to the ground. As weak as she was now, God knew what would happen to her if she fell down. It was when An Rushuang arrived at her bedroom in security that Zhao Xiaotao let out a sigh of relief, her clothes already soaked by her sweat.

Silver couldn’t help shouting in surprise when seeing An Rushuang totally wet. “What happened to you, my lady?” She was astonished when touching An Rushuang’s icy skin.

Silver hurried to fetch a clean towel to wipe An Rushuang’s hair, and found a set of clothes for her to change. She even took out a cony cape used in winter in panic.

Zhao Xiaotao filled the warmer with hot water, wrapped it tightly with a cony cover, and stuffed it into An Rushuang’s chill palm.

As for Hong Yu, she was making ginger tea at the kitchen with Ye Chengzhi.

Though An Rushuang was wrapped tightly in the cape with the warmer in her arms, her face was still ghastly pale without a single trace of redness, even paler than the snowy cony.

Luo Qu’s face kept popping up in her mind, and her laughter resounded in her ear. Her words twined her firmly like an inescapable nightmare that snatched the last warmth away from her body. Luo Qu wanted her to turn cold gradually as a corpse, and see herself dying day by day.

How come Luo Qu bore such a great hatred against her? She regreted helping Bian Wen. If she hadn’t tried to save Bian Wen, she would not have met Luo Qu and suffered such a harsh torture...

However, she suddenly realized that she did it all for herself.

What a coincidence that two selfish people winded up meeting each other.

An Rushuang’s pale lips curled slightly in full irony. Since she was poisoned by the Bereaved, she wanted to see who on earth could send her, who had died twice, into the coffin again!

She treasured her life much more after the resurgence. One year? Ha-ha...

Her body turned warm gradually, perhaps, because she had regained some strength. But it was just temporary. She could feel the warmth was engulfed step by step by the chillness in her bone.

“...My lady, please take a sip!” Hong Yu was sitting before her with a small celadon bowl, spicy puff mixed with some sweetness rising from within, pungent enough to irritate her nose.

Seeing An Rushuang regain her consciousness, Hong Yu, with her eyes bloodshot, spared no effort to persuade Miss An to take the ginger tea. “My lady, Doctor Ye said you have caught a serious cold. You must take the ginger tea to drive the evil spirit...well...coldness away from your body. Otherwise, your health will be worsened badly! Take this, please!” 𝒇𝘳ℯℯ𝚠𝙚𝑏𝗻𝑜ѵ𝑒𝙡.co𝑚

An Rushuang asked with a frown, “What’s this?” She suddenly found her tongue would move. Though she couldn’t speak clearly, it was much better than getting numb all over.

A person seemed to be frozen finally melted, and could move freely as flowing water.

Busy with igniting the charcoals within the censer, Xiaotao cut in with sweat dripping down from her face, “Please take it, my lady. You have no idea how much time Hong Yu had spent in cooking the ginger tea, as if she had to make dishes for a grand feast.”

An Rushuang couldn’t help chuckling. She took the small bowl with her slightly numb hands and sipped it. With the ginger tea brewed by some unknown herbal medicines in her mouth, An Rushuang frowned heavily at its strange taste.

However, under Hong Yu’s attentive gaze, she had to gobble down the awful liquid whose pungency was irritating enough to make her shed tears.

Even so, she still felt much better than being numb all over. To her, it was none other than a hellish torture.