Zheng Shi said expressionlessly: “Nothing you say now will be of any use. Jirong, open your eyes wide and watch clearly how your two precious sons die!”

“Mother, don’t!” Li Chengdao had now been forcibly brought to the threshold, but he still didn’t give up, continuing to plead desperately. Unfortunately, Zheng Shi, devoured by her inner demons, couldn’t listen to his persuasion at all, single-mindedly focused only on how to torture Jirong to revenge the pain she had endured all these years.

At this moment, Jirong, who should have been crying tears of anguish, suddenly became unnaturally calm: “Zheng Guanyin, do you really think you’ve won for certain?”

Zheng Shi said mockingly: “Isn’t that so? Or do you think Li Jiancheng will come to save you? I advise you to abandon that thought. He’s now imprisoned himself, barely able to protect himself – how could he save you!”

Jirong said calmly: “I know His Highness can’t come to save me now, but that doesn’t mean we should just sit and wait for death!”

Before Zheng Shi could understand the meaning of these words, Jirong suddenly ran toward her two sons who had been hung off the ground. Then she did something that caught everyone completely off guard.

Jirong raised the chased-gold hairpin she had been tightly gripping in her hand since before, and forcefully stabbed it into Li Chengzong’s chest, then Li Chengde. As the hairpin was pulled out, blood gushed out with the heart’s contractions, falling on Jirong’s body, making her look like a blood-soaked person, hideous and terrifying!

All this happened too quickly. By the time everyone reacted and wanted to provide medical aid, it was too late – both Li Chengzong and his brother had already breathed their last.

At this moment, everyone finally confirmed one thing… Jirong had personally killed her own two sons!

Zheng Shi came to her senses, staring incredulously at Jirong who was still gripping the hairpin: “Have you gone mad?!”

Jirong slowly turned around. She who had originally only half her face streaming with blood now had her entire face and whole body covered in blood, as if she had just been pulled from a sea of blood. Yet she was still laughing. Even Zheng Shi, seeing her smile, couldn’t help but feel chilled to the bone, especially after seeing her walking toward her while holding the hairpin, which made her face change with horror as she urgently said: “Stop her! Quickly stop her for me!”

Under Zheng Shi’s shouting, Jinxiang and the others suppressed their inner fear and stood in front of Zheng Shi, but not one of them dared to rush forward and snatch the hairpin from Jirong’s hand. When Jirong took a step forward, they retreated a step.

Fortunately, Jirong stopped after walking a few steps, staring fixedly at Zheng Shi: “Yes, I am mad – driven mad by you. If I didn’t kill Chengzong and Chengde now, leaving them to fall into your hands, they would only suffer endless torture, unable to live or die!”

Everyone understood she was telling the truth. Indeed, killing them instantly now was far better than letting them suffer Zheng Shi’s torture. But knowing was one thing, doing was another – especially when what she killed was her own flesh and blood born from ten months of pregnancy.

Jirong laughed coldly: “Zheng Guanyin, didn’t you want to use them to make me suffer? Come on! Come on!”

“You madwoman!” Zheng Shi said with stern exterior but timid interior: “Do you think that by killing them, I have no way to deal with you? I can still whip corpses and feed them to dogs!”

Jirong said indifferently: “It doesn’t matter. After people die, they’re just a pile of rotting flesh. However you want to dispose of them, I don’t care.”

Zheng Shi was choked speechless by her words. Clearly she held all the advantages, yet why did it seem as if Jirong was the one with the upper hand? No, it shouldn’t be like this!

Zheng Shi tried to calm herself down. After glancing at the hairpin gripped in Jirong’s hand, she whispered something in Jinxiang’s ear. Jinxiang looked at Zheng Shi with alarm, and the latter whispered: “Go quickly!”

Jinxiang reluctantly responded, but just as she was unwillingly moving her feet, Jirong suddenly stepped back and said coldly: “Want to come and snatch my hairpin? Hah, I advise you to save yourselves the trouble.”

Seeing that she had seen through their intentions, Zheng Shi said: “I’m also doing this for your own good, not wanting you to die in vain.”

“For my own good?” Jirong sneered repeatedly: “Just now, who was it that kept saying they wanted to revenge themselves on me, who wanted to torture Chengzong and the others to cause pain? It was you! Yet now you say it’s for my own good. Zheng Guanyin, your face is probably thicker than city walls.”

“At most I’ll promise you to spare your life.” Before Zheng Shi finished speaking, Jirong was already scoffing: “Do you think I would believe your words? Zheng Guanyin, I, together with Chengzong and Chengde, will become vengeful ghosts to seek your life. Until you die, we won’t rest!”

This wasn’t the first time Zheng Shi had heard such words, but when they came from Jirong’s mouth, they made her exceptionally afraid. Even though she tried hard to suppress it, her voice still revealed a trace of trembling: “If you dare become a vengeful ghost, I’ll invite Daoist masters to scatter your soul and spirit!”

“Then let’s see whether I’m scattered first, or whether I take your life first!” Having said this, Jirong immediately raised the gold hairpin and stabbed it fiercely into her own chest, not giving anyone a chance to stop her!

Seeing Jirong collapse softly to the ground, Zheng Shi urgently said: “Quickly go get a physician! Don’t let her die!”

Whether she didn’t want Jirong to die so cheaply and quickly, or whether she truly feared Jirong’s vengeful ghost coming to haunt her, even she herself didn’t know. The only thing clear was that she was beginning to regret acting so ruthlessly.

As the servants were preparing to fetch a physician, Jinxiang, who had boldly gone to check Jirong’s breathing, said: “No need to go – Ji Shi is already dead!”

Zheng Shi said urgently: “That’s impossible. She’s a fox spirit – how could she die so easily? You must not have checked carefully.”

Jinxiang shook her head: “Madam, Jirong was just an ordinary person. That hairpin struck right through her heart – there’s no way she could survive!” Seeing Zheng Shi standing there speechless, she sighed and said to the servants standing nearby: “Take all their bodies down and bury them.”

“Don’t bury them!” Zheng Shi suddenly spoke up, then said with a panicked expression: “Burn them all for me! Burn them completely clean – don’t leave even a strand of hair!”

“Madam, you’re…” The servant had only said a few words when Zheng Shi shouted: “Won’t you do as I say? Do you want to die too?!”

Seeing her fierce and menacing appearance, the servants didn’t dare speak further and quickly carried away the bodies of Jirong and her three children. The remaining few people brought water buckets and wiped away the blood all over the floor.

Zheng Shi’s heart jumped with fear whenever she saw that blood. She signaled for Jinxiang to help her outside. After sitting outside for a while, she felt somewhat better. But when night came, she became restless again, because whenever she closed her eyes, she would see the blood-covered figures of Jirong and her three children, stretching out their still-dripping bloody fingers to seek her life, making her unable to sleep night after night.

Zheng Shi was ultimately still afraid. She invited countless monks and Daoist priests, wanting to scatter the souls and spirits of those three “ghosts.” But each time, after those monks and Daoist priests left, she still had nightmares and couldn’t sleep peacefully. Day after day of torment finally caused her mental breakdown, and she became mad and delirious.