Crossing the Palace Fighting Fox Harem

Chapter 417: No Hatred

Ji Anni had heard some of Yun Zhen's stories from Shui Furong. It was said that he had a bad relationship with his father Yang Jingtian, and they almost broke off the father-son relationship several times, just because Yang Jingtian favored his concubine and ignored Yun Zhen's mother. Later, when Yun Zhen's mother was seriously ill and dying, Yang Jingtian only took care of the concubine who had a miscarriage and did not go to see Yun Zhen's mother for the last time.

This incident was the most direct reason for the breakdown in the relationship between Yun Zhen and Yang Jingtian.

Yun Zhen should have told this story with a piercing hatred, but to Ji Anni's surprise, Yun Zhen's tone of resentment was not even as strong as Shui Furong's. I don't know if it was because time has passed so long, the resentment has faded a lot, and only nostalgia remains. It was not until he talked about his mother's death with hatred, and the last moment when she closed her eyes without waiting for Yang Jingtian, that Yun Zhen's calm expression finally showed a trace of pain. His voice became choked, and he could not continue.

"Did you make a contract with the Ghost King in order to avenge your father?" Ji Anni asked.

Otherwise, Yun Zhen wouldn't have specifically talked about the painful events of his childhood.

Unexpectedly, Yun Zhen, such an extraordinary person, was consumed by hatred like all ordinary people.

"I was very young then, so young that even if I felt hatred, I had no ability to retaliate against anyone. So I became more and more unwilling and resentful. After my mother died, the concubine's child was born soon. Looking at the three of them, I even felt that I didn't belong to the Yang family at all... I was dissatisfied with the joy of the birth of the newborn diluting the sadness of my mother's death... I was dissatisfied with the fact that except for me, no one remembered my mother... It was as if my mother had never existed... In that happy family, my mother was deliberately ignored, no one wanted to mention her... No one wanted to see me..." Yun Zhen adjusted his breathing, his eyes were empty, as if he had already fallen into memories.

A year later, Yun Zhen’s younger brother had just turned one year old, and Yun Zhen read the Ghost King’s Contract Law from a banned book.

At this time, Yun Zhen finally saw the hope of revenge. He transferred all his hatred for his father and his mother to his younger brother, and wanted to use the Ghost King's curse to end his brother's life and let his father and his mother taste the pain of losing their loved ones. Yun Zhen, who was still a child, originally had no power to summon the sleeping Ghost King, but perhaps it was fate, or perhaps his hatred was too strong, and he finally succeeded in meeting the Ghost King.

It was called a meeting, but in fact it was just a conversation between souls.

The young Yun Zhen heard the voice of the Ghost King in his mind and agreed to trade his body with the Ghost King, only asking the Ghost King to help him kill his brother.

The Ghost King told him that he needed another blood curse, which would only take effect after forty-nine full-moon nights.

In other words, if I cast the curse tonight, my brother will die four years later (including a leap month).

After the spell takes effect, Yun Zhen's body will belong to the Ghost King. When the Ghost King wakes up one day in the future, Yun Zhen will serve as the Ghost King's body for him to drive - this is the contract between the Ghost King and the devil.

At that time, Yun Zhen had already been overwhelmed by hatred. When he saw the opportunity to avenge his mother, he immediately grabbed it and agreed without thinking too much. The contract was established that night, and Yun Zhen began to calculate the four-year period day by day.

However, he did not expect at that time that four years could make a person mature a lot and change a lot.

I can forget a lot of things, figure out a lot of things, and look at a lot of things lightly...

As the memory of his mother's death faded away and his younger brother grew up, Yun Zhen actually regretted the contract he had made.

No matter how much you hate someone, you shouldn't transfer your hatred to your innocent brother.

However, no one can terminate a contract that has already been initiated.

Yun Zhen could only count the days that passed by, calculating the little life his brother had left...

Four years later, it was finally the last day of my brother's life.

Yun Zhen clearly remembered that it was a sunny day, with no clouds in the sky, and the sky was an intoxicating blue. He sat in the yard uneasily, regretting the contract he made with the Ghost King four years ago. Just then, a kite flew over his head and hung on the tree next to him.

This tree grows against a wall. On this side of the wall is Yunzhen’s yard, and on the other side is a green meadow.

After a while, a little head popped out from the other side of the wall - it was my younger brother.

"Brother." The younger brother's childish voice was very cute, with a bit of coquettishness and begging, "Help me take down the kite?"

The cloud really didn't move.

He was very surprised, surprised that his brother suddenly appeared on the wall, and even more surprised that his brother would take the initiative to talk to him.

The younger brother thought that he was unwilling, so he pouted in disappointment, climbed up the wall and onto the branches, trying to take the kite down by himself.

He finally got the kite, but at that moment, the branch suddenly broke and his body fell from mid-air!

Just as he was about to fall to the ground, Yun Zhen suddenly rushed over and hugged his brother in his arms.

The younger brother was unharmed. He took the kite and walked away happily. Before leaving, he did not forget to thank Yun Zhen: "Thank you, brother."

"Yeah." Yun Zhen nodded.

This was the first and last time the brothers spoke to each other in their lives.

That night, my younger brother died suddenly of unknown cause at the age of five.

Yun Zhen's revenge was very successful. He finally saw the expressions of Yang Jingtian and Xiao Niang who were in agony, and finally made them feel the pain he felt when their mother left five years ago. But he was not happy at all, not satisfied at all, and was even more miserable than Yang Jingtian and Xiao Niang. Seeing his brother's small body being put into the coffin, his heart was more clenched than when he saw his mother close her eyes.

That night, Yun Zhen had a second conversation with the Ghost King.

The ghost king said to him: "I have fulfilled my promise to you, and you must not forget your promise to me. When I wake up in the future, you must offer your body... This is the price for fulfilling the blood curse..."

Yun Zhen didn't want to talk, and used silence to show that he could accept all the requests of the Ghost King.

Then, as if deliberately mocking Yun Zhen, the Ghost King said another thing.

If it weren't for the blood curse four years ago, Yun Zhen's younger brother would have been destined to die at the age of five, from falling from a tree while fetching a kite.

No one expected - not even God - that Yun Zhen would suddenly rush over to save him and change his brother's fate.

Ironically, not long after he saved his brother, he let his brother die from the curse four years ago.

The younger brother who was destined to fall to his death survived, but was killed on the same night by a curse from four years ago.

The person I wanted to kill four years ago, I wanted to save four years later.

This seemed like a joke played by God on Yun Zhen, deliberately punishing him for his ugly hatred.

Yun Zhen was burdened with the sin of murder and suffered from self-blame and remorse for the rest of his life.

More than ten years have passed, and until now, Yun Zhen has not been freed from the regret he felt.

"There can be no hatred..." This was Yun Zhen's deepest feeling after experiencing that incident.

"No matter how much you hate, you can't hate; no matter what happens, you can't hate... As long as you hate, you will be the one who suffers the most; as long as you hate, you will pay a heavy price..."

Yun Zhen closed his eyes, the rotten bones in his shoulders aching. He taught Ji Anni what he had experienced over the past decade.

"My queen... Hatred can indeed kill the person you hate, but at the same time, it will also kill your own conscience and reason... My queen, Yun Zhen does not want you to hate, and does not want you to repeat my mistakes..."

It was only after his brother's death that Yang Jingtian began to pay attention to Yun Zhen again.

However, due to guilt and a deep rift between father and son, Yun Zhen began to avoid everything in the Yang family.

He abandoned his own name, followed Baoer into the palace, and refused to talk to Yang Jingtian or meet his wife. In fact, this was not revenge against Yang Jingtian as others said, but a desire to completely wipe out the past self of the Yang family.

I can’t face my past self, and I can’t face the big mistakes I made…

Just run, run non-stop, thinking that this way I can escape the heart-wrenching regret.

"So that's why you can't accept me as a shikigami?" Ji Anni gradually understood what Yun Zhen had said to her in the past. The problems that she couldn't understand at the beginning were now all solved. He really had something to hide, and he really had his own difficulties. It was she who cruelly forced him to talk about the past that he didn't want to recall, and it was she who tore open his old wounds and caused him to bleed again.

"Yun Zhen, I'm sorry..." Ji Anni hugged him gently, hoping that this would comfort him, "I wouldn't have asked anything if I had known... If I had known I would hear such a story, I would rather you said nothing, I would rather not know anything... Since you have decided to forget, I shouldn't force you to remember..."

Listening to her mumbling self-blame, Yun Zhen couldn't help but comfort her: "It's okay, don't blame the queen, I just wanted to say it myself. I always feel that the time has come... It's time to tell you, after all, you are the key to the resurrection of the Ghost King..."

In the past, only Baoer knew Yun Zhen’s secret, and now Ji Anni is the second one.

"Will the Ghost King really be resurrected?" Ji Anni didn't want to see the future of devastation that Yan Niang described to her.

Yun Zhen shook his head. "Perhaps we shouldn't have pushed Yuan Rong too hard and forced him to fall into the devil's way... Even though he is very dangerous, his goal is to subdue the Ghost King. If we keep him, maybe we can find a way to deal with the Ghost King."

"But if the Demon King really resurrects through your body, does that mean... he must become your enemy?"

As long as she thought about the possibility of becoming an enemy of Yun Zhen, Ji Anni would rather choose not to wake up in her entire life.

If Xue Lan's demonic power does not awaken, the Ghost King's seal will not be released. If the Ghost King's seal is not released, Yun Zhen's body will not be used. But if it really goes so smoothly... what does Yun Zhen's gradually decaying shoulder bone mean? If we let nature take its course and do nothing, will Yun Zhen's condition become more and more serious?

"Yun Zhen...what should I do to help you?"

How can Yun Zhen’s shoulder be restored to its original state?

"My queen, you don't have to be sad... This is the punishment Yun Zhen deserves, it's the price of a life..."