After all the excitement Meifeng had been able to experience so far since her reincarnation, she took the opportunity of finally being alone to wash away the layers of dried and uneven makeup in one of the many ponds that littered the grounds until she felt soft skin underneath her touch.
Staring at the water's reflection, which was clouded white now, she was a little surprised and had to admit that Mo Xiemei had a perfect heart shaped face and a good complexion for a crazy person. While Xiemei was a little plain looking compared to the beauties from the other major clans, she was pretty enough to desire a second glance. "Not bad, not bad, but why did you paint your face to look like a ghoul? Is it to cover up this face? It could look a little bit like that of someone deranged if you wanted to." Meifeng murmured under her breath, making faces in the mirroring surface, only to laugh at herself in the process.
Brushing some dirt from her skirt, Wei Meifeng stood up and began planning what she would do now in her predicament. If she really was to do away with the Mo Family while a team of Lan Cultivators were present, her appearance had to stay as someone non-threatening if she was to avoid suspicion and get away without any problem afterwards.
Speaking of her revenge against the Mo Family, she looked again at the deep lacerations on her arm, and she had to surmise that they represented the three main people who had brought Mo Xiemei into believing she had to sacrifice herself to bring Meifeng back to life. Based on what Meifeng had observed so far, she had a pretty good idea who they were, and the world would surely not miss people like them.
Despite the thoughts now running through Meifeng's mind, her main concern wasn't her plans to avenge Mo Xiemei, but instead was the fact the self-sacrificing ritual was supposed to have disappeared from existence after she had died initially. In fact, none of her creations should still be around, yet she had seen both the flags and the ritual were still being used. Nothing was making sense. Even back in her first life, more than once she had heard the whispers that had flown about how anything to do with the Yiling Matriarch was evil. After her death, there was no reason for the clans to allow her creations to remain on this earth and tempt others to follow in her footsteps, so how could Mo Xiemei have performed it?
Instead of debating too heavily on these questions, Meifeng let out a great big yawn and decided that a short cat-nap was just what she needed at this moment, so she found an empty room and curled up against an outside wall, letting her eyes close shut. All of that running beforehand had tired Meifeng out more than she had initially realized, and she surmised her weariness possibly stemmed from returning from the dead; people were not meant to come back after dying after all, so there was the matter of gaining the strength back she had lost in death.
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Finding herself waking up about half an hour later, the parts of the estate that was not swallowed by the night was lit with the warm glow of hanging lanterns that swayed in the gentle breeze. Stretching out rested limbs not unlike a well-rested fox, Meifeng debated on whether she'd wander to see what the kitchens had or if she went ahead and fulfilled Xiemei's revenge on the unsuspecting Mo family, only to remember that now would be the perfect time to see how the disciples from the Lan Gusu Sect and Summoning flags were faring so far. One apple, a few slices of bread, and one cup of fruit wine later that she snatched from the meeting hall, Meifeng found herself in the open back courtyard where black flags could still be seen even in poor lighting against the starless sky.
Suddenly hearing an ominous wet, squelching sound coming from under her left foot, Meifeng followed the trail of dark liquid to see what it was while silently preparing a spell if she needed a quick get-away. As Meifeng rounded one of the larger shrubberies, she peeled back the thick branches and saw a corpse that looked to have had all the liquid rung out of it. Remembering what she had heard about ghastly zombies in the area, Meifeng quickly crouched down to see if it was one of them, but the clothing of the corpse was strangely familiar to her. Thinking back on who the victim could've been, Meifeng finally recalled that she had seen this clothing belonging to none other than Mo Ziyuan!
Wei Meifeng had been planning on learning how the boy had perished by further examining the dead teenager when the bright light of a lantern flashed over her head and the voice belonging to Piggy's servant let out a loud cry. Well, if she had been in his shoes seeing a human being look like a dried-up piece of jerky with a crazy girl crouching over him, she might yell in fright too, but why was he calling her the murderer?
However misunderstood the accusation was, at an almost instantaneous rate, people began pouring out of the other houses like ants out of their nest and into the backyard when they heard the yelling, including Madam Mo. The older woman, while a horrible person to her niece, was still a mother and broke down into tears at the sight of her son's mangled body after shoving her way to the front of the large crowd. Her once neatly styled hair that had been styled with its fine ornaments was now bare of any jewelry with several strands hanging down in her face, which was disheveled with anguish. Nor did she care for her now soiled garments as she kneeled on the muddy ground, holding the dead body as she croaked out another wailing cry.
"Ziyuan, Little-Zi! My poor boy! My only child! Who did this to you!? How could you leave your poor mother like this?" It was as the Madam held tighter onto her son's cold form that she noticed that the rest of his left arm from the elbow down was missing, as if it had been cut off at the joint even though there was no blood to indicate a wound. In her dazed state of sadness and confusion, she recalled what her deranged niece had said just recently.
"If Cousin Ziyuan tries to steal from me again, I'll hurt the arm that touches my things!"
Wei Meifeng, who had been leaning against an adjacent wall from the scene in front of her, could almost see the gears turning in Madam Mo's head as hate-filled eyes turned on her with all the wrath that a grief-stricken mother could possess. Since she hadn't been the one to actually kill the boy, Meifeng didn't react at all as the woman began accusing her of committing the murder, instead examining the body from afar. "You! You killed him!" Mo Ziyuan's lifeless form fell with a heavy thud once Madam Mo had fixed her fury at Meifeng with shaking hatred. "How could you, you ungrateful child?! My son- my son was only a child! Why didn't you die instead!?" Meifeng actually flinched away from Madame Mo's outstretched hands as the manicured fingers went for her throat before being held back, still wailing as she mourned. "Let me go! Let me avenge my son!"
Seeing how the Madam was inconsolable, Lan Yuan tried to verify that the woman's niece had to be innocent, explaining that since the body of her son had been sucked dry, but she didn't believe it. Having noticed something inside the clothing, Meifeng purposefully tripped over the corpse as Madam Mo attacked again, revealing that the boy had been in possession of one of the black flags. Earlier, Meifeng had overheard one of the Lan commenting that they were short one Black-wind flag despite knowing it had been there only a few moments ago. Hearing this, Meifeng had deduced that someone had taken the flag from its place, and that someone had been revealed to be Mo Ziyuan.
Listening to the Madame's cries for her son again, Meifeng looked down at her arm merely to focus her attention elsewhere, but instead she saw that one of the three wounds had lessened to two now. Since Mo Ziyuan was dead now, having carried something that Meifeng had invented, who would be next?
Could their deaths be her fault indirectly as it had been for Mo Ziyuan? The mindless chatter between the others meant nothing to her as she considered this fact; back when she had been alive for the first time, she had never been the direct cause of anyone's death or committed any crimes. The faces of two people smiling at her suddenly flashed behind her eyes, causing her to wince in pain at the quick memory and instead focus on the poor Lan Clan members as the polite Madame was now belittling them for not protecting an innocent child from getting killed.
The Lan clan were always too kind to know how to tell another person to shove off, yet another thing that Meifeng noticed had not changed in this new generation.
Jumping off the ledge she was using as a seat as if in front of a grand play, she walked closer to the group once more and spoke at the Madame. "For shame! Cousin Ziyuan, a child!? How old was he? Seventeen, right? The Masters of Lan told us not to touch the flags, but what did he do? He didn't listen, breaking the seals and snuck out at night. How is Xiemei at fault?"
As the woman began yapping about her son and how she must've set him up by placing the flag on him, or something like that as it was suddenly at this time that Meifeng began hearing a rustling- no, a disturbance in the energy within the courtyard as if something evil was nearby, and the feeling was only getting stronger as if it the movements were made by a snake as it slithered upon its prey.
Despite her best efforts to listen to the sound, the woman's screeching was interfering, so when only a few feet separated them Meifeng finally broke character and told her to shut up. The presence was twenty feet away now.
Ten feet away.
Five, four, three, two, one.
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A/N: Is it just me or is does this chapter feel a little too short? Even after editing over this story to make it better, this just felt it ended too quick. Hope everyone is staying safe out there and avoiding this new covid/flu crud going around again. Don't be shy and let me know how much you are liking these edited chapters I'm doing too! Remember, the more comments I get, the more likely I am to continue updating this on a regular basis.