She screamed as if she’d seen a ghost. “You’re not my Xiao! Who are you?!”
Her reaction was so violent that the child in her womb began thrashing even harder.
Through the skin of her belly, I could make out the tiny shape of a foot.
I lowered my head and looked at my own large, strong hands.
Being a man was great.
I had strength to spare.
“I’m your Xiao, and I’m this child’s father, too.”
I whispered gently, my expression tender.
But my fingers tightened around her throat.
This time, I gave her no chance to speak.
She should have been dead already.
Grace Turner’s pupils dilated as her hands desperately clawed at mine.
At last, they fell limp.
Damn!
So killing someone was that easy.
06
The candlelight flickered violently, casting my shadow on the wall like a demon’s.
I turned back for one last look at Grace Turner.
Her eyes were wide open, horror and resentment still etched in her gaze.
She’d died with her eyes open.
I swung my hand and tipped over the lamp.
The flames immediately caught the embroidered mandarin-duck bed curtains.
Casey Turner was waiting outside the side gate with the carriage.
A flash of surprise crossed his face, but he knew better than to ask questions.
I looked back.
Thick coils of black smoke were already rising from Grace Turner’s courtyard.
“Casey Turner, back to the residence.”
I climbed into the carriage.
Casey Turner lashed the horse with his whip. The stallion whinnied and raced off like the wind.
The Xiao family residence.
The little maid, Casey Cooper, hurried out to greet me.
“My lord, you’re finally back! Madam—”
Before she could finish, porcelain shattered inside the room, followed by a woman’s piercing scream.
I pushed open the door. Inside, everything was in disarray.
“My wife! You’re finally back!”
A figure staggered toward me and threw his arms around me.
It was Xiao Yunji.
No—more precisely, it was Xiao Yunji in my body.
His hair was a mess, and his eyes were wild with panic.
“My wife, what on earth is going on? Why have we switched bodies? Hurry! Find a way to switch back! This is absurd!”
I leaned slightly aside to avoid his reaching hand and replied unhurriedly, “Why should we switch back? I think being a man is pretty great.”
His gaze suddenly fixed on the front of my robe.
As if he’d remembered something horrifying, his voice began to tremble despite himself.
“My wife… where… where have you just come from?”
I slowly curled my lips into a smile.
“Take a guess.”
07
Xiao Yunji’s face turned visibly ashen.
Cold sweat beaded across his forehead.
“My wife, listen to me…”
There was a note of pleading in his voice.
“Then explain!”
I looked at him calmly.
I wanted to hear what other lies he could come up with!
“I… I…”
Xiao Yunji’s lips trembled violently as he tried to defend himself, but it was as if something were lodged in his throat. He couldn’t get a word out.
At last, he struggled and thrashed, then dropped the act.
“Quinn Morgan, you forced my hand!”
He practically screamed in a frenzy.
“How many times did I beg you? If you’d just handed over the gold-mine map, we could have…”
I watched him lose control with a cold laugh.
“How many times have I told you there is no gold-mine map? Why won’t you believe me?”
Xiao Yunji gave a cold laugh, his expression stubborn.
“That line again, Shen Quinn Morgan. After all this, you still want to lie to me?”
“Grace Turner told me herself that your Shen family got rich because of that gold mine! I only wanted a promotion and a better future for you. What did I do wrong?”
He gripped my hand tightly, a strange gleam in his eyes.
“There’s still time! Just hand over the map… The Second Prince promised to make me Minister of Revenue. Quinn Morgan, we can still start over…”
I threw my head back and laughed.
I laughed until my body shook.
I laughed until tears fell.
“Start over?”
I yanked my hand free.
“When you were sneaking around with my younger half-sister, did you think about starting over? When you gave me a drug to make me barren, did you think about starting over? When you slaughtered my whole family, did you think about starting over?”
He avoided my gaze, his voice faltering with guilt.
“You… you know everything?”
“Xiao Yunji, the only way anything can truly start over is if you’re dead.”
My fingers slowly slid down to his throat.
In the afterlife, you can be reunited with your wife and child.”
08
My fingers tightened little by little.
Xiao Yunji’s eyes flew open in terror.
“Quinn Morgan, no… you can’t… kill me…”
He rasped through clenched teeth, his nails digging deep into my wrist.
“Right now… I’m inside… your body…”
I gave a cold laugh.
Then I tightened my grip a little more.
His face turned purple from lack of air.
I leaned close and whispered in his ear.
“Husband, don’t worry. I’ll live very well as you.”
“Quinn Morgan… you’re the only… bloodline… left of the Shen family…”
His voice had dwindled to a hoarse rasp.
Even as he teetered on the brink of death, he kept struggling.
“Can you… bear to let the Shen family… die out?”
I abruptly let go.
Xiao Yunji hit the floor, coughing violently as he curled up.
A moment later, he passed out.
Damn. Pathetic.
I truly wanted to kill him.
But he couldn’t die in my body.
I only wanted him to remember this.
Right now, killing him would be as easy as crushing an ant.
Leaving the room, I instructed Casey Turner.
“Triple the number of guards. Don’t let even a fly get in.”
09
In the study.
I rubbed the space between my eyebrows.
Over the past few days, I’d sought out every renowned physician in the city.
Their answers were all more or less the same.
The effects of the infertility drug had seeped all the way into the marrow of Quinn Morgan’s bones. This body of hers could hold out for, at most, another six months.
Was I really going to have to live out the rest of my life as Xiao Yunji?
No!
I couldn’t accept it!
“My lord, there’s a woman who insists on seeing you. She says… she says she can cure Madam.”
Casey Turner interrupted my train of thought.
These past few days, who knew how many swindlers had come trying to get money out of me with that excuse.
I was about to wave her away when I caught sight of a slender figure standing in the courtyard.
My heart suddenly skipped a beat.
As if compelled by some unseen force, I changed my mind.
“Show her to the front hall.”
The woman had been studying me with a probing gaze ever since she first saw me.
Could she really be one of those fools who only cared about Xiao Yunji’s looks?
I was a little disappointed.
“Looks like you’ve adjusted to this body pretty well.”
She suddenly spoke, her voice cold.
Clang!
The teacup in my hand fell to the floor.
Hot water splashed across the back of my hand, but I didn’t even notice.
I stared into the eyes visible above her veil.
How did she know?
Who was she, really?
“Quinn Morgan, what’s it like being a man?”
She laughed and slowly took off her veil.
The purple jade pendant at her throat stood out, with four words carved into it: “Beloved daughter, Quinn Morgan.”
My breath caught for an instant.
This—
It was unmistakably the birthday gift my father had given me when I turned eight!
My thoughts drifted back to the night of the Lantern Festival when I was eight.
Back then, I’d gotten separated from my father in the crowd.
Panicked, I huddled by the end of a bridge, tears welling in my eyes.
That was when I saw a thin little girl kneeling in the distance in a light dusting of snow.
In front of her lay a straw mat wrapped around a frail, emaciated corpse—a sight of utter misery.
“Here, take this.”
Without hesitation, I took the purple jade pendant from my neck and pressed it into her hand, red from the cold. Then I said earnestly,
“My father says this is worth a lot. Sell it for some money and use it to pay for your family’s funeral.”
Snowflakes settled on her eyelashes.
I can’t remember what she looked like then. I only remember her asking me, “Do you have a wish?”
“I want to become a man.”
I lifted my head and answered seriously.
“Then I could learn the family business from my father openly and protect the Shen family from being bullied by bad people…”
I never imagined that my childish wish would come true.
10
The woman took the pendant from around her neck and solemnly placed it in my hand.
Its icy touch made me shiver.
“My master once told me never to use a soul-transferring spell on a mortal.”
She lowered her eyes, her thick lashes casting shadows across her cheeks.
“But that day, when I saw you among the ruins of the Shen family residence…”
Her words suddenly caught in her throat, as if something were choking her. Her voice trembled too:
“You were holding Mr. Shen’s corpse and sobbing so bitterly. You looked just like I did that year, kneeling in the snow.”
“That’s why I turned out like this…”
My voice trembled too.
She nodded gently, a hint of guilt in her expression.
“Unfortunately, my training is still lacking. This spell only lasts two months.”
Two months!
I clenched the pendant in my hand.
Its edge dug into my skin, making my palm sting, but my heart was overflowing with joy!
That was enough!
That was plenty of time to make Xiao Yunji pay in blood!
I dropped to my knees.
My forehead struck the wooden floor hard.
“My great benefactor, Quinn Morgan will repay your kindness in the next life…”
“Please, don’t!”
Startled by what I’d done, she hurriedly reached out to help me up.
She twisted her sleeves in embarrassment and said softly,
“I may not know much about medicine, but I know a little about poisons and spells. If you trust me, take me to see you.”