A Fishing-Type Omega Always Wants to Possess Me - Chapter 9

The car practically tore through the curtain of rain, racing back to Shenyuan Estate at the highest possible speed.

Rain hammered madly against the windows. Even the windshield wipers could not clear it quickly enough, leaving her vision blurred.

The instant the car passed through the estate gates, every light in the main building and along the surrounding roads suddenly went out.

The entire estate plunged into darkness so complete that she could not see her own hand in front of her face.

Several suppressed cries of alarm sounded in the distance. Against the violent roar of the rain, they were especially eerie, as though the castle inhabited by the evil dragon in a fairy tale had finally revealed its vicious fangs.

With the rain pouring so heavily, no servant came out to park the car for her.

Yu Mianzhou stopped beside the small white building near the main residence and retrieved an umbrella from the trunk.

Rainwater instantly splashed over her ankles, cold enough to pierce bone.

But when she entered the small white building, the chill grew even stronger, almost seeping into her bones.

The isolation room stood directly opposite the ancestral hall.

Just as expected, its thick wooden door was tightly shut.

Yu Mianzhou did not even need to open her contacts. She went straight to the dial pad and entered the number she knew by heart.

The call connected several seconds later.

Her voice carried the icy chill of the rain.

“Open the door. Don’t make me say it twice.”

Only the faint crackle of static came from the other end.

Jiang Zhi seemed to need two seconds to recognize who was speaking. Her voice was weak and weightless when she finally said:

“You open the door, and then I’ll open mine.”

Both of them knew exactly which door she meant.

The bones of Yu Mianzhou’s hand tightened sharply around the phone.

She gritted her teeth.

“Jiang Zhi, can you act normally for once?”

“I’m really not very normal.”

Jiang Zhi’s voice came in broken fragments, carrying a feverish murmur.

“I’m so hot right now… Is it raining outside? It’s so cold. I feel terrible. Yu Mianzhou, you came back so slowly…”

Her words were already disjointed.

Yu Mianzhou shoved hard against the door once more, but the heavy wooden panel did not move in the slightest.

The chill of her rain-soaked clothing made irritation surge through her.

Suppressing the restlessness churning inside her, she forced several words through her throat.

“Fine. I promise. I’ll open the door, and you open yours.”

The instant she finished speaking, a muffled crash came from inside, as though something had fallen.

Yu Mianzhou’s heart sank sharply, its beat becoming slower and heavier than usual.

But the door was far too thick and heavy to open from the outside.

Within the boundless darkness and deathly silence, she could only wait like a prisoner awaiting judgment, hoping the person inside might grant her the mercy of another sound.

She switched on her phone’s flashlight.

A weak beam illuminated the wooden door before her.

Although they were separated by only a single step, Yu Mianzhou waited for a full two minutes before finally hearing the faint click of the lock opening.

The door had barely opened a crack when a wave of scorching heat struck her face.

Then a soft body toppled directly into her arms.

Her phone hit the floor with a sharp clatter.

The only source of light spun wildly across the ground, stretching and tearing their shadows into fragmented pieces.

The body in Yu Mianzhou’s arms was frighteningly hot.

Behind Jiang Zhi, the isolation room resembled a bottomless black hole capable of swallowing every trace of light and sound.

Even now, the sight of that room left Yu Mianzhou with a deep, terrifying sense of dread.

Yet Jiang Zhi had spent at least a third of her life inside it.

Yu Mianzhou’s lips felt dry, and her voice turned hoarse.

“I’ll take you back to your room.”

“No.”

Jiang Zhi buried her face in the hollow of Yu Mianzhou’s neck. Her voice was soft and heavy with congestion.

“I don’t want to get wet. Not even one drop.”

She curled further into Yu Mianzhou’s arms like a small animal seeking shelter.

“So cold…”

After uttering those two words, Jiang Zhi fell completely still in her embrace.

Yu Mianzhou thought that whenever Jiang Zhi wanted to torment someone, she always had countless methods at her disposal.

And Yu Mianzhou had no other choice.

She bent down to retrieve her fallen phone, lifted Jiang Zhi into her arms, and carried her into the ancestral hall across the corridor.

Jiang Zhi clung tightly around her like waterweed.

Still holding her, Yu Mianzhou managed to light two eternal candle stands.

Dim golden flames flickered and barely dispelled a portion of the cold darkness.

Finally, she sat down on the cushion before the ancestral tablets with Jiang Zhi in her arms.

Only after completing all of that did she call the number from earlier that morning.

Her instructions were brief.

“Bring fever medicine to the ancestral hall.”

Before long, a maid arrived carrying a tray.

When she saw the two of them embracing on the cushion, not the slightest ripple crossed her expression, as though she had expected the scene.

She presented the tray with both hands and said quietly:

“Eldest Young Miss, Second Young Miss, the estate has lost power. The backup generator is also broken, and the repair workers are trapped at the foot of the mountain by the heavy rain. They can’t make it here for the time being.”

The maid paused before adding:

“It will probably take another two hours.”

In other words, they could only remain there for two more hours.

Seeing that it was the same maid who had helped her up in the ancestral hall last time, Yu Mianzhou was not surprised.

There had always been countless eyes watching her and Jiang Zhi inside the Jiang household.

Most of the time, they watched Jiang Zhi.

And Jiang Zhi was obviously not the sort of person who would meekly endure whatever was done to her.

Yu Mianzhou accepted the tray and placed a hand against Jiang Zhi’s forehead.

It was burning hot.

She pushed two pills from the blister pack and brought them to Jiang Zhi’s lips.

Jiang Zhi did not open her mouth.

Her cheeks were flushed red from the fever, and beneath the dim candlelight, she radiated a sickly fragility.

Whether because she felt too unwell or for some other reason, she turned her head slightly, causing the pills to slip from Yu Mianzhou’s fingertips.

“They’re so bitter.”

Her voice was soft and sticky, carrying a tearful note.

“I don’t want them.”

The anger Yu Mianzhou had suppressed inside her chest instantly burned even hotter.

She pushed out two more pills, her voice cold enough to shed fragments of ice.

“Jiang Zhi.”

Jiang Zhi opened her eyes through the haze.

Her shimmering, watery gaze settled upon Yu Mianzhou.

“You’re so fierce… Are you angry with me?”

She asked quietly, with a slightly innocent confusion:

“Why are you angry?”

Why?

Yu Mianzhou nearly laughed from sheer fury.

Jiang Zhi had gone to such lengths to torment herself into this half-dead state, yet she was now asking why Yu Mianzhou was angry?

But Yu Mianzhou could not force out a single one of those words.

“You have to take the medicine now.”

No emotion could be heard in her voice.

Jiang Zhi refused to let the matter go.

Her burning fingers clutched Yu Mianzhou’s sleeve, and she stubbornly asked:

“Don’t forget what you promised me.”

At a time like this—

She was still concerned about that damned door.

The nameless fire rampaged through Yu Mianzhou’s chest, unable to find an outlet, burning until even her organs ached.

She took a deep breath.

“Fine. Take the medicine first.”

She brought the pills to Jiang Zhi’s lips again.

Jiang Zhi looked at her, her gaze reminiscent of mist drifting through a deep alley.

“There’s no water. Do you expect me to swallow them dry?”

Yu Mianzhou fell silent.

Jiang Zhi knew this was how she behaved when her anger had reached its limit.

She had been the same in the past.

Whenever Jiang Zhi teased her too far, Yu Mianzhou would sit without speaking, her entire body radiating an icy warning that kept everyone else away, waiting for Jiang Zhi to come and coax her.

She looked frightening.

But in truth, she was extremely easy to placate.

Sometimes all it took was a kiss.

Sometimes Jiang Zhi did not even need to kiss her. She merely had to crook a finger, and Yu Mianzhou would come over on her own like a puppy, lips already pursed.

So—

How dared such an entertaining Yu Mianzhou go looking for another woman now?

Jiang Zhi’s eyes turned cold for an instant before she finally lowered them.

Her burning, soft lips carried a trace of moisture as they slowly traveled upward from Yu Mianzhou’s palm, like a rising tide.

They brushed across her cool fingertips and finally closed around the pills.

Extreme bitterness instantly exploded across Jiang Zhi’s mouth.

It was so bitter that her entire body curled inward, making her appear even more slender and fragile within Yu Mianzhou’s arms.

The wet heat against her fingers surged through Yu Mianzhou’s entire body like an electric current.

Scalded by the sensation, she jerked her hand back.

Some corner deep inside her soul seemed to begin burning as well.

She pressed her lips together and stopped looking at Jiang Zhi.

Instead, she told the maid beside them:

“Take her back to her room.”

The maid hesitated briefly before answering quietly:

“Second Young Miss, I just finished working. My hands are somewhat dirty.”

Yu Mianzhou tugged at the corner of her mouth and immediately pulled her arm away before standing.

No one could tell whom she was addressing when she said:

“Don’t take her, then. I still have things to do. I’m not idle enough to remain here for two hours.”

After speaking, she truly turned and left.

Her slender, upright figure showed no trace of reluctance and soon vanished beyond the ancestral hall doorway.

The maid watched her leave without trying to stop her.

Only after Yu Mianzhou had completely disappeared did she approach Jiang Zhi and attempt to help her stand.

“Why put yourself through this, Eldest Young Miss?”

The maid sighed, her tone faint and distant.

“Could this truly be more painful than kneeling inside the isolation room?”

The instant those words fell, Jiang Zhi, who had appeared so feverish that she might faint at any moment, slowly straightened her body.

She lifted her head and looked toward the rows of ancestral tablets standing dark and ominous beneath the candlelight.

They were imposing, orderly, and overwhelmingly oppressive.

Yet there was not the slightest reverence in her eyes.

Only a cold, almost deranged flame flickered within them.

She suddenly spoke, her voice hoarse and eerie.

“Tell me—if I set fire to this place, would all the words she said here stop counting?”

A chill ran down the maid’s spine.

She did not dare answer.

Fortunately, Jiang Zhi did not truly attempt it.

She staggered to her feet, slapped away the maid’s hand when she reached out to support her, and walked step by step directly into the violent curtain of rain outside.