Ex-Wife is a Big Villainess

She turned her head, her gaze falling on Jiang Shouzhong, and softly said, "Perhaps you should ascend the throne."

Jiang Shouzhong heard this and couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly, saying:

"Even you say so, it makes me feel even more that I'm not suitable. It's not that I'm selfish, but governing a country requires sufficient ability and wisdom.

Although I have some good ideas and policies, spreading them is easier said than done, and they can't be verified as suitable. How should I put it? In short, I don't have that capability.

If I were truly to sit on the Emperor's throne, I fear the days for the people would become even harder."

"In your opinion then, who is the most suitable candidate?"

Li Guanshi's eyes flashed with a hint of curiosity.

Jiang Shouzhong pondered for a moment and softly said, "I can't really say for sure, perhaps the Empress Dowager of Yanrong might be a good choice. However, everything still needs time to provide an answer."

Li Guanshi looked up at the sky and murmured, "Yes, everything needs time to be judged."

Another day passed, and the two passed through a village ravaged by war.

Amidst the ruins, a young woman clad in rags, scarred all over, was weeping at the desolation, with several bodies lying beside her, evidently her family.

Beside the woman, there was also a ragged child, huddled helplessly near the mother.

Jiang Shouzhong approached to inquire and found out that the village had been looted by a rebel army from Dazhou, and all household valuables were stolen, with her husband and other family members killed while resisting.

Jiang Shouzhong silently took out some broken silver and food from his bosom and handed them to the woman.

And Li Guanshi, who had always been a cold bystander, made a rare gesture this time.

She silently dismounted, walked to the child's side, and gently placed a thicker cloak from herself onto the child's shivering body.

Jiang Shouzhong saw this scene and said nothing.

If you want Li Guanshi to possess normal human love, you must first let her experience normal human emotions; only then can you stir her normal emotional fluctuations.

To truly become someone who can feel the joys and sorrows of the human world.

This was also why Jiang Shouzhong deliberately chose this refugee path these days.

He hoped to take the woman to see more of the suffering in the world, to enrich her inner emotions a bit.

The most notable change was that in recent days Li Guanshi began to actively discuss these human sufferings with Jiang Shouzhong, her words having less coldness and more compassion.

This is a good sign.

After a few more days, the two passed through a desolate mountain.

The mountain path was narrow, with a few corpses pecked by crows dangling from the dead branches, and from the front came the mournful cries of a woman.

It turned out to be several bandits surrounding a couple amidst the rocks.

The husband, with blood streaming from his forehead, was trampled underfoot.

The woman's clothes were torn, she was unable to resist, being abused by the bandits.

Seeing this, Jiang Shouzhong immediately intervened and dealt with the bandits, rescuing the couple.

As he looked at the couple weeping bitterly clutching their heads, Li Guanshi wanted to say something comforting, but the woman suddenly pushed away her husband and staggered towards the broken blade at Jiang Shouzhong's feet.

Jiang Shouzhong didn't manage to stop her in time, as the sharp blade plunged into the woman's heart.

The husband cradled his still-warm wife, wailing, then tremblingly grabbed the blood-stained blade and slit his own throat.

Blood splattered on Li Guanshi's skirt, blooming like red plum blossoms.

Li Guanshi stood there in a daze.

The daylight slanted in from behind her, gilding her long lashes with a layer of gold, yet it couldn't illuminate the expression shadowed in her face.

In the days that followed, Li Guanshi became even more silent.

The two also witnessed more of human kindness and indifference.

For instance, while taking shelter from the rain in a cave, they saw a lame man push his sickly wife down a dirt slope, shrouded with a grain sack, disappearing into the rain without looking back.

The woman fell in the mud, coughing, tightly clutching a crying baby girl.

Or, for example, at the ferry, refugees surged like a tide onto a precarious wooden bridge, a middle-aged couple struggled for position, ultimately leading the wife to push the husband into the water.

The ugliness and beauty of human nature, the chill and warmth of love... it was all like scenes in a painting, mostly in black and white.

"Jiang Shouzhong, you aren't really a good man, you know."

On a certain day, Jiang Shouzhong and Li Guanshi lay side by side on the grass.

Overhead, the night sky, sparse with stars, was like tiny broken diamonds inlaid on the celestial canopy.

Li Guanshi said this.

Jiang Shouzhong was slightly startled, turned his face, and in the moonlight saw the woman's lashes adorned with a fine silver sheen, he asked, "Why do you say that?"

Li Guanshi replied, "True love cannot accommodate a second person in the heart."

This statement made Jiang Shouzhong's face heat up slightly.

Fortunately, the woman did not embarrass him further on this topic, but rather looked once more at the night sky, softly saying: "To observe objects with the eyes reveals their form, to observe with the heart reveals their essence, if Guanshi knew..."

The woman's words abruptly stopped, as if she had fallen into some inexpressible thoughts.

A gentle breeze swept by, stirring their hair and occasionally tangling a few strands together.

Jiang Shouzhong propped himself up, gently smoothing the strands blown across Li Guanshi's cheek with his hand, and said with a smile, "Where there's Guanshi, there must be me in this world."

Li Guanshi's eyebrows furrowed slightly, then relaxed, and she asked with a smile a curious question, "What if one day I'm really taken to become the village chief's wife, what would you do?"

"What else, I'll take my knife and fight to the end."

Jiang Shouzhong said.

"Aren't you afraid of dying?"

Li Guanshi watched him closely.

Jiang Shouzhong laughed, "Of course I'm scared, but I'm the kind of man who would risk his life for a beauty."

"I see."

Li Guanshi gently pressed her lips together, yet her mouth slightly curved down, revealing a trace of faint melancholy, "Perhaps I should give you..."

The night wind suddenly grew stronger.

It dispersed the latter half of the woman's words.

"What?"

Jiang Shouzhong didn't hear clearly and looked at her in confusion.

Li Guanshi seemed to have figured something out, pinched his nose, and smiled, "Nothing, I just think you're a good man, and my choice was not wrong."

...

The woman's jinx seemed always to be quite effective.

Just the next day, when they were making their way through a remote mountain forest, they unexpectedly encountered a group of mountain bandits.

This group of bandits was not ordinary; they were ruthless types who couldn't make it in the Jianghu and turned to banditry. Each had considerable cultivation and exuded an aura of ferocity.

Upon seeing Li Guanshi's extraordinary demeanor, they immediately had ill intentions.

Luckily, Jiang Shouzhong was quick-witted; before they could approach, he swiftly took out a prepared bag of quicklime from his chest and forcefully scattered it at the bandits.

Then he threw hidden weapons and stones in a flurry.

Amid the chaos, Jiang Shouzhong knocked down a few, grabbed Li Guanshi, and ran desperately, barely escaping the perilous situation.

Even so, his back received a slash.

In the following days, their luck seemed to have reached rock bottom.

If they weren't encountering soldiers ransacking the area, they were running into marauders committing arson, murder, and plunder.

Each time, they had to run for their lives, on the brink of danger, physically and mentally exhausted.

Jiang Shouzhong sustained multiple injuries.

At one point, severely wounded, Jiang Shouzhong held Li Guanshi and jumped into the river, nearly drowning.

It's often said that the easiest way to win a woman's favor is for a hero to save a beauty.

Of course, the hero must be handsome enough.

The repeated acts of protection finally stirred ripples in Li Guanshi's heart.

After another two days of trials and tribulations, the two finally reached Moon Pond.

Jiang Shouzhong had been curious, wondering about the breathtaking scenery of Moon Pond that Li Guanshi kept thinking about. But upon reaching the pond, he found it was merely an ordinary, nearly dry small lake.

"It was here that Jiang Yi and I became good sisters."

Li Guanshi brushed her loose hair behind her ear, her wide sleeve slipping down half an inch, revealing the faint blue veins on her slender white wrist, exuding a unique delicacy and frailty.

The woman gazed quietly at the lake, her eyes filled with water-like tenderness.

Hearing the name Jiang Yi made Jiang Shouzhong pause, inevitably recalling the days they spent together back then.

"You came here..."

Jiang Shouzhong looked at her in confusion, "To seek the sisterly bond you once had?"

Li Guanshi gently shook her head, not answering.

She stretched out her arms, standing quietly by the lake, slowly closing her eyes as if feeling something with her heart.

The wind blew, and her hair fluttered.

The woman's emotions reached their peak at this moment.

After a long time, she turned to gaze at the festering wounds on Jiang Shouzhong's body, a complex look flashing in her eyes.

Li Guanshi suddenly leaned in, the scent of jasmine mixed with gunpowder surrounding Jiang Shouzhong's nose as she softly said, "Tonight, why don't we try it?"

"Try what?"

Jiang Shouzhong didn't understand at first.

But seeing her slowly untying her dress, Jiang Shouzhong held his breath.

At last, Jiang was ready to make his move.