She panicked. "I-I was just going for a walk. I wasn't getting good sleep so…"

  Jiang Weizhe stayed silent.

  Old Madam became increasingly anxious with his quietness.

  Jiang Weizhe tilted his head. "Lixue said to leave everything on us now. Before she left, she said this, right?"

  Old Madam froze. She looked at him in disbelief. "Y-you you……were listening?"

  He didn't respond.

  "Going to Jiang Shan and sacrificing yourself is not the option."

  It felt as if thunder struck her, and she rooted to her place. "J-Jiang Shan?" She wiped her forehead. "What are you saying, Weizhe? Why are you suddenly bringing him up? Don't you know that he is dead?"

  "Jiang Shan is alive, isn't he?"

  She clenched the stick in her palm.

  "Everything that you did to us until now was under his pressure, right? He doesn't want any of us to live a happy life. He just doesn't want to snatch the Underworld from Wei, but he wants to finish Jiang Zemin's family completely. Jiang Zemin killed his family so until every one of us suffers, he will not rest in peace and neither will he let you. Honestly, I would have the same reaction if somebody had attacked my family like Jiang Zemin did to his."

  Old Madam trembled. "Y-you are misunderstanding things."

  "I am not. I think that Jiang Shan must be really angry now seeing the changes in the supposed "Jiang" family. Xiurang got a divorce, Ruiling is marrying the man she loves, Li's condition is out in the world and he is getting his treatment too and finally, Yubi would get a place in this family too. We have seen how the Jiang siblings were. They won't tolerate such freedom and rights for women because Jiang Shan is still living in the world where he thinks that women are beneath him. Even if he is not the head of the family due to the circumstances, he still doesn't want the traditions in the Jiang family to disappear. Everything should happen just as he wants and through you."

  Old Madam tried hard not to cry, but the tears betrayed her.

  "But ever since Lixue entered this family, everything has been going haywire for him. The problems and walls that he built for years started to crumble when Lixue took charge of all the affairs. She brought change in this house that he cannot tolerate, and the birthday banquet was the last straw tonight. You knew that there is nothing left to defend yourself anymore. You were supposed to stop Lixue from bringing all these changes, but you failed every time. Maybe you begged him a lot to give you another chance. But with Yubi, there is nothing left anymore. That's why you didn't stop the banquet.

  That's why you confessed everything to Lixue tonight after so many years because you had decided to leave here and ask him to kill you along with Zhao Weisheng. He was letting him live until you were keeping everything in check here."

  Old Madam jerked her head and stared at him, aghast.

  "You thought that he would definitely kill him and this time, you cannot stop it. You cannot give any excuses. So you want to be with him in the last moments when he kills you two."

  Old Madam broke down and was about to collapse on her knees. Weizhe firmly held her arm and supported her. He helped her sit down on the couch.

  She kept on sobbing for a long time in the early morning's silence.

  Jiang Weizhe patted her wrinkly hand. "Lixue thinks that you confessed everything because you felt too tired of dealing with everything alone," his voice was quiet and low, "That is a part of it for sure. But I felt……it has to be more than this. When you were retelling the past to Lixue, it felt to me as if…… I was hearing you talk for the last time. I felt that I would never see you again."

  She bit her lip and her old body quivered.

  He stared at her and slowly lifted her tear-stained face. "Do you really think it would be over if you die?"

  Old Madam's trembling lips slightly parted. "I……I would beg him to leave you alone in exchange for killing me and Weisheng…"

  He faintly smiled. "And you think a man like him will keep his promise?"

  "He-he will……He would leave you all alone if I-"

  Jiang Weizhe shook his head. "Jiang Shan and Jiang Zemin are both cut from the same cloth. They won't leave us until they take their last breath. Death is the only way for freedom against some people. Not our death. Theirs. And an absolutely painful one at that," at the end of his sentence, his voice had turned so frigid and cold that no sane person would want to stay within fifty meters of distance.

  "A man like him will definitely kill you just like that on the way before you could ever get to see Zhao Weisheng for the last time. The whole Jiang family was just a nasty bunch of people. You are wishing to die with the man you love. He would be thrilled to crush that wish."

  Old Madam paled.

  Suddenly, she felt that she really underestimated him too much. Jiang Shan was an extremely cruel man.

  Why did she think that he would entertain her request especially when she had failed?

  Jiang Weizhe placed his hand on top of hers. "You have protected us for all these years. Your children, your grandchildren; you have saved us all. This time, let us save you."

  Old Madam shook hard and her eyes slowly widened. "W-what did you say?"

  Jiang Weizhe smiled.

  "This time, we will protect you. We will bring Dad back to you and this family. We will finally live the way we always wanted. So, this time, don't do anything. For all his tyranny until now, your children and grandchildren will give him the answers now……Mom."