Chapter 722 --722

Chapter 722: Chapter-722

They found the delicate, weeping brother-in-law on the ground, his clothes torn, pointing a trembling finger at the original host. ’She... she tried to force herself on me!’ Su Jin had sobbed, burying his beautiful face in his wife’s chest. ’She said if I didn’t submit to her, she would ruin my reputation!’

In a matriarchal society, a woman forcing herself on another woman’s husband—especially her own brother-in-law—was a crime of absolute, unspeakable depravity. It was the ultimate taboo.

The original host had fallen to her knees, begging, crying, and swearing her innocence. But Su Jin had slyly dropped a jade pendant from his sleeve—a pendant that had been stolen from the host’s room days prior—claiming she had tried to force it on him as a token of her disgusting affection. All the evidence was perfectly stacked against her.

The matriarch hadn’t even hesitated. She had ordered the family guards to drag the host into the courtyard and beat her with heavy wooden canes. The original host, frail and terrified, had succumbed to the internal bleeding on the thirty-second strike. They had dragged her corpse into this ruined annex to rot, not realizing a transmigrator had just slipped into the vessel.

Heena opened her eyes. The blinding headache receded, leaving behind a cold, absolute clarity.

She slowly lowered her hand from her temple, the rancid garbage water dripping from her chin.

"Are you deaf as well as shameless?!" Madam Lu spat, throwing the empty wooden bucket onto the floor. It clattered loudly against the wood. "Your sister is demanding I break your legs permanently so you can never crawl near her husband again. If it weren’t for the fact that a death in the estate would bring bad luck before the imperial trade negotiations, I would have let the guards beat you until your bones turned to dust!"

Heena’s dark eyes locked onto the matriarch.

Every instinct in Heena’s soul—the Vanguard Madam, the Black Lotus—screamed at her to move. It would be so easy. A single strike to the throat, a quick twist of the neck, and this arrogant woman would be a corpse on the floor.

But Heena didn’t move. She forcibly restrained the killing intent, forcing her hands to relax at her sides.

She couldn’t touch her. Not yet.

It wasn’t out of some lingering, pathetic sense of filial piety. It was pure, cold calculation. This physical body was currently a wrecked, battered shell; her ribs were fractured, her internal organs were bruised, and she barely had the strength to stand upright. If she killed the matriarch now, in a society where matricide was punished by a grueling execution of a thousand cuts, she wouldn’t have the physical stamina to fight her way out of the estate’s heavily guarded walls. She would be trapped, hunted down by the city guards, and executed before she could even formulate a plan.

More importantly, killing the mother right now was too merciful. It was too fast. It didn’t clear the host’s name, and it didn’t punish the delicate, weeping brother-in-law who had actually orchestrated this entire nightmare just to steal a spice shop.

If Heena was going to burn this house down, she was going to make sure they all felt the flames slowly.

Heena slowly raised a pale, shaking hand and calmly wiped the rotting cabbage leaves from her cheek. She didn’t cower. She didn’t cry. She didn’t beg for forgiveness like the matriarch expected.

Instead, Heena just looked at her.

The expression in Heena’s eyes was so entirely devoid of human emotion, so terrifyingly hollow and predatory, that Madam Lu’s furious rant suddenly died in her throat. The matriarch blinked, a sudden, inexplicable chill washing over her skin. She had come here expecting to see a broken, sobbing wretch.

But the creature standing in the garbage looked like a demon that had just crawled out of a mass grave. The sheer, suffocating aura radiating from the girl was so heavy that the matriarch instinctively took a half-step backward toward the door. ℴ

"Reflect on your sins, you... you beast," Madam Lu stammered, her voice losing its thunderous authority. She quickly turned around, desperate to escape the freezing gaze of her own daughter. "You will stay in here without food or water until you confess to the magistrate in writing!"

The matriarch practically fled the room, slamming the heavy, splintered door shut behind her and loudly sliding the iron deadbolt into place.

The room fell back into a heavy, foul-smelling silence.

"Host..." the System whispered, floating out from under the bed, its blue eyes wide with digital horror as it looked at the garbage covering Heena. "Are... are you okay? Should I run a sterilization protocol?"

Heena looked down at her ruined shift. The smell was atrocious, and the pain in her ribs was a constant, sharp agony.

A slow, terrifying smile stretched across Heena’s face. It was the smile of a predator that had just found a new hunting ground.

"I’m perfectly fine," Heena whispered, her voice echoing in the empty room. "In fact, I am quite excited. It has been a very, very long time since someone dared to frame me."

She turned toward the dull bronze mirror, looking at her blurry, garbage-soaked reflection.

.

.

.

The heavy iron deadbolt of the woodshed slid back less than twenty-four hours later.

​But Heena did not get her grand, bloody showdown in the inner courtyard. There was no dramatic confrontation where she could slowly peel away her brother-in-law’s delicate, weeping facade in front of the matriarch.

​Instead, the Lu family chose the coward’s route.

​Before Heena could even wash the rancid garbage from her skin, four burly female estate guards marched into the shed, hauled her up by her bruised arms, and dragged her straight toward the rear service gates. The matriarch and the legitimate sister, Lu Mei, had clearly calculated the political risks. A public scandal or a sudden death right before the imperial trade negotiations was too messy. It was much easier to simply amputate the rotting limb and sweep the embarrassment out of the house.

​With a violent shove, the guards threw Heena out into the muddy alleyway behind the estate.

​She hit the ground hard, a sharp gasp escaping her lips as her fractured ribs flared with agonizing pain. Before she could push herself up, a small, pathetic linen pouch was tossed over the threshold, landing in the mud beside her with a dull clink. Following it was a single, crumpled piece of parchment.

​"By order of the Matriarch," the lead guard spat, looking down at her with utter contempt. "You are officially stricken from the Lu family registry. Take your miserable allowance and your father’s worthless shop, and never show your face near the main estate again. If you try to return, we have orders to break your legs on sight."

The heavy wooden gates slammed shut, the iron bar dropping into place with a resounding, finalized boom.

​Heena remained in the mud for a moment, the cold drizzle of the capital beginning to fall, washing the worst of the cabbage and grime from her torn white shift.

​"Host!" the System cried out, popping into existence beside her, its digital lion fur drooping miserably in the rain. "This is a disaster! We didn’t even get to fight back! They literally just threw us out like actual trash! We have no resources, no backing, and you are severely injured!"