Chapter 1 The Ruthless Husband 1

• I woke up at 1 am. This had been the 7th day.
• In my dream, there was a pair of icy hands caressing my body.
• There was a chilly air of lust around my ears, and my body became terribly limp and numb...
• However, no matter how terrified I was, my body was immobilized. The one and only thing I could do was to accept what came in me over and over again in my darkest fear.
• As my consciousness faded, there was a deep, cold voice that resounded in my ear, "Don't be afraid. It won't take long."
• .......
• The never-ending torment almost made me almost pass out from pain.
• Before my mind sunk into madness, I heard a faint sigh.
• That was just the beginning and I didn't know when it will end...
• My name is Qingxiao, Guan Qingxiao. A daughter from the Guan family and at the same time –
• An offering.
• Ever since that day, I would relive that horrid in my dream from time to time. And the pain I experienced would last even after I woke up.
• Father said it was a blood pact. A contract formed between my blood and a phantom. As the term suggested, it was a ghost from the underworld.
• My family was a tad bit different from ordinary. We were on the margins of ordinary people and normal society.
• We have teachers at home, or fortune tellers, forensic doctors, undertaker, coffin makers etcetera.
• My father was the eldest in line, and he inherited our ancestral business – A medium sized antique store.
• He would be collecting some ancient totems and stuffs that had ties to the netherworld and resell it to needy people.
• The Guan family, our family name, had the same pronunciation with the Coffin family in our language.
• I'd even suspect that my great grandfather was someone who climbed out from his tomb and so he caused our family to bear that cursed name.
• And I, was the most cursed one.
• The year I was born, our family experienced occult events. Many family members died in mystery and most of them were our family's pillars and bread winners.
• My great grandfather said that our family had been dealing with the netherworld for too long and we had disrupted the balance from the other side. And thus, it was nothing but payback time.
• The day I was born, the sky was pitch black darkness with lightnings and thunders. The Yin and Yang energy were disrupted and my mother's waters broke in the middle of the night. Our house was not far away from the city hospital but the storm caused a landslide. The natural disaster demolished a big bridge that was a few centuries old and my fate was surrendered to the gods.
• Fortunately, my nana was experienced. When I came out in cries, my great grandfather found a blood jade ring on the ancestral desk at home.
• The ring was illuminating a blood red light. It looked as if it was made by solidified blood and no one knew where it came from.
• Great grandfather shook his head, sighed and said nothing.
• When I was16, I was led to the 'bed' in the cellar under my ancestral house.
• Everyone in the family knew that the cellar was actually an emptied tomb for a prince.
• The cold and hard stone coffin was my wedding bed.
• After the dreadful 'wedding ceremonies', my household was at peace and accidents no longer happened.
• As for me, I continued to be the offering until this day.
• After that night, I became an alien in my own home. My families treated me like a monster and they were fearful and resentful of me. I wore the ring around my neck for 18 years and I was told it was a betrothal gift from the phantom that get nookie with me.
• Traditional posthumous marriage was a wedding between two deceased and everyone thought I would be passing away that night.
• But I survived. Although I fell to a great sick, I still had heartbeats, warmth and a shadow.
• After that, my father brought me to his place from home and I had been living with him and my brother ever since. Everything seemed to be fine on the surface but I was frequently having nightmares.
• My brother was a medical practitioner and he had been pestering me about what happened that night. He was unable to fathom how could a living person do that with a phantom...
• Because of my dreams at night, I was having piercing migraine and day dreaming all the time. And the nightmares never stopped.
• Today, those touches felt exceedingly realistic.
• It didn't feel like a dream anymore. But similar to the night two years ago. Cold to the bone and real.
• "Qingxiao, my wife..."
• He caressed every inch of my body with familiarity. His long fingers explored and examined the most sensitive regions.
• His icy cold palm was lingering between my breast and my abdomen, and then slid in my most private part. The forceful sensation overwhelmed me and my body quivered uncontrollably just like two years ago.
• I felt every millimeters of his fingers and the shame and pain tightened up and shook my body. My reaction was unable to relief any of the agony and my whole body was trembling.
• He was displeased with my reaction and I heard a cold and deep voice resounding in my ear, "...Are you afraid of me?"