Sharing One Life with My Nemesis - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The prison was as damp as the bottom of a well.

I knelt in filthy water, blood dripping steadily from my shoulder.

Xie Huaiyan’s shoulder was bleeding too.

The two wounds were identical. Even the pace of the bleeding looked as if it were being guided by the same invisible hand.

The pain made my vision go black at the edges, but I still gripped the knife with all my strength.

“Xie Huaiyan, what trick are you playing now?”

He raised a hand to press against his wound, and the iron chains binding him rattled.

“Jiang Tingyun, I am currently locked in the death row of the Bureau of Prisons and Punishments, scheduled to be executed at noon tomorrow.”

He looked at me. There was no trace of a smile in his eyes.

“If I had that kind of ability, I would start by moving myself somewhere more comfortable.”

I didn’t believe him.

In my last life, the thirty-seven members of my Jiang Family died in a so-called treason case.

When my father was dragged onto the execution platform, the Northern Di Secret Letter was hanging from his body.

My elder brother died in the Imperial Prison. My mother’s hair turned white overnight. My youngest brother’s body wasn’t even collected in time for a coffin.

And Xie Huaiyan was the one who personally presented the evidence of our crimes before the emperor.

He had once been the student my father trusted most.

He was also the man I had secretly loved when I was seventeen.

Later, after I was sentenced to execution after autumn, he came to see me in prison.

I asked him, “What did the Jiang Family ever do to wrong you?”

He only said one thing. “Tingyun, don’t ask.”

I carried those three words with me to the execution ground.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to three days before my beheading.

I had planned to kill him first, then investigate the old case against the Jiang Family.

But now, when the blade pierced him, I was the one who felt the pain too.

Xie Huaiyan suddenly stood.

His chains dragged across the floor as he walked up to me and reached out to examine my shoulder.

I immediately stepped back.

“Don’t touch me.”

He stopped.

“If you want to live, let me look.”

“I want you dead.”

“Then you will die too.”

It was a very practical statement.

And an extremely punchable one.

Gritting my teeth, I tugged my collar open a little.

Beneath the wound on my shoulder was a hair-thin red line, crawling out of my flesh and blood like a living worm, inching toward my heart.

Xie Huaiyan’s expression darkened completely.

“Three days.”

“What?”

“It only takes three days for the Soulbound Gu to reach the heart.”

His voice was very low.

“Within three days, if the Gu Master dies, the Gu Slave is buried with them. If the Gu Slave dies, the Gu Master cannot live either.”

I gave a cold laugh.

“So you are the Gu Master?”

“No.”

“Then who is?”

He looked at me.

“The person who planted the gu.”

Footsteps sounded outside the cell door.

A jailer approached with a lantern and barked, “Who’s in there?”

Xie Huaiyan suddenly seized my wrist and pulled me behind the wall.

I was about to struggle when he said in a low voice, “If you are caught now, you won’t even make it to the execution ground tomorrow.”

Pressed into the shadows by him, I heard the jailer unlock the door.

Lamplight swept inside.

Xie Huaiyan had already returned to his original spot. His prison robes covered the blood on his shoulder, and his face was as pale as if he had just been tortured.

The jailer glanced at him.

“Lord Xie, you’re on your way tomorrow. Still able to sleep?”

Xie Huaiyan lifted his eyes.

“If I don’t, will you come keep me company?”

The jailer spat and left.

The door was locked again.

I stepped out from behind the wall, my palms slick with cold sweat.

Xie Huaiyan looked at me.

“Where did you get in from?”

I pointed at the ventilation opening in the ceiling.

He was silent for a moment.

“You were always good at climbing.”

I pressed the knife back against his throat.

“Bring up the past again, and I’ll take you down with me right now.”

He lowered his eyes to the blade.

“Fine.”

I froze.

Xie Huaiyan’s voice was very soft.

“But then no one will be left to overturn the Jiang Family Case.”