I Slay Gods and Demons in the Deceit Night - Chapter 19 - 17: One Man Holds the Fort, Darkness Brings Wu Chang

Ning Jiang's father was a famous bridge designer but he was framed and the bridge he designed fell. He couldn't bear what happened and died soon. After his death, Ning Jiang's mother married another man who already had a daughter.

The new family treated Ning Jiang badly. Her stepsister, Mo Lan, even got involved in her relationship on purpose. As a result, her boyfriend betrayed her and Ni Jiang's heart was broken.

Meanwhile, Ning Jiang discovered that what happened to her father might be related to her stepfather or a man, Luo Hanshang, the fiance of her stepsister, who was in power of a huge business empire.

To find out the truth behind her father's case and even take revenge, she set up a trap for Luo Hanshang and attracted him successfully. She helped him solve a big case and won his trust. Then he married her as she planned. As time went by, he fell in love with her and even melted her heart, but she never gave up revealing the truth...

It’s been 11 years since I’ve lived for others and not for me.

The moment I cried out wanting to get away from my exhausting life, I opened my eyes in the body of some Count’s 20-year-old daughter.

Since this happened, I decided to live my life freely as a single woman.

But…

“I need a lady to act as my fake wife for a certain period of time.”

“A contract marriage?”

“The term is one year. When the time is up, I’ll give you divorce with no strings attached.”

The Duke of the Empire whom I had happened to meet at a ball was hitting on me.

Turns out he’s no other than the Emperor’s beloved brother, Duke Scade!

Hold on, it’s just going to end in a clean divorce with no strings attached?

“You should also give me alimony. Give me one of the best lands of the Ducal household with 10 years’ worth of profit.”

“…..What?”

“If you don’t want to do that, then we cannot get married.”

This time I’m going to live a life taking care of the things I need first!

***

“I’ll escort you since it’s late.”

Where to? My bedroom is just around the corner.

“Tonight, I’ll do my best.”

No, I don’t need you to do that.

“Did you just look at that man?”

Excuse me, Duke, you said it’s for a limited time only, so why do you keep obsessing over me?

It was in the middle of the night that the woman who would be the Duchess came to see me.

She said my father and mother died, and my kind uncle became king.

She said it’s not worth it for me, the crown prince, to be living in hiding, too.

“A while ago, Your Highness had been hiding from me. With all due respect, is that for the sake of survival? Just because your parents died doesn’t mean you have no reason to survive. Actually, that fact alone made it all the more reason why you should live. If you die now…”

If I died now?

When I asked her while looking at her eyes, the woman eventually brought out the harsh truth with empathetic eyes.

“It’s like a dog’s death.”

“That’s rude….”

It’s been a long time since I said that. In a short while, he has been treated as a madman and beaten to death just by saying similar things. She loosened her arms that held me and I suddenly stiffened up due to it. Because I thought she might have loosened her arm to hit me. But she didn’t.

She knelt down with one knee in front of me, just like a knight.

“Hastred’s Sarian raised her salutations. May you accept it gladly.”

My first knight is beautiful and kind.

“Are you on my side?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

It was all a lie.

Xu Niannian was reborn in the 1980s and became the most beautiful flower in ten miles around.With three younger brothers at home, her sharp-tongued mother loved her as her life; daughters were golden lumps while sons were just a waste of money.She had thought she would encounter a host of troublemakers, but although there were many, they ended up spoiling her rotten.The stingy grandmother, upon meeting her, would always dig out the best things for her.The acerbic mother, who was scolding her sons just a second ago, would instantly change her expression to a blooming chrysanthemum upon seeing her daughter.Thus, Xu Niannian's goal became to work hard to earn money and keep her quirky family well-fed and chubby.Having obtained the Spiritual Spring by chance, Xu Niannian grew more beautiful every day.When Jin Yu first met Xu Niannian, he only felt that the girl was charming and bewitching, beautiful enough to dazzle him.He had another girl in mind, yet was inexplicably captivated by Xu Niannian's allure, unaware that the one he wished to take responsibility for and the one he liked were the same person.