After the ghost-hunting master descended the mountain, his fame spread throughout the capital.

"He was grading the students' assignments at the time," Meng Xueyan's voice turned cold, tinged with a hint of disbelief.

Without even raising his head, he said, "Nonsense! Marriage is a union between two families; how dare you, a young lady from a secluded household, interfere? My selection has its reasons. Your mind has been wandering lately; it seems you haven't been copying enough of the 'Instructions for Women'!"

"I kowtowed and cried, begging him to have mercy on my daughter for the rest of her life..." Meng Xueyan closed her eyes, her soul trembling slightly. "He suddenly threw down his pen, and the sound startled me."

He walked up to me, his face filled with a gloom and disappointment I had never seen before…

She gently stroked the spot on her soul's cheek, "and then, slapped me across the face."

The stinging pain of that blow, though it transcended life and death, remains etched in her mind.

"Later, I was locked in the ancestral hall, facing the ancestral tablets day and night, copying the words that taught me to obey and accept my fate."

"My mother came to see me secretly, but she was only shedding tears. She said that my father did it all for the good of the Meng family and for my own sake, and that I should be understanding..."

Meng Xueyan looked into the void, her tone numb, "I watched my mother hesitate, then sigh, and suddenly realized that beneath the magnificent pillars of the Meng family mansion, which everyone praises, lies an ice cave."

"As the wedding day draws near, the guards tighten. I am like a caged bird, watching my wings being trimmed inch by inch, yet I cannot fly out of that small courtyard." Her soul began to drift away, as if about to dissipate with the wind.

"That day, perhaps even the heavens couldn't bear to see it, the guard was drunk... I don't know where I got the strength and determination, but I escaped."

"My heart felt empty, with only one thought: to leave, no matter what, to leave all of this. I ran and ran, through streets and alleys, across fields, and finally arrived at... Sunset Cliff."

Despite its magnificent name, the cliff is actually a dangerous place.

"I stood on the edge of the cliff, below me swirling clouds and mist, the bottom unseen." Meng Xueyan's voice became unusually calm, yet all the more desolate. "Looking back, the direction of Changling City was shrouded in mist."

"I suddenly realized that the answer I'm looking for may never have been in this world."

Her eyes were lifeless. "I didn't hesitate much. I closed my eyes, took a step forward... and when I opened them again, this was it."

Xu Yishuo was already deeply moved and hugged her tightly, "Xueyan! You're so foolish! Now that you've escaped, why are you still thinking about this!"

Meng Xueyan nestled against her and gently shook her head: "Sister Xu, that road has become narrower and narrower since the day Father arranged the marriage, until it reaches the edge of a cliff, where there is no other way out."

"I don't regret jumping, but... I'm sorry to my mother. And I'm sorry to myself. I haven't seen enough of this world yet."

Jiang Dusheng sat quietly to one side, surrounded by the fragrance of sandalwood, her eyes clear and bright.

"Therefore, your soul lingers in the mortal world not because of the earth, but because of your heart. Bound by the unwillingness you dared not utter, bound by the freedom you sought but could not obtain."

"You sought liberation through death, but your soul remains trapped in questioning."

Meng Xueyan looked up in astonishment, as if the deepest knot in her heart, which even she herself could not untangle, was easily pierced by these few words.

Her soul became clearer amidst the smoke of the incense, and the deep sorrow transformed into a burning light in her eyes.

She looked into the void, as if gazing at the study she could never step into again, her voice filled with stubbornness:

"Yes! I...I want to ask him again, after I jumped off the cliff, when he saw my cold body, did he...feel even a trace of regret?"

"I love poetry and books, and I have also read my brother's travelogues and geographical maps that he kept in the classics and histories."

"Sister Xu, do you know? The book says there are fairy mountains overseas, exotic countries in the Western Regions, flowers that never fade in the Southern Frontier, and boundless grasslands in the Northern Desert... When I read those words, my heart flew away with them."

Meng Xueyan gently raised her hand, her transparent fingertips seemingly wanting to touch those imagined scenes:

"I want to know what kind of mindset the author of the book, who described the vastness of the world, truly had."

"Is a woman's life destined to be confined to a small courtyard, with only her embroidery frame, dressing table, husband, and children in her eyes?"

"Are the books we've read and the principles we've learned destined to become mere embellishments in casual conversations or distant backgrounds when teaching our children?"

Her questioning wasn't a roar, but a quiet one that was heartbreaking.

Even Wang Dazhuang, who was floating to the side, nodded as if he understood.

He scratched his paper head, and his rough voice couldn't help but interject, tinged with curiosity:

"Then...how did your father find out you jumped off the cliff?"

Meng Xueyan said softly, "I'm not fast, they caught up with me very quickly."

"As I stood on the edge of the cliff, I could already hear the terrified shouts and chaotic footsteps of the servants behind me, growing ever closer. I turned back for one last look..."

She paused, her voice barely a sigh, "They saw me turn around and jump off the cliff."

The room was completely silent, as if one could still hear the screams from that day and the sound of the wind at the edge of the cliff.

"After my death, my obsession lingered, my soul was in a daze, yet it instinctively drifted back to Changling, back to the Meng family," Meng Xueyan continued, her tone tinged with numbness.

"I saw my body being carried back, covered with a white sheet, and placed in the courtyard where I lived."

Her gaze was unfocused, as if she had returned to that day...

Madam Meng once threw herself onto that cold body, weeping uncontrollably, and fainted several times.

She couldn't believe that in just half a day, she would be separated from her daughter by death.

She gripped Meng Xueyan's icy hand tightly, calling Meng Xueyan's name again and again, each word dripping with anguish:

"Yan'er, Mother was wrong. Mother shouldn't have listened to your father so much. Mother should have protected you more..."

A few steps away, Meng Xueyan's father, Meng Qingxi, had his back to the courtyard.

His back was stiff, but his slightly trembling shoulders and his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white revealed that he was not entirely indifferent deep down.

He never stepped into the courtyard, nor did he go to see his daughter one last time.

Zeng Yanran snapped out of her daze, and her grief instantly turned into anger.

Like a mother beast driven to the brink, she lunged at her husband, her voice sharp and piercing as she questioned him:

"Why drive your daughter to such a desperate situation? Why can't you listen to her feelings?!"

Meng Qingxi remained silent at first, like a repressive wall.

But his wife's cries and questions, like sharp awls, finally pierced through his feigned composure.

Driven to desperation, he roared, "Woman's compassion! What do you know?! Wasn't I doing this for her own good? For the reputation and future of the Meng family?! It's her own fault for being so unreasonable!"

Meng Xueyan imitated Meng Qingxi's tone at the time, and the stubbornness in her words made Xu Yishuo's soul tremble.

Zeng Yanran trembled from his roar, then burst into an even more heart-wrenching cry:

"Reputation? Future? What's the point of all that empty fame now that I've lost my daughter!"

Instead of softening her stance, Meng Qingxi reprimanded him even more harshly:

"Shut up! For the sake of the reputation of the other unmarried daughters of the Meng family's collateral branches, this matter must not be publicized!"

"She accidentally fell off a cliff, did you hear me clearly? She accidentally fell!"