Volume One Chapter One Burned Alive by My Entire Family

Meng Tingfeng slowly opened her eyes, surrounded by utter darkness.

A heavy scent of blood filled her nostrils. She tried to move, only to discover that her hands and feet were shackled. Every attempt brought the harsh clatter of iron chains.

Her brows and lashes trembled lightly.

Had she been locked up by someone?

She remembered standing vigil before her stepmother’s coffin, when Cheng Cai poured her a cup of tea. How had she fainted so suddenly?

With a grating creak, the door abruptly swung open. Meng Tingfeng squinted, trying to see, but before she could make out who had entered, she was kicked mercilessly in the chest.

Sharp pain radiated from her heart, and tears welled in her eyes.

“Brother, what... what are you doing?”

Meng Yuhong stood with hands on his hips, towering over her, his voice dripping with undisguised disgust.

“You vicious creature, you killed our mother—was that not enough? Now you want to harm my sister? If Master Lu hadn't happened to pass by when my sister was ill, she would surely have died because of you!”

He spat forcefully on her tattered clothes.

“Father kindly took you in, yet you deliberately retaliate against our whole family! Today is the day you die; you’ll accompany my mother in death!”

Meng Tingfeng stared at him in disbelief.

She understood every word, yet when strung together, they made no sense to her.

A few months ago, she’d met an old woman who revealed she was not a mere “dog servant”, but the daughter of the Minister’s household—Meng Tingfeng.

She’d come to the Minister’s residence full of hope, but everyone shunned her.

Her father, after meeting her once, became melancholic, muttering “she looks too much like her” and refused to see her again. When she greeted her stepmother, the woman overturned her cup, scalding Meng Tingfeng’s legs with hot tea and blistering her skin. Even her own brother, born of the same parents, despised her—destroying her room’s decorations and slashing her dresses.

Only the adopted sister was gentle and kind. She helped Meng Tingfeng up when her brother pushed her, and took her shopping for clothes and jewelry.

Knowing she was unwelcome, Meng Tingfeng prayed silently in her room when her stepmother fell gravely ill.

Now, her brother accused her of murdering their stepmother and threatened to kill her here and now.

Ignoring the pain in her chest, Meng Tingfeng cried out in desperation:

“I did not—I did not harm anyone!”

Following Meng Yuhong, their father Meng Lan entered, accompanied by a man in Daoist robes. The priest chanted solemnly:

“This girl carries an eerie aura—she must be possessed by a demon. She must be burned to ashes to root out the evil!”

Meng Lan nodded without emotion, waving his long sleeves.

“We’ll do as the master says.”

He had always put his faith in fortune-telling and divination, trusting Master Lu implicitly.

Now, Meng Tingfeng saw her surroundings clearly by the dim light—blood-drawn talismans and bizarre formations everywhere, and she herself trapped at the center.

She crawled desperately, her wrists and ankles torn and bleeding from the iron chains.

“Father, I did not harm anyone! I am not some evil spirit! Please let your daughter go!”

Before Meng Lan could reply, Cheng Cai strode forward and shoved her to the ground.

“Tingfeng, stop deceiving yourself. How many more do you want to harm?”

He turned to Meng Lan with a grave expression:

“Sir, don’t get too close to this monster, lest disaster befall you.”

Meng Lan retreated a few steps, apparently shaken, avoiding her gaze and leaving the room.

Even Cheng Cai showed no mercy, his boots crushing Meng Tingfeng’s fingers as he walked away.

Stunned, the pain shot from her fingers through her whole body.

Was this the same Cheng Cai who once said, “If not for you, I would not be who I am today. I would never abandon you”?

As if burned by her gaze, Cheng Cai stepped back, unable to look at her.

Meng Tingfeng looked around in despair—her father, her brother, her friend—not one responded to her pleas, not one wished her to live.

“No…”

The girl trapped in chains struggled, her body soon covered in blood, tears of anguish streaming down her cheeks.

“Stop! Father!”

Through the darkness, a pale pink silhouette rushed into the lamplight. Meng Tingfeng stared in shock.

It was the only sister who had treated her kindly since she arrived at the Minister’s residence.

Now, only her sincere adopted sister was willing to believe her, to save her—even kneeling before their father.

“Father, Tingfeng is of Meng family blood—she is your daughter! How can you bear to burn her alive? Xueyi cannot bear it, I beg you to spare my sister’s life. She could not have harmed Mother…”

Beloved and pampered, Meng Xueyi knelt for the first time. Meng Lan hurried to help her, scolding those around:

“What are you waiting for? Take Miss Xueyi back to the house.

“Yuhong, do it!”

The last glimmer of light vanished before Meng Tingfeng’s eyes, replaced by roaring flames.

Blazing fire climbed over her body, devouring her bit by bit. In the increasingly scorching inferno, she heard her sister’s cries, her senses fading.

Before her consciousness slipped away, she thought, if there is another life, she would still wish to be sisters with her. At least, someone in this world remembered her.

She did not know how long had passed. Meng Tingfeng felt her body become lighter—her soul had floated free.

She looked down at the ruins below; everyone had gone, except for murmured voices from a nearby bamboo grove.

“Yinshuang, have you finished clearing up?”

The maid called Yinshuang, dressed in black, efficiently disposed of Master Lu’s corpse.

“Miss, now no one in the house can threaten your position. You’ve endured so much all these years. That Qiao woman climbed from concubine to mistress, always thinking she could overshadow you, always opposing you. She probably never imagined, even at the end, who actually defeated her.

“And that Meng Tingfeng, always pretending to be innocent and pitiful, and just as you were choosing a husband, she returned. Wasn’t she clearly trying to ruin your chances? If you ask me, there’s only one true heiress in this household, and that’s you. Young master sides with you completely, and even that guest Meng Tingfeng brought back is utterly bewitched by you…”

Meng Tingfeng stared blankly at it all, her heart nearly bursting with pain.

The sister who cherished her most, who tried to save her even at the end—was she the true culprit who orchestrated her death?

Floating in mid-air, Meng Tingfeng slowly clenched her fists, blood tears streaming from her eyes.

Why should she die, burned alive, when she had done nothing wrong? Why should she suffer such injustice?