1970. In the military compound in Jingshi.
"Those bastards tried to force you to submit, and when that didn’t work, they slapped a spy charge on you?"
Old Marshal Theodore Hargrove of the Hargrove family brought his palm down on the table with a hard smack.
His eyes had gone red with anger.
"These people have lost all sense of law and decency!"
Selene Ashford sat on the sofa with her head lowered, both hands resting neatly together, looking so obedient it was almost pitiful.
Mr. Franklin, the guard, stood off to the side, back ramrod straight.
The scene he had rushed in on was still flashing through his mind.
That brute had one fist tangled in the girl’s hair, while the other was yanking at her collar.
If they’d arrived even a little later, he truly didn’t dare think what might have happened.
Mr. Franklin sneaked a glance at her from the corner of his eye.
The girl’s skin was so fair it practically dazzled.
He’d lived this long and honestly had never seen a girl grow into looks like that.
Well... with a face like hers, stuck in some remote countryside village, trouble was bound to come knocking.
No one noticed that the fingers resting on Selene Ashford’s knee moved ever so slightly.
By the tea table,
the clivia sitting there, lush and full of life a moment ago, suddenly didn’t look quite so proud and upright.
A thread of plant essence, invisible to ordinary people, slipped quietly into her palm.
It felt wonderful.
She had only taken human form not long ago. Her demon power still wasn’t strong enough, and right now she badly needed the essence of fine flowers and healthy plants to build herself back up.
Since the founding of the nation, spirits weren’t supposed to come into being anymore.
But she was no ordinary thing. She was a queen of the night cactus flower brought to life by her grandmother through a strange twist of fate.
The only spirit left in this whole world.
And a flower like that had a hard nature. If someone wronged her, she would pay it back.
If her grandmother hadn’t, on her deathbed, warned her again and again to do good and build up virtue, that brute from the countryside would’ve long since been turned into feed at the roots of her flowers.
Still, before she left, she had already driven one of her sharp thorns into the man’s body.
By her count, in a few more days, the ugly bastard’s lower half would be finished. For the rest of his life, he’d do nothing but lie in bed and groan.
"Good child... you’ve suffered."
Theodore Hargrove held that last letter and the jade clasp from their old pledge of love, forcing his tears back with all he had.
"From now on, the Hargrove family is behind you. No one gets to bully you again!"
"Selly, don’t be scared. This is your home now."
Mrs. Hargrove moved over to Selene Ashford’s side and took her hand in hers.
It was cold, that hand, cold as if no warmth lived in it at all.
The second Mrs. Hargrove thought about what this girl had gone through out in the countryside, her heart clenched tight.
"Don’t you worry. In this Beijing compound, as long as the two of us old folks are still breathing, let’s see who dares lay a finger on you!"
"But putting that aside, this matter has to be planned for the long run. You need a proper standing. That’s the only way to be secure."
"I was thinking before, maybe we’d take you in as a god-granddaughter, and later on find you a decent man to marry. But once you leave the Hargrove family, it still wouldn’t sit right with me."
"As it happens, this generation of the Hargroves has three grandsons, and none of them is married yet."
"So since that’s the case, you might as well marry into this family. That way, we can keep protecting you."
"Once you’re the Hargrove family’s granddaughter-in-law, I’d like to see who still dares set their sights on you!"
Selene Ashford lifted her head.
Her eyes looked black at first glance.
But once the light caught them, a dark inky green showed underneath, deep and thick, like a whole primeval forest hidden inside.
On the surface, she looked obedient enough, but her mind was already turning things over.
Her grandmother had told her long ago that in the human world, what mattered was settling down and building a life.