Side Story: Hell on Earth
Chapter 106
May
Liberte was awakened by the sticky and greedy sound of sucking. May was kneeling at his feet, kissing and meticulously "serving" this "secret lover" who had kept her immersed in a world of pleasure for so long. She seemed completely lost in that taboo scent—a kind of morbid frenzy that even made Liberte feel a shiver of horror.
Liberte stepped back, but she lunged forward, frantically stripping off her thin, transparent nightgown. She was full of confidence, certain that even if he had exhausted his strength in the intense "battle" just moments before, as long as he was close to her seductive body, he would still be enthralled. Liberte zipped up his trousers, his gaze icy, extinguishing her desire:
"If you don't listen to me, don't even think about getting close to me again."
The woman resorted to her crying act, but Liberte remained cold:
"If you're going to sneak a meal, you'd better know how to wipe your mouth. Besides, I've just exhausted my strength."
Jealousy boiled within her, yet she did not glare; she merely looked sullen. Liberte looked at her with sarcasm, his gaze seemingly accusing her of being jealous of her own daughter:
"An is your daughter!"
She wrapped her arms around Liberte's shoulders, locking one fair leg around his waist. Her slender waist moved rhythmically, sliding up and down, provoking the man's beastly nature. Liberte remained "unmoved," calmly watching her lick her lips. She smiled:
"So, which amorous fellow is it that's playing with both mother and daughter?"
Liberte remained silent, making the atmosphere suffocatingly tense. Accustomed to his icy, choking demeanor, she giggled, her sweet, seductive voice brimming with temptation:
"You really are lucky. You've gnawed on the whole bunch of sugarcane, yet you still haven't tasted the excitement of a threesome."
She slid her hand downward and smirked:
"If you're interested, I can find a way to spoil you to the extreme." - She scrutinized Liberte's facial expression - "So, do you dare to let yourself go? Honey?!"
Liberte apathetically moved her hand away:
"I'm not interested in that..."
Liberte glanced outside, and seeing that no one was around, he hurriedly left the dangerous place. The woman pressed the hand that still held Liberte's warmth against her flushed cheek, recalling his coldness; yet, his gaze had flickered for a moment... because... he had heard her provocative suggestion.
"Hehe, I know you're interested; you're too excited."
She opened her locket, gazing at the photo of her beloved daughter and paternal grandmother smiling brightly. Then, her lustful, disdainful gaze flickered toward the ancestral altar, where the portrait of Wan's mother stood amidst the incense smoke.
Back in the days of old, when the woman and Liberte were lost in their illicit tryst, they had been caught by the old lady. Wan was the murderer who had killed Liberte's father, tortured the entire family, and caused every relative to die a miserable death. To this day, she still could not believe that Liberte—the child she had once loved most—had grown up to cheat on her son and betray her granddaughter's sincere love.
It was a deep poison, a cruel revenge, an ultimate insult. The shock of that discovery was even greater than her disgust for this seemingly gentle, filial, and virtuous daughter-in-law, who was, in reality, a whore. She had not only stolen her daughter's lover but also engaged in illicit affairs with her future son-in-law.
The woman even laughed with contempt, constantly inciting Liberte to humiliate the old lady. She kept whispering:
"An is your future wife, and I am your slave. Make that old hag your woman. Wan killed your family. From now on, you are the master of every woman in his household. That revenge would be the most painful, and the most perfect."
She opened her mouth, her voice heavy with ambiguity:
"So show your man's prowess. Let my mother-in-law know how masculine you are, my dear. Although she is old, her body is still fiery and beautiful. I once accidentally saw her satisfying herself in bed, moaning while calling out the names of past lovers. She, too, betrayed Wan's father. You don't have to feel guilty at all; just satisfy that old bitch, and humiliate the dirty slut who birthed your mortal enemy."
She whispered again:
"I can even imagine Wan coughing up blood and dying... because... when he finds out you cheated on him and defiled the very hole that birthed him, that humiliation alone will be enough to drive me into a frenzy of ecstasy."
The insults to her dignity and the incitement for Liberte to take revenge were all calculated to shatter his spirit and pulverize her psyche. The agonizing self-reproach of having birthed a monster, a lapdog for the devil, had now borne its fruit: the retribution for the sins sown by the son and the father had sowed the wind, and the mother and his daughter had to reap the whirlwind.
She pitied the victims abused by her son, yet she was powerless to resolve the deep-seated grudge; hatred had turned the child she once loved deeply into a soulless monster.
May burst into a wild, hysterical laugh, watching with grim satisfaction as her mother-in-law trembled in terror, fearful of being defiled by the very person she had cherished as a treasure. The old woman fainted.
"Hey, wake up, my dear mother-in-law, stop faking a faint…"
She slowly opened her eyes, struck with absolute horror. Her clothes were disheveled, her upper body exposed, and her trousers pulled down to her ankles. Liberte had already left, leaving behind those subtle traces that served as ironclad proof of what her daughter-in-law had said.
The wretched old woman curled her body in a heap. She felt no anger toward the child who had become a cruel, pathological product of hatred; instead, she felt only sorrow and pity for this child who had been pushed to the brink of ruin and buried in sin by fate.
The grandmother felt only despair. Liberte had vented his rage, trampling on her maternal heart and tormenting the very body that had once cherished and loved his family. She despised the wickedness of her promiscuous daughter-in-law.
"Why… must you… treat my family so cruelly?"
Liberte raped her for revenge—that was not strange at all. As her mother-in-law stared, bewildered and unable to comprehend why her daughter-in-law had betrayed and humiliated her, May curled her lips into a cold smirk. The whole family had been kind to May, yet she wallowed in lust and brought about her own depravity.
"Do you really think your precious son truly loves me? Mother, you are dead wrong. That bastard treats me like a queen, but only to cover up the dirty crimes he committed in the past."
May mocked the woman who only knew how to give birth but did not know how to raise a child. She nailed her hatred into every word, enduring the humiliation and agony as she wallowed in this nightmare of living with a devil.
Once, she had been a wealthy heiress. Wan had tried every trick to get close to her and befriend her family. Wan had hired thugs to attack her, only to play the role of the hero saving a damsel in distress; to build intimacy, he even set her house on fire, then pretended to bravely charge into the flames to rescue her entire family. May and her father had been moved to tears and agreed to his marriage proposal.
Even in death, she could never forget the day she discovered Wan was the mastermind. The horror of the truth was not as bitter as the shock itself: her father, suffering from impotence, had grown physically weak, and from a clear-headed man, he had spiraled into a mental breakdown, slipping into dementia.
The promiscuous wife, having fallen under the spell of her degenerate son-in-law's love charms and soul-stealing potions, became utterly muddled; she then colluded with that bastard to plot a dirty conspiracy, persuading her husband to leave the majority of his property in his will to her. That adulteress eventually swindled away all the assets. When May caught her mother and Wan frolicking on her own bed with her own eyes, she finally saw the truth.
Those two dogs laughed triumphantly, mocking the foolish husband and father, mocking the naive daughter who had trusted her exemplary husband and righteous mother. The mother she had once revered and worshiped was now moaning like a whore beneath her son-in-law's crotch.
To satisfy her filthy desires, the mother had betrayed the family and trampled on the bond between mother and daughter—because May was, in fact, the daughter of her father and his first wife.
That scheming woman hated May, yet she always pretended to cherish her, waiting for the chance to usurp the massive fortune.
God gave her the chance. Wan swore to find an excuse to divorce May so he could secretly commit adultery with his mother-in-law.
That illicit thrill was always more stimulating than an open affair. No matter how shrewd and capable a woman might be, once she succumbed to lust, she would inevitably become ignorant and blind. She drew up a will, leaving all her assets to Wan upon her death.
She never expected that Wan had planned a traffic accident to get rid of her. May hated him to the bone, and fearing that Wan would harm his wife, she had to endure the humiliation and live with this devil for twenty years.
The consecutive shocks caused Wan's mother to suffer a mental breakdown. May watched her mother-in-law, who wanted to scream, cry, and curse—wanted to shriek insults—but feared her granddaughter could not handle the blow and would commit suicide.
The terror shattered the vain hope that love would dissolve the hatred, strangling her breath and tightening the grip of the asthma.
"Oh, are you angry because your granddaughter's lover raped you, or... are you in pain and regret because you cherished someone you shouldn't have valued in the past? Bitter, so bitter. A model and kind mother, a gentle grandmother, but now you must swallow this bitter end to atone for your son's sins."
May feigned a cowering flinch, acting as if terrified by her mother-in-law, who suddenly pinned her with a gaze that shifted from dull and muddy to sharp and ice-cold. That face, once always kind, was no longer gentle.
"Mother-in-law, don't scare me. Kind people are always gentle, merciful, and friendly to everyone. But why are you so angry now?"
She glanced down at her mother-in-law's lower body:
"Oh, could it be that the flame burning on your flushed face is both the fire of anger and... the fire of jealousy, my dear mother-in-law?"
The angrier the mother-in-law became, the more the daughter-in-law mocked her suffocating asthma attack:
"Mother-in-law, your bloodshot face proves I'm right. You're addicted but still shy. A hypocrite like you isn't even as sincere as this beautiful butterfly—this lewd, amorous butterfly."
She gently slid her hand over the damp spot:
"Heh... back then, the wings of this butterfly were tightly closed, kissing passionately, greedily sucking on your 'future grandson-in-law.' Heh... my darling was so refreshed he almost fainted several times, moaning and praising that you are hotter, tighter, and more closed-off than An and me. When I heard that, I felt angry and resentful in my heart, so jealous..."
She made a pouting expression:
"If I don't push my darling away from you, your beloved future grandson-in-law will still burrow into your crotch, reveling in this twisted pleasure. Oh, I'm so jealous. Tsk, if your granddaughter realizes that both her grandmother and mother have become her husband's women, she will surely commit suicide or go mad..."
May pressed her gloating, demonic face close to her mother-in-law's stiff, vacant face; all feelings of resentment, shame, and remorse were dead:
"So, my dear mother-in-law. If you don't want your family's reputation ruined and your granddaughter to suffer humiliation and torment until death, you should keep the secret. While you are alive, you must keep it in your belly. Then, take it to the grave after you die. If you don't listen to my warning, the painful ending will bury your most beloved granddaughter alive."
The asthma attack reached its limit; the poor woman muttered meaningless sentences and lost consciousness again. A stroke left her bedridden, unable to speak, and afraid to speak. She was indignant, but due to the fear of her family's ruin and her granddaughter's tragic death, she had to maintain silence.
Every day, the servants and An visited and took care of her. May remained on duty 24/7, serving, bringing food, pouring water, changing soiled clothes, and cleaning her mother-in-law.
Everyone praised and admired the daughter-in-law's heart for her mother-in-law. No one knew that she was terrified the truth would be exposed; she had to play the role of a filial daughter-in-law... to... prevent danger.
During this time, Liberte visited her often, helping and caring for her wholeheartedly. An was moved that her lover regarded her grandmother as his own kin. Liberte even lied, saying his eyes were red from insomnia. He refused to admit he had cried, only secretly wiping away his tears.
To An, this gesture was a way of hiding weak emotions. But May was surprised to find Liberte's guilt and self-blame for hurting someone he respected were not faked.
Taking advantage of the dead of night when the whole family was asleep, she seduced Liberte right in front of her mother-in-law to test if he was sincere. This trick was meant to dig the wound deeper, worsening the victim's condition, while simultaneously probing and understanding more of Liberte's thoughts.
Anticipating her lover's firm refusal, May was not disappointed; she was secretly proud of her success. She understood her lover's character, stance, and personality better. He was not as completely soulless as she had imagined.
That night, Wan's family mourned, encouraging and boosting each other's spirits. Wan was busy dealing with the aftermath and clearing the backlog of work; even though the exhaustion made him want to rest, he still tried to act as a "hound" to win the favor of high-ranking officials.
The overwhelming workload burdened him, leaving him exhausted, and he eventually could not withstand the pressure, falling asleep in his study.
Over the past week, May and An had stayed up all night caring for the grandmother. The two girls had cried until their eyes were red, and the pressure exceeded the limit, forcing May into a deep sleep.
An took May to her private room. After a while, she returned with those cakes that Liberte liked most. Despite her anxiety for her kin, An did not forget her lover and looked after him no matter what.
Liberte thanked An and urged her to rest. Exhausted, yet fearing her grandmother might not survive the night, she decided to stay by her side until the final moment. An rested her head on her lover's shoulder, reminiscing about her carefree childhood in her grandmother's arms:
"She pampered and loved me the most. When I was little, I was hyperactive, foolishly mischievous, and constantly made mistakes. Once, my father punished me by making me kneel against the wall with my face down. She pleaded with him to forgive me. But Father still wouldn't let me eat or drink, causing me to faint from hunger, which led her to scold him for being too harsh. That day, Grandma screamed and cried as if I were about to die. From then until I became an adult, no matter what mistake I made, Grandma would hide it for me. But she always gently taught me not to do wrong! She warned that if her descendants ignored morality, abandoned their conscience, harmed the innocent, and created deep enmities, the whole family would suffer retribution!"
An gave a bitter smile, her heart aching for her grandmother:
"But my father still pursued fame and fortune, and Mother supported and effectively helped him fight for power. Their goal was to let her live a life of luxury and wealth like a queen. And me..."
An resented the fact that she was already living a wrong life... because... her parents had pushed their child onto the wrong path:
"Since I was a child, Mother pampered me. Whatever I wanted, she would buy it for me. If the thing I wanted belonged to someone else, Father or Mother would snatch it away, fighting to give it to me at any cost. Even if I did something wrong, Mother always defended me, while Father never taught me what was right or wrong. Instead, he instilled in me that selfish, overbearing habit: if I can't have it, I must strike it down! He also said: regardless of whether they are opponents, people who don't share the same goals, or those not in the same camp—they are all enemies. Therefore, those who fight for our interests are wrong even if they are right! And even if we are wrong, we are still doing right. Father taught: Heaven strikes down those who do not look out for themselves, so you don't need to feel guilty or sad for anyone... because... the only thing worth caring about is your own happiness..."
An hugged Liberte. She was sorrowful, turning toward the only person who had ever taught her the right things. An mocked herself for not listening to that sole advice:
"Father also stuffed my head with thoughts of flattery and groveling—accepting the contempt of superiors, treating myself as a hound, and enduring humiliation—all for the purpose of climbing to the peak of power..."
An blamed her father for brainwashing her since childhood, causing her to go astray, fall into obstacles, and then face the consequences: her psyche had deviated from a young age. She grew up to be a cruel person, committing unpardonable crimes against her lover's family.
The whip that once punished Maria was now lashing An's own belated remorse. Past insults now mocked her pain and shame toward the lover who had twice sacrificed himself for her.
An suddenly burst into tears, then at once wore a bitter smile:
"My parents gave birth to me. They gave me life, but they didn't teach me how to be human. The ones who gave me life also turned me into a devil, making me suffer retribution. And the ones who must bear this karma are the people I love most!"
Liberte sympathized with her—she could not choose the family she was born into. Her kin had ruined her life and distorted her personality to serve their own goals and interests.
However, that sympathy was severed by the sin of An torturing Maria, strictly forbidding Liberte from losing his heart to her; guilt had dug a deep grave, burying his emotions. He did not allow himself to be moved by her tearful confession.
"I'm sorry, Grandma! Liberte, I'm sorry to your family. I'm sorry..."
Liberte played the role of the man An deeply loved, embracing her and patting her gently to comfort her in her regret. She begged her grandmother not to die and apologized to her lover's family. She kept speaking like that until she was exhausted and fell asleep in Liberte's arms.
Liberte pulled a blanket from the shelf and covered her. He knelt quietly by the hospital bed. He lowered his head for a long time, until he heard the prolonged, difficult gasps for breath. He looked up at the heart monitor, saw something was wrong, and realized with a shock that she was dying. If he remained silent, he would never have another chance to explain.
Liberte lowered his head in shame. Because he had been so ungrateful and cruel to the person who loved him... it caused his lips to move, yet he could not utter a single word.
He wanted to speak, he wanted to explain. Unfortunately, he did not dare to say it out loud... because... he was afraid of being discovered by those outside... and... because his conscience condemned him; he once hated those who were inhumane. But now, the victim had become the perpetrator who harmed the innocent.
The insult, the desecration, and the mockery wove together into the agony of destroying Liberte's benefactor, making him feel as though he were no different from that herd of beasts. He wept silently, clutching those cakes.
He felt dazed when he realized this was the familiar, nut-like sweetness he once knew—the taste Grandmother used to secretly feed him and his siblings when they were at their hungriest and thirstiest.
In the past, her affection had encouraged, comforted, and restored his will to survive. Now, that same affection helped him silently control his emotions, suppressing the agony that was on the verge of erupting into sobs. He devoured the cakes, swallowing that nut-like sweetness of human kindness mingled with bitter tears, only to hold back the choked words he dared only speak in the depths of his heart:
"May lies on purpose. When Grandmother faints, voices come from the distance. May is afraid of being suspected, so she hurriedly urges me to hide in the shadows. She acts perfectly, screaming for 'help.' May immediately begs that person to run back to the main house to call for reinforcements and a car. I desperately want to rush out to save Grandmother, but I cannot! Once I appear, my affair with May is exposed, and Wan will never spare my family. I can only watch helplessly as May unsparingly humiliates Grandmother, who is powerless to resist due to her stroke. To protect my family, I am forced to watch, while my benefactor is insulted! I am a bastard... Grandmother, I am sorry! For the sake of my loved ones, I sell out my conscience!"
Liberte bowed his head in apology, not to ask for forgiveness, but in the hope that the person who had always cherished him would curse him. The low weeping fell silent when Grandmother trembled and gently placed her hand on his head. Liberte looked up, his eyes blurred with tears, at the image of Grandmother's gentle smile directed at him.
That familiar smile remained gentle, just as it was when she secretly fed him and his siblings all those years ago. A single bite when hungry outweighs a full bag when sated. Although a small rice ball could not lull a horde of starving ghosts to sleep... just as... she once silently sang lullabies to him and his siblings... but... his family would never forget that kindness for a lifetime.
He was not good to her, yet she still forgave him. He was the main reason she met such a tragic end, but until she passed away, she still cherished him just the same. Liberte's face was covered in tears. He cried like an infant. He cried like someone whose dearest loved one had passed away forever.
His weeping was filled with hatred for the enemies who killed his family, a hatred that had forced him to become a person without benevolence or righteousness. That heart-rending cry awakened everyone; the crowd surged in.
An was flustered and panicked, rushing over to embrace Grandmother, who was still warm, burying her face in her chest and crying silently.
May played the role of the devoted daughter-in-law, rolling on the ground and wailing loudly. Wan frowned and ordered the servants to pull them apart. May and her daughter struggled bitterly, demanding to stay with their kin.
Wan's arms tightly embraced his wife and child, his eyes red as he wept and comforted them. Wan warned them not to let their tears fall upon the body, lest the whole family be plagued by misfortune, and the deceased be unable to leave her loved ones, making it difficult for her to be reincarnated.
Wan signaled to Liberte, and under Liberte's constant urging, May and her daughter finally complied. They joined the rest of the family in holding the funeral, allowing the deceased to depart in peace.
The sound of mourning and the music used to bid farewell to souls in the sorrowful night echoed from the past into May's mind in the present. May, however, took it for a lyrical, romantic melody, blessing her as she reveled in her intoxication with her "future son-in-law."
"My dear, wait patiently. Sooner or later, my daughter and I will 'eat' you together; we will become each other's dinner. Hehe..."
She laughed lewdly, her lips curling into a wicked smirk as she sneered at her mother-in-law's funeral portrait. She returned to her room, lying down beside her sleeping husband, exhilarated, dreaming of her and her daughter cheating on the man who was the husband, betraying the man who was the father.