Chapter 62
Sandalwood smoke curled up.
The Buddhist hall was silent. Jingyu stepped in, and three shadow guards followed silently.
Xie Chunzhi looked at her and said imperiously, “Throw these things away.”
Jingyu was very calm. “This was bestowed by the Princess Consort. It would be best for the Madam and the Young Lady to accept it.”
Xie Chunzhi sneered. “She has not paid her respects to the elders. What kind of Princess Consort is she?”
Jingyu also sneered.
The person who had been submissive, with lowered brows and eyes, and had not made a sound even when beaten and scolded, was actually sneering at her. “You dead girl, what’s with your attitude? If my mother hadn’t brought you back then, you would have died in that residence long ago. Now that you’ve climbed a high branch, you think you’ve changed your kind. Don’t forget that you will always be a slave of my Xie family!”
Being forced to bow to a person of low birth was already a great humiliation. Now, seeing the person who had been a slave since she was a child, Xie Chunzhi couldn’t help but become agitated.
“I am also just following orders,” Jingyu said.
Seeing her straight back and her self-proclaimed “I,” Xie Chunzhi became even more annoyed. “What ‘I’ are you? You ungrateful thing!”
“Chunzhi,” Madam Wei, who had been closing her eyes and not speaking, said calmly.
“It was just a casual act of kindness. It can’t be considered a favor,” Madam Wei said without opening her eyes. “Don’t be rude.”
Xie Chunzhi looked at Jingyu with hatred and said no more.
But Jingyu clenched her fingers.
When the people in that small courtyard had all died, she was five years old and had escaped because she was sick in bed. When she was almost starving to death, this Madam Wei had come and had brought her back to the Duke’s Residence.
Wealth and luxury, with no worries about food and clothing. Xie Chunzhi, who was about the same age as her, called her father “father.” At that time, she had thought that she could also live the same life, adored by all, with a group of servants.
After she recovered from her illness, she had to learn the rules with the servants, wear coarse clothes, and do rough work.
But she clearly had the same father as her.
It was just that her father had never looked at her again, and had not even spoken to her.
She gradually came to understand something. There was a world of difference between her and them. She could only accept her fate and live well.
When she was ten, the Xie family held a birthday banquet for Xie Chunzhi. She was carrying dishes from the kitchen to the upper room and was graciously allowed to stay on the side, waiting for a reward with many others.
Fireworks were set off outside. The second master Xie took them out to watch. She saw the half-unwrapped brocade boxes on the table, all of which were exquisite and eye-catching gifts. On a whim, she went over and touched a string of nine-linked glass rings.
Xie Chunzhi saw it, pushed her to the ground, and slapped her.
She did not cry, but Xie Chunzhi cried first. “Her hands are dirty. She touched my things. I don’t want them anymore!”
Madam Wei squatted down and held her, looked at her half-raised hand, blew on it, and asked if it hurt.
She knelt on the ground according to the rules. Suddenly, she heard the second master Xie say, “If it’s dirty, just throw it away. Does your hand hurt?”
The head maid who was with her knelt down to apologize for her, and she also did so.
“It hurts, it hurts so much. I want her to slap her own face!”
The head maid pulled her up and held her hand to hit her face. Above, the second master Xie and Madam Wei looked down at her with a frown and indifference. She cried silently.
Xie Chunzhi cried loudly, and everyone went to coax her.
“It will be over after a few slaps, ah,” the head maid on the side comforted her.
Everyone thought it was right. She had touched the master’s things, and it was not enough to be pushed down and slapped. She also had to kowtow and apologize, and also slap her own face. Including her father.
She was just an ant-like existence, insignificant, and even more powerless to resist.
She had hit, and her cheeks were red and swollen.
Madam Wei came to stop her. “Alright. To make such a scene, it’s as if I’ve treated you poorly.”
She had them stand up and indifferently threw the nine-linked rings at her feet. “It’s a pity to throw it away. It’s a reward for you. Remember the rules in the future, and keep to your place as a slave, and I won’t be harsh on you.”
Just like this, day after day, year after year, she finally became a loyal and responsible slave.
Until five years ago, when Song He and Xie Yao returned. She had thought she had the hope of looking up at people, but Song He was of low status like her, and Xie Yao couldn’t even see her.
Madam Wei’s poor treatment was the same for everyone. Song He was also a servant. Xie Yao had become a legitimate son, but Madam Wei had sent him to a very remote residence. On the day of a family reunion festival, she had deliberately called him over, but had made him wait outside, standing. After everyone had almost finished their reunion, she had called him in and had given him leftovers.
But he had only endured it once and had never come again. He had also returned all the things sent from the residence. She was so envious that he could resist like this.
All along, she could only keep to her place. Her fate was always in the hands of others. From Madam Wei to the regent, they were not easy people to get along with. She was cautious, waiting to be dominated by them.
But Yuli had let her hold her head high and had given her the confidence to be her own master. She was very valuable. She could look up at people. After leaving the Duke’s Residence, she could also survive.
And now, the two people before her could be dealt with as she pleased.
Due to years of habit, Jingyu was still a little nervous. The slap from that year seemed to hurt again.
She suddenly walked to Xie Chunzhi and slapped her.
Xie Chunzhi screamed and wanted to hit back, but a shadow guard quickly came forward and held her.
Jingyu trembled all over, and her palm was trembling like a sieve. She hit her two more times, until Xie Chunzhi cried.
“Xie Jingyu!” Madam Wei stood up and said angrily.
Jingyu’s heart was pounding, and her hand was trembling. She turned around and went to Madam Wei.
With a crisp sound, she slapped Madam Wei.
Madam Wei turned her face in astonishment, then turned back, her eyes full of venom and disgust.
Jingyu slapped her again.
Her hand finally stopped trembling.
Jingyu calmed down for a while and said calmly, “These two have been disrespectful to the Princess Consort. Grant them death.”
“On what grounds!” Madam Wei hissed. “He promised that he would let us mother and daughter go after he saw her.”
Jingyu knew about this.
Imitating Xie Yao’s indifference, she said calmly, “I don’t need a reason to kill you.”
Jingyu didn’t pay any more attention to them and said to the shadow guards, “Make it quick. It’s best not to see blood.”
The shadow guards were very skilled. They took out a white silk and wrapped it around their necks. In a moment, there was no movement.
Jingyu looked at them. Her trembling had completely subsided, and her heartbeat had also slowed down.
Jingyu went out and went towards Xilan Courtyard. Outside, she ran into Song He and Xie Yao.
Her calmed heart rose again. She walked to Song He’s side and called out, “Brother.”
“Why didn’t you go in?”
Song He shook his head.
“Are you going to let the Mistress face Xie Chunlan alone?” Jingyu’s expression was tense.
Song He looked at Xie Yao’s back. “He will only suffer a hundred times more than us.”
Jingyu said no more.
The sound of conversation came from the courtyard. Xie Yao and Song He, who were close, heard it clearly.
*
Yuli and Xie Chunlan were sitting in the courtyard, with a small table and two armchairs, sitting opposite each other.
Feng Chenyue, who had brought Yuli, poured two cups of tea, then pulled Xiyun and went out the door.
Xie Chunlan seemed to be really unwell. She was wearing a light-colored cloak, her arms hidden under it.
She looked at Yuli, her smile bright, friendly, and gentle.
Yuli also returned a gentle smile.
After a few words of pleasantries, Xie Chunlan began to speak. “This brother of mine has had a rough life. To have such a beautiful wife is truly a blessing from a previous life.”
Yuli replied with a smile, “We just happened to come together by fate.”
Xie Chunlan: “He did not grow up in the Duke’s Residence from a young age. I only learned from him that he was originally my second uncle’s illegitimate son.”
Yuli’s expression froze for a moment. Xie Chunlan keenly sensed it and smiled. “In the past, Fourth Brother only had me as a confidante in the family. Others don’t know about these things, and he is a person who cares about his face. He probably can’t say it to you. Only I can tell you.”
“If you don’t want to know, I won’t say any more.”
Yuli quickly said, “I want to know.”
Xie Chunlan smiled kindly. “I can see that you truly care about him.”
Yuli just smiled and said nothing.
Xie Chunlan began to speak.
“My second uncle was very romantic when he was young. Before he got married, he frequented Pingkang Fang and had many confidantes. When he took a fancy to one, he would bring her into the residence. Later, when he got married, he kept them outside. My fourth brother is the fruit of his union with a certain top courtesan.”
Yuli’s face stiffened slightly. Xie Chunlan also paused, took a sip of tea, and continued.
“His birth mother was a woman of the world after all. Besides serving men in bed, she had no other skills, and her knowledge was also vulgar. In order to cling to my second uncle, she forced Fourth Brother to study. But my second uncle was also a dissolute person and didn’t care at all if he studied well. He went to that mistress’s residence just for fun. Besides, there were more and more mistresses, and his birth mother would often fall out of favor. She just thought that he had not pleased my second uncle and would beat and scold him at every turn, making him go hungry and cold.”
Yuli held her teacup, her fingertips scraping the bottom of the cup heavily.
Xie Chunlan narrated with a hint of sigh, as if although the matter was very long ago, she still felt sorry for the young Xie Yao.
“My second uncle was not a proper person, and that prostitute was also reckless. When Fourth Brother was eight, she had an affair with the groom in the courtyard. Fourth Brother ran into them and didn’t know how to hide. The two of them lived off the money my second uncle sent every month and were naturally afraid that he would report them. The groom beat him, but he didn’t know how to submit and even wanted to tell my second uncle. That night, he was almost beaten to death by his birth mother and her lover.”
From her choice of words, Yuli had already heard that something was wrong and did not respond.
Xie Chunlan smiled faintly. “But as they say, a dragon gives birth to a dragon, and a phoenix gives birth to a phoenix. When Fourth Brother was ten, he found an opportunity and killed that groom. He made the case a cold case. That’s not the worst of it. A few months later, my second uncle’s affair was discovered by the elders of the clan, and he was forced to go and poison that courtyard of women and children. Fourth Brother was alert and did not eat those things, but that prostitute was greedy and was poisoned on the spot. Several of his half-brothers also met with disaster.”
Yuli felt a chill all over, and her face turned pale. She couldn’t help but glance at the door. There was no one.
Seeing this, Xie Chunlan’s smile deepened. “Later, he joined the army. A ten-year-old child of a lowly commoner, I don’t know what means he used, but he became a fourth-rank military officer. When he returned to the capital, he was brought back to the main family by my second uncle. The children of the second uncle’s family, one and all, were all good-for-nothings. A fourth Xie appeared. How could an illegitimate son see the light of day? They had to treat him as a legitimate son to deceive the uninformed.”
Xie Chunlan’s smile completely faded. “However, a bastard is a bastard. Even if he put on the identity of a legitimate son of the Xie clan, he could only do things that could not see the light of day. Grandfather took him in and out of the Eastern Palace, gained the trust of the Crown Prince, and granted him the position of a great general. In fact, he was just being used as a vicious dog, to assassinate political enemies and do things that proper noble sons disdained to do. He was a murderer by nature and did it perfectly. He was the sharpest knife of the Xie family and the Crown Prince.”
“But this knife was too dirty. The Crown Prince could not tolerate him, and the Xie clan would certainly not keep him. It was Grandfather who personally ordered me to poison him.”
“Originally, I could have disobeyed Grandfather’s order. I could have helped him. But he was not a person at all. Day after day, I was close and concerned about him, but he was like he had no humanity, completely unmoved. Everyone in the residence looked down on him and hated his cold and fierce air. Only I pitied him, treated his wounds, and cooked him medicine. For two years, a full two years, I tried to get close to him, but he told me to get lost. He was simply not worthy.”
“He even wanted to kill my grandfather!” Xie Chunlan’s face suddenly turned cold. “He deserved to die.”
Yuli’s breathing deepened. She wanted to ask if it was she who had poisoned Xie Yao, but she couldn’t open her mouth for a long time.
Xie Chunlan said it herself, her expression arrogant, almost crazed. “I poisoned him. He drank it without any suspicion. I wanted to see him struggle before he died, but he desperately killed my grandfather. You ungrateful thing, you untamable wild wolf.”
Xie Chunlan described Xie Yao’s miserable state that day in detail. “I pitied him and was willing to give him a chance. As long as he knelt down and begged for mercy, an illegitimate son of a mere prostitute, he actually ignored me. It was a waste of my efforts to be so good to him!”
So she had poured poison on his face and disfigured him.
Yuli could barely breathe.
Xie Chunlan was already crazed and had lost her reason.
It was as if she had returned to that day, seeing him covered in wounds, unable to move, only able to prop himself up on the ground, as if he had already submitted to her. How satisfying.
The courtyard was filled with Xie Chunlan’s gnashing narration.
Yuli had not made a sound from the beginning.
Her silence made the people outside suffer immensely.
In the midst of Xie Chunlan’s crazed laughter, she suddenly said in a low voice, “And then?”
Xie Chunlan put away her smile. “My Xie clan has made great contributions to the Crown Prince. Naturally, it was my father who inherited the title. The Crown Prince personally promised to marry me as his legal wife.”
Yuli was silent again.
But Xie Chunlan was laughing so hard she was about to cry. “But he didn’t die! He shattered all of this. He came back alive. He rebelled. He is a treacherous rebel.”
Xie Chunlan raised her hands to cover her face.
Only then did Yuli see clearly that she only had one hand, and the other was just a bare wrist.
A cold shiver ran through Yuli, and she was on the verge of vomiting. Her teacup was unsteady, and some water spilled out. She quickly held it tight.
Seeing this, Xie Chunlan placed her severed hand in front of her and lifted the hem of her skirt, revealing her shattered kneecap. The deformed bones made one instinctively feel disgusted.
Yuli trembled all over and forced herself not to get up and flee.
Xie Chunlan stared at her. “It was your husband who did it. He personally gave the order and watched my hand fall. He has also killed countless people. He is covered in blood, a murderer by nature. He is an evil seed by nature.”
Yuli’s eyes turned red, and her breathing also became rapid. Xie Chunlan burst out laughing.
Yuli glanced at the door.
Outside, it was silent, as if there were only her and the madman in this small courtyard in the world.
*
Outside the courtyard.
Jingyu’s fingers were clenched tightly. She wanted to run in and take Yuli out, but the person in front of her was indifferent, and she didn’t dare to move.
Song He couldn’t help but call out in a low voice, “Brother. Enough.”
Xie Yao’s breathing was still steady.
Shadow guards were placed at a distance, watching the people in the courtyard from a high place. If Xie Chunlan were to make a single wrong move, she would be shot and killed.
He had long known that Xie Chunlan, like that mother and daughter, would not do as he said and would surely go crazy. Everything was still within his expectations. He could still bear it.
He would wait a little longer, see what Yuli’s reaction was, and then he could go in and get her.
He had already thought it through.
If she were to fear him, to be disgusted with him, he would lie to her, that what that madman had said was all false.
If she were to pity him, he would pretend to be in pain and beg for her pity.
If she were to look down on him, he would punish her for her disrespect, lock her up in Zichen Hall, and let her see how many people now submitted at his feet…
No matter how she reacted, he would hold her firmly and not allow her to be even a single bit far from him.
*
In the courtyard.
Yuli was silent for a long time, looking at Xie Chunlan’s madness, at her bare wrist, at her shattered and deformed knees.
As she looked, it seemed not so disgusting anymore.
“And then?” she said calmly.
Her low voice, like a deep stream, pulled Xie Chunlan back to reality.
The seemingly simple and naive woman before her had suddenly become hard. Xie Chunlan couldn’t quite see through her.
She also stared back at Yuli. “He hates me! Because I was once good to him, the only person in his life who was good to him. But he is not worthy. I killed him, he hates me, tortures me. When I suffer, he is happy. He is a madman!”
“And then?”
“He is of lowly birth. He has stained his hands with blood to climb up. He is disloyal and unfilial, and will be infamous for ten thousand years!”
“And then?”
“He is cold-blooded and ruthless. He cannot get the love of a normal person. He is a monster!”
“And then?”
“Are you a fool!” Xie Chunlan’s eyes were about to split. She glared at Yuli, as if to pierce her with her gaze.
Yuli sat upright and looked back at her. “And then?”
Xie Chunlan began to laugh crazily. “Hahahaha, you fool, you idiot!”
Xie Chunlan seemed unable to bear talking to a fool. She wanted to stand up, as if she had forgotten that her legs were crippled. She propped herself up with her arms, and her severed hand was unsteady. She fell to the ground. But she was still laughing.
Yuli looked at her, her eyes red, and said in a heavy nasal voice, “And then there is today. Miss Xie.”
Xie Chunlan stiffened for a moment, and her crazed laughter suddenly turned into a choked sob.
Tears streamed down her face, but she laughed again, murmuring things like “not worthy” and “evil seed.”
Seeing that she could no longer talk normally, Yuli slowly stood up and walked towards the courtyard gate.
Walking out the door, she saw Xie Yao standing in the distance, under the shade of the forest.
Her steps paused for a moment, but Xie Yao stood still. All of this was arranged by him.
Her eyes were red, and the surging emotions in her heart flooded her whole body. She strode towards him.
Xie Yao did not move. The already dim daylight was mostly blocked by the forest, and it landed on the side of his jaw, revealing a pale face.
Yuli walked faster and faster, and finally broke into a run.
When she reached him, she raised her hands high above her head.
She held them in fists and gave him two punches.
“You bastard!”
She hit him, and her fists went numb. But he did not move a single bit. She raised her fists again, not satisfied.
She hit him several times, on his shoulder, his chest, and even his jaw.
“You big bastard!”
Xie Yao couldn’t tell her emotions. It was probably hatred and disgust. He raised his hand, wanting to hold her and tie her up.
Yuli suddenly jumped up, hooked her arms around his neck, and held him. “Let’s go home.”
His arms tightened, just in time to hold her.
She sobbed, trying her best to suppress her crying. “Back to our home.”