Revenge
The Unspoken Bond
My senior brother was both pitiful and broke.
His sect had been destroyed, his master captured, and his junior brothers and sisters were missing.
As for him, he carried a battered sword on his back and would go hungry for three days after every meal.
Even so, he still kept me by his side and bought me big steamed buns to eat.
“Once you remember your parents’ names, make sure you pay me back!”
“Mm-hmm!”
I prayed in secret that I must have been born into a wealthy family, so I could properly repay Senior Brother.
But before I could regain my memories, Senior Brother lost me again.
All he left behind was a bag of steamed buns and a letter.
[Dongze will execute my master at the Four Regions Assembly. I have to go save him.
[After I leave, eat the buns sparingly. You don’t have to pay me back anymore.]
I sobbed until my heart felt torn apart, clutching the letter as I chased after him.
But in my carelessness, I missed my footing, rolled down a hillside, and struck my head.
And then I remembered.
I was originally from Dongze.
And the Dongze Sect Leader who was going to execute Senior Brother’s master was none other than my father.
Ai Ai
I risked my life to save the Commandery Prince and my half sister from drowning.
But because my clothes were soaked through,
they slapped me with the filthy accusation of “deliberate seduction and forcing a marriage to climb the social ladder.”
From the woman who had saved their lives, I became a scheming tramp reviled by all of the capital.
On the day of our wedding, Murong Ling did not even lift my veil. His eyes were filled with disgust.
“You used such despicable means to force me to marry you. I, the Commandery Prince, will never let you have an easy life.”
Yun’e, whom I had dragged ashore with my own hands, twisted her handkerchief, her face full of grievance.
“What a deep schemer you are, Sister. When you saved me, you were swift and decisive, yet under the water, you lingered so intimately with the Commandery Prince for so long…”
I had poured my heart out to save two lives, only to end up condemned from both sides.
I endured every torment the Commandery Prince’s Manor could throw at me.
When I opened my eyes again and saw the two of them bobbing in the river,
I neatly changed direction.
Then I strolled into town and bought a skewer of candied hawthorns.
I took a bite-
So sweet.
Joy at Sunset
I divorced my ex-husband because he never knew when to stop talking.
Afterward, I decided to date a mute.
My sweet young boyfriend was obedient, attentive, and exactly my type.
One day, I went to pick him up from his university.
Outside his dorm room, however, I heard him talking to his roommate.
“Yu, how long are you planning to keep pretending?”
“Until I get bored.”
Green Branches
The Noble Consort resorted to every conceivable means to secure a baby boy, plotting to pass off another woman’s son as her own so she could regain the emperor’s favor.
On the day she gave birth, she sent her men to a secluded village, where they murdered a young couple and abducted their swaddled infant.
I survived by hiding inside a rice vat.
But what she didn’t know was that the village was called Half-Ghost Village.
Once its residents turned fifty, they began aging in reverse.
The baby her men had taken was my Great-grandfather.
Escape from the Kingdom of Women
Men with big butts are good at bearing children. That’s what my mom always taught me.
She said that no matter how disobedient a man was, once you got him pregnant, he’d do whatever you said.
As luck would have it, my boyfriend abducted me and took me deep into the mountains, demanding that I bear children for his bachelor buddies.
“You’re not allowed to stop until you’ve had eight sons!”
Eight? I passed out from sheer delight.
Well, in that case, don’t mind if I do…
Second Aunt and Childhood Friend
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, I climbed out of my childhood friend’s bed.
He lit a cigarette with careless ease.
“Leave through the back door in a bit. Don’t let my girlfriend see you.”
I froze. “You have a girlfriend? Since when?”
He curled his lips in a cold smile.
“None of your business.”
“You were the one who came on to me last night. I’m not taking responsibility.”
My expression turned indescribable.
“The person who slept with you last night wasn’t me…”
It was the cleaning lady from the guesthouse, who also happened to be his second uncle’s wife.
I had only come over to clean up the mess for them.
Chasing the Light
I was the CEO’s white moonlight, but I had gone dark.
“So you can fly overseas for business, but you can’t come overseas to see me? Is it that you can’t afford a ticket, or that you can’t make the time?”
“You keep saying I’m your white moonlight, then turn around and find a substitute. If your feelings are that cheap, don’t ever tell anyone you liked me.”
“I don’t want a man who’s been tainted. Don’t come looking for me again.”
Glittering Light
In the year of severe famine, Mother took me to Prince Zhong’s Mansion, a place so distantly related it could hardly be called kin, to seek charity.
We came back with eighty taels of silver and a cart of grain, which we shared with the villagers.
In exchange, the whole village was abuzz with rumors.
The villagers gossiped that she had traded her chastity for grain. After my father divorced her, she hanged herself with a hemp rope, swaying there with her eyes open.
Later, after Prince Zhong’s Mansion fell, the Little Commandery Princess from the mansion, who had once given me a Golden Phoenix, was kidnapped and sold into the brothels.
I pretended to redeem her, then robbed her of her last few pieces of silver.
People-aren’t they all like that?
My Brother Became a Live-in Son-in-Law
My older brother was eighteen when he was married off as a live-in son-in-law to my sister-in-law.
My sister-in-law said that if he gave her a child, she’d reward him by letting him continue his studies.
Later, the day my brother passed the imperial exam, Father still refused to give up and asked,
“Son, now can my grandson change his surname back to mine?”
Arrogance
My husband brought home a young woman.
I waited for her to bow and pay her respects, but she started shouting that “all people are born equal.”
I suggested she become his concubine, and she clung to my husband, demanding “one man, one woman, for one lifetime.”
My husband told me to be more accommodating toward her.
I was silent for a long while.
Then I kicked him straight into the sewage ditch.
“You’re the one who’s born equal to dogs. The two of you can go be a pair of dogs for life!”