Chapter 5

Teacher sighed. “Since the court has sent people to investigate, they must know what goes on here. They don’t intend to interfere. Huixing, stop thinking of petitioning the emperor. Our sale was put down in black and white. The head of the temple has broken no law.

“Better prepare to attend him at night. A girl has to marry sooner or later. If you’ve received the emperor’s favor, at least you won’t end up a prostitute.”

We knew little of the palace. But even we understood that no one else dared touch an emperor’s woman.

People might revile prostitutes. They would never revile the emperor’s women.

Compared with being a nun of Mount Tai, it was not a bad path.

I stroked Huiyan’s head and told her, “Be good. An immortal lord will come for you tonight. Do whatever he tells you.”

I deceived her with the same disgusting words the temple’s head had used. We had accepted our fate so completely, yet heaven still would not spare us.

She was carried away unharmed that night. When they carried her back, she was covered in injuries, barely breathing, like a torn rag doll.

Before she lost consciousness, she asked softly, “Sister, I listened to you. I didn’t run away. But isn’t consecration a good thing? Why does it hurt so much?”

The palace maid who brought her back held her head high. “This wretched girl offended the noble consort. Her Highness sent her somewhere suitable. She can forget about serving His Majesty. Whether she survives is up to fate.”

They had not taken Huiyan to the emperor’s room. They had given her to an Imperial Guard commander who had tortured three concubines to death.

I held Huiyan, shaking all over. I had told her to obey. I had sent her off with those people myself.

Teacher brought out all our money and humbly begged the soldiers at the gate to summon a doctor. No one listened. One soldier laughed mockingly. “She’s just a little girl. To the nobility, she doesn’t even count as a person. She offended the noble consort. Who would dare let her have a doctor?”

Under that pitch-black sky, we had been born human, yet he said we did not even count as people.

But when I closed my eyes and thought about it, in our short lives our families had never treated us as people. The women of the temple had not. Even these nobles, who were supposed to love their subjects as their own children, had not.

So a person could not live a good life. Only by becoming a demon could you make others fear you.

I dried my tears, carried Huiyan inside, and wiped her body with warm water, over and over. I swore to the King of Hell that if he let Huiyan live, I would worship him all my life. I would cease to be human and become the most evil demon of all.

Huiyan lived, forever a child.

The high fever damaged her mind. She remembered nothing of what she had suffered. She only looked at me in amazement. “Sister, I only went to sleep. How did you get so big?”

Then, wonder giving way to hurt, she lifted her arm. “Did the temple’s head punish me again? It hurts so much.”

Stroking those injuries, I said quietly, “Never again. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”

It was time for someone else to hurt. As much as they could possibly bear.