Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Looking back on my previous life, I had to admit that Song Shixing was a competent ruler.

Ambitious, ruthless, and utterly without attachment.

When he first raised his army, his own full sister, the Princess Consort of Liang, was five months pregnant. The several hundred collateral relatives in his commandery prince’s estate had also been kept completely in the dark.

By the time he laid siege to the capital, all those relatives had become hostages. And as he watched the heads of his kin tumble one after another, he could still sit there and sip his tea at leisure.

After he ascended the throne, the old subordinates who had followed him from the beginning and the founding ministers who had helped establish his dynasty were all promoted and ennobled. Yet many of them became thorns in his side.

The deputy general I poisoned was one.

So was Mr. Lang.

On the day I was made empress, Mr. Lang and I once caught sight of each other from afar. After that, Mr. Lang requested an audience with me several times, but Song Shixing refused for me every time.

I never knew what end Mr. Lang met in my previous life.

But I imagined he could not have escaped the fate of the hound being cooked once the hare was dead.

The night was thick and dark. Outside the courtyard, faint, scattered footsteps brushed past, and from time to time the roof tiles gave off the soft clack of someone stepping on them.

The lamp in Song Shixing’s room had gone out.

I did not sleep all night.

When I rose early to grind soybeans, Song Shixing was already up. He was recovering faster than he had in my previous life.

“What are you doing?” he asked me.

“Grinding soybeans.” I ladled him a bowl of cooked soybean milk. “Drink it, then get on your way.”

Song Shixing frowned.

With a clang, his guard set a blade against my neck.

Song Shixing waved a hand. Then he sat quietly to one side and watched my family of three work.

“The gold you took from me is enough to keep you comfortable for ten years. Do you still need to sell tofu?” he suddenly said.

“Only ten years.” I swept him a glance. “Young Master, for a life-saving debt, your repayment is still rather stingy.”

Song Shixing laughed.

“This is the first time I’ve seen someone love money so frankly.” He leaned back in his chair and quietly studied me.

I did not pay him any more attention. Before leaving, I told my parents to return to their room, then shouldered my carrying pole and went out.

I had just set up my stall when Song Shixing came over.

He helped me count the coins, and even reminded a neighbor who was trying to sneak away with a piece of tofu, “It’s only two wen.”

He was smiling, but he carried the sharp, oppressive air of someone born to stand above others. The neighbor did not dare say a single word. He tossed down the money and ran.

“Don’t be softhearted,” Song Shixing reminded me. “Since you’re doing business, you have to settle every account clearly.”

I turned to look at him. “Very well. I won’t be softhearted. Thank you for the lesson.”

He looked at me thoughtfully.

I packed up the stall. In my previous life, he had never helped me sell tofu, much less spoken this many words to me.

I suspected that when he left back then, he might not even have remembered my name.

What had happened to make things change?

At lunch, he only picked up his chopsticks after his subordinates had tasted the food first.

“Keep this.” He placed a jade pendant on the table, then tapped it lightly with his long, slender fingers, emphasizing the command.

It was that jade pendant, the one I knew all too well. In my previous life, even when I nearly starved to death several times, I had not been willing to pawn it for money.

The fire in my chest surged up all at once.

“Is this the additional life-saving money Young Master is giving me?”

“A token. If you sell it, I’ll be angry.” He pushed the jade pendant into my hand. “As for the debt of saving my life, I’ll repay it by giving myself to you.”

I gripped the jade pendant tightly and thought of my previous life, when he had left this pendant behind and said he would come back to marry me.

He had never once asked whether I was willing to accept his repayment.

Because to him, it was charity.

For example, if you were throwing a dog a meaty bone, would you ask whether it preferred pork or chicken?

No.

It was only a dog.

“There’s no need. I’m not interested in you, Young Master,” I replied.

He listened, and the expression on his face did not change. He merely picked up his outer robe and stopped in front of me.

“Believe me. In this world, no one can give you a better marriage than I can. Power, wealth, status-everything you want, you will have.”

He said it unhurriedly, as if I would surely not refute him, surely submit to him, surely fall in love with him…

Just as I had in my previous life. Waiting for him, loving him, following him, obeying him… until death.

I overturned the table, wrapped my arms around myself, and crouched on the floor. Rage nearly drowned me whole.

Song Shixing, in this life, let us see who ends up the dog to be handled and slaughtered at will.

That afternoon, I carried a bucket of soybean milk and several pieces of tofu into a deep alley, then knocked on the door of a household.

The person who opened the door was an old man with white hair and a youthful face, his bearing as refined as an immortal.

“Mr. Lang.” I handed him the tofu. “This tofu was just made. I brought some for you.”

Mr. Lang froze.