Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The wooden cylinder rattled, and the Imperial Consort drew a slip.

It was a long slip, with the word “Fei” written on it in ink.

“Song Fei, come up.”

The Imperial Consort looked at me with a smile.

“Pick whichever weapon you like.”

The screen was pulled back, revealing a wall-to-wall weapon rack.

Rumor had it that the Imperial Consort was the daughter of a military family and had always preferred martial arts over feminine pursuits. The Emperor doted on her, allowing her to collect weapons from all over the world within the palace.

At this moment, the rack was fully stocked with sabers, spears, swords, and halberds.

Yet none of them could save me.

All the martial skill I possessed was merely some basic training from my time in the opera troupe.

The tiger in the iron cage let out a hungry roar. For a fleeting moment, a thought surfaced in my mind-

I was probably going to die here.

…

Just as that thought emerged, a hand pulled me back from behind.

“Your Ladyship.”

Zhan Mingyue pulled me aside and knelt down.

She was still trembling, her face still pale.

But she lifted her head.

“May I go in her stead?”

[Zhan Mingyue]

Zhan Mingyue had disliked Song Fei from the very first moment she saw her.

She couldn’t explain why herself, but later she realized it was because Song Fei always reminded her of her stepmother.

Zhan Mingyue’s stepmother had been an opera singer.

Zhan Mingyue’s father had been obsessed with her, squandering the family fortune and driving Zhan Mingyue’s mother to her death.

Her mother had always been the hero of Zhan Mingyue’s life.

That woman had once served in the City Defense Army. On the night Liangcheng was nearly breached, she had downed a bowl of wine, smashed it on the ground, and headed out of the city gates gripping a long spear.

They fought until dawn that night and held the city.

When people found Zhan Mingyue’s mother on the battlefield, the woman was covered in wounds.

But she was clutching a swaddled bundle tightly-a baby girl, though no one knew which refugee the child belonged to.

Amidst the flames of war, the child had slept soundly in the woman’s arms.

That child was Zhan Mingyue.

…

Zhan Mingyue had always hoped she could be a hero like her mother.

But she wasn’t.

Under the verbal abuse and slander of her stepmother, she had become cowardly, hesitant, and fearful.

She couldn’t even remember what her mother looked like anymore.

On countless nights, she could only hold the spear her mother had left behind, weeping as she thought:

I am not worthy of being Mother’s daughter.

…

But at this moment, within the golden hall.

Zhan Mingyue looked at Song Fei’s back.

This seductive-looking woman had already saved two people.

She had given away her own chances at survival, once to the young Li Jiuniang, and once to the gravely ill Xie Rushu.

Mother.

I can’t be even worse than this little vixen, right?

Besides, this vixen is too frail to carry or lift anything. If she enters that tiger cage, she’ll definitely die.

But I might not.

I am, after all, my mother’s daughter.

…

Qianyuan 16th Year, a summer night.

Seven years after her mother’s death, Zhan Mingyue picked up the long spear left to her and entered the tiger’s cage.