Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was the dog days of summer, when the sun was at its most vicious.

The bluestone slabs in the rear courtyard had been baked pale by the scorching heat. Even the maids in charge of sweeping refused to work at this hour; they merely held their brooms and made a show of sweeping the dust beneath the shade of the trees.

I had been kneeling here for two days.

The cicadas in the trees shrilled so loudly it made me dizzy. I only pressed my lips together for a moment, and my cracked, parched mouth immediately split open, blood welling up.

The heavy taste of blood spread between my lips and teeth. I licked my lips, and my mind cleared a little.

I was kneeling here to beg my legitimate mother for mercy.

Begging her to spare my Mother.

My Mother had been falsely accused of stealing a bracelet from my legitimate mother’s dowry. Five days ago, she had been beaten half to death.

In this sweltering summer heat, her wounds had festered and rotted, and her fever would not break.

I gathered every piece of jewelry I had saved over the years and pawned them for silver, then begged a female physician to come and see her.

The physician gave her external wounds a rough treatment. In the end, she said the other injuries were manageable, but her leg… If the bone had been cleanly broken at the root, that would have been one thing. But it had been smashed bit by bit with a plank.

If Doctor Dong, the finest physician in the capital, could be invited to treat her, there might still be a chance to heal it.

Otherwise, even if she survived, she would most likely be crippled.

My Mother’s favor relied entirely on her beauty, and she had only given birth to one daughter.

If she became crippled as well, Father would never spare her another glance.

But all of that was for later. Right now, all I wanted was for Mother to live.

Doctor Dong was famed for bringing the dying back from the brink. He had the greatest reputation in the capital, and even the powerful and wealthy of the city had to show him deference and wait in line to seek his care.

How could a mere concubine-born daughter like me see him, let alone invite him over at will?

So I begged my legitimate mother to give me the Lin Mansion’s token.

My gauze dress had been soaked through with sweat again and again. I knelt on the stone slabs hot enough to smoke, on the verge of fainting more than once. It felt as if my soul had left my body and floated into the air, looking down at the woman whose whole body had been burned red and raw by the sun.

My maid, Cailian, hurried to my side, her voice thick with tears. “Young Miss, Auntie’s fever still won’t go down. What are we going to do?”

The situation had grown so dire that she seemed to suddenly remember something. Hope flared in her eyes as she said to me,

“Kneeling here isn’t doing any good. Madam won’t even see you. …Young Miss… if there’s truly no other way, why don’t you go beg Young Lord Song?”

The Young Lord Song she spoke of was Song Shubai.

Every inch of land in Shangjing City was worth a fortune. On one side of a street might stand the mansions of noble families, while on the other, there might be only destitute households by a foul drainage ditch.

Song Shubai was the poor scholar who lived behind our house.

I had run into him by chance. Seeing how difficult his life was, I had sent him meals for five years.

He had not disappointed expectations. In one stroke, he passed the imperial examination as Tanhua.

And then he forgot me.

My legitimate elder sister often used this matter to mock me.

Cailian still did not know that I had, in fact, already gone to beg Song Shubai once.

I had hoped he would remember even a little of our past affection and lend a hand.

I lowered my eyes, recalling what Song Shubai had said to me.

“Younger Sister Xi’er, it is not that I refuse to help. But how could I possibly interfere in your father’s inner courtyard? I know your Mother has been wronged, but as a concubine, how can she expect never to be beaten?”

“Endure it for now.”

Endure?

A life was hanging in the balance.

And he told me to endure.

I did not know how I was supposed to endure. But aside from enduring, it seemed there was no other way.

Seeing that I remained silent, Cailian guessed that I was still concerned about dignity and status and refused to go beg Song Shubai.

She opened her mouth, but in the end, master and servant were not the same. She said nothing, only sobbed and ran back to care for Mother.

I stayed where I was and continued kneeling, begging my legitimate mother for mercy.

The hottest part of the day had finally passed. I did not know how long I had knelt, but the sky had turned the pale white of a fish belly, and the sun was sinking westward.

Cailian came again.

She ran fast and frantically, utterly at a loss. Her forehead was covered in sweat, but her lips were white.

“Young Miss, Auntie… she won’t respond!”

It took me a long while to react. Only then did I rise in a daze. The scenery around me slid slowly past my eyes. A sharp ringing screamed in my ears, and bursts of white light exploded in my mind.

There was one thing Cailian had been right about.

Kneeling here was useless.

I looked around, then took a step in a daze.

It was not that Father did not know my Mother’s life was in danger. He had simply tacitly approved of my legitimate mother’s actions.

A few days ago, he had been impeached at court, and it was all thanks to his father-in-law’s efforts that he had been saved. As for my legitimate mother, she had always resented my Mother for her beauty.

There were honored guests today. The front hall was brightly lit, figures moving in overlapping shadows. Nearly every servant in the Lin Mansion was standing by there. Compared with the desolation of the rear courtyard, it was like another world.

I went to the stables and picked up a firewood knife.

In a daze, I thought-thank goodness Father was a scholar. Scholars valued face above all else.

Cailian was already terrified senseless. She threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around my leg, sobbing.

“Young Miss, Young Miss! What are you going to do?! We… we can think of another way!”

What other way was there? I lowered my head and pushed her away.

Now that matters had come to this, the worst that could happen was death.

Besides, if my Mother died, I would go with her.

And so, in a trance, I walked step by step toward the front hall.

Servants guarded the entrance. The first two stared at me and failed to react.

I took another few steps. Suddenly, a young servant let out a shriek and lunged toward me.

I had never imagined there would come a day when I would raise a blade against someone.

Blood sprayed three feet into the air. Immediately after, several more people rushed at me.

With such a commotion, unrest broke out in the front hall. At last, I saw the person I wanted to see and cried out in grief,

“Father, please save my Mother’s life!”

My hair was disheveled, and my body was stained with another person’s blood. My skin, once fair, had been burned crimson by two days under the sun, red as fire.

Father’s eyes went wide as he pointed at me. For a long time, he could not speak.

I supposed he had never expected that his daughter, who had always been as timid as a rabbit, would one day look like an Asura.

The steward was the first to react. He roared, “The Second Young Miss has gone mad! Hurry and take her away!”

Several people came forward and pinned me down, seizing the firewood knife from my hand.

Amid the chaos, I was forced to my knees. With tears in my eyes, I stared fixedly at the man in embroidered robes before me. Before I could even speak, my tears fell.

“Father, please save my Mother!”

The scene was too ugly to bear. I did not know who struck the side of my neck with a hand chop.

The last thing I saw was someone walking out from the crowd, tall and slender, coldly handsome. By chance, my gaze met his sharp eyes.

After that, I lost consciousness.