chapter 5

Until one night at the age of fifteen, as usual, I carried a food box into the dense forest to offer sacrifices, only to stumble upon a young man wolfing down food in front of the tombstone.

The moonlight was eerie, illuminating the delicate contours of his brows and eyes. Between his brows was a captivating vermilion mole.

Momo had taught me before how to distinguish the identities of the various masters in the palace. She told me that the Thirteenth Prince was the easiest to recognize.

The Thirteenth Prince was named Yan Ci. Between his brows was a tiny blood-red vermilion mole.

Yan Ci’s birth mother was Consort Yan, once the most favored among the six palaces. Yet, she grew arrogant with favor and poisoned Empress Jing, the mother of Crown Prince Yan Qing.

Emperor Yan, enraged, demoted Consort Yan to Yan Slave, sentencing her to labor in the Laundry Bureau and withholding her monthly stipend.

Yan Ci was stripped of his princely privileges, forbidden to study, and could only serve as a Medicine Boy attending Emperor Yan, receiving a pitifully small monthly allowance.

Emperor Yan’s medicinal ingredient was the brains of virgins. And the Medicine Boy’s job was to pry open the skulls of virgins.

Momo said, four hundred and seventy-two. I asked, what? Momo said, that’s how many beautiful heads I’ve chopped off in total.

I counted on my fingers and realized that the Thirteenth Prince, Yan Ci, had pried open that many beautiful skulls in total.

Fortunately, I recognized the Thirteenth Prince, Yan Ci. Unfortunately, when I recognized him, he had just finished killing someone.

Eunuch Su’s skull had been violently pried open, with a puddle of urine beneath him-utterly ridiculous.

I felt a bit like laughing, but thought it was rather inappropriate, so I grinned and repented: Amitabha, mercy, mercy.