Chapter 21
After the Lantern Festival, Jiang Ting paid a visit to the Censor’s Mansion.
He played chess with Zhang Yanli. Upon hearing this, Zhang Mi dressed up especially to go and watch the game.
The final round became a showdown between Zhang Mi and Zhang Yanli.
Everyone present had their eyes fixed on the chessboard, except for Heir Jiang, who sat to the side, sipping tea with a half-smile. Eventually, he leaned back and beckoned me over.
He whispered in my ear.
I bit my lip, leaned in, and whispered something back to him.
Heir Jiang laughed freely, idly twirling the teacup on the table, his eyes narrowing in amusement.
Three nights later, in the deep of night, he climbed over the wall into the Censor’s Mansion.
Heir Jiang was never short of women, but those stolen in secret always seemed more enticing.
In the dead of night, we met in the most secluded loft of the West Side Courtyard, a place usually piled with odds and ends, where no one would come.
I had tidied up the inner room; it was clean enough.
Only a single oil lamp was lit on the table, casting a dim light.
The Censor’s Mansion was so vast, no one would care about such a small corner.
Jiang Ting held me in his arms. I wrapped my arms around his waist, looked up at him, and asked if he would marry me in the future.
He looked at me, the corner of his mouth lifting as his fingers brushed my lips: “Xiao Chun, I won’t lie to you. In the future, I can take you as a concubine, but never as my wife. If you regret it, there’s still time.”
He understood a woman’s heart well, pretending to pull away. I shook my head repeatedly and held him tighter: “Young Master, I do not regret it.”
He laughed, stroked my face, and leaned in to kiss me.
I stopped him, speaking softly: “Young Master, I’m a little afraid. Please have a drink with me first.”
There was a pot of wine on the table. I took a cup to steady my nerves, and Jiang Ting followed suit.
He was in high spirits, tossing aside the cup and pulling me into his embrace.
But soon, his smile faded.
He slumped weakly onto the table, then collapsed into a chair, unable even to lift a finger to point at me.
“Xiao… Xiao Chun, what are you doing…”
I stood before him, holding a thin cord, watching as I tied a knot.
“I didn’t want this, but you ate the rice from my family.”
At that moment, I must have looked like a demon.
I had prepared not only a cord, but also a knife.
I circled behind him, slipped the cord around his neck, gave him no chance to speak, and pulled with all my strength, my feet braced against the chair back.
“If you eat my family’s rice, you must pay it back. You rise in rank and title, leaving corpses everywhere in my home-how can there be such good fortune in this world?”
The lamplight cast my face in a ghastly light.
No fear-I had long ceased to be human.
From the moment I left Qingshi Town, I became a wandering ghost, vowing to grip their throats.
Back then, the leader of the Guodao Army was Loyal and Brave Marquis Jiang Wenlu. Later, he surrendered to Prince Ping of Yanshan Prefecture, aided him in seizing power, and was made a marquis after the world was pacified.
He was not the only one to rise in rank and title.
No matter. I will find them one by one, and kill them one by one.
The current Emperor favors Jiang Wenlu greatly, granting him Kaiping Mansion.
What kind of military merit deserves the title “Ping”?
Traitors and rebels, transformed into founding marquises.
Does no one care?
No matter. I, Sun Yunchun, will act.
Jiang Ting was the sixth person I killed.
Heir to the Loyal and Brave Marquis-when his father slaughtered our Qingshi Town, he was only eighteen, but he was there, riding high on horseback, so proud.
Now, he stared at me in terror, unable to draw a breath under my hands.
I did not take a single drop of his blood.
My knife was meant to open his belly.
I want my family’s rice back.
I am not afraid at all.
No one will know where he went.
The attendant who knew his whereabouts was, at that moment, waiting outside the Censor’s Mansion in the night.
In the deep night, he too would meet a ghost.
A mute boy and a cripple.
They could act, could pretend, and would take him by surprise, slipping a cord around his head.
The mute boy was a beggar named Gouer. I had shown him kindness once, giving him a bowl of rice.
The cripple was Wei Donghe.
Yes, the very Wei Donghe who grew up with me in Qingshi Town.