Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Nine female members of the Yun Manor were imprisoned in the Imperial Prison, awaiting the Emperor’s decree.

Ultimately, their fate would be either to be sold as slaves or sent to the Jiaofangsi.

“Pingqing,” my mother called to me. “What time is it?”

My mother was ill; she had collapsed the moment we entered this place three days ago.

I peered at a sliver of the sky through a narrow air vent and said softly, “Around noon.”

“Noon,” my mother repeated the word helplessly, her hand gripping mine tightly.

Noon was the hour of the Yun Manor’s ruin.

My father was about to be beheaded.

The men of the Yun Clan were about to begin their journey to Mobei for military exile.

My mother broke into loud sobs, and my aunts and cousins began to cry along with her.

My second aunt pleaded with me, “Pingqing, go and beg Song Yan. Just ask him to save you sisters. He has the power to do it.”

Song Yan was my fiancé. Four years ago, he was the third-ranked scholar in the imperial examinations. My father had admired his talent and betrothed me to him.

His career had been smooth, earning him promotion after promotion and the deep trust of the Crown Prince.

But now, he was also the executioner who had brought the Yun Clan to its destruction.

I wiped away my aunt’s tears. “He won’t help us.”

She threw herself into my arms, weeping, while my cousins crowded around me, crying and calling for their elder sister.

I stared at the beam of light filtering through the vent.

It was too high, too ethereal-impossible to grasp.

Heavy footsteps echoed from behind. I turned, expecting an eunuch coming to announce the decree, but instead, I saw Song Yan.

He wore a crimson robe and a winged official’s cap. Standing tall and proud, he was separated from me only by the wooden bars of the cell. Our eyes met.

In that moment of eye contact, I thought of the first time I met Song Yan.

He had been wearing a washed-out grey robe, bowing deeply to me. “Yuan’an offers his respects to the Eldest Miss.”

Now, he held a high position, while I was a prisoner he looked down upon.

My second aunt begged him to save the four of us sisters. She said the older generation’s lives were forfeit, but we sisters had been raised like delicate flowers in a greenhouse; how could we endure a place like the Jiaofangsi?

Song Yan listened in silence, his gaze fixed on me the entire time.

Suddenly, he spoke. “Why does the Eldest Miss not beg?”

The cell fell silent. My aunt’s hopeful gaze landed on my face.

I knew what my aunt meant, and I understood Song Yan’s objective.

I knelt before Song Yan.

“I beg Lord Song to lend a helping hand and save us sisters,” I said calmly, kowtowing to him. “If this can be achieved, Pingqing is willing to serve you as a beast of burden for the rest of her life to repay the debt.”

Three feet away, across the wooden bars, Song Yan’s low but amused laughter rang out.

He crouched down halfway and said mockingly, “Even if all four sisters become my concubines, the Eldest Miss is willing?”

I paused for a heartbeat, then continued to kowtow.

I replied, “My Lord is a man of refined taste and extraordinary talent. To be your concubine would be the good fortune of my sisters and me.”

He laughed again. “I did not know the Eldest Miss was so capable of swallowing her pride.”

I lowered my head and did not answer.

“However, while it may be your fortune, it would be my misfortune.” Song Yan stood up, his sleeves fluttering as his cold, chilling voice drifted down from above. “Eldest Miss, I will visit you at the Jiaofangsi.”

With those words, Song Yan laughed loudly and walked away.

I straightened my back and calmly watched his retreating figure.

“Pingqing!” My second aunt hugged me, apologizing repeatedly. “I was being delusional. I shouldn’t have made you beg that heartless wolf.”

I comforted her, then turned my gaze toward the person in the neighboring cell, whose collarbones were pierced by iron chains.

His face was hidden by matted, disheveled hair. He sat cross-legged in the corner and hadn’t moved for three days.

I had thought he was dead, but just now, I heard the rattle of the chains in his bones.

He was actually still alive.