Chapter 6

He Yan and Princess Pingyao reconciled.

For the sake of this long-awaited first grandson, the Duke of Ying summoned me to his study and told me to stay away from He Yan, lest I upset the princess again.

When I saw He Yan several days later, the old warmth was gone from his eyes. Instead, he watched me with suspicion and scrutiny.

Princess Pingyao, on the other hand, had become positively affectionate.

As though those three days of confinement had finally given shape to her muddled brain, she assumed the authority of an elder sister-in-law and told me to accompany her to a temple to pray for her unborn child.

She was taking the initiative. With such a fine opportunity before me, of course I would go.

I had not expected her to be so stupid. She had brought me out merely to expose my real identity in front of He Yan.

“I’ve found out everything, He Yan. No—your real name is Zhao Yang. You came here deliberately to take revenge on me, didn’t you?”

Beside a pond on the hill behind the temple, Princess Pingyao guarded her belly and glared. “You’re vicious! You were after me from the very beginning!”

“Mother and the heir have treated you so well. But all you ever wanted was to tear this family apart and deny us any peace!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of cloud-embroidered cloth behind an ornamental rockery. I looked hurt and bewildered. “Sister-in-law, what are you saying? I don’t understand.”

“Did you invite me out just to slander me again?”

She gave a scornful laugh. “Stop pretending, Zhao Yang. I’ve investigated everything. You came to the duke’s household for revenge. You abducted Xu Qing too, didn’t you? Don’t try to deny it!”

My eyes misted with tears. “Very well. You say I came for revenge. Then whose wrongs am I avenging? What have you done to make me hate you so much that I’d betray the woman who saved my life just to get back at you?”

The triumph froze on her face.

I raised my handkerchief to wipe my tears. Concealed by my sleeve, I smiled at her and whispered, “You’re right. I’m making Xu Qing wish he were dead. Guess who’s next?”

Her pupils trembled. Without thinking, she reached out to hit me. “You bitch!”

I let myself fall toward the pond, then pretended to panic and pulled her in with me.

“Ah!”

“Pingyao!”

The moment we hit the water, I feigned a desperate struggle. In fact, I was holding on to the princess and kicking hard at her lower abdomen.

Terrified and unable to break free, she could only shield her belly. A pleading look spread across her face.

But why would I spare her?

Wasn’t this child her treasure? I would destroy the thing she relied on!

I would make her lose someone dear, as I had, and suffer the torment day and night!

Cold water flooded my mouth and nose. My strength soon failed, and I began sinking toward the bottom.

But in the last moment before I lost consciousness, I saw blood spreading beneath Princess Pingyao.

It was as though I had returned to that day three years before.

The river surged around me. I could see no end.

I knew neither where I had come from nor where I could go. Loneliness and cold enveloped me.

“Yan…”

Only when a soft call reached my ears did I open my eyes, straight into my adoptive mother’s tear-reddened ones.

“Mother?”

Her eyes filled at once. “My dear child, you’re finally awake!”

I had been unconscious for three days.

Princess Pingyao had woken before me. Her child was gone, and she would never be able to bear another.

Grieving for the long-awaited first grandson, the furious duke had decided to punish me—even though He Yan told him what had happened: the princess had struck me into the pond and fallen in herself by accident.

He considered me responsible for his grandson’s death. Under pressure from the Marquis of Anguo’s household as well, he refused to let a doctor treat me and decided to send me to a rural estate to die.

My adoptive mother refused to accept it. She secretly brought in a doctor and resolved to go with me.

On the day we were to leave the duke’s residence, Prince Xian arrived from Qiongzhou with his wife.

I was not the only one confused. Even the duke seemed unable to understand what was happening.

Prince Xian was the emperor’s younger brother. He had gone to his fief in Qiongzhou at the age of eight and had no dealings with the duke’s family. Why had he come?

But the prince had just wiped out the pirates who had plagued Qiongzhou for years and returned in triumph. His influence was at its height. The duke was not foolish enough to turn him away.

None of this should have concerned me. Since I was bound to leave the capital, a day sooner or later hardly mattered.

Until I saw the elegant, richly dressed Princess Consort Xian walk toward me, tears in her eyes, and call, “Yang…”

I stood rooted to the spot. It felt as though all the blood in my body had begun to boil.

“Sister…”

“Sister!”

I flung my arms around her waist and cried until I nearly fainted.

I had never imagined our reunion would happen like this.

I had thought that once my adoptive mother and I went to the estate outside the capital, dealing with Princess Pingyao would become much harder.

But with my sister’s return, those problems disappeared.

On one side was a princely household at the height of its power; on the other, a marquis’s household long in decline. The duke was a clever man. Without a moment’s hesitation, he began smiling at me again.

Princess Pingyao’s face was deathly pale. She looked as though she wished her gaze could cut me to pieces.

But my sister took her hand and said softly, “Really, you ought to thank my little sister.”

“Giving birth is like passing through the gates of death. My sister has removed that danger for you once and for all. She’s saved your life. Shouldn’t you thank her?”

The princess’s face twisted. Her mouth twitched with the effort of restraining herself. Yet before the tall, imposing Prince Xian, she dared not show even a look of anger.

“All right, I’m only teasing.”

My sister smiled gently, her expression apologetic. “My little sister did do wrong, and I apologize on her behalf. But…”

“My little sister isn’t bad at heart. It was only an accident that led her to do something wrong. You’re her sister-in-law. Please forgive her this once.”

Princess Pingyao raised her head and stared hard at my sister.

Watching her contorted face, I suddenly remembered pleading for justice for my sister years ago, and the princess speaking of Xu Qing with such regret.

“Ah Qing isn’t bad at heart. He only made a mistake because he briefly lost his way.”

I wondered whether she could still remember what she had done back then.

That night, my sister stayed at the duke’s residence. We talked until morning.

Only then did I learn that she had followed my instructions and escaped all the way to Qiongzhou.

She had changed her name, met Prince Xian and married him. I had been unable to find her because he had helped erase her trail.

For those three years, she had believed Xu Qing had killed me. Instead of returning to the capital, she had carefully nurtured her relationship with the prince and sought every means of gathering evidence to avenge our parents.

I told her what had happened to me as well. Reunited after so long, we held each other and spoke of all the bitterness and pain we had endured.

At last, we could avenge our murdered parents.

If Princess Pingyao could protect a rapist merely for his handsome face, she must have committed plenty of other follies in private.

With my sister, the prince’s wife, behind me, I gathered all the evidence almost effortlessly and exposed what the princess had done.

Out of jealousy, she had disfigured a close friend, leaving a daughter of a distinguished family with no choice but to marry a common laborer or peddler.

Out of mischievousness, she had ridden down and killed two small children. Afraid of discovery, she paid off their parents, then sent Xu Qing to silence them.

Out of softheartedness, she had released a villain guilty of every evil, causing an entire village to be slaughtered without a single survivor.

Out of an overflowing sense of justice, she had “robbed the rich to help the poor,” seizing all a wealthy merchant’s property, distributing the jewels and money to mountain bandits and letting them hack his family to death.

There was so much more. With her family cleaning up after her, He Yan indulging her and Xu Qing obeying her every word, she had considered herself above every law.

The victims’ families joined together to petition the emperor. It was not only Princess Pingyao who faced death. The Marquis of Anguo’s household behind her was doomed as well.

He Yan divorced her in a single letter and could scarcely wait to throw her out.

The moment she stepped outside, officers from the Ministry of Justice arrested her.

The official handling her case had trained under the same master as my brother-in-law, Prince Xian, and was his junior. That allowed me to bring Xu Qing to visit her.

In her cell, her clothes were ragged, her expression vacant. She looked half-mad.

I smiled. “Three years ago, Your Highness, did you ever imagine this day would come?”

Her eyes flickered, but her face barely changed. She remained sitting blankly on the floor.

I stepped aside. Someone immediately threw the struggling Xu Qing toward her.

Startled, she scrambled away. Looking at the stinking, writhing figure on the ground, she finally abandoned the pretense.

“Zhao Yang! What are you trying to do?”

“Xu Qing did those things back then! If you want revenge, take it on him. Why come after me?”

“He was the shameless, filthy lecher! What does any of it have to do with me?”

The figure writhing on the ground went still.

I looked coldly at Princess Pingyao. “Nothing to do with you? You knew he’d hurt my sister, yet you wanted to marry her to him.”

“How can a woman like you exist? You pity men. Why can’t you spare a little pity for the women he hurt? What did they do wrong to deserve being brutalized by that wretch?”

The more I spoke, the angrier I became. I kicked Xu Qing. His body shuddered, but he could make no sound.

The princess seemed to realize something. She stared at the figure on the ground in disbelief. “Ah… Ah Qing?”

I had severed the tendons in his wrists and ankles and cut out his tongue. Looking at the woman he loved, he could only open his mouth and weep without a sound.

And the woman he had revered like a pure, holy moon suddenly rushed at him like a madwoman and slapped him dozens of times.

“You! It’s all because of you! If it weren’t for you, how would I ever have crossed those two sisters?”

“I only told you to teach them a lesson! When did I tell you to kill them?”

“You couldn’t control yourself, then came begging me to take your side. I was young and foolish. I actually let you deceive me.”

“You’ve ruined me! Do you know that? It’s all your fault! All your fault!”

I did not have anyone stop her. I only told them to watch and make sure the madwoman did not actually beat Xu Qing to death.

I still needed him alive. I had plenty of time to play.

Death was too easy for him. I wanted him to live for a long, long time, in such agony that death would seem a kindness.

Only that could do justice to my murdered parents, my sister and all the other women he had hurt.

Princess Pingyao died on a winter’s day.

She was sentenced to death by slow slicing. The executioner cut away her flesh piece by piece until almost nothing but a skeleton remained.

She died screaming, in pain and hatred.

I took Xu Qing to watch.

Very pleased, I asked him, “Well? Would you like to try?”

White as paper, he shook uncontrollably.

All his old contempt and disdain were gone. In their place was a profound terror, as though I were a demoness who killed without blinking.

He was not far wrong. I still had to take him to atone before the women he had hurt.

After saying goodbye to my sister and Prince Xian, my adoptive mother and I set out with Xu Qing on a fine, clear day.

She had ended her marriage to the duke. He and He Yan had disappointed her too deeply. She no longer wanted to torment herself.

She had previously turned a blind eye to my revenge on Xu Qing. Once my sister returned and she learned the truth, she gave her full support to what I intended to do.

She regarded me as her second daughter.

I regarded her as my second mother.

We would have a quiet but happy life.

And Xu Qing would spend the rest of his life atoning for the crimes of his earlier years.

The End.