chapter 10
Four years later, the princess was pregnant again. She was delighted, returning to the palace in her luxurious carriage with immense pride, staying until late at night before coming back.
The carriage that had left empty was now stuffed with gold and silver treasures on its return.
She swaggered into the house, as flamboyant as a peacock in full bloom.
She saw me studying and kicked me hard in the chest, then grabbed me with disgust, pinching my face between her thumb and forefinger and lifting me up.
Her face was cold as she tightened her grip, as if she wished to strangle me: “You really look exactly like your whore of a Mother, just as much of an eyesore.”
In the past, she liked to torment me slowly, savoring the process. Now, with this child, she no longer held back.
Beside her, the maid Bilan intervened: “Princess, her Mother delayed you and the prince consort from being together. You let her die too easily back then. Thinking about it now, you were far too soft. Just keep this little wretch alive and torment her slowly, let her atone for her Mother’s sins.”
The princess loosened her grip on me a little. Bilan leaned close to her ear and whispered: “You’ve only just become pregnant, and the prince consort has just returned from disaster relief. He’s about to be promoted again. This little wretch is worthless, but you can’t let her affect your standing in the prince consort’s heart. Once you give birth to the Crown Heir and the prince consort has a son, he’ll have no reason not to despise this little wretch.”
The princess smiled with pleasure, flung me aside, and tossed me to the floor, saying, “I’ll let you live a few more days. I’ll settle accounts with you later.”
She carefully caressed her belly, a shy and satisfied smile blooming on her face, and left with great fanfare.
She didn’t know that the child in her womb wasn’t Father’s at all.
Father hated her to the point of death; he would never touch her.
On those nights, the mansion was filled with the scent of narcotics, and no one knew whether the men entering the princess’s bedchamber were beggars or death-row prisoners from the Imperial Prison.
Father once secretly found the thugs who had raped and killed Mother. They knelt before him, begging for their lives.
They told Father that the princess had told them the woman they were to violate was a lowly prostitute, and they could do as they pleased.
After hearing this, Father sat in a daze, not even angry. When he came to his senses, he burst into strange laughter, repeating the word “lowly” over and over until all his strength was gone, clutching his head and kneeling on the ground, his face covered in tears.
The next day, in the room beside Mother’s Ancestral Hall, Father skinned the five men alive in front of me and made Human-Skin Lanterns from their hides.
When he skinned the first man, it was slow and intermittent. Father’s hands were steady, his gaze fierce and terrifying, and the spurting blood splattered across his face.
He was truly terrifying, like a vengeful ghost from hell.
But when he looked at me, his eyes were smiling. They were right-Father had gone mad.
He beckoned me over and asked with a smile if I was afraid.
I shook my head and said I wasn’t. I am Father’s child-how could I be afraid?
Father has gone mad, so how could I be normal?
That night, in Mother’s Ancestral Hall, five strange lanterns hung from the beams of the roof.
I knew this was only the beginning.
Father was truly mad. There was no turning back for him.