chapter 1
I arranged the young marquis’s funeral and sighed as I gazed across the desolate estate.
Word had once again spread through every street and alley that I was a calamity star. Everyone avoided me like the plague.
The sprawling marquis’s residence now held only me and a handful of elderly servants. Everyone else had resigned in terror of my reputation.
In theory, I now had the final say in the estate and ought to have been delighted. Even if I had only been married in to ward off bad luck, a merchant’s daughter like me had been unbelievably fortunate to become the lawful wife of a celebrated young war hero.
Unfortunately, the Pei family had far too many enemies. The very next night, assassins came for me.
I was sitting at my desk, going over the account books, when several men in black burst through the window. They unfurled a portrait, compared it to my face, and pointed.
“That’s her! The woman who killed the whole marquis’s family with her curse!”
I recoiled. “Who are you?”
One of them drew his sword with a sneer. “You don’t need to know. No one will save you now, even if you scream for dear life!”
I staggered backward and shrieked at the top of my lungs, “Dear Life! Dear Life!”
The men in black fell silent.
Damn it. Was this really the time for a joke that old?
I kicked over the table to block their path. The brief delay gave the elderly servants outside time to react. The Pei family had earned its renown on the battlefield, and even its servants knew a little martial arts.
Uncle Wen planted himself in front of me. “My lady, leave this to this old servant! Run!”
I fled without hesitation. Uncle Wen was badly outnumbered, however, and one assassin broke past him to chase me.
The blade drew closer. Cold sweat poured down my back. By the time I came to my senses, I had run into the ancestral hall.
No lamps burned in the dark chamber. Rows of memorial tablets covered the walls, forlorn and eerie in the moonlight.
“Accept your fate. There’s nowhere left to run.”
The assassin’s voice came from behind me. My blood went cold. I did not dare turn around, so I faced the young marquis’s memorial tablet and prayed with all my might.
“Husband, I’m so scared! Save me, save me, save me, save me!”
The assassin laughed viciously. “What good is begging a dead man’s tablet? You might as well kowtow to me. I promise to make your death quick.”
His footsteps closed in. From his shadow, I could see his broadsword rising.
At the last possible instant, I seized the young marquis’s memorial tablet and whirled around.
I was my father’s late-born daughter and had been pampered all my life. I might not have known much about running a noble household, but I had never lacked money.
I had never organized a funeral before. Still, I knew one thing: the most expensive option could never be wrong.
I had personally chosen the young marquis’s tablet. To give it proper grandeur, I had ordered it plated with gold on the inside. It was immensely solid and weighed dozens of jin.
Bang!
The assassin never saw it coming. The tablet smacked him across the face and sent him tumbling three times before he slammed into the doorframe.
He spat blood through his mask. Disbelief filled his eyes, and even his voice sounded fragile.
“Did you— No, wait. Did you make that tablet out of a stone slab?”
I hugged it to my chest and sobbed. “Husband, I knew you loved me! Even in death, you still protect me!”
The assassin’s expression was impossible to describe. Before he could speak, the young marquis split open—
No. The young marquis’s memorial tablet split open, revealing the glittering gold within.
Shock flashed across the assassin’s eyes.
Perhaps he had never imagined that a woman of my refined taste would give her husband something so understated yet so rich in substance.
To his credit, he was a professional. He dragged himself off the floor and tried to kill me again.
“No! Stay back!” Sobbing, I clutched the tablet and ran for the door. “Husband, save me, save me, save me—”
It was too heavy. I had barely taken two steps before I was gasping for breath.
“So—so heavy. Damn it, Husband, help…”
“If it’s that heavy, drop it and run!” the assassin roared, finally losing his patience.
His shout startled me. I stepped on my skirt and pitched forward, flinging the tablet from my hands.
The massive slab charged ahead like a furious bull and buried itself in one of the ancestral hall’s pillars.
A crack raced up the pillar to the ceiling. Dust began to sift down.
Crack.
The beam split. The walls started to buckle. The assassin and I stared in horror.
“No!”
As the hall swayed around us, I reacted first. I lunged at the pillar and clawed desperately at the tablet lodged inside it.
“No, no! My husband!”
The assassin grabbed me. “Forget your damned husband! The hall is collapsing!”
“I can’t!” I wailed. “At a time like this, can you still not tell I’m a hopeless romantic?”
“Oh, I can tell.” A vein bulged on his forehead. “But does it have to be with a memorial tablet?”
At that moment, Uncle Wen and the remaining assassins fought their way into the courtyard. The old man was plainly at his limit.
“Look out, my lady!” His aged legs gave way. He collapsed and reached dramatically toward me. “Do not fear! This old servant will protect you!”
“Then get up!” I cried, hugging the pillar. “Uncle Wen, are you protecting the ground by lying on it?”
Unable to rise, he could only shout helplessly, “My lady, run!”
Run? A trained fighter like him was already in that state. What chance did a delicate little flower like me have?
I wiped away my tears and looked at the assassin beside me, then at the men in the courtyard. Wolves ahead, tigers behind. It seemed I was destined to die here tonight.
Tears clouded my eyes. I gripped the tablet and composed myself for death.
“Husband, if Heaven means to destroy me, then I shall perish with you!”
“No, my lady!” Tears streamed down Uncle Wen’s face. With the last of his strength before he fainted, he shouted, “Even if you care nothing for yourself, think of the child in your womb!”
Clang!
The assassin’s hand jerked. His sword fell to the floor as he stared at me, his pupils blown wide.
The other black-clad figures went rigid and sucked in a collective breath.
“A child?”
One of them blurted in delight, “What? I’m going to be a grand—”
The person beside her elbowed her, cutting her off.
Perhaps I imagined it, but she sounded remarkably like my mother-in-law.
Everyone exchanged glances and stopped advancing.
“Y-you mean you’re… with child?” stammered the assassin beside me.
I refused to look at him. Wasn’t it obvious?
When a family died without heirs, its property reverted to the court. I was only an outsider who had married into the Pei family, yet the emperor had not seized the estate. Naturally, that was because I was pregnant.
If the baby was a boy, he could inherit the household and become the next marquis.
The ancestral hall groaned around us. The assassin’s expression tightened. With one effortless tug of his long fingers, he pulled the tablet from the pillar, then swept me into his arms.
For some reason, his movements seemed unusually careful.
The moment we cleared the hall, it collapsed into rubble behind us.
The men in black froze. One finally reacted and glared at the ruin with bloodshot eyes.
“No—our ancestral—”
Someone stepped hard on his foot, silencing him. The culprit even cast me a cautious glance.
I blinked. It was indeed the Pei family’s ancestral hall, but why was he so upset?
Noticing my suspicion, the assassin stopped. He set me down, staggered back two steps, and suddenly coughed up another mouthful of blood.
“Damn it!” Clutching his stomach, he glared fiercely. “That memorial tablet injured me terribly. Cough! I can’t hold on much longer!”
I stared at him. “Don’t try to scam me. I hit you in the face.”
He clearly had no intention of listening. He continued coughing up blood with impressive dedication. One of the others reacted at once and flew to his side.
“Hold on, Brother! Curse the Pei estate and its hidden masters. They have wounded us grievously!”
She shot me a murderous glare. “You won’t be this lucky next time! Men, retreat!”