Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Three days ago, in the dead of night.

I was lying in bed, tossing and turning, when I realized I had forgotten to blow out the candle.

I pulled back the covers and was about to get up.

Suddenly, a sharp blade swept across my throat, freezing me in place.

“Chao Ruyu, I hear you specialize in delivering the Last Meal Before Execution to death row. I want to hire you for a job.”

I tilted my head back slightly and turned my gaze toward the intruder.

It was a masked figure dressed in black.

I have spent years delivering meals to death row. While the work is somewhat secretive and I rarely socialize, it is ultimately a low-level job. It is inevitable that the families of death row inmates find out about me, asking me to pass on a few words or add a favorite dish to the tray.

Since I already walk the edge of the law, I help out whenever I can. It brings in money much faster than my official duties.

However, being held at sword-point in the middle of the night was a rare occurrence.

“Who is the employer?”

“That is not for you to ask.”

A gold ingot was tossed in front of me.

Rich.

I picked it up and rubbed it secretly; it was a brand-new ingot.

Very rich.

“Then who is the target? What needs to be done?”

“Kill someone. Your enemy.”

I took the portrait and unrolled it. I froze the moment I saw the face.

The man in the painting had a refined posture and handsome features. It was Yuan Mu, the man who had broken our engagement all those years ago.

Good heavens, they actually hired the ex-fiancée to be the assassin!

“Well? Will you take it? Once the deed is done, you will receive a thousand taels of gold and safe passage out of the capital.”

I rolled the scroll back up.

“I’ll do it.”

A white porcelain bottle was placed on my bedside table.

“This is poison. It is colorless and odorless. Once ingested, the victim will die of suffocation within half an hour.”

***

It is not uncommon for death row inmates to die in prison ahead of schedule.

Sentenced to death, many lose their will to eat or drink, their spirits crumbling until they cannot survive until the day of the autumn execution.

Once they die in their cells, they are rolled into straw mats under the cover of night, hauled to the unmarked graves, and buried without ceremony.

This was why I dared to use the poison.

“You knew, yet you still drank it?”

Yuan Mu stared at me for a long time, his expression indifferent.

“You should go.”

His fingers curled tightly, and his breathing grew increasingly heavy, as if he were struggling for air.

The poison was about to take full effect; I couldn’t let him die right in front of me.

“Farewell.”

I didn’t linger. I turned and walked out.

The jailer came over to lock the cell door.

The chains clattered and clanged, startling Guo Jailer, who had been chatting with someone in the corner.

“Leaving? I’ll walk with you.”

Guo Jailer was not the current warden.

The actual warden was Zhao Jailer, whom we addressed as “Excellency.”

As for Guo Jailer, he was the previous warden. After his son died, he fell seriously ill and retired early three years ago. He lived in a nearby alley and often dropped by the prison to wander around when he had nothing to do.

He and I walked into the shadows.

The death row of the Prison Ministry was built beneath the ordinary cells. The entrance was a narrow, winding passage that could only fit two or three people abreast.

Guo Jailer whispered, “When he’s sent to the unmarked graves, I’ve already scouted the exact spot. I’ll send word to you.”

“Uncle Guo, thank you.”

He looked left and right before waving his hand. “Where are you going to take… him?”

He pointedly avoided the word “corpse.”

Guo Jailer knew I had poisoned him. He knew about the history between me and Yuan Mu, and since the man was going to die tomorrow anyway, he was simply letting me have my revenge.

After all, Yuan Mu’s uncles had resigned from their posts years ago to live a quiet life in their hometown of Runan, rarely coming to the capital to pull strings.

It was as if the entire family had forgotten about Yuan Mu, their Eldest Young Master.

“I’ll find someone to take him back to Runan.”

Once he becomes just another corpse in the unmarked graves, I’ll find some random peddler to roll him up in a straw mat and send him off to Runan.

As we were heading up, the light at the exit suddenly flickered and shifted.

Several figures dashed past at high speed.

I paused in my tracks.

Guo Jailer was even more sensitive to the change. “Has something happened?”

The sound of hurried, frantic footsteps approached.

“Quick, quick, quick! Count the prisoners!”

My brow furrowed involuntarily as I shared a knowing look with Old Guo-

Something really had happened!

Zhao Jailer rushed in, leading a file of prison guards.

He was in a frantic rush; when he looked up and ran into Old Guo and me, he didn’t even slow down.

“Orders from the Prison Officer! Secure the inmates and conduct a full head count!”

Just as he finished speaking, a deep, resonant bell tolled, vibrating through the entire prison. The sound lingered, refusing to fade.

In fact, coming just after midday, it triggered an even greater roar of noise.

It was the sound of the prisoners cheering.

“Is that the bell? Is that the bell?”

“It’s the bell!” someone immediately shouted back. “Is there going to be a general amnesty?”

Prisoners locked away on death row were rarely first-timers. They were more well-versed in the patterns of atonement, sentence reductions, and pardons than the officials themselves.

Just by hearing that single toll and seeing the jailers counting heads, they had guessed eighty or ninety percent of the truth.

Zhao Jailer bellowed at the top of his lungs, “National mourning! Silence!”

A bell striking during the day signaled a period of national mourning.

However, seeing Zhao Jailer working non-stop without any sense of the upheaval that usually follows a change in imperial power, I knew it wasn’t the Emperor who had passed.

I had a good idea of who it was: the Empress Dowager.

Old Guo called out to Zhao Jailer, “Officer Zhao, you’re busy, so I’ll be heading out first!”

Old Guo grabbed me and hurried away. He didn’t lift his feet high enough in his haste and nearly tripped.

“Let’s go, before he gets to the one named Yuan!”

I was the one who caught him and held him steady.

He glanced back. “It’s fine. A general amnesty doesn’t cover murderers.”

Even in a general amnesty, there are the ‘Ten Abominations’ that are never pardoned, and murder is among them.

I lifted the food box in my hand and let out a soft sigh.

“This really is too much of a coincidence.”

One moment we’re poisoning Yuan Mu, and the next, there’s a general amnesty…

Old Guo’s brow furrowed deeply. “We need to get back quickly and get rid of this food box!”

Destroying the evidence was the most urgent matter.

But just as we stepped out of death row, the sunlight stung my eyes, blurring my vision.

On the wide path, an official in green robes was running toward us in a panic.

It was Huang Prison Officer.

He came from a scholarly background and was usually very particular about etiquette.

I stepped forward to greet him. “Greetings, Prison Officer.”

And then I collided right into him.

I was knocked backward onto the ground, my elbows scraping against the earth, leaving long, bloody streaks. The food box tumbled to the side of the road, the impact forcing it open and shattering the dishes inside into pieces.

Huang Prison Officer was knocked back two steps by the collision.

He looked at me and then at the mess scattered across the ground. He didn’t scold me, though; he just let out a frustrated sigh and hurried forward.

“At a time like this, why are you bothering with greetings!”

He had already disappeared into death row.

I began to gather the fragments from the ground.

“It seems something has truly gone wrong.”

The broken porcelain shards were tossed into a pile of debris.

I used the food box to scoop up a large amount of water and splashed it directly over the spot, repeating the action three times with force.

“Tell me… what if Yuan Mu is granted a special pardon? What do we do then?”

Guo Jailer’s eyes widened, and he looked as if he could barely keep his footing.

“Then wouldn’t we have… moved one step too soon and killed him by mistake?”