Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Pei Wanqing felt she had never performed so well in her life. Her mood instantly lifted. Holding Jin Bao in her arms, she raised her chin proudly and looked toward the prison cell opposite them, her cool voice carrying an unquestionable authority.

“This is my daughter, the Xiao Family’s legitimate daughter. If any of you dare gossip about my Jin Bao again, don’t blame me for being rude.”

Pei Wanqing lowered her head and planted a loud kiss on Jin Bao’s little cheek.

Jin Bao’s small body instantly went taut like a drawn bowstring. Her bony little back stiffened ramrod straight, and she did not dare move at all.

Noticing the child’s strange reaction, Pei Wanqing tilted her head and looked at Jin Bao.

“What’s wrong, Baby? Do you not like Mother anymore?”

Jin Bao hurriedly shook her head.

“Nooo. It’s… it’s just that no one has ever kissed Baby before. Baby thought no one liked me. Mother, don’t you think Baby is dirty?”

Jin Bao’s voice was timid, and her big eyes brimmed with hope.

Pei Wanqing’s heart tightened, bitterness rising in her throat. She pulled Jin Bao into her arms, feeling as if a great hand had clenched around her heart.

“Baby is so adorable. How could no one like you? You aren’t dirty at all. You are the purest little fairy in this world. The ones who call you dirty are the ones with dirty hearts.”

Jin Bao blinked her round black eyes, her clear gaze full of smiles. She liked what Mother said.

Smack.

Jin Bao kissed Pei Wanqing on the face too, then looked at her with shining eyes. Her little face was full of happiness, with a hint of nervousness.

“Baby is willing to be close to Mother. Mother is very happy.”

Hearing Pei Wanqing’s praise, Jin Bao finally relaxed completely. She could cuddle with Mother too, and such a beautiful mother at that, prettier and gentler than that tigress of an aunt.

“Pei Wanqing, she is a disaster star! A disaster star who brings ruin to our Xiao Family! If it weren’t for her, how would your Marquis’s Mansion have been confiscated and exiled? No one ever saw you have a daughter before. Hurry up and strangle her to death! Then we might still have a sliver of hope!”

After recovering, Xiao Yan started shouting again, this time aiming his spearhead at Jin Bao.

“What are you all yelling about? Shut your mouths! If you keep causing trouble, I’ll drag you out for punishment!”

A jailer came over holding a long whip. The whip struck the wooden door of the cell with a terrifying crack.

Both sides of the prison fell silent at once.

The imperial study in the palace.

“Emperor, it is time for your medicine.”

Eunuch Hou stood waiting at the side with a bow.

The Emperor of Great Xia, Xie Shengyuan, stood by the window with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the bright moon hanging high in the night sky.

“Tell me, where is my princess now? She should be three years old by now, shouldn’t she?”

Eunuch Hou stepped forward with a bowl of medicine. “Emperor, the princess is blessed by heaven. Master Huiyuan personally declared that the princess bears the fate of the Star Maiden, one who can determine the fate of the realm. She will surely be safe.”

“Yes. My princess is the Star Maiden personally recognized by the Master. Unfortunately, I failed to protect her. The people I sent out to search have found no trace of her after all these years. I fear my days are numbered. I do not know whether I will be able to see her once more in this lifetime.”

Grief showed in Eunuch Hou’s eyes. “Emperor, you will live a long life.”

“Tell me, will my arrangements for the Mansion of the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery chill their hearts?”

“Emperor, in the future, the Mansion of the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery will understand your painstaking intentions.”

————

At the first glimmer of dawn, the prisoners were escorted out of the city by the bailiffs.

By around eight in the morning, everyone had been escorted to Ten-Mile Pavilion.

Several carriages were parked outside the pavilion, and servants kept peering out from beside them.

As soon as the Xiao Family appeared, those servants immediately went to report to the people inside the carriages.

These people were relatives from the Xiao Family Branches who had specially come to see them off, bringing food and silver to help their daughters and sons-in-law hold out until they reached the Northern Frontier.

But not a single person had come to see off the Marquis’s Mansion.

The guards were willing to make things convenient at a time like this. After all, the money carried by exiled criminals would eventually end up in their own pockets.

The Xiao Family Branches were lively and bustling, while the people of the Marquis’s Mansion looked desolate, with no kin to rely on.

The young masters of the Marquis’s Mansion had yet to marry. Pei Wanqing’s maternal family was far away in Jiangnan, and Old Madam Xiao’s maiden family had long since declined and moved far from the capital.

With the two sides set against each other, the Marquis’s Mansion seemed especially sorrowful and bleak.

“Xiao Che, never mind that your legs are crippled. Now that you’re on the road to exile, you don’t even have a relative to bring you luggage. I’m afraid you’ll starve to death before you even leave the capital, won’t you? Unlike us, we have good in-laws. If you kneel down and beg your younger brother here, I might even be kind enough to give you some food.”

Xiao Yan wore a smug, disgusting expression.

“Xiao Yan, don’t be so pleased with yourself. No matter how much food you have, there will come a day when you finish it. Even if we starve to death, do you think you will make it alive to the Northern Frontier? The journey there will take at least five months. Your little bit of grain will last a month at most. After that, won’t you all be following us down to hell just the same? I only wonder how useless descendants of the Xiao Family like you will face your ancestors once you get there.”

Pei Wanqing simply couldn’t stand Xiao Yan’s smug face, so she couldn’t help firing back with another round of sarcasm.

“Eat mousies! Bad people like eating mousies!”

Jin Bao clapped her hands and laughed in Pei Wanqing’s arms.

At those words, Xiao Yan’s face changed abruptly. The moment he heard the word “mice,” his stomach began to churn. Even though he could not vomit anything up, he still retched dryly.

Pei Wanqing’s mood brightened at once, and she gave Jin Bao a big kiss.

“My Baby is still the best. How did Mother not think of that? Some people’s tastes really do seem different. If they like eating snakes, insects, rats, and ants, they might indeed live a little longer, just like the rats in the gutter.”
Xiao Yan had only just finished throwing up when he looked up and heard Pei Wanqing going on about rats, one rat after another. He couldn’t take it anymore and nearly vomited up his bile.

Xiao Che had been weighed down by guilt, his mood gloomy and depressed, but the mother and daughter pair actually managed to amuse him.

Xiao Jingxing stepped forward at once and simply carried Jin Bao away.

“Come here, little sister. We haven’t properly met yet. I’m your eldest brother, Xiao Jingxing.”

“And me. I’m your Second Brother, Xiao Jingmo.”

“Me, me, me… Brother San, Xiao Jinghao.”

Suddenly surrounded and warmly welcomed by three older brothers, Jin Bao was a little at a loss. She had never been liked by so many people before.

In her soft little voice, Jin Bao greeted them one by one.

“Hello, Eldest Brother. Hello, Second Brother. Hello, Brother San.”

“Aww, hello, little sister.”

Pei Wanqing looked at her three sons’ utterly lovestruck smiles and felt joy bloom in her heart.

Even if they did not know what the future held, at least the whole family was together. Finding joy amid hardship was still joy.

Besides, warmth had always been there. It was the source of courage that allowed a family to keep living.

Xiao Che also reached out, wanting to hold this soft, delicate little daughter.

“Jin Bao, will you let Daddy hold you?”

Xiao Jingxing set Jin Bao down on the ground. Jin Bao glanced at Pei Wanqing, and only when she saw her mother nod with a smile did she walk toward Xiao Che, nervous yet full of anticipation.

Xiao Che was sitting in a wheelchair. Because his legs made it difficult for him to walk, Xiao Jingxing had pushed him all the way to the Ten-Mile Pavilion.

Jin Bao was not wearing shoes. By accident, a sharp clod of earth stabbed the sole of her foot, and she nearly fell flat on the ground.

Xiao Che tensed in alarm. He bolted out of the wheelchair and caught Jin Bao firmly.

“Jin Bao, did you fall? Are you hurt?”

Just as Jin Bao’s little face was about to hit the ground, a strong hand caught her securely. Then her feet left the earth, and she landed in a broad, solid embrace. The feeling gave Jin Bao a sense of safety she had never experienced before, and she clung to it greedily.

“No… I’m okay. Baby isn’t scared of falling.”

Between taking a tumble and being beaten by that mean auntie, she would rather fall.

Xiao Che had heard from his wife what this child had gone through and knew she was a pitiful little thing. The fatherly love that had lain dormant in his heart for years was completely awakened by Jin Bao. From this moment on, a tough man who would spoil his daughter without limits was born.

“Father, your legs…!”

Xiao Jingxing had not even blinked. Just now, he had seen with his own eyes as his father rose from the wheelchair and rushed over. That reaction speed and agility; how did he look like a man disabled in both legs?

Everyone in the Xiao Family had seen that scene too, including the fact that Xiao Che was still standing there with Jin Bao in his arms.

Leaning on her cane, Old Madam Xiao walked over with an expression of restrained emotion. Her face was trembling, her steps urgent. Gone was the composure she had shown when the family was being stripped of its property; now she was plainly a mother anxiously worried for her child.

Xiao Che was instantly surrounded by his family.

Only then did he realize that his legs had actually recovered. There truly seemed to be no stabbing pain anymore. They felt no different from two years ago. He even swung them a few times on purpose, and the movements were completely unhindered.

“Mother, my legs seem to be… healed!”

Xiao Che’s eyes reddened.

Pei Wanqing covered her face and wept.

Xiao Jingmo and Xiao Jinghao were also overjoyed.

“Father, Mother, I feel like I remember the books I used to recite again.”

At that moment, Xiao Jingmo also spoke in delighted surprise of the change in himself.

Even Xiao Jingxing realized it belatedly.

“Father, Mother, have you noticed? From the moment we left the city until now, I haven’t had any bad luck today.”

Pei Wanqing looked at Jin Bao with fervent eyes.

“This is all thanks to Jin Bao. Jin Bao is the Xiao Family’s benefactor. From now on, all of you must protect your little sister well. You must not let anyone bully her.”

Master Huiyuan’s words were coming true. At the very least, everyone in the Xiao Family was now changing for the better. Without question, this gave them the courage to keep living. It felt as if an upward-rising vitality had taken root in their hearts and was about to break through the soil.

“Coo, coo-”

A birdcall interrupted the Xiao Family’s heated atmosphere.

Xiao Jingxing gave Xiao Che a subtle look. Seeing his father nod, he glanced toward the bailiffs, who were resting inside the pavilion.

Under the cover of the Xiao Family members, he quickly slipped into the nearby woods. In just a few breaths, he returned from the trees.

He opened his palm. Inside lay a slip of paper.

When he unfolded it, several lines of writing appeared clearly on it.

“Eight Evils Fate-Breaking Array. Extremely yin, extremely evil. It requires Century-Old Yin Coffin Wood Fragments, Unclaimed Infant Bone Silk-Wrapped Pouch, Beheaded Chicken Feather Blood-Soaked Talisman, Rotten Rat Holding Coins Mummy, Drowned Person’s Hair and Waterweed, Cremator Bottom Charred Bone Ash, Soul-Locking Iron Chain Broken Nail, and Mute Girl’s Tear-Blood Embroidery Needle. Arrange them in eight directions to form the array. First it severs fortune, then it severs life.”

Old Madam Xiao trembled with rage.

“This is…?”

The hatred in Xiao Che’s eyes had already condensed into a tangible blade. Slowly, he forced out several words. “Someone wants the Marquis’s Mansion wiped out to the last person.”

This note had been sent by Master Huiyuan. It could not be wrong. That meant someone had wanted his life as early as two years ago, when he returned from the Southern Frontier.

Who was that person?