Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was the thirty-fourth year of the Great Zhou, and a massive drought had gripped the land.

Not a drop of rain had fallen in three months, and even the heavens seemed too stingy to provide the slightest breeze.

The air was already stifling and parched, yet every door and window was kept tightly shut.

Only a single crack in the door had been left open on purpose, allowing the shrill, agonizing screams of my legitimate sister’s two personal maids to carry from a distance, sounding horribly clear.

The heavy wooden canes used for the execution had become sticky with blood and flesh, and the sound of the strikes grew increasingly dull as they hit bone.

I knelt on the ground, having long since lost all sensation in my knees.

Beads of sweat rolled down my body, making my undergarments cling uncomfortably to my skin. When I reached out to wipe my face, I realized my palms were already soaked.

Soon, even the weakening screams from outside faded into silence.

Two servants arrived to report that although the sentence was one hundred strokes to the back, Cuihong and Cuilv had already breathed their last after only twenty.

Until the moment they died, they maintained that they truly did not know where the legitimate sister had gone.

They claimed that in the short time it took to fetch hot water for the young mistress’s bath, she had simply vanished into thin air.

Striking the back was a severe punishment typically reserved for soldiers in military camps. The blows were aimed directly at the spine; even a sturdy, grown man would be crippled for life if he didn’t die after twenty strokes.

Yet, the matriarch had ordered one hundred strokes for Cuihong and Cuilv…

Cuihong and Cuilv were first-class maids who had grown up with my legitimate sister. They were fiercely loyal; she shared everything with them, making them closer to her than any of us, her biological sisters.

Their food and clothing followed my legitimate sister’s standard, making their quality of life better than that of many daughters from ordinary official families.

In private, even we concubine-born daughters had to be polite, addressing them as “Sister Cuihong” and “Sister Cuilv.”

But in the end, they were merely servants. Now that the matriarch had raised her hand to order them beaten to death, they were simply gone.

I may be a young mistress of the house, but my concubine mother started as a lowly foot-washing maid in the Marquis Manor. Her status was humble.

It was only because of my birth that she was promoted to the rank of concubine, yet she never earned my father’s favor.

She had only one daughter-me. I was the seventh child in the family, with no biological brothers to rely on for support.

Over the years, my concubine mother and I had struggled to survive the schemes and power plays among the various concubines and half-sisters. We were masters in name only; in reality, our fate was little better than that of Cuihong and Cuilv.

A chill crawled up my spine and settled at the crown of my head.

I could no longer feel the oppressive heat.

A cold, sharp light glinted on the matriarch’s pale face.

“Good, very good! Every single one of you claims not to know! To think my Marquis Manor has raised such a pack of useless dogs for nothing!”

“I didn’t expect you to be loyal enough to protect your master, but you can’t even keep an eye on a single person! Are you all waiting for us to offend the Imperial Family so the entire Marquis Manor can be executed? Is that what would satisfy you dogs?”

“Keep hitting them! Even if they’re dead, keep hitting! I said one hundred strokes, and they won’t escape them just by dying! Keep hitting them hard!”

The two servants obeyed and left.

Under the gaze of the thirty-meter-tall Great Buddha of Xiangguo Temple, the hollow sound of the canes echoed once more through the courtyard of the guest wing. One strike after another.

But without the sound of human voices, the force of the blows seemed to have nowhere to land; every strike sounded as if it were hitting a pile of cotton.

Behind me, the crowd of maids and old matrons didn’t even dare to cry. They trembled like sifting sieves, tears and sweat pouring down together, terrified that they would be the next ones called out.

At that moment, the matriarch stopped her pacing and came to a halt directly in front of me.

“Shu’er, I heard that before your legitimate sister went to bathe, she came out of your room. She stayed with you for a full half-hour, and when she left, her eyes were red?”

My whole body jolted. I looked up and said, “Mother!”

A flash of ruthlessness crossed the matriarch’s eyes, and she kicked me hard in the shoulder.

“You little wench, you actually have the gall to call me ‘Mother’! You aren’t worthy! I knew you wouldn’t be so kindhearted for no reason!”

“Speak! Were you the one who instigated your legitimate sister to flee her marriage?!”

“Guards! Someone, come quickly!”