Xie Yu's hand began to tremble. The sharp metal lightly grazed the slender pale neck and immediately opened a cut. Blood welled up and seeped out.
Shen Changyin said, "Continue."
Xie Yu stopped. "Lunatic."
Shen Changyin answered firmly, "I told you to continue."
"Lunatic." Xie Yu threw the arrow to the ground.
Her chest rose and fell with frantic breaths. "You are a purebred madwoman. I'm not becoming a madwoman with you."
"How disappointing."
Shen Changyin looked down at the fallen arrow. "So weak. You barely seem like someone of the Xie bloodline."
She lifted her hand in a gesture, and the rebels surged into the room like a tide.
"Send her back to the Hall of Governance and lock her in. Let her reunite with her dear sisters."
Someone struck Xie Yu unconscious at once. Her world fell into endless darkness.
—
Xie Yu knew clearly that she had been knocked out. She was dreaming, yet unable to wake.
Everything inside the dream was shrouded in fog. She was bound to the back of a young girl whose face she could not see. She watched that girl go from nibbling on a bun and pickled vegetables like a starving scholar, to stepping into the capital, taking the imperial exam, becoming that year's third-place laureate, riding proudly along the Spring River.
She heard her whisper to a fellow candidate that even if only to repay the old woman who once gave her three cakes on the roadside, she wanted to become a good official.
She said she had known hunger, and she wanted to try letting the people of the world never go hungry again.
Then one night, without explanation, imperial guards dragged her from her rented room. She was trained—no, tortured—into a medicinal vessel. From then on she was shuffled between members of the imperial family, unable to see sunlight, living a fate worse than death for more than ten years, until she finally found a chance to escape.
Under the long-lost sunlight of the capital, she asked about the brilliant young laureate from ten years ago, but only heard villagers angrily curse that the laureate was a reincarnated demon star who offered herself to the royal family, ruined the empire by seducing the emperor and princess, and caused the downfall of order.
"She didn't."
Now a grown woman, she extended her hand, showing hundreds of overlapping scars. She stubbornly said, "I didn't. I was only bled. I never betrayed myself. I never harmed any of you."
"I was the laureate. I was not a concubine toy. I wanted to make sure you never starved."
Her words were ridiculous and naïve. Her scars were horrifying, twisting like countless tentacles. Spectators stared with fear and fury.
"This demon star has been drained of so much blood and still isn't dead?!"
"Find a Daoist master, kill her!"
"Death to the demon star! Give us back a wise ruler!"
The crowd boiled like scalding water, screaming for her death. So they beat her to death on the street—her clothes torn, her body filthy, penniless, killed by the very people she most longed to save.
After that, she was reborn.
She hid for ten years, then raised a rebellion. She imprisoned the entire imperial family, tortured them day and night with every method known to mankind.
After the emperor and princesses were dead, she seized more power, ruled as a dictator, imposed crushing taxes, and even took pleasure in watching people starve to death.
Before long, her body failed. Upon realizing she was dying, she sent all her troops to suppress new uprisings. Then she sat atop the highest tower in the capital, slowly ate three cakes and a dish of pickled vegetables, and leapt to her death.
Xie Yu fell with her, plummeting through madness. The ground rushed closer—then she suddenly woke.
Her forehead was drenched in sweat. She sat up on a cold hard floor, realizing she had already forgotten most of the dream. She hadn't known the girl's name or face to begin with. Now she couldn't even remember the surname of the deranged emperor family from the dream. All she knew was that it had been a dark rebirth-and-revenge story.
The biggest question:
Was the protagonist of that dream… Shen Changyin?
Coup and rebellion, scheming, cold cleanliness, emotional distance—many traits matched the reborn protagonist.
But the timeline didn't match. In the dream, the girl was twenty-eight when she was reborn and rebelled. Shen Changyin was only twenty-three or twenty-four now.
Their personalities weren't an exact fit either. In the dream, the protagonist had completely collapsed psychologically after rebirth. Even with absolute power she felt no joy, only destruction and vengeance.
Shen Changyin's mental state was definitely not healthy, but she wasn't at the level of a half-dead, corpse-like mad emperor.
And she wore expensive clothes, lived in luxury, burned incense, and ate beef.
"What are you doing, Third?"
A voice suddenly cut through Xie Yu's thoughts. A woman in bright red leaned down toward her. "You're finally awake."
Xie Yu sifted through the fragments of memory in her body. She didn't recognize this bold, striking face, but from her tone and her habit of wearing red, she guessed this was the Second Princess—her second sister.
She looked around and saw that the vast Hall of Governance was filled with captured nobles. A large group of Daoists sat in the corners.
The rebels had indeed followed Shen Changyin's orders and thrown her in here.
"Nothing."
She shook her head and glanced at the circle of princesses.
Was the Xie royal family the same twisted imperial clan from the dream, the one that turned the protagonist into a medicinal vessel?
And was she truly their third twisted daughter?
Before she could think it through, the heavy doors of the hall were pushed open. Prisoners who had sat in darkness for hours raised their hands to shield themselves from the blazing sunlight.
Only then did Xie Yu realize it was already the next day.
"Meal time."
The rebel officer who delivered food banged a gong with a metal ladle. Xie Yu suddenly felt like she was being fed as livestock.
The small officer stopped in front of the princesses. She stared at Xie Yu for a while, then handed her the first bowl—one scoop of rice, one scoop of stew.
Warm fragrant air hit Xie Yu's nose. She looked down.
Pork, cabbage, and glass-noodle stew.
After everything from last night to now, she finally understood something: Shen Changyin's rebels treated captives… surprisingly well.
And seeing this, Shen Changyin seemed even less like the protagonist of the dream. In a world without any Geneva Convention, she was actually following one.
The officer continued handing food to the other princesses. Xie Yu ate while watching.
The eldest princess, dressed in lake-blue prince-like robes, looked at the food and waved it away. "I'm vegetarian."
The officer didn't force her and moved on to the second princess.
The second princess grinned. "My elder sister eats vegetarian for health. I think she's wrong. The ancients said the heart rejoices when seeing beauty. When one is happy, one is healthy. So unless I am served by a beauty, I'm not eating."
The third princess was Xie Yu herself.
The fourth princess was ready. "I eat meat."
"There is meat in here," the officer said.
"But there is also cabbage."
The fourth princess explained, "Since you know vegetarians eat only vegetables, why discriminate against meat-eaters? I eat only pure meat."
"Tigers are kings of beasts. Tigers eat only meat. I seek strength, so I eat only meat."
Xie Yu slowly stopped chewing.
As expected, the fifth, sixth, and seventh princesses didn't disappoint.
"Yesterday you confiscated three bottles of our pills. They are for taking with meals. Return them."
The officer was bewildered. "Can't you just eat some pickled vegetables?"
"The pills are not for eating with meals. They are taken before meals to cleanse the remaining toxins in the food. Everyone knows medicines are partly poisonous, yet few know that all things in this world have toxins. Pills remove them."
Xie Yu understood.
This was the Evil Chemistry branch of the family.
This royal family had a vegetarian health-cultivator, a beauty-dependent health-cultivator, a pure-meat health-cultivator, and chemistry-health-cultivatosr.
Maybe not full-on psychopaths, but definitely not normal people.
The officer sniffed the stew in confusion and muttered, "But I raised this pig myself… Did my cooking get worse?"
Fortunately, everyone else in the hall—from nobles to Daoists—ate peacefully without fuss.
After the food was distributed, the doors were shut again. The second princess leaned close to Xie Yu.
"Where were you last night? I heard Mother Empress sent people everywhere looking for you."
Xie Yu said, "I tried to escape the palace but was captured by the rebels."
She skipped the details, only saying that she tried to protect herself but accidentally offended the rebel leader.
"What did you do to her?!"
The second princess looked horrified. "Do you even know what she's known for?"
"I'm telling you, she's been rising in the northwest for three years now. The border people call her a demon. Did you think they were joking?"
"Governor Guo of Hexi met her. Her entire household—hundreds of people, young and old—were wiped out. The corpses were hung from hundreds of willow trees as a warning."
Xie Yu had been calm a moment ago, warmed by the pork-and-noodle stew, but now her face turned pale. "But I cut her neck yesterday. She didn't kill me on the spot."
"Maybe it's all exaggerated?"
The Second Princess let out a cold laugh. "The reason she's not killing you is because she wants you to live a life worse than death. Honestly, getting poisoned wine is already a pretty decent end for you. Just pray she won't have you torn apart by chariots the way she did to Governor Guo."
Xie Yu shifted uneasily.
Before long, another group of rebels arrived. The one leading them was the hawk-eyed woman who had taken the lead in arresting her yesterday. The moment she entered, she asked, "Which one of you is the most favored?"
The Second Princess immediately reached out and shoved her forward. "My third sister."
The hawk-eyed woman glanced at Xie Yu with a half-smile, then looked toward the Second Princess. She drew the saber at her waist, grabbed a princess of the imperial clan at random, dragged her to the center of the hall, and slit her throat.
"Second Princess," she said coarsely, "we're already being polite to you. Don't try to deceive us. I know the Third Princess is the least favored one."
Xie Yu felt the rebels understood the Third Princess far too well, even more than she did.
The Second Princess stopped playing tricks and honestly pointed to the Fifth Princess. The Fifth Princess' maternal family was the family of the current Chancellor. Since birth, she had been raised in wealth and privilege, skilled in both studies and archery, beautiful and graceful, greatly favored by the Empress.
Now, pulled to her feet, she said nothing, only followed quietly.
The hall fell silent for nearly half an hour.
"Shen Changyin is about to negotiate with Mother Empress." The Second Princess suddenly poked the Eldest Princess' arm.
The Eldest Princess closed her eyes briefly, as if to acknowledge it.
The Second Princess then turned her head toward Xie Yu. "You do realize that under the current circumstances, even if she demands Mother Empress kill you to vent her anger, Mother Empress will agree."
Xie Yu said nothing. She could tell the Second Princess was deliberately trying to frighten her.
"I'm serious." The woman in red spoke solemnly. "Mother Empress will agree. If Shen Changyin kills us, she will naturally be condemned by the world; every regional lord could raise banners to crusade against her. She wouldn't meet a good end, but all of that would only happen after we're dead. No amount of condemnation could revive Mother Empress or us."
"A person only has one life, and even Mother Empress is no exception."
"Although I don't know why, the world knows she hates our Xie family. Even if she chooses to negotiate with Mother Empress for the sake of greater power, hatred still needs an outlet, and you are that outlet."
The Second Princess patted Xie Yu's shoulder. "Sacrifice one to save the whole family. Wonderful, isn't it."
Xie Yu grabbed her sleeve and flipped her over her shoulder, locking her neck in a chokehold.
She spoke calmly. "Is this fun"
Scaring her. Was it fun
The Second Princess' beautiful eyes rolled back at once. Her face gradually turned red and then a bluish-purple like pig liver. Her hands slapped frantically at the floor, wanting to beg for mercy but unable to make a sound.
The Eldest Princess wanted to step forward to stop her. Xie Yu looked up. "Interfere again and you're next."
The Eldest Princess froze in place.
Suddenly, the hall doors burst open. Outside, an imperial attendant who once served close to the Empress raised her voice. "An imperial edict has arrived!"
Beside her stood Shen Changyin, dressed in light moon-white robes, long black hair cascading like a waterfall, watching leisurely.
—
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