4.
My father’s expression turned exceedingly ugly.
The First Madam cried out, “No!”
The Second Master said impatiently, “Why not?”
The First Madam was at a loss for words, but I knew why.
In my previous life, after my father became a general, Mother came to ask him to buy my freedom, but his new wife sent people to beat her and drive her away.
That day, Mother died of her severe injuries. I asked around about my father’s new wife and learned that she had a red mole at the corner of her eye.
I looked up at the First Madam. Her worry was plain on her face, and the red mole at the corner of her eye stabbed into mine like a knife.
When a nest collapses, how can its eggs remain intact? The Tô family had fallen into such dire straits, yet the First Madam and Tô Nguyệt Oanh had both managed to escape. If Tô Nguyệt Oanh hadn’t been so ostentatious, attending so many poetry gatherings connected to the examination fraud, she might have escaped death just like the First Madam.
I suspected that my father might well have been involved in the calamity that had befallen the Tô family.
He wanted to get the First Madam and Tô Nguyệt Oanh out of here. How could he throw himself into this deadly trap?
My father hurriedly knelt. “I’m a clumsy man. If I pretended to be the Third Master, I’d be found out at once.”
The First Madam hastily wiped away her tears as well and continued, “Quan Thanh wasn’t born into the household. How could he pass for him? I’ll find someone whose background we know.”
At that, I abruptly looked up. “Madam, my father is a loyal man. When you had nightmares before and needed human blood to ward off evil, he immediately offered you a large bowl of his own blood. I heard that when the eldest young lady got into trouble, Father was so distraught that he kicked over the ancestral tablet. How can you doubt his loyalty just because he wasn’t born into the household?”
The First Madam said angrily, “Quan Trình, that’s your father!”
“That’s exactly why I won’t let anyone slander him!” I said indignantly. “I didn’t understand why Father protected the eldest young lady before, and his loyalty went unrecognized. This time, no matter what, I’ll make sure he gets the credit for his loyalty.”
I turned and kowtowed to my father. “Father, go. Don’t worry about Mother and me. I’ll keep in my heart everything you taught me about respect, humility, and loyalty.”
“Good!” The Second Master clapped. “Quan Thanh, I never knew my elder brother had someone so loyal by his side.”
The soldiers’ voices sounded from outside the courtyard.
“Hurry.” The Second Master whispered. “Do as I told you.”
Then he patted my father on the shoulder again. “You only need to take your third brother’s place in prison for a few days. The Tô family will take care of everything. We absolutely won’t let you suffer in there.”
Hearing those words, so like what my father had said in my previous life when he asked me to take Tô Nguyệt Oanh’s place and bear her punishment, I couldn’t help laughing.
5.
When I returned home, Mother was sitting by the table, wiping away tears. At the sight of me, her eyes widened. “A Trình?”
“Mother, it’s me.” I threw my arms around her and pressed my face against her chest.
“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let your father take you away.” Tears ran down the wrinkles on Mother’s face as she held me tight. “You’re back. That’s what matters. You’re back.”
I had always known my father hated Mother.
I thought it was because Mother was quiet and Father was too busy. I’d also wondered why Father, a trusted servant of the First Master with status and standing, had a wife who was only a laundress, while I, a servant’s child, should have been assigned to the inner courtyard, yet had worked in the flower garden since I was seven. When I was little, I couldn’t even carry a flowerpot and was punished for it.
The steward had suggested many times that I be transferred to an easier job, but Father always said, “There’s no need to give her special treatment.”
Working in the flower garden was grueling, and no children had ever worked there before. So why had I been sent there at seven years old?
In my previous life, when Father asked me to take Tô Nguyệt Oanh’s place and bear her punishment, it was the first time he had ever smiled at Mother and me.
I thought that if I did as he asked, he would treat Mother well.
Until the First Madam had the gate guards beat Mother to death. He only took the First Madam’s hand and said, “Don’t get so angry that you harm your health. It isn’t worth it.”
The woman who had borne his child, washed and cooked for him, and cared for him for half her life received only one thing in the end: “It isn’t worth it.”
Mother and I were nothing but a joke.
His supposed integrity and loyalty were nothing but an excuse for the First Madam to torment Mother and me.
I held Mother tight. “I won’t leave again.”
The next day, Hứa Mộc came to see me.
Hứa Mộc and I had been childhood sweethearts, and when we grew up, we got engaged as a matter of course. I cared for his mother for ten years, yet he hacked me until I was crippled.
“What do you want?” I looked at him coldly, the veins standing out on the back of my hand. I wanted to kill him.
“A Trình.” Hứa Mộc came over to hug me, but I moved away.
“What do you want?” I repeated impatiently.
“A Trình, I need to ask you a favor. You know the eldest young lady did me a kindness. I was able to work in the front courtyard because she recommended me.”
“So?” I raised an eyebrow.
“So I want you to help the eldest young lady. Prison is a harsh place, and her health is poor. I want you to take her place for a little while, just long enough for her to eat and change clothes.”
“The eldest young lady did you a kindness, so you should repay her. What does that have to do with me?” I crossed my arms and sneered.
“A Trình, why have you become like this?” Hứa Mộc said anxiously. “We’re engaged, so we’re practically one person. Besides…”
“Besides what?” I stepped closer to him and chuckled. “Besides, she and I look so much alike. It’d be easy for you to secretly switch us and leave me in prison instead, wouldn’t it?”
I raised a hand to brush aside my thick bangs, which nearly covered my eyes. I had wanted to tie my hair up many times, but Father and Hứa Mộc had both refused to let me. Only later did I learn that they feared people would notice how much my face resembled Tô Nguyệt Oanh’s.
Hứa Mộc’s eyes went wide and his lips trembled. It took him a long time to get out, “You… you know…”
“Know what?” I smiled even more brightly. “Know that you and my father planned to switch one person for another, or know that Tô Nguyệt Oanh…”
I drew out the words. “Is a bastard?”
“You…” Hứa Mộc’s expression shifted from horror to fury. “Then I can’t let you live, either. Quan Trình, in your next life, remember to keep these things to yourself. You’ll live longer that way.”
With that, he swung the knife in his hand at me.
6.
I quickly pulled out a cloth pouch and hurled it at him.
Inside was the quicklime I’d prepared beforehand. Knowing his true intentions, how could I not be on my guard? Hứa Mộc’s knife hadn’t even reached me when he cried out, clutching his eyes, and fell to the ground.
Perhaps out of guilt, Hứa Mộc had arranged to meet me in an extremely secluded corner of the compound, in the southwest. I looked around. There was no one else.
I picked up Hứa Mộc’s knife and gently stroked his cheek. “Hứa Mộc, in your next life, remember to keep your thoughts to yourself. You’ll live longer that way.”
I raised the knife and cruelly hacked at his limbs. As he screamed in pain, flesh and blood came apart.
I tossed the knife into a pool of blood. Hứa Mộc writhed and cried out in agony, “No, you’re not… Quan Trình…”
I knelt and leaned close to his ear. “It’s me. I came to make you pay for blood with blood. Hứa Mộc, you should be glad. For all you owe me, I should have gouged out your eyes and nose, too.”
I rested my chin in my hand. “Hứa Mộc, this is the place you chose. You can stay here.”
I stood up, but then heard a noise from atop the wall.
When I looked up, a young woman was climbing over the wall.
Since all the adult men in the Tô family had been taken away, only the women remained in the compound. So the soldiers who had surrounded the Tô family’s estate the night before had already withdrawn.
I immediately ran outside, wanting to stop her from saying anything she shouldn’t. But the moment I got out, I saw a carriage bearing twelve phoenix feathers stopped in front of me. I fell silent for a moment, then knelt. “I greet Your Highness, Princess.”
“Go back inside. I heard everything. He wanted to force you to repay his kindness. I saw him holding a knife, so I came to see what was going on. It’s good that you know how to protect yourself.” Her voice held a hint of comfort.
The princess turned to leave. I hurried after her on my knees for two steps and called out, “Your Highness, would you hear me out?”