Chapter 44: The Assist

In the dungeon an hour prior, Huazhao had originally intended to meet her death with calm composure.

However, as the poisoned wine settled into her stomach, she was suddenly reminded of the great flood in her hometown during her early childhood, when her family fled together as refugees.

Her name had not originally been Huazhao, but Zhao Xiaosi.

The Zhao family had seven children, and since she was the fourth, she was given that name.

Because of the natural disaster, the entire village abandoned the fields they had farmed for generations and fled en masse.

The Zhao children were all yellow-faced and emaciated from starvation, reduced to stripping tree bark and digging up grass roots, needing to rest after walking only a short distance.

The villagers, previously warm and close-knit, now wore gloomy, withered expressions. Children were lost almost every single day along the escape route, and in the dead of night, the aroma of boiling meat would drift through the air.

Zhao Xiaosi had woken up several times in the middle of the night, driven by hunger, to see her father sitting with his back to her, sharpening a kitchen knife beneath a tree.

The days on the run were agonizing, but what was even more agonizing was that no one knew where the road ahead led, or whether there would be warm beds and food to stay the hunger.

Finally, one day, Zhao Xiaosi’s youngest sister vanished.

That day, Zhao Xiaosi partook of the meat soup, and its flavor was exquisite beyond measure.

Because the torment of hunger was unbearable—as though it were shredding a person's intestines and tearing them apart from the inside—Zhao Xiaosi drank the meat soup and promptly forgot all about her little sister.

Half a month later, her younger brother disappeared as well.

Toward this child who had always clung to her legs and called her "Elder Sister," Zhao Xiaosi felt a tiny trace of melancholy.

Yet overriding this sorrow was sheer terror; Zhao Xiaosi discovered that there were only five children left in the family, and she was the fourth.

Still, they had not reached that warm place filled with food.

Thus, when the third child went missing, Zhao Xiaosi ran away.

She stole the tiny scrap of food remaining in the house, pushed forward through the hardship, and walked on without any destination in mind.

Yet it had to be said that her luck was truly remarkable.

The place that the villagers had failed to find after months of fleeing was somehow found by her.

Clad in rags and covered in grime, Zhao Xiaosi entered the city and beheld a level of prosperity she had never witnessed in the first half of her life.

The young women in the city all had fair, delicate skin, the men rode high-spirited horses, the streets were filled with the fragrance of wine and meat everywhere, and even the dogs were fed white rice, a luxury rarely seen at home.

Yet even after entering the city, Zhao Xiaosi had to exert tremendous effort just to get a tiny morsel to eat.

Because she was far too young, she had to work from dawn until dusk almost every day: emptying night soil, washing clothes, and tending to patients covered in festering sores.

By chance, Zhao Xiaosi discovered a shortcut—if the old man next door let him touch her, she would receive three copper coins; if he hugged her, she would get five meat buns.

Later on, when the old man brought a roasted chicken and told her to take off her pants, Zhao Xiaosi complied.

With both chicken and meat to eat, such a life perhaps could be considered quite good.

It was not until her thirteenth year, when she used a few petty schemes to enter the Prince's Estate, that she realized what kind of wretched life she had been living before.

Within the estate, she beheld the most breathtakingly handsome man she had ever seen in her life.

The usually sharp-witted Zhao Xiaosi was dumbstruck, staring blankly until she crashed straight into Prince Shiping.

Prince Shiping wondered where this clumsy little girl had come from, but Zhao Xiaosi simply stared at him in a daze and asked, "Are you an immortal from the heavens?"

That handsome man was amused by her.

From then on, Zhao Xiaosi had a master. She could eat abalone and sea cucumber to her heart's content every day, and she held the power to grant life or bestow punishment upon others.

Born from the mire, Zhao Xiaosi had witnessed the ugliest things in the world and did not hesitate to display them herself, eventually becoming the Prince's most steadfast pillar of support.

Later on, the Prince told her, "When I first met you, it was the second lunar month, the birthday of the Flower Goddess. From now on, you shall be called Huazhao."

And so Zhao Xiaosi became Huazhao, no longer a stray cat or dog to be toyed with at will.

"My Lord..." Huazhao clutched her stomach and wept.

She had thought that recalling her past might make her feel somewhat better—reminiscing about the moments when the Prince treated her well, and the thrill of holding others' lives in her hands.

Strange to say, however, all she could feel was the intense pain in her abdomen.

This pain fused with the terror of childhood hunger, almost tearing her apart.

*Crack, crack.*

The sound of her father sharpening his knife seemed to echo in her ears.

A monstrous terror washed over her, and Huazhao suddenly understood... she truly did not want to die.

"Save... save me..."

Huazhao clawed and scraped uselessly at the ground, and after a long while, she finally stopped moving.

The head jailer, making his routine rounds, discovered Huazhao lying motionless on the ground and cried out in alarm:

"Oh no, the prisoner has passed away!"

...

When Qi Shaoyan returned to the Qi residence, it was already very late.

The South Courtyard had been the site of many disturbances lately; although it blazed with light throughout the night, the corridors were dead silent.

Most of the servants had returned to their rooms to rest. Walking along the quiet path, Qi Shaoyan let out a faint sigh.

"Yan'er."

A voice suddenly rang out from behind the rockery.

At the sound, Qi Shaoyan started violently.

She swallowed hard with great difficulty, turned her head to look at the speaker, and stammered, "Father..."

Prince Shiping stepped into the flickering light. After a day of running about, the makeup he had applied that morning had worn off almost entirely, but he had no heart to fix it, and his expression was somewhat gloomy.

"Did you have it delivered to her?" Prince Shiping asked.

Not daring to meet her father's eyes, Qi Shaoyan nodded gently. "It has been delivered."

Prince Shiping fixed his gaze on Qi Shaoyan, saying nothing for a long time.

Qi Shaoyan felt as though needles were pricking her back under his stare, yet she dared not ask to return to her room.

"I heard a rather bizarre tale," Prince Shiping finally spoke abruptly after a moment. "Someone died in the dungeon, reportedly committing suicide out of fear of punishment by taking poison. Fearing implication and interrogation, the jailer dragged the corpse to the pauper's graveyard in the dead of night..."

Hearing this, Qi Shaoyan stiffened and murmured, "It was done exactly as Father requested."

"Delivering it there was fine," Prince Shiping said. "Yet the strange thing is, after the corpse was dragged to the pauper's graveyard, it vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye."

Qi Shaoyan remained silent for a moment. "Perhaps it was dragged away by wild beasts..."

"Or perhaps the corpse 'came alive' and ran off on its own?" Prince Shiping smiled.

Qi Shaoyan’s heart skipped a beat, and she pressed her lips together, not daring to speak.

"I have lived for the better part of my life, yet I have never heard of such a bizarre occurrence." Prince Shiping approached Qi Shaoyan, reaching out to gently stroke her hair. "Yan'er, do you suppose someone was meddling behind the scenes, swapping what I sent because they were determined to go against me?"

Touched by Prince Shiping, Qi Shaoyan trembled violently all over as the terrifying memories of her childhood rushed back to her mind.

"Fa... Father..."

Her legs turning to jelly, Qi Shaoyan dropped abruptly to her knees.

"Yan'er, why are you so frightened?" Prince Shiping smiled. "There is no need to worry. Even if this corpse were to 'rise from the dead,' I have ways to make her stay dead."

Hearing this, Qi Shaoyan stared at Prince Shiping in terror.

...

At the very same time, halfway up Green Water Island, Qiu Jietu caught a swaying, tottering woman.

"Miss, are you alright?"

"I beg you, save me!" the woman said with a panic-stricken expression. "Someone is trying to kill me!"

Disheveled hair, and red wedding shoes from a marriage just concluded.

This woman was none other than Huazhao.

She had originally thought she was bound to die in the dungeon; when she took the poisoned wine, she had acted with heroic righteousness, but once she swallowed it, she regretted it bitterly.

To her surprise, however, she had not died!

When Huazhao opened her eyes, she found herself lying in the dark, foul-smelling pauper's graveyard, surrounded by severed limbs and mutilated corpses discarded wrapped in broken straw mats.

A man stood with his back to her, holding a shovel and digging a pit.

The moment she regained consciousness, Huazhao realized that all of this was the Prince's deliberate "arrangement."

Thus, she secretly crawled along the ground to escape, missing Qi Shaoyan's path by a twist of fate.

Running all the way, Huazhao's face was wet with the joyful tears of one who had escaped death.

She had figured it out: she would return to the Prince's side and continue to perform countless tasks for him.

This time, she would certainly not lose to Jiang Wan. Reborn and fearless, she was determined to properly deal with that little wretch for the Prince!

As Huazhao ran, however, she felt a sudden rush of wind above her head.

Having run through the forest for a long time, she had lost all sense of direction when an object violently struck her abdomen, sending her flying through the air and crashing to the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

"If you were to simply die like that, it would be letting you off far too easily." A man's voice rang out coldly in the dim forest.

Hearing this, Huazhao's heart shattered with terror. "Liu... Liu Deng?"

"Why aren't you calling me Husband?" Liu Deng emerged from the woods with a cold sneer.

Huazhao's face turned ashen.

She had always treated marrying Liu Deng as an expedient measure, and because Liu Deng was incapable of performing marital duties, they had only shared the title of husband and wife without the reality.

Having served beside Prince Shiping for a long time, Huazhao had always been proud and naturally looked down upon a cripple like Liu Deng. One could easily imagine what their daily life together was like.

Knowing that Liu Deng harbored resentment, Huazhao forced a calm facade and said, "You are committing such a foolish act—does Lord Prince even know?"

"Foolish girl," Liu Deng smiled. "It was Prince Shiping who feared you weren't truly dead and specifically sent me to finish you off!"

"You're lying, that's impossible!" Huazhao cried out in disbelief.

Before she could dwell on it, Liu Deng flicked out dozens of thin blades as delicate as cicada wings, sending them flying straight toward her.

Huazhao dodged sluggishly, inevitably getting her face and the hem of her clothes slashed by the blades.

Knowing that Liu Deng genuinely intended to kill her, she clutched her injuries and scrambled hurriedly into the woods.

Liu Deng followed closely behind, unhurried.

A moment later, dozens more blades flew out, shredding Huazhao's back and legs, and slicing off half of her ear as blood instantly gushed forth.

Huazhao could only crawl and run, yet no matter what she did, she could not evade the blades.

Like a phantom, Liu Deng neither pursued aggressively nor made a sound, yet he seemed to be everywhere at once.

A terrifying thought surged into Huazhao's mind: He wants to subject me to death by a thousand cuts!

Yet even with that realization, Huazhao could not escape.

Running blindly through the woods like a headless fly, she collided straight into Qiu Jietu.

Huazhao did not recognize the silver-haired man before her; driven by boundless terror, she grabbed at Qiu Jietu's lapels as if seizing a final straw, dropped to her knees, and cried out:

"I beg you, save me!"

Qiu Jietu had originally cared nothing for this baffling woman, but at that moment, countless blades flew out from the forest, sweeping toward them.

"Ten Thousand Leaves Flying Flowers?"

Qiu Jietu had not expected to encounter a true martial arts master in this place.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, he stood his ground with his hands behind his back and tapped his feet lightly.

The sand and stones on the ground rose up with the wind, clattering as they knocked the flying blades away to the earth.