Qin Yining had a long, heavy nightmare. In the dream there were endless sounds of shouting and killing, an inescapable smell of blood, and people chasing behind her shouting to strike and kill. She had originally been confident she could escape, but when she tried to run, she discovered she was only a child with short arms and legs, and was quickly caught.
The moment the knife pierced her shoulder, she screamed in terror, her whole body shaking violently, and suddenly opened her eyes.
Pain—her shoulder really hurt!
Looking at the elegant magnolia flower embroidery on the familiar light blue bed curtains, Qin Yining couldn’t tell for a moment whether she was awake or having another dream.
Her last memory was of the family trapped in a dead-end alley with no way out, fire on one side and assassins on the other, while she leaned against her father’s arm and watched Concubine Lin despairingly commit suicide over the deaths of Sixth Sister and Seventh Sister.
How had she returned to her own bedroom? Was everyone all right?
“Miss, you’re awake!” Bingtang, who was keeping watch by the bedside, said joyfully. “How do you feel?”
Qin Yining opened her mouth, but her throat was so dry and painful she couldn’t speak.
Bingtang quickly brought over a small white porcelain bowl and fed her half a bowl with a spoon.
The liquid was both salty and sweet, and her burning throat felt somewhat better. Only then could she ask hoarsely: “How long have I been sleeping? What day is it now, what time?”
“Miss, you’ve slept for a day and night. It’s just past the hour of hai now. This servant received word this morning and returned. You had a high fever then, but fortunately your constitution is strong—you’re much better now.”
Qin Yining nodded and asked again: “Who else is in the family?”
Hearing this, Bingtang hesitated before carefully saying: “Don’t ask so many questions. The Old Dowager, the marquis, and madam are all fine. Ji Yun said that after you fainted last night, reinforcements came, so everyone was mostly unharmed afterward. Even the injured Eleventh Master just woke up and is asking for food. Ji Yun has several light wounds, all surface injuries, nothing serious. I gave her medicine and told her to sleep first.”
“I remember Ji Yun wasn’t injured last night.” Qin Yining weakly turned her head toward Bingtang. She thought that during the later fighting, Ji Yun must have exerted great effort.
Thinking of what Ji Yun had told her, Bingtang still felt lingering fear. She helped Qin Yining sit up, placing a soft large pillow behind her back, and took the bowl to continue feeding Qin Yining water.
“They say after that group of assassins left, three more skilled fighters secretly infiltrated. At that time, the marquis had arranged for you to temporarily rest in the outer courtyard study, with only Ji Yun guarding you. Those three had such high martial skills that Ji Yun could barely resist them. Fortunately, someone arranged by the prince arrived just in time and subdued those three assassins, or the consequences would have been unthinkable.”
“Pang Zhixi arranged for someone?”
“Yes, a young knight-errant came. His martial arts are excellent, and his medical skills seem to surpass mine. The wound medicine he prepared worked very well on you, miss. He also captured those three later assassins alive.”
“Where are the assassins?”
“They’ve been handed over to the marquis. We don’t know yet how the marquis will deal with them.” Bingtang set down the bowl, felt Qin Yining’s forehead temperature, and advised: “Miss, you injured a blood vessel and lost quite a bit of blood. It’s damaged your constitution. You should focus on recuperating now and not worry about other matters. Everything outside is being handled jointly by the marquis, Second Master, and Third Master. With the marquis’s wisdom, things will surely be handled well.”
Qin Yining closed her eyes wearily and shook her head slightly.
“This matter cannot be left like this.”
“Even if it can’t be left like this, you can’t exhaust yourself further. If you don’t recover your health, where will you get the strength to manage other things?”
Qin Yining forcibly suppressed her desire to immediately handle the matter and said quietly: “Where is my medicine? Bring it.”
Hearing this, Bingtang nearly shed tears.
Qin Yining was simply the strongest woman she had ever seen.
An ordinary woman, after experiencing such a catastrophic massacre, witnessing the death of relatives firsthand, with the assassins constantly shouting to hand her over to spare the family’s lives, and Concubine Lin resenting her for the deaths of Sixth Miss and Seventh Miss and killing herself by striking her head against the wall…
The rage of massacre, the terror of pursuit, relatives’ resentment, witnessing close ones die before her eyes, and reportedly Song Lan died taking a blade meant for her…
If it were anyone else, they would probably have gone mad by now. Even if unharmed, they would surely be self-pitying and weak, waiting to depend on others.
But Qin Yining remained rational and resilient throughout, without self-pity or self-blame. She always knew what she should do.
Such resilience would seem natural in an experienced matriarch who managed a household.
But she was only fifteen!
Bingtang was the same age as Qin Yining. When the Tang family was massacred, she had been sent away six months early, so she only heard the news without witnessing those tragic scenes firsthand.
Even so, whenever she thought of it, she couldn’t sleep for nights, filled with hatred and fear, unable to control her emotions.
If she had personally experienced everything Qin Yining had, Bingtang felt the grass on her grave would already be three feet high.
Sniffling, Bingtang stood to bring a bowl of finely cooked brown sugar millet porridge, smiling: “Miss, eat something first. This replenishes blood and is easy to digest—it’s good for your health. Let’s get some food in you before taking medicine.”
Qin Yining nodded, raised her weak hands to receive the bowl, and tremblingly ate the warm porridge. She then took the medicine Bingtang brought and drained it in one gulp, afterward rinsing her mouth.
The medicine was for pain relief and calming the nerves. Lying in bed, Qin Yining soon felt drowsy, but before sleeping she didn’t forget to instruct Bingtang: “Go tell my father and mother that I’m fine now. Look after their health.”
“Yes, miss, don’t worry. Shopkeeper Zhong received the news and has arranged for many people to help in our mansion. Shopkeeper Zhong himself hasn’t returned home and is following the marquis’s assignments. You just focus on recovering—we can only accomplish things once you’re well.”
Qin Yining’s eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Hearing Bingtang’s words, she finally let herself fall into peaceful sleep.
When she woke again, it was still nighttime. This time Qin Yining felt she had regained some energy. After being helped to drink brown sugar rice porridge, eating some thoroughly cooked vegetables, and taking medicine, she refused to rest anymore. Supported by Bingtang and Qiu Lu, she got up, went downstairs, and headed to the mourning hall in the front courtyard.
Though it was a summer night, Qin Yining felt extremely cold. The wind made her feel terribly chilled.
She gritted her teeth and endured all the way. Exiting the hanging flower gate and entering the main courtyard, she saw white mourning decorations everywhere, mourning banners hung high, and everything in sight was plain white. In the courtyard and the main hall with its wide-open doors, coffins were arranged in rows. White paper lanterns flickered in the wind, and the air was filled with the acrid smell of burning paper money.
Seeing this scene, both Bingtang and Qiu Lu felt their hair stand on end. Thinking that these people had all died unjust deaths, most of them familiar faces, tears began falling uncontrollably.
Qin Yining walked past the open coffins, glanced briefly at a few, then looked no more closely.
Entering the mourning hall, she saw Qin Yu, Qin Han, Second Master, Third Master, and Qin Huaiyuan all before the spirits. They were all dressed in plain clothes, placing paper money into clay basins.
“Father.” Qin Yining called out.
Qin Huaiyuan turned back and saw Qin Yining in plain clothes with a deathly pale face.
“Why did you come?”
“I came to offer incense and kowtow to everyone.”
In the coffin before Qin Yining lay Third Madam dressed in sapphire blue burial clothes.
With just one glance, her tears could no longer be held back. She knelt before the spirit and kowtowed, choking out quietly: “It’s my fault. I’m the one who wronged everyone.”
Hearing Qin Yining’s words, the room filled with sobbing sounds.
Third Master wiped his face and shook his head: “Yining needn’t blame herself. I said before that this incident was not any one person’s fault. It’s just that our fate was unfortunate, happening to encounter these chaotic times.”
Qin Yu’s wife also couldn’t escape this disaster. They were a young couple who had always been very loving. Although Yao Shi had been childless for years, Qin Yu was unwilling to take concubines for her sake. Now that Yao Shi was gone, Qin Yu felt his heart had a hole in it. Hearing Third Master’s words, he didn’t speak, just mechanically continued placing paper money into the clay basin.
Qin Yining forced herself to stay alert, unwilling to speculate about her family’s thoughts, because even if she was resented by family members, that was the consequence she deserved for implicating them.
What she cared about now was another matter.
“Father, do you know the origin of the assassins?”
“Yes.” Qin Huaiyuan’s face was lit by the firelight as he spoke slowly: “The matter has been investigated clearly. The assassins this time were sent by the Zhou dynasty emperor, firstly because of Tianji Zi’s fortune-telling about your fate, and secondly because they attempted to assassinate His Majesty. This time the Zhou assassins numbered a hundred, having disguised themselves as merchants and entered the city two days ago. They were already being watched by the silver-masked agents and Five Cities Military Commissioner’s people.”
Second Master, Third Master, Qin Yu, and Qin Han all put down the paper money in their hands and gave it to the servants keeping vigil beside them.
With so many people present, this wasn’t suitable for such a topic. Everyone tacitly left the front hall and went to a flower hall in an adjacent courtyard to sit down, arranging for trusted people to guard outside.
Only then did Qin Huaiyuan continue: “That group’s plan this time was extremely thorough. They first sent people to our mansion, while also arranging large numbers at the palace. Beyond that, they even kept a backup plan. If not for Young Master Mu arriving in time, Yining would probably be gone now.”
Second Master and Third Master both sighed and shook their heads.
Qin Yu asked: “Who is Young Master Mu?”
Qin Huaiyuan said: “Young Master Mu was sent by Prince Pang to protect Yining.”
Third Master asked in surprise: “You’re saying Prince Pang sent someone to protect Yining?”
Qin Yining knew that at this moment, before her family members, any half-truth could easily cause misunderstanding, so she spoke directly: “Yes, Pang Zhixi received news that the Zhou emperor had sent people to the capital to assassinate me, so he immediately arranged for a highly skilled martial artist to help. But distant water can’t put out a nearby fire—he arrived too late to catch the first wave of assassin attacks, only managing to capture those three assassins alive.”
Second Master nodded silently.
Qin Han frowned: “It seems the Zhou emperor and Pang Zhixi don’t see eye to eye.”
Qin Han sneered: “I think, no matter where, emperors are all the same. They only care about securing their own positions, never considering the people’s suffering. Fourth Sister was merely the subject of some ridiculous rumor, yet the Zhou emperor could send people from so far away to assassinate her, even killing so many in our family. This shows he’s also a tyrannical ruler who disregards human life.”
Qin Yining lowered her head: “In the end, I still brought disaster to everyone.” Taking a deep breath, before anyone could offer consoling words, she turned to ask Qin Huaiyuan: “Father, what did you learn from interrogating those three assassins?”
“They underwent torture and confessed everything. However, the remaining assassins are still fleeing. When the Azure Sky Alliance people arrived in time that day, they drove that group out and then lost track of them. The capital is now under martial law—they can’t get out, so they’ll break into small groups and hide in the city. The Five Cities Military Commissioner’s people search and arrest daily, but still have found nothing.”
“What happens after they’re caught?” Qin Yining asked. “Has His Majesty said how to deal with these people?”
Qin Huaiyuan slowly shook his head: “His Majesty said nothing.”
“Said nothing?” Qin Yining sneered meaningfully. “If he said nothing, things will be difficult to handle. Father, Second Uncle, Third Uncle—knowing His Majesty’s nature, if Great Zhou applies pressure, do you think he might release all these assassins?”
“That’s very possible.” Qin Han said with heartbreak. “Think of Duke Dingguo’s Sun family affair—the Great Zhou people hadn’t even said anything yet, but His Majesty was already beginning to harm loyal ministers. Now if the Zhou emperor casually says ‘hand over these people and we’ll spare your life,’ wouldn’t His Majesty eagerly return them? Then wouldn’t all these lives in our family have died in vain!”
Qin Yu closed his eyes, gripping the armchair tightly with both hands.
Third Master, thinking of his eleven-year-old son and understanding Third Madam, couldn’t help crying torrentially, this grown man weeping like a lost child.
“It’s my incompetence. I couldn’t protect your mother and brother. If His Majesty wants to release these murderers, I—I’ll fight His Majesty to the death!”
“Father.” Qin Han grasped Third Master’s hand. “Father, don’t cry and damage your health. Mother’s spirit in heaven wouldn’t want to see you like this. Natural disasters and man-made calamities are unavoidable—this isn’t your fault. We who are alive must seek justice for those who are gone. We bear even heavier responsibilities. Father, you must stay calm.”
Third Master wiped his face with his sleeve and forced himself to control his emotions.
Qin Yining wiped her tears and said hoarsely: “We absolutely cannot let His Majesty hand them over. Neither the three we’ve captured now nor that group still at large. If those fleeing people can’t be caught, they remain a great threat to us. If they are caught but His Majesty won’t let us kill them, then I’ll have to find another way.”
“Directly defying His Majesty’s will isn’t wise. Open confrontation would be like throwing eggs against rocks for our family. We must find a proper way to make these murderers pay with their lives!”
Qin Huaiyuan asked Qin Yining: “Yining, do you have a plan?”
“Yes,” Qin Yining nodded with determined eyes. “These executioners stained with Qin family blood—I want their blood to offer to the departed spirits.”