By now daylight had broken, though the sky remained overcast and the wind gradually quieted.

Lin Jinlou remained unconscious, while Zhao Yuechan lay silent, occasionally letting out a few coughs.

Xiang Lan wrapped her cloak tighter around herself and dozed off briefly when suddenly she heard the sounds of fighting in the distance. She jerked awake, hastily looking around in all directions. At the foot of the mountain, she saw government troops engaged in battle – one group fighting while retreating, getting closer and closer to the reed marsh, while another group pursued them relentlessly. Xiang Lan couldn’t distinguish friend from foe, and could only tremble as she gripped her crossbow tightly, standing guard beside Lin Jinlou.

Zhao Yuechan’s face was filled with terror as she shivered violently, desperately backing away to hide herself among the reeds.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Arrows came flying, but due to the wind, they veered into the reed thicket. Xiang Lan was startled and quickly dropped to the ground. She heard a sharp scream behind her, followed by a “splash” – it seemed Zhao Yuechan had fallen into the water.

Fortunately, both sides were so intensely engaged in battle that neither noticed the commotion.

Xiang Lan heard constant splashing in the water, interspersed with weak cries of “Help!” She quickly got up to investigate and saw that while the river’s surface was frozen, the riverbank wasn’t completely solid. Zhao Yuechan had broken through the thin ice and fallen in. She clung to the reeds on the bank with her right hand, her face golden-pale and lips bloodless, unable to climb up despite her desperate struggles. A cloud of blood spread through the water.

When Zhao Yuechan saw Xiang Lan, her face showed intense fear and pleading. With trembling lips, she said, “Help… please… help me…”

Xiang Lan didn’t hesitate. She immediately grabbed Zhao Yuechan’s wrist and pulled with all her might toward the shore. Cold and hungry, she had little strength left, but she gritted her teeth and used every ounce of energy to pull her up. Supporting Zhao Yuechan under both arms, she dragged her back a distance further before finally collapsing from exhaustion, lying face-up and gasping for air.

Zhao Yuechan’s face was deathly pale with a grayish tinge. She too gasped for breath, her entire body soaked through. The cold wind made her curl up and shiver uncontrollably, while blood flowed continuously from an arrow wound in her left arm.

Xiang Lan forced herself to get up and began removing Zhao Yuechan’s wet clothes. Having no dry clothes to offer, she took off her cloak and wrapped it around her, then sprinkled medicine powder on the wound to stop the bleeding.

Both women were completely exhausted, collapsing on the ground as the sounds of battle grew distant in their ears.

After a long while, Zhao Yuechan struggled to sit up and managed to say to Xiang Lan, “Th-thank you… thank you for saving me…”

Xiang Lan glanced at Zhao Yuechan, then looked back at the sky and said, “You needn’t thank me. I simply couldn’t let my conscience bear it. Besides, although you’re detestable, your grandfather valued righteousness over profit and endured much hardship. He suffered misfortune for speaking truthfully. I respect him, and saving you was largely out of regard for him.”

Zhao Yuechan panted silently, coughed a few times, then stammered, “You… you’re just a servant by birth, yet you… put on airs like those poor scholars…”

Xiang Lan turned to look at Zhao Yuechan and said, “Do you think being a master in this life makes you noble? Perhaps in your next life, you won’t even match my station.”

Their eyes met briefly, and Zhao Yuechan suddenly gave a smile worse than crying, saying, “Next life? Bah, we’re going to die together in this one…”

Xiang Lan sighed. She never imagined that in such dire straits, she would be sitting in silent company with this woman. It seemed all her life’s hardships had begun with her. She had entered the household unwilling to remain a servant forever, only to be despised by Zhao Yuechan and become a maid who suffered constant abuse and schemes. Then came Lin Jinlou’s lecherous tyranny, Zhao Yuechan’s hatred and beatings, the near-disaster of being sold to a brothel, her father’s imprisonment, and her loss of autonomy. All that had happened in the Lin household over these few years felt like a lifetime, yet looking back, it seemed like an illusion.

When Zhao Yuechan had bullied her, she had imagined countless ways to exact revenge, but now she no longer cared about those grudges. After surviving countless brushes with death last night, she had no energy left for hatred. She only wanted to live.

Soon the sounds of fighting grew distant. Xiang Lan peered out and saw a group of people pursuing the defeated party along the path that led to the small grove from the previous night. She finally relaxed a little. The sun had come out now, the wind had died down, and it was somewhat warmer than before.

Zhao Yuechan, who had been shivering violently earlier, now felt cold and stiff – an ominous sign. Xiang Lan moved her next to Lin Jinlou and shared his blanket with her. Looking at Zhao Yuechan’s face, once as beautiful as peach blossoms, now gray and lifeless, Xiang Lan sighed and asked, “How did you end up here last night?”

“Bah! How else?” Zhao Yuechan opened her eyes at the question, her ashen face suddenly filled with venom, showing more life than her previous deathly pallor. “That Dai fellow spoke sweet words, allied with my grandfather, and married me, treating me like a Buddha at first. But who knew that as soon as my grandfather died, he’d become a different person, finding fault with everything about me? Fortunately, his servant was my lover…”

Xiang Lan stared in astonishment. Zhao Yuechan glanced at her and sneered, “Don’t look at me like that. If men can have multiple wives and concubines, why can’t I? Dai Qing is just an old man who spends his days carousing outside. Why shouldn’t I find a young, handsome lover for my pleasure? Hmph! I once hoped to find someone to rely on for life, to live peacefully, but Qian Wenze, Lin Jinlou, Dai Qing – count them on your fingers, not a single decent man among them…”

Her expression turned hateful, her voice venomous as she continued, “My lover warned me that the bastard planned to kill me to show his loyalty to the Second Prince. That lightning-struck scoundrel – even as a ghost, I won’t let him be! After catching my breath, she went on, “That son of a bitch from the Dai family – if you’re heartless, I’ll be faithless. I sent someone to find my elder brother, planning to escape with my family last night after taking everything from the Dai household. We meant to return to Jinling to find my parents – with grandfather gone, the Zhao family would scatter anyway. If that didn’t work, we’d find a place to live in anonymity – we had enough silver and wealth to live comfortably for several lifetimes. But somehow word must have leaked. Last night, Dai Rong sent people to hunt us down and killed my brother’s entire family. Bullshit! He didn’t get away either – he fell wounded and they stabbed him through the heart. His cousin was killed by your people too! Hahaha! How satisfying! How satisfying!”

Zhao Yuechan laughed loudly with a hint of savage joy, occasionally cursing with a venomous expression, until gradually her strength failed and after two violent coughs, her breathing grew weak. Xiang Lan no longer wanted to listen. She silently pulled the blanket further over Zhao Yuechan. She checked on Lin Jinlou, who was burning with fever but still unconscious.

Zhao Yuechan spoke weakly, “My whole body feels awful… am I dying?” The earlier outburst seemed to have drained her last bit of energy. She appeared to have aged more than ten years in an instant, like a flower past full bloom – still colorful, but withered and about to fade away.

Xiang Lan shook her head and suddenly asked, “Was it… worth it?”

Zhao Yuechan replied softly, “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Xiang Lan avoided looking at her, hugging her knees and gazing up at the wind-swaying reeds overhead. “In life, making mistakes isn’t the worst thing – who hasn’t made them? Though mistakes vary in severity, as long as they haven’t completely ruined everything and you can still manage the consequences, there’s room for redemption, a chance to start over and change. What’s truly frightening is giving up entirely after one mistake and continuing down that path. You felt hatred and resentment, so you acted recklessly, thinking revenge would bring satisfaction. But was it satisfying? Now in your current state, are you truly content?”

“I wanted to live properly, but none of them would let me live in peace, I…”

“In the end, you simply refused to endure. When you make mistakes, you won’t bear the responsibility, won’t change, and won’t accept the bitter consequences. In the chaos that followed, one mistake led to another. Think about it – in this life, how many people have you wronged with your willful, cruel actions?”

Zhao Yuechan closed her eyes and said coldly, “And how many people have you wronged?”

Xiang Lan pulled her fox fur coat tighter. She rarely shared her innermost thoughts, but now felt compelled to speak: “Looking back on my life, I’ve wronged two people most deeply. One is Song Ke, who showed me great kindness. Now that he’s in trouble, I can’t help him – the debt of gratitude remains unpaid, weighing heavy on my heart. The other is Fang Si… she was Song Ke’s maid who cared deeply for him. Because Song Ke and I fell in love, she and I became like fire and water. My temperament was still rough then, and we had several confrontations. In her anger and confusion, she made a mistake. Song Ke, for my sake and angry at her troublemaking, was going to drive her away. She ended her life with a white silk rope. Her mother spoke ill of me to Song’s mother, and to prove she had ill intentions, I publicly exposed her theft of valuable household items. Unexpectedly, this backfired, making Madam Song dislike me even more. Looking back now, I was too harsh and uncompromising, disregarding others’ dignity. Sometimes it’s better to understand but not expose things – finding another way around might have saved a life. I didn’t think I was wrong then, meeting hostility with directness, returning hate with confrontation – it seemed right. However, after entering the Lin household and experiencing hardships, finding myself in Fang Si’s position, I understood that preserving others’ dignity can be noble. Now I truly regret it.”

Zhao Yuechan sneered, “Oh my, such kindness makes me sick – should I call you ‘Guanyin Bodhisattva’? Let me tell you, being such a foolish do-gooder won’t necessarily bring you good fortune!” She opened her eyes and giggled, “You probably can’t bear children anymore, can you?”

Xiang Lan froze and looked at Zhao Yuechan.

“Tsk, you didn’t know? That lustful dog Dai Rong was involved with Lin’s Second Madam Tan. I had Dai Rong give those sterility pills to Madam Tan. As for how the Jiang sisters got involved later, I don’t know, but the medicine came from me.” Her eyes flickered with cruelty, her smile carrying a hint of pride. “How about that, Guanyin? Do you regret saving me now? I won’t live long anyway, so I don’t care what you think of me, but I hate your fake kindness the most!”

Xiang Lan looked at Zhao Yuechan for a long time, shaking her head twice before saying softly, “I don’t regret saving you. If it happened again, I would still save you. I truly pity you – you’re selfish and loveless, thinking life is naturally full of schemes and hostility. You can’t accept that someone would save you and return evil with kindness, so you insist it must be fake. Doing such things brings no good fortune. This world has both beauty and ugliness; it’s precisely because there’s so much ugliness that beauty becomes more pure and precious. Some people are willing to let go of what others value to preserve beauty, whether through great sacrifice or what others call worthless… I’ve always thought it worthwhile.”

Zhao Yuechan was stunned, gave a slight sneer, and fell silent.

Xiang Lan checked on Lin Jinlou again, reapplying medicine to his chest, calculating that if he hadn’t woken by noon, she would have to wake him to feed him something. She also worried whether the fighting had ended and if she should go seek help.

When she looked back at Zhao Yuechan, she found her unconscious. While applying medicine to her wound, Zhao Yuechan moaned and awoke. Xiang Lan sighed – Zhao Yuechan was a pampered lady from a sheltered household, unaccustomed to such hardship. After suffering abuse, being wounded, falling into the icy river, and lacking food and clothing, she wasn’t even shivering anymore, her body frozen stiff – she likely wouldn’t last much longer.

Xiang Lan said, “Hold on a little longer. Wait a while more. If there are no more troops, I’ll go find help for us.”

Zhao Yuechan shook her head, her gaze vacant. She turned to look at Lin Jinlou and suddenly laughed sarcastically: “He… he probably won’t make it either, will he? I once gave him my whole heart, and later… who would have thought, who would have thought we’d end up dying together… Having him accompany me to the yellow springs, I suppose I haven’t lost out!”

Xiang Lan remained silent.

Suddenly Zhao Yuechan said, “You… take the hairpin from my head.” Xiang Lan removed it – it was a gold filigree pearl hairpin with large, lustrous pearls. Zhao Yuechan said, “This hairpin is worth at least three hundred taels. If you survive, use it to arrange my burial – a simple coffin, a burial plot, burn some paper money, just so I have somewhere to go in death… I don’t want to be a wandering ghost… Keep the remaining silver for yourself.”

Xiang Lan smiled bitterly, “Alright if I live, I’ll certainly give you a proper burial.”

Zhao Yuechan nodded and was about to close her eyes when she suddenly opened them again. Her gaze was scattered, and a tear rolled from the corner of her eye as she cried, “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!” Her face showed a vitality that made her suddenly more animated than before. Xiang Lan understood this was her final burst of energy before death.

Zhao Yuechan squinted at Xiang Lan, mumbling, “I don’t want to die…”

Xiang Lan felt her forehead, looking at her with pity.

Tears streamed down Zhao Yuechan’s face as she said, “I didn’t want to believe it before, but now this old woman believes it – you are a foolishly good person…” She giggled a few times: “You saved me four times, and now that I’m dying, I’ll give you a great gift. If you’re fortunate enough to survive, with this, probably the entire Lin family will bow to you.” She reached out her hand, clutching her now-wet undergarment, smiling mysteriously: “The gift is in here.”

Xiang Lan took the undergarment, looking at Zhao Yuechan in confusion.

Zhao Yuechan suddenly grabbed Xiang Lan’s hand and cried out with all her remaining strength, “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! All that happened before – I brought it upon myself!” After several loud sobs, she suddenly fell silent, her eyes wide, mouth open. Unable to take another breath, her head tilted to one side as she died, tears still on her face.