Chu Li was stunned at that moment. His angry expression gradually faded as he slightly lowered his gaze and asked suspiciously: “You guessed it long ago?”

Qing Xia tightened the cloak around her body and smiled: “Death awaits me either way. Before I die, bullying you a bit is also good.”

The woman in her snow-white brocade cloak stood under the candlelight. Between her brows, there was no longer the weakness and sorrow from Chu Li’s memory. She was calm and composed, showing no fear, like a finest water lotus with extraordinary elegance and nobility. Chu Li slowly exhaled, his eyes slightly narrowing like a lazy cat, flashing with strange light. He laughed carefree and said in a deep voice: “Zhuang Qing Xia, I have indeed misjudged you all along. I truly don’t know whether, after today passes, I will regret this someday.”

“Without trying, how would you know whether you’ll regret it or not?”

“Haha!” Chu Li, who had been extremely angry before, suddenly burst into hearty laughter and said loudly: “Worthy of being Grand Tutor Zhuang’s daughter – you truly haven’t disappointed me! Someone come! Take Concubine Lan away, escort her to the Great Temple Bureau’s prison for detention. In three days, execute her at the marketplace!”

The crowd of servants outside immediately erupted in commotion. The maid Xiangju, kneeling at the front, rolled her eyes upon hearing this and fainted.

Guards in black armor swarmed in like wolves and tigers. The leader knelt and saluted Chu Li, then extended his rough hands, coarsened by martial arts practice, to grab Qing Xia.

The previously defiant woman now offered no resistance whatsoever. Her snow-white wrists were immediately seized by the soldiers, her skin slightly turning blue. Chu Li caught this from the corner of his eye. Though he said nothing, his brow furrowed slightly.

“Wait!” As they were about to leave, Qing Xia suddenly called out. Chu Li raised an eyebrow and gestured for the guards to let her finish speaking. Qing Xia’s slender figure appeared even more frail and ethereal in her white clothes against the dark night. Having just bathed, her full head of black hair was not pinned up but hung smoothly behind her, occasionally blown by the wind at the tips, with undried water drops slowly falling along the dark strands. Qing Xia turned around, her star-like eyes staring intently into Chu Li’s eyes as she said in a deep voice: “In my homeland, once married, a man must shoulder lifelong responsibility to protect his wife’s joy and peace. Regardless of your reasons, Zhuang Qing Xia is still your wife. You’ve plotted and schemed against her so deliberately – don’t you feel guilty?”

The night rain was cold and chilly. Qing Xia’s slender figure disappeared at the end of the palace corridor. Chu Li stood in the dark night with a mass of kneeling servants behind him. A flash of lightning suddenly streaked across the night sky, casting a bright white trace that fell on Chu Li’s bright yellow brocade robe, yet that color was so piercing to the eyes.

Suddenly, flames blazed bright. The piercing brightness made those accustomed to walking in darkness feel uncomfortable. Qing Xia slightly narrowed her eyes, using her hand to shield against the abnormal light coming from ahead. At that moment, a sharp, ear-piercing scream suddenly rang out beside everyone’s ears, like thunder exploding on flat ground, shaking everyone’s hearts and spirits.

Qing Xia lowered her hand and looked intently. She saw a red-bearded old man in a blue shirt standing in the middle of the room. High braziers burned in the four corners, and the room was full of torture instruments, all proclaiming the name of this place. Qing Xia looked down at what was beneath the old man and saw a man covered in bloody wounds curled up under the old man, his entire body dripping with blood until his original appearance was unrecognizable. The blood vessels exposed outside were constantly throbbing, and dense tiny insects could almost be seen crawling in the muscles where the tendons were visible, constantly churning up and down, squirming and moving – both disgusting and eerie.

The red-bearded old man stood before that man. Seeing Qing Xia and the others, he seemed extremely pleased and called out to the guard who had brought Qing Xia with an obsequious smile covering his face: “Commander Bian, come quickly and see how this piece of human skin I just flayed turned out!”

Upon hearing this, Qing Xia couldn’t help but frown slightly. She saw that the slightly transparent object in the red-bearded old man’s hands was actually the skin of the man on the ground. The red-bearded old man proudly shook that piece of human skin and held it up. That human skin had been perfectly flayed from head to toe without a single mistake, with even the hair and beard removed.

“I spent three full days and nights cutting to get it shaped. This boy was quite handsome. General Cheng captured him from the Qin-Chu border some time ago. He wanted to disguise himself as a hunter to sneak into our Great Chu – really seeking death! I could tell at a glance he was a spy. Hehe, once I finish interrogating him, I’ll ask Commander Bian to help me report this.” The red-bearded old man was half-bent over, the fawning smile on his face almost nauseating, yet when speaking of the man on the ground, he showed no trace of pity, as if he were talking about spending three days cultivating flowers and plants.

“Don’t go too far,” the middle-aged man called Commander Bian said in a deep voice. “Recently those sea barbarians on the Qi side have been restless, and all sorts of people are mixed in outside. Be careful not to kick an iron plate and anger the Qin people – you won’t be able to handle the consequences then.”

“This subordinate understands!” the old man quickly replied in a deep voice. “This subordinate knows what he’s doing. His Highness the Prince is brilliant and mighty. Under His Highness’s leadership, a few sea barbarians will be easily captured. Great Qi is nothing to fear, and even Qin will eventually be in our Great Chu’s pocket.”

Commander Bian seemed quite impatient and unwilling to listen to more of the old man’s flattering words, so he quickly said: “This is Concubine Lan. His Highness orders her confined here, to be executed at the marketplace in three days. Guard her carefully and don’t use torture casually. Is that clear?”

The old man seemed to only notice Qing Xia behind Commander Bian at that moment. Hearing that this was the Prince’s concubine who would be executed in three days, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“Prison Warden Shen, let me remind you once more – if anything goes wrong during these three days, I guarantee you’ll die even more miserably than this spy. If you don’t believe me, feel free to test it!” Commander Bian’s gaze was coldly threatening as it swept over Prison Warden Shen. Then he respectfully bowed to Qing Xia and said in a deep voice: “This subordinate can only escort Your Ladyship this far. Your Ladyship, please take care of yourself. This subordinate takes his leave.”

Heavy iron chains clicked shut with a lock. Qing Xia stood in the foul-smelling cell, looked around, and smiled bitterly: Zhuang Qing Xia, just what kind of mess did you leave for me?

Standing in the Great Temple Bureau’s prison, Qing Xia finally found a trace of inexplicable familiarity. One after another, shrill screams occasionally rang out around her. This was a prison – the Great Temple Bureau’s maximum-security prison of Southern Chu. Chu Li had imprisoned her in this place. In three days, she would be executed.

If not for her arrival, perhaps Zhuang Qing Xia would have died so confusedly at Concubine Dan’s hands that day. But now, the one who would kill her had changed to her husband.

But how could she just surrender without a fight?

Qing Xia sat quietly on the dirty straw without making noise or fuss. From all directions came the continuous mad shouting of death row inmates. She slightly closed her eyes, secretly calculating the route she had taken to get here, quietly waiting for nightfall.

For half a month, she had stayed quietly in Lanting Palace without any action, but that didn’t mean she truly knew nothing.

Agent operational rule: Under any circumstances, at any time and place, understanding one’s situation is the most important priority. Qing Xia hadn’t ignorantly asked around everywhere. She had read through Southern Chu’s classics and examined large quantities of historical records, finally obtaining the answers she wanted.

However, the history of this world once again completely shattered her worldview. Everything was simply a tangled mess. Even though Qing Xia thought until her head felt as big as a bushel, she couldn’t sort out what exactly was the situation with all of this.

Heaven had played a joke in the course of years, and this false-yet-true history made Qing Xia’s heart tighten.

Culturally and geographically speaking, this was indeed ancient China’s feudal society. Here too was the magnificent Great Wall, here too were the pavilions and waterside buildings of Jiangnan’s ten-li terraces, here too were the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, Dongting Lake and West Lake – all the geographical mountains and rivers that China should have were present without exception. However, everything was so seemingly true yet false. The conceptualized things existed there, making it even more like viewing flowers through fog, all hazy and unclear.

Here, after Qin Shi Huang unified the realm, unlike the historically short-lived Great Qin that perished in two generations due to debauchery and tyranny, here the Second Emperor of Qin was a brilliant and extraordinary ruler of remarkable talent and grand strategy. He developed vast northern territories and eliminated the fierce Xiongnu before the yet-unborn Emperor Wu of Han, driving them far beyond the northern desert and constructing territory as vast as the Yuan Dynasty. Even the Russians, still barbarians at the time, sent envoys annually to travel thousands of miles to pay tribute and submit as vassals.

History took a turn at the Second Emperor of Qin, and the glorious Qin Dynasty began its magnificent march forward. They created great territorial foundations and established the most complete legal system in China’s thousands of years of history. Although they still couldn’t escape the bad habit of imperial power superseding law, compared to the history Qing Xia knew, the Qin Dynasty was far more advanced. Thus, almost impossibly, the Qin Dynasty accomplished 1,800 years of rule over the Chinese continent, becoming the absolute royal family of China.

However, by now, the once-great Qin Empire was no longer as glorious as their ancestors. Three hundred years ago, rebellions erupted in the empire’s vassal states, and the Great Qin Dynasty split apart into multiple feudal kingdoms, finally announcing the collapse of the unified realm. After three hundred years of continuous warfare, a four-way division of the world finally formed: the southern Chu clan of Lingnan, the coastal Qi clan, the western Song clan, and the Qin clan still occupying most of the central and northern territories – all sharing dominion over the realm. Additionally, the remaining Xiongnu in the north, plus the southern frontier barbarians in the south, constituted this seemingly calm but actually turbulent chaotic world.

Learning all this, Qing Xia couldn’t help but develop a series of questions about the real world. Was the history of the world she came from the real one? Or was the history here the orthodox one? Or were there truly countless parallel timespaces advancing independently without affecting each other?