Hua Zhi reached out and took the girl’s hand, folding her own palms around those thin, small, withered fingers. If only she could, she would have loved to press her hands just as gently against the child’s heart — perhaps it wouldn’t help much, but in that moment of warmth, at least the girl might feel a little heat, even if only for an instant, even if only the tiniest bit.

Looking up to meet the child’s bright black eyes, Hua Zhi forced herself to smile, trying not to look too frightening. “Were you brought here alone? How often do they send people?”

“Together with an older sister. We slept through the journey and woke up here.”

The little girl licked her lips and lowered her head to stare at the tips of her feet. She didn’t understand much about the world, but instinct told her this person had a kind face — she wanted to seize what might be a chance at survival, so she tried to share as much as she knew. “They send about two people every seven days or so.”

Hua Zhi watched her with an encouraging look. The little girl bit her lip and continued: “My family suffered a drought last year. The fields yielded nothing. It was already the twelfth month, and there was nothing left to eat at home. That was when a man appeared — one who looked different from everyone around us — and said he was the steward of a noble household in the capital. The noble needed to buy several servants of clean background. But once you entered the noble’s household, you could never return, and because you had to sever ties with your family, he offered a price that, for people like us, was an astronomical sum. My father said only landlords and wealthy families ever had that much silver in one place.”

The little girl lowered her head again, shifting her feet into a slightly pigeon-toed stance. “My father sold me. The man bought four of us in total and brought us all to the capital, where he put us up in a residence. I didn’t know where it was. He wouldn’t let us go outside. He said we were all from small villages and didn’t know the rules of the capital — one careless move and we might offend the noble and bring death upon ourselves. He had an old nanny come to teach us proper manners. He also said the noble liked plump, fair-skinned servants, so he had us eat large amounts of food every day. At the time, I truly believed there was such a kind-hearted master in this world.”

“Were you and the others together the whole time?”

“We lived in the same house. Even though that man didn’t allow us to meet each other, we still found chances to speak in secret.”

“And the others…”

“Dead.” The little girl raised her head, her lips pressed colorless. “There were five of us in total. I was the youngest and couldn’t eat as much as the others. They were all sturdier than me and had arrived before me. After I came, they would secretly steal portions of my food, leaving me only a tiny bit each day. I grew thinner and thinner, and within a few days I fell ill. They probably found me burdensome and locked me in a separate room, only letting me out once I recovered. But in just those few days, one of the older sisters was gone. The brother who was older than me told me she wouldn’t be coming back.”

The little girl reached behind her and pulled forward a slightly less sturdy-looking girl, rolling up her sleeve to reveal a strip of white cloth wrapped around her elbow. Even from a distance, red marks were clearly visible at the crook of the arm.

Hua Zhi knew immediately what that meant. She suppressed the urge to look away and watched as the little girl slowly unwound the cloth, revealing the bruised and mottled marks at the inner elbow. In this era, there were no advanced instruments like needles for drawing blood — bloodletting was never needed in ordinary medicine — and so when it was done, the method was all the more crude. Those marks had been cut by a knife.

“Was it the same for everyone? What about you?”

“They took turns. The sturdiest ones were always those who had just arrived. The thinnest had always had the most blood taken. When someone couldn’t hold on any longer, they’d be taken away and never came back. I knew they were all dead — I just didn’t know where they’d been taken before. Now I know.” The little girl’s eyes glistened with tears. She tilted her head up toward the ceiling to keep them from falling. “They were taken to have their heart’s blood extracted, weren’t they.”

The entire room fell silent. Hua Zhi glanced back. The Empress Dowager’s expression was neither sorrowful nor joyful, giving no indication of what she wished. Hua Zhi lowered her head for a moment, then continued asking, “And you? What did they do to you?”

The little girl shook her head. “They never took my blood. They probably thought I was unclean because I’d been ill, and afterward I kept getting thinner. If it hadn’t been that, right from the beginning, all four of my brothers and sisters had shown that when they were in pain and I sang for them it helped them bear it, I would surely have died long ago.”

“So you kept singing for the children who came afterward?”

“Yes. My older brother said that way I’d be useful, and they would keep me alive.”

Hua Zhi’s chest felt stopped up with grief — her heart cold as ice, yet burning hot as fire. For a selfish desire, how could anyone be this ruthless!

If it had been a fair-matched enemy, that would be one thing — at least one could say she had the nerve for it. But these were not enemies. They were children, just a few years old, who had never harmed anyone, who had no power to fight back. How could anyone bring themselves to do this?

“May I see everyone’s elbows?”

The little girl had by now developed a measure of trust in Hua Zhi. She silently brought the youngest child forward and helped unwrap the cloth. The other children also rolled up their sleeves and undid their bindings for her to see.

The number of cut marks corresponded directly to how robust a child was — the thinner ones had visibly more marks, while the sturdier ones still had noticeably better color. Hao Yue had been raising livestock, fattening them up before slaughtering them one by one.

Hua Zhi could not bring herself to learn more. These children, who now knew the filthy secrets of the imperial palace, would never be free for the rest of their lives. Someone would eventually come to question them in greater detail. She could only hope the Empress Dowager was truly merciful enough not to erase their existence in order to spare the Emperor’s reputation.

In this matter, she did not even have the standing to plead on their behalf.

The Empress Dowager, who had been listening in silence without a word, suddenly spoke. “Who arranged this room? Why was all the furniture removed?”

A palace maid was about to answer when the little girl, thinking the Empress Dowager was addressing her, spoke up first. “There used to be furniture. Someone couldn’t take it anymore and slammed themselves against the corner of a cabinet and died. After that, they moved everything out.”

No one thought to reproach the little girl for her lack of proper etiquette. Even the Third Prince, who was ordinarily one for causing trouble and prided himself on being ruthless, had to admit that Yuepin surpassed him in cruelty. This was truly too vicious — how could any woman be so brutal?

Then he looked at Hua Zhi again, and the Third Prince shook his head inwardly. One after another — when had women become so formidable? Hao Yue was cruel, but in terms of cunning, Hua Zhi outstripped her by a measure. Walking an honest path and walking a crooked one were, in the end, entirely different things.

His gaze drifted sideways to Sixth Brother. The Third Prince couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy — how had he managed to earn Hua Zhi’s regard? If he himself had gained the Hua Family’s support… tch, where would anyone else get a look in?

Even now, he could feel clearly that his own position had become hopeless. It had nothing to do with the size of anyone’s power base — his performance today compared to Sixth Brother’s had simply been too far inferior. The court officials were not blind. Sixth Brother already had the Hua Family’s network of connections behind him, the Sun Family as a natural pillar of support, and today he had earned the respect of the neutral faction led by the Duke of Founding. What sort of waves could anyone else make now?

Still, the Third Prince glanced at the Fourth Prince’s darkened expression. As long as it wasn’t that one who rose to power, he could endure it.

And the matter was not yet over.