Jintang
CHAPTER 4
17
When Shen Chong took my secret letter and rode a hundred miles to rescue the emperor, I was already surrounded by Zhu Huan's elder brother, leading troops to encircle the prince's estate.
Zhu Huan held my younger brother—whom I had hidden—before her like a shield, forcing me to surrender.
“Traitor, choose—your life or his.”
The Yun family had been wrongfully destroyed, wiped out entirely. Only my brother and I remained.
I bled and risked my life for Shen Chong—first, to one day clear my family’s name, and second, for my little brother to live well.
He was only seven, just three years older than Shen Yuchen.
While Shen Yuchen was doted on like a treasure, never knowing hardship or pain…
My little brother had already sworn to shed blood and shatter his bones to overturn the injustice done to the Yun family.
He vowed to study day and night, to climb the ranks through the imperial exams, just to stand tall behind me.
Even when he became a prisoner beneath Zhu Huan’s blade, he said to me without fear:
“Sister, you’ve done enough for me, for our family. If you don’t escape, I won’t survive either.”
Zhu Huan’s brother stomped on his back—the sound of breaking bones nearly shattered my soul.
“If she runs, I’ll flay you alive and hang your corpse on the city gate.”
When I didn’t immediately drop my blade, they twisted my brother’s arm behind his back until it broke.
A seven-year-old child, pale with pain, still managed to force a smile at me:
“Sister, it doesn’t hurt. I’m a man—I can take it.”
Crack.
My brother's leg that practiced martial arts was broken by a foot.
When Zhu Huan’s blade was about to pierce his eye, I dropped my weapon.
But at the same time, a sharp sword ran through my chest from behind.
It was the sister I had protected all the way.
That person—still lives quietly in the palace, enjoying her wealth and glory.
Her life... it’s time she gave it back to me.
18
In the second month after I entered the palace, an autumn banquet was held.
Shen Chong held my hand and seated me beside him.
Zhu Huan barely maintained her pride, already seething with hatred beneath her clenched teeth.
While Shen Chong drank with the ministers, I quietly swapped his wine with water.
Then, with a taunting smile, I gently stroked my lower abdomen.
I was pregnant.
Zhu Huan’s grip on her wine cup turned pale from pressure.
After several rounds of drinks, I volunteered to take a walk.
Shen Chong only reminded me to protect myself.
I patted the blade on my waist and smiled, “With this, rest assured.”
The long-sealed gates of Xianfu Palace opened.
Zhen Pin, who rarely left her chambers, was already standing under the moonlight waiting for me.
When she saw me, she rushed over anxiously: “Are they still alive? What do you want from me?”
I coldly brushed her hands away.
“Kneel.”
Her face froze.
When she met my icy gaze, she hesitated for a moment, then knelt weakly.
“Greetings, Your Grace.”
I didn’t ask her to rise. Sitting above her, I looked down.
“This Xianfu Palace isn’t as lavish as your old courtyard. What, Zhu Huan treats you poorly now?”
She gave a bitter smile.
“I’m just a pawn. Without a child to depend on, this is already the best ending I could hope for.”
“What exactly do you want from me?”
“I just want to know if my mother and younger brother are still alive.”
I said nothing. I simply tossed her a packet of medicine.
“Visit the Empress’s palace more often these days. You’re good sisters, aren’t you? Her precious son is so ill he can’t even get out of bed for a banquet. She’ll surely need your comfort.”
Her gaze lingered on the packet for a long time.
In the end, her trembling fingers clutched that path of no return.
“In exchange… will you spare my mother and brother?”
I stood up and walked away.
“You’re not qualified to ask.”
With a weakness held in someone else’s hand, she had no right to bargain.
Back then, only she—Song Zhen’er—had read my brother’s letter. Only she could’ve betrayed us.
Blood must be repaid in blood. What made her think she had any right to ask for terms?
From the moment I returned her mother and brother’s keepsakes, her fate was sealed—to live in endless fear and sleepless nights until her final breath.
On my way back from the banquet, I was stopped by Chen Fei. She smiled and studied my face:
“You look so much like an old friend of mine.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, I know. His Majesty said the same thing the day he asked me to be his consort. Just a stand-in for his white moonlight. But I’m still a consort, clothed and fed in luxury. What am I supposed to complain about?”
Her face turned pale—the words I tossed out almost choked her with fury.
“Now is the perfect time for the Second Prince to shine. Shouldn’t you be seizing the opportunity?”
“The Emperor’s greatest headache is that none of his sons are strong enough to stand. If you miss this chance, it might never come again.”
“Compared to the Empress’s false sweetness, I actually find your smile quite sincere.”
Chen Fei’s eyes lit up. She softly held my hand.
19
The Third Prince had fallen ill, and the Second Prince, brimming with confidence, finally made his mark in court.
His mother… was someone I had once liked very much.
Delicate and gentle, always trailing behind me with a soft smile, calling me “Sister, Sister.”
She was thoughtful, graceful, and obedient.
Whenever I returned to the prince's estate covered in blood, she would always be standing beneath the corridor, waiting to help me wash up and tend to my wounds.
In the princely estate, there were only two people I truly trusted.
One was Wan Qiong, whom I had personally raised.
The other was Song Zhen’er, whom I had dragged back from a pile of corpses.
But in the end, Song Zhen’er exchanged my weakness for wealth and status, and became the present Zhen Pin.
And Wan Qiong? She stabbed me from behind to ensure her child’s safety and was later conferred as Chen Fei.
Neither of them would escape.
Now that the Third Prince’s power was waning, Chen Fei—after years of patience—finally showed her sharp edge in response to the intel I gave her.
At court, the Second Prince continued to win hearts, leaving the Third Prince with no room to maneuver.
In the harem, Chen Fei openly allied herself with me, catching the Empress off guard.
“Thank you for the evidence, Sister. Now Minister Zhu is neck-deep in corruption charges for factionalism and embezzlement. He’ll never be able to pull himself out of that mess, let alone support the Third Prince.”
Seeing me silent, she probed further:
“It’s just a pity—he’s too stubborn. Even now, he refuses to implicate the Third Prince.”
I cast her a sidelong glance:
“Whether there’s hard evidence doesn’t matter. The Second Prince understands the power of public opinion. At worst—just fabricate it.”
I suddenly remembered it was the little girl’s day to get her jerky, and stood to head to the Prayer Hall.
The smile on Chen Fei’s lips disappeared at once. The chill in her gaze clung to my back like a venomous serpent.
Borrow a knife to kill?
Who’s wielding the knife—well, that’s still to be seen.
20
The news of my pregnancy was kept tightly under wraps.
Shen Chong surrounded me with layer upon layer of protection, guarding me like a fortress.
He said he wanted both me and the child to come through safely.
I hid the smile tugging at my lips and nodded in agreement, saying of course.
But just a few days later, Zhen Pin came to my palace for a cup of tea—and I began bleeding heavily, collapsing to the ground.
By the time Shen Chong arrived, the pool of blood was already soaking into the floor beneath me.
Perhaps it reminded him of the day Yun Tang lost her child—
That day too, he held Yun Tang in his arms, crouched in a pool of blood.
He saved her life but lost the formed little prince.
As he held me in his arms, his body trembled, and he kept pleading:
“Don’t sleep, don’t sleep, I’m here.”
“The imperial physician is on the way. Just hold on a little longer, I’ll stay with you the whole time.”
I did my best to mimic Yun Tang’s expression when she was injured— Stroking his face, not uttering a single word, not crying out in pain.
The memories overlapped—becoming that much sharper.
When it was confirmed I had been fed a large dose of safflower and my body was ruined beyond recovery, never to bear children again—
Shen Chong turned on his heel and stormed toward Zhu Huan’s Weiyang Palace.
Even though Zhen Pin clenched her teeth and refused to speak a word, getting the truth from the mouths of servants wasn’t hard.
“Lately, Her Majesty the Empress has been summoning our mistress to Weiyang Palace quite frequently. Today, she called her there early in the morning, and they spoke in private for over two hours.”
“Before our lady came to Guanju Palace, Her Majesty sent someone out of the palace. She said, ‘Go without worry, I’ll take care of everything.’”
“Your Majesty, please seek justice for our lady.”
Zhen Pin followed my instructions obediently, word for word.
Shen Chong kicked Zhen Pin to the floor:
“Are you her dog? I’ve never seen anyone as loyal as you.”
“If you’re so loyal, then why did you betray A-Yu back then? You wretched thing—you deserve worse than death.”
As she was dragged away, she kept begging me for mercy.
I knew what she meant—she was pleading because she’d done as I instructed, hoping I’d spare her mother and younger brother.
But I had no brother left. Why should she be allowed to keep hers?
After she was cast into the Cold Palace, I sent her a gift.
She loved playing the zither. So I made her a pipa—crafted from her mother’s bones.
She loved playing the drums, so I used her brother’s skin to make a small one for her.
She went mad—screaming, cursing me, calling me heartless and inhuman, spitting out how I broke my promise and deserved to die.
Halfway through her curse, I, in a black cloak, stood in front of her.
“You lost so much blood from that safflower poisoning, and yet you still came all the way here. You’re ruthless. So, so ruthless.”
But I was never a kind person. She didn’t just realize that today.
I pulled her into an embrace, gently—and then slowly began pulling the hairpin from her head.
One jab at a time, I ground away her strength, until she couldn’t move anymore.
Then, dragging her across the floor for several zhang, I tossed her down an old, dry well.
Before I left, I told her one final truth—something that would make her die with wide, disbelieving eyes:
“I’m not Yun Tang’s sister. Yun Tang never had a sister.”
“So… do you wonder now why I move like her, fight like her, look like her?”
She must have realized something. She must have desperately wanted to confirm it.
But a well that deep—
in a cold palace that deserted—
no one would hear her no matter how loud she screamed.
When I was tortured to death, my little brother had watched in despair, helplessly—
That kind of pain— he felt it all.
So now, those butchers will feel it too.
Back then, when Song Zhen’er’s mother was sold into a brothel and nearly died under some man’s abuse—it was me who stormed in to save her.
Back then, her brother, unskilled in both the pen and the sword, a slave born to a courtesan—it was me who used the favor of taking a sword for Shen Chong to get him a post.
And yet in the end, those two used false news of my death to lure my little brother into the capital—
They betrayed me.
So now, they’ll repay everything they owe me.
The three of them once joined forces, using every trick—both overt and covert—to take Yun Tang’s life.
But now, one dead in the cold palace,
two fighting each other to the death after being torn apart by rumors,
and I, no longer holding any weakness for others to exploit.
Will I lose again?
When I returned to the palace, exhausted and covered in blood,
Shen Chong was sitting by the bed, reading.
He didn’t acknowledge the blood on me, his only reaction was gripping my cold hand tightly.
“You can’t be exposed to the cold, come here, I’ll warm you up.”
He pulled me into his arms, holding me tight, trying to make up for the one I had lost.
But no matter who I was now,
I couldn’t find happiness.
The companionship Yun Tang had wanted, he hadn’t given her in Zhu Huan’s courtyard all those years ago.
Now, the blood I wanted to flow—
he refused to let it be as large a matter as it needed to be.
“I went to kill someone!”
“That’s what she deserved!”
“Don’t you want to know who?”
“It doesn’t matter!”
It’s not that killing doesn’t matter—it’s that the person who dies doesn’t matter to him.
I almost made the mistake, almost got lost in his deep affection and protection.
Just a little bit more, and I would’ve.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment