The mornings in the Side Courtyard were bitterly cold. The chill clung to the ground and seeped into every crack of the bones, while each breath turned to frost.
Qin Shu wrapped herself tightly in the stiff, threadbare quilt and curled up on the wooden bed. Her stomach felt painfully empty.
The nausea brought on by the bowl of greasy braised pork the previous night still lingered, making her temples throb.
Floating Cloud had risen before dawn. She was crouched beside the crude clay stove in the corner, struggling to light damp firewood. Thick smoke poured out, making her cough repeatedly as soot blackened her delicate face.
Creak—
The rusty chain on the courtyard gate was unlocked with a grating scrape.
A hunched figure slowly shuffled inside carrying a battered wooden bucket.
It was Nanny Zhang, the old servant responsible for the chores in the Side Courtyard.
Her hair had turned white, and deep wrinkles covered her sorrowful face. The coarse cotton jacket she wore had faded nearly white from countless washings and was covered with thick patches.
She set down the bucket. It contained half a bucket of murky cold water with a few dead leaves floating on the surface.
Without saying a word, Nanny Zhang picked up the worn broom leaning against the wall and began sweeping the fallen branches and withered leaves scattered throughout the courtyard by last night’s wind.
The broom scraped across the frozen ground with a dry rustling sound, monotonous and heavy.
She swept slowly, every movement weighed down by exhaustion that had seeped into her very bones.
From time to time, her cloudy eyes drifted toward the tightly shut, dilapidated door of the main room. A trace of indescribable pain and inner struggle flickered across them.
At last, Floating Cloud managed to light the fire. Tiny flames flickered inside the stove, licking at the chipped clay pot resting above it. Inside, medicinal herbs simmered. Qin Shu had caught a chill several days ago and had yet to recover.
Floating Cloud gently fanned the fire with a small hand fan while casting wary glances toward the silent old woman working in the courtyard.
Nanny Zhang eventually reached the stone steps where the food box had been placed the previous night.
Floating Cloud had already cleaned it away, but a greasy stain still stubbornly remained on the cold stone, dark and ugly like a scar.
Beside it lay the place where Qin Yan’s old pouch had been discarded. The red cord was smeared with mud, lying alone among the dead leaves.
Nanny Zhang stopped moving.
Her hunched body trembled uncontrollably as her weathered hands tightened around the broom handle until her knuckles turned white.
She stared fixedly at the greasy stain and the filthy red cord.
Without warning, tears welled up in her cloudy old eyes and rolled down her deeply lined cheeks, splashing onto the icy stone steps and leaving small dark patches.
Floating Cloud stopped fanning the fire and stared at the silently weeping old woman in confusion.
At some point, Qin Shu had already risen and thrown on her jacket. She pushed open the half-closed door.
Wrapped in her faded gray-blue jacket, she stood quietly in the doorway as the morning light outlined her frail figure.
She watched Nanny Zhang’s trembling back and the tears falling onto the ground.
Her face remained as still as stagnant water.
Only within her deep brown eyes did something stir almost imperceptibly.
“Nanny Zhang?” Floating Cloud called cautiously.
The old woman jolted like a startled rabbit. She hurriedly wiped away her tears with her sleeve and fumbled to continue sweeping.
But the suffering she had suppressed for so many years—the injustice she had witnessed day after day—finally burst through the fragile defenses of her heart like a flood breaking through a dam.
She threw aside the broom and dropped to her knees with a loud thud before Qin Shu.
“Eldest Young Miss… Eldest Young Miss…”
Her voice was hoarse and broken with sobs. She lowered her head deeply as her shoulders shook violently.
“This old servant… has failed you… failed Late Madam…”
Floating Cloud gasped and covered her mouth.
Qin Shu’s brows furrowed ever so slightly. She descended two stone steps and stopped several paces before the kneeling woman. She did not help her up, only looked at her quietly.
“Nanny Zhang, stand up before you speak. Failed me… how?”
Nanny Zhang lifted her tear-streaked face. Her bloodshot eyes were filled with remorse and pain.
“Eldest Young Miss! You have suffered so much! All these years… all these years you’ve endured torment in this living tomb. This old servant has seen it all… and every day my heart ached!”
“But I… I was too insignificant. I didn’t even dare bring you an extra bowl of hot water…”
“I’m not even human! I’m useless!”
She beat her own chest with her shriveled hands.
Qin Shu remained silent.
The morning breeze lifted the loose strands of hair across her forehead, revealing smooth but deathly pale skin.
She showed neither sympathy nor reproach.
She simply waited.
After crying for some time, Nanny Zhang gradually calmed herself, though her voice still trembled.
“Eldest Young Miss… you… you mustn’t blame Master for being heartless…”
“He… he had no choice…”
She looked at Qin Shu through tear-blurred eyes, as though searching desperately for understanding.
“No choice?”
Qin Shu’s voice was soft as a feather landing on the ground, yet it carried immense weight.
Those three gentle words struck Nanny Zhang like a blade.
Her body trembled again.
Taking a deep breath, she gazed at the gloomy sky as if looking back into unbearable memories.
“Five years ago… Governor Xu sent people to the Qin Family with a marriage proposal. He specifically requested… requested to marry Second Young Miss Qin Yan.”
Beneath Qin Shu’s sleeve, her fingers curled almost imperceptibly.
Although she had long suspected it, hearing those words spoken aloud still felt like an icy needle piercing her heart.
“Second Young Miss… the moment she heard it was Governor Xu—that bloodthirsty warlord—she fainted on the spot! After waking up, she cried and screamed, refusing to marry no matter what!”
Nanny Zhang lowered her voice instinctively, trembling with fear as though afraid someone might overhear.
“Madam… your stepmother… held Second Young Miss in her arms and cried her heart out, saying over and over, ‘My Yan’er cannot jump into a pit of fire!'”
“Master… locked himself in the study and smoked all night.”
Her expression became hollow with sorrow.
“The next day… Master came out with bloodshot eyes.”
“He called Madam and Second Young Miss into the study.”
“I… I happened to be serving tea outside…”
“I heard everything through the crack in the door…”
She swallowed hard before continuing in a voice rough as sandpaper.
“Master said… ‘Do you know who Xu Feng is? He’s the King of Hell in Linjiang City! He’s asked for Qin Yan. Do we dare refuse? If we do, the entire Qin Family will be reunited in the mass graves tomorrow!'”
Qin Shu’s breathing stalled for a moment.
The cold wind seemed even more piercing, cutting through her thin jacket and stabbing straight into her bones.
“Second Young Miss cried even harder… Madam cried too…”
“Then… then Master…”
Nanny Zhang’s voice shook so violently that she lowered her head, unable to meet Qin Shu’s eyes.
“Master said…”
“‘A-Shu… A-Shu is also a daughter of the Qin Family! Let her go! She’s the eldest sister. It’s only right that she shoulders the burden for the family!'”
Boom!
Even though she had prepared herself for the truth, hearing with her own ears that her own flesh and blood had cast her aside like a sacrificial pawn was like having a pair of red-hot tongs thrust into her heart.
Her organs felt as though they were being burned and torn apart.
Darkness flooded her vision.
She staggered and caught herself against the cold wall.
Her fingertips dug into the rough plaster until sharp pain shot through them, yet it could not suppress the overwhelming agony or the bone-deep hatred surging inside her.
So that was the truth.
There had never been any “family duty.”
There had never been any “sisterly love.”
Qin Yan had feared death.
Her stepmother had protected her own daughter.
And her father…
To preserve his precious Qin Family…
To climb onto Xu Feng’s powerful branch…
He had sacrificed without hesitation the legitimate eldest daughter left behind by his first wife—the inconvenient daughter he no longer wanted.
He had wrapped her up like a cheap commodity and delivered her into this man-eating prison.
Nanny Zhang continued speaking through her sobs, every word like another poisoned blade.
“Madam… Madam even pretended to cry and said, ‘We’ve wronged A-Shu…'”
“Master answered…”
“‘Wronged her? What’s there to wrong? Once she marries over there, she’ll become the Governor’s Madam! She’s climbing the social ladder! It’s far better than staying in the Qin Family!'”
“They… they were afraid Second Young Miss would make another scene, so they locked her up.”
“They told everyone outside that Second Young Miss had fallen ill.”
“And at that time… Eldest Young Miss… you had only just returned from the countryside estate. You knew nothing.”
“Master simply told you… Governor Xu admired your virtue and had personally chosen you…”
“And… you believed him…”
Plop!
A small sound interrupted Nanny Zhang’s tearful confession.
The small medicine packet Qin Shu had been holding slipped from her hand.
Floating Cloud had only just prepared it for her cold, wrapping the herbs in coarse paper.
The paper packet struck the icy stone steps and burst open.
Dark brown medicinal powder spilled out, mixing with the dirt.
Qin Shu lowered her head and looked at the scattered medicine.
Her shoulders trembled almost imperceptibly.
But only for a single moment.
When she raised her head again, her face had already returned to its deathly calm, as though that brief flash of agony had never existed.
Only her deep brown eyes had changed.
They had become as dark as the sea before a violent storm.
Within them, icy whirlpools capable of swallowing everything churned endlessly.
At the moment she finally learned the whole truth…
The tiny dark flame buried deep inside her finally broke free of every restraint.
It erupted into a blazing inferno.
She no longer looked at Nanny Zhang, who remained kneeling on the ground in tears.
Nor did she glance at the spilled medicine.
Instead, she slowly bent down.
Her pale, bloodless fingers reached toward the ground.
Not to pick up the medicine packet.
But to pinch up a small amount of the medicinal powder mixed with dirt.
The dark brown powder clung to her icy fingertips.
She stared at the filthy powder.
Then, slowly…
Very slowly…
She rubbed it between her fingers.