The night was as dark as ink that refused to dissolve.
Only the cold wind wailed through the cracks in the torn paper windows, like countless restless spirits sobbing in grief.
Xu Feng’s drunken intrusion…
His accusation that she was “trying to seduce him”…
Qin Yan’s venomous glare…
And the servants’ contemptuous whispers…
They hung over every corner of the Side Courtyard like icy vines, wrapping around the air itself until it became impossible to breathe.
Qin Shu leaned against the cold headboard.
Beneath the strip of old cloth wrapped around the back of her right hand, the burn and the wounds she had inflicted upon herself throbbed faintly.
Her left hand absentmindedly stroked the rough cover of Supplement to Materia Medica, her fingertips resting on the three cold words—
Heartbreak Grass.
The candle burned weakly, casting wavering shadows over her pale, gaunt face.
Her deep brown eyes were as still as ancient wells.
Only the dark flame hidden deep within them continued to grow silently, nourished by endless humiliation and hatred.
Xu Feng’s words—
“You’re not worthy.”
They were like poisoned icicles, piercing what little remained of her dignity over and over again.
“…Sob…”
A stifled sound of weeping echoed through the silence.
It came in broken gasps, as though it had been forcibly squeezed out from the depths of someone’s chest.
It carried the despair of someone on the verge of collapse.
The unbearable agony came from Floating Cloud, who was curled up on the small couch at the foot of the bed.
Qin Shu’s fingers stopped turning the pages.
She looked up.
Floating Cloud had her back to her.
Her thin shoulders shook violently in the darkness without making a sound.
She had curled herself into the smallest ball possible, like a tiny abandoned animal trembling through the bitter winter.
The swelling from Qin Yan’s slap had subsided somewhat, yet the remaining bruises still stood out painfully beneath the dim light.
She bit down hard on the edge of the quilt, trying to smother the sobs she could no longer suppress.
The coarse cotton fabric had long since been soaked with tears.
These sobs were different from the grievance and anger she had shown earlier that day after being humiliated.
They were deeper.
More hopeless.
Like a flood of pain that had been held back for far too long until the dam finally collapsed.
Qin Shu set the book aside.
Barefoot, she stepped onto the freezing stone floor.
The icy cold shot through her body from the soles of her feet.
She walked over to the couch.
Without speaking immediately, she simply sat down beside Floating Cloud.
The old wooden couch groaned beneath the added weight.
Feeling someone sit beside her, Floating Cloud’s sobbing suddenly stopped.
Her body stiffened like a startled hedgehog.
She buried her face even deeper into the quilt, her shoulders trembling more violently than before.
Qin Shu reached out her hand.
She did not touch her.
Instead, she gently rested it atop the stiff, thin quilt.
The blanket had been twisted into a tight bundle beneath Floating Cloud’s desperate grip and was damp with cold moisture.
“Floating Cloud.”
Qin Shu’s dry, hoarse voice sounded unusually clear in the silent night.
“Look at me.”
Floating Cloud’s body trembled violently, as though struck by an invisible whip.
She remained frozen for a long moment before finally forcing herself to turn around.
A tear-streaked face was revealed beneath the dim candlelight.
Her eyes were swollen like ripe peaches.
They were filled with boundless pain…
Fear…
And a hatred so venomous that Qin Shu had never seen anything like it before.
The hatred was so intense that it seemed ready to tear apart the young girl’s delicate face.
“M… Madam…”
Floating Cloud’s voice was hoarse and broken, trembling with sobs.
Her lips quivered helplessly.
Not a single complete sentence could escape them.
Only more tears poured down.
Qin Shu did not question her.
She merely looked at her quietly.
That calm gaze became a silent vessel, accepting every ounce of Floating Cloud’s pain that had nowhere else to go.
She slowly reached out.
With the pads of her fingers, she gently wiped away the cold tears from Floating Cloud’s cheeks.
The movement was clumsy.
Yet it carried an undeniable power of comfort.
Her fingertips brushed against the lingering swelling on Floating Cloud’s face, feeling the faint trembling beneath her skin.
That silent comfort…
Became the final straw.
The tightly drawn string that had held Floating Cloud together for so long—the burden of carrying such an enormous secret all alone—
Snapped.
She suddenly threw herself into Qin Shu’s arms.
Like a drowning person grabbing onto the last piece of driftwood, she clung desperately to Qin Shu’s slender waist, burying her face deeply against her cold clothing.
The pain and terror she had suppressed for so long finally burst free.
“Madam… Madam!!”
She cried so hard it tore at her lungs.
Her body convulsed violently.
“I hate them! I hate him! I hate them all!!”
“Who?”
Qin Shu’s voice remained calm.
One hand gently patted Floating Cloud’s trembling back, soothing her like a frightened child.
“Xu Feng! That beast Xu Feng! And all those soldiers under his command who devour people without even spitting out the bones!”
Floating Cloud suddenly lifted her head.
Through tear-filled eyes burst a hatred carved into her very soul.
Her voice twisted beneath overwhelming hatred.
“My father… my mother… and my little brother…
“They… they were beaten to death…
“By Xu Feng’s soldiers!”
The final words were almost screamed through blood and tears.
Qin Shu’s hand froze instantly.
Her deep brown pupils contracted sharply.
Floating Cloud seemed to sink back into the nightmare from which she had never awakened.
Her body shook like a leaf caught in the wind.
Her shattered voice painted each horrifying memory in blood.
“That year… there was a famine in Linjiang City…
“My father… my father was a peddler who traveled from street to street…
“There was nothing left to eat at home…
“He took me and my little brother… together with a crowd of starving people…
“We went outside the city…
“To Xu Feng’s granary…
“We only wanted to beg…
“Beg them to open the granary and give us a little relief grain…”
Her eyes became hollow with terror.
It was as though she had returned to that hellish scene.
“The soldiers guarding the granary wouldn’t listen…
“They called us ‘unruly peasants’…
“‘Rioters’…
“They beat people with rifle butts…
“They lashed them with whips…
“My father…
“He shielded me and my little brother…
“They…
“They smashed his head with a rifle butt…
“There was blood…
“So much blood…”
Floating Cloud’s body convulsed violently.
It was as though the hot blood had splashed across her face once again.
“My mother rushed forward…
“She tried to protect Father…
“They…
“They whipped her…
“They lashed her face…
“Her back…
“They whipped her until her skin split open and her flesh tore apart…”
Floating Cloud’s teeth chattered uncontrollably.
Her eyes held the pain and madness of a wounded beast.
“My little brother was only eight…
“He was already frozen with fear…
“He just stood there crying…
“One soldier got annoyed by his crying…
“He kicked him…
“He sent him flying…
“He hit…
“He hit the stone pedestal outside the granary…
“My little brother…
“He…
“He never got up again…”
The overwhelming grief nearly suffocated her.
She clutched Qin Shu’s clothing so tightly that her fingernails almost tore through the fabric.
“I…
“My mother pressed me beneath her body…
“Her blood covered me…
“It was warm…
“I heard her…
“With her very last breath…
“Whisper into my ear…
“‘Run…
‘Floating Cloud…
Run…'”
She suddenly squeezed her eyes shut.
Tears poured down alongside unbearable agony.
“When I…
“When I crawled out from beneath the pile of corpses…
“My father…
“My mother…
“My little brother…
“They…
“They all…”
The rest of her words were swallowed by another torrent of sobs.
Curled up in Qin Shu’s arms, Floating Cloud cried until every ounce of strength had left her.
Only helpless sobs remained.
Those sobs carried overwhelming hatred.
And endless despair.
Qin Shu held the trembling girl tightly.
It felt as though she were embracing another shattered version of herself.
Floating Cloud’s cold tears…
Her hopeless despair…
They seeped through the thin layers of clothing, penetrating Qin Shu’s skin until they reached her heart.
At last, she understood.
She understood why there had always been an inescapable shadow in Floating Cloud’s eyes.
Why she feared and hated Xu Feng’s name so deeply.
Why she would rather remain buried alive in this living tomb beside her than ever leave.
Because…
They were both orphans whose families had been torn apart by the same beast.
Their roots…
Their loved ones…
Had all been buried beneath the cruelty of Xu Feng and the monsters who served him.
A freezing chill mixed with equally overwhelming hatred churned violently inside Qin Shu’s chest.
Her arms unconsciously tightened around Floating Cloud.
Within her deep brown eyes, the sea of hatred burning with icy flames became even more turbulent after absorbing Floating Cloud’s blood-soaked grief.
The flames were no longer empty anger.
Now they had fuel.
The Qin Family’s betrayal.
Xu Feng’s humiliation.
Qin Yan’s cruelty.
And the blood debt owed for the slaughter of Floating Cloud’s entire family.
“So…”
Qin Shu spoke softly, almost in a whisper.
Her voice carried a strange, icy calm beneath Floating Cloud’s muffled sobs.
“You came to the Governor’s Mansion…
“Not to survive…
“But to…”
Floating Cloud suddenly lifted her head.
Though swollen with tears, her eyes now shone brilliantly.
Like cold stars forged in fire.
They burned with reckless hatred.
She stared directly at Qin Shu.
Her hoarse voice was astonishingly clear.
Every word seemed ground out between clenched teeth.
“Yes, Madam!
“I sold myself and came here on purpose!
“I spent a long time gathering information.
“I learned there was a Madam abandoned by the Governor and imprisoned in the Side Courtyard…
“The servants assigned here…
“They had the easiest chance…
“The easiest chance to get close to that beast surnamed Xu!
“I came here…
“For revenge!
“To avenge my father…
“My mother…
“And my little brother!”
She clenched both fists so tightly that her nails dug deeply into her palms.
Her body trembled beneath the overwhelming hatred and determination.
“As long as I could get close to him…
“As long as I could find an opportunity…
“I was willing to do anything!
“Even…
“Even if it meant dying together with him!”
She spoke those final words with absolute certainty.
There was a madness in her resolve—the determination to perish together with her enemy.
The candle suddenly flickered violently.
A tiny spark burst from the wick with a soft crackling sound.
Within the dim light, Floating Cloud’s young face, filled with hatred and unwavering resolve, resembled a shocking totem of vengeance.
Qin Shu did not loosen her embrace.
She lowered her head and looked into Floating Cloud’s eyes.
She saw the flames that would stop at nothing.
She saw the expression twisted by hatred, yet incomparably resolute.
Within Qin Shu’s deep brown eyes, the surging sea of hatred finally seemed to find an outlet after Floating Cloud’s desperate confession.
The icy flames of her hatred silently merged with the blazing fire of revenge.
They resonated as one.
She said nothing.
She simply extended her scarred right hand, still wrapped in faded cloth.
Reaching past Floating Cloud’s shoulder, she stretched toward the small table beside the bed where the candle flickered uncertainly.
Hot wax flowed down the candle, hardening into twisted scars.
Beside it lay a small pair of rusted scissors used for trimming the candlewick.
She picked them up.
The cold, rough touch of rust pressed against her fingertips.
Holding the scissors firmly, she slowly aimed their sharp tip toward the burning wick.