Swallow Holding Branch came back to her senses, her entire soul trembling with overwhelming hatred.
Looking back on the past ten years, the second branch had trampled over the bones of the eldest branch to flaunt their power within the Jingyuan Marquisate. In their occasional remarks, Yan Jingzheng and Wang Chenbi had often spoken with contempt about her father.
One looked down on his own elder brother, the other despised her father-in-law’s elder brother—as if her father truly were a heinous criminal.
Their genuine-seeming expressions had even fooled Swallow Holding Branch.
Thus, although she hated the second branch for causing her death, most of her resentment was directed at her own foolishness. She never imagined that her parents had also died at the hands of the second branch.
If her parents had lived, she would not have been sent to the family temple in Jinling to endure a life of hardship.
If her parents had lived, she would not have gambled with her lifelong happiness, only to die in the rear courtyard of the Jingyuan Marquisate.
With a piercing scream, Swallow Holding Branch rushed out of the servants’ quarters and headed straight for the main hall along the central axis. She wanted to kill Yan Jingzheng and Wang Chenbi, along with that domineering Old Madam Wang of the Jingyuan Marquisate.
Her intentions were fierce, but when she reached the main hall and faced her enemies, she found herself powerless. No matter how hard she tried, she could never so much as touch the hem of their garments.
To everyone in the second branch, Swallow Holding Branch was nothing more than a wisp of air.
With her enemies right before her eyes yet utterly beyond her reach, it was nothing less than a torturous death by a thousand cuts for Swallow Holding Branch.
She had thought she would suffer the torment of hopeless vengeance until her soul dissipated, but change descended upon them abruptly.
The Jingyuan Marquisate was raided.
From the masters to the servants, everyone was thrown into prison.
The reason was the old emperor’s death and the new emperor’s ascension. The prince Yan Jingzheng had previously aligned himself with had fallen from power, and the marquisate suffered a brutal purge.
As the saying goes, when a wall is about to collapse, everyone gives it a push—and the Jingyuan Marquisate itself was far from clean.
A long list of charges was brought against them: selling official positions and titles, disrupting governance, forming cliques for personal gain.
Yan Jingzheng had interfered in court affairs, leveraging family connections to amass vast sums of money and illegally secure official positions for others.
Through bribing palace eunuchs, he had purchased a nominal fifth-rank official position for his eldest legitimate son, Yan Linxiao, turning official posts into tools for personal enrichment and harming the interests of the court.
The matriarch, Wang Chenbi, colluded with her daughter-in-law to lend money at exorbitant interest rates through servants, fostering a culture of corruption that claimed lives for the sake of hundreds of taels in annual profits.
Not only that, but they also used the name of the Jingyuan Marquisate to extort merchants everywhere, forcibly acquiring shares without investment and reaping dividends without contributing.
The eldest legitimate daughter of the Jingyuan Marquis, Yan Xian Yue, entered the palace as a servant, later climbing into the emperor’s bed to become his concubine. To seek favor and higher status, she framed and murdered palace consorts, sowing chaos in the imperial harem.
When Yan Xian Yue later became pregnant and gained favor, the marquisate, emboldened by their daughter’s pregnancy, began acting as imperial relatives, overstepping ceremonial norms, indulging in extravagance, and living in luxury far beyond the marquisate’s proper station.
Their daily expenses included countless extravagant dishes such as “preserved eggplant delicacy,” “clear soup with bird’s nest,” and “Buddha jumps over the wall.”
After the new emperor ascended the throne, Yan Xian Yue, then a consort, was ordered to commit suicide. With this illusory pillar of support gone, the Jingyuan Marquisate was immediately branded as “treasonous.”
The charges were summarized as “disloyal hearts” for forming cliques and interfering in governance. The masters of the marquisate were stripped of their titles and properties, and those found guilty were executed at the execution ground.
The younger ones were enslaved as criminals, with no hope of pardon. All family assets were confiscated, and the servants were sold off.
After the raid, the once-prosperous and splendid Jingyuan Marquisate fell into ruin, its plaque removed from the gate.
The moment the plaque fell, the force that had confined Swallow Holding Branch within the Marquis Manor also vanished.
She could finally step out of the Jingyuan Marquis Manor to see the outside world and witness the prosperity of the capital.
However, at that time, Swallow Holding Branch had no interest in such things. She was desperate to see her enemies’ heads roll.
Fortunately, those who had been wronged by the Marquis Manor were just as impatient as she was. As soon as the charges against the members of the Jingyuan Marquis Manor were confirmed, various parties used their influence and money to quickly set a date for their execution.
The members of the Marquis Manor would not even wait until autumn for their sentencing—they were to be taken directly to the execution ground for beheading.
Swallow Holding Branch trembled with joy. While these people were alive, she had been powerless against them, but once they were dead, she might not be so helpless!
They would all be ghosts—freshly deceased spirits—while she was a vengeful ghost filled with resentment. She would not rest until she tore them to shreds and scattered their souls.
Watching the trembling members of the Marquis Manor beneath the executioner’s blade, Swallow Holding Branch savored each of their pitiful states. As soon as the first head fell and a soul drifted out, she swiftly seized it.
Without giving the spirit a chance to react, she clawed at it with her fingers, tearing it to pieces. Swallow Holding Branch moved with such speed and ferocity that she left no ghost any opportunity to escape.
She feared that if she was not fast enough, some might slip through her grasp and flee.
On the execution ground, the executioner’s blade grew dull from beheading, while Swallow Holding Branch’s fingers ached from tearing apart ghosts. By the time the last head fell, she gasped for breath as she shattered the final soul.
The pain, hatred, and resentment that had weighed on her heart dissipated along with the scattering of her enemies’ souls.
Perhaps it was the satisfaction of vengeance, but for the first time in her ten years as a ghost, Swallow Holding Branch felt a profound exhaustion that seeped into her very soul. She thought she had reached the point of fading away.
But with her vengeance fulfilled, she had no regrets. Swallow Holding Branch surrendered to nature, closed her eyes, and sank into a deep slumber.
She expected to awaken on the path to the underworld, but when she regained consciousness and opened her eyes, she found herself back at the age of three.
When Swallow Holding Branch confirmed that she had truly been reborn, shock and disbelief left her dazed for a long time, fearing it was all but a fleeting dream.
If she woke, she would once again be that lonely wandering spirit. Yet everything around her felt so real. Swallow Holding Branch extended her chubby little hands, examining them over and over.
She thought to herself, even if this was a dream, she did not want it to be a nightmare. She refused to relive the suffering of her past life. She wanted both her parents alive, her family reunited, and a life of prosperity and glory.
To achieve this beautiful dream, she would have to ensure that Old Madam Wang and everyone from the second branch of the family reincarnated as soon as possible.
The bed curtains were drawn aside, and a beautiful young woman dressed in a jade-green ruqun adorned with intertwined floral patterns appeared before Swallow Holding Branch.
Her hair was styled in a high bun, crowned with a gilded filigree peony headpiece. An ivory comb inlaid with rubies was tucked into the back of her hair, while golden foil-cut spring swallow hairpins adorned her temples. From her earlobes dangled white jade earrings inlaid with gold threads.
She wore a light green, narrow-sleeved short ru made of linked-bead deer-patterned silk, with a golden scroll-patterned shawl draped over her arms. The collar of her straight-necked, front-opening garment was edged with silver-threaded lotus vines, layered over a pale apricot-yellow gauze undershirt and a translucent, pale blue Yue silk wide-sleeved robe, its cuffs embroidered with a pattern of butterflies fluttering among flowers.
Her pomegranate-red skirt was divided into six panels, each painted with silver-threaded lotus motifs. The waistband was tied high at her waist, fastened with a five-colored silk ribbon adorned with a blue orchid-scented sachet and a dangling love knot.
A mutton-fat white jade bracelet hung from her wrist. Even before she drew near, a gentle fragrance wafted toward Swallow Holding Branch.
The young woman saw Swallow Holding Branch with her eyes open and smiled, “Yuanjie is awake.”
Swallow Holding Branch turned her head to look at the young woman, then opened her mouth with a smile, “Mother, hold me.”
Madam Bai reached out and lifted Swallow Holding Branch from the bedding, personally fetched a padded jacket and skirt to dress her, then felt her daughter’s forehead. Relieved to find no fever, she let out a sigh and instructed the maid beside her:
“The young miss no longer has a fever. I’m not sure if she still needs to take the medicine prescribed by the doctor.
Go and fetch another doctor to take the young miss’s pulse again and see if a new prescription is needed.”
The maid accepted the order and left. Madam Bai then asked the maid attending Swallow Holding Branch, “How many times has the young miss drunk water today?
How is her appetite?
How much has she eaten?
Has she relieved herself?”
Madam Bai inquired in detail, showing concern for every aspect of her daughter’s well-being, fearing that those serving her might not be attentive enough.
Swallow Holding Branch leaned against her mother, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on her. It felt so good to be cared for!