Nian Chujiu placed both palms flat on the ground, lowered her forehead onto her crossed hands, and performed a formal, solemn bow.
Everyone was shocked.
Old Madam Nian straightened abruptly from her chair, her voice changing with alarm. “Jiaojiao, what are you doing? Hurry and get up! Whatever it is, stand up and tell us!”
Slowly, Nian Chujiu raised herself and lifted her tear-streaked face.
Before the age of twenty, she had rarely cried. Even her wet nurse often said she had been an easy child to raise. She was never troublesome and always wore a bright smile. Yet today, she had cried herself into a wreck.
Old Madam Nian’s heart nearly broke at the sight. She stretched out a hand toward her. “Good girl, don’t cry. Come here to Grandmother.”
Normally, one call was all it took for her little granddaughter to snuggle up beside her. But today was different.
Nian Chujiu’s eyes glistened with tears; the corners of her eyes and the tip of her nose flushed red. “Grandmother,” she began from her knees, her hoarse voice trembling with fear, “we cannot return to Ding’an. It will become the second Yuncheng.”
The moment the words left her lips, a blinding flash of lightning tore across the night sky outside. A deafening summer thunderclap followed immediately, shaking the beams, rattling the windows, and making even the teacups on the tables tremble.
The entire room fell silent.
No one could tell whether their breath caught because of the thunder or because of Nian Chujiu’s declaration that Ding’an would become another Yuncheng.
The massacre of Yuncheng was a wound every resident of Haozhou feared to touch. Yet after their initial shock came a deeper sense of helpless resignation.
Jiaojiao still couldn’t let go of Gu Jiangzhi! To stay in the capital, she was willing to use the most terrifying lie imaginable to stop the family from leaving. How foolish! Her feelings for that Gu rascal truly ran deep. Would she only be satisfied after becoming his concubine?
At this point, aside from Nian Xiuzhu’s branch of the family, nearly everyone in the Nian clan loathed the Gu family. Even if the Gu family suddenly repented and offered to marry Nian Chujiu as their legitimate daughter-in-law, the Nians would refuse the match. People needed dignity just as trees needed bark. Though they were merchants, the Nian family possessed pride and backbone no less than scholars.
Old Madam Nian straightened and adopted a stern expression. The affection in her gaze gave way to gravity. No matter how much she adored and indulged this granddaughter, she would never allow her to marry Gu Jiangzhi.
A man feared choosing the wrong career. A woman feared marrying the wrong husband. Such decisions affected an entire lifetime.
When her daughter Nian Xiuzhu insisted on marrying Liang Guangzhi, she had softened at the last moment and failed to oppose the match strongly enough. She had regretted it for years. She would rather have her granddaughter resent her now than come home weeping in the future over a miserable marriage.
Nian Chujiu met her grandmother’s scrutinizing gaze head-on. “Grandmother, I swear before everyone here: I would rather die than marry Gu Jiangzhi.”
Every word rang with conviction. As soon as she finished speaking, the entire room felt as though a massive weight had been lifted from their shoulders. Even the brothers who had helped frame Gu Jiangzhi and send him to prison secretly released long sighs of relief. They, too, had worried that their sister’s real motive for punishing him might be to secure the position of principal wife by eventually revealing the truth to General Lu.
After all, Gu Jiangzhi was undeniably handsome and charming.
The heaviness vanished from Old Madam Nian’s eyes, and her voice softened once more. “Good child. I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me as your aunt did. Stop kneeling and come talk properly.”
Looking around at all her loved ones, Nian Chujiu suppressed the fear in her heart and shook her head stubbornly. “Grandmother, what I wish to ask concerns a matter of great importance. Please allow me to remain kneeling until I’ve finished.”
Without waiting for permission, she took a deep breath. It seemed to take all her courage to say the next words.
“Yesterday morning, I suffered a nightmare, and I had a terrible dream.”
She intended to reveal her family’s fate from her previous life in the gentlest way possible. Only with her family’s support could she carry out every plan in her heart, step by step. And if divulging heaven’s secrets truly invited divine punishment, then she would exchange her own life for her family’s safety.
With tears filling her eyes and the sorrow of someone marching willingly toward death, she recounted the Gu family’s schemes: withdrawing their protection, driving the Nians out, framing them for crimes.
“Afterward, our entire family was executed in the marketplace.” She spoke with restraint.
The events differed somewhat from what had happened in her previous life. Yet from the moment she began speaking, she never stopped crying. Her grief surged like a breached dam. Tears poured endlessly from her eyes, wiped away only to flow again.
Everyone present was stunned.
“Jiaojiao, don’t be afraid. It was only a dream.” Yin Ying’s heart clenched painfully as she rushed forward, embraced her daughter, and gently patted her back.
“Don’t be afraid. Grandmother won’t die. None of us will die. The Gu family doesn’t have that kind of power.”
“Exactly! It’s just a dream. Jiaojiao, stop crying.”
Everyone quickly echoed the reassurance. Shocking as her story was, who would mistake a dream for reality?
“That’s right. It was only a dream.”
Even Old Madam Nian, experienced and worldly as she was, believed a dream was still just a dream. Who hadn’t experienced terrible nightmares? Given enough time, they faded away.
At that moment, however, Nian Weiqing lifted his robe and knelt beside his daughter. “Mother, I believe Jiaojiao isn’t making things up.”
Yin Ying frowned and looked at her husband in surprise.
Nian Weiqing’s reasoning was simple. “Better to believe it might be true than dismiss it outright.”
Even if it was only a dream, taking precautions beforehand could do no harm.
Second Master Nian and Third Master Nian exchanged looks. Then they knelt beside their elder brother. Their thoughts were the same. They were declaring where they stood. The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth brothers naturally refused to be left behind. Their minds were still in turmoil, but their bodies had already honestly moved to kneel beside Nian Chujiu.
One after another, everyone present knelt with solemn expressions before the old matriarch. Especially the youngest, Seventh Brother Nian Jincheng, who suddenly blurted out: “I believe her! I believe her! Grandmother, I always have dreams too, where someone cuts off my head!”
Second Master Nian shot his son a look. “You little drama king. Somehow everything has to involve you.”
“I’m serious!” Seeing that his father didn’t believe him, Nian Jincheng protested anxiously. “It was like the blade missed slightly and didn’t kill me in one strike. Wuh! I wasn’t finished talking!”
Second Madam Wu Yuzheng immediately covered her son’s mouth. “Stop talking!”
Wronged, the boy pried her hand away. “I’m not lying! Ask my wet nurse if you don’t believe me!”
In his dream, the first strike hadn’t killed him. What followed was only the slow, suffocating agony of dying. When he woke up, his neck had hurt for days, and his wet nurse had treated it with medicinal wine. Breaking free of his mother’s grasp, he dashed toward Nian Chujiu like a little leopard. He squeezed Fourth Brother aside and dropped to his knees beside her.
Nian Chujiu froze the moment he spoke. She turned slowly and stared at her seventh brother’s face only inches away. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. In her previous life, this brother, who feared pain more than anyone else, had truly died in agony.
Gently nudging her with his elbow, Seventh Brother lowered his voice. “Jiaojiao, don’t be afraid. I believe you.”