Yu Sanqi heard the beating of her own heart. After being brought back to life, the warmth missing from her body seemed to return in an instant. She had been cast into a furnace, yet the furnace had not harmed her. It had only warmed her flesh and soul.
“Thank you, Yan Du,” she rasped.
Hearing her hoarse voice, Yan Du frowned. Then he thought of the marks around her neck, and his eyes darkened.
He wrapped her more tightly in his black fox-fur cloak. Her body was far too cold—nothing like the temperature of a living person. He had been in such a hurry to bring her back to the residence for treatment that he had not had time to change her wet clothes. Even now, she was still dressed in those drenched garments.
Only then did Yan Du look toward the Yu Family, his gaze landing directly on Yu Minwu.
Blood was running from Yu Minwu’s nose and mouth, and his face was swollen. Yan Du’s punch had knocked out three of his teeth.
But Yan Du still felt it was not enough. He really should have stabbed him just now!
The killing intent radiating from the Young General was oppressive. The Yu Family members were all frightened pale, and Yu Jing no longer dared to cower behind the others.
“Y-Young General, why have you attacked someone…?”
“This is a family matter of the Yu Residence…”
“A family matter?” Yan Du looked down at him with disdain. “Registrar Yu deceived His Majesty, abused his own daughter, and tortured the Empress Dowager’s benefactor to death. This general has come by imperial order to rectify His Majesty’s edict!”
“His Majesty has decreed that Yu Jing, having disregarded propriety and lacking benevolence and compassion, be demoted three ranks and have three years’ salary confiscated. He is also to receive fifty strokes in public, as a warning to others!”
Yu Jing was struck as if by a bolt from the blue and collapsed limply to the ground.
The more delighted the Yu Family had been when His Majesty’s edict of reward arrived, the more desperate they were now.
Yan Du paid no attention to their pleas.
“Men, carry out the punishment here!”
Several personal guards stepped forward and knocked Yu Minwen and the others aside with a single sweep of their arms. They pinned Yu Jing down, stripped off his trousers, raised their rods, and began to strike.
Normally, a person would not be stripped for a caning. But how sharp were the Young General’s personal guards? Third Miss Yu was their Young General’s lifesaving benefactor, and he valued her greatly.
Not to mention that even these rough soldiers could not stand to see what Yu Sanqi had endured. Those with daughters of their own were even more furious.
This bastard who had failed as a father still wanted to save face?!
Yu Jing’s sagging old backside was exposed to everyone, provoking an uproar around them. Yu Jing was so humiliated and furious that he wanted to die, but soon he no longer had the strength to feel humiliated or furious—because the pain was killing him!
The soldiers struck with practiced force. Every blow landed with such precision that it tore his flesh open.
Yu Jing’s screams and the Yu Family’s wails blended together, more spectacular than the cries of a slaughtered pig.
Yu Sanqi watched without blinking when a young man’s low voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
“If you think fifty strokes are too many, I can—”
“How could they be too many? I still think it’s too few.” Yu Sanqi blurted it out.
She felt him visibly relax. It was at that moment that Yan Du seemed to realize how close the two of them were.
He avoided her gaze and stepped back slightly.
Yu Jing had already been beaten half to death. At first, he could still let out pig-like squeals, but after twenty strokes, he could barely make a sound.
Liu Shi came running toward Yu Sanqi, crying.
“Sanqi! Save your father! He’s going to be beaten to death!”
“Go beg His Majesty! Go beg him! No matter what, he’s still your father!”
Yu Sanqi did not even bother to dodge. She merely curled one finger, and it was as though something had caught Liu Shi’s foot. She fell directly to the ground.
The Yu brothers and Yu Tang helped Liu Shi up, all of them turning toward Yu Sanqi.
“Third Younger Sister, are you really going to stand by and watch him die?”
“That’s our father! He’s your blood relation!”
Yan Du’s hand, resting on the hilt of his sword, tightened further and further. He loathed the faces of this family, but… he turned toward Yu Sanqi with concern.
He knew how much she cared about them.
If she softened now…
The response was a scornful laugh from Yu Sanqi.
She looked down at them, her expression utterly cold.
“When I died, I repaid the debt of the kindness that gave me life.”
“My name has already been removed from the Yu Family’s genealogy. What does the life or death of the Yu Family have to do with me?”
“Yu Sanqi is dead. From this day forth, there is only Sanqi in this world—never again Third Miss Yu!”
She looked toward Yan Du.
“Young General, are you willing to bear witness for me?”
Yan Du gazed at her intently. A rare smile appeared on his face, as cold and fair as jade.
This was the Sanqi he knew!
She was extraordinary, a spiritual treasure. Why should she become the “universal remedy for all the worries” of that pack of bloodsuckers in the Yu Family? She ought to be as free and uninhibited as she was now, unbound by anything!
“I, Yan Du, am willing to be your witness!”
The Yu Family members were shocked and enraged. The only things left in their gazes toward Sanqi were disbelief, confusion, and resentment.
“Yu Sanqi, how can you sever blood ties simply because you say so?”
“You’re only a young girl. Where could you go after leaving the Yu Family? Since ancient times, no daughter has ever severed ties with her parents! This is filial disobedience!”
Yu Tang nodded along as well, as though utterly heartbroken.
“Third Elder Sister, you keep saying Father was not kind and that the family wronged you, but did you never act recklessly in the past?”
“You burned Eldest Brother’s collection of famous ancient books and caused Second Brother to break his leg. Eldest Brother and Second Brother both forgave you, yet you refused to mend your ways.”
“You say you died, but aren’t you alive and well now?”
“Father was punished because of you, and Mother and Second Brother even knelt before you. Wasn’t that enough? Do you really have to take things this far?”
Sanqi’s gaze swept over the faces of everyone in the Yu Family, and she suddenly laughed.
Her slender body was wrapped in the black fox-fur cloak, black and white standing out in stark contrast—just like her eyes, far darker than an ordinary person’s. They were black as an abyss, yet dazzlingly bright.
Nothing could cover her eyes or make her lose herself in confusion and bewilderment again.
“Where can I go? I am the Commandery Princess Minghua personally appointed by His Majesty. Naturally, I’m heading upward.”
“As for you, stay in your filthy quagmire and slowly rot and stink…”
Sanqi bent slightly at the waist and stared at them.
The swamp formed from ghostly energy had already wound itself around the Yu Family members. Misfortune and calamity had locked onto them, though they remained completely unaware.
“Yu Minwen, do you really think you know who searched out all those Confucian classics behind you?”
“Yu Minwu, don’t you know how your leg was broken? The physicians all said you would certainly be crippled, yet now you can walk as swiftly as the wind. Do you really think Heaven took pity on you and gave you a miracle?”
“And you, Yu Tang.” Sanqi’s lips slowly curled upward. “One lie takes a thousand more to cover. Without me, how are you going to cover up all the lies you told the Boyuan Marquis’s Residence?”
Every word Sanqi spoke was like a needle, stabbing at their hearts and filling them with alarm and doubt.
Yu Tang’s face instantly turned ashen.
Sanqi left with Yan Du.
Although she was now a Commandery Princess, she truly had not a penny to her name and nowhere to go.
“Would the Young General be willing to take me in for the time being?” she asked frankly.
Yan Du met her strikingly black-and-white eyes. His hand clenched once, and he naturally looked away, giving a deep hum in response. He had once again assumed his usual cold, aloof general’s bearing.
By coincidence, the Young General’s wandering gaze met Eunuch Li’s. The old eunuch’s face wrinkled with a smile, and the suggestive look in his eyes made Yan Du want to stretch the skin right off his face.
“Commandery Princess Minghua, rest assured and return to the general’s residence to recuperate. I will first accompany Eunuch Li back to the palace to report.”
As he spoke, Yan Du paused, then looked toward Sanqi and softened his tone.
“Don’t worry. His Majesty will not punish you.”
Sanqi’s act of severing family ties today was highly unconventional in Great Qian, where the empire was governed according to filial piety.
What was more, Yan Du had openly taken her side today. At tomorrow’s court session, the censors would undoubtedly subject him to a barrage of verbal and written attacks.
Yet he said nothing about that, merely telling Sanqi not to worry.
“Commandery Princess! Let’s hurry back to the residence.” A personal guard with the appearance of a young man came over. When he smiled, a pair of tiger teeth showed, and he was so naturally familiar that after only a few sentences, Sanqi learned that his name was Nan Xun, how many people lived in his household, and how many cats and dogs they had.
Once she boarded the carriage, Sanqi wrapped the cloak more tightly around herself. It was as though Yan Du’s body heat still lingered in the fur.
She interrupted Nan Xun’s endless chatter.
“Stop calling me Commandery Princess. Perhaps this title will be revoked tomorrow.”
“It won’t! The Young General said it won’t, so it definitely won’t. Don’t worry, Commandery Princess~”
“It won’t? Then what about falsely transmitting an imperial edict?” Sanqi’s eyes shone with astonishing brightness.
Nan Xun fell silent, then asked in surprise, “Commandery Princess, h-how did you find out?”
Sanqi lowered her eyes. By the time Yan Du had entered the palace to seek justice for her, she had already been dead. With no surviving witness, even if His Majesty truly intended to punish the Yu Family, he likely would not have imposed a severe penalty.
He had wanted to avenge her, so he had altered the imperial edict without authorization?
Truly… bold beyond all reason.
But…
A thoughtful look flickered through Sanqi’s beautiful eyes.
To this day, she still could not understand when exactly she and this Young General had formed a connection.
What had made him willing to go this far for her?