Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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Because the evidence was conclusive, Zhuang Tian’er’s case was quickly decided. Although it was not the death by a thousand cuts, it was still execution in the autumn, and she could not escape death in the end.
A torture stick fell onto Zhuang Tian’er, who was kneeling in the courtroom, with a soft thud, but to her it was like a thunderbolt. She slowly raised her head and looked at the official presiding over the case, her expression twisted with disbelief.
However, the verdict that devastated her even more was yet to come.
The three Zhuang elders— elder brother, grandmother, and father— truly knew nothing about the whereabouts of the government silver; they were only given thirty strokes of the cane and then released. Zhuang Haisheng didn’t even need to be caned; and he was released too. People like them got away scot-free!
However, Qin Shi was identified as Zhuang Tian’er’s accomplice and was sentenced to be executed in the autumn as well.
Another torture warrant was placed before Qin Shi, causing her to go limp and weep bitterly. She was just an illiterate rural woman who knew nothing about the law. She did whatever her daughter told her to do, so she never expected things to be so serious.
“Your Honor, have mercy! I have a minor son to support! I have elderly parents and young children to care for, please spare me!” Qin Shi struggled to her feet and kowtowed repeatedly to the officials in the court, her voice choked with blood.
Zhuang Tian’er looked at her mother, who was filled with regret, and finally broke down herself.
“Mother! I was wrong! I just wanted you to have a good life!” She crawled over on all fours, trying to hug Qin Shi who was frantically kowtowing, but was pushed away by her.
Qin Shi crawled to a slightly farther spot and continued kowtowing to the official, not even bothering to glance at Zhuang Tian’er. She had already realized that Zhuang Tian’er was the one who had caused her to end up in this predicament. She could have lived a peaceful and stable life, poor but content.
All the disasters were brought about by Zhuang Tian’er.
Based on this realization, Qin Shi avoided Zhuang Tian’er even more.
Zhuang Laoda and his gang were taken to the courtroom, then their pants were pulled down, and they were beaten with a board.
In the outer hall, in an open space without a roof, the villagers of Luoxia Village were also forced onto long benches and beaten with wooden boards. They had robbed the imperial court of its silver and were all sentenced to caning, ten strokes each, after which they could go home.
Even with such a lenient sentence, they felt it wasn’t worth it. They wailed and raised their heads, roaring into the inner hall, “Zhuang Tian’er, you jinx!”
We should have burned you long ago!
“It’s all our fault for not listening to the scholar and believing your nonsense!”
“Evil spirit! Zhuang Tian’er, you are an evil spirit! I curse you to die a horrible death in your next life, and the life after that, and the life after that!”
This curse struck at Zhuang Tian’er’s deepest secret, causing her to tremble uncontrollably.
She suffered a terrible death in her past life, and she was suffering a terrible death in this life too. Does that mean she’ll suffer a terrible death in her next life, and the one after that? If that’s the case, then what was the point of her being reborn? What was the point of reincarnating? She might as well just let her soul be scattered and end it all!
“Ahhhh! No, I won’t die a horrible death!” Zhuang Tian’er became more and more obsessed with the thought, and she went mad on the spot, tearing at her hair and howling like a vengeful ghost.
Seeing her terrifying appearance, everyone became even more convinced that she was an evil spirit.
After much deliberation, the official in charge of her trial moved up the execution from the autumn to the following month. In other words, Zhuang Tian’er didn’t have many days left to live.
When the third torture token landed at Zhuang Tian’er’s feet, she suddenly came to her senses, then collapsed to the ground, letting out a broken, ghostly sob. There was no turning back for her.
That night, Zhuang Tian’er, who was sleeping in her cell, had a dream.
In her dream, she easily ruined the futures of her two cousins and took control of the entire Luoxia Village. When the Prince of Qi came to Xishan to hunt, she repeatedly “bumped into” him. Only after the two gradually became familiar did she reveal the whereabouts of the 600,000 taels of disaster relief silver and expose Gao Feng’s hidden identity.
The prince plotted to kill Gao Feng and overcame all obstacles to marry Zhuang Tian’er.
Afterwards, Zhuang Tian’er, who married into the royal family, gradually demonstrated her hypnotic abilities to Prince Qi.
Those hypnotized by her lost their sense of pain, a fact that caught the attention of the Qi Wang. After two years of getting to know each other, the Qi Wang gradually developed trust in Zhuang Tian’er and agreed to have the poisoned needle removed from his chest under hypnosis.
After that one pull, Qi Wang’s eyes never opened again.
The heir apparent of the Qi Wang smoothly inherited everything from him, became the regent, and eventually killed the young emperor to seize the throne.
At the end of the dream, Zhuang Tian’er, wearing a magnificent phoenix crown, walked hand in hand with the prince towards the supreme throne. While the carpet beneath their feet was crimson, as if stained with blood.
The dream ended at its most beautiful moment. After waking up, Zhuang Tian’er savored the memory with a smile for a long, long time, only to be interrupted by Qin Shi’s cough.
Her unfocused eyes finally looked closer and saw the cell door, straw, filth all over the ground, and her mother staring at her with bloodshot eyes. The harsh reality shattered her reverie.
Qin Shi looked at her daughter with hatred in her eyes and said in a hoarse voice, “I just had a dream.”
Zhuang Tian’er was startled and quickly asked, “What dream?”
“I dreamt that your eldest brother and second brother were both very good at studying, and they passed the imperial examinations one after the other, becoming the top scholar and the third-ranked scholar. Our Zhuang family produced two literary stars, and overnight we changed our status and became the most powerful and prestigious family in Bazhou. We ate delicacies from land and sea, lived in pavilions and towers, and wore silks and satins.”
“You benefited from your two older brothers’ influence, marrying a Hanlin scholar and becoming an official’s wife. Your two brothers were very capable, and their official positions kept rising, which made you increasingly greedy. You tormented all of your husband’s concubines to death, and your illegitimate children died of illness without cause. You also accepted bribes, disrupted lawsuits, lent money at exorbitant interest rates, and committed all sorts of evil deeds!”
“One winter, the snow fell particularly heavily, collapsing many houses and leaving many poor people homeless and without food. In order to collect your interest, you hired a group of thugs to collect the debts. When these people could not repay their debts, you forced them to sign indentures. Hundreds of people from seven or eight villages were all sold into slavery by you.”
“You drove them to jump into the river, hang themselves, and commit suicide, but you showed no mercy. All you cared about was money, money, money, and power. You even dragged down the reputations of your two older brothers, who almost lost their official positions.”
“To seek justice for the people, your elder brother led the soldiers to arrest you personally, verified your crimes, and then sentenced you to death by a thousand cuts, upholding justice even against family ties. As for me, to save you, I smashed my head against the gate of the yamen and died.”
Qin Shi covered her forehead with trembling hands, as if there really was a deep, sunken wound there.
She began to sob softly, her voice filled with regret: “I feel like this dream was real. I’m your mother, I know you best. You’re capable of such heinous things. You always say your father and grandmother are heartless, but actually, you’re the most heartless person in the old Zhuang family! I really shouldn’t have saved you. If I had had this dream earlier, I would have strangled you with my own hands when you were born!”
Qin Shi looked at Zhuang Tian’er with bloodshot eyes and said with extreme determination, “You are not a lucky star, you are a ghost! You are a black-hearted evil ghost! You deserve to die!”
For Zhuang Tian’er, her mother’s pronouncement was the cruelest judgment.
Her feigned composure shattered in an instant. She rushed forward and hugged Qin Shi, crying out in despair, “Mother, anyone can abandon me, but you can’t! Mother, I really want you to have a good life, I’ve really tried! Mother, look at me! Mother!”
Unfortunately, every time she tried to hug her, Qin Shi would push her away forcefully.
If she could do it all over again, Zhuang Tian’er would never gain nothing but lose what was most precious to her.
….
Meanwhile, within the draped bright yellow gauze curtains, on the soft couch filled with the fragrance of photinia, two pairs of long legs were intertwined.
The fair, slender legs were hooked around the bronze-colored legs, gently rubbing and slowly grinding, the toes occasionally tensing as if enduring something.
Suddenly, a large hand grabbed the ankle of the slender leg and twisted it upwards…
After a violent tremor, Zhuang Li lay limp in Qi Wang’s arms, his hand gently covering the other’s chest, which was still wrapped in gauze, and whispered, “How about I plant a psychological anchor for you?”
“What is a psychological anchor?” Qi Wang asked, panting, as he stroked the young man’s flushed cheeks with his sweaty hand.
“You know what an anchor is for, right?” Zhuang Li held his lover’s hand and gently bit it with his sharp canine teeth.
The Qi Wang felt a tickle in his fingertips from being bitten, and his body, which had just cooled down, began to boil again. He cupped the young man’s cheeks and kissed him tenderly, saying in a hoarse voice, “An anchor is the chain that secures a ship against the wind and waves.”
“That’s right, it’s chains. I’m going to put a chain in your heart. You’ll always remember that you’re waiting for someone, and that person never appears. You must never give up on yourself. Even if you’re trapped in a desperate situation and lose all hope, you must never die. You must hold on and wait for me to appear, okay?”
“But you’re already by my side.” Qi Wang hugged the person in his arms tightly, a wave of panic washing over him.
“I mean, if.” Zhuang Li couldn’t explain any more to his lover, so he cupped his face, gazed deeply into his dark eyes, and asked again, “Will you let me plant my heart anchor? Look at me, don’t resist me.”
Qi Wang held the young man’s hand and slowly moved it to his chest, his tone extremely gentle: “Don’t talk about heart anchors, even if you were to dig out my heart, I would have no objection.”
“Good boy.” Zhuang Li chuckled contentedly, lowered his head, and planted his heart’s anchor in his lover’s subconscious with a lingering kiss.
In other little worlds, his loved one must also be suffering. What if they can’t make it? What if they don’t live to see each other again? How cruelly will they be treated? What kind of terrible harm will they endure?
Zhuang Li simply dared not think about these things.
He was still very weak, and could do nothing but use the mental anchor to hold onto a sliver of hope for his lover.
Sensing the host’s thoughts, 7480: “…”
The Great Demon King actually thinks he’s weak? I’m speechless!
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