Chapter 91: A Delicate Wrist That Breaks Ruthlessly, Part One

The matter had finally come to light: after more than twenty years, the hidden truth of that old affair at last stood revealed.

Flower Dancer Ying, harboring evil designs and coveting the position of the marquis’s wife, had hired a wandering sorcerer to harm the Dowager Lady. Yet the old Marquis, mindful of their marital bond, never allowed the lovelorn poison and the heart-rending Gu to take effect. Cloud-Word was born tainted in the womb and still struggled into life.

Later, when Luan Qing appeared and exposed the matter of the poison, the old Marquis chose to sacrifice himself to save his wife. He used the long years of discord between husband and wife as a screen, and thereby deceived the Dowager Lady into believing he had truly abandoned love and affection.

Then, twenty years on, Flower Dancer Ying’s son, Cloud Rise, repeated the same wicked scheme, wishing to imitate his mother and seat his own flesh and blood in the title of Marquis of Leaving Faith. He poisoned Cloud-Word with the same love poison, and, in collusion with Blazing Face, caused the death of Summer Yanzi.

Had not Exile Rose devised that plan to induce a miscarriage, who knew how long it would have taken for the whole truth to come to light?

Twenty years: fate had merely completed one circle, then another. Two successive Marquises of Leaving Faith died for love; two maidservants conspired to murder their own mistresses. The love poison combined with the heart-rending Gu was truly the most ruthless and merciless method of harm in all the world.

“Lady! It was all my fault! I should never have told those old stories to Second Master, which gave rise to his ambitions and led him to imitate me…” Flower Dancer Ying knocked her head hard against the floor. Speaking as a mother, she sought a way out for her son. “Second Master is, at any rate, the Marquis’s own flesh and blood. I beg you to show mercy and spare his life. I am willing… to pay with my own.”

“Mother…” Cloud Rise and Cloud Think warmly spoke at once, one in furious panic, the other in utter disappointment.

“From beginning to end, Think-Beauty knew nothing of this. Having a mother like me is her disgrace…” Flower Dancer Ying remained prostrate. “If you mean to take this out on her, then please marry her off at once, out of sight and out of mind. I beg you, do not harm her life…”

“Mother!” Cloud Think burst into tearful bloom at the words, unable to say another thing. To have such a birth mother and such a brother was a disgrace that had kept her head forever lowered in the manor, where she had endured nothing but scorn. And yet this very mother, even at the edge of death, was still trying to arrange a future for her, fearing only that the Dowager Lady might vent her wrath and take her life.

Cloud Think shook her head over and over, tears falling like a shattered string of pearls, soaking her skirt through to the cloth beneath. She had never wished for such a birth, but blood is thicker than water; how could such ties be cut so lightly? “Please, Mother, spare my mother and my second brother’s life!” She did not know how else to beg, and could only weep as she spoke.

“Now that things have come to this, does the Second Branch still dare bargain with me? The lives of two successive Marquises lie in your mother and son’s hands. Do you think the three of you can still survive?!” Tear stains still marked the Dowager Lady’s face, but she had stilled her grief and recovered her composure. Yet the words she spoke were full of cold calculation.

“I must think carefully what price you shall pay!” She weakly waved a hand and ordered the others, “Lock the mother and son of the Second Branch in the punishment hall. They will be questioned later.”

“Mother, spare me! I am innocent!” Earlier, Cloud Rise had been struck full in the face by Shen Yu, leaving his features swollen high and his strength all but gone. Yet now, fearing for his life, he finally found the chance to argue. “I did not kill Elder Brother! I admit I had the thought, but before I could act, Elder Brother had already—”

“You still dare deny it!” The Dowager Lady’s sharp gaze cut at him as if she meant to carve out his heart. “You shameless wretch, do you not even know your own worth? And yet you dared plot to seize the title by treachery! Wait and see how you are cut to pieces!”

“Mother! I truly did not—”

“Do not call me Mother!” Cloud Rise was about to defend himself again, but she stopped him with a furious shout. “What sort of birth are you, that you dare call me Mother? I should have known what kind of creature that wretched maid Flower Dancer Ying could bear—nothing but beasts worse than dogs and pigs!”

At that, Cloud Rise was genuinely stricken with terror. Seeing murder in the Dowager Lady’s eyes, he immediately turned as if for rescue toward the Third Branch and pleaded with Cloud Guest, “Third Brother, we have always been on good terms. Please speak for me to Mother!”

“You murderous beast, who killed your brother and sister-in-law—why should I plead for you?!” Cloud Guest had listened for some time already, and his face was full of fury and disgust, as though fire might spit from his eyes.

As soon as he finished, a cool female voice drifted in, languid and faint: “Trying to murder one’s brother is one thing; having the crime fully confirmed is another. If I were Second Master, I should also try to excuse myself and say I had not yet succeeded.”

The speaker was Luan Qing. Her tone was light, but beneath it lay a faintly chilling edge. What she said did make sense, and explained why Cloud Rise had kept insisting he had not yet acted. Yet Cloud Guest was quite taken aback.

Shouldn’t Luan Qing have been entangled in secret relations with his second brother, Cloud Rise? Why, from the moment she appeared, had she not spoken a single word in his favor, but instead poured oil on the fire?

“Everyone has had a long day. Let us disperse for now. Give me time to consider how I am to answer to the spirits of both successive Marquises…” In only a few hours, it seemed as if half the Dowager Lady’s soul had been drained from her. She had not only aged at once, but lost all her spirit as well.

In this half day, everyone had endured one unimaginable calamity after another and was spiritually exhausted. Seeing that the head of the punishment hall had already restrained the weakened mother and son of the Second Branch, they too were preparing to take their leave.

Just then, a voice rang out from outside the punishment hall: “Please wait, masters. The Madam has something to say!” It was the voice of Gentle Heart.

All turned toward the sound and saw Exile Rose, pale as paper and without the slightest color in her face, leaning weakly on Gentle Heart as she slowly entered the punishment hall.

Seeing her thus, Wen Xian was the first to recover, hurrying forward to support her. “Madam, you’ve only just lost the child. How can you come out into the wind? This hall is cold and damp; it will surely harm your body!”

Exile Rose looked at her and forced a smile. “Thank you for your concern, Third Concubine. I have been outside listening for a long while and truly could not keep from coming in.”

As she spoke, she kept walking and made her way to the center of the hall, ignoring the many eyes upon her. Looking only toward the Dowager Lady on the dais, she said, “This daughter-in-law begs you to hand the mother and son of the Second Branch over to me for judgment.”

“Hand them over to you?” The Dowager Lady seemed, at her words, to regain some strength. “And how would you judge them?”

“By the criminal code, by clan law, or by household law. Choose one,” Exile Rose said weakly.

“How by the criminal code? How by clan law? And how by household law?” At that moment, it was not only the Dowager Lady; everyone’s attention had been drawn to Exile Rose’s words, waiting for her to propose a convincing punishment.

Exile Rose seemed utterly spent. The Dowager Lady quickly signaled for Cloud Guest and Shen Yu to bring a soft chair so she could sit and speak.

Though her face still bore traces of tears, there was no longer any sorrow or indignation to be seen. She only said coolly, “If we follow the law, then murder demands a life for a life. The mother and son of the Second Branch must both pay with their lives and be sent to the prison in House Prefecture. If we follow clan law, then let the heads of each branch and the elders gather together for a public trial. Whether they are to pay with their lives or not, first expel the two of them from the clan register, and then deliberate further.”

“And if they are dealt with by household law?” This time, before the Dowager Lady could speak, Flower Dancer Ying asked urgently, with desperate hope for survival.

“If by household law, Second Concubine and Second Master are, after all, members of the Cloud household. Blood runs thick between them, and perhaps their lives may be spared…” Here Exile Rose paused, drew a deep breath while pressing a hand to her abdomen, and after seeing the joy rise in Flower Dancer Ying and Cloud Rise’s faces, she continued slowly:

“But though death may be pardoned, punishment cannot be escaped. I propose that Second Master undergo severe punishment to atone.”

At this, Exile Rose’s tone suddenly sank, and she added coldly:

“The punishment of castration.”