Chapter 92: Delicate Stratagems That Break Ruthlessness, Part Two

“Castration.”

This time, not only the mother and son of the second branch, but everyone in the hall drew in a sharp breath and cried out in unison.

“That is right. He is to be castrated.” Chuxiu looked frail and weak, yet her expression and voice had grown colder and harder, impossible to ignore.

“You are truly vicious! You would use such a punishment?” Yun Qi clutched the swollen half of his face and pointed at Chuxiu in terror.

Chuxiu shot him a glacial glare and replied, “I am vicious? When you harmed the marquis, when you pushed Madam Xia into the water, when you humiliated me again and again, why did you not call yourself vicious then? If we are speaking of cruelty, if we are speaking of someone beneath contempt, then within the Yun household, who can compare to you, Second Master Yun Qi?”

She pressed a hand to her abdomen, as if seized by an unbearable pain, then turned once more to the Dowager Marchioness. “Please, Old Madam, make your decision. The second branch first caused the marquis’s death, and now they have made me lose my child, all while trying to blur the bloodline of the rightful line... Now that the marquis has no heir, it is all because of these two. I beg your mercy. Hand them over to me for punishment.”

The Dowager Marchioness did not answer at once. Instead, her eyes lingered on Chuxiu’s face. Seeing the depths of stormy emotion gathered in those clear eyes, as though tempestuous waves were about to break upon her, even she could not help but feel startled.

Perhaps understanding that Chuxiu would show no mercy, the Dowager Marchioness considered for a moment, then finally nodded. “Very well. This time, you have lost both husband and child. From this day on, you are the true mistress of the marquis’s residence, so you shall decide their punishment.”

At that, Chuxiu leaned against the cushioned stool and dipped her head in thanks. She lifted a hand to wipe the tears from her cheek, then looked to the mother and son of the second branch. “Second Concubine, Second Master, these three punishments are before you. Choose one.”

Choose? How could they possibly choose?

Under the criminal law, they would die.

Under clan law, they would be expelled from the family register, and death would likely still await them.

As for house law...

Yun Qi was already stricken with shock and fear. He could not help crying out, “What kind of house law is this?”

“It is newly established house law.” Chuxiu met his gaze with cold eyes and said softly, “The Yun family’s mistress stands above all. At this moment, setting down a new rule is entirely proper.”

At those words, Hua Wuying immediately understood and jabbed a finger at Chuxiu. “You did this on purpose! You are deliberately leaving my son and me no way to live!”

“Of course I did it on purpose. You killed my husband first, then my child. Did you expect me to show mercy? I am not some Buddha who sacrifices herself for others, nor can I repay evil with virtue!” Chuxiu retorted fiercely, her face bloodless. Every word was reasonable and well-grounded, carrying the sorrow and misery of a widow, resentful yet still dignified, grief-stricken yet still measured.

“In truth, Second Concubine, you are mistaken. I am clearly giving you a way out. So long as Second Master is willing to undergo house punishment, this matter ends here today. Both he and you may keep your lives.”

Chuxiu’s face remained expressionless as she added, “And I will immediately petition the Dowager Marchioness to seal this matter. Aside from those present in the punishment hall today, no one else will ever learn what the second branch has done.”

Hua Wuying opened her mouth to object, but Qian Yun suddenly said fiercely, “Madam is being too lenient! How can the lives of the old marquis and the marquis be repaid with mere castration? It must be life for life!”

As soon as Qian Yun finished speaking, Yun Xian also voiced his agreement. “What is all this talk of castration? I support punishment under clan law. Those mother and son are so wicked of heart that they can no longer remain in the Yun family! They must be expelled from the family register and erased from the clan genealogy!”

Chuxiu remained unmoved by all this. She only stared fixedly at the mother and son of the second branch and asked again, “Second Concubine, Second Master, make your decision now.”

Hua Wuying pressed her lips together and thought and thought. Knowing she was already trapped, with no hope of survival, she still tried to bargain. “If I pay with my life, can you spare Second Master?”

Chuxiu shook her head, her tone flat. “A man like Second Master would not repent even if his mother died in his place. You two have schemed for more than twenty years in supposed perfect unity, attempting rebellion. Now that the matter has come to light, you ought to live and die together. If you die, die together. If you live, live together.”

She seemed somewhat exhausted, her voice growing lower and lower, but she still reminded them again, “Criminal law, clan law, house law. Second Concubine, make your choice quickly.”

“No criminal law!” Before Hua Wuying could speak, the Dowager Marchioness abruptly rejected it. “If this is handed over to the prison in Huazhou under criminal law, it will be no different from making this disgrace public! Family shame must not be spread abroad. The Yun family cannot afford such humiliation!”

Chuxiu glanced at the Dowager Marchioness on the dais and said in a low voice, “It was my lack of consideration.”

Then she looked back at Hua Wuying. “If criminal law will not do, then there is still clan law and house law.”

Under clan law... if all the heads of the collateral branches were summoned to hear the case, expulsion from the family register would certainly be unavoidable. As for whether they lived or died after that, that could perhaps be argued over.

Clutching at a shred of hope, Yun Qi gritted his teeth. Before his mother could answer, he blurted out, “I choose clan law! A true man dies, and that is all. But if I have to suffer the shame of castration, life would be worse than death!”

“You cannot choose clan law! You absolutely cannot!” Hua Wuying cried out in panic at once, interrupting her son. “If you are expelled from the clan, what good is it even if you keep your life? You and I will no longer be members of the Yun family. Once we step out that door, we will still die! Think of all those people you’ve offended... If you did not bear the Yun surname, they would already have come to exact their revenge!”

Kicking a man when he is down was cruel, but the saying was true. Though Hua Wuying usually seemed reckless and muddleheaded, that had perhaps been her way of preserving her life. Now, however, she saw things clearly.

Yun Qi heard his mother’s words and truly did grow frightened, yet he still refused to change his answer. “We cannot choose house law! Mother, I haven’t married yet, I haven’t left an heir... I...”

“Who said you have no heir?” Chuxiu interrupted him lightly. “Isn’t the child in Zhuo Yan’s belly yours?”

Second Master, you had best think carefully. If you choose clan law, you will no longer be a descendant of the Yun family. Second Concubine, Zhuo Yan, and the child in her womb will all have to pay with their lives for the two marquises.”

She paused for a moment before sighing. “But if you choose house law, you will merely suffer some fleshly pain. You would still be the Second Master of the Marquis of Xin’s residence, Second Concubine’s status would remain unchanged, and Zhuo Yan’s child would be the second branch’s first son or first daughter. No lives would be lost.”

She was forcing Yun Qi to choose castration.

Once Chuxiu made that plain, everyone finally understood. If he chose clan law, all would die. If he chose house law, one man’s root could buy several lives.

This method was truly...

If one called it cruel, then she had plainly left several people alive. If one called it merciful, then it was vicious beyond words.

“No! No! I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!” Zhuo Yan looked at Chuxiu in terror, so frightened she nearly fell to her knees. “Please forgive me, Madam, please forgive me! I was wrong before. I don’t want to die!”

“What are you begging me for? You should be begging Second Concubine and Second Master. Whether clan law or house law is chosen, they are the ones who decide.”

Chuxiu met Zhuo Yan’s eyes with utter coldness, then suddenly curved her lips in an eerie smile. “In truth, I also favor house law. If Second Master is castrated, he likely will never be able to take a wife. The child in your belly is the only child the second branch has. I will petition the Dowager Marchioness to decide that you shall marry Second Master as his lawful wife and rightly become a mistress.”

“This should count as fulfilling your dream, should it not? Wasn’t your whole life devoted to becoming a proper mistress?”

Chuxiu’s voice sounded like a ghost’s, drifting word by word into Zhuo Yan’s ears and chilling her to the bone.

Marry Second Master as his wife... marry a cripple as his wife! Worse still, a disgraced master no better than a servant! How could that possibly fulfill any dream? This was meant to ruin the rest of her life!

Only then did Zhuo Yan finally wake to the truth. Chuxiu’s move was truly ruthless to the extreme.

If Yun Qi chose clan law, he would not only drag several lives down with him, but forever bear the stigma of being a family-outcast descendant despised and spat upon by the Yun clan.

But if he chose house law, Yun Qi would suffer castration and could no longer perform as a man. Though the second branch’s name and their lives might be preserved, existence itself would be worse than death. More than that, the child in her womb would be Yun Qi’s only offspring, and she would be bound to the Yun residence from that day forward, condemned to spend her life with a cripple.

“The cruelest heart belongs to a woman. What a vicious method you have!” Zhuo Yan raised her index finger, painted with bright red nail color, and stabbed it toward Chuxiu. “You mean to destroy the second branch completely! Destroy us utterly!”

“People destroy themselves before others destroy them.” Chuxiu was not provoked. On the contrary, she said with calm composure, “Where in this world is there such a good thing as killing people without paying with your life, without even suffering a little? For wicked hearts like yours, not being sliced to pieces already counts as mercy. Yet you still dream of keeping your lives, preserving your reputations, and living comfortably and at ease?”

Chuxiu slowly closed her eyes, both hands pressing over her abdomen. “A mother, for the sake of her child’s life, would not fear death even if it came. But I insist that all of you live, and watch your own children suffer torment until life becomes worse than death!”

The moment the word “death” left her lips, Chuxiu suddenly opened her eyes and glared at Hua Wuying with a cold smile. “I insist that your son become a eunuch, and that you watch him be scorned and mocked, neither alive nor dead! Surely a mother such as you will find that taste very satisfying.”

Then she turned to Zhuo Yan again, still wearing that cold smile. “I will grant your wish and let you become a mistress again. The child you bear, whether son or daughter, will be the first son or first daughter of the second branch of the Yun family, and will be ashamed of parents like you two.”

As she went on, Chuxiu clicked her tongue. “A eunuch and a wicked maid, with an affair already in place. It is a perfect match, really.”

By the time she finished, the punishment hall had fallen into complete silence. Everyone, including Shen Yu, was staring at her, as if astonished by her sudden transformation: so cold, so rational, so... ruthless.

To make Yun Qi suffer castration might seem like punishing him alone, but in truth this torment was far more vicious than a simple death. Hua Wuying would forever ache for her son, Zhuo Yan would be forced to marry a eunuch, the child in her belly would never be able to hold its head high, and beyond that, Yun Qi had always been a man of wine, meat, and sensual pleasures. From this day onward, he would never again be able to behave as a man.

And yet human life was so fragile, the human heart so timid. To preserve their own lives, with no retreat and no choice, they could only cling to existence in this world, struggling in humiliation...

“Still not choosing?” Chuxiu finally looked toward the Dowager Marchioness once more, tears gathering in her eyes as well.

At this very moment, only the Dowager Marchioness knew what those tears meant. They were tears of satisfaction, tears of wishes fulfilled, and tears of a heart that no longer wished to live...

This miscarriage scheme had unexpectedly exposed the hidden hand behind the poison, which could be counted as comfort for Yun Ci’s spirit in heaven. From this day onward, Chuxiu would have no more attachment to this world.

Thinking of this, the Dowager Marchioness nearly choked up. She drew a long, steady breath and looked straight at Chuxiu, speaking in an oblique way. “Sometimes, living is harder than dying. Those who live must live with a clear conscience, so that they are worthy of their own heart.”

Everyone thought the Dowager Marchioness was speaking of the second branch, but only Chuxiu understood the deeper meaning in those words and lowered her gaze, stopping her tears.

Her eyes caught sight of Shen Yu watching her with concern, and she suddenly felt a little guilty and ashamed. So she hardened her voice and looked once more at the Dowager Marchioness. “Since the second branch will not choose, please make the decision.”

The Dowager Marchioness let out a long sigh, closed her eyes, and said, “Chuxiu is kind-hearted and has already given you a way to survive... In my view, let us choose house law.”