Ji Hanyue was standing on the highest platform in the Linyuan Pavilion in a red phoenix robe.
Behind her was a fence, and a deep lake was below. She grasped a hairpin so tightly that she got a cramp in her fingers. The hairpin was stained with blood. Her phoenix coronet was gone, and her hair was fluttering in the air. She looked as pale as snow and was thrown into a panic!
An eunuch got in her way with several guards of the palace.
“As the Crown Prince orders, capture the assassin no matter whether she is alive or not! Ji Hanyue, stop your struggle!” The eunuch yelled in a thin voice and his face was expressionless.
That man used to be gentle and thoughtful and promised to love her forever, but now he was determined to capture her no matter whether she was alive or not.
“I didn’t assassinate the Crown Prince!” Ji Hanyue lifted her head suddenly and managed to stop trembling and calm down, “I want to see the Crown Prince!”
Today she would get married to the Crown Prince. Escorted by the guard of honor, the sedan chair which was draped with an embroidery of a phoenix entered through the main entrance of the Eastern Palace. The whole country celebrated the wedding. After the grand wedding ceremony, she was taken to the bridal chamber. Ji Youran, her cousin, brought her a cup of tea. After drinking it, she became sleepy and then fell asleep. When she woke up, the Crown Prince was lying on the bed with blood all over his body. He covered his chest with his hands, and glowered at her. She found herself holding a bloody hairpin in her hand.
Eight-treasure Phoenix Hairpin, the one worn by the Crown Princess together with her wedding gown!
Someone shouted, “There is an assassin.” A swarm of guards rushed in, and imperial maids escaped in all directions. With the help of Xie Yu, a servant girl accompanying her to the Eastern Palace, she fled in terror. When she was chased here, Xie Yu disappeared, and she was left alone. Now she was in a dilemma with guards chasing behind and no way to retreat.
Ji Hanyue gritted her teeth, and the bloody smell pervaded her mouth. She reasserted, “I didn’t assassinate the Crown Prince!”
“Hanyue, you did. I can testify. Without me, the Crown Prince would have died!” Ji Youran said complacently nearby.
When Ji Hanyue saw Ji Youran walking over smilingly and slowly, her eyes were wide open as if she got a head-on blow. Now everything was clear. Swallowing the blood at the throat, she questioned with raging eyes, “Ji Youran, did you frame me?”
She didn’t fall asleep until she drank the tea given by Ji Youran!
“Yes, I did!” Looking at Ji Hanyue, Ji Youran looked complacent and sighed hypocritically, “Hanyue, I’m not to blame. The Crown Prince asked me to do it! You’ve got in his way. Today was different from the former days. Your father had died, so you are useless for the Crown Prince.”
“Where… where is my father?” The hairpin fell to the ground from Ji Hanyue’s hand. She trembled all over. With no time to blame the Crown Prince for going back on his word, she only hoped that her father was fine!
Her mother died early. She and her younger sister could only rely on their father.
“Your father colluded with rebels and was shot to death with arrows. After you assassinated the Crown Prince, you escaped and fell into the Linyuan Pavilion. Your younger sister was also shot to death when escaping. Your family members were both rebels, so they all died.”
Ji Youran laughed complacently. Ji Hanyue was doomed to die now. Ji Youran was so excited that she didn’t want to pretend anymore.
Ji Hanyue went limp and knelt on the ground with one leg. The bone collided with the ground, giving out a clear sound and leaving her in great pain. But her heart was more painful as if all organs inside her body had been torn into pieces!
There was nothing more painful than it in life!
Ji Hanyue looked up at Ji Youran’s vicious face and asked through gritted teeth, “Why?”
Walking slowly to Ji Hanyue kneeling on the ground, Ji Youran covered her mouth and laughed more complacently and aggressively, “The Crown Prince has never loved you. He loves the military power of your father. But your father refused to hand over his military power to the Crown Prince as a dowry. Why would he want to have a useless father-in-law?”
Ji Hanyue eyes were wide open!
Her father once hinted that the Crown Prince married her with an ulterior motive, and he could mediate before they got married if she didn’t want to. However, she didn’t listen to him and was not on guard against the Crown Prince at all.
She trusted the wrong person. As a result, her father and younger sister lost their lives. Each breath of her was painful as if a knife was stabbing her heart.
“Look. What is it?” Ji Youran took great delight in Ji Hanyue’s pain and laughed.
Ji Youran showed her sleeve slowly. With a clear colliding sound of jade, Ji Hanyue saw a blood-red bracelet. It was exquisite and ornamented with two tear-shaped emeralds, making it unique and pretty. “It was cut off from your sister’s wrist. I had someone throw her corpse to the unmarked common graves. Probably she has been swallowed and torn by pye-dogs by now!”
The bracelet was left behind by their deceased mother. One was given to her, while the other was given to her younger sister, Ji Yanyue.
“Yanyue!” She roared in a hoarse voice. Her younger sister was a good girl, but she came to such a miserable end.
“Ji Hanyue, do you know I have been the woman of the Crown Prince for a long time?”
“The Crown Prince gave the order to shoot your father. I deceived your father to the Crown Prince’s study with a letter he forged in your handwriting. Your father was really something. He was still alive when he was shot like a hedgehog. He didn’t die until his head was cut off. From now on, the title of duke will belong to my father. I will become the first daughter of the Earl’s Mansion…”
…
Her words ruthlessly described the bloody scene when her family members died. They stabbed Ji Hanyue’s heart like a sharp knife.
Handwriting? They once imitated the handwriting of each other, so they could write exactly as the other one did, including the small habits of writing.
She used to think it was only their daily pleasure. Unexpectedly, her father was killed because of that!
Her heart ached so much that it almost cracked, and her arms and legs got a cramp. Ji Hanyue glowered furiously at Ji Youran with scarlet eyes!
At this moment, Ji Youran’s face seemed to have turned into the hypercritical one of the Crown Prince, Pei Luo’an. Using the ground as a prop, Ji Hanyue stood up suddenly and rushed to hold Ji Youran. She planned to jump down with the latter without hesitation.
Even if she died, she would drag them to hell together!
As the general’s daughter, though usually staying at home, she was more agile than an ordinary girl that seldom went out.
However, a guard was quicker than her. He rushed over, grabbed Ji Youran’s foot, and drew her back.
Another guard pressed Ji Hanyue’s hand and bent it with force. With a sharp pain, her hand was broken. Then she was pushed out by them.
There was an icy lake below the fence. Ji Youran screamed crazily, “Pull up the bitch. Cut her into pieces.”
Though Ji Youran escaped from death narrowly, her face was scratched by the fence and blood flew down her face, making her look like a ghost!
“I swear with my blood to lay a curse on you!”
Ji Hanyue muttered and then bit off her tongue. Blood gushed out of her mouth. She kept staring at the high Linyuan Pavilion until she died.
With her red wedding gown spreading, she fell into the dark and icy lake and lost her life…
In a military camp on the border, a herald entered a tent with a pattern of tiger teeth hurriedly, passed a booklet respectfully, and reported, “Your Highness, something happened in the capital!”
A guard took over the booklet, put it on the huge table, and unfolded it.
Someone reached out long fingers and pressed the booklet. The hand was slender, and his skin was as white as jade. After quite a while, he said coldly, “Prepare to set off. It’s time to return to the capital!”
Suffocating flames soared into the air. Everywhere was on fire, and a beam fell ahead.
She opened her eyes slowly, only to see the red flames just like the bloody bridal chamber in her memory. She didn’t know where she was…
“My Lady, hurry up!” Someone burst the door open, rushed in under a wet quilt, lifted the girl from the ground, and took her out quickly.
Ji Hanyue rushed out of the room with the person involuntarily. Behind her, pillars collapsed one by one.
The isolated house was in flames.
Lots of memories hit her crazily. Her legs buckled and fell to the ground heavily. Then she began to cough violently while covering her chest.
Qu Moying, Ji Hanyue’s cousin and the fourth daughter of Qu Zhizhen who was Vice Minister of Works, was treated harshly by Yu, who rose to the position of the mistress in the family from a concubine. She didn’t receive good care in childhood and became blind because of a fever. Therefore, she had been living in a village outside the capital since childhood. Old Lady Qu would have her birthday a few days later, so she had Qu Moying taken back specially.
Unexpectedly, when she was just back at home for two days, her house was on fire.
“My Lady, My Lady, are you all right?” The person threw away the wet quilt, turned around, and asked anxiously. She was her servant girl, Yu Chun.
