Jiang Xin'er’s slender body trembled uncontrollably. She tried to pick up the knife, but no— it was too terrifying. She couldn’t do it.
The bandit chief began counting down. “Three, two, one.”
He raised his hand and moved to cut off Jiang Ling'er’s ear.
“Wait—wait!” Jiang Xin'er clenched the knife in her hand, her face covered in tears. Her face had gone deathly pale as she walked toward the merchant step by step, the hand holding the knife shaking uncontrollably. “I-I’m sorry.”
She closed her eyes and slashed at the merchant.
The merchant let out a terrible scream. The bandit chief threw back his head and laughed. “That’s more like it! That’s how a woman of our stronghold should act. Keep going!”
Threatened again and again, Jiang Xin'er stabbed the merchant three times. Only after the merchant breathed his last did the bandit chief finally relent.
He strode over to Jiang Xin'er and swept her, already stiff with terror, into his arms.
Just then, torches suddenly lit up the sky around them. The government troops had arrived.
The stronghold was wiped out. Jiang Xin'er and Jiang Ling'er were rescued. Jiang Ling'er was sent for medical treatment, while Jiang Xin'er was thrown into prison to await trial.
When the Legal Office heard what had happened, it sent someone to the prison to visit Jiang Xin'er and learn the full story. It also appointed a lawyer to defend her.
In court, the lawyer cited precedents and argued her case with reason and conviction. In the end, Jiang Xin'er’s act of killing, having been forced to do so in order to save her family, earned her only a two-year sentence of penal service.
Because Jiang Ling'er remained unconscious and the sisters had neither parents nor anyone else to care for them, the court made an exception and allowed Jiang Xin'er to return home to look after her sister. She would begin her sentence once Jiang Ling'er recovered.
Although the villagers felt somewhat dissatisfied that Jiang Xin'er had not been acquitted outright, they could still understand the judgment.
After all, Jiang Xin'er had killed someone.
And the merchant had only been an ordinary man who sold incense and candles. He, too, had a wife and children.
When the performance ended, the villagers discussed the plot as they made their way home.
Yan Liangrong, Yan Liangyu, Pei Jin'an, and the others began directing everyone in packing up.
Gao Qi, meanwhile, slipped into the crowd and found the few hooligans he had become familiar with after playing cards with them over the past few days.
Holding a deck of cards, Gao Qi tapped it idly against his palm. “Come on. Let’s play a few rounds.”
The hooligan Wang Cai bent at the waist and smiled ingratiatingly at Gao Qi. “Big Brother, if you don’t help clean up, won’t the adults in your household punish you?”
“What the hell would you know?” Gao Qi smacked the cards against Wang Cai’s head. “There’s a shift schedule. I’m off duty. Besides, how much money can a constable make? I have to find other ways to earn a little extra, or how am I supposed to live? Are you playing or not? If not, I’m leaving.”
“Playing, playing, playing!”
What a great opportunity this was. If they could get in a constable’s good graces and receive a few inside tips in the future, then once they ventured out into the world, they could at least claim to have connections at the yamen.
The hooligans quickly bowed and scraped as they joined Gao Qi for a game.
When people played cards, they naturally bragged as they played. The hooligans didn’t dare actually win Gao Qi’s money, so they simply chatted to pass the time.
The hooligan Chen Pi chuckled. “Big Brother, you really have to hand it to the show on that grand stage. It’s genuinely good. The few of us look forward to it every day.”
Gao Qi raised his brows smugly. “Of course it is. Do you even know what my Lady Historian does for a living?”
Wang Cai’s ratlike eyes gleamed. “Big Brother, is everything in the play true?”
“How could it be fake?” Gao Qi smacked Wang Cai over the head. “Play your card.”
Wang Cai hurriedly laid down a card. “Big Brother, is the Legal Office really that formidable?”
As he played his own card, Gao Qi replied casually, “The Legal Office exists specifically to stand up for women who have no one else to rely on. You know Chen Sizhen, right? The Prince Consort. Back when he defended Chen Sizhen’s wife—the one called Lady Qing—the masked heroine who argued the case was our Lady Historian.
“Our Lady Historian’s younger brother is also the acting prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture. He’s a very powerful official. Even if the King of Heaven himself commits a crime, he’ll still be brought down. So all of you had better behave yourselves. If you commit a crime and end up in Lord Yan’s hands, no one will be able to save you.”
Gao Qi glanced at Lin Shuang'er and Wan Jie, who had originally been about to leave but had stopped when they heard him talking with the hooligans. He changed tack and continued, “But having said that, if you truly have some grievance you couldn’t avoid, tell our Lady Historian about it. There’s no problem she can’t solve. People aren’t afraid of getting themselves into trouble—they’re afraid of trapping themselves with no way out.”
After Gao Qi played three rounds with Wang Cai, Chen Pi, and the others, Yan Liangrong’s group had finished cleaning up and was preparing to leave. Gao Qi patted his backside, pocketed the money he had won with a clatter, and walked away.
Lin Shuang'er and Wan Jie followed hesitantly behind him.
After they had gone some distance, Gao Qi turned around with a vicious look. “What do you want?”
Lin Shuang'er was timid by nature. She nervously clutched her skirt. “W-We…”
Wan Jie glared furiously at him and shouted, “Why are you being so fierce? Just because you’re an official, you think you’re so great?”
Gao Qi raised his voice. “What is it?”
But the moment he asked, both women merely opened and closed their mouths without saying anything.
Gao Qi’s voice was loud and forceful. “Speak up! What is it? If you’re not going to say anything, I’m leaving!”
“I…I…”
Wan Jie pressed her lips tightly together. A fire raged in her chest, burning so fiercely that she wished it could reduce everything to ashes.
Lin Shuang'er lowered her head. The hand clutching her skirt trembled uncontrollably. Even now, recalling what had happened that night still left her terrified and deeply unsettled.
Gao Qi put on an impatient expression. “If you’re not going to talk, I’m leaving. I’m busy…”
He turned and walked away. As he went, he deliberately dropped a hint. “Not long ago, the Legal Office encountered a woman who was robbed. She killed the robber in self-defense, and the robber turned out to be a wanted criminal. The authorities ruled that she had rendered meritorious service, and she’ll be rewarded in a few days.”
Seeing Gao Qi get farther and farther away, Lin Shuang'er clenched her fists and straightened her body. She shut her eyes and said, “We know Tao Jiang…”
Gao Qi stopped and turned to look at her.
Wan Jie glared at him fiercely, as though warning him that if he dared hurt them, she would bite him to death.
Lin Shuang'er still kept her eyes closed, forcing herself to continue. “Tao Jiang said the Lady Historian was a good person. D-Ding Xin said the same.”
Gao Qi had more or less figured out what the two of them wanted. “You want to see the Lady Historian?”
Hearing the kindness in his voice, Lin Shuang'er nodded.
Her lips were pale, and they quivered as she spoke. “Is it…is it difficult? Will the Lady Historian see us?”
Gao Qi looked around.
This was a path he had deliberately chosen. There were only fields all around, with no trees anywhere, leaving a clear view in every direction. He had no need to worry about anyone watching or eavesdropping.
“Come with me.” Gao Qi began leading the way.
Lin Shuang'er tugged at Wan Jie and looked at her anxiously, as if asking, Are we really going?
Wan Jie was just as uncertain and uneasy.
Her lips had gone deathly pale. “M-Maybe we should go and see?”
Lin Shuang'er pointed at Gao Qi and lowered her voice. “He’s so fierce. I’m scared.”
“Come here!” Gao Qi barked.
The two women jumped in fright and instinctively quickened their steps, hurrying toward him.
In truth, although Wan Jie looked fierce, she was hardly any braver than Lin Shuang'er.
The two of them had been wavering, unsure what to do. But when Gao Qi snapped at them, their minds went blank, and they simply followed him like wooden puppets.
They arrived at a pitch-black field, and Gao Qi once again put on a menacing expression. “You two stay here. If Lady Historian comes and doesn’t see you, she’ll think you’ve played her for a fool and punish me. If that happens, I’ll never forgive you.”
Wan Jie summoned every ounce of courage she possessed—scarcely the size of a sesame seed. “Y-You won’t forgive us? I-I’ll fight you!”
Gao Qi shot her a fierce glare. Wan Jie forced her eyelids open as wide as they would go and glared back without yielding an inch.
Gao Qi smiled, said nothing, and turned to call Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu over.
Then, while the four women talked, he took Zhao Sheng on patrol around the area to make sure the information did not leak.
Yan Liangrong looked at Lin Shuang'er and Wan Jie. “What grievances have you suffered? Do you need the Legal Bureau to seek justice for you?”
“We… we…” The two girls clutched each other’s hands, their lips trembling uncontrollably.
Gao Qi suddenly appeared behind them. “Speak!”
“Yes!” Lin Shuang'er jumped like a startled bird, shivering violently. “We’ve been bullied!”
Yan Liangrong was not frightened by Gao Qi, but Lin Shuang'er's cry startled her. She exhaled slowly and softened her voice as much as possible, afraid of frightening the two girls.
“Who bullied you?” Yan Liangrong asked gently. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll help you. Even if you did something wrong, so long as you were forced into it and had a legitimate reason, the authorities won’t harm you.”
“I…” Great tears rolled down Lin Shuang'er's cheeks. Her knees buckled, and she knelt down. Just as she was about to speak, Wan Jie tugged at her and shook her head.
She did not trust the people before them.
They clearly came from a powerful background.
And the two of them had…
“I really can’t hold on anymore.” Lin Shuang'er's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground, tears streaming down her face. “Wan Jie, I really can’t do this anymore. I’ve lost everything. I can’t go on.”
Wan Jie pressed her lips together and lowered her head.
She clenched her fists and secretly swore that if these two women dared to bully Lin Shuang'er, she would die together with them.
Lin Shuang'er sobbed, “My lords, we… no… It was those people. They’re truly terrifying.”
Yan Liangrong did not try to help Lin Shuang'er up. She knew the girl could not stand, so she sat down on the ground beside her, shortening the psychological distance between them.
“Who are these people?”
Lin Shuang'er's voice caught in her throat. “We don’t know either. We only know that they’re terrifying. So terrifying…”
What Lin Shuang'er told them was a story that surpassed anything Yan Liangrong could have imagined.
Lin Shuang'er was a woman born to misfortune. Her mother had remarried and brought her to Rao Village, where she had taken the surname Lin.
Her mother had suffered just as much. She was beautiful, yet lacked the ability to protect herself. After her husband died, her fields and house were seized by force, and she was forced to marry Lin Shuang'er's stepfather.
Fortunately, although Lin Shuang'er's stepfather was poor, he was an honest man. He did not drink or beat his wife. But a man like him knew only how to work and was no good with words, so he was often bullied.
As a result, even after working all year, Lin Shuang'er's stepfather could barely earn enough grain to fill a few bowls. The family was constantly hungry.
Five years ago, Lin Shuang'er's mother starved to death.
Three years ago, her stepfather also passed away from an illness caused by years of hard labor.
Seeing that she had no one to rely on, Lin Shuang'er's uncles tried to seize the house. Fortunately, her grandfather stepped forward and managed to preserve the dilapidated dwelling for her.
On the sixteenth day of the seventh month the year before last, Lin Shuang'er had just finished washing clothes and gone to bed when, not long afterward, a basin of cold water was thrown over her.
She woke to find herself in a place of astonishing splendor. White gauze drifted in the air, and the scene resembled a paradise of wine and indulgence.
She thought she was dreaming—a wonderful dream.
Unable to believe it, she pinched herself.
It hurt.
This was no dream.
Gradually, the other girls woke as well.
To her horror, Lin Shuang'er discovered that Wan Jie, a girl from the same village whom she had only seen a few times a year and hardly ever spoken to, was there too.
There were ten of them in all.
Before they could figure out what was happening, a pack of wild dogs charged in. Everyone fled in terror, and quite a few of the girls were bitten.
Only after someone jumped into the pool and discovered that the dogs would not pursue them there did the others realize what was happening. One after another, they all leaped into the water.
Laughter rang out from all around them.
As the girls huddled together, trembling, a whistle suddenly sounded.
A man’s voice came from the second floor.
Lin Shuang'er looked up. Through the drifting white gauze, she could make out only half of the man’s masked face; the other half was hidden behind the gauze.
The man leaned over the second-floor railing with both hands and shouted excitedly, “Welcome to the game!”
The game?
Lin Shuang'er was utterly bewildered.
So were the other girls.
The man had carefully chosen them all as easy prey. Some had sick grandparents or mothers at home; others were helpless and alone. They were timid, introverted, and weak-willed.
The girls huddled in a corner, trembling.
The man ordered them to look at their clothes. Each garment had a numbered tag attached to it.
“That is your life,” he said. “Whoever loses her tag will die.”
He then explained the rules. There would be four rounds. If the girls managed to make it through all four, they would be released, and each would receive twenty taels of silver. In every round, the first seven finishers would receive different scores, while the remaining three would receive zero points. Once all four rounds were over, the girl in last place would be executed.
Besides the man, nine other masked nobles stood on the second floor. They would place bets on which girl would win.
“Why should we be reduced to gambling stakes for your amusement?” asked one of the girls. Lin Shuang'er did not recognize her.
Of course, after enduring the four rounds—and the two years that followed—she came to learn who the girl was.
Her name was Tan Ming, from the neighboring village. Her father was a hopeless gambler, and because of that, gambling was the thing she hated most in the world.
The moment Tan Ming finished speaking, a dog suddenly lunged at her and sank its teeth into her arm.
Tan Ming let out a bloodcurdling scream and struggled desperately.
Lin Shuang'er and the other girls shrieked in terror as well.
Only after the man had enjoyed the spectacle did he blow his whistle. The dog finally retreated to the area above the wine pool.
Tan Ming’s arm had been torn off, and the water around her was dyed a glaring, blood-red.
The man wore a mask, so Lin Shuang'er could not see his face. But she could hear the tremor in his voice.
It was not a tremor of fear.
It was the tremor of unparalleled excitement.
The man explained the rules. “The first round: get out of the pool.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the red silk curtain in front of them fell away. Countless plump, glistening grapes were tied to it.
The man’s voice turned shrill. “Crawl over there like dogs and pick them up with your mouths. The more you bring back, the higher your score!”
What?
Like dogs?
Although Lin Shuang'er was timid and weak, she was also fiercely proud. Every fiber of her being rebelled against the idea.
She was a human being. How could she behave like a dog?
Besides, the clothes on all ten girls had long since been changed into flimsy garments. They had been forced into the pool by the dogs, and their clothes were now clinging to their bodies. The moment they climbed out, they would be exposed.
“How disgusting. What a coy little performance,” the man cursed.
The nobles wearing masks also stood up, grinning as they tried to persuade him one after another.
“Don’t be angry, Young Master. They’re just a bunch of ignorant country women, as stupid as pigs. Let me show you how it’s done.”
He raised his hand, and someone behind the white gauze handed him a bow and an arrow.
He stood perfectly straight, nocked the arrow, and drew the bow. The arrow flew past Lin Shuang’er’s ear and landed in the wine.
The others followed his example.
Terrified, the girls scrambled out of the pool in disarray, all of them looking wretched.
“Dogs!”
The man roared furiously in the empty room.
One person fell to her knees, and the others soon followed.
They understood that if they did not do as the man said, they would die.
Like dogs, they crawled over and desperately plucked the grapes from their mouths.
The grapes hung high above them, but the girls had to keep all four limbs on the ground. Their postures were awkward and humiliating.
Lin Shuang’er heard the nobles laughing without restraint and placing bets without restraint—one hundred taels, a thousand taels.
As they chatted and laughed, they commented on the girls’ misery, their helplessness, their suffering, and the way they looked like dogs.
At last, the first round ended. Lin Shuang’er lay weakly on the ground, her limbs trembling with exhaustion.
But strangely, although her body was in pain, she felt a surge of excitement.
It was as if something had awakened inside her, her blood leaping uncontrollably.
She actually smiled.
Even now, she could not understand why, after suffering such terrible humiliation, she had smiled—why she had even felt excited.
Then came the second round.
The ten women were divided into pairs and began fighting one another.
The match lasted for the time it took a stick of incense to burn.
The winners faced one another, and the winners of those matches continued to fight.
Their hair was pulled loose, and their clothes were torn into disarray.
After the competition, the organizers even gave them time to wash and tidy themselves.
The third round was dancing.
Erotic dancing.
It was the kind of erotic dance Lin Shuang’er had never seen or encountered in her life.
Everyone had to learn it. After one stick of incense had burned down, the nobles who had placed bets would judge them and rank them.
The fourth round was pleasing the guests.
One by one, they went upstairs to curry favor with the nobles—to flatter them, dance for them, and offer them wine. Their lives and deaths rested entirely on a single thought from those nobles.
After enduring the first three rounds, everyone had already gone numb. They had long since abandoned any thought of resistance.
The nobles reveled in the thrill of holding the girls’ lives in their hands.
And Lin Shuang’er felt that she had gone mad. Like a prostitute, she used every trick at her disposal—smiling, drinking, making merry, singing, circling around the men, and fawning over them. No, it was more than fawning. She was genuinely flattering them, pressing her body against them as she fed them wine and rubbed herself against them.
Finally, after struggling through all four rounds, Lin Shuang’er saw that she had placed ninth. Just as she thought she had survived the ordeal and began to celebrate, the true nightmare began.
The nobles were afraid, too. They feared that once the girls left, they would report everything to the authorities.
Yet they did not dare kill all of them.
If so many people disappeared overnight, the government would inevitably take notice.
But if only one person died, they could get away with it.
Tan Ming had received the lowest score. A dog had bitten her arm, making it impossible for her to perform well.
Tan Ming was strapped to an upright wooden frame, with her mouth gagged.
Beside the frame sat a basket containing nine gleaming daggers.
The man’s voice was hoarse and cruel, yet filled with seductive persuasion.
“Pick one. Drive it into her body. Let that beautiful, scarlet blood flow down the thin blade. From this moment on, we become accomplices. I’m a criminal, and you are murderers. Afterward, you’ll be free to leave.”
Madmen.
Lin Shuang’er’s mind roared.
But they were mad too.
Lin Shuang’er felt that she truly had gone insane, because she really did pick up a knife and drive it viciously into Tan Ming’s body.
The sensation of the blade piercing flesh—the warm, sluggish resistance—seemed to remain in her palm even now.
She had washed her hands again and again, until the skin had been scrubbed away and the bones showed, yet she still could not wash it off.
How terrifying. How terrifying.
Later, they were drugged unconscious. When Lin Shuang’er awoke, she had changed back into her own clothes and was lying in her own room.
Lin Shuang’er’s face was deathly pale, and her entire body swayed as if she might collapse.
“It’s true… I really killed someone. I shouldn’t be alive… I’m the sinner. I’m the evil spirit. I’m terrifying… B-but I still have to take care of Grandfather… I don’t dare die… I should have died, but I don’t dare… I cling to life… Even after Grandfather died, I was still clinging to life…”
Trembling, Lin Shuang’er pushed up her sleeve. Her arm was covered in bruises of varying depths, along with overlapping old and new wounds where the flesh had split open.
Some had been gouged out by her own fingernails. Some had been left by striking herself against the wall. And some… had been carved open again and again with shards of porcelain.
Wan Jie gripped her skirt so tightly that her whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu stood frozen in place, their minds blank as if they had just been struck in the head.
How could such a thing exist in this world?
Were those people insane?
So the girls whose personalities had suddenly changed two years ago and last year had all gone through this. They had killed people with their own hands.
And after regaining their senses, their guilt and anguish had gnawed at their souls again and again, torturing their hearts. They hated the versions of themselves who had held the knives and killed, so they had deliberately tormented themselves over and over, trying to atone for their sins.
Yan Liangrong’s fingernails dug deeply into Yan Liangyu’s hand in her horror, but Yan Liangyu did not notice at all.
It was too terrifying.
How could such a thing happen in this world?
It was something that, in her seventeen years of life, she could not have dreamed of even in a nightmare.
Beasts.
Those people… every one of them was a beast wearing human skin.
After a long while, Yan Liangrong came back to herself and asked woodenly, “Who? Do you know who those people are?”
The two women shook their heads blankly.
They knew nothing.
Yan Liangrong drew a deep breath.
This matter was far too serious.
The people responsible had abducted ten girls without a trace and returned them just as quietly. So many people had participated in the gambling, placing bets of a hundred or even a thousand taels of silver without batting an eye. Those men must have held considerable status.
They had to tell Tongshu. They had to report this to the Kaifeng Prefecture.
And there was also Lin Shuang’er, Wan Jie, Tao Yang, Lu Lan, and Ding Xin—those from two years ago and last year. There might even have been others from the year before that.
Over the years, who knew how many crimes those people had committed?
They had continued to do evil and remained safe all this time. If they were not caught in one sweep, then even if they abandoned this particular form of wickedness this year or next, they would simply continue committing other crimes.
Yan Liangrong helped Lin Shuang’er and Wan Jie to their feet, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to remain calm. She instructed them, “You mentioned Tao Jiang. I believe you’ve already guessed that those villains didn’t only target the two of you. And they didn’t only commit crimes two years ago. So we can’t alert them.
“Go home first. Don’t tell anyone that you met us today. Don’t say anything at all.
“If anyone who took part back then—someone you trust completely—comes to ask whether the Legal Office can be trusted, and you can tell that she wants to confess, don’t bring her here this afternoon. Tell her to go into the city, to the smallest Qian’s Silk Shop in the North Lane of the southern district. They sell inexpensive cloth that any of you could afford. Pretend you’re going there to buy or sell fabric, and come meet us there.
“Come alone, one at a time. Don’t attract anyone’s attention.”
Wan Jie pressed her lips together. A faint flame appeared in her eyes.
“Will those people really be arrested?”
Yan Liangrong couldn’t guarantee it. After all, there were no leads at the moment.
In a firm voice, she said, “I promise I’ll use all my strength to track them down. If I can’t catch them this year, I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure they never escape me.”
