To prevent any mishaps during tomorrow's homecoming banquet, the Minister's Mansion was heavily guarded.
As a result, the usually four-guarded Pines Courtyard had only one watchman tonight.
"Crack!"
The sound of a whip striking flesh echoed.
"You wretched woman, tired of living, are you? How dare you barge into the Young Miss's quarters? I'll beat you to death!"
The Pines Courtyard was remote, and hardly anyone visited. Only when Ye Chutang drew closer did she hear the curses.
Jinzhi was shackled at her limbs, unable to dodge the lashes, wailing in pain.
"Waaah… I won’t run again, stop hitting me… it hurts…"
"Hurting is the only way you’ll learn, you—"
The man wielding the whip suddenly collapsed, unconscious.
Jinzhi shuddered, curling into herself, torn between fear and curiosity.
She feared seeing something she shouldn’t—something that might get her silenced.
She couldn’t die yet—not before fulfilling her mistress’s last wish!
Ye Chutang pushed open the broken window and leaped into the filthy room.
Passing the fallen man, she plucked the anesthetic needle from the back of his neck.
Jinzhi trembled at the approaching footsteps.
"Scared… don’t come closer… sob…"
Tears and snot streaked her face, a pitiful and revolting sight.
Ye Chutang crouched before her, speaking softly, "It’s me."
Recognizing the voice, Jinzhi looked up in disbelief.
Staring at the face that bore a striking resemblance to her late mistress, she burst into loud, heart-wrenching sobs.
After a few cries, she clamped a hand over her mouth, stifling the noise—lest she attract more guards.
Ye Chutang didn’t flinch at her filth, gently stroking her back.
"Cry if you need to. It’s alright."
Jinzhi wept uncontrollably, her hiccupping sobs filled with sorrow.
It took her a while to compose herself before she finally lowered her hand.
"Young Mistress… this servant has waited so long for your return."
Ye Chutang had guessed Jinzhi’s madness was an act—otherwise, she wouldn’t have risked going to Ningchu Courtyard.
"I’m back now. No one will hurt you again."
She found the keys on the unconscious man and moved to unlock Jinzhi’s chains, but the woman resisted.
"Young Mistress, this servant is fine. No one must know you came here."
Ignoring her protests, Ye Chutang undid the shackles.
"Don’t worry. I can protect you."
Jinzhi gazed at her, so different from her gentle mother, torn between relief and heartache.
The Young Mistress must have endured unimaginable suffering to stand so fearlessly against the demons of the Ye family.
Once freed, Jinzhi knelt and kowtowed deeply.
"This servant Jinzhi pays respects to the Young Mistress."
Ye Chutang helped her up. "Aunt Jin, you’ve suffered all these years."
Jinzhi had endured humiliation in the Ye household for over a decade—she deserved every ounce of respect.
Hearing the affectionate address, Jinzhi’s eyes welled up again.
"This servant is useless… I couldn’t protect you. I don’t deserve your kindness."
She frantically wiped a dust-covered stool with her sleeve, but the fabric was just as grimy.
Ye Chutang stopped her.
"Aunt Jin, leave it. I’m taking you to Ningchu Courtyard."
"Young Mistress, the Master won’t allow it. Tomorrow is your big day—I can’t be a burden."
"Precisely because tomorrow must go smoothly, he won’t dare interfere tonight."
Jinzhi stood firm. "After the banquet, this servant will follow you. Not before."
Seeing her resolve, Ye Chutang relented.
"Fine. I’ll come for you once it’s over. But you sought me out earlier—was there something you needed to say?"
Jinzhi nodded eagerly.
She pulled a relatively clean garment from the wardrobe and spread it over the stool.
"Young Mistress, please sit."
Once seated, Jinzhi rolled up her sleeve, revealing a grime-covered arm.
Her fingers probed until they found something unnatural.
With a grimace, her blackened nails dug into flesh, peeling off a large patch of artificial skin.
"Don’t be alarmed, Young Mistress. It’s a disguise."
Hidden beneath were two items—the dowry list Ye Jingchuan had hunted for fifteen years, and Tang Wanning’s final letter.
Handing them over, Jinzhi turned toward the direction of her mistress’s grave and kowtowed three times.
"Mistress, this servant has fulfilled your wish!"
Ye Chutang carefully stored the delicate embroidered dowry list before unfolding the letter.
The artificial skin had preserved the paper perfectly—the handwriting was elegant, though the strokes faltered, clearly written in Tang Wanning’s final moments.
"My dear Chutang, I won’t see you grow up… All I can leave you is a lifetime of wealth. Guard your dowry well… I go now to find your brother. May you live in peace, free from sorrow."
Few words, yet brimming with regret and love.
After reading, Ye Chutang asked, "Aunt Jin, I had a brother?"
"Yes. The Mistress carried twins, but she was poisoned into early labor. The young master was stillborn, and you barely survived—Divine Doctor Xue saved you."
"Where is he buried?"
At this, Jinzhi’s tears fell anew.
Back then—
Ye Jingchuan’s political rise had been bankrolled by Tang Wanning’s merchant family wealth.
Kong Qingyuan, then Chief of the Court of Judicial Review, offered his second daughter as a secondary wife.
Tang Wanning, deeply in love and newly pregnant, refused.
Old Madam Ye despised her for it, scorning her "merchant blood" and "petty jealousy."
Needing Tang Wanning’s riches, mother and son played good cop/bad cop until she relented, allowing Ye Jingchuan to take Kong Ru as a noble concubine.
Kong Ru feigned meekness but schemed ruthlessly.
Despite Tang Wanning’s vigilance, she was tripped into premature labor, nearly dying with her unborn children.
"Young Mistress, the Master’s cruelty knew no bounds. While the Mistress still bled in childbirth, he ordered your brother’s body thrown into the river.
Kong Ru even taunted the Mistress with it, causing a hemorrhage. Without Divine Doctor Xue, you wouldn’t have drawn breath."
Ye Chutang knew stillborns were denied proper burials—discarded in rivers to wash away downstream.
She pressed, "Was my mother’s death natural?"
Jinzhi shook her head.
"The birth shattered her health. Caring for your sickly infancy drained her last strength. She faded within two years."
Before dying, Tang Wanning saw through Ye Jingchuan’s greed. Fearing for her daughter, she entrusted the dowry list and letter to Jinzhi via Divine Doctor Xue, ordering her and Yu Ye to take Ye Chutang to the Tang family in Jiangnan.
But Yu Ye was caught sending word—her bones scattered to the wind.
Jinzhi was seized and tortured for the dowry list.
When she refused, Ye Jingchuan raped her, hoping pregnancy would break her.
She induced a miscarriage and feigned madness for fifteen years.
Ye Chutang’s voice hardened. "Aunt Jin, I swear—I’ll avenge my mother and brother."
Jinzhi steadied her breath against the suffocating grief.
"Young Mistress, I told you this so you’d know—the Ye family harbors no goodness.
But more than vengeance… your mother wished only for your happiness."
Ye Chutang thought to herself: Three lives lost—this vengeance must be avenged!
"Jinzhi, don’t worry. I know what I’m doing."
With that, she stood up and glanced at the unconscious man.
"He won’t wake until dawn. Rest well tonight, Jinzhi. Once the homecoming banquet is over, I’ll come back for you."
"Very well. This servant will await the young mistress’s return."
The moment Ye Chutang leaped out the window, Jinzhi murmured softly,
"Young mistress, this servant has no regrets now that I’ve seen you again and told you the truth of what happened all those years ago."
Then she turned and hurled herself against the wall.
