Chapter 11

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Jiang Yunchan stepped cautiously over the threshold and pushed open the door to the inner room. In a timid voice, she called, “Huai-lang?”

Her soft voice echoed through the chamber, overlapping in layers until no other sound could be heard.

Only the wedding candles on the incense table flickered wildly in the draft stirred up by her entrance. The red bed curtains swayed, shadows drifting across the room, creating an inexplicable sense of dread.

Jiang Yunchan’s eyelid twitched. She hurriedly backed out and asked, “Elder Cousin, where is Huai-lang?”

Gu Jing and the servants waiting outside exchanged uneasy glances, stammering without managing to say a word.

A sudden chill crept up Jiang Yunchan’s back. Then a vicious, mocking laugh rang out above her head.

“Huai-lang? You won’t have the chance to see that consumptive wretch again!”

At once, a massive, oppressive shadow descended over Jiang Yunchan from behind, dark as Mount Tai.

That familiar feeling of suffocation rushed toward her.

Jiang Yunchan spun around and staggered, only to see a burly man stroking the stubble on his chin as he advanced, a length of iron chain clutched in his hand.

Xie Jin?!

Why was he able to appear so openly in the inner residence of the Gu household?

Jiang Yunchan had no time to think. She turned and ran.

But her bridal robes were elaborate, and she was unfamiliar with the layout. Stumbling wildly like a trapped animal, she could find no way out.

“Huai-lang! Huai-lang!” she cried desperately, flinging open one door after another.

There was no sign of Gu Huaizhou.

Afraid that she would make too much noise, Gu Jing and the servants surrounded her from all sides.

She tried to break through them, but Gu Jing shoved her hard, sending her sprawling to the ground.

A dozen pairs of eyes formed an invisible net, binding her fast.

“You—you people…” Jiang Yunchan stared in disbelief at the faces that had seemed so kind only moments earlier.

There was no trace of goodwill left in them. They looked like demons come to claim her life.

“Don’t stop her! Let her shout, let her search!” Xie Jin drawled as he sauntered toward the encirclement.

Everyone respectfully stepped aside, opening a path for him.

Xie Jin crouched beside Jiang Yunchan and curved his lips into a sinister smile.

“If I didn’t let you search for yourself, how would you know that Gu Huaizhou is never coming back?”

“Huai-lang—has something happened to him already?”

“Your Huai-lang disappeared long ago. The court has suppressed the news for the time being, fearing it would damage the royal family’s reputation. Even the Second Young Master doesn’t know the truth. He merely sent me and the Judicial Court to investigate in secret. What do you think? Do you suppose there’s still any hope for him?”

With a derisive laugh, Xie Jin lifted Jiang Yunchan’s chin and leaned close to her ear.

“Your cousin has already given you every warning he could. How do you intend to repay me, dear cousin?”

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Hot breath carrying the smell of wine washed over Jiang Yunchan’s cheek. She gagged and silently retreated.

Xie Jin abruptly seized one of her ankles and dragged her back to him.

“Where do you think you can run?”

With another mocking laugh, Xie Jin tossed Gu Jing a bag of silver.

“Take it and buy the brothers a round of drinks. As for the Gu family’s property, you needn’t worry.”

Gu Jing’s eyes lit up. He bowed repeatedly, then led the servants, the wedding matron, and even the guests away.

The courtyard gate was locked, and the festive atmosphere withered in an instant.

So Huineng, Gu Jing, and the servants had all been bought off by Xie Jin. The wedding had been nothing more than a carefully staged performance, designed solely to trick her into this place where heaven itself could not hear her cries.

Jiang Yunchan looked around at the four towering gray walls. She felt as though she had fallen into an icy pit and stammered, “E-Elder Cousin, I am ugly and plain. I would only offend your eyes.”

She tore off her veil. The wound on her left cheek had never been treated, and after all that struggling, pus mixed with blood had begun to ooze from it. The sight was unbearable.

A man like Xie Jin could have any number of flawless beauties. Surely he must despise her.

Yet a strange excitement flickered in his eyes.

He seized Jiang Yunchan by the wrist and nearly crushed her slender bones in his grip.

“Don’t you know? A woman is most beautiful when she is broken. Wonderful!”

Jiang Yunchan had been a flawless piece of white jade, destined to be shattered bit by bit in his hands.

What a pity that before he had even begun to toy with her, cracks had already appeared.

Still, it was of no consequence. He had even more novel ways to make this piece of jade break more beautifully.

Xie Jin pressed his tongue against his cheek and dragged Jiang Yunchan toward the bridal chamber.

In that very room, he would knead and crush the beautiful jade until nothing remained intact.

Jiang Yunchan’s pupils contracted. She tried to pry open his ironlike hand.

But she was no match for him. Like a rag doll, she was half dragged, half hauled forward, leaving a long trail across the floor.

Then darkness swallowed her vision.

Xie Jin had shut the bridal chamber door.

The room was dim, and Jiang Yunchan could only make out his vague outline.

The massive man shoved her into a corner. Something cold and hard pressed against her waist, while the smell of blood spread through the air behind her.

Xie Jin suddenly tore down the red silk hanging on the wall. Great red wedding characters and paired-heart knots tumbled to the floor with it.

Behind them hung an array of whips, candlesticks, daggers, and curved blades, all spattered with blood.

Jiang Yunchan vaguely recalled the plaintive cries of women drifting from the Fragrant Evening Hall on countless nights.

The ashen faces of all those girls who had died mysterious deaths rose before her eyes, one after another.

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Xie Jin was not taking wives or concubines at all. He was merely using that as a pretext to indulge in tormenting women.

Jiang Yunchan trembled violently and tried to wrench herself free.

Xie Jin clamped one hand around her throat. With the other, he held up a candlestick and examined the scar on her face in minute detail.

“Be a good girl and obey. Otherwise, your Huai-lang will suffer in your place, hmm?”

His thumb tightened. Jiang Yunchan’s breath was cut off, and her hands and feet gradually slackened as her strength ebbed away.

Satisfied, Xie Jin tugged at the corner of his mouth. Then he took a writing brush from the wall, dipped its tip in the blood on her cheek, and swirled it thoughtfully.

“I’ve heard that when paper is made from a beauty’s skin, the fire-warding paintings drawn upon it are especially vivid and alluring. I’ve never seen one myself.” The brush slid lightly along Jiang Yunchan’s chin. “You are renowned for your compassionate heart, dear cousin. Why not grant me a piece of your skin? I shall naturally offer you… ample thanks.”

His sinister words drifted through the cramped room like a cold wind from the depths of hell.

Every hair on Jiang Yunchan’s body stood on end. An unprecedented terror surged over her.

The fear was eerily similar to that of her nightmare.

Could the man who had used her back as paper to write the Heart Sutra in her dream have been Xie Jin?

If the dream were real, then in the future he would imprison her, endlessly demand from her, endlessly possess every inch of her body…

Dream and reality intertwined. The doubled terror crushed down upon Jiang Yunchan until she could scarcely breathe.

She could not.

She absolutely could not become Xie Jin’s captive concubine!

Never!

Just as Xie Jin reached out to pull open her sash, Jiang Yunchan suddenly sank her teeth into his shoulder.

Her delicate teeth bit into the flesh of a trained martial artist as though she were biting stone, leaving her gums aching with the strain.

Still, she clung on desperately and refused to let go.

Enraged, Xie Jin raised his hand and struck.

“You little vixen! This isn’t the Xie residence. Do you think that dog of a Second Young Master is here to protect you?”

His palm came crashing down toward her head. Jiang Yunchan hurriedly pulled out a packet of chili powder hidden at her waist and flung it into Xie Jin’s face.

She had always feared that something might go wrong on her wedding day. The only precaution she could take was to secretly hide a few things for self-defense.

Xie Jin had never imagined that Jiang Yunchan would strike so viciously. Caught off guard, he took the chili powder full in the eyes. Two streams of bloody tears ran down his face, making him look like an evil ghost crawling out of hell.

Terrified, Jiang Yunchan frantically swung the candlestick and smashed it against Xie Jin’s head.

While he reeled in dizziness, she tore open the door and fled toward the light…