Chapter 1: 001 Tragic Death in the Previous Life

This was a torture chamber.

In the center of the room stood a boiling cauldron of oil. Chunks of meat tumbled within, fried to a medium-rare state, the savory aroma of flesh almost overpowering the thick stench of blood that permeated the room.

Xue Qiange lay curled in a corner, her clothes in tatters. The skin exposed to the air was covered in scars left by various instruments of torture. Half of her face, obscured by disheveled hair, bore a hideous brand, and one of her eyes had been scorched as well. Her only remaining eye stared fixedly at the cauldron, her gaze filled with suspicion, terror, and unease.

Yun Xianzhi, who took pleasure in tormenting her, had come today. She neither beat her nor insulted her; she simply set up this cauldron in front of her, stoked the charcoal, and tossed a large bag of bloody, shredded meat into the oil, piece by piece.

Unwilling to believe the suspicion forming in her heart, Xue Qiange looked toward the doorway at Yun Xianzhi, who sat poised on a sandalwood chair carved with gold-traced auspicious clouds. After opening and closing her mouth several times, she finally managed to produce a trembling voice: "What is inside that?"

"How bold!" scolded Fanglan, the palace maid standing to the side. "You dare address the Noble Consort without an honorific? Do you still think you are an Imperial Concubine? You are nothing but a lowly slave now, and you don't even know your place! Someone, teach this lowly slave some manners!"

Two eunuchs immediately stepped forward. One grabbed Xue Qiange’s hair, forcing her to lift her face, while the other rolled up his sleeves and delivered solid, resounding slaps.

After only a few blows, Xue Qiange’s face swelled up significantly. By the time she had taken a dozen, blood was pouring from her mouth. Had the eunuch holding her not been gripping her temples tightly, she would have surely fainted.

Only after she had enjoyed enough did Yun Xianzhi smooth her cloud-shaped bun, adorned with pearls and emeralds, and say with feigned boredom, "That’s enough. We can teach her manners slowly later; I don't have that much time to waste on her today."

"Yes, Your Ladyship." The two eunuchs stopped, threw her onto the floor, and retreated to the wall.

Xue Qiange collapsed, unable to rise. Her vision was a blur of dim, mottled light. This month in the torture chamber had drained every ounce of her strength. If not for the obsession to save her sister, she would have given up long ago.

"Noble Consort," Xue Qiange gasped, using every bit of her remaining strength to whisper, her words slurred, "I beg you... tell me, what exactly is inside that?"

Yun Xianzhi arched her meticulously painted brows, feigning great surprise. "Xue Qiange, didn't you say you would never bow your head to me? I was wondering how long you could hold out." Her voice ended on a note of heavy mockery.

Xue Qiange opened her mouth, and a mouthful of blood spilled out before she could stop it.

Yun Xianzhi laughed aloud, her eyes filled with spiteful satisfaction. "Xue Qiange, when you snatched the position of Primary Consort from me, did you ever think you would end up like this? Not only is your son dead, but your sister has been thrown into death row, and you’ve even implicated your uncle’s entire family, sending them into exile at the border. Everyone connected to you meets a miserable end. Xue Qiange, you are a jinx, a harbinger of doom!"

It was she who had entered the manor first, she who had conceived first, yet this slut had given birth to a son first, forcing her to remain a secondary consort, smiling and acting subservient every day, pretending to be a loving sister. To coax this slut into docility, His Highness had spent more than half of every month in her chambers, leaving her to endure two years of a cold, empty bed.

That would have been enough, but even after waiting for His Highness to ascend the dragon throne, this slut had received her retribution, yet she herself could only be a Noble Consort. It was all this slut's fault. Her father said that because this slut was still alive, the Emperor had an excuse to reject the petition to make her Empress. This woman was born to stand in her way; she deserved to die a thousand deaths!

Yun Xianzhi’s moon-bright face twisted for a moment before returning to its elegant, noble expression. Her gaze flickered toward the golden-fried meat in the cauldron, eager to see the woman's reaction.

"You want to know what's in the cauldron?" Yun Xianzhi smiled viciously. "I'll tell you. Today is the day your sister, Xue Qianwu, is to be executed by the slicing punishment. I pity your longing for her, so I specifically arranged for you to see her one last time. Don't let my kindness go to waste—go ahead and bid her farewell..."

Xue Qiange could no longer hear what Yun Xianzhi said afterward. Her world went silent. Amidst the spinning heavens and turning earth, only the words "slicing punishment" circled in her ears like the mournful tolling of a funeral bell, striking her heart with every beat.

Just then, the oil in the cauldron boiled to its peak. With a hiss, a small piece of meat splattered out, landing right on Xue Qiange’s arm and instantly raising a blister.

Xue Qiange awoke as if from a dream, only to fall from one nightmare into another.

"Sister! No! Sister!" Xue Qiange didn't know where the strength came from; she crawled on her hands and knees to the cauldron and reached in to scoop the contents out.

Someone gasped. The entire room watched in shock as she used her bare hands to fish out every piece of meat. Even Yun Xianzhi forgot her previous anger.

When the last piece was pulled out, Xue Qiange’s hands were reduced to mangled finger bones, the residual boiling oil still sizzling on them. Yet, as if she could no longer feel pain, she stared in despair at the pile of golden, cooked meat on the floor.

Her sister—who had taken the blame for her stepmother’s scoldings since childhood, who had married in her stead to ward off bad luck, who had entered the palace for the selection in her place, and who had constantly schemed and run about for her sake after she became a consort...

She had foolishly believed she possessed the Second Prince’s deepest love and affection. To win his favor, she had used her own sister to frame others, whispered slanders, and stopped at nothing to help him eliminate his rivals. In the end, to win over the Yun family, he had tossed her to Yun Xianzhi to be tortured and left her son to be cared for by Yun Xianzhi, only for the child to die of illness in a desolate courtyard.

And her sister, after the Second Prince accused her of "clearing the court of traitors," had been cursed by the world for eighty-one crimes. Not only was she sliced to death, but she was also to be fried in a cauldron.

"When the birds are gone, the bow is put away; when the rabbits are dead, the hound is cooked!" Xue Qiange suddenly let out a shrill, hysterical laugh. "Jun Xijue, is this the price for loving and trusting you?!"

Blood flowed from her mouth like a bursting levee, unstoppable. In moments, it pooled on the floor in a shocking display, as if all the blood in her body were draining out.

With her ghastly pale face, blood-red lips, bloodshot eyes, and the thick pool of blood beneath her, Xue Qiange looked like a vengeful ghost crawling up from the underworld.

Yun Xianzhi stood up in alarm and took a step back. With a sharp *rip*, her colorful, phoenix-embroidered silk gown tore, the golden phoenix’s head severed by the tear.

Furious, Yun Xianzhi was about to order someone to punish this insolent slut, but Xue Qiange suddenly turned her gaze toward her, a bewitching, cold sneer curling her lips. "Yun Xianzhi, you’ve seen my end. When you no longer have any use, how do you think Jun Xijue will treat you?"

Yun Xianzhi’s face stiffened, her voice losing its previous superiority as it turned shrill. "You slut! How dare you curse me! Beat her! Beat this slut to death!"

The two eunuchs picked up their staves and rained blows down upon Xue Qiange. Soon, she was a mass of mangled flesh. Xue Qiange lay prone on the ground, still emitting a chilling, intermittent sneer.

Yun Xianzhi gripped her handkerchief tightly. "Plug her mouth!"

"Wait!" Fanglan stopped the matron who was about to stuff a cloth into Xue Qiange’s mouth and offered a poisonous suggestion. "Your Ladyship, why not stuff that meat into her mouth? Let's see if she dares to curse you again!"

"Yes!" Yun Xianzhi’s eyes flashed with malice. "Make her eat it all! Not a single piece left!"

Xue Qiange struggled in terror, but the two eunuchs quickly pinned her down. The matron picked up a large piece of meat and shoved it toward her mouth.

"Yun Xianzhi, you poisonous woman..." Xue Qiange managed only that before her jaw was dislocated. Piece after piece of meat was forced down her throat, sliding into her stomach.

The agony of consuming her sister’s flesh shattered Xue Qiange’s nerves, breaking the last thread of her strength. Two lines of blood-tears streamed down her ruined cheeks as she widened her eyes and took her final breath.

In the last moment before losing consciousness, she swore a venomous oath in her heart: *Jun Xijue, Yun Xianzhi, even if I become a vengeful ghost after death, I will never let you go!!!!*

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