"Deng Youning, you wicked creature, Lian'er has suffered two full years of grievances ever since you came back."
"Now that old hag is finally dead and gone, with no one left to shield you, let's see how you continue to act so arrogantly!"
Deng Yi's vicious voice fell like a sharp sword suspended over Deng Youning's head.
Having long since had her martial arts crippled, she was completely incapable of resisting, terrified that the blade would strike down at any moment.
"Brother, although Grandmother has already passed away, I am still afraid that Sister holds a grudge against me."
"Not long ago, she even put poison in my rouge, which almost ruined my face. Has Brother forgotten all about this?"
Deng Xuelian touched her delicate face and looked at Deng Yi with a wronged expression, as if she would burst into tears at any second.
Deng Youning shook her head in bewilderment.
Poisoned rouge? She had never even heard of such a thing.
Though she had spent sixteen years living in the Ten Thousand Serpents Valley in Nanxin State, she had never learned any of those filthy arts of poisoning or Gu worms.
"Brother, I have never harmed Sister..."
She shook her head through her tears, hoping Deng Yi would believe her.
But how could Deng Yi—who had treated her like an enemy the moment she returned to the estate—trust her instead of the sister he loved most?
"Slap!"
A sharp blow landed on Deng Youning's pale face, knocking her directly to the ground as blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Having been raised as a human medicine guinea pig, with the valley master constantly drawing her blood since childhood to leave her body frail and sickly, how could she possibly withstand a blow from Deng Yi, who was a junior general?
"Lian'er, don't be afraid."
Deng Yi gently stroked Deng Xuelian's cheek, offering soft comfort.
"Father and Mother said that sparing her life is enough."
"Your brother has thought of a foolproof method: severing the tendons in her hands and feet, and scalding her vocal cords until she is mute. That way, she will never appear by your side again, nor will she be able to instigate others to harm you."
These words filled Deng Youning with terror.
She could not understand why her own flesh-and-blood brother would treat her this way.
In the dead of night, inside a room illuminated by a single candle, Deng Yi's demonic appearance made Deng Youning tremble from head to toe.
She had learned martial arts, too.
If her martial arts were still intact, she surely could have defeated Deng Yi and escaped.
But now...
"Brother, isn't this going a bit too far?"
"I am an adopted daughter who took her place for sixteen years. I can understand why she hates me."
"She is our sister, after all!"
Deng Xuelian hypocritically feigned anxiety for Deng Youning.
Even to someone as unversed in human affairs as Deng Youning, the act was entirely transparent, yet Deng Yi remained completely oblivious.
"Lian'er, you are simply too kind-hearted. You treat her as a sister, but from the very moment she came home, she wanted you dead!"
"Such a vicious person is simply not worthy of being the legitimate daughter of our State Protector Estate!"
Listening to the crimes Deng Yi was forcing upon her, Deng Youning could only shake her head in continuous protest.
She had never thought any such thing!
Deng Yi pinched her neck and forced a kettle of freshly boiled water down her throat.
The scalding heat scorched her oral cavity and throat, even stripping a layer of skin from the skin around her lips.
The suffocating pain left her too weak to struggle further.
Not only was her voice ruined, but her tongue had also lost all sense of taste.
Yet the torture was far from over.
The next second, Deng Yi raised his blade and neatly severed the tendons in Deng Youning's hands and feet.
Blood spurted out, staining Deng Xuelian's shoes.
"A whore's blood is so filthy!"
Taking out his handkerchief, he squatted on the ground and meticulously wiped Deng Xuelian's shoes clean.
Seeing that the stain wouldn't come off, he simply picked Deng Xuelian up in his arms and said, "Let's go, Brother will take you to change into a new pair."
Deng Xuelian snuggled into his embrace and nodded with satisfaction.
Deng Youning was simply left lying there.
Her lips were white with pain, and unable to bear it any longer, she lost consciousness.
Yet, battered and covered in blood, Deng Youning could not for the life of her understand why her own brother would treat her this way.
From the day Grandmother brought her back two years ago, not a single person in the State Protector Estate had liked her.
No matter what she did, it was wrong.
It was as though she deserved to die!
With Grandmother now deceased, she truly wished Grandmother could have taken her along on her journey.
Yet Grandmother's final instruction before drawing her last breath was simply for her to live on well...
Had she known things would turn out this way, she never should have returned with Grandmother in the first place.
Clearly, Grandmother had said she was the Deng family's only true daughter, and that this Deng Xuelian was merely an adopted child.
She had thought that by keeping her head down and pouring her heart out to them, genuine sincerity would be met with sincerity, and that one day her parents and brother would be moved by her filial piety.
Yet she was dead wrong.
Because the hearts of the Deng family simply could not be warmed.
Father Deng Zheng loved tea, so she collected morning dew to brew tea for him, only to have him smash the teacup heavily against her head.
All because Deng Xuelian claimed the dew on the leaves was unclean, and that she was trying to give her father diarrhea with malicious intentions.
Mother had once suffered from a severe illness; when the ailment flared up, she climbed a mountain hundreds of meters high to find medicine for her, only to have her mother pour the medicine straight into the slop bucket.
All because Deng Xuelian had obtained imperial-grade medicine from the Crown Prince, while her medicine came from an unknown source and harbored ulterior motives.
Even the entire Capital was abuzz with the reputation of the State Protector Estate's second young miss: poisoning her parents, bullying her elder sister, and showing disrespect to her brother.
Her greatest mistake was yearning for a family affection that simply never existed.
*
Three months after Deng Youning's hand and foot tendons were severed, the State Protector Estate welcomed a great joyous occasion.
Deng Xuelian was marrying the Crown Prince!
She was making a high marriage into the East Palace, becoming the Crown Prince's primary consort.
The entire State Protector Estate was celebrating the event, with red silks and double-happiness characters hung everywhere.
Yet it had only been three and a half months since Old Madam Han Qiongyue's death.
In recent days, the household was short-handed, and the servants who usually delivered slop and foul water to Deng Youning were also called to the front hall to help.
No one in the estate paid her any mind.
She had been left without food for two or three days.
Amidst the biting hunger and cold, she felt that her so-called relatives had begun making their final moves against her.
They intended to starve her to death!
No, she could not simply sit and wait for death.
Dragging her crippled legs, she stumbled by chance into the wedding banquet.
She had only been searching for a bite to eat, never expecting to collide with His Highness the Crown Prince.
Enraged, the Crown Prince ordered her beaten to death with clubs.
"Little bitch, running all over the place even with your foot tendons cut?"
"You could have relied on your status as the second young miss to lord it over the estate, but you had to come and bring us bad luck right on the wedding day of Her Ladyship and me. Don't blame us for sending you on your way!"
"Beat her! Beat her to death!"
The pain!
It hurt to death...
At first, it was merely the pain of the flesh; bit by bit, her bones and tendons snapped in two.
In the end, her flesh was beaten to a pulp and her bones shattered like powder.
The thick wooden clubs struck her frail, slender body, every single blow tearing her skin and shattering her bones.
Her face, white as paper and devoid of all blood, was tightly contorted, and large beads of sweat dripped continuously from her jaw, indistinguishable as tears or sweat.
Slowly, she closed her eyes.
She died just like that.
The moment Deng Youning drew her last breath, Deng Xuelian was stepping into her bridal sedan chair.
Because the Crown Prince had ordered the beating, no one in the State Protector Estate had the right to plead for mercy.
They had sent an old mammy to keep watch.
As she drew her final breath, the old crone ran over to report:
"State Protector, Madam, Heir, Second Young Miss, she has stopped breathing!"
Deng Yi breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as though the sky had cleared up.
With this wicked woman dead, no one would ever get in his sister's way again.
Her biological mother, Lady Gu, reprimanded the mammy with a look of disgust.
"Since she's dead, just dispose of the body however you like! Today is Lian'er's great wedding day, why are you coming to tell me she's dead? How unlucky!"
She fluttered her handkerchief near her ear and turned to leave.
Her biological father, Deng Zheng, sighed, appearing as though some major obstacle had finally been removed.
"Ah, those who bring destruction upon themselves cannot live."
"I simply spoiled her too much in the past, letting her offend the Crown Prince. To bear such a daughter is a misfortune to the family!"
"By my calculation, you and I are fated! Guide to reading: Leave your brains at the door; all passengers, please check your brains in at the luggage counter before boarding. (Brain Check-in Counter)"