The leaden clouds, like spilled ink, pressed heavily over the Imperial Palace, swallowing the midday sun. The winter palace walls took on a cold, gray hue in the twilight. Icicles hanging from the glazed tiles dripped like blades, their sharp edges trembling in the biting wind, as if nature itself were whetting cold steel for the confrontation to come. Shen Mingyue stepped into the corridor before the Imperial Study, the crunch of ice shards beneath her boots particularly piercing in the silence; each step felt as if she were treading upon her own heartbeat. She took a deep breath, the cold wind and fine snow filling her lungs, yet unable to cool her boiling blood. Within her sleeve, her fingertips repeatedly traced the leather-bound ledger. The wax seal on the edge of the paper pressed painfully into her palm; it held not just criminal evidence, but the obsession of her months of lurking, the grievances of her mother who died full of hatred, and the blood and tears of countless innocents.
"Miss Shen, pray stay your step." The sharp voice of a eunuch, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, pierced the stagnant air. Jiang Yanbai, dressed in python robes, emerged from the shadow of a pillar. The suet jade pendant at his waist swayed with his steps, reflecting a hypocritical, gentle luster. A mocking curve played upon his lips, yet dark, sinister tides churned in the depths of his eyes—a gaze that instantly reminded Shen Mingyue of how he had once surrounded her in a dark alley with the lackeys of the Blood Fiend Sect, cold and cruel. "I hear you are in a rush to sever ties with me, Miss Shen? So impatient—could it be that you have found a new love?" His tone was frivolous, his words full of provocation.
Shen Mingyue turned slowly, the wind and snow whipping loose strands of hair at her temples, carving chaotic arcs against her pale cheeks. In this moment, she felt as if she were back in that pitch-black dungeon; moisture seeped through the damp walls, and rusted chains bound her hands and feet. Jiang Yanbai stood outside the iron bars, looking down at her, playing with a whip in his hand, his eyes full of mockery. "Shen Mingyue, how long do you think the Shen Family can protect you?" Now, the moment for vengeance had finally arrived. Her fingernails dug deep into her palms; the stinging pain kept her clear-headed. Today was the day of reckoning. "Young Master Jiang, perhaps you should look at this first." She flicked her wrist, casting a secret letter through the air. The snow-white rice paper traced a cold arc. "In the carriage of the envoy from the Northern Frontier three days ago, was there not a personal letter written by you to the Blood Fiend Sect Master?" Her words hit home, resonant with a desperate resolve.
Jiang Yanbai’s expression changed abruptly, the blood draining from his face. He reached out to snatch the letter, but his movement was interrupted by the creak of the hall doors being pushed open. The Empress Dowager was indeed here, just as Su Yan had said. Her gold-threaded phoenix robes shimmered with majestic luster under the candlelight. Every tap of her jade fingernail guard against the armrest hit the hearts of those present, making a crisp yet heavy sound. "What is this squabbling? Has my Imperial Study become a marketplace ring?" The Empress Dowager’s voice was imposing without anger, her gaze sweeping over everyone in the hall like a torch.
Shen Mingyue bowed, her spine held straight, like a plum blossom defying the snow, refusing to bow her head to fate. "I beseech the Empress Dowager’s judgment!" Her voice was clear as a chime, yet hidden with sharp edges, each word like an arrow meticulously forged. "I risk death today to expose the crime of Jiang Yanbai, heir to the Defender-General’s Estate, for colluding with the Blood Fiend Sect and plotting to subvert the imperial order!" Before the words faded, gasps echoed throughout the hall, like a thunderclap breaking the previously suffocating silence. The Old Lord Jiang staggered half a step, his withered hand gripping a pillar tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, his face full of shock and terror.
"Spitting blood and slandering!" Jiang Yanbai forced himself to remain calm, snapping his folding fan open. The ink-bamboo painting on the fan face was twisted and distorted by his grip, exposing his inner panic. "Shen Mingyue, you are merely dissatisfied with our marriage, and now you attempt to bite at my Jiang Family! Everyone here, who does not know that the Shen Family has always been connected to the ruffians of the jianghu..." He attempted to muddy the waters with his words, but his voice rose involuntarily, laced with an undisguisable urgency.
"Enough!" Shen Mingyue whipped off her cloak, revealing the dense array of letters hidden in the inner lining of her garments, like a heaven-and-earth net already woven, waiting only for the prey to throw itself in. "These are thirty secret letters between Jiang Yanbai and the Blood Fiend Sect, each bearing a unique wax seal." Her hand holding the magnifying glass was steady as a rock, though only she knew that her palms were drenched in cold sweat, her heart beating like a war drum. "Your Majesty, please look—this phoenix emblem is identical to the royal seal of the Northern Frontier." She carefully handed the magnifying glass to the Empress Dowager, her eyes full of certainty, while covertly observing Jiang Yanbai’s reaction.
The Empress Dowager’s pupils contracted sharply; her fingers trembled slightly as she took the letters, her expression gradually growing grave. Cold sweat seeped from Jiang Yanbai’s temples, yet he still forced a facade of composure. "They are merely forgeries..." His voice was weak, and his eyes began to dart away.
"Forgeries?" Shen Mingyue let out a cold laugh. Within this laugh lay ten years of blood and tears, countless sleepless nights, and a desperate craving for justice. She signaled for Chuntao to bring forward a wooden casket; the scent of sandalwood mixed with the stench of blood wafted out, as if she had opened Pandora’s box. "This is the ledger for the refining of Gu Insects discovered in the cellar of Jishi Hall. From the birth dates of the boys and girls to the methods of cultivating the Gu Insects, everything has Jiang Yanbai’s personal annotations." She flipped to a page, the handwriting looking like a ferocious curse under the candlelight. "On the fifteenth of last month, three children were sent to be turned into 'human-Gu'." When she said the word "children," her voice choked slightly, her mind flooded with the innocent faces of the kids and the horrific state they were in while being tortured.
The air in the hall froze instantly. In the deathly silence, the Old Lord Jiang reached out with trembling hands to snatch the ledger, his clouded eyes full of terror and despair, as if the ledger were the specter of death itself. His movement was firmly blocked by guards, and he stumbled back, nearly falling. Jiang Yanbai’s folding fan snapped in two; the bamboo splinters sliced into his palm, and blood dripped onto the blue bricks, like blooming red plums or the brand of his sins. "Shen Mingyue! How dare you..." He glared, his voice filled with fury and unwillingness.
"Not only do I dare, I also have a witness." Shen Mingyue clapped three times, the sound echoing in the spacious hall, each clap like the bell of justice. An old man who had been trembling all over walked in from outside—the former shopkeeper of Jishi Hall. He fell to his knees with a thud that shocked everyone, as if it had struck every person's conscience. "Reporting to the Empress Dowager, this servant is willing to stake his life that these ledgers are absolutely authentic. Young Master Jiang would come every fifteenth of the month to inspect the Gu Insects, and if there were any errors, he would..." The old man lifted his sleeves to reveal his arms covered in whip welts, the interweaving of new and old scars truly shocking; they were the testament to his torture over countless days and nights.
Jiang Yanbai suddenly erupted, drawing a guard’s sword and lunging toward Shen Mingyue. In the instant the cold light flashed, the look in her mother’s eyes before she died crossed Shen Mingyue’s mind—a mix of unwillingness, concern, love for her daughter, and an accusation against fate. At the moment of crisis, a black shadow flashed; Xuanying’s soft sword blocked the path between them, sparks flying. The sound of clashing metal reverberated in the hall, deafening. "Committing murder in front of the Empress Dowager—is Young Master Jiang planning a rebellion?" Shen Mingyue stood unmoved, her eyes full of contempt, even though her back was already soaked in cold sweat. She knew this was only the beginning of the enemy’s desperate cornered-beast tactics; greater crises lay ahead.
The Empress Dowager slammed the table and stood up, her jade fingernail guard shattering; the flying fragments cast cold light on the ground, as if the sword of justice had severed evil. "Guards! Seize Jiang Yanbai! Seal the Jiang Estate at once!" She turned to Shen Mingyue, her eyes complex—scrutinizing, appreciative, and holding a trace of hard-to-detect wariness. "Since you have such evidence, Miss Shen, why did you not report it sooner?"
Shen Mingyue took a blood-stained cloth from her bosom. The blood had long dried, yet it burned in her heart day and night; every time she saw it, it felt like reopening a wound that had never healed. "Reporting to the Empress Dowager, the Blood Fiend Sect has many eyes and ears." Her voice carried suppressed fury, each word squeezed out from between her teeth. "The dark guard who attempted to present this evidence three days ago had his eyes gouged out and his tongue cut off, his body dumped in a mass grave." The resolute gaze of the dark guard before he died seemed to appear before her eyes; he had used his last ounce of strength to scratch the word "revenge" on the ground—that was his persistence in justice, and his trust in Shen Mingyue. "I had no choice but to endure until now, only to seek justice for the world when the time was most secure." By the end, her voice was firm and powerful, as if declaring her resolve to heaven and earth.
The Old Lord Jiang suddenly collapsed to the floor, tears and snot streaming down his face, his former majesty gone, like an old man who had lost all his support. "Empress Dowager, show mercy! My son must have been deceived by villains..." His words were filled with pleading, yet everyone present understood this was merely a futile struggle.
"Deceived?" Shen Mingyue held up the ledger, her arm trembling slightly from agitation; the ledger felt as heavy as a thousand catties, bearing too much sin. "This records the amount of military pay the Jiang Family has embezzled over the past twenty years, enough to equip three Northern Frontier border defense armies. May I ask the Old Lord, where has this money gone?" Her questioning was like a heavy hammer, striking every heart and shattering the mask of the Jiang Family’s hypocrisy.
The Imperial Study fell into a dead silence, with only Jiang Yanbai’s heavy breathing echoing, like a trapped beast in its death throes, putting up one final resistance in despair. The Empress Dowager rubbed her temples, and only after a long while did she say, "Miss Shen, regarding the marriage contract with the Jiang Family..."
"I implore the Empress Dowager to issue a decree to dissolve the marriage." Shen Mingyue bowed again. This bow was to thank the Empress Dowager for her justice, and even more, to break with the humiliations of the past. Her posture was upright, her eyes firm. "Jiang Yanbai has committed such heinous crimes; the Shen Family refuses to wed a traitor." She paused, then took out a document, densely covered with signatures—the resolve of three hundred members of the Shen Family, each name a support for justice. "This is a joint petition from the three hundred members of the Shen Family; we are willing to stake our family reputation on the truth of these words."
Jiang Yanbai suddenly burst into wild laughter, his voice filled with despair and unwillingness, like a wail from the depths of hell. "Shen Mingyue! Do you think you’ve won by bringing me down? The Blood Fiend Sect will not let you off..." His words were cut off by the guards’ shouts. As he was dragged away, he left a long trail of blood on the blue bricks, like a crimson road leading to the end of his crimes, signaling the victory of justice.
Leaving the palace gates, the cold wind and fine snow rushed toward them, but Shen Mingyue felt no cold. Chuntao looked at her with worry: "Young Mistress, the Jiang Family is deeply rooted; we have thoroughly offended them this time..."
"The deeper the roots, the more we must pull them out completely." Shen Mingyue gazed at the gray sky, tucking the ledger away again, her movements gentle yet firm, as if protecting the most precious treasure. She remembered the crying of the children in the cellar; those heart-wrenching sounds seemed to still echo in her ears. She remembered her mother’s voice and smile—that was the source of strength that kept her going in the darkness. "Consort De and the Prince of Zhenbei will not sit idly by. We must find evidence of Lu Huaijin’s collusion with the enemy before they act." She gripped the short sword at her waist, the black bird emblem on the sword tassel snapping in the wind and snow; that was her unyielding faith and the clarion call for revenge, guiding her forward.
That night, flames soared toward the sky in the direction of the Jiang Estate, lighting up half the night sky; the raging fire seemed like the burning flames of justice. Shen Mingyue stood on the tower of the Shen Estate, frowning as she looked at the thick smoke in the distance. Xuanying appeared behind her at some unknown moment: "Mistress, when the fire started at the Jiang Estate, three carriages raced toward the west of the city; the goods in them seemed to be..."
"Gu Insects." Shen Mingyue answered, her eyes cold as frost, as if capable of freezing all evil. She had long expected that Jiang Yanbai would not keep all his cards in the open. These fish that escaped the net would eventually all be captured. "Pass on the order: have the shadow guards closely monitor every exit from the city, especially carriages loaded with wooden crates." As she turned, the moonlight illuminated the cold gleam in her eyes—the toughness forged after trials, and the craving for victory. "This contest has only just begun."
At the same time, deep within the palace in Consort De’s bedchamber, the candles suddenly went out. In the darkness, the sound of porcelain shattering came—a crisp noise that seemed like the precursor to the breaking of a conspiracy. "Trash! You can’t even handle a mere girl!" A sinister female voice came from behind the beaded curtain, full of fury and unwillingness. "Go tell the Prince of Zhenbei: Shen Mingyue cannot be left alive." Her voice was filled with intense murderous intent, yet it could not hide her inner panic.
Outside the window, a crow flapped past, landing on the eaves of the Shen Estate and emitting a mournful cry, as if warning of the coming storm. Shen Mingyue stroked the heirloom left by her mother on the desk, a faded jade hairpin, carrying her warmest memories. When she was small, her mother would always use this hairpin to sweep up her hair, saying gently, "My Yue’er will surely become the most dazzling pearl in the future." "Mother, do you see? Those who harmed you—I will not let a single one go." She unfolded a newly received secret letter; on it was only a single line of small text: Lu Huaijin will leave the Capital in three days.
The snow fell heavier, wrapping the entire Capital in a vast expanse. Shen Mingyue gripped the letter tightly, her fingernails leaving deep marks upon it. The storm in the Imperial Study was merely a prologue; the real raging waves were about to sweep in. And she was already prepared to face everything—even if the path ahead led to an abyss, she would crush the thorns, ensure justice was served, allow her mother’s soul to rest in peace, and ensure all evil received the punishment it deserved.