Chapter 24 — Sacrificed by the Heir: Reborn as Yue Zhaoyue to Avenge Sixteen Years of Injustice

Three days after the Supreme Court took over the case, a torrential downpour lashed the capital. Rain hammered against the dark, heavy roof tiles, cascading down the bronze animal-head gargoyles and sealing the dungeon in a shroud of suffocating cold. The eunuch with the severed fingers hung from a wooden rack, his body reduced to a single, labored breath. His prison robes had long since been soaked through with sweat and blood, yet he remained silent, his jaw clamped shut, refusing to utter a single word. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had interrogated him for three days and three nights. He asked no trivial questions and never once mentioned the Imperial Consort To. Each time he entered the dungeon, he simply placed half of a crescent-shaped wooden token upon the table and asked one question:

"Sixteen years ago, where did you see that child?"

Every time he heard the word "child," the eunuch’s complexion shifted. He could endure the whip and the agony of iron shackles crushing his remaining fingertips, but he could not mask his reaction to the mention of the newborn. By the third hour of the third night, the Chief Justice entered again. This time, he was not alone; accompanying him were the Grand Princess, Gu Yan, and myself. I had reclaimed the surname Yue, but as the sound of chains dragging across the stone floor echoed through the room, my palms turned ice-cold. The man kneeling before me was one of the very men who had set fire to the Qingzhou relay station, murdered my parents, and hunted me for sixteen years. The eunuch raised his head. His face was swollen beyond recognition, yet when his gaze fell upon the other half of the crescent token in my hand, a flicker of irrepressible terror ignited in his eyes. The Chief Justice placed a bowl of water before him, his voice low and cutting as a blade.

"You may remain silent. But my men have discovered that for sixteen years, you secretly dispatched agents to Qingzhou seventeen times. You were hunting for a girl, carrying a crescent token, whose age would now match the young lady before you."

The eunuch’s lips twitched. The Chief Justice continued, "You do not fear death, but you fear the person behind you learning that you failed to find the child. Because as long as this young lady lives, the events of the past can never be buried." Silence descended upon the dungeon, punctuated only by the drumming of rain and the heavy, ragged breathing of the prisoner. After a long moment, he suddenly let out a laugh—a sound as raspy and grating as a knife dragging over stone, enough to send a chill down one's spine.

"Do you truly believe that finding her will allow you to overturn the case of the past?" He lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on me. "The Yue family is dead. The evidence was burned to ash. Relying on a girl who was not even able to speak at the time, what could you possibly hope to prove?"

I looked at him and slowly placed my half of the crescent token on the table. "I do not need to prove anything to you. You only need to tell me how my parents died."

The smile on his face froze. I did not weep, nor did I cry out. My composure seemed to unnerve him more than any outburst. He studied me for a long time before turning his face away, his voice hoarse. "That year, I acted under orders to intercept the carriage of Yue Zhongshan outside the Qingzhou relay station."

My hand, resting on my knee, tightened instinctively. He had confessed. Sixteen years ago, Yue Zhongshan had received a secret imperial edict, ordering him to bring his wife and newborn child to the capital in total secrecy. En route, they stopped at the Qingzhou station. That night, the eunuch’s unit posed as government officials, sealed the station, slaughtered the Yue family’s guards, and set the building ablaze. Their goal was not mere murder; they sought the crescent token carried by Yue Zhongshan. The token was meant to be a pair—one half with Yue Zhongshan, the other hidden elsewhere. When joined, they would reveal proof regarding the Northern Border military rations and a list of those colluding with foreign enemies. That night, the eunuch’s group only found half. They ransacked the entire station but could not find the infant. Lady Yue had sacrificed her life to hold off the assassins, allowing Shen Hang to carry the child out through the back gate. Before fleeing, she had entrusted him with her half of the token, begging him to bring the child to the capital to face the Emperor. But Shen Hang never did. He took the child into the Shen family, changed her name, and hid the token for sixteen years. The eunuch lowered his head, his voice fading to a whisper.

"After returning to the capital, we reported that we could not find the child. Our master was furious and ordered the hunt to continue. For years, I had agents check every girl of matching age in Qingzhou and the capital, but none of us imagined that Shen Hang would dare to keep the child right under our very noses."

The Grand Princess asked coldly, "Who gave you the order?" The eunuch remained silent for a long time. Then, he closed his eyes, as if finally accepting his fate. "It was Imperial Consort To."

Even though we had suspected it, a gasp of collective shock rippled through the room. The Chief Justice immediately pressed, "Was it Consort To herself who ordered the death of the Yue couple?" The eunuch’s eyes snapped open. He looked at us, his mouth slowly curling into a ghoulish smile. "The Consort was merely the one who relayed the order and arranged the perpetrators. She was not the one who truly desired Yue Zhongshan’s death."

I stood up abruptly. "Who was it?"

The eunuch glanced toward the dungeon entrance, as if terrified someone was lurking outside, listening. After a long time, he rasped, "That year, more than one person sought the token. There was a prince who coveted the military power of the Northern Border, a royal heir who feared Yue Zhongshan would bring evidence to the capital, and officials who had been embezzling military rations for years. They all wanted him silenced. But as for who gave the final command, I never saw their face."

He paused, his chest heaving violently. "I only know that person had a token of identity. A black jade ring, carved with the image of a five-clawed dragon."