Chapter 16 — Wedding Hall, No Groom

I truly admire you; for over a dozen years, your performance has been completely flawless. I, Xiao Huai, was nothing more than the sharpest blade in your hand, the most obedient hound, isn't that right? He suddenly seized her wrist with a grip so fierce it felt as though he intended to shatter her very bones.

You approached me, curried favor with me, acted submissively, and even fawned over my mother, all solely to exploit me—to leverage the power of the General’s Mansion to overturn the verdict of your father, am I not right?

He roared, every single syllable scraping past his tightly clenched teeth. Liu Yunwei was consumed by an overwhelming, suffocating panic. She knew that everything had reached its end. Now that her mask had been thoroughly stripped away, there was no further need for acting. The lingering trace of vulnerability in her gaze vanished entirely, replaced by a festering, bone-deep hatred.

Yes! You are entirely right about everything!

She screamed, her voice shrill like the shriek of a nocturnal owl.

Liu Chengchi was my father! He was never a corrupt official; he was framed by treacherous sycophants!

Every single soul in the Liu household, more than a hundred lives, was wiped out in a single night! I was only seven years old back then, watching with my own eyes as my mother perished beneath the blades of the imperial soldiers while trying to shield me! I hid inside a rice jar, and that was how I miraculously survived! She laughed and cried simultaneously, like someone losing her mind.

I swore an oath that I would clear my father's name, that I would make those responsible for destroying my family pay in blood!

Left entirely on my own, devoid of power or influence, what else could I possibly do? You, Xiao Huai, are the Great General Who Pacifies the Nation, the favored confidant of the Emperor. If I did not cling to you, whom else was I to cling to?

Did you actually believe I enjoyed smiling at you?

Did you think I willingly served your bitter, shrewish mother? Every single time I looked at both of you, it made me sick to my stomach! She glared at Xiao Huai with venomous hatred.

You were nothing more than my stepping stone! A mere rock helping me climb higher, to draw closer to immense power so I could hunt down my enemies!

Xiao Huai’s heart was pierced and shredded by those vicious yet undeniable truths. The pure affection he had once believed in, the pristine moonlight he had cherished with all his being, turned out to be nothing more than a meticulously calculated theatrical play. He released her hand, stumbling back two paces as if every ounce of strength had been drained from his body. He leaned against the freezing stone wall, emitting a low, agonized groan like a wounded beast.

Three million taels of salt tax… where is that missing stash of silver?

He asked using his final remnants of strength. A flash of cunning and madness danced across Liu Yunwei’s eyes:

You want to know? Very well.

Rescue me, help me hunt down my enemies from the past, and I will tell you where the money is hidden. It is a sum vast enough to shake the imperial treasury, enough for you to stage a comeback, and even... Before she could finish her sentence, Xiao Huai burst into laughter. That laughter was far more wretched and desolate than any weeping.

A comeback? Ha ha ha ha...

He laughed until tears streamed down his face.

Throughout my entire life, Xiao Huai, I have achieved glorious military exploits and lived with absolute integrity, yet because of you, I am reduced to ruin, my reputation destroyed, becoming the laughingstock of the realm.

How could I possibly have the face to speak of a comeback? He slowly straightened his posture, gazing at the woman he had once loved so deeply, now filled only with a marrow-deep animosity.

Liu Yunwei, you are wrong.

I will not rescue you. But I will help you find those enemies of yesteryear. His tone was frighteningly calm.

Because I want him to know that the scheme he painstakingly plotted back then will ultimately be destroyed by the very pawn he so bitterly cultivated.

I want the two of you, dogs biting dogs, to descend into hell together! Having spoken those words, he did not look back, turning on his heel to stride out of the confinement room that had turned half his life into a joke. The heavy door slammed shut behind him, sealing away the final shred of hope in Liu Yunwei’s eyes, condemning her to eternal, inescapable darkness.

Departing from the woodshed, Xiao Huai did not return to his own quarters; instead, he did something that utterly astonished everyone. He changed into the coarsest hemp garments, left the General’s Mansion alone, and walked straight to the Grand Tutor’s estate. He did not drop to his knees, nor did he attempt to beg for an audience. He merely handed a letter and a small parcel wrapped in oiled cloth to the Shen family guards, then turned away without uttering a single word. His solitary figure amidst the desolate autumn wind of the capital appeared unimaginably lonely and forlorn. The letter was quickly delivered to the desk of my father, Shen Jing. At that moment, I was by my father's side, helping him sort through the latest secret intelligence reports sent from Jiangnan. The handwriting on the letter was crooked and scrawled, reeking of profound despair. Within the missive, Xiao Huai recounted the entire dialogue between himself and Liu Yunwei, including her self-confessed identity and the motives behind her approach. He offered not a single word in his own defense, writing only at the conclusion:

The disgraced official Xiao Huai deserves to die ten thousand times over without redemption.

I only hope this letter can assist Grand Tutor in clarifying the truth and purging the traitors for the country. If this can exchange for a single smile from Shuyuan, this disgraced official would die without regret. Inside the oilcloth parcel lay a small ivory seal carved with the character Liu. This was Liu Yunwei’s personal insignia, verifying her true lineage. Simultaneously, the secret agents dispatched by my father to Jiangnan had also transmitted decisive intelligence. They located an elderly former servant of the Liu household, who confirmed that Liu Yunwei bore a striking resemblance to her mother in her youth. More importantly, in the wake of Liu Chengchi’s case years ago, the official circles in Jiangnan had undergone a massive purge. The one who profited the most and climbed the highest was the former Prefect of Jiangning—who currently served as the Minister of War.

Miss Sun...

My father stared at the intelligence report, a chilling glint flashing in his eyes.

Back then, he was merely a minor seventh-rank prefect, yet now he is a pillar of the imperial court, daring to stand on equal footing with me.

I long suspected his background was illegitimate and his roots unsteady. Little did I know that those very roots were constructed upon three million taels of blood money from the common folk and the lives of over a hundred people! Every single clue had now converged into an inescapable heavenly net, shrouding the Minister of War completely. Liu Yunwei was merely a chess piece planted within the capital. It was highly probable that he was an old acquaintance of the Liu family, someone who discovered the orphaned child after the tragedy, raised her, and implanted the obsession of vengeance into her mind. He allowed her to approach Xiao Huai specifically to shatter the marriage alliance between the General’s Mansion and the Grand Tutor’s estate, igniting friction between the civil and military factions so he could reap the benefits from the sidelines. He calculated everything meticulously, yet he underestimated the human heart. He never anticipated that Shen Shuyuan would be anything other than a soft persimmon to be easily crushed, nor did he expect that the pawn he cultivated with such painstaking effort—Liu Yunwei—would expose everything in the end.

Father, we possess Liu Yunwei’s testimony, her personal seal, and the investigative findings from Jiangnan; surely this is sufficient to submit a memorial to the Emperor!

I looked toward my father, my voice brimming with excitement.

Not yet.