Daughter-in-law of a Noble House

Murder

I have experienced sadness and anger before, and I once cursed those who destroyed the Fu family with the most vicious words. However, I never knew how powerful these things could become when they were suppressed deep within my heart for five years and finally burst out.

I broke free and forcefully slammed that person against the wall. When he raised his head in astonishment, there were five distinct bloody marks on his face from my nails.

He spat out saliva, staggered in his steps, and his drunken face turned fierce: "You..."

"Hu Zhen," I walked under the lantern and said coldly, "Open your dog eyes wide and see who I am."

Hu Zhen stared at me for a while, his expression gradually darkening, with a hint of disbelief, "You, you are Fu Jin?"

Hu Zhen, the son of Hu Xun, cousin of Empress Bian.

After Empress Bian gained power, Hu Xun was appointed as the Commandant of Justice. From what I know, Father was eventually framed with false charges and brought down, and Hu Xun played a significant role in it.

Hu Xun led people to ransack the Fu family's mansion. After Father and Elder Brothers were taken away, Hu Zhen saw the beauty of my ZhangSao, Du Shi, and he actually violated her. ZhangSao, filled with resentment, tragically threw herself into a well. Witnessing the great humiliation suffered by the Fu family, Mother, unable to bear it, hanged herself in the prison cell.

After all that happened, when Hu Zhen appeared before me, anger surged up within me like dry kindling on a fire, erupting in an instant.

"Furen! This...," the person who was with him exclaimed in shock, about to support Hu Zhen, but he forcefully pushed them away.

"Haha... hahaha!" Hu Zhen looked at me, and after a while, he started laughing, the laughter growing louder and louder.

"I wondered who it was, turns out it's you," he wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, his tone filled with a strange mixture of sarcasm and irony. "I heard you were feeling lonely in Laiyang, so you hooked up with Wei Jue's son. And now, here you are in Huaiyang, probably to meet Pei Qian, your old lover..."

Hu Zhen didn't finish his sentence before a gust of fist wind swept by, and the sound of bones echoing. He let out a miserable scream as he fell to the ground.

Pei Qian, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, stood before Hu Zhen with a grim expression on his face. "If you utter another disrespectful word, I'll break your legs!" he declared in a stern tone.

“Aiyo, Aiyo” Hu Zhen exclaimed, wincing. Despite his pain, Hu Zhen writhed on the ground for a while and managed to prop himself up, sitting on the floor. 

"I uttered nonsense?" His swollen face shone brightly on one side as he spat a mixture of blood and broken teeth at Pei Qian. "Pei Qian! With HuangHougone, you dare to lay hand on me! Your father once came to my father, begging for mercy for your Pei family, offering anything my father desired in exchange! Haha! Now that the person is gone and the tea has turned cold, you take revenge on behalf of your old flame(lover)! And as for you!" Hu Zhen turned towards me, his smile twisted and grim. "I remember your sister-in-law's last name was Du, right? Hehe, she screamed loudly back then, truly delightful! Don't think that having the Wei family as your backing gives you the audacity to provoke me. I..."

A dagger pierced his throat, and the muffled sound of flesh piercing cut off his words.

Hu Zhen's mouth hung half-open, his eyes staring at me, round like copper bells.

Anger and hostility stained my eyes as red as blood.

I breathed heavily, pulling out the dagger, watching him convulse and fall, blood gushing from the blade, my own hands already stained with dirt.

"Ah Jin..."Pei Qian's voice came from behind, low and soft.

I turned around, his face not quite clear in the dim light of the lantern, but the complexity and hesitation within it couldn't escape my eyes.

"Is what he said true?" I asked.

"No!" Pei Qian replied urgently. "Though my father was afraid at the time, he never took part in plotting against the Fu family!"

"He went to beg Hu Xun, and if Hu Xun wanted him to scheme against them, he would have done it, wouldn't he?!" I exclaimed.

Pei Qian looked at me, his face tense, but remained silent.

The surroundings became incredibly quiet.

I waited for him to speak, my heart pounding in my chest, the blood in my body slowly turning cold.

"Ah Jin," he said softly after a while, "it's all in the past."

A wave of sourness surged in my chest, burning and causing a sharp ache.

"But for me, it hasn't passed yet," I whispered. After saying that, I glanced at the empty scabbard at his waist, placed the dagger in front of him, and stood up to leave.

"Ah Jin!" Pei Qian urgently grabbed my hand. "Where are you going?"

I lifted my gaze, and Pei Qian's eyes resembled a deep well, covered with a thin layer of water, filled with pain or despair, now blurred and indistinguishable.

I exerted force to break free from his grip.

"Don't follow," I whispered softly, slowly walking towards the door.

*****

The moon revealed a crescent face in the sky, casting a hazy light on the ground. I could see my shadow moving, resembling that of a walking corpse.

There were soldiers patrolling the streets, their figures vague. But none of that concerned me.

What am I doing? Where am I going?

When my heart asked these questions, I didn't know how to answer.

I just wanted to keep walking, to walk away from the nightmarish things I had just experienced.

"...Furen?" someone walked up to me, it was a soldier. "Where are you heading, Furen?"

I ignored him and kept walking forward, paying no attention to his question.

The street was quiet, and I could hear a lady from an unknown household amusing children, singing, "Moonlight, shining on the ground..."

"...Moonlight, the scholar rides a white horse, passing by the lotus pond." Long ago, my nanny softly sang to me, gently waving a sunflower fan. "Outside the lotus pond, planting garlic chives, the flowers of garlic chives, they bring kinship!"

Mother said, "What kind of rustic folk song is this? Stop singing it randomly."

Nanny laughed and said, "This is not just a random song. Our Nǚjun and Pei Jiangjun are a match made in heaven."

Mother also smiled, looking at me with pride in her eyes...

I choked up and wanted to cry, but there were no tears. There were heavy shadows ahead, the city wall, with candles burning underneath.

Suddenly, I stepped into a hole and fell to the ground. I looked down and saw a pit. I had sprained my ankle. A piercing pain shot up from my foot, causing me to gasp for breath, and tears suddenly streamed down my face.

"Furen!" Someone ran towards me again, and as I looked up, my vision was somewhat blurry, but it seemed to be Yang Ke.

"What's wrong?" Before he could reach me, a deep voice sounded from behind, followed by the looming shadow.

I froze in place.

Wei Tan squatted on the ground, holding my foot in his hand, and frowned: “Sprained?"

I looked at him, every feature of his eyebrows, eyes, nose, and ears filled me with disgust. Nameless anger surged up, and ignoring the pain in my foot, I pushed him away with my hand: “Don't need your worry!'"

Wei Tan showed no signs of anger and grabbed my hand, pulling me closer to him. “Look to the side," he said in a low voice, "Are you planning to let people keep staring at you like this?” I turned my gaze to the side and froze. The soldiers near the city gates and the patrolling guards had gathered around, their eyes curious and eager.

"I'll leave, then you'll have to crawl back on your own," Wei Tan said.

I bit my lip.

Wei Tan released his grip on my foot.

My temples throbbed, and I quickly grabbed his sleeve.

Wei Tan's lips curved slightly as he glanced at me, then he lifted me horizontally in his arms.

"It's nothing! Stop staring and go back!" he shouted loudly at the soldiers. After that, he carried me away.

The night breeze continued to blow, mingled with the warm breath nearby.

I let Wei Tan hold me without moving. Over his shoulder, the moon hung in the sky, shining brightly and slightly dazzling.

"What are you thinking about?" Wei Tan suddenly asked.

I didn't answer.

Wei Tan didn't ask again either. He continued walking forward on the empty street, with only the sound of footsteps accompanying us.

*****

"XiongZhang!" When he walked into an alley, Wei An's voice came from behind.

He ran over and saw Wei Tan holding me, stunned.

"What happened to ZhangSao?" he asked.

"Sprained foot," Wei Tan said. "Go and have someone fetch a bucket of well water and heat up another bucket of warm water."

"Oh..." Wei An nodded, turned around, and ran into the alley.

Wei Tan carried me and also entered the alley. Before long, a courtyard appeared in front of us.

"Gongzi." Several servants in the courtyard greeted us and upon seeing me, they all froze for a moment before bowing, "Furen".

I glanced at them and nodded awkwardly.

Wei Tan didn't say anything and walked straight into the house.

He placed me gently on the couch, being careful not to touch my injured foot.

As I finally moved away from his embrace, I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Being around this person always made me inexplicably guarded.

A servant brought a basin of water in front of me.

"Wash your hands," said Wei Tan.

It was then that I remembered. I lowered my head and saw that the blood on my hands had dried and turned black, appearing ugly.

 The earlier scene replayed in my mind, and I immersed my hands in the water, vigorously scrubbing as if it were the most disgusting thing in the world. The water rippled, seemingly tainted with a murky colour.

Three basins of water were changed, and by the time I finally stopped, my hands were red from the vigorous scrubbing. At that moment, a servant entered carrying two buckets of water. Wei Tan walked over and reached out to lift my injured foot.

I pushed him away forcefully.

Wei Tan staggered slightly and looked up at me, his gaze heavy and intense.

I stared back at him coldly.

After a moment, he reached out again.

"You don't need to worry!" I pushed him once more. But he remained steadfast like a mountain. Feeling anxious, I lifted my other foot and attempted to kick him.

"Sit still!" Wei Tan suddenly shouted.

I was startled, and my foot remained suspended in mid-air.

Wei Tan glared at me fiercely, then resumed his crouched position. He removed my socks, lifted the hem of my garment, and immersed my foot into the bucket of water.

The water was warm, and as my injured foot soaked in it, the pain subsided significantly.

"I can do it myself," I stubbornly insisted.

Wei Tan didn't respond, but continued to hold my foot in his hands. He gently rotated it in the water for a while.

"If it hurts, don't hesitate to let out a sound," he said.

I bit my lip in silence.

Wei Tan glanced at me, and his movements slowed down.

"Do you think you're pitiful?" he said after a moment. "Is everyone like this? Looking down on others on ordinary days, but feeling sorry for themselves and thinking that everyone else has become the villain when they face hardships?"

I couldn't come up with a response. After a while, I reluctantly spoke, "What do you mean by 'everyone'?"

But Wei Tan remained silent. He lifted my foot out of the water, removed the water bucket, and brought the other bucket of water closer.

I wanted to ask him to clarify, but in a moment of distraction, my foot hit the side of the bucket, and I could only let out a painful cry, "Ah..."

"Don't move recklessly," Wei Tan frowned and submerged my foot back into the water. The water was icy cold, quickly numbing the pain.

I obediently stayed quiet and watched as Wei Tan soaked my foot in cold water, followed by warm water, repeating the process several times. Finally, he dried it and applied medicine before wrapping it with a cloth strip.

"Not wanting your foot to swell up like a hoof, you shouldn't put weight on it. Call for the servants if you need anything," Wei Tan said as he stood up.

I glanced at him, then glanced at my foot wrapped like a cocoon, feeling that I should say "thank you" at this moment. But before I could speak, the door suddenly burst open.

"Furen!" Ah Yuan rushed in, eyes red with worry. She threw herself at me upon seeing me. "You scared me... I heard a noise and ran outside, and there was a corpse lying there, but you were nowhere to be found... They said you killed someone..."