Chapter 59

Chapter 59: In that moment, she truly wished to be by Du Yinsui’s side…

On the way back to the third courtyard, Jiang Wu remained silent. Du Yinsui didn’t press him to speak. Once they finished dealing with Liu Yaozu, they could resume their journey. There was no need to rush.

Liu Yaozu wasn’t sure if he woke from pain or cold. One moment he’d been watching guards battle flaming arrows in a decrepit temple; the next, he stared at blue sky and white clouds as if dreaming. But this was no dream.

The instant he woke, biting cold and gut-wrenching pain seized him. Liu Yaozu shuddered into full awareness. "You…! Where is this?" He struggled upright, spotting Jiang Wu and Du Yinsui nearby. Shock choked him when he realized he lay shirtless on blood-muddled earth. Pain made him glance down at the knife wound. "Agh! My stomach! Help! Jiang Wu, press my wound! No—untie me! What happened? Where’s Tan Wang?"

Hands bound behind him, Liu Yaozu thrashed like a startled bird, shrieking wildly until he crashed back down, discovering leg shackles. "Hardly palm-sized. Stop howling," Du Yinsui revealed a cleaver from behind her back. She bent low, making sure he saw it. "Answer my questions truthfully."

Though Liu Yaozu was Jiang Wu’s uncle, Du Yinsui wanted Jiang Wu absolutely certain before killing him—so no future regrets would haunt him.

Liu Yaozu saw the cleaver but bellowed Jiang Wu’s name, spewing curses and screaming for Tan Wang…

Du Yinsui’s patience wore thin. Had she not needed answers, she’d have ended him while unconscious.

When the cleaver traced a fresh cut across Liu Yaozu’s belly, his screams like a slaughtered pig finally made him focus on his interrogator. "No more noise. Or…" Du Yinsui tapped his stomach with the blunt side.

The courtyard plunged into silence.

Du Yinsui turned to Jiang Wu.

Jiang Wu clenched his fists and stepped forward. "The Empress isn’t my mother. My mother was your younger sister. You cut me from her belly."

Eighteen years ago, Liu Yaozu dared play his deceitful game. Now Jiang Wu’s words laid everything bare.

Though clueless how the secret leaked, Liu Yaozu knew admitting meant death. Was he stupid? "Jiang Wu! What nonsense? Uncle doesn’t understand! Did this stranger poison your mind? Some unknown palace maid—who knows where she’s from…" He trusted his eighteen years with Jiang Wu outweighed two months with this maid. Once free, he’d repay her tenfold for these cuts.

But before he could spin more lies, Jiang Wu cut in. "Enough. I understand." He stepped forward and took the cleaver.

"Wait! Understand what?" Liu Yaozu’s blood chilled at Jiang Wu’s calm face. He needed time to manipulate! Surely Jiang Wu wouldn’t believe this maid so easily?

Jiang Wu lacked special lie-detecting powers, but his eyes worked fine. After mentioning the Empress, his sister, and the cutting, Liu Yaozu’s shock, guilt, and cunning—even the hatred flickering toward Du Yinsui—were plain as day.

This wasn’t a courtroom seeking truth under a bright mirror. They had no time for villainous games or forced confessions.

So be it.

"My mother… was your sister too. Those pregnant women were people…" Jiang Wu bent down, seeing Liu Yaozu’s eyes darting for fresh lies. He straightened, moved behind him, and struck without hesitation.

"Go wait outside now. I’ll handle things here." Du Yinsui seized the cleaver the instant Jiang Wu struck. She guided the dazed man out and shut the courtyard gate.

Jiang Wu blinked, finding himself locked out. He had no intention of waiting.

At that moment, she truly wanted to be by Du Yinsui’s side. Even if she could do nothing, just being near Du Yinsui would be enough. But Du Yinsui in the courtyard was too busy to notice the feelings of someone outside.

Liu Yaozu’s neck hurt badly, blood spurting out. His eyes were dazed; he truly felt like he was dying. How did this happen? Why didn’t they let him speak more? Damn Jiang Wu! Damn it! He should have smashed him to death when he was taken from the womb! Damn, he was about to die, he was really dying!

Just as Liu Yaozu unwillingly accepted his fate, someone grabbed his neck and lifted him from the cold ground.

“Tsk, that’s deep.” Du Yinsui pressed a cloth with medicine paste onto Liu Yaozu’s neck. She lifted him up and wrapped the cloth tightly around his neck.

Liu Yaozu looked at the little palace maid before him, tears of thanks filling his eyes. Oh, how blind he had been! He thought this maid was a bad person trying to kill him! She saved him, she came to rescue him! Only Jiang Wu was the bad one, only Jiang Wu!

“Ha, crying?” Du Yinsui finished tying the cloth, noticing Liu Yaozu was tearful and his lips moved as if saying thanks. She couldn’t help smiling and whispered, “Don’t tell me you thought I was saving you?”

With that, Du Yinsui scooped a big lump of bloody mud from the ground and shoved it into Liu Yaozu’s mouth.

Liu Yaozu: “…”

Jiang Wu was getting quicker with his strikes, and Du Yinsui knew her prepared medicine paste wouldn’t hold long.

“I’m not like Jiang Wu, who’d give you a quick end. Jiang Wu’s mother didn’t die quickly by your hands. You should remember the pain, so you won’t do evil again in your next life.” Du Yinsui ignored Liu Yaozu’s struggles to spit out the mud and speak. She struck his fat belly.

Nineteen lives, nineteen pieces of flesh.

Du Yinsui moved fast, making sure Liu Yaozu remembered his wrongs before he died.

After dealing with Liu Yaozu, Du Yinsui didn’t open the courtyard door right away. She dragged the body into the kitchen first.

Soon, smoke rose.

As Jiang Wu stared at the smoke in shock, the courtyard gate opened. Jiang Wu didn’t even have time to change his expression.

“I didn’t cook him,” Du Yinsui said, raising an eyebrow. She lifted the bundle in her hand and pulled Jiang Wu’s sleeve. “Let’s go to their warehouse.”

Jiang Wu didn’t ask about the courtyard; he just followed as he was led.

The so-called warehouse was the next courtyard. In the main room, cupboards were full of clothes for men, women, and children. Du Yinsui didn’t take out kids’ clothes; she put back what they had changed out of.

They needed to go to another yard, so Du Yinsui told Jiang Wu some things only she could do. She left Jiang Wu in the clothes courtyard.

Jiang Wu didn’t understand but obeyed. Though he badly wanted to follow Du Yinsui, only by listening could he stay with her.

The villagers had fled the famine, and the whole village seemed like the bandits’ turf now.

Some yards were for living, some stored stolen things, some…

Du Yinsui shut the courtyard door and looked at the big pit inside.

This yard was the bandits’ trash heap.

Du Yinsui worked alone in the yard for a long time before taking Jiang Wu back to the donkey cart.

Most of the job was done, and the guards hadn’t come within a thousand meters. That was lucky.

Only some final touches were left.

Du Yinsui led a few others through the village. She pushed open a yard and hid them in a cellar. She threw in a bag of silver taken from the villains.

If the silver was the villains’, she took it without guilt. If they stole it, she had avenged the victims, so she took it without guilt.

After settling them, Du Yinsui drove the donkey cart to the bandits’ stolen goods yard. She took the whole donkey and cart inside the main room, tied it up, and shut the door.

When done, Du Yinsui went to the pit of thrown bones. She took out the bundles she had prepared earlier and brought them to the third yard.

Now, the village business was almost finished, with just one last task.

But before that, Du Yinsui had another thing to do.

Last night, on the way from the broken temple to here, Du Yinsui had left one of Yao Yao’s small shoes. She had hung a scrap of prison uniform on a branch. Now, she went back to drop some donkey dung for Tan Wang.

With these signs along the road, she hoped Tan Wang and the others wouldn’t waste her hard work.

She hoped they weren’t just escaped prisoners who didn’t even get chased.

For the skeleton-free "fake death," Du Yinsui had done all she could. The rest was up to fate.

If it failed, and wanted posters were everywhere with guards chasing at every pass, she would have to fight her way through.

She ran back quickly, placed the donkey dung, and returned to the village. She let the others out and led them west for a bit. Then she went back alone. She stuck a newly drawn ugly skeleton flag by Jiang Wu at a yard entrance and softly unlocked the door holding many people.

The unlucky ones were "eaten" last night, and this morning, the rebels with the righteous skeleton flag killed the killers.

She hoped the guards would believe this story.

That would be best for everyone.