Chapter 141: Kneel, Beg Me

Wang Jingyi staggered back two steps and knocked over the candlestick.

The flames hissed as they surged up the curtains, casting flickering shadows on her twisted face: "No—no way!"

She shook her head mechanically.

Xu Luoyan's wail suddenly rose in pitch, then abruptly stopped.

Her pallid fingers clutched the bed rail tightly, nails split and bled, and the pool of blood beneath had already spread to the edge of Wan Tang's embroidered shoes.

"Save me!" Xu Luoyan's eyes bulged as she stared fixedly at Hou Yishou, "Save me first!"

Hou Yishou lay limp on the ground, his crotch stained with dark wet patches.

He hammered his forehead in a frantic kowtow, blood mixed with tears splattering the floor: "I really can only help a mare give birth!"

"I never expected a person could bleed so much."

Wan Tang was delicately wiping the spirit tablet with a silk handkerchief.

Her movements were gentle, the three lit incense sticks exhaled blue smoke between her fingers.

The firelight reflected on her tear‑streaked smile, revealing a hint of compassion.

It seemed the cries for help from beside her had nothing to do with her; she was merely attending to her own business.

"It's you?!" Wang Jingyi lunged forward, only to slip on her own daughter's blood.

She crawled on her knees, grabbing Wan Tang's hem, "Did you arrange all of this?!"

Wan Tang slowly leaned forward, the tassels of her golden Step Shake brushing Wang Jingyi's tear‑streaked face: "Madam, please stop the nonsense; this was not caused by my palace."

"But madam, don't you find this scene familiar?"

On the bed, Xu Luoyan was reenacting the motions her mother Wan Tang made during childbirth years ago.

Her fingers twitched, grasping at empty air as if trying to clutch a non‑existent lifeline.

"My mother's situation was exactly the same back then, wasn't it?"

Wang Jingyi finally began to panic, her face full of terror as she looked at Wan Tang: "Are you taking revenge?"

Wan Tang gave a faint smile: "Madam, you're overstating it; the choices have always been yours."

"Isn't that so?"

"You're just a lunatic!" Wang Jingyi roared.

She gritted her teeth fiercely: "I am the Wang family's eldest daughter, and my husband is Xu Chengyuan."

"You, a bastard, truly think you can exact revenge? I don't believe you could still dominate the harem with a single hand."

She turned, trying to call for help from anyone outside.

The Cold Palace's door was tightly locked; no matter how Wang Jingyi pounded or screamed, there was no response outside.

"Open the door! Open it!" she clawed at the door crack, blood dripping from her fingertips, her voice already hoarse, "My daughter is the Emperor's Imperial Concubine! How dare you stand by and watch her die?!"

No one answered.

Only Wan Tang stood where the candlelight flickered, a smile at her lips, but her eyes were cold and empty.

"Madam, don't waste your effort," she said softly, her fingertips brushing the blank spirit tablet on the desk, "This door, my palace had it nailed shut."

Wang Jingyi whirled around, blood‑shot eyes: "You!"

Wan Tang gave a slight smile, her gaze turning to Xu Luoyan on the bed.

She convulsed in pain, cold sweat soaking her clothes, and the blood beneath had dyed the entire bed crimson.

"Chief Physician Hou," Wan Tang's voice was gentle yet carried an irresistible command, "Save her."

Hou Yishou, already terrified to the point of his soul fleeing, knelt on the ground and kowtowed frantically: "Your Majesty, spare me! I truly can't!"

"I am merely a veterinarian; I've never saved a human, let alone performed a delivery!"

Wang Jingyi rushed forward, grabbing his collar, her voice shrill: "Didn't you say you were a divine doctor? Didn't you say you could keep my daughter safe?!"

Hou Yishou's face was wailing: "Madam, spare me! Besides, it was because we took medicine that we became pregnant in the first place."

"Having taken this Tiger‑Wolf Medicine, not even I, let alone an outside imperial physician, could save anyone!"

Wang Jingyi was struck as if by lightning, frozen in place.

Wan Tang walked slowly to the bedside, looking down at Xu Luoyan's painful struggle, a faint lift at the corner of her mouth.

"Madam, look," she said softly, compassion in her eyes yet also cruelty, "Your daughter now looks exactly like my mother did back then, doesn't she?"

Wang Jingyi trembled all over, finally breaking down: "What exactly do you want?!"

Wan Tang lowered her gaze, her fingertips lightly brushing the spirit tablet: "All I want is Retribution."

Wang Jingyi knelt in the pool of blood, her trembling hand cradling Xu Luoyan's pallid face.

Her daughter had already lost strength, pupils dilating, breath feeble like a dying candle in the wind.

Hou Yishou's hands, immersed in the blood, trembled uncontrollably.

He fumbled for a silver needle from the medicine box, but the tip skewed and slipped the moment it touched Xu Luoyan's skin.

These hands, accustomed only to assisting mares in birth, knew nothing of saving people.

"What are you standing there doing?!" Wang Jingyi screamed hysterically, her blood‑stained armor digging into his shoulder, "Quick, save her!"

Cold sweat mixed with blood dripped from Hou Yishou's forehead.

He trembled as he lifted Xu Luoyan's skirt, only to have the surging blood splash his face.

The warm blood ran along his wrinkles, congealing on his collar into dark‑red icy clots.

"Ginseng… Ginseng soup…" he whispered, pulling out wild mountain ginseng, yet he couldn't even steady a slice.

The medicine knife clanged into the blood, startling Xu Luoyan into another convulsion.

"Useless!" Wang Jingyi kicked the medicine box over, scattering all kinds of pills across the floor.

She grabbed a pair of scissors, thrust them into Hou Yishou's hand, "Cut! Extract the fetus!"

Hou Yishou stared at the scissors, stunned.

He had seen a mare in labor; the old herdsman acted just like that, but that was livestock!

The scissors just touched Xu Luoyan's skin, and she let out an inhuman scream as a gush of black blood spurted from beneath her.

"Can't… can't…" Hou Yishou suddenly fell to his knees, his hands slick with viscous plasma, "The blood won't stop!"

"Mother," Xu Luoyan's breath like a wisp, her fingertip gently tugging Wang Jingyi's sleeve, "My daughter hurts so much…"

Wang Jingyi shivered all over, tears striking her daughter's face.

"Mother, you said," Xu Luoyan's voice grew softer, like a child coaxing, "No matter what I do wrong, you will protect me…"

Wang Jingyi opened her mouth, but only a broken whimper could come from her throat.

"Mother," Xu Luoyan's tears slipped down, "Did I… do something wrong?"

"Why… is it like this…"

Her fingers loosened bit by bit, barely clinging to life.

Wang Jingyi stared blankly at her, then suddenly laughed.

"That's right…" she murmured, her fingertip brushing her daughter's cold face, "How could my Yan'er be wrong?"

"The ones at fault are they… they harmed you…"

She jerked her head up, gazing at Wan Tang standing in the shadows, madness flashing in her eyes like a demon.

"What to do, what to do…" Hou Yishou muttered while kneeling in the pool of blood, his cloudy eyes spinning wildly, "When a sow is in labor, just pull out the piglet and it can be saved."

"Shut up!" Wang Jingyi sprang up suddenly, her gilded hairpin flashing a cold gleam in the candlelight.

She lunged at Hou Yishou like a mother wolf protecting her cubs, the hairpin driving deep into his neck, "You beast! You really treated my daughter like livestock?!"

"You kept deceiving me, killing my daughter."

Hou Yishou stared in terror, his hands futilely clutching the hairpin lodged in his throat.

Fresh blood splattered on Wang Jingyi's twisted face; she frantically twisted the hairpin, the golden‑threaded tail carving a bloody mark in her palm.

"Madam, spare me…"

During his struggle, Hou Yishou kicked Wang Jingyi's knee; the crisp sound of bone snapping mingled with the woman's scream, echoing through the hall.

Wang Jingyi's leg was broken; she writhed in pain, unable to rise from the ground.

Even after freeing himself from Wang Jingyi, Hou Yishou's wound remained too deep; fresh blood gushed continuously, slowly pooling on the floor.

Wan Tang leaned against an ornate pillar, watching the scene in silence.

She watched Wang Jingyi limp back to her daughter with a broken leg, the blood‑stained hem of her skirt leaving a long scar on the blue bricks, then she let out a low laugh.

"Yan'er, my Yan'er…" Wang Jingyi cradled Xu Luoyan's cold body, her forehead pressed against her daughter's stiffening brow, "Don't be afraid, mother is here."

Her trembling fingers combed her daughter's disheveled hair, "Open your eyes and look at mother…"

Xu Luoyan still had a little strength; if not for a faint breath, she would be no different from a corpse.

Wan Tang stepped forward, her embroidered shoes treading over Hou Yishou's still‑warm corpse.

"In fact, Xu Luoyan and I took the same medicine, which made us pregnant."

Wan Tang calmly produced a small vial: "Just in case, Xie Taiyi gave me this medicine, saying it can save my life."

Wang Jingyi jerked her head up, a final glimmer of hope flashing in her cloudy eyes.

"Only you were clever enough to strip away the life‑saving flavor."

Memories resurfaced in her mind; Wang Jingyi only now began to ponder the details.

She couldn't help but have her hair stand on end.

"It… it was me! I personally harmed my daughter…"

"Scoundrel! You will face Retribution!" Wang Jingyi shrieked as she lunged, her broken leg causing her to crash heavily at Wan Tang's feet.

Wan Tang looked down from above, then suddenly held the vial over the candle flame.

"Retribution? Then this, do you want it?" Wan Tang's mouth twitched upward, as if about to smile.

"Give it to me!" Wang Jingyi clawed her way across the floor tiles, her nails splitting and bleeding, "Please… give me the medicine!"

Wan Tang's eyes suddenly reddened.

She looked at the once lofty noblewoman, now kneeling at her feet like a crippled dog, and suddenly felt a chest pain that left her breathless.

"Kneel." Her voice trembled, "Beg me."

Wang Jingyi trembled all over, her blood‑stained forehead striking the ground heavily, "Beg Lady Wan, grant the medicine."

"Make it louder."

"Please, Mother, have mercy!" Wang Jingyi's wailing sobbed, "The old woman is willing to trade her life for a life!"

Wan Tang lifted her head, tears still streaming down.

She recalled that year, her voice trembling: "Back then my mother lay like this on the bed, and the veterinarian told me he couldn't save her."

"He said the difference between a human and a sow is quite big."

Wan Tang said nothing, but tears trembled as they fell: "I, too, am like you, kneeling on the ground, bowing again and again."

"I only wish someone could save my mother!"

She raised her hand, wiping away those tears, staring at Wang Jingyi.

"So…" she choked out a laugh, "You can feel pain too."

"When you harmed my mother, did you know how much it hurt!"

"When you cut off each of Yan Chuan's fingers, did you know I wanted to kill you all!"

"I still thought only those with hearts of iron and stone could build happiness on others' suffering!"

"So it turns out…"

Wan Tang laughed while shedding tears; at that moment, she didn't even know whether she felt joy or pain.

Her hand gripping the vial trembled ever more violently.

Wan Tang shivered, placing the medicine bottle on the table together with her mother's spirit tablet: "Want it?"

"Climb up yourself and take it!"