Chapter 74: Severed Finger

"Let him go." Blood seeped from Wan Tang's forehead, yet her voice was eerily calm.

It did not matter what humiliation she endured, as long as her brother was safe.

Xu Mingde stared at her, then suddenly burst into a grating laugh: "Fool!"

He grabbed Xu Yanchuan by the collar and dragged him before Wan Tang. "I only told you to kowtow. Did I ever say I'd let him go?"

His eyes were bloodshot with excitement, his mouth twisted like a bloodthirsty beast: "Aren't you so capable?"

He slammed a fist into Xu Yanchuan's abdomen. The youth let out a muffled grunt, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

"Aren't you valiant and skilled in battle? Didn't you always have to outdo me at every turn?"

Xu Mingde grew more deranged with every word, gripping Xu Yanchuan's hair and forcing his head up: "Father praises you, the Emperor appreciates you, even the commanders in the camp favor you!"

He sneered. "But now? I've become the Valiant Cavalry Commander."

He leaned close to Xu Yanchuan's ear, enunciating each word: "And you, are already useless."

Xu Yanchuan gritted his teeth, eyes filled with hatred: "Xu Mingde... you're despicable..."

"Despicable?" Xu Mingde laughed loudly. "That's called strategy!"

Wang Jingyi sat to one side, elegantly lifting her teacup and gently blowing away the foam: "Mingde, if you've been wronged, let it out."

She took a sip of tea and said coolly, "This is the Imperial Palace. Swords and blades have no eyes. Who's to say he won't be careless for a moment, offend someone, and end up a cripple?"

Wan Tang's pupils contracted sharply, all the blood in her body seeming to freeze in an instant.

"Vicious woman!" She lunged forward, but the guards pinned her down. She could only scream hoarsely, "Try laying a finger on him!"

Li Ping'er and Xiao Shunzi tried to rush forward to help, but were beaten unconscious on the ground.

Xu Mingde tilted his head and revealed a sinister smile: "Understood."

Xu Mingde sneered and stomped his boot onto the back of Xu Yanchuan's hand, the sole grinding viciously against the youth's finger bones.

"Since you're so skilled at archery, let's ruin your hands." He unhurriedly drew a dagger, the blade gleaming with a cold, eerie light under the candlelight.

Xu Yanchuan's pupils contracted sharply; he finally realized this was not a threat.

Xu Mingde was serious!

"No... don't..." Wan Tang trembled all over, tears mingling with the blood on her forehead as they slid down. "Xu Mingde! I'll agree to whatever you want! Don't touch him! Don't touch him!"

Xu Mingde turned a deaf ear, pressing the blade against Xu Yanchuan's pinky finger with a cruel smile: "The first one."

"Stab."

Blood splattered. Xu Yanchuan let out a heart-rending scream as his pinky finger rolled to the ground.

"Ah!" Wan Tang screamed in collapse, struggling to lunge forward, but the guards pinned her down.

She watched helplessly as Xu Yanchuan convulsed in agony, tears surging forth. "Yanchuan... Yanchuan..."

Wang Jingyi sat to one side, covering her lips with a light laugh: "My, the blood is splattering—don't let it dirty my dress."

Xu Mingde savored Xu Yanchuan's expression of agony, twisted the blade, and pressed it against the ring finger: "The second one."

"No..." Wan Tang nearly passed out, her heart aching as if being torn apart alive. "Stop! I'm begging you to stop!"

The blade flashed, and another finger fell to the ground.

Xu Yanchuan's face was deathly pale, cold sweat soaking through his clothes. He lifted his head weakly and looked at Wang Jingyi, his voice trembling: "Why... Mother..."

He panted with difficulty. "Brother and Sister are your children... I am too... Why... do you always treat me like this..."

Wang Jingyi's smile stiffened, then she coldly turned her face away: "Worthless trash—do you even deserve to call me Mother?"

Wan Tang was grief-stricken. She opened her mouth, nearly blurting out the truth.

But Xu Yanchuan could hold on no longer and passed out from the pain.

"Yanchuan!" Wan Tang called his name in heart-rending anguish, but the youth could no longer hear.

Xu Mingde shook the blood off his blade, a mad gleam flashing in his eyes: "With this strike, let's just chop off his whole hand."

"Beast!" Wan Tang completely broke down. Summoning strength from nowhere, she violently broke free of the guards and lunged at Xu Mingde like a madwoman. "I'll kill you! Kill you!!"

But she was no match for Xu Mingde. He seized her by the throat and slammed her hard to the ground.

"You?" Xu Mingde stepped on her shoulder, sneering down at her from above. "A deposed consort dares to fight me?"

Wan Tang coughed up blood, yet still stared at him fixedly, her eyes burning with towering hatred.

Xu Mingde raised the blade, aiming it at Xu Yanchuan's wrist.

The hall doors were suddenly kicked open!

"Stop!!"

An icy voice exploded like thunder within the hall.

The hall doors were kicked open violently. Cold wind and rain swept in as a tall, slender figure stood against the light.

Xu Mingde's hand holding the blade paused. He squinted at the newcomer: "Su Yanci?"

He scoffed. "A dog catching mice—meddling in what's none of your business. You'd best pretend you saw nothing and get lost!"

Su Yanci stepped slowly into the hall, his official robe dampened by rain, yet his imposing presence undiminished.

His gaze swept over the blood on the floor, the unconscious Xu Yanchuan, and Wan Tang pinned to the ground, the chill in his eyes deepening.

"Eldest Young Master Xu, what grand authority." Su Yanci's lips curved slightly, but the smile did not reach his eyes. "Using private torture in the Imperial Palace—are you trying to let every official in the court know that the Xu Family has grown so arrogant it no longer takes the Palace Rules seriously?"

Wang Jingyi's expression changed. She shot to her feet: "Lord Su, choose your words carefully! My son is merely disciplining his own disappointing brother. Where is this talk of private torture?"

"Oh?" Su Yanci unhurriedly withdrew a roll of bright yellow silk from his sleeve. "Then does Madam Xu know that the Emperor has just issued an edict, ordering Second Young Master Xu to depart for Bei Mo to supervise the army?"

His gaze was sharp as a blade. "If the Emperor were to learn that the commander he personally appointed hasn't even set out on campaign yet and has already had his hand ruined in the palace..."

Xu Mingde's face went deathly pale in an instant, the hand gripping the blade trembling slightly.

Su Yanci stepped forward slowly, his voice dropped very low: "Young Master Xu, your father just received a commendation for his war merits at Bei Mo. If word were to spread now that a scion of the Xu Family committed violence in the Imperial Palace..."

He cast a meaningful glance at Wang Jingyi. "What do you think the Emperor would think?"

Wang Jingyi's nails dug deep into her palm as she forced a cold smile: "Is Lord Su threatening me?"

"I wouldn't dare." Su Yanci gave a slight nod, but his tone was as cold and hard as iron. "I'm merely reminding Lady Xu that some things are better left undone."

The hall fell into dead silence.

Finally, Wang Jingyi ground her teeth and said, "Mingde, let's go."

Xu Mingde shot Wan Tang a resentful glare and hurled the dagger to the ground. "You got lucky!"

Wang Jingyi stopped at the threshold of the hall, then turned her head to slant a sidelong glance at Wan Tang, a venomous smile curling at the corner of her lips. "You think this is over?"

Her fingertips gently stroked the jade bangle on her wrist. "As long as you two remain in this palace for even a single day, I will never let you go."

Wan Tang knelt in the pool of blood and slowly raised her head.

Blood still seeped from the wound on her forehead, but her eyes blazed with a terrifying brightness, like a cold blade tempered in fire. "Wang Jingyi."

She spoke each word deliberately, her voice hoarse yet clear. "The pain of this severed finger today—one day, I will make you repay it a hundredfold."

Wang Jingyi covered her lips with a light laugh, as if she had heard a joke. "You? A deposed consort?"

She looked down at Wan Tang from on high, her eyes brimming with mockery. "Even the Emperor doesn't want you anymore. What do you have to fight me with?"

The cold wind swept in with threads of rain, scattering Wan Tang's disheveled hair.

She slowly pushed herself up, her bloodstained fingertips drawing five glaring red streaks across the floor tiles. "My life."

She stared at Wang Jingyi and suddenly smiled. "Anyway, this life of mine has long rotted in the mud."

Her voice was as soft as a whisper. "The noble and precious Lady Xu—are you willing to go to hell with me?"

Wang Jingyi's pupils contracted slightly, and she was so intimidated by that smile that she took half a step back.

She quickly steadied herself and sneered, "Madwoman."

Only after the footsteps of the Xu family had completely faded did Wan Tang collapse to the ground in defeat.

Trembling, she picked up the severed finger from the floor, and scalding tears splashed into the pool of blood.

"Yanchuan..." She pressed the severed finger tightly against her chest, as if holding a dying ember. "Big Sister swears..."

Her choked voice gradually turned into a curse. "I will make them... pay blood for blood..."

【Wuwuwu, my eyes are leaking watching this.】

【Why don't the Xu family just go die!】

【Tangtang, you should go beg the Emperor. The Emperor still has feelings for you. Even though it was Su Yanci who persuaded the Emperor to send Xu Yanchuan to Bei Mo, the Emperor agreed, which means he still has you in his heart. He still loves you.】

【The person above, stop being so disgusting. Take your love-brain elsewhere! Without Su Yanci, that scumbag emperor would have been long gone having fun.】

【When he compensated the Xu family and calmed the officials' anger, did he ever think that Tangtang would be utterly destroyed?】

Wan Tang listened in a daze, her heart growing colder and colder.

Su Yanci looked at the mess in the room, his gaze falling on Wan Tang.

She knelt in the pool of blood, clutching Xu Yanchuan's severed finger tightly to her chest, her thin back trembling in the wind and rain like a falling leaf.

"Your Highness..." He stepped forward, his voice unconsciously softening. "The ground is cold. Please get up first."

Wan Tang slowly raised her head.

The tear tracks on her face were not yet dry, mingling with the blood from her forehead to draw shocking red streaks across her pale skin.

But her eyes were terrifyingly calm, like the sea after a storm, with an undercurrent beneath that could swallow everything.

She suddenly pushed away Su Yanci's hand and shakily propped herself up.

"Thump!"

Both knees hit the ground heavily, her forehead pressing against the bloodstained bricks.

"Lord Su, your life-saving grace—Wan Tang will never forget it."

Her voice was hoarse yet clear, every word seeming to be squeezed from the depths of her heart. "If not for your rescue today, my brother and I would surely have died here."

Su Yanci's heart jolted, and he hurriedly went to help her up. "Your Highness, there's no need for this!"

"I just don't understand—Xu Yanchuan is merely a young master of the Xu family. Between you and him..."

"Younger brother. He is my younger brother." Wan Tang confessed openly to Su Yanci.

Su Yanci still had doubts and said softly, "Your Highness, please rise."

But Wan Tang stubbornly remained kneeling.

She lifted her face, tears washing through the blood and grime. "I know you are in a difficult position, my lord."

She suddenly grabbed the hem of Su Yanci's official robe, her fingertips turning white from the strain. "But I beg you, my lord—save Yanchuan! He is only sixteen years old. He can't just be ruined like this!"

By the end, her voice had shattered.

It was as if she had used up all her strength; her whole body was trembling, yet her eyes blazed with an astonishing light, like an unquenchable fire.

Aside from the person before her, Wan Tang could find no one else who could save Xu Yanchuan.

Su Yanci looked at her and suddenly recalled the woman who had hidden behind the palace wall crying not long ago.

Back then, her eyes had sparkled with light; now, only the desperate resolve of a last-ditch gamble remained.

"I promise you." He said in a deep voice, bending down to help Wan Tang up. "I will send the best physician to accompany him to the Northern Border."

"And I will have my trusted men escort him there."

Wan Tang staggered to her feet, took off the bangle from her wrist, and pressed it into Su Yanci's hand. "This was left to me by my mother."

She gave a bitter smile. "If it's not enough, I..."

"No need." Su Yanci pushed the jade pendant back, his gaze complex. "I've long heard of Your Highness's culinary skills. If I have the chance, I would also like to taste your cooking."

"So, Your Highness, you owe me a favor. You'll have to repay it."

How could she repay it?

Only by living, by standing and opening the gates of Cuivei Palace, by regaining her freedom.

Wan Tang raised her hand to wipe away her tears, lifted the corners of her mouth into a smile, and nodded firmly.

"I will!"

It will definitely happen!