Spoiled and mad critic of powerful ministers

In the northern border of Sheng Kingdom, at the third watch of the night, only one room in the Pei family courtyard in Wu County still had a faint light on.

Shen Qiongju was awakened by a sharp, tingling pain in her legs, like needles.

Her vision was blurred, with only a flickering candlelight in front of her. It took her a moment to focus before she realized with a start that she was kneeling in the mourning hall.

In the center of the room, a thin coffin rested on two long benches. A stark white character for "offering sacrifice" was pasted on the wall, and the dim light of the ever-burning lamp on the offering table illuminated the words on the memorial tablet—

"The position of my late husband, Pei Zhichao".

Pei Zhichao... her husband who died young!

Her heart clenched, and the suffocating feeling of impending death, combined with the chill of the dungeon, instantly overwhelmed her.

Wasn't she already strangled to death in the Prime Minister's mansion dungeon?

Does that mean that even if she died and became a ghost, she would still have to kneel before Pei Zhichao's memorial tablet to atone for her sins?

She tried to move, but suddenly fell to the ground. A sharp pain shot through her wrists and ankles as if the rough object had deeply pierced her skin.

She was tightly bound with hemp ropes as thick as a thumb, the ropes digging deep into her flesh.

"Hiss..." She struggled to stand up.

A cold hand reached out from behind and firmly supported her arm.

"Sister-in-law, be careful." The boy's hoarse voice rang in her ear, only to be interrupted by a suppressed cough.

Shen Qiongju felt her blood run cold.

That sound...

She turned her head stiffly, and the candlelight leaped into her deep eyes.

The boy before her still had a youthful appearance, but the coldness in his eyes suddenly overlapped with that of the powerful Prime Minister Pei who would later lock her in a dungeon.

"Pei... Zhihui?" Her voice trembled, and almost instinctively, she used all her strength to break free from his hand.

She staggered backward until her back hit the cold coffin. "Can't you...can't you just let me go?"

Pei Zhihui finally stopped coughing, and looked at her with bloodshot eyes.

In the candlelight, she subconsciously clutched the hem of her plain white dress. Her waist was slender, her eyes were red from tears, and her face showed genuine fear.

Pei Zhihui's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly as he turned to look at his elder brother's memorial tablet, his voice chillingly cold: "Heh, let him go? Is the Pei family some kind of den of wolves and tigers?"

Under his scrutinizing gaze, Shen Qiongju felt utterly exposed.

"Before the elder brother's coffin was buried, my sister-in-law and Wen Xiujie were whispering to each other at the gate of the courtyard."

A mocking smile curved his pale lips, but he coughed again as soon as he finished speaking, his thin shoulders trembling slightly. "Are you really going to become his concubine?"

Concubine?

These words were like a needle, suddenly piercing her chaotic memory.

Wasn't this the stupid thing she did when she was young and newly widowed?

Fragmented images flashed by: Wen Xiujie's malicious face, the trembling blueprints he handed over, the clan elders' furious roars of "drowning him in the pond"... and finally, the boy's eyes before him, now filled only with ruthlessness and despair...

Yes, this was when she was seventeen. Her husband had just died, and she was falsely accused of infidelity and tied up in the mourning hall to wait for death that night!

She was born again.

The cowardice and fear from her past life still lingered in her bones, but the deeper regret and the known tragic ending made her clench her teeth tightly.

No, we must never go down that road again!

At the very least... we can't push this person to the opposite side completely.

She forced herself to calm down, looked up at him, and said in a soft voice with a hint of unwavering determination: "Zhihui, you've misunderstood."

She took half a step forward, her plain white skirt sweeping across the cold ground: "Wen Xiujie and I were just there because he came to ask about your brother's past, nothing more."

Her eyes were slightly red, and she raised her hand to wipe the corners of her eyes. "I have a very deep bond with your brother, and I have long decided to remain chaste for him and never marry another in this life."

"His biggest worry before he passed away was you. I will stay in the Pei family and take care of you in his place, and watch you pass the imperial examination with flying colors and bring glory to our family."

Pei Zhihui listened, his dark eyes growing even deeper. He coughed twice, raised his hand to press his tight chest, and when he looked up again, his face was expressionless.

As Shen Qiongju looked at his silhouette, which almost overlapped with that of the future Prime Minister Pei, the horrifying methods from her past life flashed through her mind, and she couldn't help but shudder.

"I hope so."

Leaving behind these words, whose emotion was unclear, Pei Zhihui pushed open the door and went out. A biting north wind swept in, causing the candlelight to flicker violently and almost go out.

The door was closed again, and the mourning hall returned to deathly silence.

Shen Qiongju knew he didn't believe her, but it didn't matter; there was plenty of time.

Outside, the north wind was even stronger.

Pei Zhihui leaned against the wall outside the ancestral hall, his slender body almost blending into the night.

He took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, poured out three black pills, and swallowed them with the cold wind, suppressing the persistent cough and itching.

Looking up at the window, the flickering candlelight in the mourning hall cast her frail figure onto the mottled earthen wall.

The bloodshot veins in his eyes grew even more intense, mixed with a hidden ferocity and a complex, unreadable emotion.

The faint sound of the night watchman's drum could be heard outside, bringing the time for the clan's planned drowning to come one hour closer.

After a long while, Pei Zhihui sighed softly, turned around, and disappeared into the night.

.

The mourning hall fell silent once more, with only the occasional crackling of the eternal lamp wick.

Shen Qiongju listened intently, confirming that there was no other sound outside the door except for the wind.

She must escape the Pei family first and avoid being drowned tomorrow.

Pei Zhihui and his brother's grandfather, Pei Shoulian, who was also the head of the Pei family, was immersed in the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism from a young age and did not allow any family member to overstep the bounds of propriety.

It is often said that chastity is a matter of family reputation, and honor is more important than life and death.

Pei Shoulian's words were law; her drowning was now a done deal, and no amount of pleading from the clan could change anything.

In her previous life, it was Wen Xiujie who kidnapped her from the ancestral hall in the middle of the night, saving her from being drowned in the pond. In this life, she does not intend to stand against the Pei family, so she cannot go with Wen Xiujie under any circumstances.

We cannot die a miserable death tomorrow, nor can we repeat the same mistakes.

Shen Qiongju crawled with difficulty toward the offering table on her knees and burned the rope over the ever-burning lamp.

The rope was tied very tightly; it was a knot that couldn't be tightened.

Once the rope had softened from the heat, she immediately placed it on the edge of the table and rubbed it vigorously.

Her scalded wrist was quickly chafed raw, oozing blood and burning with pain.

But she didn't stop.

She rubbed the rope on her wrist harder, and the rough edge of the table quickly chafed her skin, causing a burning pain.

This pain is nothing compared to what I suffered in the dungeon in my previous life.

With a snap, the knot finally came undone. She quickly untied the bindings on her feet, leaned against the wall, and dragged her numb and tingling legs to the window.

Take a deep breath and ram into it with all your might!

"Bang! Bang!"

The old wooden window groaned as she finally broke it open.

A surge of joy filled her heart, and she abruptly pulled open the window—

However, there was someone hiding outside the window.

He was dressed in black brocade robes, a playful smile on his face, leaning against the window, watching her with a leisurely air.

It's Wen Xiujie!

Shen Qiongju's blood froze instantly.

What is he doing here?

It's only the first watch of the night, so why is he at the Pei family ancestral hall? In her previous life, she remembered that he took her away from the Pei family at the third watch of the night.

"Why does Madam Pei look so pale?" Wen Xiujie asked with a flippant expression and a puzzled tone.