Spoiled and mad critic of powerful ministers

"Sun Hu," Wen Xiujie's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a chilling undertone, "How dare you! In broad daylight, you dare to harass someone from the laundry shop?"

Cold sweat broke out on Sun Hu's forehead: "Commander Wen, I... I was just joking with them—"

Before he could finish speaking, Wen Xiujie suddenly raised his leg and kicked Sun Hu hard in the chest!

Sun Hu screamed and fell backward, crashing heavily onto the snow, kicking up a cloud of snow.

"Get out!" Wen Xiujie said coldly. "Go back and receive twenty lashes! If you dare to cause trouble again, you'll be sent straight to the military command!"

Sun Hu dared not say another word. He scrambled to his feet and fled in a sorry state with his two men.

Wen Xiujie turned around and looked at Shen Qiongju, who was disheveled but still exuded charm. He suppressed his inner rage and leaned closer to her. "Madam Pei truly has a talent for seduction."

Helpless, Shen Qiongju had no choice but to suppress her doubts. She took a step back and distanced herself from Wen Xiujie.

"Thank you for your help, Commander Wen." Her voice was soft, with a clear hint of detachment. "We'll head back now."

"etc."

Wen Xiujie called out to her.

He took a step closer, looking down at her. Moonlight shone on his face, and his eyes held a familiar, playful glint.

"Madam Pei, what have you thought about the choice I gave you before?"

Shen Qiongju clenched the hem of her clothes, her knuckles turning white, but she remained silent.

Wen Xiujie chuckled softly, the sound particularly jarring in the cold wind.

"It seems they haven't suffered enough yet."

His gaze swept over her hands, which were red from the cold, and then looked at Pei Junlan behind her, who was equally disheveled.

"Do you think you can protect yourself here with just your silver tongue and cleverness?"

He lowered his voice, leaned close to her ear, his breath icy, "Madam Pei, you are too naive."

Shen Qiongju lowered her head and distanced herself from her, but then caught a glimpse of a roll of blueprints tucked into his waistband. It looked so much like the blueprints she had given to Wen Xiujie.

Wasn't this blueprint taken out to close the case? Why is it being brought out again? Is there something wrong with the key physical evidence in the case?

Wen Xiujie didn't notice Shen Qiongju's gaze. He slowly straightened up and leisurely straightened his clothes.

"I'm not in a hurry, take your time to think it over." He paused, a half-smile on his face, "Then you can continue washing clothes in this ice hole. If your hands rot and you can't hold on any longer, remember to come find me, Commander Qian."

He waved his hand behind him: "Someone, take the two female prisoners back to the laundry."

A soldier stepped forward in response, and Wen Xiujie strode away.

Shen Qiongju stood there with her head down, making it impossible to see her expression.

Pei Junlan walked over and gently put her hand on her shoulder.

"Qiongju..."

Shen Qiongju shook her head and said calmly, "Aunt, let's go back."

The two followed the soldier, walking back step by step.

The footprints, some deep and some shallow, were left on the snow, but were quickly buried by the newly fallen snow, as if nothing had ever happened.

By the time we returned to the laundry, it was completely dark.

Granny Kong stood at the door, holding a dim lantern in her hand.

Seeing them return, she frowned: "Why are you so late?"

Shen Qiongju lowered her head: "I was delayed on the way."

Granny Kong glanced at them, noticing the red marks on Shen Qiongju's wrist and her disheveled hair.

The two still had lingering fear in their eyes, but thankfully their clothes were still relatively intact.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn't ask any further questions. "Let's go in."

Back in the house, the two women didn't mention a word about what had just happened. They only said that the chieftain and their husbands and children were doing well in the labor camp. Although it was tough, the whole family was together, and the chieftain's illness had improved.

There were no lights in the earthen house, only moonlight filtering through the cracks in the windows, casting dappled patterns of light on the floor.

Liu and the others had already fallen into a deep sleep, and little Zhichun nestled in her mother's arms, breathing evenly.

Shen Qiongju lay on her side, staring at the dark roof beams above her, unable to fall asleep.

She rolled over, the straw rustling.

Not long after, the same noise came from beside her; Pei Junlan had also woken up.

The two remained silent in the darkness, like two unrelated stone statues.

"Still not asleep?" After a long while, Pei Junlan's voice rang out, very faint.

"Mm," Shen Qiongju responded.

Another silence followed.

In the darkness, Shen Qiongju could feel Pei Junlan turn her head and look in her direction.

Pei Junlan asked, "You could have avoided suffering with the Pei family, why didn't you choose another path?"

"I am a daughter-in-law of the Pei family," she said calmly. "I didn't have much of a choice."

These words were so well-chosen that Pei Junlan remained silent for a moment.

"So you still remember you're a member of the Pei family," she said, a hint of resentment in her voice. "Why didn't you remember when you stole the blueprints?"

Shen Qiongju's fingers curled slightly under the covers; this was what Pei Junlan really wanted to ask.

Pei Junlan's attitude towards her had softened on the surface, but the thorn in her heart remained.

This aunt was already a widow living in seclusion in the capital back then.

On the day the Pei family was destroyed and exiled, she took her dowry, bribed the escorting officials, hired a caravan, and traveled thousands of miles with her exiled clansmen to this harsh northern land.

If it weren't for her, none of the Pei family members would have survived back then.

The "Great Law - Redemption Ordinance" clearly states that all those serving in the military can be redeemed with money. However, the ransom for exiles was so high that it could bend a person's back.

So she used those boxes of dowry that were piled up at the bottom of the sedan chair to exchange for the freedom of the men in the Pei family, and then bought a house in Wu County to live in.

This is why, despite the hardships of exile, the Pei family still retained the "decency" and "rules" of a noble family.

When they were truly in dire straits, not a single person knew how to struggle and survive in the mud.

Even finding medical treatment for Pei Shoulian was something that thirteen-year-old Pei Zhiyan had to do through gritted teeth. His two uncles could only sigh and lament, completely helpless.

Shen Qiongju respected this aunt.

So she neither refuted nor explained; some things, the more you explain them, the more they sound like excuses.

In the darkness, Pei Junlan seemed to have turned over.

"Do you hate us?" she suddenly changed the subject. "Do you hate that your father wanted to drown you?"

"I used to hate them," she admitted, "but I don't anymore."

On the eve of her drowning in her previous life, she truly hated the rigid and cold-blooded clan chief Pei.

"Why don't you hate anymore?"

"Because I understand," Shen Qiongju said. "You value rules, family traditions, and the reputation of your clan; perhaps this is the foundation upon which you live."

She paused, then added, "But I only value life. Survival is more important than anything else. We just have different perspectives."

This was said very plainly, as if stating an objective fact.

Pei Junlan's breathing became slightly labored in the darkness.

Different stances.

These four words, seemingly light and airy, blur the boundaries of all grudges, right and wrong.

"That blueprint..." Pei Junlan's voice suddenly lowered, "Did Wen Xiujie really force you to steal it?"

"No," she answered decisively. "He said that as long as he gave him the blueprints, he could save Zhi Chao's life."

"I begged my grandfather, and he said he wouldn't hand over the blueprints for Zhi Chao's life."

"But I don't want my husband to die."

Shen Qiongju later learned that the blueprint for this mechanical crossbow was something the Pei family had been willing to risk their entire clan's destruction to protect seven years ago.

Pei Junlan asked, "You believed Wen Xiujie's words?"

I believe it.

Why believe?

Shen Qiongju smiled bitterly in the darkness.

Why? Because she was only seventeen years old at the time, and because she desperately wanted to save her husband.

"Because I'm stupid." That was all she said in the end.

Pei Junlan remained silent for a long time before finally speaking, her voice carrying an almost weary calm: "Shen Qiongju, I don't hate you."

Shen Qiongju was taken aback.

"But I won't forgive you either," Pei Junlan continued, "at least not now."

"Zhi Chao is dead, that's a fact."

"You may have your own considerations, but the result is what it is, and it's too late to say anything now."

A mistake is a mistake, and the bloody consequences are there for all to see; no amount of reasoning can erase them.

"That's why I came here with the Pei family," she said softly. "This is what I deserve."

Pei Junlan turned over. "Go to sleep. We still have laundry to do tomorrow."

That concludes the discussion.

There was no reconciliation, no forgiveness, only a tacit, temporary reconciliation.

Shen Qiongju also turned over, and the two lay back to back, with an invisible chasm between them.