Remarried to a top-tier playboy, her reborn ex-husband is filled with regret.

Caishikou.

The execution was scheduled for noon.

The execution platform at Caishikou was erected three days in advance.

It was three feet taller than usual.

A brand-new straw mat was laid on the execution platform.

On the straw mat, eighteen ghost-head knives were neatly stacked.

The executioner was Xiao Fang.

He sat in the execution chamber directly in front of the execution platform.

A long table was placed in front of him.

On the table sat a command quiver and a bowl of cold tea.

He was wearing a black python robe and a jade belt around his waist today.

His face was as calm as a stagnant pool.

The market was completely packed with people.

Before dawn, people would come to reserve spots.

The peddler carrying a load on his shoulder slipped through the crowd.

They sell steamed buns and herbal tea.

The children rode on the adults' shoulders, craning their necks to look up at the execution platform.

People from all over the capital came.

Not just the capital city.

Everyone within a hundred miles who could walk came.

They didn't come to watch the execution.

They came to hurl insults.

The heir of the Yong'an Marquis's mansion betrayed his country and defected to the enemy.

Thirty thousand soldiers on the border shed their blood on the yellow sand.

King Zhenbei Zhongwu died for his country.

This story was told over and over again in every street and alley of the capital for months.

The storyteller in the teahouse talked so much that his voice became hoarse.

Even the most mischievous kids on the street would clench their fists and shout that.

"Kill the traitor!"

Today, they finally saw it alive.

Before the prison van even arrived, rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs flew past.

The imperial guards escorting the prisoners did not stop them.

They simply drove the prison cart forward in silence.

Gu Jinghuai was tied to the first prison van.

Wearing heavy wooden shackles.

His hair was stuck together in strands by sweat and blood, plastering onto his face.

He was so thin he looked unrecognizable.

High cheekbones.

The eye sockets are deeply sunken.

The five fingers of his right hand were twisted at an odd angle.

Those were hands whose knuckles had been shattered by Xiao Fang's hammer blows.

His prison clothes were covered in stains and blood.

It emitted a foul stench that made one want to cover their nose.

"Gu Jinghuai! You traitor! You deserve to die a horrible death!"

"The Prince of Zhenbei died at your hands! May you go to the eighteenth level of hell!"

A sharp piece of broken tile flew out from the crowd.

It grazed Gu Jinghuai's forehead, leaving a bloody gash.

He closed his eyes and didn't flinch.

There was no response.

The curses around me came like a tidal wave.

Waves are higher than waves.

He felt those sounds were very far away.

It sounded like it came from another world.

Until the prison van stopped.

He was dragged off the carriage by the imperial guards and forced to kneel on the execution platform.

He finally opened his eyes.

He saw his people.

A huge mass of people knelt down.

They're all surnamed Gu.

The entire Gu family, including all nine generations of the main branch, has perished.

These 300-plus people are all distant relatives.

They knelt all over the entire Caishikou area.

From white-haired old men to infants still in swaddling clothes.

From the main branch of the family to distant collateral branches that are not even remotely related.

The laws of the Great Liang Dynasty are clearly written.

Those who betray their country shall have their entire family executed.

It would take a full hour to chop off more than three hundred heads.

Eighteen executioners took turns.

The demon-head sword got dull, so I switched to another one and kept hacking.

The straw mat was soaked with blood, so we replaced it with a new one.

The onlookers, initially filled with indignation, gradually quieted down.

Only the dull thud when a steel blade cleaves through a cervical vertebrae.

One by one.

It's like Death knocking on a door that never answers.

Gu Jinghuai knelt before the wooden pillar in the center of the execution platform.

His hands were tied behind his back to the pillar.

His face was pressed down, facing the execution platform.

He was forced to watch.

Watching my uncle being beheaded.

He watched as his uncle was beheaded.

He watched as his half-brother, Gu Jingsong, was beheaded.

When Gu Jingsong's head rolled onto the straw mat, his eyes were still open.

Before the execution, Gu Jingsong spat a mouthful of bloody saliva in the direction of Gu Jinghuai.

"Gu Jinghuai, I'll haunt you even as a ghost!"

Then, the knife fell.

Gu Jinghuai's lips were trembling.

But he didn't say anything.

It's not that he's not afraid.

He was so filled with remorse that he had forgotten how to even begin to speak.

The women of the Jiaofangsi (a government-run entertainment institution) were tied together with ropes and led to the execution platform.

They did not die on the dirty beds of the brothel.

But he didn't live to see the day he would see the light of day again.

As a serious crime of treason, the women of the Jiaofangsi (a government-run entertainment district) were no longer considered official prostitutes.

Instead, he was an accomplice.

They will die too.

Su Yuyan walked at the very back of the women's group.

Her prison clothes were more tattered than the others'.

His bare arms and neck were covered with bruises.

There are also scars left after boils ulcerate.

Her hair was cut in a mess.

Small patches of scalp covered in scabs were visible.

The once captivating features on her face that had charmed Gu Jinghuai had long been eroded beyond recognition by illness and torment.

Su Yuyan was forced to kneel on the edge of the execution platform.

Before me lay a ground covered in flowing blood and a mountain of corpses.

She was trembling like a leaf, and her teeth were chattering.

She looked up, searching aimlessly through the crowd.

It seemed like they were looking for something.

Then, she saw the open window of a private room on the second floor of the restaurant across the street.

Yun Shuyao sat by the window, dressed in a plain white dress.

She wore a white velvet flower in her hair, her face was calm as still water, and she held a cup of tea in her hand.

The teacup is made of celadon, and when held on my fingertips, it is as steady as a mirror.

Her gaze passed over the execution platform, over the bloody mess.

He walked past Su Yuyan's trembling shoulders.

They walked past the mountains of corpses.

It landed in a very, very far place.

When Su Yuyan saw her, she suddenly let out a scream.

The scream was both shrill and hoarse.

In the quiet execution ground, it sounded particularly jarring.

She wanted to yell: Yun Shuyao, you'll die a horrible death!

But in its wide-open mouth, there was no tongue.

An executioner pressed down on her shoulder.

The demon-headed sword was raised high.

Looking at Su Yuyan, Yun Shuyao recalled her past life.

At that time, Su Yuyan also knelt in front of her in the same way.

It wasn't about kneeling on the execution ground.

They were kneeling in the flower hall of the Yong'an Marquis's mansion.

She was wearing a plain white dress.

Her face was streaked with tears.

She looked up at Gu Jinghuai with a pitiful expression.

"Cousin, your sister is only doing this for your own good. Don't get angry with her."

Then, Gu Jinghuai hated her even more.

Su Yuyan is always like this.

She never confronted Yun Shuyao directly.

She whispered a few words in Gu Jinghuai's ear.

It appears to be advice, but in reality, it's instigation.

She poured Gu Jinghuai's affection for her onto Yun Shuyao's wounds, layer upon layer.

Let her suffer, let her endure pain.

This left her speechless.

That night, Gu Jinghuai came to her room.

He tossed out the words, "Don't make things difficult for Yuyan," and then turned and left.

He didn't even bother to glance at her tears.

The demon-headed dagger fell.

Su Yuyan's head rolled onto the straw mat.

It rolled two and a half times before coming to rest in a pool of blood.

Her eyes were wide open, and her mouth was slightly agape.

It was as if he was cursing someone on his deathbed.

Yun Shuyao lowered her eyes and drank the last sip of tea in her cup.

The tea has gone cold.

It has a slightly bitter taste at first, but a sweet aftertaste.

She put down her teacup and looked calmly at the human head.

Moment.

Then, she looked away and turned her gaze back to the center of the execution platform.

When Gu Jinghuai was taken off the wooden pillar, he could already smell the scorching smell of his own flesh and blood.

Before execution, it was customary to cut a piece of "sacrificial flesh" from the prisoner's chest.

Then heat it with a hot iron and place it on the incense table.

When the branding iron tore a piece of flesh from his chest, he let out a scream that was not human.

He jumped violently.

He was held down firmly by two constables.

The air was filled with a sweet, burnt smell.

Among the onlookers, someone vomited on the spot.

Then, the executioner picked up the fishing net.

That's the rule for slow slicing.

Gu Jinghuai trembled all over, knowing exactly what was about to happen.

But what he cared about more was whether he could see Yun Shuyao one last time before he died.