Chapter 001: Tragic Death in Previous Lives

This is a torture chamber.

In the center of the room, there is a boiling pot of oil, with pieces of meat rolling up and down, half-cooked and emitting a strong meaty aroma that almost covers the room's intense bloody smell.

Xue Qiange, dressed in tattered clothes, curls up in the corner, her exposed skin covered with scars from various torture instruments. A fierce burn mark covers half of her face, and one eye is also scarred. The remaining eye stares tightly at the pot of oil, filled with suspicion and fear.

Yun Xianzhi, who takes pleasure in torturing her, has come today. Without hitting or humiliating her, she simply sets up the oil pot in front of her, fills it with charcoal, and throws a large bag of bloody minced meat into it to fry.

Unwilling to believe what she suspects, Xue Qiange looks towards the door, where Yun Xianzhi is sitting on a sandalwood chair with golden cloud patterns. After several attempts, she finally manages to speak in a trembling voice, "What's inside there?"

"Bold!" a palace maid named Fang Lan scolds, standing beside her. "You dare to speak to the noble concubine without using the proper title. Do you still think you are the empress? Now you are just a lowly servant girl who doesn't understand any manners! Someone, teach this servant girl some manners!"

Immediately, two eunuchs step forward, one grabbing Xue Qiange's hair to force her to lift her face, and the other rolling up his sleeves to firmly slap her.

After enduring several slaps, Xue Qiange's face swells up high, and after more than ten slaps, blood keeps flowing from her mouth. If it weren't for the eunuch holding her and pressing her temple hard, she might have fainted.

Yun Xianzhi has had enough of the show and brushes her cloud-shaped hairpin adorned with pearls and jade, indifferently saying, "Alright, we'll teach her manners slowly later. I don't have so much time to teach her manners here."

"Yes, Your Highness," the two eunuchs stop and throw her to the ground, retreating to the wall.

Xue Qiange collapses on the ground, unable to get up. In the past month in the torture chamber, she has almost exhausted all her strength. If it weren't for her determination to save her sister, she would have given up long ago.

"Noble concubine," Xue Qiange gasps, using all her strength to speak in a barely audible voice, "please tell me, what is inside there?"

Yun Xianzhi raises her carefully drawn eyebrows in apparent surprise. "Xue Qiange, didn't you say you would never bow to me? I thought you could hold on for longer." Her tone is full of mockery.

Xue Qiange opens her mouth and vomits a mouthful of blood, unable to hold it back.

Yun Xianzhi laughs, her eyes full of malicious satisfaction. "Xue Qiange, when you snatched the position of the legitimate concubine from me, did you ever think you would end up like this? Not only did your son die, your sister was beaten into the death prison, and your uncle's family was exiled to the border. Everyone related to you has met a tragic end. Xue Qiange, you are a jinx, a bringer of misfortune!"

Even though she entered the mansion first and conceived first, the result was that this wretched woman gave birth to a son first, leaving her to remain in the position of a side concubine, smiling and pretending to be close sisters every day. To please this wretched woman, the prince spent most of his time in her room every month, leaving her with an empty room for two years.

And now, finally, when the prince ascended the throne, this wretched woman received her retribution, while she could only be a noble concubine. It's all because of this wretched woman. Her father said that it was because this wretched woman didn't die that the emperor had an excuse to reject her as the prince's consort. This wretched woman was born to deliberately block her path, deserving a thousand deaths!

Yun Xianzhi's pure and elegant face momentarily distorts, but quickly returns to its graceful and noble appearance. She glances at the golden-brown pieces of meat already fried in the oil pot, eager to see the wretched woman's reaction.

"Don't you want to know what's in this oil pot?" Yun Xianzhi sneers. "I'll tell you. Today is the day your sister, Xue Qianwu, will be subjected to the punishment of dismemberment. I pity your longing for your sister, so I specially arranged for you to see her for the last time. Don't disappoint my kind intentions. Say a proper goodbye to her..."

Xue Qiange no longer hears what Yun Xianzhi says. Her world falls silent, and in the whirlwind of emotions, only the words "dismemberment" keep echoing in her ears, like the mournful toll of a funeral bell, striking her heart one after another.

At this moment, the oil in the pot reaches its boiling point, and with a sizzle, a small piece of minced meat splashes out and lands on Xue Qiange's arm, instantly forming a blister.

As if waking from a nightmare, Xue Qiange falls from one nightmare into another.

"Sister! No! Sister!" Xue Qiange, with a burst of strength she didn't know she had, crawls to the oil pot, using her hands to scoop out all the pieces of meat. Everyone in the room is shocked, even Yun Xianzhi forgets her previous anger.

When the last piece of meat is scooped out, Xue Qiange's hands are left with deformed bones, and the remaining boiling oil still sizzles on her bones. She seems not to feel any pain, despairingly looking at the golden-brown pieces of meat on the ground.

Her sister, who took the blame for her stepmother's scolding since childhood, married for her, entered the palace for her, and constantly schemed for her as a concubine...

She thought she had received the prince's endless love and favor, only to be used by him to frame her sister and eliminate political opponents. In the end, he handed her over to Yun Xianzhi for torture and let her son die in the deserted courtyard.

Sister, having received a clear order from the Second Prince, was publicly exposed with eighty-one charges, inviting the scorn of the world. Not only was she to suffer a cruel death, but she was also to be thrown into a boiling oil pot.

"As birds are hidden when the bow is drawn, and the cunning rabbit meets its end in the cooking pot!" Xue Qiange suddenly burst into a chilling and bitter laughter. "Jun Xijue, is this the price of loving and trusting you?!"

Blood gushed out of her mouth like a bursting dam, quickly pooling on the ground, creating a horrifying sight as if all the blood in her body had flowed out.

With a deathly pale face, crimson lips, bloodshot eyes, and a pool of thick blood beneath her, Xue Qiange at that moment looked like a vengeful ghost risen from the underworld.

Yun Xianzhi, startled, took a step back in horror. With a sharp rip, the flowing colorful phoenix-patterned silk robe on her body was torn, and the golden phoenix was severed from its head.

Enraged, Yun Xianzhi was about to order her men to teach this despicable person a lesson, when Xue Qiange suddenly turned her gaze towards her, a hint of a cold, enchanting smile on her lips. "Yun Xianzhi, you've seen my fate. When you are no longer useful, how do you think Jun Xijue will treat you?"

Yun Xianzhi's face stiffened, her voice losing its previous arrogance, and she snapped, "You wretch, how dare you curse this palace! Beat her! Beat this wretch to death!"

Two eunuchs picked up their staffs and began to rain down blows on Xue Qiange, quickly turning her into a bloody mess. Xue Qiange collapsed on the ground, emitting a chilling, intermittent laughter.

Yun Xianzhi fiercely clutched her handkerchief. "Shut her mouth!"

"Wait!" Fang Lan stopped the maid who was about to stuff a cloth into Xue Qiange's mouth and suggested a poisonous plan, "Your Highness, why not stuff the meat into her mouth and see if she dares to curse you again!"

"Yes!" Yun Xianzhi's eyes shot out a venomous light. "Make her eat it all, not a single piece left!"

Terrified, Xue Qiange struggled, but the two eunuchs quickly restrained her, and the maid picked up a large piece of meat to stuff into her mouth.

"Yun Xianzhi, you venomous woman..." Xue Qiange managed to utter these words before her jaw was dislocated, and piece after piece of meat was forced down her throat, sliding into her stomach.

The excruciating pain of eating her sister's flesh shattered Xue Qiange's last bit of strength, and two streams of blood and tears flowed down her disfigured face. With wide eyes, she swallowed her last breath.

In the final moment of losing consciousness, she fiercely made a vow in her heart, "Jun Xijue, Yun Xianzhi, even if I become a vengeful ghost after death, I will not let you off!!!!"