A Taste of Frost - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It happened too suddenly for Zhou Mu to react. His pupils widened. He clutched his neck in vain and opened his mouth to call for help.

Blood rushed between his fingers. Not a word came out.

Soon he collapsed, twitched a few times, and died.

When the crown prince’s soldiers had descended on the Zhennan residence, they had not killed my elder brother immediately. Instead, they had taken him to the Court of Judicial Review to force him to confess that Father had colluded with the enemy and betrayed his country.

My brother had endured every torment rather than submit.

My poor brother, once as graceful and radiant as a jade tree in the wind. He had just watched his pregnant wife cleaved in two. Then, after a single night under Zhou Mu’s brutal interrogation, he had scarcely looked human.

When I heard, I nearly lost my mind. Despite my burning fever, I tried to rush to the court and take Zhou Mu down with me.

Xiao Yu held me back. He solemnly promised he would make arrangements on my behalf.

Nothing ever came of it.

Instead, Zhou Mu received one reward after another for his “remarkable success in solving cases.”

Love or its absence needed no words.

One look was enough.

I tilted my head and gazed into Zhou Mu’s unblinking dead eyes, pleasure surging through me like a tide.

Brother, your little sister has avenged you with her own hands.

Zhou Mu died sprawled on top of me.

Zhang Hu had come to the court every day asking after me. When they refused to let him see me, he forced his way in despite every objection.

That was the appalling sight that greeted him.

Xiao Yu’s body was barely cold, yet the chief justice himself, instead of investigating his murder and securing justice for a minister of the crown, had openly assaulted his widow in prison.

An outrage.

An unheard-of outrage.

I freely admitted killing him.

And his death would go unavenged.

The emperor no longer had any attention to spare for the murder investigation. He acted with thunderous speed, ordering the crown prince to seize Zhou Mu’s entire household. They were taken to the marketplace and publicly beheaded that very day.

He also granted me an imperial title and invited me to stay in the palace, where the empress would personally care for and comfort me.

On the first day of my stay, I sat before a flower-shaped mirror while Songlu dressed my hair.

My brother had rescued her from a pleasure house. She had hoped to give herself to him, but he and his wife loved each other too deeply for anyone else to come between them.

Rather than trouble their marriage, she had disappeared into the city and never shown herself again.

Then, after hearing of our household’s destruction, she had willingly come to serve me.

The marquis’s vast residence was full of Xiao Yu’s eyes and ears. Only Songlu could neither be bought with riches nor driven away by hardship.

She had never betrayed me.

She alone still called me “Miss,” as she had year after year. In her eyes, I had always remained the unmarried daughter of the princely household.

She sighed softly beside my ear. “How did you know Zhou Mu would lose control right there in the prison, Miss?”

Before entering the court, I had instructed her to persuade Zhang Hu to storm the prison with his soldiers the moment she heard Zhou Mu was seeing me alone.

Yet, lecherous though Zhou Mu was, he was a cautious man. Even if he coveted me, he should have chosen somewhere safer, then found a lawful-looking excuse to kill me afterward.

He had violated countless respectable women that way.

This time, his behavior had been entirely out of character. No wonder Songlu was puzzled.

I picked up an inconspicuous little box beside the mirror, opened it, and handed it to her.

Her eyes reddened at once.

After so many years as a celebrated courtesan, how could she fail to recognize the aphrodisiac incense reserved for women of her trade?

“But you’re the Prince of Zhennan’s daughter, Miss. How could you…”

“When the nest is overturned, no egg remains whole. Why speak of what I once was? My father and brother protected me for fifteen years. As long as I live, I cannot leave this blood debt unpaid.”

I paused. “But you and Zhang Hu…”

At his name, Songlu smiled sweetly. “He’s deeply devoted to me. Only yesterday, he said he’d marry no one else. You saw for yourself—even storming the court could have cost him his head, but when I asked him to do it, he went without hesitation.”

I knew her heart still belonged to my brother. I took her hand.

“You’ve had to sacrifice so much.”

Songlu shook her head. “Don’t say that, Miss. I was a woman of the pleasure houses, adrift from the day I was born. If you hadn’t brought us together, how would I have found such a good husband? I should be thanking you.”

Then she suddenly knelt.

“At first, I resented you for clinging to life. Now I know you’ve never betrayed your father or brother’s spirit. You’re a heroine worthy of anyone’s respect. Whatever you decide, I’ll follow you to the death.”

Our hands clasped tightly together.

“Come into the palace with me,” I said with a smile.