Just a Wet Nurse, Just a Plaything? Everyone Wept After My Death - Chapter 64
Chapter 64
The icy wind howled, whipping up loose snow from the ground and carrying with it the sickening stench of blood.
A punishment bench had already been set up in the courtyard of Tingfeng Courtyard.
Two rough servant women dragged the wounded Shen Yingyue over like a dead dog and slammed her down onto the bench.
Coarse hemp ropes bit into her flesh, binding her hands and feet so tightly that she could not move.
“Let me go… Let me go!”
Shen Yingyue’s hair hung loose around her face, her bun long since fallen apart. The delicate, gentle features she normally wore were now streaked with tears and filth.
She had no thought to spare for the torture awaiting her. Not far away, a burly personal guard was carrying Nuannuan, whose voice had gone hoarse from crying, toward the wolf pen in the rear courtyard one step at a time.
The sight nearly tore Shen Yingyue’s heart apart.
“Huo Xiao! Are you really going to stand there and do nothing?!”
Summoning every last ounce of strength, Shen Yingyue raised her head and fixed her bloodshot eyes on the man standing atop the steps.
This was the man who had once lain beside her and promised to protect her, who had said she was the only woman he had in Yanzhou.
Yet now, he stood above her like a sculpture carved from ice, looking down upon her despair.
“General! Look at me! Look me in the eyes!”
Shen Yingyue screamed, her voice raw with anguish and every word steeped in blood and tears.
“I am his wet nurse! I nursed Huzi myself! I’ve cared for him day and night for the past several months. Even when I fell ill, I was terrified I might pass it on to him. How could I possibly poison him?
“Someone planted that safflower powder! I was framed! Someone is trying to destroy my daughter and me!
“You’re so wise. You can see through schemes spanning a thousand miles on the battlefield, so why can’t you see through such a clumsy trick in your own household?!”
Huo Xiao stood beneath the covered walkway, listening to every accusation. His fingers tightened slightly around the packet of “evidence,” his knuckles turning white.
He looked into Shen Yingyue’s eyes, which were desperate yet utterly guileless.
For one brief moment, he wavered.
He was not blind. He had seen how diligently Shen Yingyue had cared for Huzi over the past several months.
Huzi’s attachment to her could not be faked. If she had truly wanted to harm the child, she had been given countless opportunities. Why would she choose his birthday banquet, when so many people were watching?
Reason told him there was more to this than met the eye.
But then-
“Oh… my head… my heart…”
Seeing her son hesitate to give the order, Old Madam Huo suddenly went limp and collapsed into Liu Ruyan’s arms. Clutching her chest, she gasped for breath as though she might pass out at any moment.
“What… What a sharp-tongued little wretch!
“Even with death staring you in the face, you’re still trying to bewitch my son… Xiao’er! That was safflower! A poison meant to end the Huo Family bloodline!
“If you let a few honeyed words from this temptress soften your heart and refuse to avenge Huzi, then you may as well be trying to drive your own mother to her grave! Every guest in this hall is watching! Are you going to turn the Huo Family into the laughingstock of Yanzhou for the sake of a mere mistress?!”
The murmurs among the surrounding guests grew louder, countless gazes pricking Huo Xiao like needles.
“Exactly. The evidence is conclusive. What else is there to say?”
“What’s gotten into General Huo? He’s normally so decisive, yet now he’s hesitating.”
“Could that temptress really have bewitched him so thoroughly that he no longer cares whether his own son lives or dies?”
Those voices became invisible shackles, tightening mercilessly around Huo Xiao’s throat.
He was the Grand General, the pillar of the Huo Family, the very sky over Yanzhou.
He could not bear the stigma of being an unfilial son for the sake of one woman. He could not let his mother fall ill from rage at her own birthday banquet because of one woman. Nor could he allow outsiders to make a mockery of the Huo Family.
Even if a small part of him suspected Shen Yingyue might be innocent.
To appease his mother’s anger, preserve his family’s dignity, and protect the so-called greater good…
What did it matter if one lowly wet nurse had to be sacrificed?
“General!” Shen Yingyue saw that the guard had reached the gate of the wolf pen. Nuannuan’s cries were growing fainter. She screamed like a woman possessed, “I won’t ask you to believe me! I’m only begging you to spare Nuannuan! She’s barely a year old! She’s innocent!”
Huo Xiao closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.
When he opened them again, nothing remained in their depths but cold, lifeless indifference.
He did not give the order to begin the punishment, nor did he order them to release her.
He merely turned away slowly, presenting his back to the punishment bench and Shen Yingyue’s despairing gaze as he chose to remain silent.
“Beat her! Beat her mercilessly! Don’t stop until she confesses!”
Old Madam Huo took her son’s turned back as tacit consent and immediately issued the vicious command.
The two women carrying out the punishment promptly raised wooden cudgels as thick as a child’s arm high above their heads.
“No!”
Shen Yingyue stared at the raised cudgels, then at the back of the man who had never once turned around.
So this was the truth.
At that moment, the so-called hero was nothing more than a coward who refused to face the truth and treated human life as worthless for the sake of his own interests.
