Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Cui Zishu had gone on a hunger strike.

The once noble and proud Miss Cui had returned from the Xinbo Marquis Mansion in a state of utter ruin. It wasn’t just her appearance that was disheveled; it was her very soul.

She looked like someone whose pride had been shattered, left utterly lost and bewildered.

She locked herself in her room, determined to end it all.

My younger brother was worried about her, so we made a point of eating every meal inside Cui Zishu’s room.

The early spring air was still biting, making it the perfect weather for hotpot.

A faint aroma mingled with the rising steam. The mutton had been freshly slaughtered today by Auntie Li next door, and the sesame paste bought from the oil mill was incredibly rich and thick. Although the only side dish was cabbage, when paired with the spicy broth, it was both satisfying and perfect for warding off the cold.

“Get out!”

Cui Zishu had been starving for several days, and her eyes were starting to lose focus, yet she still found herself staring fixedly at the boiling pot.

My brother swallowed a mouthful of mutton before speaking with his mouth still half-full. “We can’t. Sister said we have to stay so she can collect your corpse.”

“You!”

Cui Zishu nearly choked on her own breath. She spent a long moment clutching her chest before she managed to recover. She pointed at us, her finger trembling violently. “I know you’re doing this on purpose to mock me! Are you happy now, seeing me like this?”

“I am, actually. If it weren’t for you, Auntie Li wouldn’t have thought you were sick and sent over a cut of mutton for your recovery.”

I picked up a slice of mutton with my chopsticks. It was a perfect blend of fat and lean, spicy and numbing. I dipped it into the thick sesame paste and took a bite; the satisfaction was beyond words.

“Dying is the easy part,” I said. “But you need a full stomach to have the strength to actually live.”

Cui Zishu stared at me, her breathing heavy.

“Starving yourself to death is too much trouble. If you go sleep outside for a night right now, you’ll definitely freeze to death. Or you could hang yourself, slit your throat, jump in the river… Why choose such a difficult method as starvation? What were you thinking?”

“Starving to death is very ugly,” my brother added, grimacing as he recalled a memory. “There was a servant in the Chen Family who offended the master and was locked in a cage to starve. I went to see him. He was nothing but skin and bones, and some parts of him had been bitten raw. They said it was because he was so hungry he had to eat himself. When he died, his mouth was still wide open.”

My brother gave a simple, honest smile at the sight of Cui Zishu’s stunned expression. “Don’t worry, though. Sister Zishu is so pretty; even if you starve to death, you’ll look better than that servant.”

Cui Zishu gritted her teeth, her voice squeezing out from her throat: “I want to restore the Cui Clan to its former glory!”