Chapter 3

The entire household erupted.

Maids and older serving women crowded into the front hall. Some vomited at the sight of my stepmother’s body. Others fainted on the spot.

Shen Qinghe knelt beside her, wailing. “Mother! Mother, wake up!”

My sister held me tight. “Don’t be scared, Ayuan. I’m here.” Her voice shook.

I wasn’t scared. I didn’t feel the slightest guilt.

In my last life, after my stepmother had fed that bowl of tangyuan to my sister, she’d writhed on the floor in exactly the same way.

Her belly swollen. Blood spilling from her mouth and nose.

Back then, everyone had said, “Poor Eldest Miss. Such a short, unlucky life.”

No one had said a word about poison.

They carried Father over from his study, his face livid with shock and rage.

“What happened?”

Qinghe threw herself at him and clung to his good leg.

“Father! Shen Yuan cursed Mother! Mother started eating the tangyuan the moment she spoke. She couldn’t stop!”

Father’s gaze settled on me. My sister moved to shield me more completely.

“Father, Mother did it herself—”

He cut her off. “Let her speak. Shen Yuan, come here.”

My sister hesitated, then released me.

I took two steps forward.

I’d grown since five years ago, but beside my crippled father, I was still so small.

He stared down at me. “What did you say?”

I didn’t answer.

The way my stepmother lay dead on the floor said enough.

Father was silent for a long time. Then he struck the floor three times with his cane.

“Take this demon to the ancestral hall and lock her up.”

My sister dropped to her knees.

“Father! Ayuan didn’t mean it!”

“Silence!” he roared. “Your sister killed your stepmother with a single sentence, and you’re still protecting her?”

My sister’s lips trembled. She turned to look at me, tears spilling down her face.

I still said nothing.

I could speak only twice more.

Two serving women came to seize my arms.

My sister shot to her feet and pushed them away. “Don’t touch her!”

She grabbed my hand and ran for the door. But maids, serving women, and guards crowded around it, row upon row.

She couldn’t get through.

In the end, the men the steward had brought dragged me into the front hall.

As I passed Qinghe, she raised her head. Her eyes burned with hatred.

“You little mute. You killed my mother on purpose!”

In my last life, she’d stolen my bracelet, and a casual remark of mine had cost her the tendons in her hands.

She’d looked at me just like that.

The ancestral hall was cold.

An everlasting lamp burned on the altar. They tied me to a pillar. The ropes bit into my wrists.

Father came in on his cane and stood before the altar, watching me.

“I should have listened to your stepmother. I should have sent you away five years ago.”

I lifted my eyes to his.

His voice was rough.

“That priest told the truth. Three times you may speak, and then Heaven and Earth seal your voice. You killed your stepmother with the first. What about the second?”

I made no sound.

He came two steps closer.

“You have two left. Who do you want to kill? Me?”

“In our last life, when you were five, you put your arms around my neck and told me I’d win my battle. And I did.”

“When you were seven, you spent a night in the cold, and your stepmother’s hands rotted for three months.”

“When you were nine, Shen Qinghe took your bracelet. She never played the qin again.”

“Now I’ve been reborn. You didn’t promise me a victory this time, and I’ve let that go. But at ten years old, you killed your stepmother with a single sentence.”

“Tell me, Shen Yuan. Should I kill you?”