Chapter 1: Forced to Marry in Another’s Pce

  That night, in the chilly autumn wind, a waning moon hung amidst the thick, oppressive clouds.

  A shrill and wretched scream pierced the air from within a house — horrifying, bone-chilling — as if it came from a ghost boiling in the pits of hell.

  Anyone who heard it felt their scalp tingle.

  A girl of about fifteen or sixteen, her hands and feet shackled with iron chains, was covered in tattered clothing and bloody whip marks.

  Two servant girls held down her stick-thin arms. Between the emaciated girl’s bony fingers, more than a dozen long, slender needles were thrust.

  Each one had been stabbed deep into the nail beds.

  Even the slightest touch sent pain biting into the bone, like having her skin torn apart by hand.

  Her hair was disheveled, her breath faint from the torment. Her face was pale as paper, utterly bloodless. Her whole body was drenched in cold sweat, as though she'd just been dragged from a river.

  Blood mixed with sweat streamed down her body, like a rain of blood—gruesome beyond words.

  Despite the horrific scene, the Seventh Concubine Mother sat calmly as a mountain, raising an eyebrow pyfully. “Wei Yuanwei, are you going to marry or not? If you refuse, I have a hundred ways to torment you — until you’d rather die than live!”

  One servant girl pressed a long needle into the girl's index finger.

  “Ah…” Another scream tore from the girl's throat, as if it drained her st bit of strength. Her chained body colpsed, unable to support itself.

  The Seventh Concubine Mother stood and seized the girl's bony jaw. “You really are just like your mother — won’t cry until you see the coffin, huh? Becoming General Li’s second wife is better than living like a dog here in the Prime Minister’s Manor, isn’t it? Take a good look at yourself! You’re just a bastard born of your mother and some man from outside. Even the servant girls here treat you like dirt. Wouldn’t life be better in the Li household, enjoying fine food and luxury?”

  The girl, her jaw clutched in the concubine's hand, had unfocused eyes. But within them burned unmistakable hatred. After a long while, she finally spat out through lips bitten bloody: “Then why don’t you send your daughter to marry him? Why must I take her pce?”

  The Seventh Concubine Mother fred with anger and threw a cup of freshly poured tea directly onto the girl’s open wounds.

  Scalding liquid on torn flesh made her whole body convulse, the agony distorting her face into something almost inhuman.

  “Wei Yuanwei, I’ve run out of patience. Since neither soft nor hard methods work on you, I’ll use the filthiest trick I have!” Her eyes were fierce. “Force this drug down her throat. Once General Li takes her purity, she won’t have any choice but to marry him!”

  At her command, a maid brought in a bowl of drugged soup and pried at the girl’s mouth. But she cmped it shut with all her might. In those once-empty eyes, a crimson haze had begun to spread.

  Unable to force her mouth open, the servants instead crushed the fingers where needles pierced her nail beds.

  The tearing, soul-wrenching pain nearly made her faint. As her mouth fell open in a gasp, the drug was immediately poured in.

  The drug slid down her throat and into her stomach. Having not eaten for days, it felt like her insides were being scorched by fire. The pain was so unbearable she opened her mouth wide, yet not a sound came out.

  All she could do was gre fiercely, full of hatred, at the smug face of the Seventh Concubine Mother. But gradually, that face began to blur… until it completely disappeared.

  Wei Yuanwei was awakened by the pain — pain that seared through her entire body!

  As soon as she opened her eyes, she found herself pinned beneath an old man covered in wrinkles, groping her all over!

  “Get off!” Wei Yuanwei was overwhelmed with nausea, but then she realized her hands and feet were tightly bound — she couldn’t move at all.

  The pain in her fingers felt as though they had been soaked in burning oil!

  “I like your wildness just like this!” the old and hideous man sneered. His yellow teeth were revolting, and his rough hands scraped her skin raw. With a violent tug, her thin clothing tore like paper, revealing her bright red undergarments.

  General? Wei Yuanwei focused her gaze and realized something was wrong. The man wore a traditional long robe, had long, graying hair, and the room was filled with antique furnishings.

  Could that pne crash… have brought me into another world?

  In that instant, a flood of unfamiliar memories surged into her mind!

  The body she now inhabited had a mother who was once the noble legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister’s Manor. However, due to getting pregnant before marriage, her engagement to a prince was broken off, bringing disgrace to the family. The Prime Minister immediately disowned her and cast her out.

  Not long after giving birth, her mother died. The Prime Minister’s wife couldn’t bear to let the baby starve to death in the streets and pleaded with the Prime Minister to take her back into the manor.

  But no one in the manor treated her like a human being. Though she lived in the Prime Minister’s household, she was made to eat and sleep with horses. For over ten years, she had never stepped out of the stables.

  Concubines, maternal aunts, cousins — even the maids and servants — treated her like a bug, abusing and humiliating her at will.

  The maids would often drag her from the stables, pin her down, and py with her like a toy. When feeding her, they’d deliberately throw horse feed all over her body, letting the horses lick her with their foul-smelling tongues.

  Whenever the servants were punished or upset, they would come to the stables to vent their anger on her. Her body was constantly covered in bruises, with new wounds forming before the old ones could heal.

  As for those concubines and retives, they wouldn’t dirty their hands personally, but during festivals, they’d tie a rope around her neck and make her crawl like a dog, neigh like a horse, and act out how animals ate — all to amuse themselves.

  They only dared to treat her this way after the Prime Minister’s wife passed away and while the Prime Minister was away attending pace banquets.

  Just a few days ago, a fifty-year-old Captain-General had come to the Prime Minister’s Manor seeking a wife — aiming to marry the Seventh Young Lady, a daughter of the household. That girl cried and wailed, refusing the marriage. The Seventh Concubine Mother then set her sights on her.

  She had her cleaned up and dressed, then brought her before the aging general.

  Her mother had been famed as one of Eastern Chu’s great beauties, and after proper grooming, her own elegant features stunned the fifty-year-old general, who began drooling at the sight.

  The vicious Seventh Concubine Mother first tried sweet words, then turned to cruel torture. But the original Wei Yuanwei had a spine of steel — she never agreed.

  In the end, with no other way, the Seventh Concubine Mother drugged her, tied her up, and presented her to General Li to rob her of her innocence. Once that happened, she would have no choice but to marry — and the Prime Minister would have no grounds to refuse the marriage.