The Prisoner of Beauty

Jinyang Post Station.

Su Ehuang had been staying in this elegant room for over half a month.

Though she was recuperating, her clothing, meals, outings, and accommodations were all exquisite. Even for a temporary residence, the walls were lined with rolls of Qi silk, leaving the Station Chief in awe. A few days prior, he had also learned that the Su family was not only related to the Wei family but that Su Ehuang had once shared an ambiguous past with Wei Shao. This further elevated her status in his eyes, and he served her with even greater attentiveness.

Upon hearing yesterday that Su Ehuang had complained about the dim candlelight in her room and the soot irritating her eyes, the Station Chief, finding no fine wax in storage, specially purchased some today and presented it to her.

The new candles burned brightly, flawless in quality. Nine of them stood neatly in a bronze candelabra, illuminating the room as bright as day once lit.

After bathing, Su Ehuang emerged with the support of her maids. She wore a crimson undergarment beneath a long, trailing robe embroidered with phoenixes dancing among clouds. Through the sheer fabric, a glimpse of snowy skin at her bosom could faintly be seen.

She seated herself before the dressing mirror, leaning close to inspect the scar on her forehead.

The wound had not been deep, and the scab had fallen away cleanly, revealing a patch of new pink flesh the size of a fingernail. In a few more days, it would likely heal completely.

Su Ehuang dipped a jade stick into ointment and carefully applied it to the scar, smoothing it with her little finger.

"Madam is peerlessly beautiful. Fortunately, the injury that day was not severe. Had it left a scar, what a regret that would have been!"

An elderly maidservant from the Su family flattered her nearby.

Su Ehuang gazed at the reflection in the mirror.

In the prime of her youth, freshly bathed and adorned, even she found herself enchantingly lovely.

"Where is Su Xin?"

She suddenly remembered. She hadn’t seen him since evening.

"I don’t know," the old maidservant replied, though she privately suspected he had gone to a pleasure house.

Su Ehuang thought the same. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly.

This nephew of hers—she had initially believed he might be of some use. Yet, the first time she took him to Yuyang, he had embarrassed her at the Luli gathering. Now, it seemed he had made little progress, still requiring her constant guidance.

During their stay here, Su Ehuang had repeatedly instructed him not to wander outside, lest he stir up unnecessary trouble.

He had agreed. Yet, not long ago, she had caught him secretly sleeping with one of her maids.

A mere maid—lowly as dirt. Had he asked, she would have given her to him.

What angered Su Ehuang was that he had concealed it from her.

Madam Zhu of the Wei family had Jiang Nao, a spy planted by Su Ehuang, hidden among her attendants.

Thus, Su Ehuang was extremely wary of anyone in her own inner circle acting behind her back.

She had harshly reprimanded Su Xin and forced him to kill the maid who had dared to secretly consort with him.

At first, Su Xin had been reluctant, but under her pressure, he stabbed the maid to death.

The next day, they claimed the maid had died suddenly of illness and buried her in an unmarked grave outside the city.

Su Xin had finally behaved. Yet now, after only a few days, he had sneaked out again to indulge himself.

"When he returns, tell him to come see me at once!"

Anger flashed in Su Ehuang’s eyes as she stared into the mirror.

The old maidservant assented.

...

By the end of the Xu hour, Su Xin still had not returned.

This was unusual.

Su Xin had always feared her. Even if he had gone out to amuse himself, he wouldn’t dare stay out so late.

The initial fury Su Ehuang had felt over her nephew’s incompetence and defiance gradually faded.Instead, a sense of unease took hold.

She was lost in thought for a moment when suddenly, her heart lurched with a vague premonition of impending doom—as though some calamity had occurred.

Su Ehuang was no stranger to such ominous feelings.

The last time she had felt something similar was many years ago, when her husband Liu Li’s elder brother, Emperor Xuan, had died suddenly of illness.

That had been the moment she was closest to realizing her life’s ambition. But as Liu Ai, Xing Xun, and others entered the scene, the seven-year-old Liu Tong from the imperial clan was ultimately placed on the throne. Her husband, who had once been the most likely successor, was instead placed under house arrest by dawn and lived under surveillance ever after.

During that agonizingly long night of waiting for daybreak, Su Ehuang had experienced the same heart-pounding dread she felt now—the sense that disaster loomed.

She despised this feeling.

Gradually, she grew restless. Rising from her couch, she paced the room several times.

What could possibly have gone wrong? she wondered. Zhong Lin had indeed wavered from his resolute stance when he visited her that evening—she had tested him and confirmed that he still held lingering affection and pity for her.

As long as a man pitied a woman, it was good news.

This only strengthened her resolve to remain by his side.

Yet this current unease made her increasingly anxious.

Unable to resist, Su Ehuang meticulously reviewed her past actions once more. In the end, she was certain—she had left no loose ends that could be used against her.

All those who could not be allowed to live, those connected to the failed conspiracy, were already dead.

Even if Madam Xu eventually suspected her, Su Ehuang was confident there was no evidence damning enough to ruin her.

Without proof, they could do nothing to her.

Slowly, Su Ehuang steadied herself.

She sat back down before the mirror and suddenly thought of her nephew, Su Xin.

Her gaze fixed on her reflection. In the mirror, the woman’s eyes gradually darkened with a sharp, sinister glint.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door.

They came abruptly, heavy and urgent—clearly, a man was striding toward her room, his steps like crashing waves of fury, each one pounding against Su Ehuang’s eardrums.

Her recently calmed heartbeat quickened again. Her expression changed, and she shot up from the dressing table, hurrying toward the door.

Before she could reach it, the door was flung open from the outside.

Wei Shao had arrived.

Su Ehuang froze in place.

Wei Shao’s face was rigid with fury, his eyes a storm of impending violence. He stepped inside in one stride, and only then did Su Ehuang see that he was dragging her nephew—who had been missing all night—behind him.

Su Xin was flung at Su Ehuang’s feet like a dead dog.

She looked down and saw him covered in blood, as though he had just crawled out of a slaughterhouse. He writhed on the ground like a worm, struggling to stretch a bloodied hand toward her.

"...She made me do it all..."

Broken, barely intelligible words spilled from his shattered mouth.

"Spare me..."

Then he passed out.Su Ehuang's eyes flew wide open, her face drained of all color in an instant.

"You vile wretch! How dare you plot to murder my grandmother?" Wei Shao ground out through clenched teeth.

Never before had she seen Wei Shao in such a lion-like fury. Su Ehuang stared at him in terror, teeth chattering as she retreated step by step until her back hit the silk-covered wall adorned with intricate patterns: "Erlang, I truly don't understand what you mean! How could I harm Grandmother? What exactly did Su Xin tell you? I know nothing—"

"Vile wretch! Call me Erlang one more time!" Wei Shao roared, his face dark with terrifying rage.

Su Ehuang froze instantly.

"Your nephew has confessed! You conspired with Jiang Nao to obtain snake venom from the Marquis' wife, ordering her to poison my grandmother at an opportune moment and frame my mother—then you murdered the Marquis' wife..."

Wei Shao enunciated each word with deadly precision.

...

When Xiao Qiao first told him that Su Xin had been in contact with the Marquis' wife and suspected last year's near-fatal poisoning of Grandmother might be connected to the Su family, Wei Shao's initial reaction had been disbelief.

Though it was true, as he'd told Xiao Qiao, that he'd long since moved on from that youthful infatuation, and that the current Su Ehuang scarcely resembled the girl he'd once called "Elder Sister" in his memories.

Yet deep in his heart, he still carried a warm, hazy impression of the girl who'd accompanied him through the darkest days of his twelfth year.

He found it impossible to believe that the gentle girl from his memories could commit such acts. For a fleeting moment, he even wondered if his current wife was grasping at shadows to completely erase the remnants of his youthful attachment from his heart.

Until he read Grandmother's letter.

The revelation stunned him.

When the truth sank in, he was seized by overwhelming shock and fury at having been thoroughly deceived and manipulated.

All doubts vanished!

It was Su Ehuang who had nearly killed the woman he respected and loved most in this world—his grandmother!

How could he tolerate this?

...

A deathly silence filled the chamber before Su Ehuang suddenly wailed: "Zhong Lin! You mustn't believe Su Xin's words! That heartless, inhuman wretch! I raised him up out of kindness, never imagining he'd hate me enough to frame me like this! I truly know nothing—"

As she pleaded, two powerfully built guards rushed in behind Wei Shao, seizing Su Ehuang by both arms and dragging her toward the exit.

Su Ehuang struggled desperately, her immaculate coiffure coming undone, hairpins and golden ornaments clattering to the floor, the sheer silk garment slipping from her shoulders. Digging in her heels, she was finally dragged past Wei Shao, tears streaming as she screamed hoarsely: "Zhong Lin, have you forgotten? When you burned with fever and lay unconscious, it was I who tended you through the night! Have you forgotten your promise to protect me all my life? Now you condemn me on another's word without even letting me defend myself!"

Author's note: I originally intended to conclude this plotline in one chapter, but it's already nearly eleven o'clock, so it'll have to continue next time.