In the gloomy and damp Cold Palace, there was an unusual bustle.

A woman dressed in a phoenix robe sat on a stool, a handkerchief embroidered with gold thread covering her mouth and nose. Her sight rested on the hug of two people on a big red pillar in front of her, where a person stood.

More aptly, a woman was "nailed" there.

Her pubic bones were penetrated by two iron nails as thick as fists, nailing the figure alive to the pillar. Her kneecap was gouged out, all the weight of the body rested on these two iron nails.

Her plain clothes were dyed into a striking red with fresh blood. The lash marks and knife wounds on her clothes were unrecognizable. There were rats and roaches running around her feet, with some audacious rats gnawing at the flesh on her feet.

Mosquitoes and flies were buzzing around her, creating continuous whiffs of stench in the Cold Palace.

She lowered her head, her face obscured obscured by her yellow, knotted hair.

"Wake her up."

The voice came from the empress donned in a phoenix robe, a certain level of undisguised sarcasm and excitement underlying her tone.

Two eunuchs nervously walked forward, each holding a bucket of chili water, which they splashed on the woman nailed to the pillar.

A sharp pain awoke Ronghua, causing her to open her eyes. Her face, full of cuts and soaked in blood, was revealed as she lifted her head.

Through her blurred vision, she recognized a familiar figure and her eyes widened. Upon seeing the phoenix robe on her, Ronghua's body trembled, as a pain emerged from her pubic bones.

“Why? We are family, you, *cough cough cough*…” Why did you take my man? Why did you take my things?

Her course and grating voice echoed through the Cold Palace.

As she heard her words, the empress wearing the phoenix robe's sarcastic smile deepened. She rose and approached Ronghua, landing a foot onto Ronghua's kneecap.

The pain of a torn heart and shattered lungs, Rong Hua's coughing suddenly stops as she squints at the woman in front of her.

"Rong YingLian, you won't die a good death! If my brother Chen knows you are treating me this way, he won't..." let you get away with it.

Rong Hua's words were cut off as Rong YingLian started laughing uproariously, fluttering like a blooming flower.

"Oh, Rong Hua, you, the legitimate daughter of the general's residence, is as stupid as a pig. Brother Chen? Ha, Do you know how disgusted the Third Prince, no, the Emperor now, is every time you call him like this?"

"In the emperor's eyes, you're coarse and vulgar, mingling with men every day. How could he possibly like you? Ha, you don't know, do you? The Emperor and I have been deeply in love since we were fifteen. You, only a pawn in the game played by both of us."

"It was our plan that you fell for him. Otherwise, why would you and your father work so hard for us? Now that we have the reign, you and your father are of no use."

Listening to Rong YingLian's words, Rong Hua's shoulders shook tremendously, blood oozes out from her collarbone. Struggling as if she can't feel the pain, her blood-filled eyes stare at the malicious woman in front.

The man who once promised her future, claimed to only love her, used her.

The one she once considered a sister betrayed her.

How could she not hate? She wants nothing less than to drink their blood, eat their flesh.

"My father is a great general, he will come to save me..."

Rong YingLian laughs out loud again, mockingly.

"You've been locked up here for half a month, no wonder you don't know what's happening outside. Your father, the supposed traitor, has already been executed by the emperor, your mother and sister have been sold to the army brothels, and your adopted brother, who you once kicked out of the house, foolishly returned at this time, only to meet a dismembered end."

Rong Hua was stunned, fury overcoming her, a mouthful of fresh blood overflowed from her lips.

Father, mother, little sister, and even her adopted brother...

Tears brim in her eyes, her face wounded and hurting, but the agony in her heart aches far more.

Her father had devoted his life to Nan Yue, how could he possibly betray his country?

"Rong Ying Lian, you will not die a natural death! That's your uncle, your aunt, and your cousin, your own kin! Has your conscience been eaten by a dog?"

A coarse voice roars in fury as the iron pegs on her clavicle loosens with her struggles.

Rong Ying Lian's eyes instantly turn cold.

"Relatives? Humph! If it wasn't for my father who brought our entire family here to seek refuge, would your father even remember the relatives we left behind in our old home? I'm clearly more intelligent and beautiful than you, yet why are all the young masters and ladies always fawning over you? Is it because you have a high-ranked general as your father?"

"Humph, ever since childhood, I always had the idea, if I destroyed your general house, what then will your glory amount to?"

Rong Hua clenely grits her teeth in anger, struggling fervently as she has now forgotten the pain.

Ungrateful and disloyal.

Her grandmother favored one side, even selling off her own son to the military for some wages when her father was still young. If it wasn't for her father's courage and ingenuity, where then would the renowned Rong military and Rong General come from?

Her father had let past grudges fall, allowing his grandmother and those from the older generation to live within the general's mansion without realizing he was breeding a den of wolves at his side.

"Rong Ying Lian, neither you nor Yin Yichen will die a natural death, you both will face divine retribution."

Thinking of her slain father and brother, of her humiliated mother and sister, Rong Hua's blood boils, mustering all her strength to pull free of the iron pegs and lunges at Rong Ying Lian.

A poison needle hidden in her ring stabs into Ying Lian's flesh when she pounced.

This was what her master had left her before he left out of frustration. If only she had not listened to Rong Ying Lian and committed such foolish deeds, would her master have been disappointed and left?

"So, Rong Yinglian, go die."

This is a slow poison, which can be transmitted through intimacy. Yin Yichen, who not only burdened her but also harmed her family, should also die.

Rong Yinglian was startled by her sudden action. A palace maid helped her up and she retreated several steps out of fear.

"Someone, beat her to death," Rong Yinglian's sharp voice was shrill and piercing.

Rong Hua laughed, her coarse voice echoing in the chilly palace, causing all the palace maids' scalps to prickle.

"Rong Yinglian, Yin Yichen, you won't die a good death.”

If the heavens have eyes, let me, Rong Hua, remember this hatred in every life, whether as a person or a ghost, Rong Yinglian and Yin Yichen will wish they were dead.

Rong Hua looked at Rong Yinglian with bloodshot eyes, her face severely damaged, with a smile at the corner of her mouth, a different kind of horror.

Rong Yinglian was frightened by such a Rong Hua, trembling as she pointed at Rong Hua.

"Someone, gouge out her eyes, chop off her head, mince her body to feed the dogs, and throw her ground-up bones into the pigsty!"

Rong Yinglian's sharp voice scared the palace maids into trembling. Some people dragged Rong Hua out.

She no longer felt pain and kept laughing. Even as her organs were being taken away from her, her laughter still echoed in the execution ground.

Midnight nightmares, such laughter could be heard in every corner of the palace, and all the palace maids who had experienced this event had gone mad.

Half a month later, the emperor, Yin Yichen, who had just ascended to the throne less than a month earlier, died suddenly in his sleeping chambers, at his side was the equally silent empress. Childless and without successors, the entire country mourned.

The following month, Prime Minister Sima Jue, notorious for his treachery and cruelty, had the six-year-old crown prince ascend to the throne. He also exonerated the Great General Rong Jingzhong from the charges of betrayal and posthumously bestowed him the title "Marquis of Valor".

Prime Minister's Mansion.

A handsome man in splendid attire stood by the lake, the very man who was severely criticized by literary folk - the notorious Prime Minister Sima Jue.

"Master, we found Miss Qi Ronghua's corpse," a shadow guard reported.

Sima Jue paused in his handling of a crescent jade pendant, his knuckles whitened, his deep-set eyes clouded over with an unreadable expression.

"Give her a lavish burial."

"Where should we bury her?"

As Sima Jue glanced down at the crescent jade pendant in his hand, he tossed it unhesitatingly into the lake the next moment, watching the ripples it made on the water's surface. He murmured three words.

"Crescent Mountain."

It was the place where he first met that kind and innocent young girl.

This would serve as a repayment for the life-saving favor in the past.