Chapter 22 – The Brand

Yin Hua was lying on the bamboo deckchair in his yard. He crossed his legs swaying as he hummed a scattered tune. On the damaged stone table next to him was a broken bowl with a pair of chopsticks on it. From the looks of it, the guy had just finished his meal.

Cai Sang stood at the door and looked at Yin Hua’s sleazy posture with aversion. Pouting, she simply didn’t want to step in. Murong Zhining nudged her in from behind. The movement startled Yin Hua who turned to look and saw two beautiful village girls standing at the entrance.

Yin Hua completely turned to look carefully. Upon realizing his daughter, he instantly switched to a bitterly crying face. “Oh goodness, my child has returned, my child hasn’t forgotten this father!”

Yin Hua strode over, wanting to grab Cai Sang’s hand. Cai Sang evaded with disgust. Yin Hua pretended to wipe his tears. “Are you still resenting father for selling you and your mother that year? But father really didn’t have a choice back then! And I’m still regretting it every single day.”

Cai Sang ignored him. She found a broom and started cleaning the yard. She also picked up the dirty clothes on the ground and washed them. Yin Hua stood beside her to watch in a servile manner, but inwardly, he was secretly scheming. “Er’ya, have you gotten married yet? Who is this beautiful miss?” He glanced at Murong Zhining.

Cai Sang didn’t give him a good face. “It’s none of your business who she is. With someone like you as my father, who would be willing to marry me?”

Yin Hua grinned. “My goodness, don’t say that. Father will definitely find you a good family to marry into.” He had always hoped that when his daughter grew up and returned to him, he could get a great deal of betrothal gifts when she married. Thinking of this made his heart bloom with joy.

Cai Sang’s face was cold. “You don’t need to worry about this. Auntie will arrange it for me.”

Yin Hua’s cunning eyes swirled around. “So you’re staying at your aunt’s house. Your aunt is not your mother, how can she take this upon herself? Father will personally arrange it for you.”

Cai Shang glared at him sharply. “You’ll only know how to receive the betrothal gifts.”

At this moment, a woman carrying a bamboo basket with a few cabbages in it on her back entered the yard. Yin Hua ingratiatingly told Cai Sang, “Er’ya, this is your stepmother.”

The woman put the basket on the table and pulled on Cai Sang’s hands with a face full of smiles. “Goodness, you have returned, daughter. You’ve grown up so pretty. Have you found a husband yet?”

Cai Sang flung off her hands. She threw a silver ingot on the table without a word, then dragged Murong Zhining to leave.

As Murong Zhining was dragged out of the door, she looked back a few times suspiciously before pulling Cai Sang to stop. Cai Sang asked, dubious, “What’s wrong, Zhining?”

Murong Zhining looked Cai Sang in the eyes, hesitating before she said, “The person who sold me to Myriad Blooms House… was your stepmother.”

Cai Sang knitted her brows in thoughts. “So it was that poisonous woman. I’m going to tear her apart!”

Murong Zhining tightly gripped Cai Sang and sighed. “Forget it. Beating her can’t change anything.”

Cai Sang flung off Murong Zhining’s hands and charged into the yard. She grabbed the silver ingot that Yin Hua had yet to put away, then pulled Murong Zhining to leave again.

Yin Hua chased them to the door. “Aiii aii, Er’ya what are you doing? Leave the silver here with your father.”

Cai Sang turned around and viciously spat at him. “You immoral monster!”

The two girls headed back to Mrs. Yin’s house in silence. Cai Sang was upset all the way. “I’m embarrassed to have such a father. From now on, I won’t ever go to see him again. I’ll have nothing to do with him.” Saying this, Cai Sang’s resentment still didn’t ease up. “I can’t leave it like this. I’ll go to the authorities and report them for selling children and women.”

Murong Zhining held her back. “Have you forgotten our identity? If that tyrant finds us, we’d be doomed.”

Cai Sang violently tugged on the grass by the road side to vent her anger. “Are we going to hide in this place for the rest of our life?”

Murong Zhining ran over to face her. “Of course not. After this storm passes, I still have to return to the capital.”

Cai San curiously asked, “You still want to look for your little big brother?”

Murong Zhining firmly nodded.

Cai Sang tilted her head. “But the capital is so big. How are you going to find him?”

Murong Zhining mischievously rolled her eyes, looking very pleased with herself. “A wise person has her miraculous plans.”

Cai Sang relentlessly pursued and asked her what those miraculous plans were.

Murong Zhining playfully poked her forehead. “Write a bunch of announcements and post them everywhere in the capital.”

Cai Sang rolled her eyes with derision. “What? Some miraculous plan that is. We’d be caught by Beast Chiyun before we can find your little big brother.”

Murong Zhining and Cai Sang quickly forgot about their worries as they started to joke and laugh again. Cai Sang picked a beautiful wildflower and put it in Murong Zhining’s hair. “Even as a village girl, you are still the most beautiful village girl I’ve ever seen.” The two girls animatedly ran along the path.

Just when they were about to climb over the hill, several people on horseback appeared down the road and slowly traveled towards their direction. Murong Zhining could sense the danger. She pulled Cai Sang to run the other way, but the path behind was blocked by several riders as well.

Sitting astride his horse, Chiyun Yuexuan stared at the two girls with angry and dangerous eyes. He spurred forth his steed, forcing the girl to retreat, and spoke in a terrifyingly savage voice, “Murong Zhining, you really think you can escape my palm? I already warned you once. Did you think I was just joking?”

The soldiers tied Murong Zhining’s hands and handed the other end of the rope to Chiyun Yuexuan, who slowly rode his horse as he pulled her on the way back. Cai Sang didn’t dare to utter a word and silently walked beside Murong Zhining, supporting her up when she stumbled from being yanked by the rope.

Murong Zhining was dragged a very long way, from the small path to the main road, along which she fell numerous times. Her clothes were all worn out, blood seeped through the parts covering her knees. Cai Sang’s heart ached to the point of tears.

A horse carriage was waiting by the main road. Murong Zhining and Cai Sang were shoved inside. When it was dark, the cavalcade arrived at the capital.

The two girls were taken to the assembly room in the General Estate. Cai Sang was so frightened that her body was trembling all over. Murong Zhining tightly held her.

Chiyun Yuexuan growled, “Go fetch my Horse Iron Seal.”

Several soldiers carried a basin of burning charcoal into the room. Cai Sang shrank back in horror, “What… what are you doing?”

Chiyun Yuexuan shot her a vicious glance. “You’ll find out in a moment.”

Chiyun Yuexuan personally grab a branding iron, which the military used to brand and distinguish warhorses, with the characters “Chiyun” on it. He heated up the brand in the charcoal basin until it glowed red.

Cai Sang screamed in a hoarse voice, “No… Don’t hurt us. We won’t run again.”

Chiyun Yuexuan coldly raised the red hot branding iron as he stepped towards Murong Zhining and ordered the soldiers, “Press her down.”

Cai Sang wanted to stop him, but her holder twisted her hand at her back. Screaming between sobs, she looked at Murong Zhining and begged Chiyun Yuexuan in a loud voice.

Murong Zhining was pinned down on the ground by two soldiers with her hands crossed behind her back. She didn’t struggle. Chiyun Yuexuan pulled down her clothes by the back collar, revealing her smooth white skin that glowed golden under the candlelight. Chiyun Yuexuan brutally stepped on her waist to prevent her from struggling. Without pity, he pressed the burning iron at her back as if he was branding livestock.

Murong Zhining’s snow white skin sizzled as a faint smoke rose up. She clenched her teeth so tightly that a streak of blood streamed down where the corner of her lip was bitten, but she didn’t even make a sound. Murong Zhining’s unyielding will gave the two soldiers pinning her a chill down their spines, because even a strong sturdy man would be unable to bear this kind of pain and scream out in this situation. Cai Sang let out a painful shriek and passed out.

Chiyun Yuexuan held the iron seal close to Murong Zhining’s sweat-filled face and maliciously swayed it around. “If there’s a next time, it’ll be branded right here. Oh, right, I will have people take care of your foster mother’s family.”

Murong Zhining lay face down on the bed. Cai Sang tearfully wiped the blood from her wound. The spot on Murong Zhining’s back where she was branded was mangled and bloody, and two vague characters “Chiyun” could be seen bulging up a little. These two words reflected her status as equal to an animal inside the General Estate.

Cai Sang blew at the wound as she cleaned it, wanting to reduce the pain. Murong Zhining, on the other hand, seemed extremely calm. “Cai Sang, can you help me peel that piece of skin off? I’m not afraid of pain, I don’t want to leave those two words on my body.”

Cai Sang pleaded in a trembling voice, “No no no, even if you won’t die from the pain, the infection will kill you. I won’t allow you to have this kind of thought. Didn’t you say a person with dignity can live with their head held high even if they’re trampled to the ground? You’ve never once lowered it, you have not lost your dignity.”

Murong Zhining’s eyes brimmed with tears. Cai Sang was truly her medicine, one sentence from her could soothe all of the pain in her heart.

Ever since that day, Murong Zhining never planned to run again. It wasn’t because of fear, but that she didn’t want to bring trouble to her foster mother’s family as Chiyun Yuexuan had used them to threaten her.

The impeachment case against Chiyun Yuexuan finally produced a result two months later. In the court, Yan Feng personally handed back the Commander’s Seal to him. However, one of the witnesses, the clerk assistant, was poisoned and died in the room where he was put under protection. The tangled and complex black screen about to be uncovered once again hid back in the darkness.

During the period Chiyun Yuexuan left Fuling Pass, Giskhan, who had suffered a great loss began to grow restless again. They wanted to take advantage of his absence to seize back their lost cities. After the matters in the capital were handled, Chiyun Yuexuan decided to immediately lead his troops back to Fuling Pass. So as not to spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar, he made up his mind to take Murong Zhining as well. Up until his departure, Yan Feng never once saw him in private.

Before she left, for the first time in her life, Murong Zhining put down her dignity and begged Chiyun Yuexuan to let Cai Sang remain in the capital. She didn’t want to bring Cai Sang with her on a life of constant moving from place to place. Cai Sang was too fragile, she didn’t want Cai Sang to suffer because of her.

Cai Sang refused to stay behind no matter what, but Murong Zhining painfully forced her to.

Murong Zhining quietly sat inside a horse carriage as it followed General Chiyun to the south. When the cavalcade departed, there were court officials and civilians present to send them off, but Yan Feng didn’t come. Murong Zhining didn’t hope for him to come either. To those who had treated her well, she never wanted to see them sad.