Chapter 983: The Pride of an Age, Starved to Death

“My elder sister is finally back, so I can finally get some rest. I’m not afraid to admit it: back when things were quiet, I always felt empty if I didn’t have something on hand to keep myself busy. But once the work truly never stops, I start wishing I could slap my past self across the face. Trimming flowers and plants in a warm conservatory—that’s the real life.”

Xiong Liqing sat at the head of the room, skimming foam from her tea with the lid as she spoke.

Everyone seated below laughed along.

The Prince was away on campaign. Xu Wenzu was supporting them from the west, but the true center dispersing military supplies and laborers was still eastern Jin.

This was where the real bustle lay.

For the past half year, preparing for this Yan-Chu national war, the effort everyone here had poured in truly did not fall short of the soldiers fighting and dying at the front.

He Chunlai stood.

“I’m afraid the Princess Consort will still have to hold on for a while longer. The Senior Princess Consort only returned this time to hand over a few matters. Didn’t she already leave again for the command tent this morning? The great battle may be over, but garrison arrangements and all the other affairs at the front still remain. It’s hard to say when the main force will truly return. And then there are the rewards. That alone is enough to give people a headache.”

Just as the children in the rear residence knew to call Siniang “First Mother,” the officials in the Residence’s inner circle also distinguished between Siniang and Xiong Liqing, calling Siniang the Senior Princess Consort.

After all, Xiong Liqing was only filling in temporarily.

The entire financial system of eastern Jin had been built personally by Siniang.

Xiong Liqing had never felt jealous over that. From the moment she entered the household...

No.

Even before entering it, she had never harbored any desire to compete with Siniang for favor.

“Busy, busy, busy.” Xiong Liqing set her teacup back on the table. “When all is said and done, the ones doing the real work are all of you officials. I’m just an auspicious ornament sitting here.”

“Princess Consort must not say such a thing. This minister is terrified.”

“This minister is terrified.”

“All right, all right. I was joking. Joking. I’ve reviewed everything for today. Distribute it as required. Whatever needs supervision and implementation, get people on it immediately. Whatever needs to be prepared, prepare it quickly. Tell your subordinates that I know everyone is exhausted, but think about it: the war is over, and the Prince cannot be far from returning. This is exactly when merit will be assessed and rewards handed out. If someone creates trouble now, that would be a truly miserable way to lose everything they’ve worked for.”

“This minister obeys.”

“This minister obeys.”

Xiong Liqing rose, left the Signing Office, and went straight back to her own courtyard.

The moment she entered, she saw her precious daughter walking outward with a bulging bundle on her back.

Big Girl: “Uh...”

Xiong Liqing’s expression darkened immediately.

Then... her gaze swept across the maids standing around them.

To put it plainly, Xiong Liqing only acted coy in front of that man surnamed Zheng, and only behaved like a younger sister before Siniang. She had been born into the direct imperial line of Great Chu.

Without some ability and force of character, how could she temporarily fill Siniang’s position?

How could she suppress the bureaucrats under the Residence?

No matter how loyal they were, their loyalty belonged to the Prince and to the Senior Princess Consort. Put some ordinary woman in front of them wearing the title of Princess Consort, and they truly might not even look at her properly.

The Princess’s gaze sharpened.

Her presence was something one could genuinely feel.

Every maid around them immediately dropped to her knees.

Xiong Liqing had once declared that if the little Princess ever ran away from home again, every maid serving her, together with their entire families, would be executed.

Her daughter had an exquisitely perceptive heart.

She could tell whether someone was merely frightening her.

So she had been very obedient.

She knew her mother meant exactly what she said.

Yet she did not think her mother “cruel.”

After growing up watching First Mother and Little Brother’s touching displays of mother-son affection countless times... she still felt her own mother was very gentle.

First Mother had always liked Big Girl too, but Big Girl remained a little afraid of her.

There was nothing wrong with fearing First Mother.

After all, First Mother was First Mother.

Mm.

And her own mother was afraid of First Mother too.

“Mother, I’m not running away from home. I’m going to bring Little Brother something to eat. Little Brother is living with Grandpa right now, and I’m worried the food won’t agree with him. Grandpa eats candles and spirit money. If Little Brother eats those, I’m afraid he’ll get diarrhea.”

“Really?”

“Really. I asked the people below. Nobody was told to deliver food or water to Little Brother.”

Hearing this explanation, Xiong Liqing nodded.

“Then go.”

The day Siniang returned, she had directly thrown the Heir Prince into solitary confinement.

When it came to how the Heir Prince should be educated, Xiong Liqing had no place interfering.

But she had never opposed her daughter being close to her brothers.

Then again, she had never needed to worry about that.

Every male in the household doted on Big Girl.

There was no need to mention her father.

Tian Tian, as the eldest son, had always cherished this younger sister too.

Even the somewhat aloof Heir Prince treated Big Girl far more warmly than he treated others.

The Heir Prince was always lukewarm toward his own father, yet he never refused to accompany Big Girl in whatever nonsense she wanted to get up to.

Delighted, Big Girl carried her little bundle to the artificial hill in the rear residence. She set the food down, walked to the huge iron door, and slapped it.

“Little Brother! Little Brother!”

No response came from inside.

Big Girl grew worried.

She backed away several paces.

Then formed a sword seal with both hands.

“Out!”

Hum!

Longyuan flew from the sheath on her back and circled above her head.

“Strike!”

Longyuan became a streak of light and slammed into the enormous iron door.

After an ear-piercing impact, the sword spun backward and fell to the ground.

“Hiss... that hurts!”

Big Girl felt a stab of agony in the index and ring fingers of her right hand and hurriedly brought them to her lips, blowing on them.

The iron door was solid.

More importantly, all four sides had locking catches. Once lowered, it could seal the space inside completely.

The mechanism for opening it was on the other side of the artificial hill. One had to draw out the iron chain there and, at the same time, apply immense force before the door could be raised again.

Big Girl did not know any of that.

Trying to split the door with Longyuan was futile unless she possessed her master’s level of cultivation.

After soothing the pain in her fingers, Big Girl returned to the door.

Her earlier strike had gouged out a pit only about the size of a fingernail.

So it had not been entirely ineffective.

But it might as well have been.

Big Girl could only lie flat and try shouting through the tiny crack at the bottom.

“Little Brother! Little Brother!”

Still no response.

Big Girl climbed back up, dusted off her hands and trouser legs, then shouted toward the other side.

“Big Snake! Big Snake!”

After two calls, the huge green python slithered over.

It had lived inside the Residence for many years. Normally it rarely emerged, but servants in the household had long since grown accustomed to its occasional movements.

The green python raised its head and looked at Big Girl.

It was Xiong Liqing’s demon beast, so naturally it was especially close to her daughter as well.

Big Girl pointed toward the iron door.

“Big Snake, ram it open.”

“...” The green python.

“Be good, Big Snake. You can do it.”

“Be good!”

Big Girl became angry.

A trace of grievance appeared in the python’s eyes.

Then its enormous body suddenly whipped forward and crashed into the iron door.

BOOM!

The green python raised its head.

Its body swayed.

Then it simply wilted where it lay.

...

“Something moved!”

“Peh!”

Zheng Lin spat out the chunk of candle wax he had been chewing, rolled to his feet, and hurried behind the iron door.

To be fair, the green python’s impact had been considerably more effective than Big Girl’s sword.

It still had no meaningful effect on the iron door itself.

But at least the people inside had felt it.

“Who’s outside? Who’s outside!”

Zheng Lin shouted.

...

Seeing that the green python outside was nearly unconscious, Big Girl stopped forcing it.

She could only sit back down in front of the iron door.

Cross-legged.

Circulating qi.

Sword intent began gathering.

She closed her eyes.

Her sword seal pointed forward.

On the other side of the thick iron door, Zheng Lin saw a strand of sword qi gather within his vision.

“Elder Sister! Elder Sister!”

Zheng Lin became excited.

He immediately sat cross-legged and formed seals too.

Before long, Big Girl, sitting outside, saw a strand of sword qi appear before her as well.

Once Big Girl knew the method worked, she immediately controlled her sword qi and wrote on the far side:

*Little Brother...*

Zheng Lin used his own sword qi to write on the ground outside:

*Hungry...*

Concise and direct.

Joy appeared on Big Girl’s face.

She immediately released her seal, and the sword qi on the opposite side dissipated.

She opened the little bundle packed with snacks.

There was plenty of delicious food inside.

But her excitement quickly ran into another problem.

This iron door blocked even sound... so how exactly was she supposed to get any of this food to Little Brother?

Big Girl hurriedly formed seals again and wrote three words on the opposite side:

*Can’t send it in...*

Zheng Lin answered without hesitation:

*Call someone...*

*Call who...*

*My mother...*

There was no overnight grudge between mother and son.

Yes, his own mother had locked him inside.

Yes, before locking him inside, she had beaten him brutally.

But Zheng Lin truly held no resentment toward Siniang.

*First Mother left...*

Seeing that line...

Zheng Lin’s eyes widened.

He was, in a way, entirely predictably shocked.

Shocked that his own mother could lock her son in here, then simply return to the front to find his father without even finding time to see her son once before leaving.

And entirely unsurprised because... yes.

That really was exactly the sort of thing his mother could do.

Between himself and Dad, which one carried more weight in Mother’s heart?

He could answer that with his toes.

Obviously Dad.

Zheng Lin understood something else too.

Precisely because his relationship with his father was bad, his own mother disliked him even more because of it.

The usual moral relationships of other households... were reversed in his.

By now, beads of sweat had appeared on Big Girl’s forehead.

Using sword qi to write through the barrier like this was exhausting.

A pity the Sword Saint was not at home.

If he had been here to see the two disciples practicing such delicate sword-qi control, he probably would have felt very gratified.

*Little Brother, I’ll go call someone...*

Zheng Lin saw the line.

He answered:

*Okay...*

As though wanting to add a little urgency, he added another character after *okay*.

*Hungry.*

Big Girl rose.

Her body swayed, somewhat drained of strength.

But she still ran off quickly.

...

Zheng Lin leaned against the iron door again.

He picked up the candle and bit off another piece.

Chewed twice.

Then spat it out.

Heaven have mercy.

If someone had exiled him into the wilds, or even into some dangerous great marsh crawling with demon beasts, he still believed he could live comfortably enough.

Yet trapped in this particular place... he had no solution whatsoever.

At that moment... a voice suddenly sounded beside Zheng Lin’s ear.

“Are you hungry... I have something delicious here.”

Sha Tuo Queshi, sitting inside his coffin, turned his head toward the deeper chamber.

Then he released a roar.

Longing appeared on Zheng Lin’s face.

He murmured:

“Really... I’m so hungry...”

“Yes... I have the sweetest food in the world... all you need to do is come over...”

“You’ll give it to me?”

“I will... I can give you... everything...”

“You’re so nice...”

“Of course... I...”

“What an idiot.”

The longing vanished instantly from Zheng Lin’s face.

What remained was indifference and disdain.

He stood.

Then shouted into the depths:

“This Young Master is so hungry he’s chewing candles right now. I don’t have time to play your stupid little seduction game. Shut your mouth, idiot!”

BOOM!

BOOM!

A violent trembling came from below.

Deep inside the iron cage, the black-armored man clenched the chains around his arms.

He was furious.

“You don’t even know how to deceive people. No wonder my useless father locked you in here. What, you want to tempt me into letting you out? Dream on!”

Zheng Lin sat back down.

He picked up the candle and, almost spitefully, bit off another piece.

“Hrrh...”

Sha Tuo Queshi lay back down inside the coffin.

...

“My elder sister was the one who locked him in. I truly cannot release him myself. You know how it is. When Elder Sister disciplines her child, we have no place meddling. Besides, our Heir Prince is not an ordinary child.”

“But...”

“Don’t worry. Big Girl just went to bring him some food. It’s fine if she slips him a private meal. That’s just an elder sister caring for her younger brother. Even if Elder Sister finds out, she won’t say anything.”

“That’s good. That’s good.”

The Princess Consort of Prince Fu patted her chest.

Among the women who truly shared the Prince’s bedchamber in the Residence, there were four.

Siniang.

Xiong Liqing.

Liu Ruqing.

And one more... the Princess Consort of Prince Fu.

Prince Fu Residence had an estate in Fengxin City.

But the Princess Consort herself had always lived inside the Regent Prince Residence.

Of the four women, if one asked who cared most about the Heir Prince, it was naturally the Princess Consort of Prince Fu.

Siniang had handed the child to her for care very early on.

Originally, with the Heir Prince in confinement, no one had felt comfortable saying anything.

But once Siniang left again, the Princess Consort of Prince Fu immediately came to Xiong Liqing to plead for him.

At that moment, Big Girl ran back.

Xiong Liqing saw that her daughter had left in perfect condition but returned with her steps already unsteady.

She immediately asked:

“What happened?”

“Mother! Auntie! Little Brother is going to starve to death in there!”

...

“You can’t open it?”

“Yes, Princess Consort. This iron door is under restrictions integrated with the surrounding terrain. None of us can open it.”

“How is that possible!”

Xiong Liqing stared gravely at the huge iron door.

Residence guards stood around them holding torches.

“Princess Consort may not know this. Only the gentlemen of the Residence know how to release the restrictions here. This subordinate has served the Residence for many years, but this place is normally beyond our authority. It is a forbidden area of the Residence. And right now, none of the gentlemen are here, so...”

The captain of the guards had once served among the Brocade-Clad personal guards.

He was one of the old hands.

Yet even he had no solution for this underground prison.

After all, if the Demon Kings dared imprison the black-armored man inside their own home, naturally they had arranged layer upon layer of precautions in advance.

Xiong Liqing drew a deep breath.

“Then call the City Patrol Office. If that isn’t enough, draw troops from the city defenses. Dig. Dig the damned thing open if you have to!”

“Yes!”

They might not be able to open the iron door itself.

But if enough men were gathered to excavate from all sides, eventually they could force a way in.

From Xiong Liqing’s perspective, she had no right to comment on how Siniang educated her son.

But there was even less chance she could simply stand by and watch the Heir Prince starve to death inside the Residence!

What sort of farce would that be?

The Heir Prince of Great Yan’s Regent Prince Residence... a second-generation noble who, within Great Yan, practically stood shoulder to shoulder with the Crown Prince... visibly gifted beyond measure in cultivation... a soaring eagle of his generation... dead young because he starved to death?

“Elder Sister, Elder Sister... you really don’t have to ignore your own son this completely, do you?”

Xiong Liqing felt a chill of delayed fear.

If Big Girl had not discovered the problem early, then by the time the Prince and Siniang returned... would they have found a dried corpse starved to death inside?

Big Girl, who had already rested for a while, hurriedly sat in front of the iron door and formed a seal to summon sword qi.

*Little Brother, don’t panic... we’re going to dig it open...*

Behind the iron door, Zheng Lin saw those words.

At first, they seemed perfectly normal.

Then he suddenly realized what the people outside were actually planning.

He immediately answered:

*You can’t dig...*

Big Girl blinked and carefully studied the line.

Soon a second line appeared.

*Absolutely do not dig...*

Open the iron door and let him out?

No problem.

But if they literally excavated the entire place open... then the black-armored man sealed below would break free too.

“Mother, Little Brother says we can’t dig,” Big Girl immediately told Xiong Liqing.

“What?”

Xiong Liqing frowned.

During festivals, she sometimes came with Siniang to burn incense for Sha Tuo Queshi.

So she vaguely knew there was another door even deeper below.

She rarely asked about such matters.

But she could roughly guess that Sha Tuo Queshi was not the only existence down there.

More likely...

Sha Tuo Queshi himself was the guard.

Earlier, panic had made her overlook that fact.

Now, with this reminder, the impression returned immediately.

Zheng Lin wrote again:

*Grandpa has offerings here to eat... I won’t starve...*

“Mother, Little Brother says Grandpa has offerings he can eat.”

Xiong Liqing raised one hand and ordered:

“Besides the group already sent to catch up with the Senior Princess Consort, send another group to the front and report directly to the Prince’s command tent. Ride at full speed. As for this place... no digging for now.”

“Yes!”

Xiong Liqing looked at her daughter and instructed:

“Pitch a small tent here. Sleep beside the door. Every four hours, speak with your brother once.”

“I understand, Mother.”

...

Behind the iron door...

Zheng Lin wiped his mouth.

One hand covered his stomach.

The other braced against the coffin lid.

He said:

“Grandpa, I’m really hungry.”

No response came from the coffin.

“You’re not worried at all. That means you have some way to keep me from starving to death, right?”

A dense, extraordinarily pure mass of baleful qi slowly rose from the coffin and floated in front of Zheng Lin.

The moment Zheng Lin saw it... he understood Grandpa’s meaning.

His face crumpled.

“Grandpa, I’m not Brother Demon Child. I have to eat real food. This stuff doesn’t fill my stomach.”

The coffin gave no response.

The mass of baleful qi even dissipated a little.

Zheng Lin gritted his teeth.

He opened his mouth and inhaled the baleful qi.

The next instant... his skin turned dark bluish-purple.

Agony sent his entire body sprawling onto the ground.

He began convulsing violently, like a leech thrown into brine.

But he was stubborn.

He clenched his teeth and never cried out.

Cold sweat soaked through his entire body.

Only after a long while did the pain finally subside.

Zheng Lin lay flat on his back, arms and legs spread wide.

That pain had been even more outrageous than when his mother stabbed him with needles.

But after the agony came...

“Burp...”

[End of Chapter 983]