Who was it this time, this fool who dared come knocking? Was the current chaos not enough already?
Right now was a critical moment, he had to win favor with Eunuch Xu and Huang Hongzhong. He had no time or interest to deal with some woman who might’ve had a wild night and come calling.
So he softened his tone and sat beside Madam Wang: “Wife, don’t you know my temperament by now? No matter how I act outside, at home you’re the only wife I have. You call the shots. When have I ever gone against your wishes?”
Madam Wang sneered: “You talk better than you sing.”
What woman in the world could remain indifferent when another woman showed up at her doorstep, claiming her husband?
Wang Weiqi yawned. In his eyes, women’s fussing was limited to their narrow little world.
After a moment’s thought, he said: “Do what you want with her. I won’t see her. Handle it however you like.”
He had far too many pressing matters to bother with petty drama among the women in his household.
Madam Wang let out a cold, sarcastic laugh: “A peerless beauty, huh? Even if you add up all your former concubines, they still don’t compare to this one. Are you really willing to give her up?”
What nonsense was this?
Sure, he’d seen beautiful women, but if someone truly as stunning as Madam Wang described had crossed his path, would it even be his turn to keep her?
He wasn’t stupid. If she were that pretty, he would’ve already sent her upward as a gift.
This had to be Madam Wang being sarcastic again.
He stood up, ready to leave.
But at that moment, the door opened. A matron led in a young woman dressed in red. She looked at Wang Weiqi with a troubled expression: “My Lord, Madam, the girl has been brought in.”
Madam Wang glared at the girl and snapped: “There, you see? Here she is. Take a look!”
Wang Weiqi glanced over impatiently, only to freeze.
The girl in front of him was clad in a bright red dress, with peach-blossom eyes and an oval face. Her lashes curled delicately.
She was stunning, so beautiful she took the breath away.
A woman like this… actually existed?
His mind went blank.
He racked his brain, but couldn’t recall any encounter with such a beautiful girl.
Madam Wang’s heart instantly went cold.
She saw his expression, and knew at once that her husband’s words were nothing but lies. “Still claiming you don’t know her?”
Wang Weiqi lowered his eyes, furrowed his brow, and asked the girl: “You… came looking for me?”
He really couldn’t remember her.
Qi Yuan smiled faintly and nodded: “That’s right.”
Madam Wang’s heart nearly cracked from rage. She slapped him hard across the face: “And you still say she didn’t come for you!”
She was furious, deeply, viscerally furious.
He’d been claiming to be so busy, so tied up he didn’t even have time to eat, yet here he was, dallying with a woman on the side, all while spewing righteous nonsense?
Men!
What a joke!
Wang Weiqi’s face darkened after being slapped in front of so many people.
He might tolerate a lot from his wife, but being struck across the face? That he would not stand for.
He slapped her back without hesitation, sending her tumbling onto the bed.
Then he roared at the servants: “Out! All of you, get out!”
The servants wished they could be deaf and blind. They didn’t want to hear any of this husband-wife drama.
After all, if Madam Wang remembered this moment later, they’d be the ones to suffer.
Knowing too much was never a good thing.
So the moment he shouted, they all scrambled to get out.
Wang Weiqi rubbed his face, then pinned down the furious Madam Wang to stop her from retaliating. He turned to Qi Yuan and demanded: “When did I ever meet you? Why don’t I remember?”
If he had ever been involved with someone this stunning, there was no way he’d forget.
Madam Wang, still seething, screamed: “She chased you all the way to your home and you still pretend? I swear, may you both die wretched deaths, you shameless adulterers!”
But before she could go on, a warm splash of liquid hit her face and eyes.
She instinctively reached up to wipe it, and then stared in shock.
Her hand was soaked in bright red blood.
In the next instant, Wang Weiqi collapsed onto her, crushing her beneath his body. His eyes were still open, fixed on her in disbelief. His hand clutched at his throat.
Their eyes locked, for a long, stunned moment.
No…
How could this be…?!
Madam Wang screamed, the realization arriving too late.
Panicked and horrified, she shoved Wang Weiqi’s bleeding body off her with all her might, only to see Qi Yuan’s smiling face.
That woman!
She shuddered and shouted: “Who are you?!”
Qi Yuan replied evenly: “Calling us ‘adulterers’, that’s not very nice.”
She casually wiped the dagger on Wang Weiqi’s robe, her face emotionless.
“You two have ruled this place with cruelty for years, taking bribes from mountain bandits, letting them raid villages, then forcing the commoners to raise silver every year to fund extermination campaigns.”
She paused. The dagger was now pressed against Madam Wang’s face.
The blade was cold and reeked of blood.
Madam Wang’s entire body tensed. She stared in terror at Wang Weiqi, who was still gasping, clutching his throat, drowning in his own blood.
Qi Yuan glanced down at him and said quietly: “Profiting from both ends, playing the people for fools. And in the end, you still saw them as nothing but dirt. You burned a village to the ground, slaughtered over a thousand people in Xujiagou. That term, ‘shameless couple’, suits you better.”
Wang Weiqi had desperately tried to protect himself from Xiao Yunting, fearing he’d be beheaded.
He never imagined it would be a woman who ended him, one who came right to his door to do it.
Gasping, he wheezed: “You… who are you… really?”
Qi Yuan gave a brief, mirthless smile. Without emotion, she plunged the dagger into his heart.
“Ask the King of H*ll when you get there.”
His wife screamed.
But strangely, no one came.
No servants rushed in. No one answered her cries.
She was terrified, utterly unhinged. She scrambled onto the bed, shrinking into a corner, pointing at Qi Yuan with trembling fingers: “Don’t come any closer! Don’t! Do you know what crime it is to murder a court official?!”
She sobbed and shouted: “My elder sister is the wife of the Prefect! If you kill me, you’ll never die a good death! You’ll suffer for this!”
Qi Yuan clicked her tongue: “Doesn’t matter. Soon, your whole family will reunite underground. Then you can ask the Prefect’s wife yourself, who’s cursed to die badly.”
Without hesitation, she twisted Madam Wang’s neck.
Wasn’t there a plague in Jinxian County?
A heavy-handed magistrate and his cruel wife were burned to death for trying to incinerate a village.
That explanation would suffice, wouldn’t it?
She sheathed her dagger.
And just then, BANG!
The door burst open with a crash.
