Should untouchables die?
It was late at night, and the heavy hooves of horses trampled on the empty streets of Mingzhou City. Ning Lingyi sat upright on her horse, her back straight. Her scarlet riding clothes were covered in dust, and the corners of her clothes were stained with an almost imperceptible dark red, which made her face look even paler. Only her eyes were surprisingly bright.
Pan Hao rode his horse closely beside her, unable to take his eyes off her.
From the earth-shattering blow in front of the government office to returning home after handling the business, his heart was filled with emotions - astonishment, worry, fear, and a hint of strange awe.
The proud Princess Mingzhu that he once knew seemed to have changed.
She was no longer just a treasure that needed his protection, but more like a sword that had finally been unsheathed, its tip pointing in a direction he could not understand.
"Your Highness," Pan Hao couldn't help but speak, "You took a huge risk today. Although Liu Mian deserved death, beheading a prefect in the street, in the court..."
He paused, looked at Ning Lingyi's calm profile, and couldn't continue speaking.
Ning Lingyi didn't turn around, but said, "I will have my say in the court. Pan Hao, the situation in Mingzhou should have changed long ago."
There was no hesitation in her words, and Pan Hao's heart was shocked.
It was as if the world he was familiar with had been cracked open the moment she swung her sword.
When I returned to the mansion, the solemn and murderous atmosphere was still there.
What Ning Lingyi couldn't get rid of in her mind was Shen Qingyan's pale face on Anji Bridge, the bottomless despair in the eyes of the refugees, and the man who took action under the bridge - Wang Dayong.
Why would he attack her, a princess?
Ning Lingyi moved and went to the place where he was imprisoned, and Pan Hao did not leave her side.
These changes happened so quickly that he couldn't help but want to hold on to something.
*
In the dim room, Wang Dayong knelt on the cold bluestone floor, curled up, shivering like a sieve, with his head buried in his arms, not daring to raise it even a bit.
"Raise your head." Ning Lingyi said.
Wang Dayong trembled even more violently and struggled to raise his head. Fear was written all over his weather-beaten face. His lips trembled as if he wanted to beg for mercy, but no sound came out of his throat. Cold sweat mixed with stains rolled down his throat.
Pan Hao's anger was instantly ignited.
This is the man, this filthy pariah, who dared to lay hands on his pearl?
He stepped forward, pointed at Wang Dayong, and shouted, "Look up and see clearly! The person you are trying to murder is the princess of the dynasty, the Princess Mingzhu, who was personally appointed by His Majesty!"
His voice was filled with the natural arrogance of a child from an aristocratic family: "Who gave you the courage? Are you incredibly brave, or are you born a rebel and want your entire clan exterminated?"
Wang Dayong was frightened out of his wits by the angry rebuke. His body was shaking violently and his teeth were chattering.
He wanted to argue, but the huge fear made him speechless. He could only look at the woman in red standing in the halo in despair. She seemed to be a god in the clouds, an existence that he could never reach.
Seeing that he couldn't even utter a complete sentence, Pan Hao became even more furious.
This lowly person murdered a noble and didn't even have the courage to admit his guilt! His rage grew even stronger, and he raised his foot to kick him.
At this moment, Wang Dayong, who had been quiet all the time, suddenly let out a suppressed whimper from his throat.
The sound was not loud, but it made Pan Hao pause as he was about to move.
Wang Dayong lowered his head even lower, almost touching the cold bluestone floor tiles.
It's not that he didn't want to speak, but the huge fear froze his tongue and he couldn't say it. The highest official he had ever seen was a clerk in the county government office who looked down on the emperor. He had to kneel down to speak to that big shot and didn't even dare to raise his head.
Princess...what rank is a princess?
He didn't know, he only knew that she was the emperor's daughter, a true immortal! How could he, Wang Dayong, a mere peasant digging for food in the dirt... actually dare to lay hands on an immortal?
It’s over, it’s all over!
Not only his worthless life, but also his wife who was starving to the point of skin and bones, his son who was as thin as a bean sprout, and his daughter who didn't even have a complete piece of clothing... all of them were to die! Nine clans of his family were to be exterminated... He didn't understand what nine clans meant, he only knew that all relatives, whether they knew him or not, had to die!
His vision went dark, as if he had seen his wife being dragged to the execution ground, and his children's tiny bodies being...
His stomach churned and he began to dry heave, but nothing came out, only the sour and bitter bile burning his throat.
Why?
Why? !
Wang Dayong, who had spent his entire life facing the earth and back to the sky, sweating profusely, tended to the few acres of thin land that depended on the weather for food.
Year after year, they harvested the finest crops from their fields, handing over not a single grain less to the government, and then doing the grueling corvée labor, digging ditches in the dead of winter, their shoulders bruised and bloodied, yet they dared not utter a word! What for? Just to keep their stomachs full, their wives and children hungry, and their children clothed in rags?
He never intended to harm anyone! When someone from the neighboring village, Old Li's, starved to death and collapsed on the roadside, he saw it and felt so bad that he broke off half of the black bun he was holding and stuffed it into the man's arms. He just wanted to protect his wife and children, and his home that was leaky but could keep out some rain!
But this world... why does this world treat only ants like them so harshly?
He paid taxes, performed labor service, and worked like an ox or a horse, but why was it that in the end, he couldn't even save the lives of his wife and children?
Why did those people, those officials who were even more powerful than the clerks, take away his wife and children? Why did they hold knives to their necks? Why did they force him... force him to kill a god he dared not even think about?
Despair was like a tide, drowning all fears.
No, it wasn't drowning, it was burning the fear to ashes, leaving only the anger of being pushed to the edge of a cliff with no way out.
He didn't know where he got the strength from, but he broke free from the guards' restraint, and used the last bit of his strength to suddenly raise his head!
His bloodshot eyes, with a grief and anger that was almost like a curse, looked at Ning Lingyi's face, which was still dazzling in the dim light.
"Gods...you are gods from the Ninth Heaven! We...we are just mud in the ground!"
"But Niba... Niba wants to live too! Niba also has a wife, children, and a heart!"
He burst into tears: "My whole family gets up early and goes to bed late, tending to those few acres of thin land! Just to fill our stomachs! But we toil hard every year! We go hungry every year, and in the end... in the end, we can't even save our wives and children!"
"We should have died long ago, either by starvation or drowning in a flood. We should have died one way or another... This world has never thought of letting us live..."
Tears streamed down his face as he stared at Ning Lingyi. "They want to kill my wife! Kill my child! The knife is on their necks! God! Tell me! Do I have a choice? How should I choose? My wife, my child, and I, are we just going to die?"
"You are gods...emperors, princesses, great men, and we are pariahs. Should pariahs die?"
This hoarse questioning was beyond everyone's expectations.
Pan Hao was stunned. He instinctively wanted to scold again: "Sophisticated arguments! Cunning..."
"Enough! Pan Hao!" A clear shout rang out.
Pan Hao turned around in surprise.
In the dim light, Ning Lingyi's expression was extremely complicated.
Her straight back stiffened for a moment, and her eyes were filled with shock and astonishment, followed by a stinging pain, and finally a vague shame.
She had never imagined that such a person would dare to accuse her, let alone that this crude accusation would completely wipe away her gilded past, revealing the truth within that she had never faced.
She looked at the man who had collapsed before her, the assassination at Anjiqiao, Shen Qingyan's blood, the numbness in the eyes of the refugees, and these questions...
The engagement she had been fighting against and the shackles she hated seemed so far away, even a little hypocritical, in the face of the trampled fate of Wang Dayong's family.
She once felt that the lack of freedom in the golden cage was a huge injustice, but now she saw that the people outside the cage could be deprived of even the right to live at any time.
She was arrogant and angry about her own constraints, but she never really lowered her head to see how terrible and muddy the land of Mingzhou was!
Her power and her identity were so pale and powerless in the face of Wang Dayong's questioning.
Ning Lingyi took a deep breath and said, "So, you chose to use my life in exchange for the lives of your family?"
Wang Dayong was frightened by the complexity in her eyes, and his anger stopped abruptly.
He collapsed to the ground, his voice low and broken, "I deserve to die. I shouldn't have killed anyone. I accept it! I'll accept being cut into pieces! But in this world... there are more people who deserve to die than there are grass on the ground! Princess! If they don't die, we, the mud... will never be able to survive!"
Tears streamed down his face as he kowtowed heavily, his forehead hitting the bluestone floor with a dull thud. "I, Wang Dayong, am doomed to die. I only beg you, only beg you to have mercy... Release my wife and children. They are innocent. Please... please! I'm going to die right now! I'm going to die right now!"
He spoke incoherently, repeating "Go to hell" and "Let them go" frantically, and each time he kowtowed, it seemed as if he had used up his last bit of strength.
"Your Highness, this villain has committed a heinous crime! His words are rebellious and he should be executed immediately to serve as a warning to others!" Pan Hao said urgently.
He couldn't understand Ning Lingyi's silence and the emotions in her eyes, but he always felt that something was different.
He was anxious and wanted change, and wanted everything to go back to how it was.
Ning Lingyi remained silent.
She thought of the empty eyes of the refugees under Anji Bridge. She had only provided some food and a little money, yet thousands of people treated her like a deity.
They did hard labor every day, from morning to night without stopping, and ate the lowest quality food. The daily wages of 10,000 people were not even worth one of her hairpins.
Their lives are so worthless.
It turns out that "human life is worthless" is not an empty statement.
Now, this person is kneeling in front of her and begging for death for his family. How can she not feel ashamed?
"Liu Mian," she said, "I have already killed him."
Wang Dayong shuddered violently and raised his face in confusion.
Who is Liu Mian? To him, that name was like a cloud in the sky, distant and vague. He had no right to know Liu Mian's name.
Ning Lingyi whispered, "You have a knife at your neck. They are forcing you to live with the lives of your wife and children. It's not your fault."
She paused, then continued, "It's not that you want to kill me, it's the way the world is killing people."
"If I kill you, I will also kill this palace."
"I won't hurt your wife and children, don't worry."
Pan Hao's heart was shaken, and he looked at Ning Lingyi in disbelief, as if he was truly meeting her for the first time.
Wang Dayong froze, as if he didn't understand.
After a few breaths, he finally understood. He actually grinned and let out a whimpering sound that sounded like crying and laughing. Then he kowtowed heavily: "Thank you, thank you for your kindness, Princess! Thank you for your kindness, Princess! I, the humble one, will die right now! I will die right now! I will never stain the princess's hands!"
He struggled and tried to ram himself into the pillar next to him.
"Stop him!" Ning Lingyi shouted.
The guards immediately stepped forward and held him down tightly.
"Have I allowed you to die?" Ning Lingyi's voice was filled with anxiety. "Your life is now in my hands. Take you away and keep you under guard."
"Your Highness! This..." Pan Hao was very anxious. This kind of person should be killed!
Ning Lingyi insisted.
Pan Hao looked at the expression in Ning Lingyi's eyes, then at the lump of "mud" on the ground. Although he was still confused and angry, he could only clasp his fists and say, "I obey your command!"
He turned and strode away.
The guards dragged Wang Dayong, who was still mumbling "thank you", away. The friction sound of armor carried Pan Hao's anger, and the footsteps were particularly harsh in the silent courtyard.
*
Late at night, candlelight flickered in the exquisite room.
Ning Lingyi changed out of her riding clothes, washed up, slowly walked to the window, pushed open the window frame, and looked out at the dark night.
She raised her hands and looked at her fair, slender fingers. These hands, which could draw a carved bow and hold a red brush, just held the power of life and death.
For the first time, she felt so clearly that what she represented was not only honor, but also the responsibility that weighed on her shoulders.
She wanted to say something, to defend herself, but she couldn't utter a single word. She could find countless reasons for herself, but she was too embarrassed to make excuses. She couldn't deceive her own heart.
The night wind blew in with a cool breeze, ruffling her hair. When the sky gradually turned white, the confusion in her eyes completely faded away, leaving only an unprecedented clarity.
She finally understood something.
*
The next day, the morning light was dim and the mist had not yet dissipated.
In an inconspicuous little village dozens of miles away from Mingzhou City, the sounds of chickens crowing and dogs barking could be faintly heard.
In front of a simple but clean adobe house, a haggard woman and two children were brought in by several silent soldiers. There was still a look of great fear on their faces, like frightened birds.
Wang Dayong, who had been waiting here for a long time, felt as if all his bones were pulled out the moment he saw the figures of his wife, children and elderly mother. He fell to his knees with a thud, then rolled and crawled over and hugged them tightly.
The woman was stunned for a moment, then recognized her husband and rushed over with her child. The family hugged each other tightly and cried together, as if they wanted to cry out all their fear and ecstasy of surviving the disaster.
Several soldiers silently put down a coarse cloth package containing some small change. The house was already filled with enough food to last the winter, and then they turned and left.
After crying, the family didn't even bother to wipe their noses. Their eyes fell on the adobe house and the few acres of newly marked out fields next to it. They cried and kowtowed deeply in the direction of the princess's mansion.
In the distance, wisps of smoke rise up and merge into the rising sun.
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