Chapter 21, Section 21: He Became Blind
Xiuyu was initially overjoyed, but then fell into panic at losing her support, muttering tremblingly, "How could this happen?"
Beside her, the maid checked Yuezhi's breathing and panicked, "She's not dead, she just fainted... What if she wakes up and reports it to the authorities?"
Although Qi Miao was old, he was the only man in the Qi family who could handle things. As long as he was still alive, with his connections in the officialdom and Yanjing City, no matter how big the crime, it would not fall on their heads.
But he died. Others didn't know that Yuezhi had a capable "younger brother," but Xiuyu did, and she was even more panicked.
Maid: "Madam, shall we tell Madam what happened?"
Xiuyu shook her head fiercely: "Are you stupid? This was something the master asked us to do. When the master was alive, he would naturally take responsibility. Now that the master is dead, the madam will only push us out as scapegoats in order to keep things quiet."
She frantically paced around the room until she stepped on fresh blood and was choked by the smell. Only then did she snap out of her daze in horror and kick the unconscious Yuezhi hard on the head in disgust.
"It's all that jinx's fault! How could he wake up after drinking so much sleeping potion!" she yelled angrily at Yue Zhi. "Why didn't you just accept your fate? If you had just given in earlier, none of this trouble would have happened!"
Xiuyu sighed and ordered people to carry the two, one dead and one unconscious, out.
*
Yuezhi felt heavy all over and had a dull headache. She instinctively reached for the bed sheet, but instead grabbed a handful of damp, soft hay.
She got up from the ground and opened her eyes to see where she was, but no matter how wide she opened her eyes, all she could see was a blurry image.
In my line of sight, all around was dark, with only a small window at the back that let in a faint white light. I could only tell the intensity of the light, but I couldn’t see even the slightest detail.
She panicked a little and reached out to try to get out, but bumped into the rough wood.
This is... the government prison?
Yuezhi frantically pounded on the cell door, "Why are you locking me up?"
After knocking for a while, a jailer came over and mercilessly tapped her hand, which was gripping the cell door, with the hilt of his knife. Yuezhi cried out in pain, let go of her hand, and asked him.
"What crime did I commit? Why am I being imprisoned?"
The jailer was very impatient. "You beat Master Qi Miao to death. The Qi family's concubines and servants all saw it. There are witnesses and physical evidence. The prefect has already ordered that you be executed in the autumn."
"I'm innocent!" Yuezhi tried hard to recall what happened that day. "They tricked me into going to make clothes, but then they drugged me and tried to bully me. I had no choice but to hit him with a vase. He's old and can't take much damage. I didn't mean to kill him."
"You mean, Master Qi is a wealthy and influential man with a great reputation, so he would set up a trap to smear you, only to be beaten to death by you?" the jailer sneered.
"I, I..." Yuezhi felt wronged, and her lips trembled as she spoke.
What happened? Where did the problem occur?
The Qi family... the Qi family that once stayed at the Marquis's mansion? She had never provoked Qi Miao, nor did she know him. The only Qi family member she knew was Xiuyu.
"His concubine framed me!" she shouted at the jailer. "I am truly innocent! I beg Your Excellency to reopen this case!"
“Every day, people in prison cry out for justice. What makes you so special that you would warrant the Prefect’s retrial of your case?”
The jailer gave her a wink, signaling her to give him a bribe, but Yuezhi's vision was blurred with blackness, and she couldn't even make out the jailer's movements.
"Hmph, ungrateful wretch." The jailer turned and left, and no one paid any attention to Yuezhi even after she had cried out until her throat was sore.
The prison was dark all year round, damp and stuffy, and insects and rats often ran through the haystacks, which frightened her so much that she dared not sit down and could only stand against the wall.
She rubbed her eyes hard, closed them and opened them again, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't see anything clearly.
Fear gripped her: Pei Heng had gone to the capital and disappeared without a trace, Hua Qing was alone at home, she was inexplicably burdened with a murder charge, and had even gone blind...
Yuezhi leaned against the corner of the wall, wanting to cry several times, but the dull pain in her eyes prevented her from crying out, leaving her only to suffer in her heart.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but she was hungry and cold, and she knelt against the wall, almost fainting.
"Sister!" It was Hua Qing's voice.
"Yuezhi, are you alright?" Wang Qiushi accompanied Hua Qing to visit her. The two of them had bribed the jailer before they were allowed into the cell.
The cell door was unlocked, and Hua Qing ran to her, checking her over. "Sister, are you alright? When I came home that day, the neighbors told me that you had been taken away. I went to that house, but they said it had been empty for many years and no one lived there."
She thought Yuezhi had been kidnapped by villains, so she called the Wang family to search for her. A day later, she learned that the Qi family had briefly rented the house. When she found the Qi family, they were holding a funeral for Qi Miao inside.
“I went to Xiuyu to demand an explanation, but I couldn’t even get in the door… Sister, Xiuyu is a menace! The Qi family bribed the prefect; they’re a den of snakes and rats. Even if we have money, we have no way to get through.”
Hua Qing has a quick temper, and she started crying as she spoke.
Listening to her rambling, Yuezhi realized that she had been unconscious for more than two days, and it was already afternoon.
She comforted Hua Qing, "Don't rush to cry, it's not like there's no way out right now."
Hua Qing straightened up and saw that her eyes were lifeless. She raised her hand and waved it in front of her, but her dark pupils did not move because of the gesture.
"Sister, your eyes..."
Yuezhi lowered her eyes. "I was unconscious for a long time, and when I woke up I was like this... Listen to me, the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion has dealings with Pei Heng, and the Marquis's wife is also kind. Although I killed someone, it is also a fact that Qi Miao deceived me and intended to humiliate me. If you tell the Marquis's wife about this, she may be able to save my life if she helps me."
"Alright, I'll go to the Marquis's residence in a bit." Hua Qing took the food box from Wang Qiushi and laid out the food. "Sister, please have something to eat first."
"Ahem." Yuezhi coughed twice, looking embarrassed. "I can't see clearly. If I eat in an unseemly manner, please don't laugh at me."
"I'll feed you." Hua Qing pouted and actually fed her one bite at a time with chopsticks.
Her cousin asked her to take care of Yuezhi, but she was only thinking about her own marriage and couldn't stay by Yuezhi's side all the time, leaving her alone and vulnerable to being plotted against.
Wang Qiushi couldn't help, so he just silently made the bed, cleaned up the moldy hay, and laid out the thick straw mat and quilts he had brought from home. Fearing that Yuezhi would catch a cold in the prison, he also brought her two sets of thick clothes.
After eating her fill and drinking the warm soup, Yuezhi felt much better.
Visiting time was over, and the jailer came to shoo people away.
She held Hua Qing's hand tightly, reluctant to let go. "Now that things are like this, I don't know if I can still finish making your wedding dress before the wedding date."
"What are you thinking about now? I've already made a deal with Qiushi. We won't get married until you come home." Huaqing held her tightly, reluctant to part. "Don't worry, I will definitely ask Madam Hou for help."
The jailer tried to separate the two, but Wang Qiushi stopped him. The two talked for a while through the cell door until it was almost dark before Hua Qing was taken out.
As the footsteps faded into the distance, the light streaming in through the small window disappeared, leaving only darkness in Yuezhi's eyes.
She groped her way to the bed and lay down wearily.
Quiet, deathly quiet.
The nearby cells seemed empty; apart from her own breathing, she could hear nothing, as if she had been forgotten in a corner—everyone had left, leaving her all alone.
Since Pei Heng started sleeping in a separate bed when he was ten, she has been sleeping alone for eight years. Although she has never fallen asleep while holding him again, she no longer feels lonely or helpless.
Now, that feeling of loneliness and emptiness surged up like a tide, threatening to engulf her in the silent darkness.
*
Hua Qing's plea worked. Lady Hou went to the prefect to intercede, and the originally planned execution in the autumn was changed to a one-year imprisonment and a compensation of three hundred taels to the Qi family.
The day after her sentence was changed, Lady Hou came to visit her in prison and brought the best doctor in the city to examine her eyes.
"We thought someone in the capital would take our lives, but we never expected that we'd be dragged into this mess by that old bastard Qi Miao," Lady Hou sighed repeatedly.
Marquis Jing'an and Qi Miao were old friends. If the truth of this matter were made public, it would tarnish Qi Miao's reputation and implicate Marquis Jing'an. Publicly, the Marquis's wife could not say anything, but privately, she could not help but feel indignant on behalf of Yuezhi.
“I have instructed the jailers to prepare meals specifically for you. You don’t actually need to stay in jail for a year. Once the Marquis returns victorious, there will be a reason to release you.”
"Thank you, Madam." Yuezhi was in low spirits and couldn't smile even after hearing such good news.
After examining her pulse and looking at her eyes, the doctor in front of her looked troubled. "Young lady, you may have injured your head. If you can keep a cheerful mood and be happy every day, and with the help of herbal medicine, you may be able to see again one day."
But now she can only stay in prison, where it's dark and damp, not a place to take medicine and recuperate, so how can she be happy?
The doctor added, "The young lady can temporarily stop taking the medicine and focus on resting. We can observe her again after some time; perhaps the blood clot in her brain will dissipate on its own."
Yuezhi was already suffering enough, and she also felt that brewing medicine every day was too troublesome, so she chose to rest quietly for a few months.
Lady Hou said, "All medicines have some toxicity; it's better not to take them."
He told her to rest well and wait for good news from the front lines, then left with his men.
With no one beside her, Yuezhi unconsciously tensed up.
She couldn't see clearly; her whole being was in a state of confusion. She couldn't tell whether the light coming in from the window was from the morning or the afternoon, or sometimes from a damp, overcast day. For several days in a row, her vision was dim, as if she were in an endless night.
At first, Hua Qing and Wang Qiushi's visits would lift her spirits a little, but gradually she found that she had become a burden.
She could no longer pick up a needle and thread.
Because of her, their wedding date was postponed again and again.
Yuezhi felt guilty and remorseful. Several times in her dreams, she returned to the day she killed him, crying and begging herself not to do it, yet she couldn't help but feel resentment and wanted to chop that disgusting, stinking man to pieces.
Together with Xiuyu, he ruined her life.
After an unknown amount of time, the weather changed from hot to dry and cold. Lady Hou hadn't come for a long time, and Hua Qing, who usually came to visit the prison every two days, also didn't come.
Yuezhi suspected that there was something wrong with her head and that she had misremembered the time.
As darkness fell and then dawn broke, she was suddenly awakened by a nightmare, drenched in cold sweat and unable to move.
He could see light coming in through the window; it was daytime. But he couldn't hear anything inside the prison. Instead, he could hear the sound of galloping hooves coming from outside the small window, across the courtyard and the walls of the government office.
The fleeing civilians screamed and wailed, while the barbarians who stormed into the city looted and pillaged everywhere, setting fires and kidnapping people. The air was filled with the stench of burning flesh and blood.
Yuezhi strained to stand on tiptoe by the small window and overheard the foreigners' words, then nervously shrank back.
Women abducted by barbarians would suffer a fate worse than death.
She covered her mouth to keep herself from making a sound, but the smell of smoke blowing in the wind made her cough.
More and more hoofbeats echoed outside the government office, the sounds of fighting growing closer. Perhaps in the next second, a stray arrow would fly in, or a blade would cleave through the air, ending her life.
Yuezhi felt both fear and pain in her heart. She hugged herself tightly and sobbed silently, "Mother... Mother..."
The sound of horses' hooves still broke into the government office.
She heard several heavy footsteps, the clanging of metal against metal, and the whistling of swords being drawn. Those dangerous sounds pressed down on her like collapsing mountains, making it hard for her to breathe.
A jumble of sounds filled her ears until the chains securing the prison door fell to the ground, and unfamiliar footsteps approached.
"Don't come any closer!" Yuezhi screamed as she shrank back against the wall, waving her weak hands to resist the barbarian man's approach.
A large hand gripped her struggling arm, and amidst her collapsing trembling, the young man's voice was hoarse, almost choked with sobs.
"Yuezhi, it's me."
"I'm back."
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