Qin Xiaozhou trembled all over, as if he had been submerged in water. He had difficulty breathing and his head was congested with blood. Finally, disregarding etiquette, he got up and ran out of the house. He paced back and forth on the stone slabs in the courtyard several times before he could barely suppress the thoughts in his mind.
He rushed back into the house and asked, "Why?"
Why did that man kill her?
Qin Xiaozhou's head was spinning. The answer had already exploded in her mind like a thunderbolt, but she just couldn't believe it. Didn't that man love that woman? How could he kill her?
But it was precisely because he was a man that he killed her.
Because she and the princess are both women.
How can a woman be above a man?
Shangguan Qianrong glanced at Qin Xiaozhou. "You've already guessed it, haven't you? Because she's a woman. They're all women, and the one who killed her was a man."
Qin Xiaozhou was in a daze and didn't know how she left the Shen Mansion and returned home. It seemed that she hadn't even entered Yifanfengshun before she collapsed at the shop entrance, which terrified many of the shop's customers and scared the Lu family out of their wits.
Meanwhile, in the Shen residence, Shen Panyun nervously clutched her handkerchief. She didn't feel much about the story itself, but was astonished by the actions of the Prime Minister's daughter and Princess Chaoyang. Men were like heaven and earth, while those two women actually dared to try to overturn the world.
What made her nervous was how her grandmother would deal with her after she learned about the story.
Shangguan Qianrong seemed unaware of her unease, as if she simply wanted to finish the story. "That eldest daughter of the Prime Minister's family was my elder sister, while I was an illegitimate daughter. When I was still scheming to win favor with my father and frame my elder sister, she said, 'How could a woman raised under the red flag only know how to fight for men's pity and sympathy?' At the time, I didn't understand, but years later, when the Prime Minister's family was raided and she took me on the run, I realized that she fundamentally disagreed with the idea of obtaining things through men's pity."
Suppressing the fear and shock in her heart, Shen Panyun realized that her grandmother was actually a concubine's daughter from the Prime Minister's family—no, she should be called a concubine's daughter from the Prime Minister's family of the previous dynasty, because the current dynasty was only established more than ten years ago, and any news of her today could bring about her death. She asked in a trembling voice, "Then, who is my father?"
"Before the Prime Minister's mansion was raided, I became a concubine in the Second Prince's mansion. The Prime Minister's mansion was guilty of too many crimes, and the Second Prince abandoned me. It was my elder sister who took me away. At that time, I was already pregnant with your father. Later, at the border, my elder sister was worried about me and followed the army around. She sent someone to take me south by water. She said that as long as everything was settled back in the capital, she would come to pick me up. Unfortunately, I waited for three years, and all I got was the news that she had been killed."
The orphan of the second prince of the previous dynasty?
Shen Panyun nearly fainted. Those were remnants of the previous dynasty, a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of their family. Her whole body went limp, and she slid off the stool as if boneless, falling to the ground, her face deathly pale.
Shen Baishan almost lost his footing outside the door, and only after catching his breath did he run in. "Mother, Mother, what you just said, is it all true?"
He didn't want to die.
Shangguan Qianrong nodded slowly, "Let this secret remain a secret. Just pretend you don't know anything about it."
She seemed to recall that after her elder sister led her out of the capital, they fled in hiding, and her elder sister said, "A long, long time ago, my name was Shen Qianhua. The Prime Minister's Mansion no longer exists. From now on, our home will be called the Shen Mansion."
That evening, devastating news arrived from the Shen residence: Old Madam Shen had passed away.
Qin Xiaozhou collapsed and did not wake up for three days.
Lu Yan stayed by the bedside, holding Qin Xiaozhou's hand, feeling very guilty. "If only I had gone with you that day. Did the Shen family bully my sister-in-law?"
Zhao Fang wiped her daughter-in-law's face repeatedly. Qin Xiaozhou had a persistent high fever and was unconscious. She couldn't drink the medicine. The whole family was anxious. "Dayun, why don't we close the shop?"
Lu Yunfeng stood at the door and shook his head. "The shop can't be closed. If she still hasn't woken up after taking this medicine, I'll take her to the prefectural city for medical treatment tomorrow. Mother, you must take good care of this shop. Brother Ma's barbecue stall must continue. If that doesn't work, invite Cousin Zhao Zhong to come and barbecue together. As for the embroidery shop in the western suburbs, I've already asked people from the yamen to help keep an eye on it. Everything must proceed according to her original plan without any changes."
Lu Yan was puzzled and annoyed. "Brother, your wife is in such a state, how can you still be thinking about these things? Of course, your wife is the most important. Mother and I will go with you to seek medical treatment."
"Medical treatment requires money." Lu Yunfeng felt like the sky was falling, but he couldn't show it. Qin Xiaozhou had collapsed, so he had to take charge of the business. "Only with a shop can we make money, and only with money can I seek medical treatment everywhere. Besides, this is the shop she has worked so hard for, so we can't give it up."
In his dream, Qin Xiaozhou struggled through the mud, surrounded by thick fog, unable to find his way. Shangguan Qianrong's voice echoed repeatedly, "The path you are about to take has been tried for you by someone. It is very, very difficult."
This road has no direction and no end...
After walking for a very long time, in a daze, Qin Xiaozhou dragged her broken body to the ground in the swamp. She couldn't walk anymore. There was no one on this path, and it seemed that her persistence was meaningless. But suddenly, the thick fog in front of her dispersed, and she saw many people. She couldn't see their clothes or faces, but they were all women. They were walking forward along the swamp, without knowing the end or feeling tired. Some were swallowed by the swamp, and some were lifted up by those who were stuck. All of them were just trying to help more people get out of this swamp.
She seemed to see Princess Chaoyang in the crowd, clad in armor and wielding a spear, and she also saw the resolute determination of the eldest daughter of the Prime Minister's family to break free from the cage for women of the world. She saw countless women rushing forward, filling the bottomless mud of the swamp with their bones and blood...
With tears streaming down his face, Qin Xiaozhou stepped over the bones of his ancestors and walked forward step by step.
"Sister-in-law, don't cry, wake up soon."
The voice sounded familiar, and Qin Xiaozhou's numb heart skipped a beat, but her mind was foggy, and she couldn't remember who was speaking.
Lu Yan knelt by the bedside, crying bitterly, "Sister-in-law, please wake up soon."
Qin Xiaozhou stared blankly at the tears on the back of her hand for a moment, then suddenly remembered that this was Lu Yan. Yes, this was Lu Yan. The princess was dead, the eldest daughter of the Prime Minister's family was dead, and countless women struggling to survive were dead, but she was still alive.
There are still many, many women living on, and this road will eventually come to an end.
The thought jolted her awake like a thunderbolt. She gasped for breath and opened her eyes, only to see Lu Yan's worried gaze and Zhao Fang's joy. "Amitabha, I'm finally awake. It's good that I'm awake."
Lu Yan wiped away her tears, ran out the door and came back in a moment later with a bowl of hot porridge. "Sister-in-law, drink the porridge first, then take your medicine."
Qin Xiaozhou got up, feeling weak and powerless. She ate some porridge and then drank a large glass of milk. She was about to leave when Lu Yunfeng stopped her. He had been traveling around for the past few days and looked tired, with bloodshot eyes. "Where are you going?"
Qin Xiaozhou looked at him with a firm gaze, "Go to the Shen residence."
She wanted to find out what happened next, and she wanted to ask the princess.
Lu Yunfeng glanced at the sky. "Old Madam Shen passed away three days ago, in the middle of the night."
It was evening, and the sunset painted half the sky, giving Qin Xiaozhou's pale face a slight blush.
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