The Rebirth of Han Yuxi

Chapter 0779 Psychological Warfare (4)

When Yuchen woke up, she found herself lying on a wooden bed. A thin quilt covered the bed, and it gave off a strange smell. Remembering what Qingyi had just said, Yuchen climbed out of bed and continued to vomit until bile rose in her throat. Her face was already pale, but now it was completely colourless.

Qingyi walked in from outside and handed Yuchen a cup of water. ”Have some water.” When Yuchen didnʼt take it, Qingyi smiled and said, ”We brought this from Wangyeʼs residence. It isnʼt from here.” When someone was reduced to that state, they could only comply honestly. Who still had the right to fuss over details anymore?

Only then did Yuchen take the cup and rinse her mouth. When she had finished, she stared at Qingyi and asked, ”What is your purpose in bringing me to a place like this?”

Qingyi shrugged. ”I wasnʼt the one who wanted to bring you here. Wangye ordered it. Wangye wants you to meet someone here—an old acquaintance of yours.”

Yuchen asked, ”Who does he want me to meet?” Who could have incurred such tremendous hatred from Yan Wushuang that he had turned her into a military prostitute? Yuchen had been confined recently and was poorly informed. The fact that Empress Dowager Song had been made a military prostitute was no secret; more than half the people in the capital already knew. However, as Zhou Jing had issued the order, no one dared to criticise it openly.

Yan Wushuang had raised Zhou Jing to be cold-blooded and bloodthirsty. Other than Yan Wushuang, no one could keep him under control.

Qingyi replied, ”Youʼll know once you see the person. Letʼs go now, if you can. After youʼve met that person, weʼll return to the Wangfu.”

Yuchen responded weakly, ”Help me walk.” Truthfully, Yuchen did not want to go, but she knew she had been brought there specifically to see that person. Even if she refused, Qingyi would have her dragged there. To preserve her appearances, it would be better for her to recognise the situation and cooperate.

The military prostitutesʼ quarters were occupied exclusively by women. Some of the women had been summoned to serve the men, while the others had remained behind to rest.

Yuchen was not wearing her veiled hat at that moment, so her face was visible to all. One of the women immediately lunged towards her upon recognising her, but the guards stopped her. The woman knelt on the ground and cried, ”Your Majesty the Empress, please save me! I beg you to save me!”

Yuchen turned towards her, her face filled with shock. ”Lin Wanyuan?” Lin Wanyuan was Lin Fengyuanʼs younger sister. How could she have been sent to the military camp to become a military prostitute?

Kneeling on the ground, Lin Wanyuan tearfully pleaded with Yuchen. ”Your Majesty the Empress, please save me. I donʼt want to stay here any longer! Your Majesty the Empress, I beg you!”

Yuchen smiled bitterly. She was now like a clay Bodhisattva crossing a river, unable even to protect itself. How could she possibly save another person? ”You should go to General Lin. He is the one capable of saving you.” Lin Fengyuan was now Minister of War, a man of high rank and immense authority.

Had Lin Fengyuan been willing to concern himself with her, she would not have fallen to such a state. Lin Wanyuan continued to plead, ”Your Majesty the Empress, please save me! I donʼt want to stay here any longer.” This place was purgatory, a place where one was better off dead than alive.

Qingyi looked at the dejected Yuchen and ordered the guards behind her, ”Drag her away and slap her across the mouth twenty times.” She then addressed the surrounding women. ”Anyone who dares shout again will be slapped across the mouth forty times.” Forty hard slaps to the face could k!ll someone.

As soon as she had finished speaking, a guard stepped forward and dragged Lin Wanyuan away. Seeing this, all the other women knelt on the ground, too afraid to move. Qingyi then led Yuchen into another tent and ordered the women who were resting inside, ”All of you, get out.”

A foul stench filled the tent. When Yuchen smelled it, she could not stop herself from vomiting again. Qingyi restrained herself repeatedly before managing not to say anything.

Seeing Qingyiʼs overwhelmingly imposing manner, everyone sensibly understood what they should do and withdrew. Other than Yuchen and Qingyi, only the unconscious Empress Dowager Song remained inside.

Empress Dowager Song was lying curled up in a tight ball, covered only by a tattered cotton rag whose original colour had been lost to grime and age. Her hair was dishevelled, and her face and exposed hands were covered in wounds. Pus had formed in the wounds, making her look utterly revolting.

At that moment, Yuchen could scarcely believe her own eyes. Although Empress Dowager Song had been confined in Cining Palace for the past two years, eating vegetarian food and reciting Buddhist prayers, Yuchen had continued visiting her on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month. At that time, Empress Dowager Song had led a life of luxury and looked like a young married woman of twenty-seven or twenty-eight. Yet in just one month, she had become an old beggar crone.

Qingyi expressionlessly ordered the guard beside her, ”Wake her up.”

The guard walked forward and kicked Empress Dowager Song twice.

The pain caused Empress Dowager Song to open her eyes. When she saw Yuchen, it was as though she had seen her saviour. She cried out happily, ”Yuchen! Have you come to save me?”

After Empress Dowager Song was sent to the military camp, she was ordered to serve the soldiers from morning until night. They only stopped when she lost consciousness, resuming as soon as she awoke. After three days of this treatment, she could no longer endure it and fell ill. Unlike the other military prostitutes, who could summon a female physician for treatment if they were injured or unwell, Empress Dowager Song was not granted that privilege.

Among the women sent to the military camp this time were those from the Imperial Palace who had already lost their chastity, Zhou Chaijin’s consorts and women whom Zhou Chaixuan had previously favoured. Many of these consorts had once suffered Empress Dowager Song’s abuse and persecution, so how could they possibly refrain from seeking revenge when they saw her? The matrons guarding them did not interfere at all. As long as no one died, they allowed the women to beat and curse Empress Dowager Song and even steal her food. All provisions were rationed, so once her share was stolen, she received nothing more. If Yan Wushuang had not wanted to keep her alive to torment her further, she would probably have starved to death by now.

Qingyi shattered Empress Dowager Song’s illusions by interjecting: “She is no longer the Empress. She now belongs to my Wangye.” 

Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Song spat out, ”Han Yuchen, how can you face my son after doing this? My sonʼs corpse and bones have not yet grown cold, yet you are already rushing to find another man? You are a wh0re who has the nature of water and the character of willow catkins. Are you truly so incapable of living without a man?” Back then, her son had even defied his own mother for Han Yuchenʼs sake. Yet what had come of it? Her sonʼs forty-nine-day mourning period had not even ended, and this woman had already remarried.

Yuchen loudly protested, ”No! I have done nothing to betray His Majesty. I am innocent. I am completely pure and innocent.” Her body had remained untouched, but her reputation had already been ruined.

As though afraid that the commotion was still insufficient, Qingyi interjected, ”Madam, that is not right. His Highness Yan Wang dotes on you so much. How can you deny it outright?” She wanted this old witch to understand how painful it was to know that her daughter-in-law had married the man who had killed her son.

Empress Dowager Songʼs eyes bulged with such fury that they seemed about to split apart. Summoning all the viciousness within her, she struggled up from the bed. ”Iʼll kill you, you wh0re! Iʼll kill you, you wh0re…” This contemptible woman must have colluded with Yan Wushuang to murder her imperial son. That had to be the truth.

Before she could reach Yuchen, Qingyi kicked her so hard that she coughed up blood. Empress Dowager Song tried to rise again, but she could not. Although her body refused to cooperate, she still had her mouth. She furiously cursed, ”You shameless, poisonous woman with no sense of honour or decency! You conspired with a rebel to murder my imperial son. Poisonous woman, you will die a wretched death. After you die, you will descend into the eighteen levels of hell…”

Looking at Yuchen, who had fainted again, Qingyi shook her head. ”She faints at the slightest thing. She truly is useless.” Qingyi looked down on Yuchen ten thousand times over.

Empress Dowager Song laughed loudly, apparently feeling that she had finally vented some of her anger. Qingyi reminded her, ”Rather than cursing her, you should think about yourself. A wicked woman like you, who has committed countless evil deeds, will be thrown into an unmarked mass grave for abandoned corpses when you die. Even wild dogs will refuse to eat you.” Her Wangye had been far too merciful to this poisonous woman. They should have flayed her skin and pulled out her sinews, cut her to pieces with a thousand blades, and allowed her to experience the most extreme suffering in the world before dying. Only then would their hatred be fully avenged and relieved.

Empress Dowager Song shuddered and stared at Qingyi, her eyes seeming to have been quenched in poison. ”All of you rebellious ministers and treacherous subjects will die wretched deaths.” Empress Dowager Song had been pampered and indulged from childhood. After reaching the traditional age of putting up her hair with a hairpin, she entered the imperial palace and received the Emperorʼs favour. It could be said that she had enjoyed every form of wealth and privilege that the mortal world could offer. Yet she had never imagined that she would suffer in this way in her old age.

Qingyi ignored her, picked Yuchen up, and carried her outside.

Yuchen was both frightened and severely distressed. After returning, she developed a high fever. The fever left her delirious, and she began muttering incoherent nonsense.

Upon receiving the news, Yan Wushuang ordered, ”Bring back the old woman who used to serve her.” With that woman at her side, Yuchen might recover more quickly.

The high fever continued for three days and three nights before finally subsiding. When Yuchen opened her eyes, she saw a familiar figure. She asked in disbelief, ”Momo, is that really you? Am I dreaming?” Momo Gui and Shiqin had been separated from her when she was captured. She had believed that she would never see Momo Gui again.

Momo Gui wiped away her tears. ”Yes, I have returned. Niangniang, whatever you wish to say can wait. Eat something first.” Although they had only been separated for a month, Yuchen had become so weak that she was in a dreadful and almost unrecognisable state.

After eating a bowl of astragalus-and-ginseng porridge🖼️, Yuchenʼs complexion improved slightly. ”Momo, where is Shiqin?” Shiqin was the maid who had served her the longest and pleased her the most.

Seeing how anxious Yuchen was, Momo Gui said, ”Donʼt worry. Shiqin is unharmed.” Shiqin was indeed unharmed, although she had married.

Upon hearing that Shiqin had married, Yuchen seized Momo Guiʼs hand and asked, ”What kind of man did Shiqin marry?” There was no need to think about it; Shiqin must have been forced into the marriage.

Momo Gui hurriedly said, ”Niangniang, donʼt worry. Shiqin married a fifth-rank Thousand-Household Commander, and she is his lawful principal wife. Under the circumstances at the time, marrying a military officer as his lawful wife could be considered a way out.

Shiqin was also considered distinctively attractive. Moreover, having remained by Yuchenʼs side for many years, her ears were moistened, and her eyes were dyed by everything she constantly saw and heard. As a result, she possessed an air and bearing that ordinary women lacked. A woman like her was naturally in great demand.

Momo Gui comforted Yuchen, ”Niangniang, donʼt be anxious. If you would like to see Shiqin, I will send someone to deliver a message to her.”

Yuchen shook her head. ”I wonʼt see her for the time being. Iʼll meet her after I recover.” Once Shiqin was married, she would be bound by many restrictions. Since Yuchen could no longer help her, she would at least refrain from troubling Shiqin.

After lying back down on the bed, Yuchen asked, ”Momo, where have you been during this time?” Seeing that Momo Gui had lost a lot of weight and that her complexion was worse than before, Yuchen realised that she must have suffered abuse and hardship, too.

Momo Gui did not conceal anything from Yuchen. ”At my advanced age, there wasnʼt much work I could do, so they made me wash clothes for those military gentlemen. It was not especially exhausting. I was simply worried about Niangniang.” It was now the fifth lunar month, so apart from being tiring, washing clothes was not particularly difficult. However, the food and accommodation were poor, and because she was also worried about Yuchen, Momo Gui was unable to enjoy life during this period.

After saying this, Momo Gui continued, ”Niangniang, in your present circumstances, you are not in control of your own body. Thinking about it endlessly will accomplish nothing. What matters most is that you properly nurse yourself back to health.”

Yuchen closed her eyes and said nothing.

P.S. (Author June): Yuchen was, in truth, merely a vulnerable woman. Hmm… Was Empress Dowager Songʼs fate miserable enough?