Chapter 1: Previous Hatred and Drowning

"Miss, Ning Ziying has passed out. Should I continue to beat her?" Two women in fine clothes were sitting high up in the Yunying courtyard of the Lord Protector's Manor scornfully looking at the thing huddled on the ground. It was so badly mutilated that it could barely be recognized as a human being. They picked up their teacups and slowly took a sip of tea. One of them walked forward and brushed aside the matted hair. She said with affectation, "Sister Ying! Wake up, Sister Ying!" Ning Ziying raised her dirty face, covered with mud. A few bloody cuts were visible where she’d been scratched by Ning Ziyan's nails. "Sister Ying, don't hate your elder sister. It’s not my fault you had an affair. And to think, Brother Yuhang almost married a dirty woman like you..." "Ning Ziyan!" she bellowed with difficulty, "it is you who had an affair with my fiancé and caused him to break it off with me!" Ning Ziyan put her hand holding a hanky under her nose as if to block something dirty while she said with disdain, "Brother Yuhang and I are fond of each other. It's you who shamelessly messed around! At first, I took pity on you. Maybe we’ll let you become Brother Yuhang's concubine; the minister's mansion can afford a concubine to serve me drinks." Looking at the perky Ning Ziyan in front of her, Ning Ziying felt a surge of anger, “this woman, who had secretly had an affair with my fiancé and even got pregnant out of wedlock, dared accuse me of the crime she’d committed herself! What a vicious woman! I treated her like my own elder sister!” Beaten by the servants, Ning Ziying lost her consciousness and lay on the ground. All of a Sudden, she waked up, with her eyes full of hatred, grabbed at Ning Ziyan, and fiercely bit her hand with her bloody, teeth-broken mouth. She felt her teeth cut open the skin and become embedded in the flesh, where bright-red blood oozed out. She didn’t know if the blood was hers or Ning Ziyan’s, and she didn’t care. Madam Ling, the Lord Protector's wife, had been sitting next to Ning Ziyan watching the fun. Now she rushed over to beat and scold Ning Ziying. But no matter how much pain Ning Ziying felt when her back and body were being beaten, she did not let up her bite. She stared straight at Ning Ziyan and bit her with greater and greater force. A powerful male voice suddenly resounded among the noise. "Bitch!" The next moment, Ning Ziying was struck ferociously in the stomach. Caught off-guard, she flew back, smashing into a large stone by the pond! Blood sprayed from her mouth, staining the ground in front of her. "How dare you hurt Yan'er! Throw this shameless bitch into the pond," Xia Yuhang said. "How dare you bite me! Drown this bitch in the pond!" Ning Ziyan shouted with madness... Ning Ziying tried to look up at the heartless man who had spoken sweet words to her only yesterday, but several people grabbed her hair and dragged her into the nearby lotus pond. "Miss!" a scream was muffled by the water. But Ning Ziying recognized it’s the voice of Xiang'er, her personal maid. She tried to look back, but strong hands held her down. She was suffocating now. With her last bit of strength, she tried to focus her eyes on the faces of Madam Ling, Ning Ziyan, and Xia Yuhang. She smiled silently toward the sky. Her sad, distorted smile could be seen through the fluctuations of the water surface, and it chilled those who looked on... Madam Ling stood up. Once the water's surface no longer fluttered, and the mistress and her maid were dead, she said, "Someone put stones on them and make sure they sink. After tomorrow, we'll tell everyone that they drowned." "Yes, madam!" Several ladies grabbed either side of a stone and tied it to Ning Ziying and Xiang'er, then pushed it hard into the lotus pond with a big splash. No one would know that the owner of the Yunying Courtyard had died in this lotus pond. After she had dealt with everything else, Madam Ling turned her head to Ning Ziyan and said, "Yan'er, that bitch gave you a nasty bite. Go and see the doctor. Don't put off tomorrow's wedding because of that." "Mom, don't worry about my minor injury. Will the death of Madam Ming delay our wedding?" Ning Ziyan asked. Just now, someone had reported that Madam Ming was dead! Madam Ming was the co-wife of the Lord Protector and had the same position as Madam Ling. If the news were to be spread out, Ning Ziyan, as her daughter, could not marry until three months later. But even though she could wait, her pregnant belly could not! "Today? Why did she have to die today?” Madam Ling shouted. “Don't worry, Yan'er. I will put off the time of her death until the day after tomorrow." The bitch should have died long ago, but she had clung on for much longer than anticipated. As they spoke, they left Yunying Courtyard. The last lady to leave closed the door, and the Yunying Courtyard was restored to peace and quiet again. No one would have thought that this empty, closed yard had lost its owner... …or had it?