Although Mu Wan felt an urge to shrink in embarrassment, she was slightly relieved to find that the people in the cave were not bandits but investigators from the Mingjing Bureau, a surveillance agency in this era somewhat akin to the Ming Dynasty’s Jinyiwei.1 Although their reputation was far from nice, they were, after all, still a legitimate government body and would not kill indiscriminately… right?
But it took Mu Wan only a moment to realize that she had relaxed too soon. While these people were indeed from the Mingjing Bureau, what they were doing in this secluded cave hardly seemed legitimate. Pretending not to notice the two bloody bodies on the ground, Mu Wan lifted her head and tried her best to show an innocent, naïve smile, “Apologies, sirs, for interrupting your work. I’ll leave immediately.”
However, she had barely taken a step back when she felt a sword pressed to her neck. The young man in the skin-tight clothing smiled brightly, “Apologies, Miss Mu, but I’m afraid we’ll need you to stay here for a while.”
“…” Gathering her meager courage, Mu Wan tried to negotiate, “May I ask how long ‘a while’ is? Perhaps I could step aside for a bit and wait outside…?”
A soft chuckle sounded from the other side of the cave, forcing Mu Wan to finally turn and face the one person that she’d been avoiding all this time. The man sat atop a protruding rock—draped in dark robes, his jet-black hair tied neatly, his noble bearing evident at a glance. With his strikingly handsome face, it should have been a pleasing scene to behold, if not for a pair of young man and woman lying at his feet, bound and in a sorry state. The woman was bleeding profusely and barely clinging to life, while the young man, although less severely injured, had a visible bloodstain on his abdomen, likely from a deep wound, and seemed unconscious.
The man paid her no mind; his long and slender fingers, bathed in the midday sun, continued moving adeptly to carve the prayer bead in his hand. It was such an eerily beautiful sight—one that sent chills down one’s spine. Without even lifting his head, he spoke up, showing a slight smile, “You can wait in the afterlife.”
Mu Wan immediately shut up. Such a pleasant voice, yet the words he said were so chilling and scary; no wonder he was feared like a demon god, this reputation was certainly well-deserved.
A few minutes later, Mu Wan, now with her hands bound behind her back, was increasingly despaired as she was forced to witness the Mingjing Bureau’s secret operatives. ‘The more you know, the faster you die—are they planning to finish me off?!’
Now completely in panic, Mu Wan watched as the bloodied man on the ground groaned and slowly opened his eyes.
“Awake?” Xie Heng asked, accidentally grazing his hand as he moved the carving knife. The sharp blade cut into his long fingers, drawing blood instantly.
“My Lord!” The young man in the skin-tight clothing frowned immediately, hurriedly pulling out a jar of ointment to hand over.
Xie Heng waved him off indifferently, pressing his bleeding fingertip against the nearly finished bead, staining half of it a dark red. Lowering his head, he looked at the young man lying at his feet. “He Tang, you’ve been with me for seven years now. Was it worth it—for a woman?”
The young man called He Tang struggled to lift his head, eyes filled with sorrow and pleading. “My Lord, I’m sorry.”
The barely breathing woman, hearing He Tang’s voice, forced her eyes open, weakly reaching to hold his hand. Then, she gathered her remaining strength and spoke to Xie Heng with difficulty, “Marquis, now that I’ve reported the whereabouts of the Ninth Prince in full, I can no longer return to the empress dowager. If you release us, He Tang and I swear to go into hiding, never to appear again.”
Forced to watch from the sideline, Mu Wan’s heart pounded with horrid realization as she pieced the story together from the brief exchange. The young man should be a secret guard who had served Xie Heng for many years, while the woman being a spy from the empress dowager’s faction. Likely, they both had been ordered to investigate the whereabouts of the missing young prince and the lost imperial edict by their respective masters, ending up falling in love in the process. The spy had found the information first and tried to return to report it to the empress dowager, only to be intercepted by Xie Heng, who tortured the information out of her. Knowing the woman was doomed if left in Xie Heng’s hands, He Tang had risked his life to try to rescue her, planning to flee together, but they were caught by Xie Heng here.
While dealing with traitors wasn’t unusual, the secrets she had just heard were not something a mere merchant’s daughter like her was allowed to know. Everyone knew the current emperor’s rise was somewhat dubious, and rumors said that during the palace coup three years ago, the late emperor had left an imperial edict of succession which, along with the infant prince whom the empress had just given birth to, had mysteriously disappeared. Speculation was one thing; this grim truth was another—and she had inadvertently learned that the infamous Marquis Zhenbei was plotting against the empress dowager and the emperor.
‘What a rotten luck—will I be able to leave this place alive?!’
Sure enough, Xie Heng let out a light laugh, gazing down at the female spy. “Unfortunately, I only trust dead people.”
“…” Mu Wan wanted to curse out loud—‘Damn this wretched imperial society! No regard for basic human rights!’
The woman likely knew her hope was a mere delusion, and her pleading was a desperate gamble to remind Xie Heng of He Tang’s past loyalty. Realizing it was futile, she shouted in a hoarse voice, “He Tang has served you faithfully for seven years, has proven his loyalty, and has made great contributions. Besides, he didn’t know that I had found the prince’s whereabouts! Just get rid of me and let him go!”
Xie Heng lowered his gaze, looking at He Tang, and said softly, “That’s why I came personally to see him off.”
Hearing the implication, the woman couldn’t contain her fury, cursing, “Xie Heng, your brothers and father were all noble heroes, loyal to their country, yet they produced a cold-hearted traitor like you! How will you face them in the afterlife?!”
Xie Heng’s expression remained placid, but even Mu Wan, tied up five meters away, could feel the sudden surge of menace radiating from him.
“That’s why they’re all dead.” Xie Heng stated flatly. Then, his blade swung, and a line of blood appeared on He Tang’s neck.
The young man’s face bore no resentment; he simply held the woman’s hand tightly, trying his best to utter his last words, “Don’t… don’t say that. My Lord… is not… is not without feeling.” He looked at Xie Heng, sadness filling his gaze. “My Lord, I’ll… go ahead first,” then turned to the woman, “and wait… for you below.” With those words, his head slumped, and the light in his eyes vanished entirely.
“A’Tang!” the woman cried out in agony, her gaze filled with hatred as she looked at Xie Heng. “Xie Heng, I curse you to experience the same pain of being separated from your loved ones, ending your life in misery!” With that, she plunged onto the blade in Xie Heng’s hand before collapsing on He Tang’s body, joining her lover in death.
The young man in the skin-tight clothes was furious. “Bah, bah! What nonsense! Dare to curse our Marquis!”
On the other hand, Xie Heng’s expression shifted into an indescribable smile, as though savoring the woman’s final words. “Separated from my loved one, ending my life in misery—isn’t that quite fitting?” His tone was almost appreciative.
The young man protested, “My lord!”
But Xie Heng paid his subordinate no attention. He removed a string of prayer beads from his wrist and meticulously threaded the newly carved bead onto it.
Mu Wan stared at the string, noticing the various shades of the beads, clearly of different ages. A bold suspicion took root in her mind: ‘Does this marquis carve a new bead each time he kills someone?’ Realizing that the long string of beads was not an item of prayer, a shiver ran up her spine.
‘Am I next?’
Sure enough, after putting back the string onto his wrist, Xie Heng strode over in her direction. “How did you end up here?”
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Why hello ML.
Aside from the gravitas of the tragic couple, this story certainly builds up a schadenfreude in the audience for the period of time (if, as the summary suggests and is common in these stories) where the FL just suspiciously squints at him and does not Get It when the ML finally falls and tries to express himself in an emotionally constipated way. But also, it makes it quite believable that he was a menacing villain in the OG, some transmigrations stories they don’t seem that way at all haha. Oh Mu Wan, how are you gonna get out of this one???