The Slender Waist-Chapter 788 - 560 Clean and Tidy

Feng Yun’s eyes were red, anger burning like a raging flame, flickering in her pupils as if it would transform into a sharp dagger, ruthlessly splitting open the secrets buried in Feng Jingyao’s belly...

Feng Jingyao sneered.

Seeing Feng Yun in such agony brought him a subtle sense of pleasure.

"Her death was merely the King of Hell claiming her soul. What has it to do with me?"

Feng Yun’s expression changed.

"Feng Jingyao—"

Through clenched teeth, she hadn’t even acted yet when a cold arm suddenly swept past her vision.

A man’s steel-like grip clamped onto Feng Jingyao’s throat like iron pincers.

In the dimly lit prison under the night sky, the lamps burned with a faint glow.

Pei Jue stayed silent. His sullen face carried the chill of hell’s embrace, and his blade-like gaze swept across, sending shivers down one’s spine.

Feng Jingyao’s head was forced upward, his jaw tightening, and the corners of his mouth dipped slightly, revealing a faintly mocking smile.

Pei Jue squinted slightly and applied a bit more pressure.

Feng Jingyao’s face turned a shade like pig liver, yet he still refused to speak. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Pei Jue loosened his grip slightly. "Do you think by keeping silent, it all ends?"

Feng Jingyao let out a bitter laugh. "...Dead either way... Do as you please."

"Death comes in many forms," Pei Jue said coldly.

Feng Jingyao’s mouth set in a slight, defiant curve, his arrogant demeanor towering like a sky-high mountain. He gave Pei Jue a sideways glance. "Go ahead. In all my years, I’ve witnessed all kinds of methods. I might as well see what unique tricks Prince Yonghuai has up his sleeve."

With that, he turned his gaze to Feng Yun once again.

"The Feng Family of Xuzhou has no cowards."

Feng Yun narrowed her eyes slowly, letting out a cold laugh.

In the silence, Pei Jue’s voice rang out calmly.

"Under Minister Feng’s knee, there are two legitimate sons, three illegitimate sons, five grandsons, and twelve great-grandsons... Are they all like Minister Feng, forged entirely of iron, fearless of death, and unafraid of a thousand cuts and dismemberment?"

Feng Jingyao’s gaze shifted.

Everyone has a weak point.

Even a heartless man like Feng Jingyao would have tender affection for his descendants.

Feng Jingyao’s fury erupted. Taking a deep, angry breath, he rasped a reprimand.

"Pei Jue, you dare!"

Pei Jue spoke in a grave tone, "Don’t assume that just because they reside in Tai City, I cannot reach them. Minister Feng..."

He paused for a moment, his dark eyes gleaming faintly. Murderous intent seemed to exhale with his breath, silently pounding against one’s chest.

"I have a thousand ways to ensure they die miserable deaths. Their ends will not be any lighter than yours. Shall we wager on this?"

His voice was measured and calm, without the slightest hint of threat—just as though he were stating a fact.

At first, Feng Jingyao glared at him, locking eyes.

The tension in the air was suffocating.

Gradually, Feng Jingyao deflated, his entire frame slumping like a punctured sack. He collapsed onto a pile of straw, leaning against the wall, his lifeless eyes fixed on the dim oil lamp ahead.

"Your mother... married into the Feng Family as a daughter-in-law, but her heart was never in it. She harbored deep infatuation for Xie Xian. If she had not been killed, not only would everything have been exposed, but she also swore vengeance for the Xie Family... Shi’er Niang sought her own death. It was her fickle nature that led to her demise. Who can she blame?"

Feng Yun froze.

The mention of her mother and Xie Xian in the same breath rendered her momentarily at a loss.

Soon enough, anger swelled within her again.

"You’re spewing nonsense! Even on the brink of death, you strive to tarnish my mother’s name. It was all because Feng Jingteng grew weary of her and conspired with the Chen Family, yet you turn to slander my mother instead?"

Feng Jingyao’s lips twisted slightly as he cast her a mocking glance.

"If you don’t believe me, you can ask your father for verification... And if that doesn’t satisfy you, why not consult your maternal relatives? See if they knew..."

With a cold snort, Feng Yun retorted, "My maternal grandparents passed away long ago. Do you think you can lie with no one to expose the truth?"

Feng Jingyao’s gaze turned cold as he said, "The Lu Family are not all dead. If you’re intent, you’ll find answers. Your mother was besotted with Xie Xian before marrying into the Feng Family. Marrying into the Feng Family was merely a matter of circumstance because Xie Xian had already taken a wife. Otherwise, why else would discord arise between your parents? Why else would your father spend drunken nights at the Chen household, resulting in Feng Ying? And with your mother’s stubborn nature, knowing all this, why would she choose to turn a blind eye? It’s pure guilt. Shi’er Niang, everything has its origin. Your mother’s death is not unjust."

"Utterly shameless!"

Feng Yun’s chest heaved with fury, her trembling finger pointing at him.

Pei Jue clasped her hand, gripping it tightly for reassurance before releasing it.

"What feud did Xie Xian have with you that you were so ruthless? You not only sentenced his entire lineage to extermination but also demanded all the Xie Family Army to go to their graves with them!?"

Feng Jingyao lifted his gaze and stared coldly at Pei Jue.

After a long while, he let out a bitter chuckle.

"So, you’re the one who escaped from Bingzhou back then—the last remnant of the Xie clan? Mr. Seventh Xie?"

Pei Jue’s gaze remained glacial, offering neither confirmation nor denial.

Feng Jingyao pondered briefly before suddenly breaking into laughter.

In his eyes, there was an inexplicable sense of resignation.

"Then today, one could say my death is well-earned. Cause and effect—blame no one."

Pei Jue’s voice turned icy. "If this is truly cause and effect, what of your entire clan’s account?"

A chill ran down Feng Jingyao’s spine, his figure stiffening briefly before he spoke, his lips loosening.

"I had no personal grievance with the Xie Family. It was merely the chaos of the times; each served their own master, each sought to leave their mark. Crown Prince Huairen and the late Emperor of Yanping... Prince Wei, Xiao Jue, were as water and fire. Everyone knew Prince Wei was close to the Feng Family. If Crown Prince Huairen ascended the throne, it would only spell doom for the Feng Family."

Succinct and detached, yet it held the cruelest truth.

And it was no different from their earlier suspicions.

The vision of that war-torn era, drums of battle and clouds of smoke, surfaced vividly before them.

"Kill—"

"Exterminate the Xie clan, leave not a single one alive."

The northern wind howled, horses’ hooves thundered, the cries of battle rent the air, and the dull thuds of heads falling seemed to echo everywhere—on the walls, in the sky, or even drilling out from beneath the prison’s cold stone floor. The sensation crawled along the soles of their feet, up and through their entire beings, seeping into every pore.

It took Feng Yun a long moment to steady her breath. In the flickering lamplight, she stared at Feng Jingyao’s wrinkled, hollow face—his leathery skin like dried orange peel, his eyes surrounded by deep trenches of lines.

"No benefit, so you kill?"

Feng Jingyao looked at her. "It was them or the Feng Family. Feng Shi Er Niang, you’re a Feng too. If I hadn’t done what I did back then, how could you live today?"

A single conspiracy had unleashed utter upheaval, and in the blink of an eye, the world had shifted.

A gust of wind swept through the prison corridor, and Feng Yun suddenly felt a slight chill.

Much like the chill of that year’s Cold Palace.

And the sentence she saw written inside Yuzhao Hall of the Cold Palace:

"Year after year now, once years of yore."

A sentiment unable to encapsulate the mutability of the mortal world.

She was of the Feng Family; swept by the currents of fate, she had become, like Crown Prince Huairen, a victim in the end—confined in the same situation. And for everything, the root lay in conspiracies of that bygone time.

Epochs passed in a blur. Recalling again, it had already been over a decade since the Crown Prince Huairen’s death.

"To dethrone Crown Prince Huairen, so many lives need not have been lost. How many innocents died tragically in the Xie Family Army?"

Feng Jingyao gave no reply.

Some people are innately ruthless.

Some wear the skin of a gentleman yet are possessed by the devil within.

The wind blew cold through the Imperial Prison of the Censorate.

When Feng Yun and Pei Jue emerged from the cell, it was already before dawn.

They walked slowly along the moonlit stone road, neither of them speaking.

The carriage awaited them.

The moon hung on the treetop behind the carriage.

The night was silent, like death itself.

Feng Yun placed her hand in the crook of Pei Jue’s arm.

Pei Jue glanced at her. "Perhaps what he said holds truth."

"What?" Feng Yun hesitated slightly.

Pei Jue looked at her before lifting his gaze to the sky, his dark pupils seemingly filled with a galaxy of stars.

"Your mother and my father’s ill-fated love paved the way for our destined union."

-

On April fifteenth, an inauspicious day for the dark arts.

Before the break of dawn, the streets and alleys outside the Xuanhua Gate of Xijing were packed with people.

An entire street full of spectators stayed put until midday when the Qi envoys were finally paraded out for execution.

Commoners loved to watch executions.

Especially when the condemned were once high and mighty nobles, lords, and ministers.

Watching the downfall of the rich and the humiliation of the powerful amused the masses. The charged atmosphere at the execution grounds surged with excitement. After the crimes were read, the crowd clamored and shouted.

"Behead them, behead them."

"They’re going to behead him!"

"That old scoundrel is the mastermind—Feng Jingyao of Xuzhou’s Feng Family. The Qi people..."

"Long live Dajin! Put these treacherous vile men to death!"

"Look, they’re about to execute him... Oh, it’s happening!"

The crowd surged with fervor.

Beneath the executioner’s blade, those kneeling pleaded for their lives, their wails of agony piercing through the heavens.

Among them, an elderly nobleman with whitening hair hung his head low, rigid as a statue, unmoving even slightly.

"Strike!"

The executioner swung his blade in a clean arc.

A head rolled to the ground, and only then did the corpse collapse.

The bodies were dragged away, leaving a trail of blood streaked across the ground. The repeated executions left blood dripping down the steps, forming a chilling, ghastly sight...

The corpses were collected by emissaries from Qi Country.

They had watched the entire execution process. Once the deed was done, they wrapped the bodies in straw mats and placed the heads into boxes to report back to Qi Jun, preparing to return the remains to the bereaved families for proper burial.

The sun blazed fiercely.

With the crowds dispersed, workers arrived promptly to clear the execution grounds.

Buckets of water were poured, washing away all traces until it was spotless.

So clean that it seemed as though these people had never lived at all.