The Rebirth of an Ill-Fated Consort (Chapters 1- 203)

Chapter 133 : Second Yiniang's Death

Translated by : Shl

Edited by : Anks & Ely

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Trigger Warning: mention of suicide.

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The Zhao family had made especially clear to Ke Xiu Ran what they expected of him. Thus, agreeing in order to gain return favour[1], Ke Xiu Ran exerted every effort to ensure that this case was made public. Within the short period of a day, everyone in the capital knew that Jiang Ruan had been wrongly accused and imprisoned . Not only that, all the particulars of the case were also widely circulated. The past relationship between Hu Qian Qiu and Second Yiniang was exposed to the entire nation, and the 'green hat' that Jiang Quan wore became even more vibrantly green.

[1] 投桃报李 (tou tao bao li) – lit. toss a peach and get back a plum; to return a favour.

However, no one sympathized with Jiang Quan. This was because, from the time Jiang Ruan had entered the prison to the time she had been released, her father, Minister Jiang, had never gone to visit her once. Neither sight nor sound of him had been glimpsed on that day in the law court, too. People always sympathize with the weak. All who had witnessed Hong'an Junzhu's present steady rise to a splendid prominence never imagined that her days in Jiang fu were so full of suffering. It was truly too pitiful.

The sentence to behead Second Yiniang was passed swiftly and resolutely, and the execution was scheduled for noon the following day; Ke Xiu Ran was settling this matter in a swift and efficient manner. Naturally, after Hu Qian Qiu was dismissed from office, Ke Xiu Ran had taken over his position in the Censorate. Not only that, when Hu Qian Qiu was charged, more than half the officials in the Censorate had been implicated with him. After this long string of connections had been cleaned up, the cards at the Censorate had been completely reshuffled, and not a single one of Hu Qian Qiu's people remained. The newly recruited officials totally revised the structure of the Censorate, which finally bid farewell to several decades of stagnant practices and corruption, and welcomed a new vitality. However, all this is for later stories to record.

As for Minister Li's family, apart from Minister Li's punishment by beheading for his reprehensible crimes, no terrible disaster befell those of the younger generation, except that they were forever prohibited from taking the imperial examination and serve as officials. Thus the prominence of the Li family could be said to end with this generation, and so there was no reason to remain in the capital. Therefore, the entire family moved away, without sparing a thought for the currently incarcerated Minister Li and Second Yiniang.

Before they left, Minister Li did ask about the whereabouts of Li Qiang, but he seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. Minister Li knew then that Li Qiang had probably met with a terrible end and fainted at the thought.

In Jiang fu, the news about Second Yiniang made the rounds and finally came home to roost.

With a 'pa ta', the porcelain cup in Jiang Dan's hand dropped to the floor in a moment of unsteadiness, and shards of tea covered porcelain shattered across the floor in all directions. A maidservant hurriedly knelt down to pick up the shards. Jiang Dan said, urgently, "Minister Li's fu has been seized and searched?"

The maidservant had just reported what had happened from beginning to end to Jiang Dan. Then she heard Jiang Dan's question and replied, "Yes," but when she looked at Jiang Dan, she noticed that she did not seem to have heard her reply, for she looked rather distracted.

The maidservant had always been inexplicably afraid of her mistress, so she did not dare to say anything more. She hurriedly picked up the porcelain shards and quickly left the room in search of a cloth to mop up the tea on the floor.