The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 1

Smack!

A vicious slap struck Zhao Li across the face and sent her staggering.

She looked over in bewilderment.

A beautiful woman in court dress stood a step away, her expression one of bone-deep disgust.

“The Grand Princess invited the noble young ladies of the capital to admire the flowers, and our household received only one invitation. You know nothing of poetry or social graces. What use would there be in sending you? Of course Yaoguang should go!”

The woman’s furious rebuke rang in Zhao Li’s ears.

She covered her burning, throbbing cheek as several thoughts flashed through her mind in quick succession.

Where am I?

Who is this woman?

She hit me!

In the face!

“If anything happens to Yaoguang, then even if you are my own flesh and blood, I will skin you alive to atone for what you have done to her!”

Lady Lin raged at her for some time, yet Zhao Li did not react.

Ordinarily, this wretched girl would either throw a tantrum like some coarse village shrew or wail about how unfairly the family treated her. Why was she so quiet today?

Lady Lin looked up. The young woman stood there in a daze. The setting of Lady Lin’s gold ring, inset with gemstones, had raked her cheek and left a long, deep, bloody gash.

Lady Lin’s heart trembled. She instinctively hid her hand inside her sleeve.

Then she remembered her beloved daughter lying ill in bed, and her fingers curled into a fist again.

“As your mother, I’ll punish you by making you kneel in the ancestral hall for three days. Pray for Yaoguang’s safety and make amends to her.”

Pray and atone?

The words seemed to trip some hidden switch.

Zhao Li pressed her lips together and looked up at Lady Lin, who was still waiting for her to admit her fault and apologize.

The sight of her made Lady Lin’s anger, which had barely subsided, flare anew.

She was the girl’s mother. Was she no longer allowed to discipline her own daughter when she did wrong?

The child was truly obstinate beyond saving.

“Drag this wretch away! Give her no food, and see that she kneels before the ancestral tablets for the full three days!”

The maids and matrons on either side obeyed and crowded forward.

At that moment, Zhao Li—silent until now—raised her right hand.

She wound up and swung it at Lady Lin.

Smack!

A sharp crack rang out.

Lady Lin’s head rang. She stumbled back, and just as she was about to fall, a hand seized her by the collar and hauled her upright.

“My dad never hit me. Who the hell do you think you are?”

“My mom never slapped me in the face, either. What makes you think you get to?”

The young woman’s clear, furious roar carried throughout the beautifully landscaped garden.

Lady Lin’s hairpins and ornaments had fallen to the ground, leaving her hair in disarray.

She stared, dazed, into the girl’s eyes.

Those familiar, beautiful eyes no longer held the timid yearning for a mother’s affection that had once lived there.

Lady Lin stopped calling her a wretch. Tears spilled from her eyes as she murmured in disbelief, “You dared to strike me?”

The maids and matrons finally snapped out of their stupor and surged forward.

They closed around Lady Lin until all Zhao Li could see was a corner of her brocade skirt.

Lady Lin’s sobs mingled with the women’s shrill cries.

Guards were approaching in the distance.

Zhao Li hesitated for a beat, then spun around and fled toward the rear garden.

“Catch her!” Lady Lin shrieked from inside the pavilion.

“Catch that disobedient little beast! Drag her to the ancestral hall and beat her to death!”

…

The Zhao estate’s guards combed through the garden inch by inch, sabers in hand.

They beat the flower beds and shrubs with ebony scabbards as they searched.

High in a tree with a dense canopy, Zhao Li hid among the leaves like a monkey. She did not dare make a sound. Her skirt was hiked up to her waist, and she clutched an embroidered shoe in each hand.

As she watched the guards below, a burst of agony struck her. Had she not bitten her tongue and gripped the trunk in time, she would have tumbled out of the tree.

Along with the pain came a brief set of memories that did not belong to her.

Sixteen years ago, on a rainy night at a relay station below a mountain temple, a midwife’s carelessness had switched the lives of two infant girls.

One had been raised like the Yaoguang star in the heavens, pampered by a distinguished family of officials for three generations.

The other, like a humble carp in a stream, had struggled her way through a bitter life on the frontier.

A few months ago, the long-buried switch had come to light, becoming the latest curiosity discussed in every street and alley of the capital.

The noble household of a vice minister could not bear to part with the foster daughter they had raised for years and molded with so much effort and expense.

Yet neither could they leave their biological daughter outside the family, where she might cause some humiliating scandal and ruin the reputations of the other girls in the household.

And so Zhao Li had been brought back alone from the frontier.

The girl who had grown up beneath the dusty yellow walls of a border city arrived in the capital with a heart full of unease and hope. Here, the maple leaves burned so red they looked like fire.

But the wonderful new life she had dreamed of never came.

How could hands accustomed to hard labor and wielding clubs against ruffians manage a delicate embroidery needle or coax refined music from a zither?

Every effort she made to fit into the family, every cautious attempt to please them, was dismissed as vulgar and calculating, lacking in dignity or breeding.

Her parents and brothers all went to great lengths to protect Zhao Yaoguang’s feelings. No one cared what Zhao Li gained or lost.

Those below followed the example of those above. Even the frontier accent in Zhao Li’s speech was enough for servants to cover their mouths, laugh in her face, and correct her.

The memories were brief, but they told Zhao Li enough to understand just how dire her present circumstances were.

She had just slapped this body’s biological mother.

By law, murdering or assaulting one’s grandparents or parents was classed as heinous rebellion. If they caught her, she would not get out alive.

This place was cursed. She had to find a way to escape.

Zhao Li searched the original owner’s memories.

Whenever the girl had been wronged, she would hide in the rear garden and cry beneath the low wall adjoining the neighboring estate.

The owners of that estate had been posted elsewhere, leaving the property vacant for years. Rumors said it was haunted, so few people from the Zhao household ever went near it.

For the original Zhao Li, at least it was somewhere she could sob aloud without maids and matrons scolding her for improper behavior.

More importantly, part of the low wall there had collapsed and was usually hidden beneath a curtain of vines.

She could secretly climb through that gap and hide in the neighboring estate for a couple of days. Once the commotion died down, she could slip away.

She still had hairpins and jewelry on her. If she pawned them, she could find a temporary refuge in the countryside and decide what to do next.

Zhao Li remained in the tree until the sun dipped behind the western hills and twilight fell.

Hidden in the darkness, she listened closely. Once she was sure no one was searching the garden anymore, she carefully climbed down and stole toward the rear garden.

In her previous life, she had been a professionally trained exorcist. Her physical skills were still quite good.

By the light of the hazy moon, she could already see the low, vine-shrouded wall in the distance.

A smile of delight had just begun to rise to her face when a cold snort sounded beside her.

“I knew an ungrateful wretch like you would come here!”