The Seductress and Her General - Chapter 4

“My lady! My lady! Please, say something!”

I opened my eyes in a daze. The little maid who had brought me tea and porridge was leaning over me, sobbing.

Confused, I pushed myself up and saw a ring of maids and older serving women around the bed.

Unlike the little maid, however, the others were looking at me with outright hostility.

As I sat up, the covers slipped down to my waist. They gasped. One particularly agitated woman hurriedly pulled the younger maids away.

I looked at them in bewilderment and rubbed my shoulder. After that sleep, I felt wonderfully refreshed. Not only had I recovered, but spiritual energy was flourishing in my dantian.

It felt as though I’d had a tremendously nourishing tonic.

“Well! The general is at the training grounds, and you dare commit adultery with another man! And those… those obscene marks on your body! Utterly indecent!” an older woman scolded.

I scratched my ear and looked down.

A deep pink love bite, complete with teeth marks, stood out clearly on my collarbone.

What obscene marks? It was just a kiss and a little stamp.

Who had I absorbed yang energy from last night, though? I’d been so deeply unconscious that I couldn’t remember.

I was trying to recall when several women threw a robe over me without a word, trussed me up, and marched me toward the ancestral hall.

I turned in confusion. The little maid who had brought me tea and porridge, one of those who’d come with Zhao Wanyu when she married, was hiding behind a pillar. She hadn’t joined this siege against me.

Our eyes met. Then she timidly turned and ran away.

I closed my eyes. The abuse kept pouring into my ears.

Whatever. Now that I’d recovered a little cultivation, in a world without other cultivators, I was king.

To the kind, unknown gentleman who’d given me his yang energy: thank you.

The clamoring women wouldn’t let up.

“Shameless slut! No wifely virtue at all!”

I took a deep breath. True qi gathered in my palm, slowly slicing through the cloth binding my hands. Then I opened my eyes and calmly surveyed, one last time, the women condemning me as though I were a monster.

“What is ‘wifely virtue’? Even if I did sleep with someone else, at worst Gu Rongfeng and I can go our separate ways. Why should it cost me my life? Besides, plenty of men in this world have wives and concubines and have slept with who knows how many women. Why does it become some unspeakable crime when it’s me?”

They stared as though they’d seen a ghost, as though I had said something beyond comprehension.

The woman in charge exchanged a few whispers with a manservant who had just arrived. A triumphant smile spread over her face.

“We’ve caught the adulterer! The general is on his way back too!”

A tightly bound man was carried in and dumped beside me.

I raised an eyebrow. He was pale and thin, with a bluish face, and trembled constantly like a half-frozen fledgling.

Had I really slept with him last night?

I seriously doubted it. I might have forgotten what my kind benefactor looked like, but his pure, abundant yang energy had left a lasting impression. There was nothing remotely similar about this stick-thin servant.

“We found Madam’s personal handkerchief on this adulterer. It must be evidence of their secret meetings!”

A bloody handkerchief was respectfully laid on the table. It looked familiar.

With a witness and physical evidence in place, all that remained was to wait for Gu Rongfeng to come home and pass judgment on me.

But why should I let anyone pass judgment on me?

So what if I’d slept with someone? Why on earth should a night’s sleep cost a life? Even the most hidebound members of the Emotionless Sect had no such rule. Their disciples were forever getting involved with their masters. They were messier than our Hehuan Sect.

I snorted and stood up.

“It’s adultery just because you say so? I have plenty of handkerchiefs. Some light-fingered bastard could easily have picked one up.”

With one final tug, I snapped the cloth around my wrists. Everyone stepped back in surprise.

I grabbed the “adulterer” by his collar with one hand and raised my voice.

“Since you’ve had the rotten luck to be dragged into this, brother, clear something up for me. Did you really come into my room last night?”

Looking as though he were trapped in a nightmare, the man nodded.

“I did,” he whispered.

“Look! He admitted it!” several women shouted, signaling to the manservants to seize a chance to tie me up again.

It wouldn’t be so easy this time.

I frowned and shook him by the collar. “Hey. What are you talking about?”

His face went white. All he could stammer was, “Ears… ears…”

I fell silent. So this was one of the servants Gu Rongfeng had terrified last night. From the look of him, he’d been scared witless.

Who? Who had found an idiot like this to frame me?

“The general! The general has sent word! He’s furious and orders her beaten to death at once, to cleanse the household!” a maid suddenly shouted as she ran in.

Every eye turned toward me.

Fucking hell.

I swore inwardly.

Now what? My cultivation wasn’t even at the Golden Core stage, and this mortal body had never undergone physical tempering. Using immortal arts would attract too much attention, and this accusation had come far too fast.

Throwing caution aside, I shouted, “You’re all fucking blind, and so is he! When I sleep with someone, I love biting his neck. Have a look. Are there any marks on this man’s neck?”

Everyone instinctively looked at the unfortunate “adulterer’s” throat.

I took the chance to jump onto the square table and snatch the saber hanging on the wall.

Everyone gasped.

Baffled, I hefted it. It really was heavy. I drew it from its ornate scabbard, revealing a blade so dark it looked as though something had seeped into the metal.

“Put that down! That saber belongs to the general!”

I twirled the blade. So it belonged to that villain. He wanted me dead. Using his own saber to kill his entire household would be fitting.

I gave the scolding woman a wicked little smile, then beckoned to the manservants drawing their swords on me.

If I couldn’t use immortal arts, I’d entertain them with a little swordplay.

“Madam’s gone mad! Completely mad!”

“Seize her! Beat her to death! If this gets out, it’ll disgrace both the general’s household and the Zhao family!”

Holding the saber with both hands, I drew a deep breath. True qi poured into my palms. I turned lightly on my ankle and leaped.

One slash sent a long current of qi sweeping out and cut straight through several swords at once.

Without stopping, I used the back of the blade to knock aside the men blocking me, then ran for the door. The twisting corridors were a nuisance, so I jumped onto a low wall and tore open the hem of my skirt with one hand. I even remembered to give my pursuers an insulting gesture to spur them on.

At the end of the corridor, I neatly tucked the great saber under my arm and jumped off the wall. I was about to laugh when I froze.

Right before me was Gu Rongfeng, riding at speed through his own residence toward the ancestral hall.

He swept past, then frowned and swiftly pulled in the reins.

As he turned, I saw it perfectly clearly.

Even that absurdly high collar couldn’t hide the pale red tooth mark on his Adam’s apple.