Chapter 1

She felt being surrounded by something warm, fearing that it would only be temporary, she tried curving her body in a fetal pose to save as much of the warm feeling as she could even though she knew it was useless. Her body feels so heavy that she can't move even an inch.

‘Where am I? I died. I felt it… did someone from the hotel discover me? Did ‘they’ find and revive me at the last minute?’ 

‘If… I’m still alive, then I need to get out of here or try dying again. It is better than being their puppet!’

Her incapability to move and see heightens her hearing and smelling. She tries to feel her surroundings for any clue to where she is. That’s when she noticed a soft pair of hands touched her arm while gently wiping it and a weeping sound came along with it. She feels it is useless for the other to wipe her arm as the person’s tears are wetting her skin. It took longer for the person sponge bathing her to finish as the person tries to concentrate on taking care of her but fails as they keep on stopping to cry silently.

"Young miss, please wake up and recover soon. Second Master, Madam and First Young Master… Young Miss they are waiting for you. The sadness and fear of losing a young miss is starting to affect Madam’s body… Second Master and First Young Master are also helpless, this slave is also starting to lose hope... Please wake up young miss!"

She can feel the agony and helplessness of the other person. She can imagine a young lady with her eyes already red and swelling from crying. She hears the lady get up and walks away from her until the sound of a door closing reaches her ears.

Thinking for a while, she can assume that she is in a different era based on how the lady calling herself as slave talks. She remembers being called a young miss thus she concludes that the family isn’t struggling with daily life.

‘Second Master… Madam… First Young Master? Who are they? What kind of people are they?’

Feeling comfortable after getting cleaned up, she fell asleep. After a while, a middle aged woman with teary eyes together with the maid earlier approached and sat on the side of her bed. The woman checked the temperature and arrangement of the room before starting to stroke her hair so gently as if the woman is afraid of hurting her.

The woman is wearing a plain light green hanfu with dark-green sash highlighting her thin waist despite being a mother of two. Although she is wearing a simple dress, her movements ooze with elegance and prestige.

“Ying’er… wake up soon, you have been sleeping for almost a year. Your father and I will make sure that you will not be wronged again. If your brother didn't feel, something was wrong and wanted to check on you, it would be too late to save you. Even so, we still let you suffer. We do not know why those people hurt you and who they are. They are still free while you are here and suffering!” 

The woman started to sob again and gripped a part of her skirt so tightly that she felt her nails pierce her palm through the cloth while the maid immediately gave the woman a handkerchief to wipe her tears.

“Madam, what happened to the young miss isn’t your fault. Please don’t blame yourself, young miss will be sad if she hears it.”

“Still… It is our fault for not keeping our guard up and trusting the life of my Ying’er to the first branch. I forgot that when something happens to Fan’er they will prioritize their young miss and forget to protect my child!”

“Madam…” the maid can only look after the mother and child helplessly.

The day turns to night with the woman and maid taking care of her while in a separate courtyard, two men, a middle-age man and a young lad are discussing the clues their people found from what happened to their princess months ago. 

The servants guarding outside the room can hear a tea cup being smashed on the floor, a suffocating air surrounding the dimly lit room. The young lad wearing a black hanfu with silver sash, his eyes have dark circles indicating he has been sleep deprived for days. Despite the tiredness, his hands clenched so hard that drops of blood can be seen falling and staining the floor. It seems that the mastermind of what happened to her sister has relaxed since it has been so long since the incident happened that the clues are now starting to arise from being deeply buried.

The middle-age man who smashed the tea cup is breathing heavily. The anger to their own clan and shame of being unable to protect his beloved daughter weighs so much that he is breathing with difficulty.

The young man’s anger finally gets the best of him and starts to walk towards the door of the study. He wants to hurt those people, for them to more than what his sister felt during that incident. However, as he is two steps away from the door, a masked man blocked him.

“Father!” The young man shouted with disappointment and anger in his voice towards his father who prevented him from killing those people. He didn’t dare face his father fearing that he would be more disappointed. He wanted to kill and paint those people’s courtyards with their own blood.

As a man who dealt with different types of people, the middle aged man was finally able to control his anger.

“Ming’er, calm down. This is not the right time, killing one or two from their group is the easiest way out for them. It will stain your reputation, a knife that will be placed against your own throat.”

“But…”

“I know you feel that your father is useless. That… I have been feeding white eyed wolves for years and did not know about it until they hurt my own daughter. However, this is not the right time, and you know it too!”

“…” Qi Ming faced his father, seeing the emotions lingering in his father’s eyes. He knows he is more hurt than him.

“Your sister and mother still need us; Ying’er is alive and recovering soon she will wake up. We need to make sure that once she does, she won't need to face those scumbags.”