The Prisoner of Beauty - Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Bi Zhi
After their father left, Xiao Qiao and Qiao Ci waited in anxious silence. About an hour passed before he returned. Qiao Ci rushed forward immediately. "Father, did you manage to convince Uncle?"
Seeing the faint furrow in her father’s brow, Xiao Qiao’s heart sank. Sure enough, Qiao Ping shook his head. "Your uncle is set on seeking peace. I fear he cannot be moved."
Qiao Ci turned to storm out, but Qiao Ping barked a command: "Stand still! This matter ends here. Further words are useless."
Qiao Ci froze, his expression clouding with frustration.
Qiao Ping paused, his tone softening slightly as he added, "The Wei family might not even accept this proposal. Let us wait and see. If, by some stroke of luck, they refuse, I will raise the idea of an alliance with Chenliu again. I doubt your uncle would object then."
Though he spoke these words, Xiao Qiao could hear the truth in his voice—her father held little hope for such an outcome.
Qiao Ci, however, took the words at face value, his face brightening with a sliver of expectation.
Qiao Ping turned to Xiao Qiao. After a moment of hesitation, he said gently, "Manman, stay close to your sister. Try to put her mind at ease. The marriage might not happen. And even if it does... Wei Shao is young and has a reputation as a hero. He is a hegemon of his region, and I hear he is quite handsome. He may not be a poor match after all."
That night, Xiao Qiao once again shared a bed with Da Qiao. She could tell her cousin’s mind was heavy, yet Da Qiao maintained a forced smile and refused to utter a single word regarding the marriage. It only made Xiao Qiao’s heart ache more.
Her father had asked her to comfort Da Qiao, but she felt that any words of solace would be hollow and useless.
The two sisters lay facing each other. In the dim shadows of the night, Xiao Qiao suddenly heard her cousin’s voice: "Manman, it has been some time since you last saw the Prince, hasn't it?"
The "Prince" Da Qiao referred to was Liu Yan (styled Maoqing)—Xiao Qiao’s current fiancé and her husband from her past life. At this point in time, however, Liu Maoqing was merely an overlooked eldest son of the Principality of Langya, a vassal state of the Han. When he was thirteen, his stepmother, seeking to secure his younger brother's succession, slandered him to his father, claiming he had made advances toward her. The Prince of Langya, who already favored his younger son, believed the lies, stripped Liu Yan of his noble status, and banished him. Because his maternal aunt was Xiao Qiao’s own aunt, he fled to Yanzhou seeking refuge.
The Han central authority was weak then. In the capital of Luoyang, the fourteen-year-old Emperor—placed on the throne seven years prior by Prime Minister Xing Xun—was a mere puppet. The government was entirely under Xing Xun's control. If even the Emperor was powerless, the members of the Liu imperial clan in the vassal states held no authority whatsoever before the regional warlords. Thus, the Qiao family did not fear the Prince of Langya and took Liu Yan in. He was handsome and scholarly, quickly earning Qiao Ping’s favor and protection. Finally, three years ago, when he was eighteen, the Prince of Langya listened to his advisors, realized he had wronged his eldest son, and summoned him back. Shortly after, an envoy arrived in Yanzhou to request Xiao Qiao’s hand for Liu Yan.
Qiao Ping had long seen that his daughter and Liu Yan were a perfect match. When he asked Xiao Qiao for her thoughts, she had merely remained silent with a blush, which he took as consent. The betrothal was set: they were to be married next year, when Xiao Qiao turned fifteen.
Six months ago, Liu Yan had visited Dongjun under the guise of celebrating Qiao Yue’s birthday. Having missed Xiao Qiao for so long, he had hoped to finally speak of his feelings, but for reasons unknown to him, Xiao Qiao had consistently avoided him. He eventually left in low spirits.
The nightmare of her past life had left Xiao Qiao with a deep, lingering psychological shadow. Moreover, she was no longer the original Xiao Qiao who had grown up with Liu Yan; she felt no real affection for this fiancé. That was why she had avoided him. Hearing Da Qiao mention him now, she was momentarily stunned.
Lately, her every waking and sleeping thought had been occupied by Da Qiao’s impending marriage. She had almost forgotten that she, too, was betrothed—and that her wedding date was fast approaching.
"Manman," Da Qiao said in a soft voice, "if I am married off this time, the North is far away. By the time your wedding comes next year, I likely won't be able to return. We sisters may find it hard to see each other again. Fortunately, you and the Prince are of one mind. Your marriage will surely be harmonious. At least I can find peace in that."
Xiao Qiao felt a sharp pang of sorrow; her eyes grew hot with unshed tears.
Unaware of her distress, Da Qiao continued with a small smile, "Your needlework was never great to begin with, and it seems to have gotten even worse these last two years. I don’t have much to give you, but thinking of your wedding next year... the Liu family is royalty, after all, and the needlework you present to your in-laws cannot be sloppy. Earlier this year, whenever I had free time, I worked with Chun-niang to make some things for you. They’re all kept at her place. Most of it is finished; only a pair of chixi (ceremonial red shoes) for your father-in-law remains. They take a lot of work, so I left them for last. I’ve already started them, but I’m unsure about the color coordination. Why don't you take a look tomorrow, and we can decide together..."
Da Qiao began to sit up, but Xiao Qiao gently pressed her back down. "Thank you, Sister. There’s no need to look. You’re tired; let’s just sleep."
Da Qiao murmured, "I’m just anxious. I’m afraid I won't finish them before I have to..." She trailed off, then chuckled softly. "Tomorrow is fine. Let's sleep."
The room fell silent.
Da Qiao seemed to sleep soundly, lying perfectly still with rhythmic breathing.
Xiao Qiao remained awake until the early hours of the morning. Just as drowsiness finally began to pull at her, she felt Da Qiao move. The older girl climbed out of bed with extreme care. Without lighting a lamp, she used the pale moonlight filtering through the window to dress in the dark. She slipped out of the room, tiptoeing past the heavily sleeping maids in the outer chamber.
At first, Xiao Qiao thought she was simply using the washroom, so she remained quiet. But a sense of unease took hold. As she waited, a memory from her past life suddenly flashed through her mind. Shuddering, she scrambled out of bed, threw on some clothes, and followed her cousin into the night, holding her breath.
The moonlight was cold and clear, casting a silver chill over the courtyard. As Xiao Qiao stepped over the threshold, she caught a glimpse of Da Qiao’s figure vanishing around the side of a decorative window, heading toward the back garden.
Deep within the thickets of the Qiao family’s back garden, a young man was already waiting.
He had a handsome face and a body as lean and agile as a leopard. Every muscle seemed packed with the potential for explosive power. The garden wall was twice the height of a man, but for him, it posed no challenge at all.
He stood perfectly still in a dark corner where the moonlight could not reach, his silhouette swallowed by the endless night. He had been waiting for a long time; his thin, coarse hemp tunic, covered in patches, was damp with the winter frost.
But he felt no cold.
He had no idea if his beloved—the high-born, noble lady of the Governor’s manor—would actually come to meet him. Yet, he had come early to wait. In his heart, a small flame burned—faint and fragile, but enough to keep him warm in the freezing night.
When he was born, one of his eyes was green and glowed in the dark. His parents, terrified of the "demonic" omen, abandoned him in the snow near a pigsty by the Qiao family stables. He didn't freeze to death; a sow had nudged him into the sty and nursed him. When the stable master discovered him, he found the incident miraculous and reported it to the Master. The boy was kept and raised as a slave in the stables.
He had no surname and no given name. Because he had been thrown into a pigsty, he was simply called "Bi Zhi" (meaning "Than a Pig").
Xiao Qiao followed them into the garden. From a distance, she saw her cousin being pulled into a sudden, tight embrace by the young man emerging from the shadows. A moment later, Da Qiao forced herself out of his arms and began speaking to him with great intensity.
Everything became clear to Xiao Qiao.
In her past life, shortly after Da Qiao was married off, this stable slave named Bi Zhi disappeared. The Qiao family had hundreds of slaves, and the loss of one went largely unnoticed. After a brief, fruitless search, the matter was dropped.
Years later, a great drought in the south led to widespread chaos. Displaced refugees turned into roaming bands of bandits. Among them rose a "Green-Eyed Bandit King" who absorbed rival factions and grew into a massive power, eventually seizing Huaiyin and declaring himself Commander. The Prime Minister in Luoyang, Xing Xun, sent armies to suppress him but met with repeated defeats. Beset by his war with Wei Shao, Xing Xun eventually gave up, leaving the bandit to rule his territory.
Later, when Wei Shao finally destroyed Xing Xun, seized Luoyang, and became the master of the Central Plains, this solitary Green-Eyed Commander did something unexpected: he voluntarily surrendered his forces to Liu Yan, who had been established as the Han Emperor in Yongdu by a group of loyalist ministers. Liu Yan, desperate for soldiers, was overjoyed. He titled the man the King of Huaiyin, and from that day on, the King of Huaiyin became Wei Shao’s most formidable rival.
It could be said that if not for the sudden emergence and fierce resistance of the King of Huaiyin, Wei Shao’s timeline for conquering the world would have been accelerated by at least two years.
The King of Huaiyin’s end was equally legendary.
After the final battle at Weinan that decided the fate of the empire, the King of Huaiyin vanished amidst the chaos. Some said he died; others said he gouged out his own eye to disfigure himself and escaped. Wei Shao hated the man to his very marrow, offering a bounty of a thousand gold pieces and a marquisate for his head—dead or alive. The search yielded nothing.
It wasn't until six months later that a report reached Wei Shao: someone resembling the King of Huaiyin had been spotted near the ancestral tombs of the Wei family. Wei Shao rushed there immediately but found nothing out of the ordinary. It was only later discovered that a lonely, unmarked grave just outside the ancestral grounds had been broken open. The pit was empty; the coffin was gone.
The deposed Empress, the woman of the Qiao family, had not been allowed burial within the Wei ancestral grounds. She had been buried in that solitary grave outside the walls.