Yang Xiaoyu seemed to be exhausted. He closed his eyes and said sleepily, “Being my woman, you will benefit endlessly. As long as you serve me well, I can ignore the trouble you caused me until now. Don’t worry about my mother and grandmother — they won’t do anything to you with me here. Look, isn’t this Young Master treating you extremely well? Learn to please me, and good days will come to you. You should give birth to a child for this Young Master; a boy would be the best. Maybe you can become the mother-in-law of an imperial princess in the future. My cousin sister is already Shou Wangfei, and she is the future empress. As long as I make the request, she will surely wed a princess to my son.”

“No, forget it. A princess is too troublesome. With my cousin’s personality, the princess she raised will not necessarily be a good one. It’s better to have a daughter who will marry a prince, so that I can become an imperial father-in-law just like my grandfather is.”

Yang Xiaoyu kept murmuring until he slowly fell asleep. All the while, Shao Zi was lying next to him, just listening in silence. A long time passed. Feeling no movements from Yang Xiaoyu, Shao Zi got up and called softly, “Young Master?”

Yang Xiaoyu didn’t respond. After calling a few times, Shao Zi slowly crawled to the foot of the bed and took out a long belt.

“You treat me well?” Shao Zi sneered. Having just finished serving Yang Xiaoyu, there was not a single thread on her body, yet she just sat there on the bed, having no intention of putting on any clothes. “What if you are rich? What if your Yang family is powerful? You killed my brother and still want me to give you a child?”

Shao Zi slid out of bed. She moved to Yang Xiaoyu’s side, wrapped the belt around his neck, and firmly tied the other end on the bedpost. She had practiced many times before, using her own body as a test subject, and knew well how to tie the knot tightly, where the bedpost was the most sturdy, and which angle she should take so that Yang Xiaoyu could not break free.

The belt tightened little by little, blocking Yang Xiaoyu’s airway. He woke up suddenly and was stunned to find Shao Zi was strangling him. He grabbed the belt with his hands, trying to undo the knot around his neck. The little space between his fingers gave Yang Xiaoyu a bit of leeway, and he snarled between hard breaths, “I treat you so well. How dare you try to kill me?”

Hearing this, Shao Zi suddenly burst out, “You murderer! No matter how rich, good-looking, and powerful you are, how can those compare to the grace I receive from my parents and brother? I will never fall in love with my family’s enemy. I will kill you and avenge my brother!”

The belt in Shao Zi’s hands tightened even more. Yang Xiaoyu struggled desperately, throwing everything within his reach to Shao Zi, one of them hitting her head hard. Still, Shao Zi didn’t weaken her grip even a bit, refusing to let go no matter what. Yang Xiaoyu’s struggle gradually weakened, until he finally turned motionless. Shao Zi seemed to be possessed and continued strangling the already dead Yang Xiaoyu. A long time passed, and the skin on Shao Zi’s palms was torn horribly, until she could no longer hold the belt. She finally lost her strength and fell to the ground.

Shao Zi stared blankly at her bloody hands and suddenly cried with an ugly smile, “Brother, I have avenged you. Father, Mother, your daughter is unfilial. Allow me to repay your kindness in the next life.”

The next day, a servant girl came to help with morning preparation. She called several times, but there was no movement inside. The servant girl was annoyed and pushed the door open, only to meet with a corpse hanging from the ceiling.

There was a bloody piece of cloth on the table, torn from Yang Xiaoyu’s clothes. It was impossible to tell whose blood was used to write it, but a bloody sentence ‘A life for a life was written on the cloth.

The servant girl was so frightened that she screamed out. The news that Shao Zi killed Yang Xiaoyu and then hanged herself quickly spread throughout the Yang manor. The whole family was struck by a bolt of lightning, and Yang Xiaoyu’s biological mother fainted when she heard the news. The manor fell into chaos, with the servants busy calling imperial physicians and crying for their young master. Not long after, Yang Fucheng received another bad news.

For some reason, the news that Yang Xiaoyu was strangled to death in bed reached the ears of Empress Dowager Yang. The Empress Dowager vomited blood and fainted, worsening her already ill body.

Two people died in the Yang manor. Yang Fucheng immediately issued a gag order, but the scandal spread quickly and uncontrollably, taking only half a day to spread to the entire capital.

When the common public learned about the incident, they spat angrily on the ground and cursed, “Fuck!” They all felt sorry for that tragic girl, and felt unprecedented anger toward the Yang family.

The parents of the Shao siblings cried so hard that they almost fainted. They lived cautiously throughout their lives, not even daring to quarrel with others, but such a catastrophe befell their family, and their son and daughter passed away one after another. Shao Zi’s father completely lost his mind. He gathered a crowd of people and went to beat the drum in front of the magistrate’s office, reporting his grievances.

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