Chapter 151: Destiny

Xiahou Hui hugged her chest tightly, curling up in the corner of the wall, wishing she could press her entire body into the damp, gloomy masonry. Her hair was disheveled, and her face was covered in grime to the point where even the dark circles under her eyes were indistinguishable. Her once fair, slender, and immaculate fingers were now filthy beyond recognition; the residual nail polish remained on her nails, but it was blanketed by black mud, with dirt packed deep into her nail beds.

She pulled her legs in as far as she could, watching in terror as a large rat not far away snatched her meal and began to eat. The oversized rodent seemed aware of her fear, leisurely devouring the grains of rice on the ground, squeaking in satisfaction as it inched closer and closer toward Xiahou Hui. Her eyes widened in horror, stretching so wide that the corners threatened to split at any moment.

Within the span of a day and a night, Xiahou Hui had experienced an unprecedented level of terror. Yesterday, she was first splattered with the blood of a brutal battle, and later terrified into fainting by the corpse-reviving Wei Ba. When she regained consciousness, she found herself in a grim and horrifying dungeon. Everywhere she looked, there were groans of the wounded, desperate cries and weeping, or unsettling, eerie giggles and random mutterings to oneself. The occasional cracking of leather whips and curses echoed through the subterranean chambers like rolling thunder.

For a long time, Xiahou Hui genuinely believed she had died and that this was the netherworld. The groans and wails were the agonizing cries of tormented souls, and the curses came from the demons of the underworld.

Xiahou Hui had not dared to close her eyes all night, nor had she eaten a single bite. At first, it was out of sheer terror, leaving her no mind for food; later, it was a matter of pride, as she refused to pick anything up off the filthy floor to eat; and finally, when hunger had clouded her vision and she finally hardened her heart to scavenge a few grains of rice, this very rat had snatched away her lifeline of sustenance.

Having lived a life of pampered luxury since childhood, this was her first time seeing a rat up close, and also her first realization of how cheap human life could be—worth even less than a rodent.

She wanted to cry, but her tears had long since dried up unconsciously. She wanted to scream, but terror choked her throat; aside from raspy whimpers, she could not even manage a cry for help. When those fierce-looking jailers approached her, she saw only cruelty and greed in their eyes, completely devoid of an ounce of mercy or pity, leaving her too terrified to beg for forgiveness, lest falling into the hands of these monsters prove worse than death.

Countless times she had lamented the fate of her family, yet she had never truly imagined what the consequences would be if her clan fell from grace. Now, without any preparation whatsoever, she was getting a firsthand taste of that dread, so real it made her tremble.

Her entire body shook uncontrollably. She did not know how long she would have to live in fear, nor when she would become the next corpse dragged out.

A green-bottle fly buzzed through the air and landed on the tip of her shoe. Her feet had stepped in blood yesterday, making them a favorite spot for flies, which landed repeatedly to suck on the dried stains. At first, she had tried to twitch her foot to drive them away, but the fly would merely take off, circle twice, and return. After a few attempts, her foot grew too sore and exhausted to chase them off anymore, leaving her with no choice but to close her eyes and wait for them to drink their fill and leave on their own.

Two flies buzzed around her temples. One of them landed on her ear, crawling slowly. The slight, tickling numbness filled her with disgust, and she shook her head vigorously, sending the fly buzzing back into the air.

Xiahou Hui wept silently, yet she dared not close her eyes. She witnessed an even more terrifying sight: the rat, having finished the leftover scraps and still unsatisfied, walked right up to her foot. It sniffed with its sharp nose and prodded with its pink little paws, as if evaluating whether the shoe and the foot inside it were edible.

Xiahou Hui watched this scene in utter terror, trembling all over, yet too paralyzed to stretch out her foot and kick the rodent away. The world went black before her eyes, and darkness swallowed the entire universe as a tide of fear washed over her once more.

"Ah—!" Xiahou Hui covered her face with both hands, spasming uncontrollably as she kicked and thrashed blindly. Startled, the rat let out a squeak, scurried frantically across the dirty, scattered straw, and vanished into a hole in the corner of the wall. It took a long time before Xiahou Hui dared to open her eyes just a crack, nervously scanning her surroundings.

The rat was gone, but the darkness remained just as absolute. Even the dim, flickering oil lamp that had once provided a shred of light was no longer visible.

She turned her head and caught sight of a towering figure, standing quietly like a mountain, motionless and steadfast as if it had been rooted there since the dawn of creation.

Xiahou Hui widened her eyes, slowly realizing that the mountain possessed a terrifying face—a face she desperately wished never to see.

"Lady Xiahou, how have you been faring?" Seeing the terror deepen in Xiahou Hui's eyes, her once-pretty face nearly twisting out of shape in distortion, Wei Ba cracked a grin, laughed, and offered a polite greeting, sounding precisely like a neighbor dropping in for a casual visit.

"It's you?" Xiahou Hui held her breath.

"It's me," Wei Ba nodded. The jailer rattled the jingling keys in his hand and unlocked the cell door. Wei Ba bent down, stepped inside, and squatted in front of Xiahou Hui. He examined the broken earthen bowl on the floor, looked at the remnants of food inside, and chuckled, "You ate it quite clean."

"I didn't eat it!" Xiahou Hui cried out, burying her face between her arms with only her eyes exposed. "The rat ate it."

As if to verify her words, a loud rumble echoed from her stomach.

"How could you starve Lady Xiahou?" Wei Ba frowned, casting a displeased glare at the jailer.

"General, it's not that we wouldn't let her eat; she was simply too delicate. Once it fell on the floor, the rat ate it," the jailer said with a fawning smile, though the moment he turned toward Xiahou Hui, his expression instantly twisted into a vicious glare.

*If I had exposed Wei Ba's true colors sooner, if Uncle hadn't been so stubborn and deluded, this hateful jailer would be smiling at me right now and wearing that ferocious expression for Wei Ba,* Xiahou Hui thought bitterly to herself, yet she dared not show any outward sign of it.

"Look at this, such a waste," Wei Ba picked up the broken earthen bowl, inspected it for a moment, and sighed. "You wealthy scions simply have no idea how hard it is to come by grain. Who knows, every single grain in your bowl is the fruit of bitter toil."

Xiahou Hui remained completely silent, fixing a desperate, unwavering stare on Wei Ba. Terror made her teeth chatter uncontrollably, yet she refused to beg him for mercy, refusing to utter even a single plea.

Wei Ba was somewhat surprised. When he had stood outside the cell earlier, Xiahou Hui had looked on the verge of a total breakdown; why had she suddenly grown so composed upon seeing him?

"Lady Xiahou, you've never experienced anything like this before, have you?"

Xiahou Hui remained silent.

"Do you have any idea what outcome awaits you next?"

Xiahou Hui still said nothing, though the dread in her eyes grew even more intense.

"I suppose you wouldn't know. Let me spell it out for you: you have two choices," Wei Ba said casually. "First, surrender and become my maidservant from now on, much like Peng Xiaoyu, or be gifted to someone else as a maidservant—either way, you remain a slave. Second, become a camp prostitute. Do you understand what a camp prostitute is? Your father commanded troops, so you surely know what camp prostitutes are. By the way, do you know how to sing or play musical instruments? If you do, you can become a higher-ranking camp prostitute; if not, you'll simply have to serve men relying solely on that pretty face of yours."

As he spoke, Wei Ba reached out and stroked Xiahou Hui's face, only to pull his hand back covered in dirt. He glanced at his hand with an expression of disgust. The fierce jailer immediately stepped forward, offering his lapel with a ingratiating smile, and Wei Ba wiped his hand on it. Staring at Xiahou Hui, he flashed a wicked grin. "Which option will you choose? Will you be my personal maid, or the maid of many men?"

Xiahou Hui shuddered and buried her face even deeper.

Wei Ba sighed, stood up, and walked out of the cell. Just as he straightened his back, Xiahou Hui—who had remained motionless until that exact second—suddenly lunged forward and grabbed his leg. Wei Ba turned his head, initially intending to mock her a bit more, but upon seeing the unrestrained tears streaming down her filthy face and her trembling lips, the words dying on his tongue were swallowed back down. He waved a hand dismissively. "Take her out, and have someone give her a bath and a change of clothes."

"Ah, right away, sir!" The jailer instantly put on a beaming smile, waved over two robust maidservants, helped Xiahou Hui to her feet, and escorted her out of the dungeon. As they walked, the jailer chattered endlessly into Xiahou Hui's ear. "Let me tell you, miss, the moment I saw your physiognomy, I knew you were blessed with good fortune—you were never going to stay in a place like that for long. Look, didn't your savior arrive just in time? Military Advisor Wei is truly a wonderful man! Not only is he blessed with a striking appearance, but he's also an exceptionally rare talent. Though he's so young, he's already a military advisor in the Chancellor's Office, and with the great merit he's achieved this time, who knows how high he'll be promoted next? Following him, even as a maidservant, is far better than being the legal wife of some ordinary family..."

Listening to the jailer's endless babble, Xiahou Hui clenched her teeth tightly, tears streaming endlessly down her face. She had originally intended to maintain her final shred of dignity by refusing to bow her head to Wei Ba—even if it meant dying in the dungeon, even if it meant being devoured by that rat. But the phrase "camp prostitute" had completely shattered her defenses. As the daughter of a military family, she knew all too well what a camp prostitute endured.

She could not face such a fate, and the Xiahou clan would never tolerate a woman with such a stain. She had no other choice left except to surrender to Wei Ba and become his maid.

*Could this truly be my destiny? Must I either be a pawn tossed about at others' whim or a lowly, humble slave? Born into the illustrious Xiahou family, a scion of a noble house, how did I come to such a tragic end?*

Weeping bitterly, Xiahou Hui could not comprehend it. She could do nothing but cry as the two strong women half-carried and half-dragged her out of the dungeon, leading her all the way up to the elevated platform within the inner city. Catching sight of the bright moon in the sky once more, she finally realized she had returned to the world of the living.

Her gaze drifted slowly down from the moon, taking in the distant, shadowed expanse of the Southern Mountains, the nearby ramparts of the city wall, and the starlight-like torches and shifting figures below. Her mind suddenly cleared, and she was instantly overwhelmed by a blazing wave of shame at her momentary weakness just moments before.

*No, I am a daughter of the Xiahou clan! I will not become a lowly slave!*

She suddenly halted her steps. Catching the two robust maidservants off guard in a split second of astonishment, she wrenched her arms free, bolted toward the ramparts with every ounce of strength remaining in her body, climbed over the edge, and plunged down into the void. *(To be continued)*