My master was a skinner. He once skinned my two younger sisters alive to make a human skin mask for the princess.
That human skin mask was as smooth as jade and looked lifelike, much resembling the prince’s deceased beloved.
However, the prince still didn’t spare the princess a second glance.
Later, the princess discovered that my master’s wife was the one who looked most like the prince’s beloved.
So, in front of my master, I skinned his wife alive.
After that, I became the new skinner in the prince’s mansion.
On the first day when I became the skinner, I was supposed to skin my master’s wife alive right in front of him.
My master was locked by iron hooks through his shoulder blades, yet he still knelt on the ground and begged me, “She’s the mistress who raised you since you were little!”
The knife in my hand paused for a moment. Yes, they had taken care of me for ten years.
A long time ago, my parents passed away.
Before I met them, I had been wandering around with my two younger sisters, begging for food to survive.
At that time, I was only ten years old, and my sisters were even younger. They were so thin that I was really afraid they would starve to death.
So most of the time, I would endure hunger and let them fill their stomachs first.
But when the officers and soldiers were searching for people with portraits everywhere, my two eight-year-old sisters tied me up and hid me in a rice vat.
They squatted in front of me and said to me like little adults, “Sister, they are looking for beautiful girls everywhere. Sister, you are so pretty, you should hide. We are young, so we are not afraid.”
Just like that, I hid in the rice vat and watched helplessly as my two sisters were tied up by the officers and soldiers.
It turned out that they wouldn’t even spare children.
I still remember that the man in charge was my master.
He pressed my sister’s head at that time, gestured with the tip of his knife a few times, seemed quite satisfied, and then roughly locked my sister in a cage.
After I escaped, I followed them for dozens of miles and witnessed them taking people into the prince’s mansion with my own eyes.
I squatted nearby for three days. It was not until I saw two bloody corpses thrown out in the mass grave that I realized my two sisters had been skinned alive.
I inquired from an old beggar and learned that the man in charge was a skinner who specialized in making human skin masks.
My sisters were made into human skin masks by him.
So, it took me a long time to find his residence. I knelt in the mountains for three days and three nights before he agreed to take me in.
My master was extremely cruel. Women were like livestock in his eyes, and he showed no mercy at all.
However, he was especially kind to his wife, caring about every meal and every drink.
I sometimes saw him washing his wife’s feet at night.
His wife had advised him not to skin people anymore, but my master said that making a perfect human skin mask was his lifelong wish and he couldn’t stop.
Later, every time my master killed someone, his wife would plant a flower to atone for his sin.
Unfortunately, he had never gone to see the flowers all over the mountains and plains.
Now, his wife begged me, “Qinghe, plant a flower for me too.”
I looked into her beautiful eyes, which were as gentle as when she made the first beautiful dress for me and advised me not to become a skinner.
Actually, I knew that she hadn’t been without doubts about my motives, but she never exposed me.
Perhaps without her, my master would have made me into a human skin mask long ago, and I wouldn’t have survived until now.
But I didn’t dare to promise.
Because the princess would be watching beside us the whole time. Rather than supervision, it was more like she came specifically to see my master.
She liked to watch lovers part in life and death in a sorry state, and naturally wouldn’t miss the moment when the tip of my knife fell on his wife’s head, and my master was in agony and powerless when he heard his wife’s screams.
The princess grabbed his collar, tore off half of her own human skin mask, revealing half of her bloody face, and said, “She suffers when being skinned. Doesn’t it hurt when I wear this skin? What’s there to be sentimental about? She only suffers this once, but I’m in pain every day. Who pities me!”
After saying that, she ignored my master’s crazy struggles and walked out of the underground palace contentedly.
When blood flowed down from his wife’s head, looking at the distorted face in front of me in pain, my mind went blank, and I felt numb as if I were already dead.
I couldn’t tell whether it was her bleeding or my conscience crying.
But when I heard my master’s painful cries, I felt a sense of satisfaction in my heart.
Her eyes had asked me why more than once.
But the knife in my hand was cutting her skin and flesh inch by inch.
I’m sorry.
Because only when you die will he know the pain.
Only by watching you in pain can I remember the pain of my two sisters more clearly.
So, I can only skin you.
The better your skin is made into a mask, the more likely the princess will abandon my master and let me become her exclusive skinner.
It took me two days to finally make the first human skin mask in my life.
By this time, my master was exhausted and there was no vitality in his eyes.
I proudly took his wife’s skin to him and said, “Master, look, does this human skin mask fulfill your wish?”
In an instant, a glimmer of light flashed in his dim eyes, with surprise and grief mixed together, and then he passed away with mixed emotions.
It turned out that the human skin nourished by love was so stunning when made into a mask.
Look, I’ve done what you couldn’t do.
I said to his corpse,
“Master, don’t think I didn’t know. You took me in and fed me medicine every day because you wanted to make an eternal skin. I also knew the princess’s plan to keep me, but I still wanted to stay.
“Blood debts should be repaid with blood. Your debt has been paid off, and hers should be too, right?”
Most of the skinned corpses were thrown into the mass grave for disposal.
I marked my master’s wife’s body, secretly buried her, and planted a hibiscus flower for her with my own hands.
I stayed in front of her grave and watched the fragrance of the flowers all over the mountains and plains filling the air.
These flowers were as beautiful as those young girls who died at my master’s hands.
My master’s wife once told me that she hoped that one day my master would see these flowers and learn to cherish the beauty of life.
“It’s a pity that he died too soon. I really wanted to see how he would feel when he came here.”
Before I returned to the prince’s mansion, I changed into clean clothes and concealed the fact that I had buried my master’s wife.
I couldn’t let anyone catch me by the handle.
Because the princess liked to watch others suffer from unrequited love, part in life and death, and lose the most precious things.
She thought I didn’t care about anything, so she had no interest in me.
As soon as I entered the door, the princess was losing her temper.
Because she had invited the prince, but the prince didn’t come at all.
When the princess saw me come back, she suddenly asked me, “Qinghe, is there anyone you like?”
I said no. I used to be an orphan and a beggar, with no relatives, no lover, and no friends.
After hearing that, she clapped her hands with a bit of disappointment and asked someone to bring in a man, and said to me,
“I heard that he’s from your hometown. His name is Meng Jiusi. He’s so handsome and also a talented scholar! Do you know him?”
She then continued, “I had his imperial examination results cancelled. He’s now my new male pet.”
I looked at the man chained in front of me. He was deliberately avoiding my gaze, but he couldn’t hide the fact that we knew each other long ago.
He was my benefactor.
When my sisters and I were starving to death, he gave us food and put his coat on me in the snow-covered mountain temple.
I also knew that his biggest wish in life was to pass the imperial examination and make a name for himself.
But at this moment, he was being trampled underfoot like livestock.
I not only turned a blind eye to him but also calmly replied, “I’ve been away from my hometown for too long. I don’t remember.”
“Come and serve me tonight.”
This was what the princess said to Meng Jiusi.
After saying that, she glanced at me again, “You stay outside and keep watch. Remember, don’t let anyone in.”
So, that night, I knelt on the ground wearing the clothes of a palace maid and listened to them having sex.
She would humiliate him, whip him, bite him with her teeth, and curse while biting,
“Why, I’ve already become the way he likes the most, but he’d rather favor those prostitutes than look at me!”
An hour later, I saw him come out covered in bloodstains.
“Turn your head around. I don’t want you to see me in such a sorry state.”
I lowered my eyes and tried my best not to look at him, still looking calm and said,
“It was the princess who specifically asked me to watch you. I have to watch. The more loyal I am, the more she’ll trust me.”
He squatted down and looked at me firmly, “I’ll help you.”
I raised my eyes and met his deep gaze, then secretly handed him a bottle of medicine,
“No need. Take care of yourself first. None of her male pets have survived for a month. I’ll solve my own problems.”
The next day, I changed the princess’s human skin mask with my master’s wife’s skin for her.
She looked at herself in the mirror with satisfaction again and again, then put on the most beautiful clothes to meet the prince.
She thought that as long as she looked similar enough, she could win the prince’s favor.
But that night, the prince still didn’t come.
She was in a bad mood and vented her anger on Meng Jiusi even more crazily at night: “Scream! I told you to scream! Did you hear me? Scream for me!”
I could even hear the sound of her gnawing at Meng Jiusi’s bones beside my ears, but Meng Jiusi still endured it and didn’t make a sound.
Gradually, her interest in torturing Meng Jiusi grew bigger and bigger until she got pregnant.
Yes, the medicine I gave Meng Jiusi was the one that made women easy to get pregnant.
The princess was pregnant, but the prince hadn’t come to her palace for three months.
She was naturally impatient and asked me to find the medicine for abortion for her and help her hide this matter.
I knew she didn’t dare to ask the imperial physician or invite a doctor.
So, I developed a medicine with the strongest effect, which made it impossible for her to have children for the rest of her life.
When she was sweating profusely and having a miscarriage in bed, I asked Meng Jiusi to draw a portrait that looked very similar to the princess and hung it on a tree on the way the prince must pass by.
There was also a poem expressing missing for the deceased wife written on it.
That night, the prince was drunk and pressed her on the bed.
Even though she had just had a miscarriage.
But that was the rare favor she hadn’t had for a long time. She didn’t dare to resist, nor did she dare to reveal the truth.
She claimed in panic that she was having her period and it was inconvenient to have sex, but she was still roughly pressed under the prince by him.
I watched her in such pain that her heart was almost torn apart, and the skin on her face was even cracked, yet she was still struggling to cater to him. A sense of pleasure couldn’t help growing in my heart.
In the dead of night, with the candlelight flickering.
While the prince was still drunk, she barely covered the torn side of her face with her hair and urged me frantically to find a way.
I hesitated for a moment at that time.
If I just stood by and let the prince see her ugly face on purpose, at most he would dislike her.
But that would be too easy on her.
So, I took a box of powder and quickly smeared it on her face to cover the ugly cracks on her face.
However, when the prince woke up, he didn’t even look at her directly. He pushed her aside, put on his clothes and left directly.
If he had been willing to look back at her, he would surely have seen the bloody sheets first.
I pretended to be very worried about her and leaned over the bedside and asked, “Princess, are you okay?”
She ignored the pain on her body, struggled to get up and couldn’t wait to say to me,
“I’ve already found someone. Go and skin her and change it for me quickly!”
I looked at the ugly bloodstains on her face, which was just like my heart torn apart.
Because I felt sorry for the human skin mask on her, which was made from my master’s wife.
It was a pity that she hadn’t used it for even a month, and the prince hadn’t even looked at her, yet she had already wasted it.
When I went to the cellar, the person who was about to be skinned had already been tied up.
It was a ten-year-old girl, about the same age as my sister, and there was something similar to my sister’s appearance between her eyebrows.
Before I was about to start, the princess was suddenly carried in and urged me, “Hurry up! My younger sister from my mother’s family is coming to the prince’s mansion to visit me. I don’t want to make a fool of myself in front of her!”
I replied faintly, “Yes.”
I heard her asking her personal maid behind me,
“I heard that the prince came suddenly last night because of a painting. Find out clearly who was behind this!”
“Princess, don’t worry. The ink in the prince’s mansion has a natural unique fragrance. Although the fragrance is faint, it won’t dissipate easily. You can definitely tell if you smell it carefully.”
As soon as the words fell, the girl tied to the stake suddenly spat at me: “Bah, you bad guy! Let me go!”
The princess suddenly frowned and glanced at us with disgust: “Where did you find this country girl? It’s so disgusting!”
I picked up the handle of the knife with a calm gaze: “Don’t worry. She’ll shut up soon.”
Then, facing the girl’s frightened eyes, I dropped the knife on her head.
Blood spattered out and dyed my clothes red.
After all, no matter how faint the fragrance was, it would be covered by the smell of blood.
When I put the human skin mask on the princess this time, I deliberately left a wrinkle on her neck, which was very obvious.
The princess looked at herself in the bronze mirror again and again, and complained unhappily, “It doesn’t seem to fit as well as before. How did you do your job! You’re not even as good as your master!”
I knelt down and explained, “Your Highness, it’s not that I didn’t do it well. It’s because after the skin on your face cracked, you put on a lot of powder, which damaged the texture. If you want your face to fit as well as before, you need the skin of someone with a blood relationship to repair it.”
She looked at me suspiciously: “I’ve never heard your master mention this before.”
“This is a last resort. Because after changing the human skin mask, there are rarely cases of cracks. Your face urgently needs to be repaired now. Otherwise, the human skin masks you put on in the future will fit less and less well.”
It’s the face this time. What about next time?
She touched the wrinkle on her neck, and a trace of panic flashed in her eyes.
“No, I can’t let the prince see the flaw. As for the woman with a blood relationship…”
I whispered in her ear, “Didn’t you just say that you still have a younger sister in your mother’s family?”
“No, although she’s a concubine’s daughter, she’s more favored by my father than I am. I can’t sit firmly in the position of the main wife without the support of my family. I don’t want to fall out with my family yet…”
The princess rejected it quickly, but there was a bit of hesitation in her expression during the conversation. She then continued, “If she suddenly disappears, that bitch will surely persuade my father to thoroughly investigate this matter. Let me think about it again.”
I tried my best to suppress the excitement between my eyebrows. Oh, really? Then I’m really looking forward to it!
You’ve been causing trouble for so long. It’s time for someone to come out and give you some trouble.
That night, the princess wore a moon-white long gown to attend the family banquet, looking as elegant as a lotus emerging from water.
Before she took her seat, her younger sister Shen Yunhuan had already been accompanying the prince, chatting and laughing happily, as if there was no one else around.
Even when she bent her knees to salute, the prince didn’t respond at all.
The princess had just had a miscarriage and forced herself to sit aside despite her physical discomfort.
Suddenly, Shen Yunhuan turned around and asked, “Sister Yunshu, why don’t you eat?”
The princess stirred a bowl of clear porridge and replied, “I’ve been vegetarian for years, used to eating vegetarian food and can’t bear to see killing. Sister, you can eat.”
I was standing beside, suppressing my disgust, and only heard the prince praise her, “Yunshu, your appearance has changed over the years, and your temperament is becoming more and more like Yunmeng’s.”
After hearing that, Shen Yunhuan sneered softly: “It’s a pity that some people are just like the one who imitated the beauty without having the charm. Sister always boasted of being the legitimate daughter and looked down on us concubine daughters. If my sister were still alive and knew that someone was imitating her to such an extent, she would surely laugh in her dreams.”
“You talk too much.”
The prince stretched out his wine cup to Shen Yunhuan’s mouth, not caring about the princess’s ashamed and angry expression at all. He just kept flirting with Shen Yunhuan and drinking, and didn’t even notice that the princess left halfway.
After she went out not far, she heard the sharp laughter of a woman behind her.
When she turned around, she saw the silhouettes of a man and a woman intertwined in the candlelight.
From outside, she could hear the prince and Shen Yunhuan being intimate passionately.
“Brother-in-law, am I more beautiful or is Shen Yunshu more beautiful?”
The man snorted softly: “Of course you are, Yunhuan. Give me a son and I’ll make you the princess.”
“If I become the princess, Shen Yunshu can only be a concubine!”
“How naughty you are, huh?”
Shen Yunhuan said coquettishly: “Brother-in-law, you just like me being naughty.”
I stared at the princess’s red and swollen neck with anger and said softly beside her, “Miss Third seems to be very close to the prince.”
“Kill her. Don’t let her leave the prince’s mansion alive!”
After saying that, the princess got up and left.
I stood there, listening to the sounds of the man and woman making love, and said respectfully, “I’ll obey your order, Princess.”
I took off the sachet I was wearing. This thing was really good. Just with a small opening, the effect was so obvious.
That night, Miss Third of the Shen family was hijacked on her way back after visiting relatives in the prince’s mansion and appeared in the princess’s secret room.
The princess couldn’t hit Shen Yunhuan for fear of hurting her skin. She could only grab her hair desperately: “Aren’t you curious why I’ve changed my appearance? I’ll tell you now!”
Shen Yunhuan was pressed by her head, and almost all of her hair was about to be pulled out. Her original fear had long been replaced by anger: “Shen Yunshu, I’ve never seen a woman as despicable as you. In front of the prince, you’re just a clown imitating others. If you kill me, the prince won’t let you go!”
“Don’t worry. You’ll never see the prince again.”
After the princess said that, she finally let go of Shen Yunhuan’s hair.
When Shen Yunhuan looked up, I had already pointed the blade at her scalp and comforted her softly,
“Miss Third, don’t be afraid. I’ll make the best use of your skin!”
…
I watched people transport Shen Yunhuan’s bloody corpse out of the prince’s mansion through the tunnel overnight.
I was calculating in my heart that suddenly there was an extra corpse without skin in Yanjing, which would surely attract attention.
But when I arrived at the mass grave, Shen Yunhuan’s corpse had already been quietly disposed of.
Under the moonlight, I carefully looked at the man’s handsome face. His clothes and dressing didn’t look like a servant in the prince’s mansion.
With such skillful movements, he should have done this kind of thing more than once.
No wonder she had killed so many people, but no one had discovered it until now. It turned out that someone had been helping her clean up the mess silently.
I remembered this man’s face and went back to the prince’s mansion before he noticed me.
I did something to Shen Yunhuan’s human skin. Wearing the human skin mask, the princess was enough to make the prince lose his mind over her.
That night, the prince came to the princess’s residence and had a tender night with her.
She was extremely happy. Even though she wasn’t feeling well, she still tried her best to pretend to cater to him.
Afterwards, the prince complained, “Why is there so much blood?”
The princess knelt on the bed and quickly explained, “I’m having my period recently.”
“You have a rest. I’ll come again tomorrow night.”
I observed carefully. After the prince left, indeed another man entered the princess’s bedchamber.
This man wasn’t Meng Jiusi. It was the one who buried Shen Yunhuan.
The man brought a bowl of medicine, sat on the bed, and let the princess lean on his chest.
“Does your stomach still hurt?”
He stared at the blood on the bed and sighed, “You can’t be so willful anymore. Your current body can’t serve in bed. He doesn’t regard you as a human being at all. Why do you still torture yourself like this!”
The princess grabbed his sleeve weakly and said, “Brother Wangchen, I killed Shen Yunhuan. Help me. I can’t let my father know. I’m afraid the Shen family will find out it was me!”
“I’ll keep an eye on the Shen family’s movements. Have a rest first.”
It turned out that he was also an alchemist.
He was even willing to leave the religious life for Shen Yunshu and be her killer.
I left disappointedly, told Meng Jiusi about my next plan on the way, and then went back to the cellar to have a sleep.
The next day, the princess called me over.
She looked at herself in the mirror with satisfaction again and again and praised me, “I’m very satisfied with the skin made this time.”
I took the comb from the maid’s hand, walked behind her, and carefully combed her black hair for her:
“It’s a pity that this skin can only be worn for a month. Princess, do you have any other sisters?”
She suddenly frowned and turned around to ask me, “Isn’t there any other way?”
I stared at her expectant eyes. Other ways?
I said, “Actually, Miss Third’s skin isn’t the best. Only the skin of close relatives can make the most perfect human skin mask in the world. This kind of skin has a fatal attraction for men and can make all men in the world be infatuated with her. The Princess Changle looks very much like you.”
She suddenly pushed me away and stared at me like looking at a devil: “What are you planning! I warn you, don’t even think about laying hands on my daughter. Plotting against the princess is a capital offense!”
I smiled and turned her body around, letting her continue to face herself in the mirror: “Princess, a good skin needs the nourishment of love, just like my master’s wife. The princess is still young, only thirteen years old. I was just joking.”
After a pause, I continued, “Princess, you love your daughter deeply. But for you, having a son by your side is the most important thing. As long as you can keep the prince’s heart, it won’t be long before you get pregnant again.”
The prince had just stayed overnight in the princess’s place, and soon it was heard that two concubines in the prince’s mansion were pregnant.
That night, the prince held the two concubines and watched the song and dance drunk, and the whole mansion was bustling with excitement.
Only the princess’s bedchamber was deserted.
The only person who still remembered her was her daughter, Princess Changle.
The princess held her in her arms and touched her hand and said, “Why is your hand so cold and swollen?”
“Daughter is unfilial. I heard that mother has been unwell recently, so I went to the kitchen to make fish soup for mother myself.”
I watched the mother-daughter affection in the room jealously outside the window and asked Meng Jiusi to stay nearby. After Princess Changle came out of the bedchamber, I sent away the people around her.
A few days later, the princess found that Meng Jiusi had the fragrance of other women’s powder on him.
She was extremely possessive. Even though she didn’t love Meng Jiusi, she still asked me to secretly find out who was flirting with Meng Jiusi.
“Find out that bitch and cut her into pieces!”
I pretended to investigate this matter, wandered around the prince’s mansion for two days, figured out the layout of the prince’s mansion, and then went back to report to her: “The woman who was with Meng Jiusi is your daughter, Princess Changle.”
“What are you talking about? Changle is only thirteen years old!”
I knew she wouldn’t believe it, and then continued, “At this moment, Princess Changle and Meng Jiusi are in the back garden. Princess, if you don’t believe it, you can go and have a look.”
Of course she was going to see it with her own eyes. The skin on her was Shen Yunhuan’s. I had soaked it in the potion in advance.
This kind of potion was not only fatal to men but also to snakes, insects and even bees.
When she arrived at the imperial garden, she didn’t see Meng Jiusi, but thousands of bees swarmed towards her.
Those bees stung her desperately. I watched her roll on the ground in pain, and there was no good place on her whole body that wasn’t stung.
I thought it was almost done, so I asked people to burn the beehive with a torch, and then took out the herbs for repelling insects that had been prepared long ago and splashed them on her.
However, the skin on her face was completely ruined, and her texture was also damaged almost completely. She looked like a monster without skin, covered with bloody pustules all over her body.
She threw away the bronze mirror in horror, looking like an evil spirit from hell, and looked at me for help: “What should I do!”
I walked up to her and comforted her softly: “Perhaps the powder fragrance on the princess attracted the bees. It’s better not to wear powder in the future.”
“I’m asking you what to do with my face!”
I pondered for a moment and said seriously, “Up to now, only the skin of close relatives can work. Other skins are useless. Even if my master came back to life, this would be the only way.”
After saying that, I quietly withdrew, giving her enough time to think.
In the evening, she said to her personal maid Yanluo, “Go and find the princess. Tell her that I can’t sleep and ask her to come and accompany me.”
At night, all the candles in the princess’s bedchamber were extinguished.
I saw the princess wearing a veil, lying on the bed with Princess Changle in her arms to rest.
Princess Changle deliberately got up and comforted her: “Mother, don’t be afraid. Even if father doesn’t come, daughter will always be with you and won’t let you feel lonely.”
The princess didn’t say anything, just patted her on the shoulder gently like coaxing a baby.
I don’t know how long it took before she finally coaxed Princess Changle to sleep and asked me to take her to the cellar.
Ironically, she didn’t dare to come and asked me to skin the person and then go to find her to change the skin.
I sneered in my heart. I thought she was so cruel-hearted, but it turned out that she was so cowardly that she didn’t even dare to watch!
It was really boring for me to skin alone.
I could only scrape on her daughter’s body one knife after another boredly.
I deliberately chose the most painful way of skinning, trying to make her screams louder.
With each cut of the knife, I was looking forward in my heart, louder, louder, and it would be best if the whole bedchamber could hear it.
Let her have nowhere to hide.
Two hours later, I took Princess Changle’s skin to find the princess.
In the darkness, I saw the black figure on the bed trembling. She asked me, “Did she… say anything?”
I explained, “She didn’t know that you asked me to do this. She kept calling your name and asking you to save her.”
I put the human skin in front of her: “However, the skin has been skinned. The corpse will be disposed of in the same way as before.”
It seemed that there was a picture in her mind. She stared at me like looking at a devil: “Do you know how cruel it is to say these things in front of someone who has just lost a close relative?”
“Oh, really?”
I said indifferently, “I’m used to skinning. I don’t feel anything.”
I helped her change the skin. Her face became smooth again in an instant. I didn’t disappoint her. She was more beautiful than before and even more irresistible.
The prince had stayed in the rooms of several concubines in the past few days. When he suddenly saw her, he almost lost his soul.
He stared at her obsessively and said, “Princess, you are getting more and more beautiful.”
The princess was also surprised at the great change in the prince’s attitude towards her and became more and more convinced that it was because of using the skin of close relatives to make the human skin mask.
Her body had almost recovered, and the prince stayed in her bedchamber until dawn and left that night.
It was the same in the following days.
For a while, the other concubines in the prince’s mansion all lost their charm.
The prince took the princess out for an outing alone, sat in the mountains listening to the rain together.
They rowed a boat on the lake together, watched the fireworks and the song and dance drunk, just like a loving couple.
The prince put his cloak on the princess and took her into his arms, saying proudly, “Yunshu, in my opinion, no matter how beautiful the fireworks are, they are not half as beautiful as you.”
The princess was naturally deeply moved. She was immersed in it, but didn’t dare to linger for too long.
Because all she could think about now was what she should do when the human skin mask lost its effect next month.
On the way back to Yanjing, the prince and she didn’t avoid the eyes of the common people at all and showed their love on the street surrounded by the hustle and bustle of traffic. The common people all praised the princess’s beauty that could overthrow cities and ruin states.
On this sunny day, with the gentle spring breeze blowing, it seemed that the haze in people’s hearts was swept away.
The princess was immersed in the short-lived happiness when the prince suddenly leaned close to her ear and asked, “Yunhuan, Changle, were they killed by you?”
I walked outside the carriage and clearly noticed that the princess’s body stiffened.
When she was thinking about how to defend herself, the prince buried his head in her neck, intoxicated and said, “It doesn’t matter if you killed them. Because you are so beautiful that I can’t resist you!”
The past few days of tenderness were like a basin of cold water, waking the princess up.
She had just returned to the prince’s mansion and was still worried about how the prince knew about this matter. Then Shen Shangshu came to the prince’s mansion to condemn her.
Shen Shangshu had found Shen Yunhuan’s corpse, which was skinned to death.
Not only that, he also found thousands of skinned female corpses in the mass grave.
He looked at the princess with a scrutinizing gaze, like looking at a monster, and questioned her doubtfully,
“You clearly don’t look like Yunmeng. Why have you become more and more like her over the years?
“How do you explain those corpses outside the city?
“What kind of sorcery did you use? Speak!”
The princess was forced to step back step by step. Because the change in her appearance had already planted the seeds of doubt in everyone’s hearts, and she couldn’t find a reason to explain.
Her biggest secret could no longer be hidden.
Until Mu Wangchen showed up in time and stabbed Shen Shangshu through the heart with a sword.
Only then did the tense atmosphere turn into a deathly silence.
“Since it’s so painful, don’t continue to make mistakes.”
The princess stared at the corpse on the ground, panicked and said, “But I can’t go back. Do you know that? I’m even afraid of my own appearance when I take off the human skin mask. I can’t even be a normal person!”
She suddenly remembered something and asked Mu Wangchen, “Now that the corpses have been discovered, what should I do?”
Mu Wangchen stood in front of her, firmly said, “Don’t worry. I’ll solve all the troubles for you.”
He comforted her and then continued, “I’ll make them think that I did all these things.”
The princess hesitated for a moment, looked at him and said, “But murdering a court official is a capital offense. You’ve always been indifferent to worldly affairs and could have lived a carefree life. Once you’re charged with the crime of murdering a court official, you won’t have a peaceful life in the future. Sooner or later, they’ll catch you!”
Mu Wangchen was still as calm and steady as always, which reassured her conscience:
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. It’s just that I can’t protect you anymore in the future. You should be more careful yourself.”
“Are you leaving me too?”
The princess said to his back with a rare touch of conscience, “However, you’d better go. The farther away the better. In this world, except for my mother, you’re the only one who treats me best. I hope you can live well.”
The princess ordered her maids to stage a scene of catching an assassin.
Her sad eyes, full of anxiety, didn’t seem to be crying for her father who had just died, but rather for the “assassin” who killed her father.
Now the guards in the prince’s mansion were all chasing after Mu Wangchen, and he had to leave.
But I deliberately spread the news that the princess was imprisoned, making his departure not so easy.
The princess ordered people to send Shen Shangshu’s corpse back to the Shen family. Hearing the noise outside, she asked me,
“Why is it so noisy outside?”
I replied, “Oh, they’re catching the assassin.”
“Didn’t the assassin escape?” The princess asked nervously.
I replied, “But he thought you were in danger and came back again.”
She was about to run out when I grabbed her.
“Princess, you should avoid suspicion. After all, over the years, he has been helping you clean up every mess you made. He helped you dispose of Shen Yunhuan’s corpse and also buried your daughter, Princess Changle.”
At this moment, she finally realized that there was something in my words and looked at me suspiciously.
I deliberately exaggerated, with three parts truth and seven parts falsehood, and said to her,
“The prince’s favor is indeed glorious, but for you, he’s even willing to sacrifice his freedom and life. If you leave the prince’s mansion, you’ll see that there are flowers all over the mountains and plains near the mass grave. Over the years, for every young girl who died because of you, he planted a flower. All the flowers on the mountains and plains were planted by him for you, Princess. He cares about you so much. Aren’t you afraid that the prince will question your relationship with him?”
The princess finally couldn’t hold it back. Ignoring my presence, tears uncontrollably flowed out of her eyes.
She covered her ears and shouted, “Stop it! I told you to stop it!”
This was her guilt towards Mu Wangchen. I understood this feeling too well.
I refused, “No. Because what I’m going to say next is related to your life and death. The prince has already found out about the things in the mass grave. He wants you dead.”
I bet right. Mu Wangchen was the last straw that broke her conscience. She collapsed and said to me,
“Then let me die! Do you think I still want to live?”
“You’re a noble princess. I can’t just watch you die so easily. I think there are many people who don’t want you to die easily. I’m here to tell you that the prince said he wants you to go and watch the execution together.”
I explained, “Not to mention murdering a court official, just based on those thousands of female corpses, he deserves to endure the most cruel torture in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Lingchi. You know, the executioner has to cut three thousand six hundred knives on the criminal, and during the process, he has to ensure that the person doesn’t die until the last knife is cut.”
I didn’t give her the chance to commit suicide and took her hostage to the prison. I wanted her to watch the person she felt most guilty towards being cut into pieces one by one in front of her to protect her.
When she entered the door, Mu Wangchen had already been cut more than five hundred knives, and there was hardly any meat left on his legs.
He still didn’t forget to explain for her: “Please, don’t make things difficult for her. She changed her appearance for you… Back then on Mount Muyun, she was the one who saved you. You were deceived by the two concubine daughters of the Shen family.”
The prince was sitting on a chair, playing with the bead string in his hand leisurely: “Do you really think I care? I had already seen through this trick long ago. I just used the marriage with the Shen family as a stratagem. I pretended to be deeply in love with Shen Yunmeng in front of others, and she took it seriously.”
Probably, the princess didn’t expect to hear such a truth from her husband’s mouth.
Her eyes were full of resentment and unwillingness, and finally she rushed towards people hysterically: “Huangfu Ren, you bastard!”
However, her slap didn’t land on the prince’s face. He grabbed her hand and, ignoring her pain, forcibly tore off most of the human skin mask on her face, revealing her bloody flesh face.
He stared at me with an appreciative look and said to me with emotion, “Skinner, you’re really a rare find. Were those one thousand female corpses outside the city all skinned by you?”
At this time, two guards roughly tied the princess to a chair and stuffed her mouth with hemp cloth.
I replied, “Your Highness, that’s not the case. I started working for the princess later. Before that, my family members were also skinned.”
He nodded knowingly, understanding my motive for revenge against the princess: “It’s hard on you.”
After a pause, he asked me again, “If one keeps wearing a human skin mask, can one stay young forever?”
I frowned slightly, and then heard him say excitedly, “I’ve recently ordered people to search for dozens of pairs of boys and girls and am developing a prescription for prolonging life. If there’s the help of this human skin mask, wouldn’t it be possible to live forever?”
As soon as the words fell, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. The laughter echoed in the corridor, filling the whole prison. It was so harsh to his ears that he couldn’t help frowning: “What are you laughing at?”
Of course I had to laugh, because Shen Yunshu’s pursuit of love and his pipe dream were just jokes.
For this absurd joke, I lost my two younger sisters.
I even skinned dozens of living people and had been tortured by my conscience for so many years.
“Born into the royal family, noble as a prince, with great power, wealth and honor, isn’t it enough? It’s just because you people have these endless and greedy desires that we common people have suffered so much…”
“Catch her! Don’t let her escape!”
I looked at his nervous look and didn’t know why he thought I would escape. Maybe it’s because good skinners are hard to find and he was afraid that he would never find one again after losing me.
However, I had never thought of leaving the prince’s mansion alive.
I pushed the charcoal fire onto the stake. Immediately, sparks flew everywhere, and the fire spread rapidly, with thick smoke billowing, like a fire dragon winding around every corner of the prince’s mansion.
I watched them in chaos. Unfortunately, there was no water here. The people inside couldn’t get out, and the people outside couldn’t get in.
I grabbed Huangfu Ren’s collar and said word by word to him, “Then just accompany me to die together.”
I suddenly remembered that I was already dead.
I had burned down the whole prince’s mansion with a fire back then, turning it into a ruin.
I lived in the most painful memories over and over again. Maybe it was God’s punishment for me.
I started begging for a living when I was ten years old.
At that time, I took my sisters and lived like dogs, being driven away everywhere.
We lived in a deserted mountain temple on the outskirts of the city, usually eating wild vegetables and tree bark to fill our stomachs. Only on festivals would we be given alms and be able to eat something like pig feed.
In this world, except for Meng Jiusi, my master’s wife was the only one who was kind to me.
Since I went up the mountain to worship my master, she had taken care of me meticulously.
I had worn the new clothes she made for me during festivals.
I also remembered that when I was sick, she took care of me by the bedside for a whole day and night.
She always cared about me, asking about my well-being, and worked tirelessly to wash clothes and cook for me.
So much so that I almost forgot that I was an orphan.
Unconsciously, she had taken care of me for ten years.
I clearly knew that she had no ill intentions towards me, but for the sake of punishing my master, I skinned her alive.
That was the most painful way for a living person to die.
Even now, I still remember the bloody scene that day. It repeats in my mind every day.
I had always thought that someone as ruthless as me should be sent to the eighteenth level of hell.
Later, I realized that the torture more painful than being in the endless hell was in my own heart.
The more I wanted to forget all this, the more I couldn’t escape it.
My mind was full of her kindness to me in the past and what I had done to her.
Actually, that girl who looked like my sister was also a beggar like me.
Her mother was also assassinated because she was chosen by the princess, and her whole family became orphans.
I had taken her in and taken care of her in the mountain temple for three years.
Even though we hadn’t seen each other for ten years, she still recognized me at a glance when I entered the cellar.
She trusted me so firmly and unconditionally, regarding me as her sister.
Even when she was on the verge of death and heard the princess asking to find the person behind the scenes, she smelled the ink fragrance on me and spat at me crazily.
I knew that at that moment, she still wanted to help me cover up the smell and get rid of suspicion.
Maybe she didn’t think she was in danger. She thought I would save her, but I killed her with the cruelest method.
I wanted to take revenge because I lost my two sisters, but for the sake of revenge, I killed another sister of mine.
Then I realized that I couldn’t hurt innocent people anymore. No matter how many of us died, it didn’t matter to them.
Even the corpses in the mass grave, no one had ever cared about these things.
So, I deliberately left wrinkles on the princess’s body to lure her to kill her own relatives and attack the people around her.
Killing Shen Yunhuan and Princess Changle, making her make bigger and bigger mistakes, making her be deserted by everyone and leaving her no room for turning back.
Finally, she was discovered.
Only when they saw the corpses of Shen Yunhuan and Princess Changle would they think of those one thousand female corpses and realize how cruel her means were.
Actually, Mu Wangchen had no enmity with me.
But I wanted the princess to experience the pain that I had experienced.
So, I let him die in the cruelest way in front of her.
Even if I colluded with the prince privately and exposed my identity as a skinner.
Meng Jiusi had advised me that once I did this, I was putting myself on the fire.
Because we didn’t know what kind of person he was. If he was an upright person, he would kill me. On the contrary, he wouldn’t let me go and would keep me in the prince’s mansion to work for him forever.
However, as a person with so many sins, I didn’t deserve to live long ago.
Of course, they didn’t deserve to live either.
So, after thinking about it, I thought it was better to let them all die with me.
Extra Story 1 · From the Perspective of the Beggar Girl
My sister is the best sister in the world.
I’m called Arou. I became an orphan when I was five years old. It was my sister who took me in.
In my impression, all the adult women in our village would be snatched away and skinned, and men would be killed when they grew up.
So there were more and more orphans in our village, and most of them were girls.
They were heavily guarded at the entrance of the village, not allowing us to go out, and not allowing men to participate in the imperial examination.
It was my sister who brought us up, but when my sister grew up, she still had to be sent to be skinned.
So every time those officers and soldiers came to choose people, we would hide my sister.
Then among the remaining girls, whoever was chosen would be taken away by the officers and soldiers.
Later, my sister escaped from the village from the back mountain to save her own sisters and found the prince’s mansion.
When she came back, she said she was going to worship the skinner as her master.
We were afraid that my sister would be skinned and didn’t agree.
My sister said that if she succeeded, she would make the vicious person behind pay the price.
Then my sister never came back.
Until I was caught and was about to be skinned by my sister herself.
I watched my sister’s trembling hand cutting my scalp one knife after another.
But I didn’t blame my sister, because I knew that my sister must be even more uncomfortable than me.
I also heard the princess asking to find the person with the ink smell on her.
I smelled the ink smell on my sister and spat at her crazily, trying to cover up her smell.
I wanted my sister to stay in the prince’s mansion, because I knew that my sister had worked hard for a long time. I couldn’t let her give up halfway.
Only my sister could make that woman pay the price.
If sacrificing me and using such a cruel method was the only way to save more innocent people, my sister wasn’t afraid, and neither was I.
Because my sister is the best sister in the world.
Extra Story 2 · From the Perspective of Meng Jiusi
Once, I was a poor scholar.
My biggest wish was to pass the imperial examination, be an upright and clean official, and uphold justice for the common people.
But I was deprived of the qualification for the imperial examination and became the lowest male pet of the princess.
The prince’s mansion suddenly caught fire. Only then did I understand that Qinghe had never intended to escape with me from the very beginning.
The fire spread very fast, like a wall of fire surrounding the prince’s mansion on all sides, and even water couldn’t put it out.
I thought of the dozen or so boys and girls in the cellar and rushed to save them like crazy.
However, the iron chains were too heavy, firmly tying these children to the stakes.
I didn’t have the key and couldn’t open the shackles.
At that moment, I really wanted to go crazy like Qinghe.
So, I used an axe to smash the iron chains crazily, trying to save them out.
However, I used all my strength and only broke one iron chain.
I watched helplessly as the children in the cellar were burned to death by the fire. Even the only child whose chain was broken couldn’t get out.
I lay on the ground, listening to the deafening cries of the children.
Qinghe, look, actually, I couldn’t save anyone.
Maybe, from the very beginning, the person I wanted to save wasn’t the suffering common people, but myself who was poor, had no bright future, and was regarded as insignificant as an ant.
Extra Story 3 · From the Perspective of Mu Wangchen
I used to be a Taoist priest.
Because I wasn’t pure-hearted enough, I was expelled from my sect.
Before that, for ten years, I had been with Yunshu all the time.
She was the legitimate daughter of Shen Shangshu, but Shen Shangshu didn’t love her.
Her mother passed away when she was three years old.
Compared with her, her father preferred his concubine daughters.
So, she was sent to the Taoist temple to grow up when she was young.
I witnessed her being tortured, humiliated, and bullied by her two concubine sisters every festival for a whole ten years.
Later, she met Huangfu Ren who was poisoned.
She saved him and then learned that he was the all-powerful regent.
She also told me that she had fallen in love with him.
Actually, I knew that she didn’t love Huangfu Ren. She loved Huangfu Ren’s power more and hoped to get the protection of this power.
At that time, Huangfu Ren couldn’t see. They had a very warm period.
She thought that when Huangfu Ren recovered his identity and took her back to Yanjing, that would be the life she wanted.
But after Huangfu Ren opened his eyes, the credit for saving him was snatched away by Shen Yunmeng.
Huangfu Ren thought that the person who saved him was Shen Yunmeng.
I had always wondered why he couldn’t tell even though he couldn’t see a person’s face at that time, but voices were different.
Unless he was pretending.
But Yunshu wouldn’t listen.
Because all she could think about was that Shen Yunmeng had snatched away her marriage.
I witnessed her pushing Shen Yunmeng off the cliff.
Then she regained her identity as the legitimate daughter of the Shen family and married Huangfu Ren as she wished.
After marriage, Huangfu Ren was very cold to her.
Huangfu Ren always showed a deep affection for Shen Yunmeng in front of others, but it didn’t prevent him from having a harem full of wives and concubines.
He could be nice to many women, but he didn’t love her at all. He didn’t even bother to pretend.
Her explanation seemed so pale and powerless in front of the fact that she had killed Shen Yunmeng.
Once, Huangfu Ren was drunk and mistook her for Shen Yunmeng.
She became addicted to it and deliberately imitated Shen Yunmeng, imitating the person she hated and disliked the most.
She thought that by changing her appearance, she could go back to the days when she was with Huangfu Ren before.
But I knew a secret of Yunshu. Since the day she changed her skin, she had hated him to the core.
Because she found that Huangfu Ren didn’t love Shen Yunmeng at all.
She had been looking forward to going back to the days when she was with Huangfu Ren day and night and getting the protection she wanted.
However, Huangfu Ren was also using her identity to form an alliance with the Shen family and win people’s hearts.
There had never been love between them from the very beginning. How could she get love from Huangfu Ren?
But she didn’t want to admit it.
She still pretended to be deeply in love with him.
She deceived herself and also deceived everyone.
She told me that her biggest wish was to make Huangfu Ren fall in love with her.
Since he had toyed with her feelings first, she also wanted to make him taste the taste of being abandoned.
Actually, I had advised her that with her identity and status, there were many ways to take revenge on Huangfu Ren.
From the moment she wanted to take revenge on a powerful man through feelings, she had already lost.
Because for Huangfu Ren, perhaps women’s feelings were the last thing he needed.
Even if she could humble herself to change her skin for Huangfu Ren, that kind of feeling wasn’t love either.
I don’t know if she finally understood it or not.
Extra Story 4 · From the Perspective of the Master’s Wife
My husband was a skinner. Countless girls were skinned alive by him.
I had always advised him that this kind of thing was too cruel and asked him to stop being a skinner, but he didn’t agree.
Because his biggest wish in life was to make a perfect eternal skin.
But this was impossible.
I heard that the older a person is, the easier it is for him to soften his heart.
I thought that as time passed, he would change this absurd idea.
However, instead of stopping killing people, he killed more and more people, and his obsession became stronger and stronger.
The more he was like this, the more panicked I became in my heart.
I was really afraid that one day he would be punished by the heavens for his heinous deeds. I couldn’t just sit by and watch, so I tried to secretly set free some of the girls who were about to be skinned.
But every time I did this, my husband would find out soon after. He would be furious and lock me up in a small dark room as punishment.
I still didn’t give up, though. I thought that as long as I could save one more life, it was worth it. I continued to look for opportunities to undermine his evil work.
One day, a little girl named Qinghe came to our place. She said she wanted to learn the skinning craft from my husband. I could see the hatred and determination in her eyes, but I also felt a sense of pity for her.
She was just a child, yet she had such a heavy burden on her shoulders. I guessed that she must have suffered a great deal in the past.
Since she came, I took care of her as best I could. I made new clothes for her during festivals, took care of her when she was sick, and tried to give her the warmth of a family that she might not have had before.
I hoped that she could feel kindness and love in this cruel place and perhaps change her mind about learning that terrible skill.
However, things didn’t go as I hoped. One day, when my husband was out, Qinghe suddenly came to me with a knife in her hand. I was shocked and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I asked her why, and she said that she wanted to take revenge on those who had hurt her family and that she thought my husband deserved to die. I understood her pain, but I couldn’t bear to see her become a murderer like my husband.
I tried to persuade her, told her that revenge wouldn’t bring back her loved ones and that it would only make her sink deeper into the abyss of hatred. But she didn’t listen.
Before I could say more, she raised the knife and started to skin me alive. The pain was indescribable. I could feel every cut on my body, and I looked at her in disbelief and despair.
I still remembered her eyes at that time. There was a mixture of hatred, determination, and a hint of hesitation and pain in them. I knew that she didn’t really want to do this to me, but she was too consumed by her revenge.
As I was gradually losing consciousness, I hoped that she could find a way out of the darkness one day, that she could let go of her hatred and start a new life. I hoped that she wouldn’t be haunted by this sin for the rest of her life.
But now, looking back, I don’t know if she ever did. I just hope that in another world, there will be no more pain, no more hatred, and everyone can live in peace and happiness.
Extra Story 5 · From the Perspective of the Prince (Huangfu Ren)
I am Huangfu Ren, the powerful regent. In this world of power struggles, love is nothing but a tool for me to achieve my goals.
When I was poisoned and blind, that Shen Yunshu saved me. But I knew from the very beginning that she was just an ordinary woman with a strong desire for power and status. I didn’t care about her at all.
However, I pretended to be affectionate towards her when I couldn’t see. I let her think that she had a chance to be with me, to enjoy the glory and wealth that came with being by my side.
All this was just part of my plan. I needed to use the Shen family’s influence to stabilize my position in the court, so I deliberately let everyone think that I was deeply in love with Shen Yunmeng, who was actually a tool in my hands as well.
After I regained my sight, I saw Shen Yunshu’s true face. She was so eager to please me, to imitate Shen Yunmeng, but it was all so ridiculous in my eyes.
I played along with her, enjoying the farce she created. I watched her change her appearance time and time again, thinking that she could win my heart in this way. But in fact, my heart was as cold as ice towards her.
I knew about her secrets, about the human skin masks and the atrocities she committed in order to maintain her beauty and my so-called “love”. But I didn’t stop her. Instead, I let her continue, because I wanted to see how far she would go, how much she would sacrifice for this illusory thing.
When the truth about the mass grave and the skinned corpses came to light, I didn’t feel any pity or guilt. I just thought that it was time to use this to get rid of some obstacles and further consolidate my power.
That skinner, Qinghe, was an interesting find. I thought that if I could control her, use her skills for my own purposes, maybe I could achieve even greater things, like finding a way to live forever through the human skin masks.
But in the end, she set the prince’s mansion on fire. I didn’t expect that she would be so bold and desperate. As the fire surrounded me, I realized that perhaps I had underestimated the power of hatred and the determination of those who had been wronged.
Looking back now, all the games I played with people’s feelings, all the manipulations for power, seemed so empty and meaningless in the face of death. But at that time, I was so obsessed with it that I didn’t see the disaster that was slowly approaching.
Maybe in another world, if there is one, I would choose a different path, one that doesn’t involve so much bloodshed and deceit. But in this life, I’m doomed to bear the consequences of my own actions.
Extra Story 6 · From the Perspective of the Shen Family’s Servant
I’ve been serving the Shen family for decades. I’ve seen all the joys and sorrows, the good and the bad within this family.
Miss Shen Yunshu, the legitimate daughter of the family, was always treated unfairly compared to the concubine daughters. Her father, Master Shen, seemed to have little affection for her, always favoring the other two daughters born from the concubines.
When she was young, she was sent to the Taoist temple. I remember how sad she was when she left. She was just a little girl, yet she had to endure such loneliness and cold treatment.
Later, when she came back and got involved with the prince, things became even more complicated. I could see that she was trying hard to win the prince’s heart, but the prince’s attitude towards her was always ambiguous at best.
She changed, became more and more extreme in her actions. I once saw her secretly crying in her room, but when she came out, she put on a strong front again, as if nothing had happened.
I also knew about the human skin masks. I was shocked when I first found out. I couldn’t believe that our young miss would be involved in such a terrifying and immoral thing.
But I was just a servant. I didn’t have the power to stop her or change anything. I could only watch helplessly as things got worse and worse.
When Miss Shen Yunhuan was killed and then Master Shen was also murdered, the whole Shen family was in chaos. Everyone was in panic, not knowing what had happened or what would happen next.
I felt so sorry for the family that had once been so prosperous. It was all destroyed because of power struggles, jealousy, and the pursuit of something that was never truly attainable.
And that Qinghe, the skinner. I heard her story too. She was also a victim of this cruel world. But her way of taking revenge was too extreme. In the end, it brought disaster to everyone, including herself.
I just hope that in the future, there won’t be such tragedies anymore. That people can learn to let go of their greed and hatred and live a simple and peaceful life.
Extra Story 7 · From the Perspective of a Court Official Who Investigated the Case
When I received the order to investigate the case related to the mass grave and the skinned corpses outside the city, I knew it was going to be a difficult and terrifying task.
The first time I went to the mass grave, the scene was so horrifying that even I, who had seen many cases in my career, couldn’t help but feel sick to my stomach.
Thousands of female corpses without skins were piled up there. It was clear that this was not the work of an ordinary criminal. There must be a huge conspiracy behind it.
We started to investigate from all aspects, following every clue we could find. It was a long and arduous process, but we couldn’t give up. After all, so many lives had been lost, and justice needed to be served.
Finally, we traced the clues back to the prince’s mansion. We found that the princess, Shen Yunshu, was deeply involved. At first, I couldn’t believe it. How could a noble princess be related to such a heinous crime?
But as the evidence piled up, there was no denying it. The human skin masks, the disappearances of young girls in the city, everything pointed to her.
During the investigation process, we also encountered many obstacles. Some people in the court tried to cover up the truth, fearing that it would involve too many powerful people and cause unrest in the court.
However, we persisted. We managed to expose the truth step by step, even though it meant facing great pressure and danger.
When we finally caught the main culprit and saw the whole tragic story unfold, I couldn’t help but sigh. This was not just a simple criminal case, but a reflection of the dark side of human nature, the result of greed, jealousy, and the abuse of power.
I hope that this case can serve as a warning to everyone in the future. That power should not be used to satisfy personal desires, and that we should always uphold justice and respect every life.
Extra Story 8 · From the Perspective of a Commoner Who Witnessed the Aftermath
I’m just an ordinary commoner living in the city. One day, I heard that there was a big fire in the prince’s mansion. Everyone was talking about it, and curiosity got the better of me, so I went to see what was going on.
When I arrived there, the scene was chaotic. The fire was still burning fiercely, and thick smoke filled the air. The guards were trying to put out the fire, but it seemed that it was out of control.
Later, I heard all kinds of rumors about what had happened in the prince’s mansion. There were stories about the princess’s atrocities, about the skinned corpses, and about the power struggles within the court.
I couldn’t believe that such terrible things had been going on right under our noses. We commoners had always thought that the noble people in the prince’s mansion and the court were living a luxurious and peaceful life, but it turned out that there was so much darkness and horror behind the scenes.
After that, life in the city seemed to change. People became more cautious, more aware of the importance of justice and the value of life. Everyone hoped that such tragedies would never happen again.
I also hoped that the world would become a better place, where we could live without fear, without having to worry about being caught up in such senseless and cruel affairs.
As time passed, the story of the prince’s mansion became a legend in the city, a warning for future generations to always stay away from evil and uphold goodness.
And that’s the end of all the extra stories. Through the different perspectives of these characters, we can see the complex web of human nature, power, and tragedy that wove this entire story together. It’s a reminder that in life, our choices can have far-reaching consequences, and that we should always strive to make the right ones, to avoid falling into the abyss of darkness and despair.
