Qin Xuemei's Choice—Asking for Recommendation Votes!

After Qin Wang finished reading the refreshed intelligence, he practiced Ancestor's Long Fist for another hour. The scorching sensation immediately subsided somewhat.

He dried himself with a towel and fell straight asleep.

It was winter now. After sweating all over, taking a bath would inevitably make him catch a chill!

The next day.

Five in the morning.

Qin Wang woke up, washed up with a willow twig and plant ash, then barred the door.

He boiled the remaining half of yesterday's Golden Winged Red Carp and continued eating.

After practicing Ancestor's Long Fist for another hour or so and using up the Treasure Fish's energy, I can head to Hundred Herbs Hall.

Before long, Qin Wang had swallowed the half Golden Winged Red Carp. His body began to burn up again.

Qin Wang spread his stance and began practicing Ancestor's Long Fist.

As time passed.

Steam rose from Qin Wang's head and body, forming white vapor that drifted through the room.

Nine in the morning.

At Li Family Manor, outside the first mourning hall, a woman in a yellow dress sat collapsed on the ground. Her face was haggard, snot streamed from her nose, her hair was disheveled, and her tears had long run dry. She sat there without moving.

At this moment.

More than half the manor's buildings had burned into crumbling ruins, their blackened beams reduced to charcoal.

"Second Madam, things have come to this. You must take care of yourself!"

Several maidservants attended Li Chunxia at her side.

"Brother, now that you're gone, my nephew followed you too. My Li Family is finished, brother!"

Thinking that she no longer had any family left on her mother's side, Li Chunxia was overcome with grief.

"Madam! What happened at the manor?"

Just then, a fierce-looking middle-aged man in blue robes, a long saber hanging at his waist, swept in like a gust of wind and helped Li Chunxia to her feet.

"Last night, Tian Yi, my sister-in-law, and three maidservants and servants were keeping vigil. Sister-in-law told me to return to my room first, but not long after I went back, the fire started from the mourning hall. My nephew and sister-in-law... they both followed my brother. No one is left in my family now, boohoohoo..."

When Li Chunxia saw her husband Zheng Kecheng return, grief surged within her, and she wept herself limp in his arms.

"Alas!"

"I went back to the county yamen yesterday. How could something like this happen?"

"If I had been here, I would have saved Tian Yi no matter what!"

Hearing this, Zheng Kecheng immediately beat his chest and stamped his feet, blaming himself beyond measure. His eyes gradually reddened as he repeatedly wiped away tears.

"Master, Second Madam, I examined it carefully. There were actually... three points where last night's fire started."

Just then, Steward Chen Pu stepped forward, cupped his hands toward Zheng Kecheng and Li Chunxia, and spoke respectfully.

"Three points of origin?"

At his words, an almost imperceptible gloom flashed through Zheng Kecheng's eyes. He immediately said, "Let me see!"

"Madam, Steward Chen is right. The fire started in three places: the mourning hall, the side rooms, and the main hall."

Zheng Kecheng walked toward the mourning hall, now reduced to ruins, and inspected it carefully. His expression gradually darkened. "In my many years of experience, if a candle toppled over and caused a fire in the latter half of the night, there would only be one point of origin! This is clearly someone murdering my brother's entire family!"

"What? Someone set the fire and murdered my brother's family?"

Li Chunxia stepped forward, examined the three points of origin Zheng Kecheng had mentioned, and said through clenched teeth, "Kecheng, my brother treated us well while he was alive. He was the person closest to me. Now his family has been murdered—you must find the killer and avenge my brother!"

"Madam, your brother's affairs are my affairs!"

Zheng Kecheng slapped a granite roller in front of the mourning hall, shattering it into four pieces. He roared, "I will definitely drag out the murderer who set fire to kill my brother, skin him, pull out his tendons, and hack him into ten thousand pieces, to comfort my brother's spirit in heaven!"

Yan Yun County.

Chen Family.

Inside a side hall.

Sat a woman around sixty years old, with an elegant and dignified bearing. She wore a jade-green thumb ring on her right index finger and a brocade fur coat, exuding an imposing air of nobility.

Behind her stood two pretty maidservants of seventeen or eighteen.

Before the woman stood four thinly dressed, slender girls of fifteen or sixteen. The four girls kept their heads lowered, not daring to look at the noblewoman before them, all visibly constrained.

"Xiao Zi, Xiao Lan, Xiao Qing, Xiao Mei, all of you were sold to my Chen Family's laundry room because your families had no way to survive."

"Do you want to earn a large sum of silver to support your families?"

The old woman looked at Qin Xuemei and the other four with a gentle expression.

Qin Xuemei, Xiao Zi, and the other three girls raised their heads. Each one twisted the corner of her clothes between her fingers and nodded.

"I believe you have already heard that half a year from now, it will be my Chen Family's turn to provide a virgin girl for the River God Sacrifice!"

"As long as you are willing to serve as the sacrificial virgin girl, your family will receive twenty taels of silver each!"

"And you will no longer need to work in the laundry room. For the next half year, you will be fed and cared for well!"

Old Madam Chen swept her gaze over Qin Xuemei and the others, her eyes narrowing slightly.

These four little girls were young and untouched maidens, the finest choices for the River God Sacrifice. This was merely informing them. If they dared defy her and refuse, the laundry room would specially look after them; torturing them to death from exhaustion would take no more than half a month.

Upon hearing Old Madam Chen's words, Xiao Zi, Xiao Lan, and Xiao Qing all looked at one another in silence. They knew full well that the River God Sacrifice meant being thrown into the river on the day of the sacrifice, becoming offerings to the River God in exchange for favorable weather and abundant harvests in the coming year.

Put nicely, they would serve the River God. Put bluntly, it was the same as dying.

"Madam, I... I'm willing."

"Before the River God Sacrifice, I want to see my family."

Qin Xuemei slowly raised her head and looked at Old Madam Chen. She knew that Old Madam Chen was informing her, not discussing it with her. There was no room for choice!

If she defied her, the Chen Family had plenty of ways to torture her to death.

Either way, it was death.

Better to make her death worth something.

She had willingly sold herself to the Chen Family for six hundred coins, all so her younger brother could hold on a little longer.

If they received another twenty taels of silver, her younger brother could build a house and at least live without worry.

Who did not want to live?

But if the ending could not be changed in the end, she might as well trade her life for twenty taels of silver, helping her younger brother one last time. After that, he could only rely on himself.

"Very good. What is your name?"

Old Madam Chen looked at Qin Xuemei with great satisfaction.

Every year for the River God Sacrifice, the twelve market towns of Yan Yun County and the Four Great Families took turns providing virgin boys and girls. Naturally, members of those great families would not become sacrifices. They simply bought virgin boys and girls with silver to serve in their place; it had long been the custom.

That was also the original purpose behind the Chen Family buying Laundry Slaves in advance this time.

"Madam, my name is Qin Xuemei."

Qin Xuemei lowered her head and twisted the corner of her clothes.

"Mhm, very good."

Old Madam Chen nodded at Qin Xuemei, then looked at the other three. Displeasure showed in her eyes. "You are unwilling?"

Xiao Zi, Xiao Lan, and Xiao Qing remained silent.

No one wanted to die.

"This old woman is informing you, not asking. Fine, I will give you three days to consider it, then give me your answer."

Old Madam Chen's face darkened. If she had not feared that the sacrifices' sobbing during the ritual would disturb the River God, she would have simply tied up the Laundry Slaves and taken them there. Why bother spending extra silver to negotiate with them?

They had all been sold to the Chen Family. Even if their master beat them to death, it would hardly matter.

Old Madam Chen left.

"Sister Xuemei, becoming a sacrifice means death. You really...?"

Xiao Zi, Xiao Qing, and Xiao Lan all looked at Qin Xuemei.

Though they had been sold into the Chen Family, their parents had told them before they left that they would redeem them when they had the means. Naturally, they did not want to die.

"Do we have a choice?"

Qin Xuemei lowered her head and looked at the tips of her shoes, murmuring to herself, "If I hadn't come to the Chen Family, I would have starved to death too. Madam is informing us. If we don't agree, we won't even live out the next half year."

Xiao Zi, Xiao Qing, and Xiao Lan all fell silent.

Old Madam Chen had already spoken. Refusing would mean not knowing what was good for them. In the future, they would absolutely end up like the other girls—beaten to death and disappearing without a sound!