Chapter 1: Imprisonment
On that day, the autumn air was crisp and refreshing, and the sky was clear as far as the eye could see.
...
(Eight o'clock in the morning).
A small blue sedan chair carried by four people was hurrying along the busiest East Street in the capital city. Two young maids dressed in cyan clothes walked on either side of the sedan chair.
"Hurry up! Hurry up! General Murong will be here soon!" The young maid in cyan clothes kept urging the sedan chair bearers and scolded them coquettishly, "Our young lady is General Murong's fiancée. If we're late, can you afford the consequences?"
The sedan chair bearers responded repeatedly and quickened their pace.
Sitting upright in the sedan chair, Situ Yingxiu let out a soft sigh and whispered to the maid outside, "Caiqin, stop talking. We're on the street. It's not proper to be shouting and yelling like this."
The maid Caiqin gave the sedan chair beside her a look of frustration, "Young lady, you've been waiting for General Murong for ten years. You've endured so much grievance, heard so many gossips, and suffered so much ill-treatment. Now that you're finally going to have your moment of triumph, why are you still hiding?"
Situ Yingxiu frowned and said calmly, "I'm not wronged. If he doesn't want to marry me, I won't marry him. What is there to be wronged about?"
"You can't say that..." Cai Sang, the other young maid in cyan clothes, saw that the young lady was saying such things again and quickly tried to correct her view.
Just then—
"Stop! Is the person in the sedan chair Situ Yingxiu from the Situ Residence?" A fierce shout came from the street in front of the sedan chair.
The sedan chair bearers suddenly stopped, jolting Situ Yingxiu inside the sedan chair so much that she felt dizzy.
She quickly grabbed the railing of the sedan chair, frowning even more tightly.
A group of men dressed in green brocade clothes with flying fish patterns rushed over aggressively and surrounded the small blue sedan chair tightly.
"F... Flying Fish Guards?!" The four sedan chair bearers shuddered in fear. They put down the sedan chair simultaneously, crouched on the ground with their heads in their hands.
Caiqin was also greatly startled. She covered her mouth with her hand, leaned close to the sedan chair, and said tremblingly, "M... Miss, it's... it's the Flying Fish Guards!"
Situ Yingxiu lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and looked at the group of Flying Fish Guards. "We have something urgent to do outside the city. Please make way, everyone."
"Make way? No one has ever dared to ask the Flying Fish Guards to make way!" The leading man said arrogantly. He glanced at her with a scroll in his hand, then turned around and waved his hand behind him, "It's her, Situ Yingxiu! Someone has accused you of being the female thief Jin Yanzai who has been stealing from the south to the north! We've just found the stolen goods in your hideout outside the city. You can't escape! - Arrest her!"
The Flying Fish Guards of the Dongyuan Kingdom were directly subordinate to the Emperor and cooperated with the Imperial Censorate to monitor all officials.
However, Situ Yingxiu knew that the Emperor had been seriously ill recently and couldn't attend court. He was urgently summoning the Crown Prince's grandson who was traveling in Jiangnan back to the capital.
She raised her eyes and looked at the leader of the Flying Fish Guards in front of her.
Under her long, thick, and black eyelashes, a pair of bright and vivid eyes flashed in front of him. They were as black as the night but also clear and sparkling, making people want to look deeply into them. They were incredibly captivating, and one could almost wish to drown in them.
The leader was taken aback.
Situ Yingxiu lowered her eyes and said calmly, "Is there a mistake? Even if I were a female thief, why would it be necessary for the Flying Fish Guards to arrest me? According to the laws of the Dongyuan Kingdom, the Flying Fish Guards are directly subordinate to the Emperor and cooperate with the Imperial Censorate to monitor all officials. - I'm a commoner, not an official."
"So you're admitting that you're a female thief?! - Then there's no mistake. Take her away!" Seeing Situ Yingxiu lower her eyes and return to her plain appearance, the leader of the Flying Fish Guards thought the captivating charm she had shown earlier had disappeared. He sneered in his heart, thinking he had been hallucinating. Already impatient, he gave a fierce shout, stepped forward, grabbed Situ Yingxiu's arm, and pulled her out.
Situ Yingxiu was dragged out of the sedan chair by him. She staggered a few steps and almost fell to the ground.
She stood up, leaning on the ground, and looked at the leader of the Flying Fish Guards again. She said calmly, "I can walk by myself. Don't tug at me."
"Miss!" Caiqin and Cai Sang were so scared that their teeth chattered. They watched helplessly as Situ Yingxiu was taken away.
Situ Yingxiu looked back at them and signaled with her eyes for them to run away quickly.
Caiqin and Cai Sang quietly turned around and squeezed into the crowd of onlookers.
The members of the Flying Fish Guards looked at the backs of the two maids and asked the leader, "Two of them ran away over there."
"It's okay. Just two maids. It has nothing to do with our mission." The leader of the Flying Fish Guards said indifferently, "Fall back!"
...
(Ten o'clock in the morning).
Caiqin returned to the Situ Residence and cried and pleaded, "Master, Madam, Second Miss, Second Young Master, our young lady has been taken away by the Flying Fish Guards. Please find a way to save her!"
"Taken away by the Flying Fish Guards? What on earth did she do that made heaven and people angry?!" Situ Jianren, Situ Yingxiu's father, jumped up in shock and rushed in front of Caiqin to ask.
The Situ family was a royal merchant. As merchants, they emphasized harmony above all else, made friends with people from all walks of life, and firmly adhered to the principle that "commoners should not fight against officials, and the wealthy should not compete with officials."
Situ Jianren was a middle-aged man in his early forties, tall in stature, with handsome features. However, unfortunately, he had been blind in one eye since childhood and always wore a black eye patch on his face, which made him look a bit intimidating.
"Master, this isn't the time to say such things! Please quickly find someone to save Yingxiu!" Madam Zhang of the Situ family pleaded bitterly.
"Didn't Elder Sister go to meet Elder Brother-in-law outside the city?" Situ Anxiang, the Second Miss of the Situ Residence, said in surprise, "How could she be taken away by the Flying Fish Guards?"
Caiqin cried, "We were on our way out of the city when the Flying Fish Guards blocked our way and said that the young lady was... the female thief Jin Yanzai!"
"Elder Sister is definitely not a female thief! There must be a mistake!" Situ Anxiang said firmly, "Father, Elder Brother-in-law has won a battle outside and is returning to the capital today. Father, go and beg Elder Brother-in-law quickly! Only Elder Brother-in-law can save Elder Sister!"
The Second Miss Situ Anxiang was not Situ Jianren's biological daughter but a stepdaughter brought by his second wife, Madam Zhang.
She married into the Situ family with Madam Zhang when she was eight years old. Situ Yingxiu didn't look down on her and treated her like a real sister.
The two sisters had always had a very good relationship.
...
(Two o'clock in the afternoon).
Situ Yingxiu was taken by the Flying Fish Guards to the front of the White Pagoda Prison in the east of the capital city of the Dongyuan Kingdom.
The capital city of the Dongyuan Kingdom was built by the sea, and the White Pagoda was located on the seashore in the easternmost part.
The history of this White Pagoda could no longer be traced. It seemed to have existed even before the establishment of the Dongyuan Kingdom. It was hundreds of feet high, as white as snow, and it reflected beautifully with the blue sea, standing majestically between the sea and the sky.
Although it looked so beautiful, in fact, it was just a prison in the Dongyuan Kingdom, used to hold the most heinous and extremely guilty criminals.
Once someone was imprisoned in this White Pagoda Prison, there was no way to escape even with wings. No matter how powerful the prisoner was, they could only wait for death obediently inside...
Situ Yingxiu looked up at the towering White Pagoda and squinted her eyes. — What kind of virtue or ability did she have to be worthy of being imprisoned in the White Pagoda Prison?
