Lin Qianxue burst through the doors of her father's chamber without knocking and the scene before her froze her blood.
Lin Zhengde lay on his bed, body convulsing violently, foam all over his lips. His eyes rolled back, showing only whites. The physician stood beside him with an empty cup, while Lady Wang wrung her hands nearby.
"What's happening?" Lin Qianxue demanded, rushing forward.
"His condition worsened," the physician said smoothly. "I've given him medicine to ease his passing…"
"To ease his MURDER, you mean!" Lin Qianxue shoved past him and grabbed her father's jaw, forcing his mouth open. The bitter smell of poison hit her immediately, not the same as what had been in her tea, but equally deadly.
She had minutes. Maybe less.
"Get out of my way!" She pushed the physician aside with surprising strength and turned her father's head to the side. Using techniques she'd learned in a mandatory corporate first aid course, knowledge that wouldn't exist for four hundred years, she stuck her fingers down his throat.
"What are you doing?!" Lady Wang shrieked. "You'll kill him!"
"He's already dying!" Lin Qianxue snapped back. Her father gagged, and she pressed harder, triggering his gag reflex with ruthless efficiency.
He vomited. Dark liquid splashed across the silk sheets, reeking of bitter herbs and something chemical that made Lin Qianxue's eyes water.
"Guards!" Lady Wang screamed. "She's trying to kill him! Someone stop her!"
But Lin Qianxue didn't stop. She kept her father on his side, making sure his airway stayed clear as his body purged the poison. She'd seen this before, in a news report about poisoning victims, in a documentary about toxicology. The body's natural defenses trying to expel what it knew was wrong.
Lin Zhengde gasped, coughed, vomited again. His convulsions began to slow.
The physician moved toward them, something glinting in his hand, a needle? Another dose?
Lin Qianxue grabbed a bronze incense burner from the bedside table and swung it at his head. He ducked, but it gave her the second she needed.
"If you come near him again," she said, her voice deadly calm, "I will ensure everyone knows you're a fraud. How much did Huiyin pay you to kill him? Ten thousand taels? Twenty?"
The physician's face went white. "I don't know what you…"
"The real physician Liu has a mole on his left cheek and walks with a slight limp from an old war injury. You have neither. So who are you really?"
Silence. Then heavy footsteps in the corridor neared the bedroom. The guards were arriving.
But Lin Zhengde coughed again, and this time when he opened his eyes, they were clearer. Focused. He looked at Lin Qianxue with recognition that hadn't been there in months.
"Qian...xue..." The word came out as barely a whisper, raw from vomiting, but it was coherent. "The account books... hidden... behind..."
"Behind what, Father?" She leaned close, ignoring the guards entering the room. "Tell me!"
"The painting... of your mother... in my study... behind..." His eyes started to unfocus again.
"Stay with me!" Lin Qianxue gripped his hand. "What painting?"
But his eyes closed. His breathing evened out. Not dead, she could feel his pulse, stronger now than it had been, but unconscious. Exhausted from the poison and the purging.
"Seize her!" Lady Wang commanded. "She's attacked the master! And the physician!"
Strong hands grabbed Lin Qianxue's arms, pulling her away from the bed. She didn't fight yet. She'd gotten what she needed.
A painting of her mother. In the study. Behind it, hidden account books that would prove everything.
"Lock her in her room," Lady Wang ordered, her face a mask of cold fury. "Post guards outside. She's clearly lost her mind. The suicide attempt damaged her reason. She's become dangerous."
"Mother, I saved him!" Lin Qianxue protested, playing the role of desperate daughter. "That man was poisoning him! Look at Father, he's breathing better now! His color is returning!"
It was true. Lin Zhengde's face, which had been gray and drawn, now showed a hint of natural color. His chest rose and fell in normal rhythm instead of labored gasps.
Even the guards noticed, exchanging uncertain glances.
"The young miss might be right," one of them ventured. "The master does look improved…"
"TAKE HER AWAY!" Lady Wang's shriek silenced any further debate. "Now! Before she causes more chaos!"
They dragged Lin Qianxue from the room. She let them, her mind already three steps ahead. She needed to get to that study. To find that painting. To locate those account books before Huiyin or Lady Wang could destroy them.
But first, she had to escape her room.
They threw her inside and she heard the lock click. Heavy footsteps as guards took position outside. She was truly imprisoned now.
Lin Qianxue went to the window. Her room was on the second floor, overlooking the inner courtyard. Too high to jump safely, and guards patrolled below. The door was locked and guarded. She had no tools, no weapons, no obvious way out.
Think. There had to be something.
She searched her room methodically, using the fading evening light. Clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, hair pins. A bronze mirror. Tea set. Nothing useful for…
Wait.
Hair pins.
Long, sharp, metal hair pins that noble ladies used to secure elaborate hairstyles.
Lin Qianxue selected the longest, sturdiest one and bent it carefully, reshaping it using techniques she'd seen in a spy movie once. It took three tries and two broken pins before she managed to create something resembling a lock pick.
She'd never actually picked a lock in real life. But she'd seen it done. And the locks here were simple, just a basic sliding bolt mechanism.
She worked at the door for what felt like hours but was probably only twenty minutes. The guards outside chatted quietly, unaware of what she was doing. The pin scraped against metal and caught on something.
Come on. Come on.
Click.
The lock opened.
Lin Qianxue nearly sobbed with relief. But she stayed silent, waiting. Listening to the guards' conversation. They were discussing dinner, complaining about being assigned boring watch duty when they could be eating in the servants' hall.
She eased the door open a crack. The corridor was dim, lit only by a few lanterns. The two guards stood with their backs to her door, leaning against the opposite wall.
She needed a distraction.
Lin Qianxue grabbed the incense burner from her room, and down the corridor in the opposite direction from the study.
The crash was spectacular. Both guards jumped and ran toward the sound, shouting about intruders, so she slipped out and ran the other way, toward the study.
The corridors were maze-like in the growing darkness, but the original Lin Qianxue's memories guided her. Left at the ancestor shrine. Right past the storage rooms. Straight through the gallery of family portraits.
She reached the study door and found it locked.
Of course it was.
She used her makeshift lock pick again, hands shaking with urgency. Behind her, she could hear shouts, the guards discovering her room empty. The lock clicked open.
Lin Qianxue went inside and shut the door behind her, leaning against it as her heart hammered. She had minutes at most before they searched here.
The study was dark, lit only by moonlight through the windows. But she could make out the shelves, the desk, and on the far wall…,
A portrait. Medium-sized, showing a beautiful woman in traditional dress. Her mother, or rather, the original Lin Qianxue's mother, who had died when she was eight years old.
Lin Qianxue rushed to it and felt around the frame. There, a small catch, cleverly hidden. She pressed it and the portrait swung outward on concealed hinges.
Behind it: a hollow space in the wall.
And inside that space: a leather-bound ledger.
Lin Qianxue grabbed it and flipped it open. Even in the dim light, she could see pages and pages of her father's meticulous handwriting. Accounts. Dates. Names. Amounts.
Evidence of everything. The embezzlement. The stolen contracts. The forged documents. The payments to false physicians and bribed officials.
And at the end, a list of names involved in the conspiracy:
Lin Huiyin - primary orchestratorChen Ziyang - co-conspirator and financierLady Wang - compromised through threats against her familyPhysician Wang Chen - paid to administer poison
Her mother hadn't been a willing participant. She'd been coerced.
That changed things. Maybe.
The study door burst open.
Lin Qianxue spun around, clutching the ledger to her chest.
Lady Wang stood in the doorway, face white with terror. Behind her, Lin Huiyin smiled with cold satisfaction.
"Qianxue," Lady Wang whispered. "Please. Give me the ledger. You don't understand what they'll do to our family if…"
"What are you doing to your father?!" Huiyin's voice rang out, loud and theatrical. She pointed at Lin Qianxue dramatically. "Guards! The young miss has gone mad! She attacked the master earlier, and now she's stealing family records! She must be stopped before she destroys everything!"
Heavy footsteps in the corridor. Guards responding to Huiyin's summons.
Lin Qianxue looked at her mother's terrified face and understood. Lady Wang wasn't evil. She was trapped. Threatened. Forced to choose between her husband's life and her daughter's.
And she'd chosen survival.
"I'm sorry," Lady Wang mouthed silently.
"Guards, seize her!" Huiyin commanded as four armed men poured into the room.
Lin Qianxue backed against the wall, ledger clutched tight, and realized she had nowhere left to run.
She was cornered, outnumbered, and out of options.
And from the victorious gleam in Huiyin's eyes, her cousin knew it too.
"Such a shame," Huiyin said softly, advancing into the room. "A young girl, driven mad by her broken engagement. First she tries to kill herself. Then she attacks her own father. Now she's caught stealing. I'm afraid there's only one solution for such dangerous insanity."
She pulled a dagger from her sleeve, small, ornate, deadly sharp.
"The young miss was so distraught, she attacked the guards. They had no choice but to defend themselves. Such a tragedy. But at least she'll finally find peace."
The guards exchanged uncomfortable glances but didn't move to stop her. They'd been bought or threatened too.
Lin Qianxue pressed harder against the wall, feeling the rough stone against her back, the precious ledger in her hands.
She'd saved her father. Found the evidence. Confirmed the conspiracy.
But she was about to die anyway.
Again.
And this time, there would be no mysterious voice offering rebirth.
Huiyin raised the dagger, moonlight glinting off its blade.
"Goodbye, dear cousin," she whispered. "Third time's the charm, yes?"
Third time?
Before Lin Qianxue could process those words, the blade flashed toward her heart.