Story of Yanxi Palace

The gate of the Yi Zhuang (coffin home) opened, and a paper lantern was extended from outside. The lantern brought in a pair of shoes. Looking closely at the shoes, they were bent like three inches, with white base and double lotus flower embroidery, walking in front of the coffins one by one, and finally stopped in front of one thin coffin. "Look at who are here." With a choking voice, "strangers who died away from home, poor people who could not afford burial, dead prostitutes... Sister, how can we meet again in such a place?" Life is as thin as paper, so even if they die, they don't have a thick coffin. In the long-neglected graveyard, there are thin coffins that are ventilated, but it's better than nothing. It's much better than a straw mat, so that they won't be eaten by worms and rats before they are buried. "Bang!" The chaotic footsteps came from far away and soon the gate of Yi Zhuang (coffin home) was pushed open. In their sight was a raised axe. "Yingluo! Stop!" A middle-aged man shouted. "Bang!" The axe fell without hesitation and split open the coffin in front of them. "What are you doing?" The middle-aged man was stunned for a while and then said in a trembling voice, "This is your sister's coffin..." A white-clothed woman turned her back to him, with her back to everyone. She dropped the axe in her hand carelessly and bent down, carefully lifting up the person in the coffin. "You told me she had died of sickness, then you said she had done something disgraceful in the palace and had no face to show herself, so she took her own life... See." She slowly turned her head and smiled faintly to everyone. The woman in the coffin leaned on her shoulder, with a pair of black butterflies faintly visible on her neck. On closer inspection, it was found that there were two marks left by a pair of big hands, like two black wings open, telling a death called murder. Have you all seen it? The white-clothed woman--Wei Yingluo who was embracing the woman in the coffin--smiled to the crowd, as if she had finally found the truth and wished she could tell it to the world at once--wished she could let the world know of the injustice--"Look at the fingerprint on her neck. Tell me, how can one strangle oneself?" Nobody could answer her question. Nobody even dared to look straight at the two faces facing them, the almost identical faces. Wei Yingluo and Wei Yingning, called the twin lotuses of the Wei family for their beauty and grace. These two lotus flowers——one dead and one alive, the one in the coffin, no one knows what kind of elixir of life she had taken before her death, and yet she still has seven points of color left, wearing the clothes she wore when she left the palace, softly leaning on her sister's shoulder, that smile-like look is like a living person. The one who is still alive, on the other hand, has a dead man's eyes, a pair of pupils clearly distinguishable between black and white, staring at everyone with a chill. "Could it be that the resentful soul is attached to her sister?" More than one person thought so. "Father." Wei Yingluo swept her eyes across the crowd and finally settled on the middle-aged man's face, recovering her smile, "Who killed my elder sister?" "It's... "The middle-aged man seemed to want to say something, but hesitated for a moment, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "There's no killer, she killed herself!" The rest of the people came to their senses and started talking all at once. "That's right, she killed herself." “An unchaste woman who was expelled from the palace, if she hadn't killed herself, wouldn't the whole family have been embarrassed?” "Dying well, dying well!" “The elder sister's behavior was inappropriate, and the younger sister was no better, to do such a thing as splitting the coffin. Wei Qingtai,you sure have done a great job of disciplining them!" The middle-aged man, Wei Qingtai, stiffened and hurriedly stepped forward to Wei Yingluo, and gave her a slap. "It's all my fault!" After slapping her face, while humbly fawning over everyone, he slapped his hand on the back of Wei Yingluo's head, "Hurry up and kneel down to apologize to the uncles and aunts." Seeing no response, he slapped again: "Kneel down!" But Wei Yingluo was like a bamboo, unwilling to bend and not to kneel, just standing there in a daze. "Kneel down!" Seeing all eyes on him, Wei Qingtai felt his face was not saved and in a fit of anger, he directly kicked her knee, "Can't you hear?" Wei Yingluo was kicked and knelt down, but soon she got up again. "Dad, you only know how to make me kneel." She slowly got up from the ground, one hand holding the ground, and the other supporting her elder sister. Her jet-black hair hung down from both sides of her face, covering her expression at the moment. Her voice was cold like the winter water, "But do you know? I knelt to Wei Ruhua, and she still took away the hairpin that my mother left me before she died. I kneeled to Wei Xuedong, but he still ignored that we are relatives and tried to hurt me... It was my elder sister who helped me get the hairpin back and drove away Wei Xuedong..." "It's just a hairpin, right?" Wei Qingtai frowned. "Gilded, not worth a few money. There is no need to hurt the feelings between you and your elder sister for it, and Xuedong... He just joked with you. Your elder sister took it too seriously, and she even broke his head." "So you already knew," Wei Yingluo turned her face away, only to see a face as clear as lotus, with two teary eyes, tears almost dripping, like dewdrops on petals, beautiful and breathtaking, "You know everything and still want me and my elder sister to kneel before someone." It was her who was robbed, and it was her who had to apologize in the end. It was her who was disrespected, and it was her who had to apologize in the end. "I'm doing this for your own good," Wei Qingtai said stiffly, "Do we really have to argue over such a trivial matter..." “No, my sister is the only one who has been kind to me!” Wei Yingluo coldly interrupted him. “Let me tell you, I’ve been waiting for my sister to come back. Before she went to the palace, she told me she would definitely come back and take me away from this Wei family, away from you, to a new place to start a new life and never make me kneel down for no reason again...” “The palace is just a place where people have to kneel down anytime and anywhere!” Wei Qingtai interrupted her this time. "I'm going to the palace." Wei Yingluo closed her eyes and, when she opened them again, her eyes were determined. "If you won't tell me who the murderer is, then I'll go to the palace and figure it out myself!" "Nonsense!" Wei Qingtai's beard was shaking with anger. "Do you really have to follow in your sister's footsteps?" Wei Yingluo glanced reflexively at her sister, who was leaning on her shoulder. From childhood to adulthood, her sister had always been smarter, more creative and more courageous than she was. In comparison, she was just a little follower who was always shrinking behind her sister, needing her sister's protection. Even her sister couldn't survive in the palace - how about her? She was determined to survive until the end and find out the truth... To avenge her sister? "That's enough, let's put an end to this." Wei Qingtai softened his tone and reached out to Wei Yingning who was leaning on Wei Yingluo's shoulder, "Let your sister rest in peace." Rest in peace? Just as Wei Qingtai's hand was about to touch Wei Yingluo, a sharp scream suddenly reverberated through the hall, piercing and heart-wrenching, as if someone had been stabbed in the chest with a knife. "Ahh--" Several members of the Wei family felt their scalps tingle and instinctively raised their hands to cover their ears, afraid that if they didn't do so, the blood would flow into their ears along with the screams. “Rest in peace? No rest for her...” Wei Yingluo held her sister's cold body, which had already begun to emit a faint smell of death, and screamed with a hoarse voice, “My sister can't rest in peace, neither can I…” Under the watchful eyes of all, she kept crying and screaming the same words over and over again. “I want to enter the palace.” Wei Yingluo wept and shouted, “I must take revenge, so you can rest...so I can rest.” Since they are lotus flowers in pairs, they come into life together and pass away together. Since you have gone away, even though I am still alive, I am nothing but a decaying corpse. "Only if I let you rest in peace, can I rest at peace as well." The old man of the Wei family walked up to Wei Qingtai and whispered something to him with his hand covering his lips. Wei Qingtai's eyes were complex. At last, he sighed lightly and nodded. Immediately, several figures came to Wei Yingluo's side. She raised her head, looking somewhat dazedly at them: "What do you want to do?" Several big hands stretched out towards her at the same time. A few days later, a wine flag was fluttering in the wind, and white wine was served in a new cup, accompanied by a few dishes of snacks. A person was drinking, and suddenly said, "Who is getting their daughter married down there?" Several drinkers leaned on the railing, looking down at the street from above, and saw a long red wedding team slowly marching in the sound of firecrackers. On the top of the high-headed horse, a proud bridegroom officer. Behind him, followed by a small sedan chair. As the wind blew the curtains, a drunken guest let out an exclamation, wiping his eyes. "What's wrong, the wind got in your eyes?" the other guests asked him. "Must be the drink, my eyes got dizzy," the drunken guest replied, lowering his hand, somewhat bewildered. "Just now, the curtains blew open a bit and I saw the bride... bound with five-strengths ropes."