BLHO Chapter 109

Chapter 109: Do You Have Any Regrets?

Chapter 109: Do You Have Any Regrets?

The next day was the execution. Before noon even arrived, the execution grounds were already packed with people who came to watch the spectacle, so crowded that no water could trickle through.

The autumn wind swirled fallen leaves. The bluestone slabs at the execution ground were stained with blood from years past, and new marks were soon to be added.

Li Yuliang, the greatest traitor of the former dynasty, was to be executed by slicing today as a warning to others. The location of the execution was chosen to be the most bustling market in order to intimidate the people.

The people of the world had suffered under the treacherous officials for a long time. Now that the great villain had finally received his due retribution, all the commoners who came were clapping and cheering, shouting “Kill the traitor! Kill the traitor!” They wished they could stab him a few times themselves.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards formed a circle, using their Embroidered Spring Blades to block the pushing crowds.

Amidst the rising and falling curses, Li Yuliang, wearing a thin prisoner’s garb, was chained to the execution stake.

The executioner stood beside him, sharpening the pointed blade in his hand with a *huo huo* sound.

In the distance, Song Jiting sat upright on the execution platform, the *Xie Zhu* beast eyes on his black official robe glaring angrily.

Above was a dense overcast of clouds. The bleak autumn wind gusted, and the bill of indictment pressed under his fingertip was lifted at one corner, revealing the “criminal minister” written in vermillion ink.

Beside him, He Yuncheng’s sword trembled slightly in its sheath, and Lin Shuangxu’s sleeves moved with the wind.

The two had been ordered by the Emperor to closely monitor the movements of the execution grounds. If they discovered any remnants causing trouble, they were to be executed on the spot without mercy.

They exchanged a look, speechless – they both saw Song Jiting’s knuckles turning white from clenching, and his grave expression.

The other officials were also stationed in their respective positions, impartial and solemn, the entire execution ground filled with an air of imposing authority.

Everyone was waiting for Song Jiting to give the order.

However, his gaze was fixed on the condemned prisoner. Noon was approaching, but he remained motionless.

And the criminal was unlike other criminals. Faced with death, he wasn’t terrified, panicked, begging, or crying.

He lowered his head slightly, calmly awaiting the arrival of death, not uttering a single word to beg for life.

Suddenly, a cool breeze blew, and the scroll of crimes in front of Song Jiting was blown open.

It was as if the heavens were urging him, that the time had come.

Under everyone’s gazes, he finally slowly picked up the scroll of crimes in front of him, loudly reading out each crime listed above.

“Li Yuliang, the Seal-holding Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Palace Attendants, deceived the Emperor, and harmed loyal and good officials…”

The voice reading out the crimes seemed to carry hooks. Each crime read out aroused more intense cries from the crowd.

The people didn’t know how to vent their emotions, so they grabbed whatever they could find and threw it at Li Yuliang.

A sharp object pierced his forehead, and blood flowed down along the wound.

When Song Jiting looked up after finishing reading, Li Yuliang was already covered in blood and filth.

The executioner’s blade had already been sharpened to a gleaming shine, and he was eyeing Song Jiting, eagerly awaiting his command.

As long as the lord gave the order, he would use the most precise and cruel methods to cut off the traitor’s flesh piece by piece, three thousand six hundred cuts. He would not let him take his last breath until the last cut was completed.

However, despite the hatred, according to custom, he still gave the prisoner a final cup of farewell wine before he departed.

He stepped forward holding the wine pot, but Li Yuliang’s pale lips refused to open.

The executioner impatiently urged, “Take a drink! If you don’t drink it, you’ll have to wait until your next life to drink it!”

Li Yuliang raised his eyes to look at him.

The former powerful minister had lost all his power. He was no longer what he once was. But even standing here in such a pathetic state, the oppression in his eyes was still beyond reach.

The executioner actually subconsciously avoided his gaze, threw down the wine pot, and said, “If you don’t drink, then you can just set off!”

He feigned strength to embolden himself, shouting, “Strip him!”

Immediately afterwards, Li Yuliang’s blood-stained prisoner’s garb was torn to shreds and thrown on the ground.

The onlookers were silent for a moment, then burst into an ear-piercing burst of laughter.

Not everyone had the chance to see the ugly and incomplete body of a eunuch.

Li Yuliang was nakedly exposed to the world. Those old scars gleamed hideously in the autumn sun.

The crowd became more and more excited, pushing forward, wanting to see his most disgusting appearance.

The cold wind blew against his naked body. Li Yuliang had long prepared himself for death. He thought he could accept everything calmly, but when his embarrassing body was exposed in front of Song Jiting, his last bit of self-esteem was finally shattered.

Song Jiting, like all the strangers here, was seeing his body for the first time.

Li Yuliang had never allowed him to see it, because Song Jiting had said long ago that eunuchs were disgusting.

He was even foolish enough to seek out poisonous doctors in the world, wanting to find a way to make him whole again.

In the end, it was all a joke.

He didn’t care about the laughter of these people, but he couldn’t stand Song Jiting’s eyes.

Those eyes, separated by a short distance, were fixed on him, making him unable to live or die.

The executioner was ready, but he hadn’t heard Song Jiting’s verdict.

He looked towards the execution platform with a puzzled gaze. He saw Lord Song stepping onto the steps, walking towards them step by step.

He walked straight to Li Yuliang.

The other party’s head was lowered, his eyes tightly closed, as if trying to escape.

Song Jiting’s voice was colder than the autumn wind, “Li Yuliang, do you have any regrets?”

The few short words, light as falling leaves, caused the noisy execution ground to suddenly fall silent.

Everyone held their breath to listen to the lord’s words.

Such a simple question, but Li Yuliang refused to answer for a long time.

He knew that Song Jiting’s question had nothing to do with his identity as a criminal minister.

He wanted to ask if he regretted his actions towards him all these years.

Having fallen to this day, did he ever regret harming him so wantonly?

Li Yuliang used the last bit of his reason to keep himself calm, slowly raised his head, and the turbid pupils of his eyes reflected the cloud patterns embroidered in gold thread on the other party’s official robe – the insignia of a third-rank official of the new dynasty.

The perfunctory answer, like last night, he had practiced countless times and should have been able to answer offhand.

However, when he saw Song Jiting’s shattered eyes, he couldn’t say anything.

Tears welled up in his beautiful eyes, about to fall.

When Li Yuliang’s last bit of dignity was trampled, Song Jiting also abandoned his own self-esteem and stubbornness along with him.

At this moment, there was no anger or resentment in his soft gaze, only endless grievances.

Li Yuliang could not choose him, could not want him.

He just wanted to know if he had ever felt a little sorry for him, if he had ever thought that he shouldn’t have hurt his heart like this.

Li Yuliang was about to drown in his eyes. Before the last breath was drawn out, he struggled to escape.

The blurred crowd became clear again in his vision. Li Yuliang saw everyone looking at them.

The executioners, the commoners, the officials, all had faces that wished to kill him.

Perhaps, not everyone hated him to the bone.

Former enemies, He Yuncheng and Lin Shuangxu, stood far in front. When they looked at them, there was no longer hatred, only desolation.

However, this bit of pity was for Song Jiting, not for him.

If there was anyone who still had compassion for him, it would probably only be Shen Tan.

Li Yuliang moved his gaze upward. He saw Shen Tan sitting sideways on the city tower, lowering her eyes and slowly wiping the Embroidered Spring Blade in her hand.

She was the only one who had a past favor with him, so she avoided looking and didn’t want to witness how he died miserably.

But she was also the one who was ordered by the Emperor to monitor everything he did.

Today, no errors were allowed.

Li Yuliang brought his sweeping gaze back to Song Jiting’s face. That tear that was about to fall stirred a trace of reluctance for the world in his dying heart.

Too much.

The autumn wind carrying the smell of blood swept across the execution ground. Under the gaze of thousands of eyes, Li Yuliang wriggled his chapped lips and said in a voice that only Song Jiting could hear:

“Yes.”

Then, as the tears in those eyes were about to melt into more tenderness, he continued, “I regret that when you were down and out, I had a whim to save you. If not for you, perhaps the Emperor would not have died, and I would not have ended up in this situation.”

The tenderness in those eyes froze into ice, with no more remaining strength.

Song Jiting turned and left, desolate and resolute, returning to the execution platform.

His official sleeves fluttered, the command token fell to the ground, and there was no turning back.

“Execute.”

With his order, the onlookers burst into cheers. Some clapped their hands and cheered, and some excitedly stood on tiptoe to watch.

The executioner’s blade flashed with a cold light, bloodthirsty and descending.

Song Jiting turned his back to the execution platform. When the blade fell the first inch, his fingernails dug deep into his palms.

The sticky sound of flesh separating mixed with the crowd’s excited gasps, like venomous snakes drilling into his eardrums.

He stared at the cracks in the blue brick on the ground, as if it was the only rope that could tether his sanity.

From the first cut, the sound of each piece of flesh being cut was accompanied by the crowd’s strange cries.

He didn’t look at Li Yuliang’s appearance, nor did he notice the cold sweat streaming down his spine.

The lining of his official robe was already soaked, but he only heard the executioner shout the seventh cut.

He suddenly remembered that on a Lantern Festival night, Li Yuliang had said he would serve the Emperor in the palace, but when he couldn’t sleep and was drinking alone, he appeared in the snow with a rabbit lantern.

“Eighteenth cut! Bone is visible!” A busybody helped the executioner count.

Song Jiting closed his eyes and suddenly saw tears streaming from the rabbit lantern in the snow, dripping drops of blood.

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his stomach churned.

When the count reached “forty-third cut,” Song Jiting realized that he was also silently counting in his heart. This discovery almost made him vomit.

What was even more terrifying was that he found himself waiting—

Waiting for what… waiting for what, he didn’t know.

He thought what he was waiting for must be Li Yuliang’s miserable cries, waiting for him to cry bitterly and regret his actions.

He wanted him to beg for mercy, to be in pain, only then could he consider the revenge taken and that he had lost.

But from beginning to end, there was only the executioner’s panting and the dull thud of the blade cutting flesh on the execution platform. He didn’t hear Li Yuliang utter a single cry of pain.

The punishment of a thousand cuts was long and cruel. By the time dusk fell, the count was finally over.

For several hours, Song Jiting hadn’t turned his head once.

He didn’t want to think about anything in his mind at this moment.

He thought it was calm and numbness.

But when he turned to leave, his knees suddenly buckled, and he fell heavily to the ground.

“Lord!” The officials beside him thought he was unwell and hurriedly stepped forward to help him.

Lin Shuangxu was afraid that others would notice his abnormality, so he quickly stepped forward to help him, “Lord Song, are you alright?”

Song Jiting opened his mouth, his voice hoarse and almost unable to speak, “I’ll take one look at him.”

He himself should know that he couldn’t bear to look at that pile of bloody remains.

“Don’t look, let me take you back.”

“Just one look.” He began to feel cold again, trembling incessantly, pushed away Lin Shuangxu’s hand, and struggled to get up.

But his body seemed to have completely lost control, and even the simplest act of standing became difficult.

Lin Shuangxu could no longer stop him, and could only watch him prop himself up inch by inch and turn his head stiffly.

Just as he was about to look at the execution platform, the sky that had been overcast all day suddenly stirred up a hurricane.

The crowd was blown off balance, and they raised their hands to cover their eyes, dodging the dust that was blowing in their faces.

In an instant, a silk handkerchief was blown up by the wind. The wind seemed to have hands, wrapped a white silk handkerchief, and blew it to Song Jiting’s eyes, covering his eyes.

Lin Shuangxu was not a party involved, watching this scene as an observer, and couldn’t help but feel a shock in his heart.

He…didn’t want him to see.

Song Jiting slowly raised his hand and pulled off the silk handkerchief covering his eyes.

But the hurricane had not stopped, and the chaotic crowd had already broken through the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s defense line, completely blocking his view.

A pair of black official boots stopped in front of him. He looked up and saw Shen Tan holding an imperial edict, looking down at him condescendingly.

“Song Jiting, Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, risked his life, eliminated traitors and evil, and is a meritorious minister. From today onwards, he will be additionally named Grand Secretariat and concurrently serve as Acting Prime Minister, to govern the court officials. This is by imperial decree.”

Song Jiting knelt on the ground, motionless, his soul as if drawn out.

Shen Tan bent down and handed the imperial edict to him, reminding him in a deep voice, “Lord Song, accept the decree.”

…

The people who had had their fill of the spectacle dispersed like a tide, and the officials also returned to their respective government offices. With a major event resolved, they had to continue to busy themselves with other matters.

The market, which had just been so noisy, instantly only had a few Embroidered Uniform Guards left to clean up the mess.

The sudden hurricane didn’t bring a rain, but it blew away the clouds in the sky.

The setting sun revealed its face from the torn clouds, blood-stained golden red, incomparably dazzling.

On the carriage returning to the General’s Manor, even He Yuncheng, who had been through many battles, having witnessed such a brutal torture with his own eyes, was no longer as relaxed as usual.

Lin Shuangxu leaned out of the window, his eyes unable to open from the setting sun.

“What are you looking at?” He Yuncheng asked him.

Lin Shuangxu tugged at the corner of his mouth and said softly, “Looking at this wealthy imperial city… It seems like a cage.”