Nan Zhu Shines on the Dawn

Nan Fuxue remembered every detail of that day.

Her father's blood splashed across her face, still warm. She knelt amid a mountain of corpses and rivers of blood, a blade hanging three feet above her head. Then the imperial decree arrived. The order to exterminate her family and the decree of pardon came from the same throne, separated by less than half an incense stick's burn.

Of the 121 members of her family, she was the only one left.

The court's compensation came quickly: an empty marquis's residence, the empty title of "Commandery Princess Anping," and an imperial edict granting her marriage. She was to wed the most famous invalid in the capital, Song Mingzhu.

They said Young Master Song spent 300 days a year bedridden, and the imperial physicians said he wouldn't live to see 25. Everyone in the capital said the emperor had paired one cripple with another and made things easy for himself.

Nan Fuxue smiled as she accepted the decree.

Her smile was genuine, like that of a naive girl who understood nothing. Everyone said the legitimate daughter of the Nan family had gone mad with fright. The massacre had burned away her wits, and now she did nothing but smile foolishly all day, unable to recognize even her enemies standing right in front of her.

No one noticed the ten names reflected in her eyes when she smiled.

Ten people had wiped out the Nan family. She carved their faces, names, official posts, and addresses into her mind, one by one. She didn't write them down. There was no need. Paper could get lost, but her mind could not.

She didn't need the court to give her justice. She would get it herself.

As for her invalid fiancé, Nan Fuxue didn't care. He was just a cripple who wouldn't live much longer, and he wouldn't get in her way. All she wanted was a title and a cover, so she could stay in the capital and hunt down those ten people, one by one.

On the day of her wedding, she saw him for the first time