The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 2

Chapter 2: Jiang Gui’s Daughter

Fourteen years ago, at the market square execution grounds in Changping County.

A young woman in a prisoner’s garb knelt on the makeshift platform. Her face was covered in grime, but it could not conceal her stunning beauty.

Her hands were bound tightly behind her back with a thick rope, her eyes vacant. Her lips moved slightly as she muttered to herself, “He deserved to die… He deserved to die…”

As she spoke, two streams of clear tears rolled down her cheeks. “He seduced me when I was fifteen. I gave up a life of wealth and luxury to elope with him, rejecting countless talented young men, wanting only to grow old with him. But he betrayed his vows, found a new lover, and even had a bastard child with her. Tell me, was it not his fault?”

With that, a sudden peal of laughter erupted from her, crazed and mournful. “The adulterous pair, they deserved to be killed—killed—”

The surrounding commoners formed a tight, impenetrable circle, pointing and chattering amongst themselves.

Someone shouted angrily, “A life for a life is the law of heaven and earth! What reason do you have, you madwoman? It’s common for a man to have several wives and concubines. You grew jealous! If your husband weren’t so merciful, he would have divorced you long ago, yet you dared to commit murder!”

“The heart of a viper! To think such a vicious soul was hidden beneath such a beautiful face,” another chimed in.

“You can’t say that. Her husband wronged her first…” someone countered, but their voice was quickly drowned out by the thunderous roar of condemnation.

“A man as good as Young Master Xie was killed by this venomous woman! Death by a thousand cuts wouldn’t be enough to appease the public’s anger!”

Behind the prisoner stood a dark-skinned, powerfully built man. He wore a red bandana on his head, and his upper body was bare, revealing taut muscles. On his shoulder, he carried a great saber as long as a man’s arm. As the blade glinted, it reflected a blinding white light under the sun.

This man was Jiang Gui, the executioner in charge of the sentence.

Jiang Gui stared impassively at the woman kneeling on the ground, his eyes half-closed.

Including today’s, he had already taken his one hundred and ninth head. His master had told him years ago that one couldn’t stay in this profession for too long. He should have stopped at ninety-nine, or else he would end his family line and suffer a terrible death.

When he reached his ninety-ninth, he had hesitated.

But he was the only executioner in all of Changping County. No one else was willing to do such an unlucky job. Besides, what other trade brought in money this quickly?

He had been beheading people for ten years and was now in his thirties. In all that time, his old mother had asked people to arrange marriages, but as soon as the young women heard what he did for a living, none were willing to marry him.

After a while, he stopped insisting.

So he continued, soon surpassing one hundred.

Only his old mother at home refused to give up, nagging him day after day.

Looking at the female prisoner kneeling before him, he couldn’t help but think, What kind of man, having married such a beautiful wife, wouldn’t cherish her? How could he have the heart to chase after other women?

If he had a wife, even if she were a plain woman, he would treat her well.

However, he had no time for further thoughts. The supervising official above threw down the execution token.

“Execute—”

At the word, the muscles in his arms tensed almost reflexively. He quickly came to his senses, spat into his palms, shouldered the great saber, and took two steps forward.

“A venomous woman like her, don’t let her die so easily! Give her a few more cuts—” a shrill voice shrieked from the crowd.

Jiang Gui’s eyes lifted slightly, his gaze sweeping over a woman in the crowd below. He recognized her—she was the sister of the deceased Xie Jin.

A servant stood beside the woman, holding a three-year-old girl. The child looked at the woman on the stage, her mouth wide open in a wail as she cried, “Mama—Mama—”

It seemed this child was the daughter of Xie Jin and the condemned prisoner on the stage, Dong Hanyan.

Hearing the child’s cries, the woman surnamed Xie slapped her across the face, cursing, “You little beast! That slut killed your father, and you still dare to call her mother? You’ll grow up to be just as cruel and vicious as that venomous woman! You should just go with her—”

Under the heavy slap, the little girl’s tender white cheek visibly swelled. Tears streamed from her eyes in pain, but she didn’t dare to cry out again. Her small body shuddered, a truly pitiful sight.

Jiang Gui couldn’t help but look at her a moment longer, but the supervising official behind him barked, “The hour has come! Carry out the execution!”

He quickly averted his gaze and raised the great saber.

“Give her a few more cuts—” “Don’t let her die so easily—”

Jiang Gui had been in this line of work for nearly a decade. It was no exaggeration to say that if he wanted a prisoner to die in three strokes, they would not die in two. But as his powerful arm swung down, his heart softened after all. With one clean stroke, it was over.

Other than the terror before her death, the woman passed without any pain.

Someone in the crowd shouted, “Old Jiang, was your hand shaking? We’ve never seen you be so quick before.”

“Pah, this brute probably took pity on the pretty lady.”

Jiang Gui ignored them. Today’s work was done. He wiped his blade and strode toward the yamen, planning to collect his reward and have a few drinks at the tavern.

He had no wife and no children, only an old mother at home. If he didn’t drink or gamble, what else was there for him to do?

It was nearly dark when the drunken executioner left the city and started walking toward his village.

He staggered along the road until he tripped over something at the west gate and fell to the ground. When he climbed back up, he realized what had tripped him was a three-year-old child.

The little girl was thinly dressed, her small body already stiff with cold. Her pale face was badly swollen, and her eyes were shut tight.

A jolt went through him, sobering him up by half.

He reached out to check for the child’s breath, then knelt on the ground, pressing his ear to her chest to listen for a heartbeat.

It seemed she wasn’t dead yet. He quickly took off his coat, wrapped the girl in it, and held her tightly in his arms as he stumbled home.

He muttered, “…A child sent by the heavens is my child… You are my, Jiang Gui’s, daughter… From now on, who dares say my Jiang family has no heir… I’ll chop them to death…”

**

After parting with Lin Shuang, Jiang Huaizhen walked toward the Jiang residence with her executioner’s saber on her back.

To the west of Whitewater Village, a hollow cut deep into the mountains. The Jiang family was the sole household living inside this valley. The West Mountain Valley was considered a forbidden place by the villagers, for it was home to an executioner who had taken hundreds of heads.

The villagers never went to the West Mountain Valley unless they had to, and even the most mischievous children in the village dared not venture near.

Two years ago, the old executioner Jiang Gui had gotten drunk and fallen to his death on the road back to the village. After that, people felt the place was even more ominous and kept their distance. However, Jiang Gui had a seventeen-year-old daughter who was quite beautiful. The young men of the village who caught a glimpse of her were endlessly fascinated. The bolder ones would go in groups near the West Mountain Valley, hoping to see her again.

To these young men, what did the father’s profession have to do with the daughter?

Unfortunately, while they did see her, she was as cold as ice. She would greet them, but beyond that, she wouldn’t say a single unnecessary word.

The more she was like this, the more they yearned for her. Groups of young men and a few local ruffians would often gather on the road to town, trying to corner her. After this happened a few times, she stopped coming out.

Then, after the autumn equinox, as a fine rain began to fall, a bolt from the blue struck the young men of Whitewater Village.

Jiang Huaizhen, the daughter of Jiang Gui from West Mountain Valley, had inherited her father’s trade and become an executioner.

All their restless thoughts were extinguished.

In everyone’s mind, those in this profession were fated to have their family lines cut short. Who would dare marry her into their family?

Some of the ruffians who had originally harbored thoughts of toying with her were now even more afraid.

After all, anyone approved by the yamen to carry out executions was no ordinary person. Their courage was extraordinary, and their skill in killing even more so. Who would be tired of living enough to provoke her?

The West Mountain Valley, which had just begun to see some activity, fell silent once more. Even the village chief’s large black dog, after running out, would only bark twice before scurrying back.

After leaving the Lin residence, Jiang Huaizhen returned home almost completely in the dark.

Before entering the house, she first went into a small woodshed to the left of the main building, unslung the great saber, and hung it on the wall.

She lit some incense before heading to the main door.

That small woodshed was where her father used to store his execution tools. Every time he returned from an execution, he would clean himself up inside and burn three sticks of incense before entering the main house.

The main house consisted of three rooms from left to right. The middle was the main hall, to its left was the old madam’s room, and to its right was Jiang Gui’s room. A row of rooms behind served as the kitchen and storage for miscellaneous items.

There weren’t many rooms, but each one was large.

When Jiang Huaizhen was brought back by Jiang Gui as a child, she had always lived with Old Madam Jiang. Now that she had taken up her father’s ghost-head saber, she dared not let the baleful aura on her body affect her frail grandmother, so she tidied up her father’s room and moved in.

Jiang Huaizhen entered the main hall and went to the room on the left.

A lamp was lit inside; the old madam was still awake. Hearing her footsteps, she immediately closed her eyes.

Jiang Huaizhen walked to the bedside and stood there for a moment. Her gaze fell on the untouched bowl of food by the bed, and she asked softly, “Grandma, why didn’t you even eat lunch?”

Old Madam Jiang’s voice was muffled. “I’m not eating. I might as well starve to death. It’s better than watching you follow your father’s old path.”

Jiang Huaizhen was silent for a moment before replying, “Executing criminals is a proper profession. Someone has to do it.”

“A proper job? How come others can’t do it, and it has to be you?” Old Madam Jiang said angrily. “I should have died long ago. Living like this is more painful than death.”

Old Madam Jiang’s health had been poor for years. After Jiang Gui’s death, it had completely collapsed, and she had fallen gravely ill. For the past two years, Jiang Huaizhen had been busy caring for her tirelessly, but the illness came and went, and she was mostly bedridden. On better days, she could get out of bed with a cane.

Two days ago, the old madam had suddenly developed a fever. Jiang Huaizhen had carried her to the physician’s clinic overnight but couldn’t even produce half a tael of silver.

The money Jiang Gui had earned over the years had either been spent on his drinking or on his mother’s medical treatments. Now, two years after his death, the family had no other income. The old madam couldn’t go a day without her medicine, and this sudden severe illness became the last straw that broke Jiang Huaizhen.

Perhaps she could borrow two or three taels for now, but if her grandmother fell ill again in the future, where would she borrow money from?

She had no choice but to seek help from Head Constable Lu, who had a slight acquaintance with her father, and ask him to help her become an executioner.

Compared to other trades, beheading one person for one tael of silver was a quick way to earn money.

After Jiang Gui’s death, two other executioners had come to Changping County. The first one took more than twenty strokes to sever a head, sending flesh and blood flying everywhere. The scene was gruesome, and the deceased’s family held a grudge against him. He fled after just a few days. The second one wasn’t as bad as the first, but his nerves weren’t strong enough. After carrying out two executions while trembling, he fell ill and never recovered.

It was fortunate that the cases reported to the Ministry of Justice had not yet been approved, so that man had some peace for a while.

Jiang Huaizhen estimated that he wouldn’t last long either, which was why she had sought out Lu Qing.

Lu Qing, however, was in a difficult position. Although the yamen needed someone, there was no precedent in history for a woman to be an executioner. The yamen didn’t even hire women as miscellaneous servants.

It wasn’t until yesterday, when the approved cases from the Ministry of Justice arrived at the county yamen and the previous executioner fled overnight, that the county magistrate ordered that someone be found to fill the position no matter what. They had to deal with this year’s condemned prisoners first, lest delays cause trouble.

Only then did Lu Qing bite the bullet and recommend Jiang Huaizhen, though he didn’t specifically mention that she was a woman.

When the County Commandant saw that someone was willing to take on this unlucky job, he was overjoyed and immediately arranged for her to go to the execution grounds.

Although Jiang Huaizhen had made up her mind to do this, when she actually stepped onto the platform, she was so nervous she could barely breathe. It was only thanks to the years of training with Jiang Gui that she managed to hold her ground.

When she was little, she had seen Jiang Gui practicing every day by chopping winter melons and trees, and she wanted to learn too. Jiang Gui was reluctant to let the daughter he had so miraculously obtained be tainted by such things, but Jiang Huaizhen had said, “Father practices by chopping winter melons, and I’ll practice with you. Even if I don’t become an executioner in the future, I’ll be able to protect myself against bad people.”

Jiang Gui thought that made sense and laughed heartily. “As expected of my, Jiang Gui’s, daughter! You have character. Father will pass on all my skills to you. If you ever run into any of those bastards in the future, just chop them down.”

Jiang Huaizhen had been chopping winter melons for over a decade. Even though her heart was pounding with nervousness, the moment she struck, the muscle memory in her body guided all her strength and movements.

The saber rose and fell, and the head rolled to the ground.

The County Commandant was personally supervising the execution. Seeing this, he smiled and said, “It had to be Jiang Gui’s child. Born to eat this bowl of rice. One stroke, one head, without batting an eye. So much better than the previous two.”

She knew then that her position in this profession was secure.

But the large pool of red before her reminded her of her childhood, standing outside the execution grounds, witnessing her own mother’s beheading.

When the head was severed, blood had splattered onto her eyelashes, and the world had turned red.

She suppressed the urge to vomit that rose in her throat, shouldered her saber, and turned to head home.

She arrived home in the afternoon. Although she had bathed several times, her grandmother seemed to have the nose of a dog and still smelled the scent of blood on her. She immediately threw a fit, refusing to eat or drink her medicine, making a scene about wanting to die.

She wasn’t good at comforting people, so she had no choice but to leave the food and brewed medicine on the table by the bed, waiting for her to get up and eat when she was hungry.

Near evening, she was summoned back to the yamen for a task, which was why she returned late.

Life was hard, but it had to go on.

Jiang Huaizhen thought of the pale little face in the bamboo window from just a while ago. She squeezed the sachet in her breast pocket, and miraculously, her chaotic thoughts settled.

Carrying the oil lamp, she first went to change out of her wet clothes, then turned to the kitchen to heat up some food.