After a brief hesitation, he obeyed.
The guests laughed with delight.
Another memory flashed through me. Three years ago, when Xiao Jingheng nearly died of fever, Shen Jingtang rode a hundred miles through a blizzard to fetch a physician. One year ago, he fell into a frozen lake. Shen Jingtang jumped in after him and ruined her health so badly the doctors said she would never bear another child.
Yet he had driven the nails into her coffin himself.
A dog would have remembered who fed it.
The child she raised had less gratitude than a dog.
I moved my wrist. The poison burned through my organs, but the fools had been too certain of my death to bind me.
I pulled a gold hairpin from my hair and pushed its tip into the narrow seam beside the lid.
"First bow—to Heaven and Earth!"
Crack.
The first nail loosened.
"Second bow—to the elders!"
Crack.
The second nail sprang free.
"Husband and wife—bow to each other!"
I drew a breath and kicked upward with both legs.
Boom!
The coffin lid flew across the courtyard and smashed the gilded brazier beneath the words A UNION OF A HUNDRED YEARS.
Sparks scattered. Guests screamed and fled.
I gripped the edge of the coffin and slowly sat up.
Blood soaked my white burial gown. My hair hung loose around a face drained of color. Crimson trails ran from my eyes, nose, and lips.
I looked like a bride dragged out of hell.
The hammer fell from Xiao Jingheng's hand.
"M-Mother?"
Shen Rou's smile froze.
Xiao Chengjin spun around. For the first time, the unshakable regent looked afraid.
"Shen Jingtang?"
I wiped my mouth and smiled at him.
"Your Highness. You married my sister with my dowry, held the banquet in my home, and made the son I raised your flower boy."
I stepped out of the coffin.
"Your happy little family certainly knows how to celebrate."
Shen Rou hid in Xiao Chengjin's arms. "Sister, you are alive?"
"Disappointed?"
"You committed an unforgivable sin. His Highness showed mercy by leaving your body intact. Today is our wedding. Please stop causing trouble."
"My sin?" I pulled the alleged lover's belt from inside my burial robe and threw it at Xiao Chengjin's feet. "Turn it over. Look at the embroidery."
He did not move.
Shen Rou did.
Only a fraction, only a backward twitch of her heel, but I saw it.
I ripped the bloodstained hairpin free and pressed it to her throat.
The regent drew his sword at once. Its tip pointed at my heart.
Nine years ago, he had promised Shen Jingtang that this sword would protect her for the rest of his life.
Now it was aimed at the heart that had loved him.
"Release Rou'er."
"And if I refuse?"
"I will kill you."
"You already did."
I twisted my wrist. Instead of piercing Shen Rou's throat, the hairpin cut open the silk sachet at her waist.
A black pill rolled onto the floor.
I crushed it beneath my shoe. The bitter scent of almonds spread through the hall.