It was a woman dressed in clothing of the ancient era. The hairpins in her hair was crude and the quality of her garments wasn’t very good either. Her facial color was very pale, but she was very beautiful. She had a graceful figure and soft slender limbs, so she was probably good at dancing.
The woman first looked around before shifting her gaze onto Ning Shu. She sized Ning Shu up with an arrogant expression, then said, “You’re the one that will be helping this lady?”
This lady? Ning Shu said, “I am. May I ask who you are?”
“I am Lady Qi.” The woman straightened her back as she declared her identity proudly.
Ning Shu responded with confusion. This Lady Qi was acting like she should know her, but she didn’t know this person.
2333 reminded Ning Shu, “Lady Qi, of the Han dynasty, who was made into a human swine.”
“Oh…” Realization dawned on Ning Shu’s face, then she asked, “Haven’t you been dead for about two thousand years?”
A person that had lived a thousand and eight hundred years ago, who had caused the deaths of nearly two thousand people, was currently standing in front of her. Although she was only meeting her soul, she still felt pretty astonished.
“I can’t accept it! I can’t accept having been turned into a human swine by Lu Zhi, that malicious woman! Do you know how painful it was!?” Lady Qi’s face contorted as she spat out the words human swine. Her entire soul trembled.
Human swine was a sort of torture that turned a person into a pig. All four limbs would be chopped off, the eyes would be gorged out, copper would be poured into the ears to make the person go deaf, medicine would be used to destroy their vocal cords, and the tongue would be cut off. Following that, the person would be thrown into a latrine. Some would even have their noses chopped off, their hair shaved, and their facial hairs cut off. (It wasn’t just eyebrows and hair, eyelashes were cut off as well.)
Afterwards, a type of medicine would be applied to destroy the hair follicles. Once hair follicles die, they don’t regenerate, so those people would never have hair again. The hair that was left was plucked off one by one. Some found it troublesome and would rip it all off in one go, often taking off so much skin that the people died in the process of the torture. Those who survived would be placed in the latrine and treated as human swine.
The most famous occurrence was when Empress Lu of the Han dynasty turned Lady Qi into a human swine. She even arranged for a specialist to ‘look after’ Lady Qi before throwing her into the latrine to suffer all sorts of other torment. Lady Qi’s ears had been cut off and her face had been carved until it was unrecognizable. This was the torture that Empress Lu came up with solely for the purpose of tormenting Lady Qi.
Ning Shu looked at Lady Qi and asked, “Then what do you want to do?”
Dark hatred filled Lady Qi’s eyes as she snarled, “I want Empress Lu to get a taste of being treated as human swine by others. My son, Ruyi, was still so young, yet that woman had killed him!”
Ning Shu took in Lady Qi’s twisted expression and replied mildly, “You should go. I won’t accept this task.”
Lady Qi responded with surprise. “Why? As long as you help me get my revenge, I’ll give you half of my soul.”
2333 also asked, “Why Ning Shu?”
The main reason was because Ning Shu didn’t want to confront Empress Lu who has had years of experience at gaining power. That woman had plenty of tricks up her sleeve and she was ruthless with her methods as well. The second reason was that Ning Shu didn’t have a good impression of Lady Qi and disliked Liu Bang, that hoodlum of an emperor even more.
He was a completely trashy guy that took what he wanted through lies and force.
Although Lady Qi’s fate had been very tragic, Ning Shu felt no sympathy for her since she had brought it upon herself. When you had great ambition but not the ability to match it in the Inner Palace, this was the obvious result.
“2333, can I refuse this task? I don’t want to do it,” said Ning Shu.
“You can, but then you can’t reject the next task,” said 2333.
Lady Qi’s soul started turning dimmer. She was probably about to leave this system space. She snarled at Ning Shu, “Why!? Why won’t you help me!? Could it be that I deserved to be tormented by Empress Lu, that malicious woman!? I can’t accept it! I can’t accept!”