I want to die!

The seventh day.

It was also the last day of Li Yingcai's lifespan.

South Gate Street in the south of Qingshui County is a bustling commercial street, with pedestrians thronging the area.

It's already sunset.

But then, crows flew about in droves, and the afterglow, like blood, dyed the dust and smoke on the long street golden red.

The once bustling market gradually quieted down. Vendors packed up their stalls, the wooden frames creaking, and the echoes of bargaining still lingered at the alley entrance.

Night was approaching, and the crowds gathered at Caishikou were about to leave.

Just then, armed soldiers marched in formation from afar, their footsteps echoing far down the long street.

"It's this late, and there are still soldiers around?" someone whispered.

Immediately, a disturbance broke out.

"It's almost dark, and there are still people being taken to the execution ground?"

The vendors had already closed up shop and were about to leave, but many of them stopped in their tracks, their slight fatigue replaced by curiosity.

Watching beheadings in the bustling city is an essential part of the folk customs of the Great Mang Kingdom that one must appreciate.

Those who lived near the execution ground in the south of the city were the ones who knew more about the ins and outs.

You see, the county chose to hold the execution in a busy area precisely to make an example of someone and deter others from doing the same. Naturally, the more people who come to watch, the better.

This is an urgent list, they're rushing it to the top... You can imagine that today's death row inmate is definitely no ordinary person!

He must have committed a heinous crime, and the official wanted him dead, not even wanting to wait until the next day!

Magistrate Zhao Anguo, his face cold and stern, sat astride his horse, with swords and spears gleaming behind him, exuding a menacing aura.

"Li Yingcai, a criminal, exterminated his entire family of seventeen, and then made outrageous remarks about the government in the courtroom, which is extremely rebellious."

Today, they were paraded naked through the streets as a warning to others!

The sound carried through the noisy market entrance.

"Exterminate entire families, criticize government affairs... parade naked through the streets?!"

Naked torture? Naked torture!

If you were to ask what kind of punishment the busybodies in the bustling city center most enjoy watching... it would undoubtedly be a public execution involving nudity.

Other games like "Nine Clans Elimination" where the whole family is neatly arranged, "Hundreds of Cuts to Slice and Drain" or "Dismemberment by Five Horses"... none of them can compare to being paraded through the streets naked!

A commotion arose among the crowd. The vendors who had already packed up and gone home suddenly had their tired expressions replaced by excitement, craning their necks and vying to get ahead.

"Let me see which vile woman has committed such a heinous act this time."

"Li Yingcai? That name doesn't sound like a woman's name..."

"Enough with the nonsense. Let's go up and see how this one is."

The crowd jostled and pushed forward to see the prisoners being paraded naked through the streets, but when someone finally managed to squeeze to the front, they froze, turning into a stone statue on the spot.

"Say something, what are you standing there for?"

"How is the quality this time? Can it compare to that dog that offended the magistrate's third concubine last time...?"

The foremost stone statue looked constipated and sighed.

"Damn it, he's a eunuch! What bad luck. Luckily he hasn't taken off his clothes yet, or he'd get a sty."

"Eunuchs? Eunuchs parading through the streets?" After a brief silence, the clamor grew louder and louder.

"Eunuchs? Eunuchs watch too!"

"I've never heard of a eunuch being paraded through the streets in all these years. How rare!"

"It's more than just strange! In the more than two hundred years since the founding of this dynasty, this naked parade through the streets by eunuchs is unprecedented and unparalleled in history!"

After the initial commotion, the crowd surged even more, pushing and shoving to get a better look as if they had caught sight of some rare and precious object.

If it weren't for that troop of heavily armed soldiers guarding the area, someone might have rushed forward.

"Li Yingcai, how are you feeling right now? How are you feeling?"

Zhao San squeezed to the front of the crowd, looked at the prison cart behind him, and asked loudly with a cold smile on his lips.

Although he won the trial in court yesterday and made his enemy pay the price with his life, he didn't feel like he had won at all.

I didn't sleep a wink last night.

I've been waiting here at the execution ground in the bustling city since early this morning. I have to ask Li Yingcai one question to see if he regrets it or is afraid before he dies.

His response was a yawn.

Zhou Xing said he had nothing to say about it, and was even a little bored.

The so-called "naked punishment" is actually a severe form of punishment specifically targeting female prisoners.

Before being beheaded at the execution ground, prisoners were stripped naked and paraded through the streets, a form of extreme humiliation.

However, Stephen Chow said he had nothing to say about it.

The one who was subjected to the naked punishment was Li Yingcai. What does that have to do with Zhou Xing?

Zhou Xing directly switched windows using ALT+TAB, his consciousness landing on the real body of the living corpse in the coffin deep in the earth, leaving the alt Li Yingcai to be watched away by Zhao San with a dark face.

Not only did I feel no regret, but I even felt a little bit of anticipation.

Having transmigrated into this body and forcibly extended my life for seven days, the day of my impending death has finally arrived.

..................

Everyone craned their necks, wanting to see what the eunuch on the execution platform looked like.

The crowd had come specifically for this purpose, and by this time they had completely surrounded the execution platform from all sides.

However, no matter how intense the crowd's emotions were, Magistrate Zhao, who was sitting in the pavilion next to the execution platform, remained with his eyes closed, seemingly oblivious to the commotion outside.

He only opened his eyes when a soldier leaned in and whispered something in his ear:

"Has the person the Imperial Envoy specifically requested arrived?"

He nodded slightly:

"Then let's begin the execution."

The crowd, which had been somewhat downcast, instantly erupted in excitement.

The soldiers cleared a narrow hole in the previously impassable road, like rocks parting the waves.

The reef was moving, advancing step by step towards the execution platform, and a group of soldiers was escorting someone as they approached.

Zhou Xing vaguely realized something and instantly shifted his attention back to Li Yingcai.

As the sun gradually sank in the west, the sunset turned a ghastly red, as if the sky had been stained with blood.

But the glow of the sunset gradually faded, and night was about to fall.

Amidst the crowded throng, a small gap was created by a group of soldiers.

The place was now bustling with noise.

Zhou Xing's gaze, however, fell upon that small empty space in the sea of ​​people.

Several soldiers pushed aside the crowd of onlookers, and behind their tall shoulders were two much thinner, frightened birds.

It was Zhang and her daughter Li Ziqing.

Surrounded by soldiers, they looked up like startled birds, their eyes meeting Zhou Xing's on the execution platform.

The surrounding area was filled with the clamor of voices.

"Why haven't you started the naked torture yet?"

"It's getting dark, this is causing delays..."

"Take off your clothes! Take off your clothes!"

Zhang's face immediately paled, and her lips trembled as she moved.

Her daughter, Li Ziqing, held her hand tightly, slightly raising her chin, her jawline taut.

"So that's what you were planning?" Zhou Xing narrowed his eyes and turned his head to look at the canopy on one side of the execution platform.

He knew that offending the Crown Prince meant certain death, with no chance of survival.

According to the laws of the Great Mang Dynasty, such a crime would result in certain death, but it wouldn't be enough to punish nine generations of one's family... So Li Ziqing and her daughter came.

Just like the Crown Prince's performance in court yesterday.

When Crown Prince Murong Ying wanted to protect Li Yingcai, he would not openly interfere with the judiciary.

The judgment was made by Magistrate Zhao, who was adept at reading people's expressions and words; it had nothing to do with him.

According to Magistrate Zhao, the first sentence would be exile or hard labor. Once they left Qingshui County, they would be free to roam the vast ocean and soar like birds in the boundless sky.

Murong Ying would not openly defy the law.

So even if he had murderous intent towards Zhou Xing, he wouldn't play a game of "Nine Clans Elimination".

He chose another method.

Naked punishment.

And to bring family members to the ceremony.

His wife, Zhang, is probably alright.

My daughter, Li Ziqing, has only been an adult for a few years now.

If she were an ordinary person, she would probably be left with a painful psychological trauma.

At this moment, Magistrate Zhao was looking at Zhou Xing with a mocking expression.

What happened in court yesterday made him deeply hate Li Yingcai, wishing he could personally skin him alive.

Magistrate Zhao's lips curled slightly upward, and he waved his hand:

"Let's do it!"

"Understood!" On the execution platform, two burly soldiers on either side immediately began the execution.

The eunuch's robe was easily torn open, and the clear sound of tearing fabric echoed all around.

Then came long hisses, exclamations, and sighs from all directions.

The wife, Zhang, held her daughter, Li Ziqing, in her arms. Amidst the noise of the crowd, she sobbed silently, trying to cover Li Ziqing's eyes with her hand.

"Is that so?" Zhou Xing watched this scene quietly. At this moment, he was being watched by thousands of eyes and surrounded by thousands of voices, but his heart was surprisingly calm.

These people didn't care why the eunuch was sentenced or what he had done. They were just watching, just like many other executions had been carried out at this execution ground in the past.

Similarly, Zhou Xing didn't care about their onlookers.

He wasn't the real Li Yingcai, but rather his soul had temporarily transmigrated into his body, and he wasn't afraid of death.

Zhou Xing had already fulfilled Li Yingcai's unfinished wish and done everything he could; all that remained was to wait for a grand death.

But now he suddenly realizes that he still has things to do.

What Li Yingcai was thinking about, the things he hadn't had time to do yet.

He took a deep breath.

Exposed to countless gazes from all directions, his skin turned slightly red and swollen, and his hands and limbs tensed up.

Despite his not-so-robust physique, he unleashed a tremendous force far exceeding that of "Li Xuanqing".

The shackles, chains, and fetters used in the execution instantly taut out of their sockets, making a loud, strained sound.

Despite the heavy shackles and chains binding him, he stood up on the high execution platform.

As soon as he stood up, his naked appearance was completely exposed to the eyes of everyone around him, without any attempt at concealment.

The soldiers on either side quickly restrained the eunuch, but Zhou Xing did not struggle. Instead, he gathered his qi in his dantian and said in a deep voice:

"My name is Li Yingcai. Ten years ago, during a famine, I sold myself into the palace to support my wife and children."

"Though I am despicable, there is not an inch of my body that is worthy of shame."

Zhou Xing stood proudly on the execution platform, looking down at the large crowd below. His voice, like rolling sound waves, momentarily drowned out the clamor of voices in the execution ground.

"You'd better open your eyes wide and look carefully, this is the work of a knife maker from the palace!"

"When you enter the palace one day, you may not be able to cut it as cleanly and neatly as I have!"

The market was quiet for a moment, then became noisy again.

"What is my husband saying..." Zhang, the wife, felt her head buzzing and could no longer hear the voices on the stage. She just covered her daughter's eyes with tears streaming down her face.

But Li Ziqing slapped her hand away.

Zhang was taken aback.

Li Ziqing remained silent, her pupils as deep and still as a dry well.

Others thought that Li Yingcai was trying to gain attention even when he was about to die, and that he was deliberately making shocking statements.

Zhang didn't understand either.

Li Ziqing understood.

A few days ago, in the case of Zhao Shanren's family massacre, she led the soldiers into the house and saw corpses scattered all over the ground. Her own father, wearing a wedding dress, sat in front of the screen and asked her, "Is Father man enough now?"

At the time, it sounded like utter nonsense.

Now that Li Yingcai is on the verge of death, she finally understands.

Some people have long been nailed to the execution rack by the past, and their lives thereafter are just spent numbly passing each day.

People like Li Yingcai, who abandoned their wives and children, left home to enter the palace for castration, and sent money year after year, yet never returned home.

What I was really worried about was how my family would view me, my father who was a eunuch, after ten years away from home and family.

These absurd words were merely a performance put on specifically for these two family members.

Therefore, she cannot avoid it; instead, she should watch this final dance closely.

Zhang only heard Li Ziqing say in a low voice:

"It's one thing for others to laugh at him for being a eunuch. But in this world, we are the only family members who cannot laugh at him."

"Since there's not an inch of his body that's shameful, why avoid it?"

She raised her head, her face devoid of tears or sorrow, but she clenched her teeth, tightened her expression, and looked up at the figure on the execution platform above her.

The setting sun was like blood, and the naked figure stood proudly in the center of the sun, the light so dazzling that she couldn't open her eyes.

The soldiers behind him had already pinned him down, the shackles rattling and the chains pressing down on his limbs like mountains.

But the figure on the execution platform seemed unconcerned, as if he were the only one in the world, exposed to the afterglow of the twilight, naked yet attracting everyone's attention, as dazzling as the sun.

Magistrate Zhao's old face turned completely black, and his knuckles turned white from clenching his fists too tightly.

"You beast!" He abruptly stood up, his armor rustling, "Chop him down!"

The wind whistled.

The figure in the center of the sun grinned, the sound carrying far and wide, eventually composing a crooked poem:

"A virtuous person is open and honest, while a petty person hides his true intentions."

"If a man does not stand tall, he has no reason to wear a beard and eyebrows!"

The soldiers behind him had already pinned him to the ground and were slashing down with their ghost-head swords.

His head flew off, blood splattering out and flowing down the wooden frame of the execution platform.

Li Yingcai, died.

Shh-------

The onlookers, who had expected a scene of humiliation and ridicule, felt a strange heaviness in their hearts.

The soldiers gradually dispersed; the sun had already set. Magistrate Zhao coldly withdrew his gaze and waved his hand.

"Civilize the body, discard the bones!"

He knew that this naked punishment was supposed to be humiliating, but instead it made the little eunuch die a glorious death.

The crowd gradually dispersed.

The sun had completely sunk behind the clouds.

A white line streaked across the sky from the edge of the night, and after a fleeting shooting star, the deep night completely fell, and the starlight disappeared.

Night has fallen.