Chapter 202 Xiyan, wake up

After Xiao Nanyue left, Xiyan's fingertips were still trembling.

The lamp in the corner flickered, just like her broken mood at the moment.

For the first time in eight years, she felt she was backed into a corner, with no way out.

It felt like there were countless steel needles pressing on my heart, trying desperately to drill into it.

Although she agreed to Xiao Nanyan's plan to assassinate Helian Feng, but thinking about all the kindness Helian Feng had shown her over the past few days, could she really bear to kill him?

Helian Feng and Xiao Nanyan were just in two hostile camps, and he was not a wicked person.

From an objective point of view, Helian Feng was not wrong. The crown prince of the current dynasty was a virtuous prince praised by the world. And Xiao Nanyue was not wrong either. He was the regent, a lone wolf who climbed to the pinnacle of power by stepping on bones.

Moreover, due to the grievances of the previous generation, the relationship between them is complicated, and they are likely to fight to the death.

However, Xiao Nanyue cruelly pushed her to the forefront.

He knew that Helian Feng had both a debt of gratitude and affection for her, so was he doing this on purpose? Suspecting her of falling in love, forcing her to choose between him and Helian Feng, to test her loyalty to him?

If it were in the past, when she had not yet known Helian Feng to this degree, she would have acted without hesitation, even if the assassination failed and she died.

However, Helian Feng's gentleness is like a bowl of poisonous wine that penetrates the intestines.

How could she forget the day when he pinned flowers for her by the Taiye Lake? The ardent love in his eyes was more blooming than the lotus flowers in the pond.

He didn't mind that she was no longer a virgin, nor did he mind her humble status. He even promised her the position of legal wife, which made her feel a surge of warmth in her heart, but it was also painful because of her own shameful status.

Two men, one spent eight years planting a poison in her bones and blood, and the other used his bone-eroding tenderness to set fire to her heart.

It was clearly not her fault, but she became a piece of gauze between two sharp blades, which would be shattered into pieces by the wind.

However, Xiao Nanyue actually promised her in person that as long as she could successfully assassinate the prince, he would grant her freedom.

She had been waiting for the word freedom for eight years.

For eight years, she had long been the poisonous insect he kept in the dark room, and every day she hoped to crawl out of the darkness and see the light of day again.

She suddenly remembered that five years ago, when Master Zhu Yin was teaching her how to use poison, he had said:

"The most cruel poison is to let the prey choose its own death."

Staring at Master Zhu Yin's dark eyelids, she felt a chill run down her spine, and so she suddenly felt no desire to learn poison techniques anymore. Everyone has their own aspirations, and Xiao Nanyan didn't force her, so he told her to practice Qing Gong diligently.

As a death warrior, assassinating Helian Feng was the last order given to her by her master.

If he fails to complete the mission, he will probably die, because Xiao Nanyan hates betrayal the most in his life.

Outside the window, the sound of the midnight clapper startled the birds perched on the corridor.

Xiyan took off the silver hairpin from her hair. The Xiyan flower carving on the hairpin was delicate and intricate, which showed that Helian Feng had put a lot of effort into it.

But in her palm, the hairpin was as cold as ice, and seemed to contain a deadly poison that would kill instantly upon contact with blood.

A teardrop fell on the hairpin, leaving a small water mark.

She curled up her small body in the quilt, feeling how cold it was tonight, so cold that her whole body was shivering.

So-called freedom is never a reward, but a gamble.

Yes! They are forcing her!

Helian Feng forced her with tenderness, to see if she could be cruel enough to stab him with a sharp knife; Xiao Nanyan bet on her with orders, to test her loyalty to him.

Xi Yan was thinking, this bet might be her life. From the beginning to the end, she had no choice -

Either be the knife that stabs the prince, or be the ghost that dies in Xiao Nanyue's hands. Even the word "escape" is a luxury.

As the night deepened, the silver hairpin was tightly grasped in the palm of her hand, and the pattern of the evening primrose was engraved into her flesh.

She whispered to the darkness:

"Xiao Nanyan, in the past eight years, you never understood me..."

In the distance, the sound of the fourth watch drum came from the watchtower, and the night was as dark as ink.

Xiyan wrapped herself in the quilt and let the darkness swallow her.

She knew that this night was as long as eight years, and after dawn, she had to be the one to make the decision - even if this decision would cause her to fall into the abyss.

Xiyan fell asleep in a daze.

She had a confusing dream:

The black water in the dream flooded over her ankles. When Xiao Nanyue's arrow pierced her chest, she saw the word "loyalty" engraved on the arrowhead, overlapping with the gentle fingertips of Helian Feng when he pinned the flower on her hair.

The scene changed, and when the hairpin in her hand pierced Helian Feng's heart, what flowed from his eyes was not blood, but the moonlight of Taiye Lake, which shattered into millions of pieces, each of which reflected her face.

She screamed and backed away, but there was surging black water in front of her and a cliff behind her. She felt like she was cornered and had no way to go up or back down. Xiao Nanyan's figure slowly walked towards her from the darkness, his face grim:

"Yanyan, don't betray me!"

She was so frightened that she was at a loss and backed away desperately:

"Don't push me, don't push me!"

In the darkness, her scream pierced the curtain, and she waved her hands towards the void, only to be suddenly embraced by a pair of warm hands:

"Xiyan, wake up!"

A familiar clear male voice, with a hint of urgency.

Xiyan opened her eyes suddenly, and a worried face was reflected in the morning light. It was Prince Helian Feng.