Chapter 75 The Truth Behind the Ruthless Miscarriage + The Female Lead Kills the Male Lead

As dawn approached, the hazy outlines of tree shadows were cast onto the window paper.

Mingying calculated the time and found that the caravan that had been arranged to leave the city was waiting at the city gate.

She needed to sneak out of the mansion through the back door half an hour early, avoiding the spies Pei Xiaoyun might send to watch her, then sneak onto the caravan's carriage and follow them out of the city.

She changed into light clothing, carried a plain-colored bundle on her back, tied her hair up in a bun, and hid a sharp hairpin on her person. After walking a few steps, she turned back, took a dagger from under her pillow, and tucked it into her waistband.

Just as he was about to push the door open, it opened a crack from the outside. What came into view first was a slender, fair hand, and then the figure of a man dressed in a dark robe.

"What are you doing here?" She recognized Pei Xiaoyun's face, became wary, and took a few steps back.

She was too late; he had come to intercept her.

Overwhelming rage caused her wrists to tremble violently. She turned to the side, using the hem of her dress to conceal herself, and touched the hairpin in her sleeve.

Pei Xiaoyun was pricked by a poisoned needle. After riding down the mountain, he rushed straight to her residence without having time to detoxify himself. He had a lot of words stuck in his throat, and it seemed that they were about to burst out.

His face was pale, and his brows were slightly furrowed, as if he were enduring great pain, as he walked step by step toward her.

Step by step, heavy and slow, his dark shadow pressed in little by little until it swallowed half of her body.

"Don't come any closer!"

Mingying touched the hairpin and was about to pull it out when he tightly gripped her wrist.

Pei Xiaoyun lifted her wrist, snatched her hairpin, and threw it out the window. A mixture of sweet and bitter tastes rose in his throat. Looking at her attire and demeanor, he was speechless for a moment.

Is she dressed like this because she's about to leave?

As soon as he came to the Northwest, she wanted to leave again. That's how much he hated her.

That makes sense, though. She could even kill her own child without hesitation, simply because that child had half of her blood in him, so she didn't want the child to live.

Mingying withdrew her hand, her words carrying a hidden edge: "What do you want?"

"I've come to speak with you." His lips twitched, and a sinister smile played in his eyes.

"I have nothing to say to you."

Ignoring the danger, Pei Xiaoyun lifted his blood-stained sleeve, revealing his gruesome wound to her: "Yesterday, while I was eliminating bandits at Qingfeng Mountain, I was accidentally injured by a poisoned needle from a Wuhuan man..."

As he finished speaking, his gaze fell on her serene face, as if he were hoping to see something, but he saw that her eyes were cold and her expression was as hard as iron.

He turned his gaze back, his throat tightened, and he continued, "The wound wouldn't stop bleeding, so the army doctor found the Five Elements Herb to stop the bleeding for me. You wouldn't not recognize this herb, would you?"

Upon hearing the words "Five Elements Herb," ​​Mingying felt breathless and as if she had been transported to another world.

He found out anyway...

She closed her eyes, and a ray of morning light shone through the window, touching her eyelids. It was warm, yet felt somewhat cold.

She began to worry about her situation. Now that he knew the truth, would he still be patient and pretend to be kind and magnanimous with her?

It would be better to fight to the death and end it all!

After Pei Xiaoyun finished speaking, the room remained silent for a long time.

His palms were sweaty, and he felt unwell from the inside out. He stared at her motionless figure, wondering if she was in pain at that moment.

"Don't you have anything to say to me?" he asked, looking up at her.

Her silence made him impatient.

If she confesses to him that she regrets what she did, he might not hold her wrong.

"I will ask you one more time, do you have anything to say to me?"

“There’s nothing to say. If you want to hear the whole story, I can repeat it again.” Mingying never regretted what she had done; everything she did was forced upon her by him.

When it comes to ruthlessness, no one in the world can match him in the slightest.

She met his gaze, her eyes blazing. "I felt an intense hatred for carrying your child, and I vowed never to let him be born. So I planted the Five Elements Herb, and every two days, when you weren't looking, I would secretly pick it, squeezing the juice into my medicine and food, drinking it all at once. Ever since I drank that herb juice, I've had a constant, dull, cramping pain in my abdomen, but I don't feel pain, it's relief, a sense of liberation—"

"Shut up, I don't want to hear this." Pei Xiaoyun's last hope was shattered by her words. "How dare you say that? How dare you?!"

The days when she pretended to be close to him, acting all lovey-dovey, were actually just a smokescreen. He was deluding himself, thinking she was easily swayed.

For two years, he kept deceiving himself, saying that she had committed suicide by jumping off a cliff because she had lost her child and was depressed and developed dementia.

He preferred to blame himself, acknowledging that he had treated her poorly in the past, which had weakened her body and caused her to miscarry, leading to what happened later.

Now, he finally realized that she really never intended to have that child from the very beginning.

She blamed the miscarriage on him, making him feel guilty and lower his guard. Then she staged a scene of jumping off a cliff to fake her death and ran away, leaving him alone in grief and self-blame.

Why did that innocent and kind girl who had been with him since she was fifteen become so heartless?

This truth hit him like a punch to the face. How could he calm down? How could he see her so self-righteous?

"You killed your own child, then faked your death to deceive me, while you hid in the Northwest to live a peaceful life. Have you been able to sleep soundly at night all these years?"

“I’m eating well, sleeping well, and living a wonderful life,” Mingying retorted calmly. “Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor. That unborn child shouldn’t be looking for me; he should be looking for you. Have you ever dreamed about him?”

As the toxin spread, Pei Xiaoyun's lips turned a pale purple. He felt as if he had been hit on the head twice, dizzy and disoriented, his eyes glazed over.

He recalled that he had dreamed of her and the child more than once. Just as she had said, it seemed to be a boy, covered in blood and looking miserable.

He actually followed her line of thought and realized that every wrong has its perpetrator, and he should come and find him.

But what did he do wrong? All he wanted was to keep her by his side and live a good life with her.

Before her, he tried his best to maintain the last vestiges of an emperor's dignity, put his hands on her shoulders, and said in a hoarse voice, "Come back with me, and I will not blame you. I will forgive and forget all the things you have done."

Over the years, he has endured hardships and sat in high positions in the imperial court.

It seems that his way of begging for someone is to forgive them, and his way of pleasing someone is to give them charity.

That's all he knows.

However, in Mingying's eyes, all of these were methods that she had long found unbearable and that she hated the most.

She hated how he treated her. Why should she always have to endure all the joys and sorrows he gave her, without being allowed to utter a single complaint?

A ruthless glint flashed in her eyes as her hand slowly touched a cold object.

Pei Xiaoyun approached her step by step, his chest pressed tightly against hers. Seeing her silence, he continued, "It seems I really can't live without you, even though you killed me and did things that wronged me—"

Before he could finish speaking, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, as if something cold had invaded his internal organs.

My gaze shifted downwards, landing on her hand. She held a dagger, which she plunged into his abdomen, dripping with blood.

"You..." He was incredulous, veins bulging in his neck, the scene before him fragmented and turning black intermittently.

Mingying drew her dagger, blood gushing out, soaking her clothes.

A surge of intense hatred burst through her teeth: "I don't love you, do you hear me?"

Pei Xiaoyun gradually lost his hearing, only making out her words. Then, a large group of guards rushed in, supporting him and ruthlessly seizing Mingying's arm.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, quickly summon the imperial physician!"

"This woman plotted to harm His Majesty; take her away immediately!"

Mingying had her knife removed and her arm twisted behind her back. The intense pain did not frighten her. She closed her eyes and offered her neck for execution.

Kill her, and she will be completely free.

Seeing that she was about to be taken away, Pei Xiaoyun used his last bit of strength to push away the person supporting him and roared furiously, "Let her go!"

Mingying suddenly opened her eyes, her fingers clenching.

"Your Majesty, she—"

"I say, let her go!" Pei Xiaoyun stared intently at her, hoping to catch even a hint of emotion on her face.

She could hate him, but she couldn't stop loving him.

The guard released Mingying, and she slung her bundle over her shoulder, turned around to face the rising sun, and left without looking back.

Disappointment and resentment constantly assaulted Pei Xiaoyun's mind. At this moment, a string in his mind crumbled, and his body lost its strength, causing him to collapse.

In his last moments before collapsing, he pointed at her departing figure and said in a hoarse, low voice, "Send people to follow her. Don't let her really leave. I want to know where she goes."

—

The room was filled with the aroma of medicine, and warmth rose from the light gauze curtains.

Pei Xiaoyun was trapped in an endless nightmare, her forehead covered in sweat, and the pain in her abdomen was spreading inch by inch, as if it would tear her internal organs apart.

"I don't love you, do you hear me?"

She gripped the knife, her hands covered in blood, and stabbed him mercilessly, her words chillingly cold.

"I won't listen, and you're not allowed to speak!"

He suddenly stood up. The sunlight outside the window scattered, and her face vanished like a bubble. A layer of gauze wrapped around his abdomen proved that the scene in his dream was real, not fake.

He was seriously injured and required both detoxification and treatment, and it took him more than ten days to wake up.

The shouts startled the people outside, and several people rushed in immediately.

Pei Xiaoyun, rubbing her still-throbbing forehead, didn't ask about her injuries, but immediately asked them, "How are the people I sent you to follow?"

"Your Majesty, the person has gone to Xuzhou."

Pei Xiaoyun was slightly relieved. It was good that she knew where she was; if she wanted to find her, she would eventually be able to.

"What did she do in Xuzhou? Where is she living now? You must protect her and not let her be bullied."

The subordinate knelt on the ground and truthfully said, "Your Majesty, please forgive us. We lost track of the person when we arrived in Xuzhou."

"You bastard!" Pei Xiaoyun's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, his eyes were bloodshot, and he threw off the brocade quilt, intending to get out of bed.

He had to find her and know where she was, otherwise she wouldn't come back.

As soon as he moved, his brows furrowed deeply, his wound reopened, and a few streaks of red seeped through the gauze.

No one could persuade him; he was determined to find her.

A person walked in from outside, blocking out a patch of light and shadow.

Shen Mingshu removed his armor, wearing only a lake-blue robe, and walked in with a somber expression.

"Your Majesty is still recovering from serious injuries, so you should rest and recuperate."

Pei Xiaoyun's lips curled into a cold smile. She glanced at him indifferently, ignoring the bleeding wound, and put on her gray outer robe, suppressing her agitated heart: "Tell me, where did she go?"

Shen Mingshu looked at him: "Didn't His Majesty say he would let her go? Was it all just an act?"

“I regret it,” Pei Xiaoyun coldly retorted.

He admitted that letting her go was just a delaying tactic, a way to appease her; he didn't really want her to leave.

He knew she was not dead, and he could no longer bear the thought of her leaving him.

Shen Mingshu looked at the selfish and self-serving emperor with a cold expression. He knew what kind of person he was all along—pretentious and untrustworthy.

He came today to stop him. "If you want to continue to bother her, then kill me and step over my dead body."

"Kill you?" Pei Xiaoyun turned around abruptly, a hint of ferocity in his eyes, but then he shook his head. "I will not kill you. If I kill you, there will be no possibility between me and her."

He now knows very well what things he absolutely must not do.

"Get out of my way."

Shen Mingshu refused to budge an inch.

Two pairs of piercing eyes met, sparks flew, and the surrounding turbulent waves subsided into calm.

"What's the point of this? You now possess an immense empire, why insist on forcing someone who doesn't love you?"

Pei Xiaoyun stopped in his tracks, unable to take another step. For some reason, the resentment and stubbornness in his heart were dispelled by Shen Mingshu's words.

The scene of her stabbing him and saying she didn't love him is still vivid in my mind, her words still ringing in my ears.

She really said she didn't love him...

When did it start that I stopped loving him?

Two years ago, or even earlier? When was it?

He slumped back into his armchair, stunned, as if trying to convince himself, and also as if trying to convince Shen Mingshu: "You don't know, when she was with me, she would be the first to greet me when I returned. She would brew tea for me, make knots, sew clothes, and always have a smile on her face. That kind of demeanor didn't seem like she didn't love me. You all don't understand, you're all lying to me!"

He murmured these things with fervor, as if these scenes had happened just yesterday, as if he could reach out and feel their warmth.

"You're really crazy." Shen Mingshu gritted his teeth and sneered at him.

Pei Xiaoyun touched the warm blood on his abdomen; the blood had soaked through the gauze, leaving his palm sticky. He felt no pain, instead lowering his eyes and shrugging his shoulders—he was smiling.

What's so scary about death?

The most maddening thing is not getting the heart of the person you want.

He's gone mad. Perhaps he went mad the moment she stopped loving him, so mad that he forgot what day it was.

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Author's Note: Great! Great! Great! [Applause]