The attendant asked, "Master, do you really intend to abdicate the throne to the Prince of Liang?"

He had overheard clearly outside the door that the princess promised King Liang that she had come to assassinate the king, only asking that after King Liang ascended the throne, he would grant her a way out and restore her status as a princess.

Kang Le laughed, "Just a stepping stone."

Otherwise, how could King Liang be willing to exert himself?

As a fellow traveler, she had long seen through King Liang's rebellious intentions; however, King Liang had ambition but lacked the courage.

Since she was a woman rebelling, she needed a royal male puppet to appease the world.

Once the deed is done, she will have her own way of getting rid of King Liang.

However, before taking action, she had to settle her two children first, "to make contact with the human traffickers and try to get them to target the young master and young lady."

"Master, are you suggesting that the young master and young lady be abducted and sold?"

The attendant was shocked. "This is too risky."

If something goes wrong during the operation, it could very well be fatal.

Kang Le pursed his lips. "Fortune favors the bold. Only by being truly abducted can we avoid alerting the emperor and his men."

"Let's arrange for the people we're secretly protecting to be outside the city. If they're inside the city, the emperor is very likely to find out..."

Since it concerned his two children, Kang Le dared not be careless and gave them careful instructions.

Meanwhile, outside the city, at the slave quarters.

Xie Jinyao lay on the ground, her head bleeding profusely, while He Ming watched coldly from the side, showing no intention of approaching.

Knowing that Xie Jinyao was not the daughter of the Marquis of Zhongyong, He Ming wanted to kill her.

However, since the Marquis of Zhongyong had not given the order, He Ming was worried that the Marquis of Zhongyong still had pity on Xie Jinyao.

After all, it's been like an eyeball that's hurting me for over a decade.

Therefore, he did not take action, but he was not entirely without means; he instigated other female slaves to target Xie Jinyao.

Xie Jinyao's days in the slave quarters were extremely difficult, but her arrogance was ingrained in her bones, and she was not one to be bullied. Fighting became a regular occurrence for her.

These injuries were inflicted by the other female slaves.

"Please, save me."

Xie Jinyao was terrified; she felt her life slipping away bit by bit with the blood flowing from her forehead.

Fear of death led her to seek help from He Ming.

Although she knew He Ming wouldn't save her, she still wanted to try.

As she expected, He Ming didn't move; he was waiting for her to die.

If she died in a fight with someone, then it had nothing to do with him, He Ming thought.

But Xie Jinyao's life was more tenacious than he had imagined.

He waited for more than an hour before Xie Jinyao breathed her last.

People often died in the female slave quarters. When they had free time, they would dig a pit and bury them; when they were busy, they would just throw them into the deep mountains.

Even though Xie Jinyao was dead, the hatred in He Ming's heart did not dissipate in the slightest. He did not want to bury her and hoped that she would die without a complete corpse.

After throwing the man into the deep mountains, he returned to the military camp and reported his name as the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery.

Marquis Zhongyong didn't say much about Xie Jinyao's death, only patted his shoulder and said, "If Miss Xia knew in the afterlife, she would not be able to bear seeing you so emaciated. Take care and look to the future."

He Ming didn't think about the future. He returned to the deep mountains, wanting to see Xie Jinyao devoured by wild beasts.

But the body was gone, leaving only bloodstains on the ground. He Ming searched around and found some remains, assuming that Xie Jinyao had been eaten.

Little did he know that Xie Jinyao woke up after he left.

She did not die.

As He Ming waited for her to die, her head throbbed with pain, and she vaguely saw many memories that didn't belong to her, yet were related to her.

She saw Ye Zhen suffer the cat torture, then be misunderstood by the world as having contracted a venereal disease, and be sent away from the capital, with no chance of ever recovering.

She saw that her brother was alright, her mother and younger brother were all alright, her grandmother had not returned to Beijing, the notorious villain Xie Tingzhou had not returned to Beijing either, and her father loved them as always...

She saw many scenes completely different from reality. Xie Jinyao felt that those must be her past lives. At the moment of her impending death, she decided to play dead.

When she was in Qingzhou, she learned to hold her breath and swim, and since she was already dying, she managed to keep it a secret from He Ming.

After He Ming left, she staggered down the mountain after him.

Heaven allowing her to see her past life memories before she died was giving her a chance to start over.

With great ambition, Xie Jinyao dragged her frail body down the mountain and hid in a nearby farmhouse.

She used the excuse that she had been murdered to gain the old woman's sympathy and stayed at her house.

When the barefoot doctor treated her wounds, Xie Jinyao refused to use anesthetic, fearing that the medicine would make her forget her past life memories.

That was the key to turning her life around.

She remembered very clearly that the current heir of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion was not the real heir, but the long-lost Crown Prince Zhaolin...