Chapter 39 Forgiveness "Let's start over, okay?"
When Ruan Yang crawled out of the pile of corpses, the chase was still ongoing.
They had been transported from the secret passage to the outskirts of the city in just one night, and it was just before dawn.
Ruan Yang ran into the deep mountains and forests, hoping to use the snowstorm to cover her tracks. Ruan Yang knew that someone was protecting her in secret, but the problem was that she first needed to let Lu Wenjin's people know where she was.
She leaned against the rock wall and opened the purse Ah Chou had given her. Inside, she found a piece of cloth with a map of a certain place drawn on it and a signal flare.
Ruan Yang was overjoyed. She walked out of the cave where she had sheltered from the wind and snow and left the signal flare that Ah Chou had left for her in the sky.
Although firing the signal flare revealed their location, they had no choice but to gamble on whether Lu Wenjin could find them before them. Otherwise, without outside help, she would never be able to get out safely on her own.
......
Ah Chou was covered in blood, but the cruel torture in the dark dungeon showed no mercy as it whipped her frail body.
With a "splash," salt water seeped into the large, bleeding hole in her mouth, and Ning Xian stood by, watching her indifferently.
The boy glared at her, his gaze fixed on the weak: "Still unwilling to tell the truth?"
"Your Highness, spare me! Everything I just said is true. I truly don't recognize the subordinate impersonating Zheng Ying'er. It was that person's martial arts skills that allowed them to break free of their restraints and escape..."
Ning Xian tightened the leather whip in her hand, squatted down and grabbed A Chou's black hair, saying, "Have you forgotten what it felt like when the worm gu in your body took effect?"
Ah Chou shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "I really don't know. You know I've always valued my life and am a selfish person. How could I sacrifice my own life to save someone else's?"
Seeing that Ah Chou wouldn't listen to reason or threats, Ning Xian's anger was hard to quell. He forcefully released Ah Chou's grip on her hair and threw her into a corner.
After a long pause, he laughed and said, "I know who it is."
Ning Xian clenched her hanging sleeves, her smile tinged with resentment, and said in a moist voice, "However, seeing how close you sisters are, I am truly moved. I want to see if you are willing to risk your life for her, and if that ungrateful, heartless woman will repay you in the same way."
Ah Chou's tired, drooping eyes suddenly widened. She lay on the ground, struggling to look at the heinous man in front of her, wanting to speak, but no sound came out of her throat.
"Take him away and continue the torture."
Upon seeing Ning Xian emerge, Ji Zhonglin said, "Your Highness, the news has likely already reached the Emperor. This place has been exposed, and within three days the Emperor will send troops to besiege it. We must prepare as soon as possible."
Ning Xian came to his senses, and Ruan Yang's voice and appearance slowly faded from his mind. He had forgiven her time and time again, only to be betrayed again and again. This time, she had almost crossed his bottom line.
If they're already so disobedient, and you can't even keep their hearts, what's the point of keeping their bodies?
He lowered his head and rubbed his eyes, forcing a slight smile: "This war was inevitable; it was just a matter of time. Get everything ready and act ahead of schedule."
...
At midnight, the noise subsided, the candlelight dimmed, and the night entered the house, casting slanted shadows of plum blossoms in the courtyard onto the green gauze window.
After Ruan Yang handed the blueprints to Lu Wenjin, her mission was considered complete, and she could have reunited and left. However, the people chasing her arrived soon after. After a fierce battle, when she woke up from her unconsciousness, she found herself in an unfamiliar environment.
There was no one around, only a strong smell of medicine. Ruan Yang limped to the door, intending to go out and call for Ju Zhi and the others, but when she opened the door, she was met by Lan Rong.
Ruan Yang's heart skipped a beat: "How come it's you?"
Lan Rong, along with a group of people, cornered Ruan Yang: "Your Highness was worried about the Crown Princess being alone here, so he sent me to check on her."
Ruan Yang was surrounded by a dense crowd, making escape impossible. She asked, "What time is it now? How long have I been asleep?"
"You have been asleep for three whole days by the third day of the Lunar New Year."
Three days? That's been so long?
"So what are you going to do now?"
Lan Rong had someone bring the medicine to her: "His Highness said you caught a cold and were feeling unwell, so he asked us to brew some herbal soup to warm you up."
After speaking, before Ruan Yang could respond, Lan Rong grabbed her chin, intending to force the bowl of unknown medicine into Ruan Yang's stomach.
Ruan Yang refused and forcefully knocked over the medicine: "Since you all respectfully call me Crown Princess, how dare you lowly hussies touch me? It's not impossible for me to drink the medicine, but only if you bring Ning Xian over."
"No need to invite me, I'm here."
Ruan Yang sat barefoot on the ground, her palms cut by shards of broken porcelain, the blood staining her undergarments red. She heard Ning Xian's voice and instinctively grabbed the sharp porcelain shards from the ground.
Ning Xian stared at her swollen ankle, frowned and said, "Why aren't you staying home after getting injured? Why are you wandering around? Look at yourself, making yourself look like this again. Do you want me to feel sorry for you?"
Ruan Yang was trembling uncontrollably. She closed her eyes and bit her sleeve, while the sharp weapon in her other hand was aimed at the man who was gradually approaching.
Ning Xian squatted down, propped his chin up, and looked at her. He started teasing Ruan Yang's soft face with one hand and said in a sinister tone, "You've done everything you were supposed to do. What are you afraid of? You know that playing me will have a terrible consequence, so why did you still do it?"
"Are you betting that I like you and can't bear to kill you, or do you think I'm easy to bully?"
We're doomed.
Ruan Yang felt that she was about to die. Her only concern was whether the blueprints she had brought back had been delivered to Lu Wenjin and Ah Chou.
After a long standoff, she wiped away her tears and decided to provoke Ning Xian so that he would die a quick and painless death.
Seeing that Ning Xian's face was almost touching hers, she flailed her hand holding the shards around in the air a few times as a final act of resistance: "Get away from me."
A sharp pain shot through her cheek. Ning Xian covered her bleeding face and asked incredulously, "You hurt me?"
"You're the one who's been hurt; it wouldn't be an exaggeration for you to be torn to pieces!"
"Ning Xian, look down at yourself and see how dirty you are. Let me tell you, ever since I found out what you really are, every day I've been with you, every intimate moment, has made me feel like vomiting."
Seeing that his momentum had weakened, Ruan Yang became even more aggressive, speaking clearly and deliberately, "What you said is also true. I've toyed with you several times, yet you still haven't killed me. This isn't love."
"It's just being a jerk."
Ning Xian took a deep breath, calmly sat down on the ground, and smiled, "Go on, I haven't heard enough. I feel quite comfortable listening to you scold me."
Ning Xian quietly watched the woman he had driven mad throw a tantrum, as if he were the victim. But after a while, he got bored and changed his strategy.
He wanted to see Ruan Yang cry, to see her kneel on the ground, crying and begging him.
Ning Xian spoke in a very indifferent tone, his words light and airy, as if they had nothing to do with human life: "Have you cursed enough? Actually, I came here today to tell you that A Chou is dead. He was beaten to death."
"Do you want to see her?"
Ruan Yang huddled in a corner, crying her heart out. Just as Ning Xian finished speaking, a corpse, its blood still fresh, was dragged in front of Ruan Yang.
Ning Xian grabbed Ruan Yang by the back of the neck and gritted her teeth, saying, "Open your eyes and see how your ugly sister died for you. Don't you feel ashamed?"
"I didn't want you to know about this, because I was afraid it would hurt you, but now it seems there's no need for that at all."
Ruan Yang was tired of entanglement with him. She glanced at the corpse and felt utterly hopeless: "So you mean I should be grateful to you? Don't even think about it. If you want to kill me, then kill me. I have nothing to say to you."
Ning Xian controlled his trembling body with anger, and his grip on the girl's chin tightened: "Bring me the medicine!"
Lan Rong gave Jinlian a wink, and Jinlian immediately went to the kitchen to bring over the remaining medicine. She huddled in the crowd, looking on with amusement. When she returned to the kitchen and saw the maid brewing the medicine, she said, "Is the medicine ready? His Highness is waiting."
The maid said, "It's ready, but Sister Jinlian, is His Highness really going to execute the Crown Princess? I heard such a loud commotion inside..."
Jinlian knew that the medicine was not poisonous; drinking it would only cause the person to completely lose their memory.
She sighed and said, "It's just the young couple having another fight. You're making a fuss over nothing. But I've been around them for so long that I'm used to this kind of thing. They cry and fuss for a bit, and then they just lie down on the bed to rest."
"Look, she's done such outrageous things, but when has His Highness ever truly cared for her?"
The maid said, "Now that you mention it, I do remember. But I noticed that after each argument, the Crown Princess was actually unwilling. She said it wasn't serious, but every time I helped her bathe and change, she had quite a few bruises on her body. It must have been quite painful..."
Jinlian snorted coldly, "You're too young to understand. She was just playing hard to get. Those kiss marks were a blessing. I just don't know what's wrong with her this time. She's as stubborn as a mule and refuses to give in no matter what. If she were to snuggle in His Highness's arms and cry a few times, His Highness would probably give her his life."
The little girl suddenly stopped talking after hearing this and continued working on her hands.
"What is that bowl of medicine?" Jinlian asked, noticing another bowl of medicine on the stove.
"Oh, I caught a cold these past few days, and my throat is almost hoarse from coughing. So, I asked the doctor for some medicine prescriptions to drink. Normally, we servants don't have a place to cook medicine for ourselves. This is a rare opportunity to use the kitchen."
Jinlian's eyes flickered. If Ruan Yang drank this soul-dissolving soup, then the grudges between her and Ning Xian would be wiped clean. She would forget everything, including the harm Ning Xian had done to her, and the two would soon reconcile. Then she would have no chance at all.
Jinlian took the palm-leaf fan from the little maid and said, "You can go down now, I'll take care of things here."
Seeing that the person had left, Jinlian mustered her courage and took the medicine for treating typhoid fever over.
......
To outsiders, Ruan Yang appeared to have fallen seriously ill after being given the drug, and slept in a daze for three days and three nights before regaining consciousness.
Since Ning Xian was not around during the day, he sent Lan Rong and Jin Lian to watch over her. To prevent her from running away again, Ning Xian stayed by her side every night.
At night, Ruan Yang opened her eyes. The bed curtains were hanging down, and a gentle breeze was blowing. She felt a tightness and heat around her waist. She looked down and saw Ning Xian's head resting on her neck, sleeping soundly.
Two days ago, when she woke up during the day, she found that only Jinlian was by her side. She hurriedly wrote a note to her, telling her that she was currently in a state of complete amnesia and that it would be best if Ning Xian and the others told her who she was.
Ning Xian seemed to sense something. He stood up and looked at the little girl's big, dark eyes with some awkwardness.
His calm, bewildered, and dazed expression made his heart ache.
He felt inexplicably guilty and lowered his head: "You're awake."
Ruan Yang rubbed her eyes: "Who... are you?"
The room was quiet, with only the faint sound of the water clock dripping. After Ruan Yang finished speaking, her heart pounded wildly. She was unsure how Ning Xian would react to her.
Ning Xian gently touched her chin, his heart softening. He smiled and said, "Who else but your husband would have the courage to hold you like this?"
"Oh, I see. But I don't seem to remember you at all." Ruan Yang sighed, lowering her eyes. "Will you be angry if I say this...?"
"No," Ning Xian said. "Yangyang looks best to me this way."
Ruan Yang cooperated by saying, "...What happened to me?"
"How about you just stay good like this from now on? I'll give you anything you want."
Ruan Yang nodded blankly: "I wasn't naughty. Was it because I treated you badly before?"
"Yeah, you were really mean to me, but I don't care about the past anymore. Let's start over, okay?"
"Um......"
If she really drinks the medicine Ning Xian gave her, she will probably repeat the same mistakes and suffer even more from the pain she has endured over the years. In the end, she will willingly bear children for him and foolishly believe that the person next to her is the best person in the world to her.
The aroma of benzoin rose gently, and even though it was warm and cozy around her, Ruan Yang couldn't help but shiver when she thought of this. She was determined to find a way to escape him completely and never see him again!
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