Nan Zhiyun waited for Yu Jingchen's ruler to fall, then slowly opened her eyes again, her eyelashes still trembling, a clear indication of her fear. Yu Jingchen raised the ruler and placed it in her palm; Nan Zhiyun's hand began to tremble.
"This time it's over eight hundred blows, can you take it?" Yu Jingchen didn't rush to make a move.
"Your Majesty made the decision yourself, and I have no right to object." Nan Zhiyun gave up resisting.
"I just said, this time the punishment will be changed to caning. How much do you think they'll have to take for you this time?" Yu Jingchen said this as if on purpose.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Nan Zhiyun looked at him, her eyes filled with unconcealed sorrow: "Why does Your Majesty keep forcing me like this? I've clearly done nothing wrong... It's you who always find ways to torment me, to deal with me, to punish me. I've done nothing wrong... nothing." Nan Zhiyun's voice trembled with tears, her grievances overflowing, and even her self-reference changed.
This was the first time Yu Jingchen had seen her like this, telling him that she hadn't actually done anything wrong.
“Every time you say I’m wrong, but I really don’t know what I did wrong. Is it wrong to like you? Is it wrong to be born into the Nan family? Is it wrong to enter the palace for you? I’m clearly not wrong... so why am I wrong now? And why should you be the one to punish me for these mistakes?” Nan Zhiyun suddenly felt a little dazed. She was clearly not wrong in any way, so why did she feel like everything she did was wrong?
Yu Jingchen looked at her without speaking, and this time Nan Zhiyun was no longer timid. She continued, "I am not a royal princess, but I am also the apple of the Nan family's eye, once the proudest, most radiant, and most sought-after eldest daughter of the Nan family in the entire capital. For you, I lost my self-respect, I lost my original brilliance, but why can't you warm my heart? Why do I not deserve to be a person in front of you?" Nan Zhiyun's voice was very soft, so soft that it seemed as if it would be blown away by the wind at any moment.
"I've already done so much, but why do you still hate me so much? I've given you everything I have, but your heart is so cold. Why is everything I do wrong? Why can't you be even a little bit forgiving towards me? Is it because I deserve it? Fine, I deserve it, I brought it on myself, so I want to give up now, I don't want to get in your way anymore, I want to leave, I want to give up. But why, just when I'm about to give up, do you refuse to let go? Is tormenting me your way of getting amusement?" Nan Zhiyun didn't know where she got the courage from.
"I said I'm willing to leave the palace, I'm willing to leave you forever and never bother you again, please let me go... or you can just order my death." Nan Zhiyun lowered her hand.
"But you didn't. When I said I wanted to leave, you got angry, you were furious, you took your anger out on me. When I wanted to die, you got angry too, tormented me, controlled me, and tamed me! What do you want to do? Is tormenting me a way to vent your frustrations?"
“I am a person, a living, breathing person. I have dignity, flesh and blood, and I feel pain. But you never care. The more I care about something, the more I fear something, the more you use those kinds of methods to make me submit to you, to make me obey you, to make me your source of abusive pleasure! But I did nothing wrong! I did nothing to wrong you! Am I not innocent? Is liking you my greatest evil? Is entering the palace my unforgivable crime?” Nan Zhiyun said a lot in one breath. Throughout this process, Yu Jingchen did not say a word.
After Nan Zhiyun finished speaking, she looked into Yu Jingchen's eyes. Yu Jingchen's eyes were incredibly deep, but this time Nan Zhiyun did not shy away in fear.
"Have you said enough?" Yu Jingchen asked after the room quieted down.
Nan Zhiyun's eyelashes trembled slightly.
"I'm terrifying, aren't I? You're scared too, aren't you? So, do you still dare to provoke me? In your mouth, I'm a tyrant, right? Then you should know that no matter what a tyrant does, it won't be surprising, right? No matter how cruel I am, I'm just continuing to solidify the title of tyrant, so why should you expect me to be merciful? Do you think all this has been useful? What do you think the consequences will be for saying so much to a tyrant? Will the tyrant feel guilty? Or will he only become more ruthless, cruel, and vicious? Nan Zhiyun, what are you thinking? Trying to reason with me? Trying to make me feel guilty and sympathetic?" Yu Jingchen found it amusing, but beneath his smile lay an even greater storm.
Nan Zhiyun shut up. Yu Jingchen's current appearance was actually quite terrifying, but she had been putting on a brave face. This time, Nan Zhiyun did not want to admit defeat.
Yu Jingchen threw the ruler in his hand, and the sound of it hitting the ground made Nan Zhiyun tremble.
"Look, that's the difference. No matter how hard you try to pretend, you're still scared. Even a ruler falling to the ground can make you tremble with fear."
"What does this prove? It proves that you are a weakling. Only the weaklings are afraid and dreadful. No matter how much you resist, you can only survive in my hands. You are afraid of me, genuinely terrified of me, because you know that no matter how much you resist, you will only face even crueler punishment in the end." Yu Jingchen revealed the true nature of what he thought was the matter without any attempt to conceal it.
"You entered the palace because you wanted to take a gamble. A gamble on whether I would change my attitude towards you, a gamble on whether I would soften my heart because of everything you did. But before you entered the palace, I warned you more than once to stay away from me. You insisted on clinging to me, Nan Zhiyun. You didn't respect or cherish yourself, so why should I respect you? In your eyes, I was also a gambler for you. Now that you've lost, you naturally have to pay the price." Yu Jingchen seemed to be reasoning, but it also seemed completely unreasonable, yet somehow no one could find a way to refute him.
Before the bet, he said Nan Zhiyun would lose, and that she would pay a heavy price for losing. But Nan Zhiyun still gambled without hesitation, and now that she has really lost, how could she possibly escape the consequences? One must accept the consequences of a gamble. As a gambler, Nan Zhiyun lost completely, and Yu Jingchen was indeed ruthless and heartless.
How can you win a bet with someone who has no heart? In Yu Jingchen's eyes, Nan Zhiyun... is stupid.
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