Chapter 37 Heartbreak: Living While Waiting for an End
Deep within the dungeon, all was dark and without light.
Bai Lian curled up in the cold corner, burying her face deeply in her knees.
She dared not close her eyes.
Every time I close my eyes, all the past events rush in like a tidal wave, so clear they're suffocating.
The images of her parents and relatives from her childhood overlapped, showing how they were repeatedly hurt and fell before her, like a tattered film reel constantly rewinding and repeating itself.
In the end, her abilities couldn't protect anyone; they only hastened the separation...
Now, it seems that all she has left to do with her life is wait for the final judgment.
That's for the best; those she cares about won't have to suffer because of her anymore.
A "jinx" like her doesn't deserve to live a good life.
Her dark hair fell down, obscuring half of Bai Lian's pale cheek.
Those once clear eyes have long since dried up, leaving only boundless pain, weighing heavily on the heart.
Just then, an unusual, hurried, and chaotic sound of footsteps broke the silence as they approached.
Bai Lian suddenly looked up, her heart pounding wildly for no apparent reason. She struggled to her feet and rushed to the cell door.
The flickering firelight illuminated a group of figures. In the swaying light, she made out the figure being pushed forward—
"father?!"
Bai Moyuan raised his head and looked sadly at Bai Lian.
In the instant their eyes met, Bai Lian clearly saw that her father's weathered eyes were brimming with tears, which he forcefully held back.
As he passed her cell door, Bai Moyuan turned his head with difficulty and squeezed out a few words in a hoarse, almost broken voice: "Lian'er, don't be afraid... Father is alright."
"Old man, what are you dawdling for! Get up!" The jailer behind him shoved him hard.
The once all-powerful prime minister, now hunched over, was roughly shoved into the adjacent cell. The iron door slammed shut, extinguishing the last ray of light.
A jailer swaggered up to the gate of White Lotus Prison, a malicious grin on his face: "The higher-ups have shown mercy, giving you and your daughter 'preferential treatment.'" He sneered at the cell next door, "Let this old bastard sit next to you, how about it? Aren't you going to thank me?"
Bai Lian stood motionless in the shadows, her head bowed, like a lifeless jade sculpture, unresponsive to anything around her.
This indifferent attitude clearly angered the jailer, making him feel he had lost face in front of his colleagues. He spat, pulled out his keys, and said, "Ha! Still putting on airs? Does she really think she's some kind of pampered princess?! I'll teach her a lesson!"
The iron gate was yanked open with a clang. The jailer grabbed Bai Lian's arm and roughly dragged her into the firelight in the center of the cell.
"Oh ho, look at this delicate skin," he said, his rough hand pinching Bai Lian's chin, forcing her to raise her head, his gaze sweeping lewdly over her entire body. "I heard you have very strong bones, how come you don't have any scars? Did you secretly do something to make those executioners go easy on you?"
His colleagues burst into laughter, gathering around him with ill intent, their disgusting gazes enveloping Bai Lian layer by layer.
"She looks so frail, yet she talks like she's some kind of tough woman. Isn't she just a woman?"
"Today, let's let the brothers have a taste of what it's like to have such a distinguished guest!"
The cage was filled with foul language, and several dirty hands reached out to her, eager to tear off her clothes.
"Let her go!! Don't touch her!!" Bai Moyuan shook the iron bars frantically, letting out desperate cries.
At that moment, two sharp cracking sounds were heard, "Crack! Crack!" accompanied by a shrill scream, as the wrists of the two jailers were broken.
The shackles on Bai Lian's hands coiled around the neck of another jailer like venomous snakes, and with a swift over-the-shoulder throw, she slammed him heavily to the ground.
The moment the chains were loosened, the jailer collapsed in a pool of blood in a strangely contorted posture.
The remaining guards were terrified by the swift and brutal killing. Trembling, they gripped their weapons and cried out incoherently, "No... don't come any closer..."
Bai Lian was like a messenger from hell, with cold shackles hanging at her sides, and dripping blood slowly running down the chains, leaving a winding trail of blood behind her.
Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she turned her head and looked at the cell behind her.
Her voice was unusually calm, even carrying a hint of cold gentleness, as she softly said:
"Father, close your eyes."
-
The Eastern Palace's sleeping quarters were cool and still at night.
Galorin awoke once again from the same dream, her chest heaving violently and her forehead beaded with cold sweat.
The sea in my dream was boundless, shrouded in an almost eternal darkness. There was no starlight, no moonlight, and it was so deathly silent that it was suffocating, as if everything was about to end there.
Like a bewildered child, he was thrown into this deadly place and instinctively walked toward a figure standing by the sea.
She was a woman with waist-length hair, her slender figure wrapped in a plain white dress. On the hem of her dress, large black lotuses bloomed silently in the void, eerie and lonely.
He approached step by step, his heart filled with an indescribable pull and doubt. Just as his fingertips were about to touch her fluttering sash, she suddenly turned around—
But her face was always shrouded in an impenetrable mist, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not see it clearly.
He saw her lips part slightly, as if she were saying something, but he could hear nothing, only deathly silence.
That overwhelming sorrow, as deep as ice-cold seawater, surged in and completely engulfed him.
It's that dream again.
These days, this dream has been haunting him, each time ending in that sorrowful sea.
That unreachable face... is it just a hallucination caused by my excessive longing?
Galorin raised her hand and pressed hard on her stinging temples, her eyes blankly staring at the swaying curtains in the darkness.
Just as he was feeling uneasy, a dark figure silently slipped into the room like a ghost.
"Awake up?" The person's voice carried a hint of mockery.
Galo Lin's brows furrowed, and a sudden surge of anger, a sign of being offended, flashed in her eyes: "Who gave you permission to come in? Get out!"
How could anyone be allowed to enter the Eastern Palace's sleeping quarters as if it were their own private domain? Especially when he was so mentally vulnerable.
Ying shrugged nonchalantly, her tone still relaxed, even carrying a hint of wanting to stir up trouble: "Don't get so worked up. I'm just here to tell you that something big happened at the prison just now. Bai Lian, along with her father Bai Moyuan, broke through the encirclement and successfully escaped."
Galorin's breath hitched, and her pupils contracted sharply.
Ying was pleased to see his reaction and said, "The prison guards who were in charge of escorting them met a terrible end. They are now corpses, torn to pieces... Oh, by the way, let me make it clear that I wasn't sent by the Emperor."
He deliberately dragged out his words, continuing to admire the undisguised expression on Galorin's face, a playful smile appearing on his lips, before turning to leave.
"Wait!" Galorin practically staggered as she leaped from the couch, grabbing Shadow's arm tightly, her knuckles turning white. "Tell me! Where are they?! How is she?"
His voice was rapid and hoarse, filled with unprecedented panic.
A prison break? Killing the jailer? She was driven to such a point? He simply couldn't imagine how she had led her father out of that dangerous place!
Ying waved her hand dismissively, her tone still nonchalant: "Your Highness, I don't have mind-reading abilities or clairvoyance, how could I possibly know their current location? But, they are, after all, on the run."
This answer made Galorin's heart sink...
Ying glanced at him and slowly added the last, and most cruel, sentence: "However, while fleeing and fighting, she also has to take care of her father at all times... Even with her extraordinary skills, I'm afraid... she won't last much longer. The imperial warrant for her arrest has probably already been sent to all the prefectures by now."
As soon as the words were spoken, the shadow disappeared without a trace, vanishing into the darkness outside the hall as silently as it had arrived.
Galorin stood frozen in place, the words he had just heard like red-hot daggers stabbing into his heart.
An overwhelming sense of fear and helplessness engulfed him like an ice tide.
His Lian'er is on the run, her fate unknown, while he is trapped in this magnificent Eastern Palace, powerless to help her!
No! He can't just wait like this! He has to do something right away!
Ever since Bai Lian was imprisoned, Jia Luolin had been trying to find a way to maneuver, thinking that there was still some time and room for maneuver, but she did not expect things to deteriorate so quickly.
He didn't even have time to change his nightgown; his mind was a complete blank, with only one thought screaming wildly—to go find his father!
Almost instinctively, he hurried along, ignoring the palace servants and eunuchs who knelt in fear. When he suddenly stopped and looked up, he found himself standing in the cold hall of Jinyang Palace.
The hall was brightly lit by candles, and the atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating.
Astride the dragon throne, Jia Fengtian, his barely contained rage like an impending storm, coldly looked down at his distraught son.
"Well?" The emperor's voice broke the deathly silence, cold and authoritative, each word like a hammer blow to Galorin's heart. "Do you need me to give you more time to consider?"
Galo Lin suddenly looked up and met Galo Fengtian's all-knowing yet cold and ruthless gaze.
In an instant, he understood everything.
The arrival of the shadow, and every word he uttered, was like a trap!
Jia Fengtian forced him to come, and also forced him to make a choice—a choice that he might have had a glimmer of hope before he stepped into the palace, but which is now crystal clear and incredibly cruel.
Bai Lian's brazen escape from prison, injuring and killing prison guards, is tantamount to treason. The court has lost face, and Jia Fengtian will never tolerate it. Any pleas for leniency will not only be useless but will also hasten her destruction.
The order he issued at this moment might be the only chance he could seize to give her a glimmer of hope.
Galo Lin clenched her fists tightly at her sides. On one side was her beloved, who was on the run and in imminent danger, and on the other side was the supreme and inviolable imperial power.
In an instant, countless emotions collided violently in his mind...
He slowly loosened his clenched fist, concealing all emotion in his eyes, and said, word by word:
"Your subject... will obey Your Majesty's orders!"
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