Twenty-five years passed, and the once innocent girl had turned into a cold-blooded woman who killed people without hesitation. But when she stood by his side covered in blood, the man who dominated her life's joys and sorrows told her in person: the person in his heart was called Hua Qianyue!

The person he loves is her! This is such a ridiculous and sad fact, Hua Qianyue widened her eyes, trembling all over, and then a trace of ecstasy penetrated into her heart, making her laugh crazily, tears bursting down, dripping along her fingertips and onto the ground.

Yes, she had spent half her life doing such a ridiculous thing, but if it could earn him an acknowledgment of his love for her, what did it matter how ridiculous or pathetic it was?

Xiao Du stood far away, picking up the lantern that had fallen to the ground. Under the dim light, the princess covered her face, laughing and crying, as if she was in a frenzy. Xiao Yunjing looked at her quietly from the opposite side, with regret, sadness and many things he couldn't understand in his eyes. At this time, Yuan Xi had already carried Xiao Zhixuan out of the tunnel to find someone to treat her, so he stretched out his arms to hang up the lantern, turned around and walked out. He didn't want to know what happened. After all, he had seen too many dirty, sad or helpless things. These two were people he once regarded as his closest relatives, and their stories were left for them to face themselves.

It took Hua Qianyue a long time to recover from her frenzy. Only then did she realize the deep meaning of the old marquis' words. She suddenly raised her head and shook her voice, "You! You know everything?"

"Yes, I knew it on our wedding night." He paused, as if he had used all his strength to say the next sentence: "Because no one can fail to recognize the woman he loves."

Time seemed to freeze suddenly. Hua Qianyue couldn't believe what she heard. She just said in a daze with misty eyes: "You knew it a long time ago...but why..." Why did he hide such a heinous crime of deceiving the emperor and destroying the clan from her?

The old marquis smiled bitterly upon hearing this. Why... He had never asked himself why in all these years. He wanted to reach out to support her trembling shoulders, but his hand only paused in the air for a moment before he clenched it and took it back. A hint of tenderness flashed across his eyes, and he said, "Because you protected me once in the farmhouse on the outskirts of the city, from then on, I would rather protect you for the rest of my life!"

The moment in Xiao Yunjing's life that he often recalls is not his triumphant victory on the battlefield or his title in the palace, but the day when he accidentally saved a young girl.

She bandaged his wounds and held him in her arms through the most difficult nights. She was like a fairy by the stream in the early morning. She was obviously scared to death, but she protected him behind her regardless of everything.

Emperor Yun offered him Princess Ruizhen in marriage. He wanted to refuse, but then he thought that this was the only way to see her again. However, he got the news that she had died suddenly in the palace just a few days before the wedding. At that moment, he understood for the first time what it meant to feel hopeless.

But his heart, which should have turned to ashes, was picked up and put together by her in the bridal chamber. Almost at the moment when he lifted the veil, he discovered: this was not the beautiful rose in the palace, but the orchid that belonged to him. After the ecstasy, he was surprised. If the person in front of him was her, then who was the one who died suddenly in the palace!

On the wedding night, he could not control himself and was reckless in his intimacy with her. But the next day, he figured out the bloody truth behind it. After repeated pain and entanglement, he silently made a decision: no matter how much it cost, he would protect her life and make her safe.

But from then on, he was tortured by his conscience and guilt all the time. He dared not get close to her again, for fear that if he looked at her for one more time, his love would burst out and it would be difficult to conceal it. He tried to take concubines, but no one could sing a gentle song for him in the dark night and take him to see the flowers.

But he didn't realize until today that it was his self-proclaimed protection and indulgence that pushed her step by step into the abyss. He personally killed the gentle girl in his memory, burying her life in the obsession of unrequited love.

Xiao Yunjing closed his eyes in pain and trembled, "Why would you kill so many people and commit so many evil things just to cover up this secret?"

The princess looked up at him with lifeless eyes, and finally she covered her face and burst into tears. Even she herself did not understand how things had come to this point.

Twenty-five years ago, in the princess's bedroom, she was repeatedly tortured by jealousy and unwillingness, and she cried secretly all day long without eating or drinking. Her good sister Yu You'er discovered her abnormality, and after repeated questioning, she told her her secret.

She remembered that Yu You'er stared into her eyes and asked only one question: "Do you really want to be with him no matter what the cost?"

She nodded desperately, and then Yu Youer told her a secret: a secret technique in their hometown on how to make one person pretend to be another person.

After Yu You'er finished speaking, she just looked at her quietly, but Hua Qianyue already understood everything: she looked and shaped very similar to the princess, and in order to exchange identities with the princess, she put a lot of effort into learning the princess's posture and voice. With just one desperate move, she could live with that man as his legitimate wife. The temptation was too great, and she grabbed Yu You'er's hand without hesitation and said, "Can you help me..."

Everything was going very smoothly. On the wedding night, she saw the eyes that haunted her again. When his hands and lips were passionately pressed against her, it was the happiest moment of her life. Even though, she was wearing another person's identity.

But then everything changed. He began to be indifferent and disgusted with her, and in order to hide her identity, she dared not contact anyone and had to lock herself in a dark Buddhist temple. When she found out that she was pregnant, she thought that God finally cared about her, but who knew that what she waited for was a nightmare that she could never wake up from.

She and he had no child, and she had to reluctantly accept the bastard that did not belong to her. This hatred almost tortured her to madness. From that moment on, she began to hate everyone and everything except him.

Then he began to take in concubines one after another. She could see that he did not love those two women, so she agreed to everything he wanted as long as he could look at her again. However, even such a humble wish ended up in vain.

Later, her face had problems. It turned out that Yu You'er didn't tell her that this secret technique needed to be repaired every year, and the way to repair it was to use the tender skin of young girls and burn bones for sacrifice. She couldn't let herself be exposed, so she acquiesced to Yu You'er using the maids in the mansion as substitutes. The first time she saw those young girls kneeling in front of her and trembling and begging for mercy, she was soft-hearted and scared, but she soon got used to it, until her hands were stained with blood, until human life was no longer worth mentioning in her eyes.

Countless nights she woke up from nightmares and saw many faces hanging in front of her. Then the entire skin slowly peeled off, leaving only a bloody ball, coldly accusing her of her crimes.

Perhaps this was her fateful curse. From the moment she stabbed the sharp blade into the princess' chest with her own hands, she was destined to be stuck in the mud and fall into the devil's barrier forever.

But she didn't realize until today how she had squandered all that silent forbearance and protection, and how she had disrupted and destroyed everything he cherished.

A woman's regretful and painful cry echoed between the cold and bare walls. Hua Qianyue suddenly stood up and ran away. She wanted to leave here. It was too cold and dark here. She didn't belong here.

She ran around like a headless fly, and finally her whole body hit the fan stand. The row of fans covered with human skin collapsed with a bang. It was her countless sins and an everlasting nightmare.

Hua Qianyue removed her fingers and stared at the faces. They seemed to be grinning at her. Countless hands stretched out from the cracks in the ground and pulled her down. A ghostly voice kept saying in her ears, "You lost. Come down and accompany us."

Hua Qianyue fell powerlessly in the middle of the pile of fans. She raised her head and looked at Xiao Yunjing sadly, imprinting his appearance in her heart. Then she picked up the golden hairpin on the ground and thrust it into her throat.

Xiao Yunjing's expression suddenly changed, and he immediately rushed over to hug her tightly. Blood gushed out of her throat, flowing down his sleeves to her pulse. Xiao Yunjing closed his eyes tightly, but could not say a word, only mumbling: "Qianyue...Qianyue..." In their lives, who betrayed whom, and who hurt whom.

Hua Qianyue's whole body began to spasm. She tried hard to open her eyes, but everything in front of her was blurry. She seemed to have returned to the first time she saw him. In the chaos, his silver armor was bathed in light and his eyes were filled with honey. Just one look at him and she was willing to swallow all the bitterness.

If she hadn't met him that day, she wouldn't have to go through the pain and torture of those days and nights, and would have lived a stable and smooth life. But if she hadn't met him, what would be the meaning of this life?

She stretched out her hand tremblingly, and gently placed her cold fingers on his wrist. She used her last bit of strength to say, "Xiao Lang, do you still remember the folk song I sang for you? Can I sing it for you again? There are many stars in the sky... The moon is not bright, there are many mountains under the ground... The road is uneven, brother must be loyal to sister, and sister wants brother to come, until now..."

In his arms, she seemed to have turned into the gentle sixteen-year-old girl again, standing in the pure stream, singing clear and melodious tunes, waiting for her lover to look back at her.

All her resentment melted in his warm and solid embrace. God was actually not too unkind to her. Even someone as sinful as her could die a worthy death and get what she asked for.