"If you take this medicine for a long time, it will cause uterine coldness to persist and make it difficult to get pregnant!"

Yuan Xi just listened quietly. Every word was like a sharp knife stabbing into her heart, shattering everything she had believed in. Her lips trembled, and she suddenly laughed. She smiled and tilted her head and said, "Doctor Zuo, you must be joking. How can such a thing happen in this world?"

Zuo Qiao clenched his fists tightly, and for a moment he could not bear to reply. He had been in the Imperial Hospital for more than thirty years, and had seen too many despicable tricks, but he had never felt so distressed as he did now. What kind of heart could someone have to be so cruel to his own daughter? What kind of vicious plot could someone have to bury a woman's life with him?

Yuan Xi just stared at him closely, not wanting to miss any of his expressions, but she was soon disappointed. Zuo Qiao just lowered his head and knelt there with a heavy face, but he refused to say a word that he was wrong.

She blinked slowly, and felt something shattering before her eyes. Then, a black hole suddenly appeared behind Zuo Qiao, submerging him completely. Then, the black hole grew larger and larger, and finally swallowed up everything in the room... She looked at the nothingness before her, and finally breathed a sigh of relief: "It's not real, it's just a dream, how good."

When Yuan Xi woke up again, she saw Xiao Du's bloodshot eyes. She grabbed his hand and said hurriedly, "A'Du, I just had a terrible dream!"

Xiao Du held her with his backhand, the sadness in his eyes became stronger. Yuan Xi froze, a trace of fear appeared in her pupils, and she asked harshly: "Is it true? Doctor Zuo... those medicines... and my inability to get pregnant... are these all true?"

Xiao Du could no longer bear to look at the expression on her face, so he just turned his head away and nodded heavily. The light in Yuan Xi's eyes disappeared completely, and then she began to tremble, shaking like a helpless child who had just entered the world. Xiao Du noticed her abnormality, and quickly hugged her tightly in his arms, saying: "Don't worry, Xi'er, we are still so young, we can still think of a way, maybe it can be cured!"

Yuan Xi seemed to hear nothing, but stared with lifeless eyes, her whole body was as cold as if immersed in ice water, and no matter how warm the embrace was, it could not bring her a trace of warmth. Suddenly, her eyes touched the corner of bright red brocade under the pillow, so she broke away from Xiao Du's arm, pulled out the almost finished quilt and began to tear it apart fiercely, until all the stitches that had been sewn for countless days and nights were torn apart, and all her expectations and longings turned into a piece of unrecognizable rags.

Xiao Du was frightened by her appearance, and quickly grabbed her hand and shouted, "Xi'er, don't be like this!"

Yuan Xi looked up at him, her eyes like a wild animal out of control. She clung to his arm as if she was holding onto a piece of driftwood to keep herself from falling into the abyss. Then her tears finally fell, and each drop of them created a bloody pit in her heart. Xiao Du felt a pain in his heart, and he let her soak his sleeves with tears. He touched her head and soothed her softly, "It's okay, don't be afraid, I'll be with you, don't be afraid."

Yuan Xi cried until she was hoarse and trembling all over. When she finally couldn't shed any more tears, she shouted heartbreakingly: "It's gone, everything is gone, A'du, do you understand? Merlin's snowball fight is gone, the writing on the boat is gone, there is no Xiao Mu, no Xiao Yao, we will never have children again!"

The despair in that voice almost broke Xiao Du down. He hugged Yuan Xi tighter and said with sobs, "I don't care. I don't care about the child. I only care about you! Do you understand?"

Yuan Xi, however, could no longer hear anything. It seemed as if there were many voices screaming in her head, making her whole body ache. So she buried her head tightly in his arms, and kept telling herself: Go to sleep quickly, nothing will happen when you fall asleep, and you won’t feel any pain when you fall asleep.

In the following days, Yuan Xi barely ate a grain of rice, and spent the whole day either in a daze or in a coma. Xiao Du stayed by her side every day, forcing her to eat some porridge. On the third day, Yuan Xi finally woke up from that state. She called Li Ma and An He to wash her up, and then made a request: she wanted to go back to the prime minister's residence.

Xiao Du didn't want to let her go, he was afraid that she would suddenly disappear from his side like last time. Yuan Xi just smiled and told him that she had something very important to ask Xia Mingyuan, and promised to come back, after all, she had nothing and knew nothing, so where else could she go except the Marquis' Mansion and the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Seeing that she had made up her mind, Xiao Du was afraid that she would be hit and return to her previous state, so he had to allow her to go and come back quickly. He also sent two secret guards to follow her secretly, and ordered them to bring the lady back.

When the carriage covered with black cloth stopped in front of the left prime minister's residence, Yuan Xi came down holding up her skirt in one hand and holding a small box in the other. She looked up at the gilded plaque on the red door and a sneer appeared at the corner of her lips.

She looked at the box in her hand again. It was the only thing she took with her when she left the mansion. Then, she told the driver to wait outside and raised her voice, "I will be back soon, don't worry." Two dark shadows suddenly flashed behind the car, and lurked beside the door of the prime minister's mansion, one on the left and one on the right.

Yuan Xi had someone pass the message and was taken to see Xia Mingyuan. Xia Mingyuan was writing something on a piece of paper in the study. When he saw her come in, he raised his eyebrows slightly, put away the rice paper, wiped the ink stains on his hands and said, "Why are you here again today? I told you that your seventh aunt is too sick to be seen by others."

Yuan Xi looked at the person in front of her coldly. Her features and figure were clearly very familiar to her, but at this moment, she felt that he was so distant and cold. She took a long breath and said, "I'm not here to see Aunt Seven. I have something to say to Daddy alone."

Xia Mingyuan became more and more surprised, and then he waved his hand to send the servants away. He then lifted his robe and sat down, playing with a paper weight on the table, and said, "If you have anything to say, say it quickly."

Yuan Xi curled the corners of his mouth, but his eyes seemed to hide ice, and said: "I want to ask Dad, why me?"

Xia Mingyuan's hand trembled, and the paper weight fell on the table. He looked up at her with a strange expression, then turned his head away with a guilty look and said, "What are you talking about? Why why you?"

Yuan Xi's expression became more and more sarcastic, and he spoke in a sonorous voice: "You know, but when did it start? When I was born, or after I was eight years old? Why did you choose me? Is it because... I was born an orphan? "

Xia Mingyuan could no longer remain calm. He looked at Yuan Xi in horror. Seeing the strong confusion and accusation in her eyes, his body suddenly went limp: She really knew everything. Why so quickly? Who told her?

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and before he could figure out how to respond, Yuan Xi had already walked up to him and softened his voice and said, "Daddy, for the sake of me still calling you daddy, can you tell me the truth? Why is it me? Why did you do this?"

Xia Mingyuan met those watery eyes and suddenly remembered that when she just learned to walk, she also ran towards him with such eyes, hugged his legs and called him daddy in a baby voice. A gate in his heart broke, and the guilt that he had deliberately concealed for all these years finally broke through the dam. He closed his eyes and sighed, saying: "You can only blame yourself for being the daughter of the Xia family. Since the surname is Xia, someone is destined to be sacrificed. Daddy... Daddy doesn't want it either."

He still remembered how the woman in the gorgeous phoenix crown had said to him arrogantly: "Brother, the rise and fall of the Xia family depends entirely on us. It would be worth it to just find a concubine's daughter of humble status." So he did so, and he thought he could face all the consequences calmly until the moment she questioned him.

Yuan Xi took a long time to understand this sentence. She suddenly found it a little ridiculous and said, "So you have been unwilling to get close to me since I was a child, because I was destined to be the one to be sacrificed, so you are unwilling to even give me a little warmth?"

Xia Mingyuan was stung by her cold words and quickly explained, "No, Daddy is not unwilling, he just doesn't dare..." He was afraid of getting too close to her, and watching her grow up with laughter, he would not have the heart to push his own flesh and blood into the abyss with his own hands.

Yuan Xi finally understood everything. She took a step back, suddenly opened the box in her hand, and said to Xia Mingyuan: "Do you still remember this box? It contains all my memories of my father since I was a child. I carefully keep every bit of it, even if it is just something you give me, as if it were a treasure. This way I feel that my father may still care about me a little bit."

Xia Mingyuan felt even more pain in his heart and said, "Xi'er, I'm sorry...I'm sorry"

Yuan Xi had a mysterious smile on her face, and then she raised her hand and threw the box in her hand to the ground. The spoiled sugar figurines, the ordinary pearl flowers, and the box of rose cream she had used when she got married just scattered all over the ground, like true love that had been trampled on and scattered. She looked at the mess on the ground with an extremely relaxed expression, and said word by word: "From now on, I have nothing to do with the Xia family. I wish Prime Minister Xia's wish will be fulfilled, his power will be forever secure, and he will have no children or grandchildren!"

Xia Mingyuan was stunned on the spot. It was not until Yuan Xi left without looking back that he realized that she had not cried from beginning to end.

He staggered a few steps while holding onto the table, and fell softly onto the chair. Before making that decision, he had thought countless times that he might regret it, but he had never thought that the regret would be so strong.

It turned out that this daughter, whom he never dared to pay more attention to, was the one who was most like him among all the children. No matter how frail and timid she looked, once she made a decision, she would be so strong and resolute. So he knew it very well: it was not that she was not sad, but she just disdained to cry in front of him.

Yuan Xi strode into the yard, bit her lips tightly, and told herself that she must not shed another tear. At this moment, she heard the laughter of children, and she suddenly stopped in a daze and walked towards that direction.

Next to the lotus pond, her five-year-old niece and nephew were playing happily. When they saw her, they jumped over and shouted, "Seventh Aunt, you're back." They were the children of Yuan Xi's third brother, and they had been trained to be very smart and polite since childhood. Yuan Xi looked at the two innocent and tender faces in front of her, and suddenly she felt an incurable sadness. She hugged her niece in her arms and was reluctant to let go for a long time. The little girl felt her shoulder wet, and asked in surprise, "Aunt, why are you crying?"

Yuan Xi wiped the tears from her eyes, forced a smile and said, "It's okay. Can you tell Auntie where the little hole you sneaked out to play in is?"