Shen Yuewei obediently closed her eyes, listening to her mother's gentle breathing beside her. But beneath the surface of her heart, a turbulent storm raged. The spilled medicine, like a vicious switch, had unleashed a torrent of memories. The near-death experience of her past life, the chilling despair of being betrayed by the one she trusted most, gnawed at her nerves like leeches. She had to leave this place, leave this seemingly prosperous but ultimately doomed place. She had to escape! With her future child, she had to escape far, far away, escape that devil cloaked in the glamorous guise of a crown prince! This thought, like wildly growing vines, instantly entangled her entire heart, almost suffocating her.
After an unknown amount of time, her mother's breathing finally became even and long. Shen Yuewei slowly opened her eyes and carefully sat up. Her bare feet touched the cold gold brick floor, the chill creeping up her spine, but she was completely unaware. She silently walked to the dressing table, where a brilliantly polished bronze mirror stood.
A face was reflected in the bronze mirror. A fifteen-year-old girl, her skin pampered and radiant, her cheeks still bearing the lingering, rounded innocence of a flower bud. Her almond-shaped eyes, which should have been clear and bright, brimming with innocent naiveté, held a chilling depth and coldness incongruous with her age. There was no relief at surviving a calamity, no ecstatic joy at regaining what was lost; only a deathly still pool, its bottom churning with deep-seated hatred and a resolute determination to perish together.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she forced a very slow, stiff upward twitch of her lips, attempting to force a carefree, sweet smile befitting fifteen-year-old Shen Yuewei. However, just as the smile was about to form, the smooth surface of the bronze mirror suddenly distorted eerily! A stunningly handsome, gentle, and refined male face abruptly appeared, covering her youthful reflection!
That's Crown Prince Xiao Chengjing's face!
A gentle smile, once so deeply cherished yet now chilling to the bone, played on his lips as his slender fingers gracefully lifted a delicate white jade bowl. The amber-colored medicine within swayed slightly, reflecting a cold luster. His gaze was focused and deep, as if fixed on the most precious treasure in the world. The scene was so vivid, so real, as if it had just happened a moment ago!
In his past life, on his deathbed, he personally fed her spoonful by spoonful of a "calming soup" laced with deadly poison, a tender yet cruel act, all the while uttering those heart-wrenching words about the "ladder to heaven"...
"Uh..." A suppressed sob suddenly caught in Shen Yuewei's throat. Her whole body trembled violently, as if she had been pierced by an invisible icicle! She staggered back a step, her back slamming heavily against the cold, carved bedpost with a dull thud.
"Wei'er?" Madam Shen, who was lying on the bed, was startled awake. She sat up groggily and looked over with concern.
Shen Yuewei snapped back to reality, instantly suppressing the turmoil in her eyes. She quickly turned around, her back to her mother, her fingers digging into the cold bedpost, her nails almost embedding themselves in the hard wood. With all her might, she managed to keep her voice, trembling violently with fear and hatred, barely maintaining a semblance of composure, even adding a deliberately affected, girlish nasal tone:
"N-nothing, Mother." She took a deep breath, each word seemingly carved out with difficulty from beneath a frozen riverbed. "It's just... I just had a dream, a dream that... I dreamt that I spilled the rock sugar pear soup that Mother made, and it woke me up in fright..." She turned her face slightly toward her mother, trying to make the curve of her lips look natural.
The candlelight flickered in the warm room, casting shadows on her face. Madam Shen couldn't see the icy depths of her daughter's lowered eyes, only her slightly trembling, paper-thin shoulders and the forced, fragile smile that was heartbreaking.
"Silly child, it's just a bowl of soup, is it worth getting so scared?" Madam Shen breathed a sigh of relief, shook her head with a smile, and said in a tone full of affection, "Come on up, the ground is cold. Let me warm you up."
Shen Yuewei obediently moved back to the bedside and nestled into her mother's warm embrace. She closed her eyes, pressed her cheek against her mother's soft fabric, and absorbed that real, coveted warmth. Her mother's body heat soothed her through the fabric, dispelling the chill in her limbs, but it could never warm the frozen wasteland in her heart.
In the darkness, her eyes were wide open, wide awake, staring straight at the hazy darkness above her, filtered through the gauze curtains and made incredibly soft. In that darkness, there were no stars, only the cold coffered ceiling of the Eastern Palace from her past life, and Xiao Chengjing's smiling yet venomous eyes, silently watching her.
Her fingertips unconsciously traced her flat stomach. There, now, was nothing. But the tiny life that had briefly existed in her past life, that had ultimately turned to blood along with her… the excruciating pain of being forcibly ripped away surged up with crystal clarity, carrying an overwhelming despair. That was her flesh and blood, her only, humble hope for the future, which had been strangled by her own father, along with her!
child……
This time, she will never repeat the same mistake! The overflowing sweetness and warmth of the Shen family mansion, the unreserved pampering of her parents and brothers, the golden and precious future... are all illusions, sugar coatings wrapped around sharp blades, and boulders hanging over her head, ready to crush her and her future child at any moment!
This bowl of honey contains arsenic, a deadly poison that can kill instantly.
She had to escape. With her child, she had to escape this prison called "Eastern Palace," a living hell. No matter the cost.
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