Zhao Yan's fingers landed on her newly recovered waist, applying a little pressure that made Lin Qingwan hold her breath.
"You're recovering quite well." Zhao Yan bent down along her back and took a deep breath. "You still have a faint medicinal scent on you."
His breath was like the dangerous spray of a wild beast, and Lin Qingwan struggled to get away. "Thank you for your concern, Your Highness."
Zhao Yan was still holding the tassel at her waist. "I've helped you so many times, a simple thank you is too inadequate."
His deep, bright peach blossom eyes reflected Lin Qingwan's pale face.
Zhao Yan tugged at her finger, and Lin Qingwan leaned closer, following the force of the tassel. He wrapped his arms around her waist, lowered his head, and greedily inhaled her scent. "What are you afraid of?"
"I'm not going to eat you."
Lin Qingwan's heart raced, but she managed to calm herself down. "Your Highness is joking."
Zhao Yan's lips brushed against her earlobe, bringing not intimate warmth, but extreme coldness and terror. "Have you thought about how to repay this king?"
Lin Qingwan had considered that Prince Jing coveted her body, and if she could leave the Prime Minister's residence in exchange for that, she would be willing.
Moreover, she had no intention of entering the Prince's mansion. She wouldn't live much longer and just wanted to find a quiet place. It would be even better if she could see Mr. Ruan one more time.
She bit her lip. "Besides this body, Qingwan doesn't know what else she can do to repay the Prince."
Zhao Yan chuckled softly, "You eloped with someone else first, and then got engaged to that filthy butcher. Do you think I, in my desperation, would even want your body?"
That's an extremely harsh thing to say.
Lin Qingwan breathed a sigh of relief, "Qingwan didn't go with them..."
"But you touched that butcher. You even got your hands and skirt stained with his blood."
He forced these words out through clenched teeth, and they felt like iron wire twisting around Lin Qingwan's heart, making her dare not be careless. "Yes, it's Qingwan's fault."
Zhao Yan gently touched her cheek with his large hand. "If you know you're wrong, you have to accept the punishment."
He casually plucked a hibiscus flower; the delicate petals felt very similar to Lin Qingwan's lips. He caressed her lips with his fingertips, then forcefully pried open her snow-white teeth. "Eat it."
Lin Qingwan shook her head frantically, "It's...it's poisonous."
Zhao Yan gave a chilling sneer, "Scared?"
"A woman of flesh and blood like Qingwan is naturally afraid." She gritted her teeth, her eyes filled with fear, but her determination was stronger than anything else.
Zhao Yan's eyes were reddened by the crimson hibiscus, flashing with a crazy yet restrained light. The fingers gripping her waist were like iron clamps, and the hibiscus petals were crushed against her lips.
The flower sap smelled foul and stained Lin Qingwan's lips like blood. She held her breath, trying hard not to let the sap flow into her mouth.
The more she struggled and resisted, the more excited Zhao Yan became.
The petals shattered into juice, flowing down the lines of his palm to his wrist and disappearing into the dark red cuff of his undergarment.
"It's just a little poison, nothing serious. If you get nervous, the blood that comes out later won't be bright red enough, and you'll have to take more medicine. Why bother?"
"I believe you can hold on."
He patted Lin Qingwan's cheek, "Be good."
"You're trying to repay me, but it would be bad if you angered me."
Lin Qingwan's heart skipped a beat. She remembered her father's instructions not to anger the prince, so her father had known all along that Prince Jing harbored ill intentions!
Whether it's practicing calligraphy or burning incense, or implying that she will have a formal status, it's all just to fool her.
Her father personally escorted her out of the city, personally delivered her to Prince Jing, and sent her to this cannibalistic flower garden.
The feeling of being basked in the sun and then pushed into the abyss left her breathless, with a sense of powerlessness as if her soul were being torn apart.
Moreover, she did not want to taste poison again. The scene of Cheng forcing her to drink poison was still vivid in her mind, so Lin Qingwan resisted fiercely.
Zhao Yan was momentarily distracted, and she slipped away from his grasp like a fish.
Lin Qingwan ran desperately, remembering that she had found no guards in the flowerbed when she arrived, and wished she could sprout wings and fly far away.
I wish she had never returned to the capital.
Zhao Yan's fingers were still dripping with blood-red flower sap, and her lips twitched. "Do you think you can escape?"
"Why must you anger me? You should be different from others."
He snapped his fingers, and his guards, like ghosts, surged out from all directions, surrounding Lin Qingwan completely.
Lin Qingwan, panting heavily, heard Zhao Yan's footsteps approaching from afar. Her legs felt like lead, and her scalp tingled.
They can't escape it.
Should I beg him to spare my life?
Lin Qingwan thought that Prince Jing was her way out of the Prime Minister's mansion, and that God would not cut off her path!
Why!
Why can't we give her a little hope!
Lin Qingwan was kicked in the back of the knee by Zhao Yan. The sound of her knee hitting the ground was very loud. Zhao Yan grabbed her hair and forced her to tilt her head back to look at him.
Where was the gentleness in her peach blossom eyes? Her cold light was like a poisoned sword.
“Escape is punishable, but since this is your first offense, I will be lenient.”
Zhao Yan raised his hand, and a guard handed him a rattan whip with barbs. He smiled and took two steps back, licking his upper lip. "If you shout too loudly, I might have a hard time stopping you."
"But I won't kill you, you can rest assured about that."
When Lin Qingwan saw the whip, her bones trembled. It was a fear etched into her memory since childhood; Cheng's whip had lashed her body for fifteen years.
She was so scared that she couldn't move and couldn't even run away.
The moment the vine whip fell, she instinctively protected her head, the barbs tearing countless thin gashes into her skin, like thousands of insects gnawing at her flesh.
She gritted her teeth, instinctively remembering Zhao Yan's warning, and instinctively wanting to minimize the harm to herself.
Zhao Yan was very satisfied.
When the vine whip fell again, the torn skin had no resistance and could only be pulled up by the barbs, each time a thousand times more painful than the last.
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