Su Jinyuan could not stop herself from shuddering.
She knew that even if she had found an excuse, leaving abruptly on the day of The Wedding meant that she had wronged the Xiao Family, no matter what the reason. With a household of the Xiao Family’s standing, there would have been countless guests attending the wedding of one of its sons.
By running away like that, she had turned the Xiao Family into a laughingstock, no matter how they tried to cover it up.
Su Jinyuan took a deep breath. “I know what I did that day was inappropriate. Once we return to the Capital, I’ll personally apologize to Old Madam and Eldest Young Master Xiao. But I still ask that Young Master Xie escort me back.”
“Once I return to the Xiao Family, whether they want to beat me or kill me, I’ll leave myself entirely to their judgment.”
Xie Yunyan looked at her gaudily made-up face and the slender neck that seemed as though it would snap with the slightest twist.
He smiled faintly. “What are you saying, Miss Su? You’re Eldest Brother Xiao’s betrothed. The Xiao Family isn’t a bandit’s den. How could they resort to beating or killing you?”
The sword in his hand was still dripping blood, and the severed arm on the ground was still fresh.
Su Jinyuan’s face went blank. “Young Master Xie is right. The Xiao Family is the most reasonable household there is. How could they make things difficult for a weak woman like me?”
Xie Yunyan smiled.
Xie Yunyan occupied the entire area beside the fire by himself. When he stretched out his legs, they practically took up the space from one side to the other.
Though Su Jinyuan was shivering violently from the cold, she yearned desperately for the warmth beside the fire.
But in the face of Xie Yunyan’s malice, she made no attempt to approach him. She merely found a corner not far from the fire, where she could barely absorb a little warmth, and leaned against it, hugging herself as she trembled.
When Xie Yunyan saw that her lips had turned blue and that she was shivering all over without once lowering herself to beg for mercy, he was surprised for a moment.
As he withdrew his gaze, he let out a derisive laugh.
……
It was only after Su Jinyuan leaned against the corner that she finally relaxed completely.
The young man opposite her stretched out his legs carelessly and prodded at the fire. His handsome face, illuminated by the flames, took on a cold, pale sheen, while his long, narrow phoenix eyes were alluring yet distant.
With the smile gone from his face, his pale-red lips looked thin and cool.
He stirred up a few sparks, then pressed them down again. The corners of his lips lifted for an instant as he leaned back, looking so relaxed that he resembled nothing more than a rich young wastrel out on a country excursion.
Who could have imagined that, in the future, he would slaughter his way through the Imperial City? Who could have imagined that he would become as cold and unyielding as iron, setting the palace ablaze?
The Xiao Family of the Duke-Protecting General’s Residence was a household of military commanders from top to bottom and held considerable weight at court. Compared to the Xiao Family, the Su Family’s status was far lower. Ordinarily, with her identity, she would never have had the chance to marry into the Xiao Family. But back then, her father had traded his life to save General Xiao’s.
Her mother had died young, and her younger brother had gone missing in childhood. She was the only child left in the household.
When her father died, he entrusted her to General Xiao. Out of gratitude for the sacrifice her father had made to protect him, General Xiao promised, before her father breathed his last, to arrange the marriage of his eldest son, Xiao Yunxi, to her.
Xiao Yunxi was nine years older than her. By his age, he should have married long ago, but she had still been too young to reach marriageable age.
Thus, the Xiao Family had him wait until she came of age. Several of the Xiao sons younger than him had already married, yet Xiao Yunxi alone had been delayed until now.
Everyone said that although she had lost both her parents, she had the protection of the Duke-Protecting General’s Residence. Once she married into the family, she would enjoy wealth and honor for the rest of her life. Even her Aunt had been green with envy day and night over the marriage, believing that Su Jinyuan had stumbled into an incredible stroke of luck and wanting to take it for her own daughter.
But who could have known that, before long, the entire Xiao Family would be killed, charged with treason and collusion with the enemy, and have their household confiscated and their clan exterminated?
The youth before her was the only person left from the Xiao Family.
His father had been a deputy general under General Xiao. More than ten years ago, after he died in battle, his pregnant wife gave birth to their posthumous son in her grief and then passed away. General Xiao brought the boy back to the residence, named him Yunyan, and treated him as his own son.
After the entire Xiao Family was executed, it was Xie Yunyan before her who shouldered the Xiao Family’s legacy, cutting a bloody path through the Capital and burying the entire Imperial City alongside them.
“Achoo!”
Su Jinyuan covered her mouth as she sneezed.
Xie Yunyan looked up. Seeing that the cold had turned her face blue and made her look even more like a ghost, he suddenly drew back his legs and said, “Come here.”
Su Jinyuan looked at him.
Xie Yunyan said lazily, “Eldest Brother Xiao asked me to take you back. If I really let you freeze to death here, he’ll blame me for failing to take proper care of you.”
When Su Jinyuan did not move, he raised his brows.
“If you don’t come over, do you want me to help you?”
Su Jinyuan hurriedly shook her head. When she rose from the ground, her leg had gone numb, and she nearly toppled over. She hastily grabbed the pillar beside her. Once she had steadied herself, she found herself facing Xie Yunyan’s eyes, which were full of amusement.
“My leg went numb.”
Su Jinyuan gave an awkward explanation before finally shuffling over to the fire.
Warmth instantly spread through her body. Although her clothes were still wet, the heat of the fire gradually stopped her trembling. As she held out her hands to absorb the warmth, she almost wished she could stuff them straight into the flames.
Xie Yunyan tossed her a flatbread.
Su Jinyuan caught it clumsily. When she looked up, she saw that the youth had already leaned back again. Only after a long while did she say softly, “Thank you.”
The flatbread was dry and hard, but to Su Jinyuan, who had been starving for a long time, it was the most delicious food in the world.
Ever since she had returned and killed the person who had been lying on top of her, she had been hunted down relentlessly. For several days, she had survived on nothing but wild fruit and weeds from the mountains.
When she suddenly tasted rice and flour again, Su Jinyuan’s eyes reddened. She stuffed the flatbread into her mouth and chewed frantically, forcing it down with her neck held stiff. Moments later, she choked, and her entire body began to convulse with violent coughing, her face turning bright red.
Xie Yunyan hurriedly reached out and pulled her over, then slapped her on the back.
“Spit it out.”
He gripped the girl’s jaw and tried to make her spit it out.
But who would have thought that, even with her face turning blue, the girl’s throat would move—and she would forcibly swallow the flatbread down.
Xie Yunyan fell silent.
His face was full of disbelief as he gripped her chin and looked at her swollen, bruised face. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” She had nearly choked to death, yet she was still focused on forcing it down?!
“Choke… choking to death… is still better than starving to death…”
Su Jinyuan’s throat felt as though it had been scraped raw, and she began coughing violently.
Rendered speechless by her reply, Xie Yunyan released her. His brows furrowed, and a trace of anger entered his voice. “Were you born as a starving ghost?”
Su Jinyuan gasped for breath. “Young Master Xie would know if you tried chewing on grass for a few days.”
Even a ghost could starve to death!
Although Xie Yunyan had an eccentric temperament, he was still half a young master of the general’s residence. No matter how badly things got, he had never been reduced to chewing grass.
Seeing Su Jinyuan stuff the rest of the flatbread into her mouth and wolf it down, he frowned. “What are you doing this for?”
“Eldest Brother Xiao is refined and heroic, and the Xiao Family is a household of high standing. How many people throughout the Capital dream of marrying into the Xiao Family? Yet you ran away from your wedding to follow some useless piece of trash who can’t even keep you fed?”
Su Jinyuan’s eyes reddened as she listened to him.
Wasn’t he exactly that—a piece of trash?
After her father died, she had been taken in by her uncle’s family.
Su Wanquan treated her neither well nor badly, but Aunt Yu Shi had found fault with her at every turn. She was also jealous that Su Jinyuan had secured such an excellent marriage and had always wanted to take it for her own daughter, Su Xinyue, so that her daughter could marry into the Xiao Family.
Lu Zhuo was the one she had found.
Lu Zhuo was refined and amiable, handsome, and possessed a silver tongue.
After they had “encountered” each other several times, Lu Zhuo had even played the hero and rescued the beauty. Having grown up dependent on others and received little kindness, Su Jinyuan had fallen for him. She devoted herself to him wholeheartedly and even eloped with him. Who could have known that leaving with him would destroy her entire life?
After the two arrived in Qu’an, Lu Zhuo treated her well on the surface, but secretly searched for a “buyer” for her. He then pretended to take her out, allowing the buyer to forcibly take her chastity as part of the transaction, obtaining what he wanted. Afterward, he even came forward as her savior.
Lu Zhuo had never minded that she was no longer chaste. He treated her gently and remained as deeply devoted as ever. In the depths of her despair, Su Jinyuan had taken him as the only lifeline within reach after she fell into the water.
To help him rise above others, she had become utterly unscrupulous.
To help him achieve his ambitions, she had been willing to risk everything, scheming to obtain whatever he wanted.
Su Jinyuan’s hands had been stained with blood. She had engaged in ruthless intrigues and become so vicious and merciless that even she felt she had transformed into someone unrecognizable. Yet only at the very end had she realized that all of it had merely been a scheme—and that she had done nothing more than live her life as a joke.