How did things turn out like that?
How did it get to this point?
She was dead.
She was really dead.
He had never thought that she would actually die before. Her drive to live was so strong. She was living so well even after being tormented, just to die so suddenly.
What was he going to do now that she was dead?
What was he going to do?
Xuan Ying sat on the floor, clutching his short hair painfully. His eyes burned with tears as they flowed incessantly down his face.
Ah Zhou stood outside the door. He had been with Master for many years. Master had always been merciless and ruled with an iron fist. This was the first time he was seeing him break down.
Master no longer cared about anything. The only thing he did was hide in the wine cellar and dream of death.
Ah Zhou didn’t know how he could help Master.
An idea suddenly popped into his mind. He could go to the South Palace and ask for Madam. Even though Madam had always refused to acknowledge her son, they were still of the same blood at the end of the day.
Ah Zhou instructed his men. “Take the car and go and fetch Madam. Tell Madam that she has to get here as soon as possible. Her son is in trouble.”
“Yes sir.”
…
An hour later, the doors of the Snow Mountain Residence were opened as Concubine Yu was pushed in on her wheelchair.
“Madam, you’ve come?”
Concubine Yu’s expression was chilly. She looked at Ah Zhou and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Madam, Miss Feng has passed on.”
Miss Feng?
Concubine Yu’s expression changed at once. After Feng Lingxue had left the other day, she had asked the two maids for her name.
“You’re talking about… Feng Lingxue?”
Ah Zhou was taken by surprise. “Madam, you know Miss Feng?”
Suddenly Concubine Yu couldn’t breathe. She waved frantically and said, “You idiots! Bring me to him at once!”
…
Ah Zhou pushed Concubine Yu to the entrance of the wine cellar and knocked loudly on the door.
“Get lost!” A rough voice called out from the inside.
Ah Zhou looked at Concubine Yu.
“Ah Zhou, open the door.”
“Yes ma’am!”
Ah Zhou raised his legs and kicked the door twice. It burst open.
It was pitch-black inside. Xuan Ying’s bloodshot eyes swept over. “Are you guys tired of living? Get lost this instance!”
As soon as he said that, he saw Ah Zhou push Concubine Yu in.
Xuan Ying froze and stood up quickly. “Mother.”
Concubine Yu huffed coldly. “You still take me as your mother? Kneel down, you b*stard!”
With a loud thud, Xuan Ying’s knees hit the ground.
Ah Zhou saw all of this from the back and felt a little sorry for Master. Madam was being too strict.
“You kneel as well!” At this moment, Concubine Yu shot a cold glance at Ah Zhou.
“…”
Ah Zhou quickly ran behind Xuan Ying and knelt down.
Concubine Yu looked at Xuan Ying. The mask on his face was gone, revealing his right face.
“Raise your head.”
Xuan Ying raised his face slowly.
Concubine Yu looked at the knife scars on her son’s face and her eyes turned red. She hit the wheelchair handle hard with her withered hands and asked, “Tell me, who did this to you?”
Even though Xuan Ying was supposed to be drunk, but strangely, he felt like the more he drank, the more sober he became.
A mocking laugh burst out from his throat as his thin lips curved upwards. “Mother, I fell in love with a girl from Ah Jiao’s Room and her lover was the one who did this to me.”
“Well, have you figured out who her lover was then?”
Xuan Ying shook his head. “No.”
With a resounding slap, Concubine Yu hit Xuan Ying across his whole face hard. “You good-for-nothing!”
Xuan Ying was struck across his whole face. His hands hanging by his side clenched into fists. This was the most humiliated he had been his entire life. Ah Zhou who was behind him also trembled. Wasn’t Madam scolding Master too harshly?
Concubine Yu looked at her son kneeling on the floor. “Fine, if you can’t figure out who the man was, I’ll just tell you then. That man was your father, the South Duke!”
What?
Xuan Ying froze as he looked at Concubine Yu in shock. His black eyes turned unpredictable.
It was… his father?
“Your father was the one who locked Feng Lingxue in her room and threatened to kill you if she took a step outside. What a silly little girl. Why did she choose to love a man that even his own father didn’t love?
“Look where her love for you brought her. She didn’t dare take one step outside her room, and could only let you go. So what if your face was ruined? She should have let your father kill you. She saved a little rascal, only to be bitten to death by him afterward.”
Xuan Ying’s eyes were rimmed with red, a vein throbbing on his forehead. He finally opened his mouth and mumbled, “No, that’s not possible. She loved wealth and glory and thought I was too poor for her. She was playing with me…”
Slap! Concubine Yu slapped him loudly across the face again.
“You say that she loved wealth and glory and thought you were too poor for her. You were poor when the two of you met, so why do you think she wanted to be with you from the start? You keep saying that she wanted to play with you, but look at yourself from three years ago. You were a poor little rascal. What was she supposed to be playing you for?”
Concubine Yu’s tears flowed from her eyes. “Dear son, the two of you experienced so many things together in Ah Jiao’s Room for ten years, but you still don’t understand her at all. You don’t have even an ounce of trust in her.
“All these years, she had never forgotten your kindness, yet all you did was continue to harbor hatred for her. All the two of you have been doing is running further and further away from each other.”
Xuan Ying’s muscles were tense and as hard as a rock. He had no idea that it had been his father.
He refused to believe it.
For the past three years, he had believed that she had betrayed him and thrown him away. He refused to believe that what his mother said was true. His eyes burned like hot coal and he tried to explain, tried to find a valid reason for his behavior. “She wasn’t a virgin when she did it with me. She already had other men. Mother, look…”
Xuan Ying grabbed his mother’s hand strongly and looked at her with hopeful eyes. “Mother, look, she didn’t love me at all.”
Concubine Yu teared up and her voice broke. “Dear son, before the coming-of-age ceremony, Lingxue was… raped.”
Xuan Ying froze as unbidden tears rolled down his face.
She… She had been tainted.
Someone had destroyed her innocence.
So that was the truth…
So that was the truth…
Xuan Ying slowly lowered himself until his scarred face was lying on Concubine Yu’s legs. The terrible truth horrified and pained him immensely. Why… Why did she have to tell him? He would rather not have found out.
How was he supposed to feel now?
“Dear son, Lingxue was a pitiful child. She might not be able to compete with other women in terms of wealth, background and ability, but she’s extremely gentle, and all she’s ever wanted was love and freedom. It was your greatest fate that you were able to meet such a woman. But despite that, I don’t think there’s a chance for you to be with her anymore.”
