“Concubine Shu arrives at just the right time. His Majesty has been thinking of Concubine Shu, but he’s been here for half the night without going in, saying he feared disturbing Concubine Shu’s sleep in the dead of night. Fortunately, Concubine Shu has such understanding—otherwise, this birthday would have passed in vain right at its beginning.” Si Lanfeng thought for a moment and said with a smile.

Suzhen paused, only then remembering he was born at the hour of zi—tonight was his birthday. Tomorrow would be the grand ceremony.

But what did this have to do with her?

She found it ironically laughable and turned to go back!

Si Lanfeng saw Li Zhaoting’s expression change and thought trouble was brewing. Indeed, he strode forward and grabbed Suzhen as she was about to return to her room.

Suzhen turned her head and looked coldly at her elbow, “Let go!”

“Feng Suzhen, what do you mean by this!” Li Zhaoting flew into a rage. He had endured enough regarding Lian Xin’s matter!

“What do I mean? Lian Xin is my friend, my family—she’s like Hong Xiao was to me before. You just let those two beasts defile her! My heart is bleeding, Li Zhaoting, do you know that! This hurts more than killing me, do you know that!” Fire seemed to shoot from her eyes as she stared at him fiercely.

“Your friend, your family? Because she’s Lian Yu’s blood sister?! Feng Suzhen, you have no heart! Originally killing her would not have been excessive, but for your sake, I released her. Limitless represents the martial world—he’s now one of my power bases. Do you want me to kill his disciples too!” He also gripped her arm fiercely.

“You truly cannot compare to Lian Yu. Even when the Great Zhou needed Wei’s help, even though she was a courtesan, he never abandoned her, because she was a citizen of his Great Zhou, because that was human nature, law, and justice!”

She met the sinister fury in his eyes and spoke word by word.

Li Zhaoting felt as if his heart had been violently pounded by something!

Tonight he had risen from A Luo’s bed to come here, and fearing she still harbored resentment, he—a sovereign emperor—had actually stood outside without entering, pondering how to comfort her.

Originally, he had wanted to say that today was his birthday and he wanted to spend it with her.

Originally, he had also wanted to say that he was now cultivating power bases, and in time, when the court and military foundations were stronger than the Wei family’s, and when Wuqing extended the Six Doors Bureau’s influence into the martial world, he would let her personally deal with those two men!

But it turned out that in her heart, nothing compared to Lian Yu.

She was only enduring reluctantly, wasn’t she?

She had fallen in love with Lian Yu—truly fallen in love with him?! All this time, had he been deluding himself? Thinking her love for Lian Yu was only because of his own influence?!

He was wrong, wasn’t he?

Seeing his eyes seemingly filled with blood, his hand raised, fixing her with a terrifying gaze like a demon from purgatory, Suzhen’s heart jumped in alarm. How could she lose her composure like this? If she completely angered him tonight, Lian Xin, her palace servants, and everyone from the Six Doors Bureau would probably not escape with their lives… Would Lian Xin’s sacrifice still have meaning?

She said nothing more, only looked at him slowly. Li Zhaoting kicked the tree beside him viciously, leaves falling, then turned and left.

She secretly breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the courtyard, where the palace servants were still laughing quietly, completely unaware that danger had just brushed past them.

Looking at their smiling faces, she suddenly thought of something!

She almost ran over and knocked on Little Zhou’s door in the side corridor of the courtyard.

Little Zhou quickly came to open it, her eyes showing nervousness, “Huaisu, what’s wrong?”

“I thought of something. Little Zhou, I need to ask you about something—about the child!” She lowered her voice.

Little Zhou looked at her with guilt, “I’m sorry, today I was thinking about the Princess’s matter and actually neglected the young master’s—”

She immediately shook her head, “It would be abnormal if you weren’t thinking about Lian Xin.”

“Come! Listen to what I have to say…” She immediately pushed Little Zhou into the room.

…

More than half an hour later, when she emerged from Little Zhou’s room, her eyes held a strange gleam.

However, returning to her room, she still couldn’t sleep, her mind filled with Lian Xin’s pale appearance.

She couldn’t help but suddenly embrace her quilt and sit up, clenching her hands tightly.

Just as she was about to lie down again, Wuming entered the palace and brought another piece of terrible news. After hearing it, Little Zhou swayed and nearly collapsed.

“I need to find Li Zhaoting. I need to leave the palace,” she murmured.

Wuqing hadn’t expected that this would be the second most difficult night since the Feng family’s massacre.

Leng Xue had also returned, but aside from calling Wuming in to instruct her to enter the palace and notify Suzhen, he had driven everyone out of Lian Xin’s room.

He glanced at the girl on the bed whose face was deathly pale with blistered lips, and his Adam’s apple moved slightly.

From the past four or five hours until now, this was the only movement he had made.

She slept deeply, as if she would never wake again.

At this moment, as if sensing his gaze, her eyelids moved.

Wuqing’s heart jumped violently, and he immediately sat on the bed and gathered her into his arms.

Disturbed by his movement and the pulling at her wounds, Lian Xin slowly opened her eyes in pain.

“You’re finally awake.” He said softly, his voice unconsciously trembling even to himself. The doctor had said that if she didn’t wake by this hour, she never would.

But Lian Xin’s whole body trembled, and after a while, she laughed bitterly, “Why did you still save me?”

Wuqing said, “I know saying this will seem heartless. But since you could endure what happened with Li Zhaoting, why can’t you treat what followed as being bitten by mad dogs? Why did you seek death? When I personally witnessed my parents’ tragic death and felt utterly hopeless, I never had such thoughts.”

“Wuqing, I’m different from you. Can I seek revenge while living? No, I can’t. I don’t have that ability, and I’m no longer a princess. Besides Susu, no one here welcomes me. I can’t return to my mother empress either—she would worry. Go live among commoners? But having been a princess for so many years, could I adapt? Moreover… if I were alone and Wei Chenghui and others still had designs on me, capturing me as leverage, I would become a burden to Susu, Seventh Brother, and Ninth Brother. I can’t help them, but I absolutely cannot become their burden.”

“I originally thought that you and Vermillion Bird together would occasionally remember me in the future, but you hate me so much, you won’t. Last night those two men… just thinking about it makes me feel so dirty… I really can’t think of any reason I should continue living.”

“Having experienced so much, I increasingly understand that I’m a completely useless person who will never… be remembered by anyone. Even now, I’m not even a princess anymore. But I must defend my family like a true princess.”

Due to their special position, Wuqing couldn’t see the expression on her face, but that weak voice was filled with mockery and humility, and perhaps a trace of pride, yet no longer had any vitality.

He hadn’t expected she would think so much. In his eyes, she had always been just an arrogant, detestable peacock.

Some people, having died once, would never die again no matter what they encountered. Because almost no one doesn’t yearn to live, as long as there’s still a glimmer of hope for life. That’s human instinct.

But he couldn’t see this in her.

He remembered their first meeting. He had actually been among the crowd watching the execution, and he saw her ride past and execute the child. Before this, he had already heard people say she had randomly beaten and killed servant girls in the palace.

He truly despised this woman!

For a long time, from initial disgust, to later thoughts of various ways to use her, to now…

When his parents were alive, his sister Suzhen was the one they paid more attention to, because he was destined to grow into a man, while she was a girl. Even he thought this was natural.

His sister’s urging him to let go of hatred came more from her feelings for Lian Yu and from greater righteousness and justice. Suzhen was more like their father than he was. Everyone is different—what others see as right might be wrong in one’s own eyes. So she could let go, but he had never been able to. Yet even though his sister was so strong, having walked this thorny, painful path, she had long forgotten even her own happiness, naturally unable to consider her brother’s happiness.

The brothers from the Six Doors Bureau were willing to follow him, entrusting their lives and deaths to him.

Little Zhou, whom he loved, had her own mission and always insisted on her own beliefs.

She was someone he so detested, yet for so long, she seemed to be the only one who always cared about his sorrows and joys, his burdens, whether he was tired or not.

She had helped Little Zhou and also helped his sister. He wasn’t ungrateful, but he couldn’t repay it. A girl’s most precious thing—what could he use to repay it? His life? But sometimes some things truly can’t be repaid with life.

Therefore, at that time he really hated her meddling.

But it was his harsh words that led her to encounter unimaginable disaster again!

He was a man.

“Wuqing, when I’m better, I’ll leave. You go out—just have Wuming come take care of me. You needn’t feel guilty. I’ll live well.” She suddenly said again.

His heart felt as if stung by something fierce!

Though he had never tried nor wanted to understand such a person, he knew very clearly this was a lie. She seemed to see his deeply hidden guilt too. She wouldn’t die again before his eyes, but only not before his eyes…

He slowly put her down.

Lian Xin watched him get up, tears flowing from her eyes as well, remembering her conversation with the old monk in the temple long ago. Perhaps she had taken too many wrong paths before, but that moment of warmth just now could be considered her fulfillment.

However, contrary to her expectations, he didn’t leave but picked up the medicine from the table and turned back to her.

“You said people should have chances to make themselves happy. Similarly, people should also have chances to be redeemed, shouldn’t they? Since you can’t adapt to common life, then stay and let me take care of you.” He looked at her and said slowly.

With a “pop,” the thing she had been clutching tightly in her hand, already soaked through, fell down… She looked at him in disbelief.