Yun Chu looked at the person before her in disbelief.

It was actually the exiled former Marquis Xuanwu, Qin Mingheng.

Because of her letter, Qin Mingheng had been implicated in Prince Consort Liu’s scandal of defiling the palace. Combined with Lady Luo beating the drum at the palace gate, the Marquis Xuanwu residence was thus destroyed. In the end, Qin Mingheng was sentenced to exile three thousand li away… By rights, he should still be on the road to exile. How could he appear in the Xie family?

“Surprised to see me?”

Qin Mingheng removed the black cloak from his head and walked step by step toward Yun Chu.

Yun Chu saw that his face was covered with whip marks. Old wounds hadn’t healed before new ones were added. His neck was also full of injuries. She estimated there wasn’t a patch of healthy flesh on his entire body.

“Of course I’m surprised,” she said with a half-smile. “Marquis Xuanwu was originally only sentenced to exile, yet you escaped on your own. Tell me, what awaits you?”

Qin Mingheng stared intently at her: “That I’ve fallen to this state—is this your handiwork?”

“You deceived me, humiliated me, and still thought you’d escape unscathed?” Yun Chu’s voice gradually turned cold. “After you did that filthy thing, you should have prayed I’d never find out in my lifetime. Since I know now, do you think I would act as if nothing happened?”

If not for Qin Mingheng, she would at least have consummated her marriage with her own husband and conceived a child.

It wasn’t that she had feelings for Xie Jingyu in her heart.

Rather, if the child in her womb had the Xie family bloodline, Xie Jingyu wouldn’t have been so deranged as to throw away a child who still had breath, and the child would have been properly buried by now…

Qin Mingheng should feel fortunate, fortunate that the child didn’t die at his hands. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have let the Marquis Xuanwu residence collapse so quickly.

Instead, like the Xie family, she would have made it fall apart bit by bit, families destroyed and people dead bit by bit, suffering bit by bit, lamps running out of oil bit by bit, experiencing all of life’s bitterness…

“You woman are truly too heartless!”

Qin Mingheng gritted his teeth, making the scars on his face appear extremely ferocious.

“Do you know how much I loved you? When I was ten years old and went to the Yun family and saw you for the first time, I was attracted by your appearance,” he spoke word by word. “At that time, I had a dream in my heart, a dream about you. I waited for myself to grow up, waited for you to grow up. Finally, I could propose marriage to the Yun family, but your mother refused me. Do you know how heartbroken, how sad I was?”

“Do you know when the emperor bestowed marriage between me and Lady Luo, I thought about using my title to resist the decree? But I was afraid that after I was no longer a marquis, I wouldn’t even be able to see you once… I knew I shouldn’t harbor such sordid thoughts toward you, but you don’t know—you occupied all my youthful dreams. I couldn’t watch you marry someone else…”

“I loved you so much, how could you treat me this way… What I gave you was love, but you—toward me, it’s all hatred…”

“Why—why is it like this!”

Qin Mingheng was nearly breaking down, his hands bracing the table, tears spilling from his eyes, his chest heaving violently.

Yun Chu’s face showed not the slightest expression. She listened patiently to the end, then smiled slightly: “Destroying a person’s entire life in the name of love—this is what you consider love?”

“Yes, this is my love! So filthy, so sordid, so shameful!” Qin Mingheng roared. “But Yun Chu, do you know or not—the man with you on your wedding night wasn’t me at all! Now, do you still think I ruined your entire life!”

“What did you say?”

Yun Chu’s expression finally changed, her gaze becoming sharp.

Qin Mingheng laughed loudly: “I said, the man who consummated the marriage with you that night wasn’t me at all. I did nothing. Why should I bear your revenge and hatred? Why!”

Yun Chu’s pupils constricted sharply. She grabbed his collar: “If not you, then who else could it be?”

“I did nothing, yet I lost everything because of it. Yun Chu, you owe me!”

Qin Mingheng suddenly pressed down on her shoulders, forcibly tearing open her collar and pinning her on the table.

“I’ve already received retribution. Why not let this thing truly happen! I’m already like this—I’m no longer afraid of losing anything!”

When his lips were still half a finger’s length from Yun Chu’s neck, he felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder.

The short sword Yun Chu had been gripping in her hand stabbed fiercely into Qin Mingheng’s right shoulder.

Yun Chu didn’t pull out the short sword but continued to thrust it deeper.

Qin Mingheng’s features twisted in pain.

“Are you certain you’re no longer afraid of losing anything?” Yun Chu smiled slightly. “That outer wife of yours called Chu Niang—after your downfall, she had an abortion and disappeared… Your Qin family’s only bloodline now is the legitimate son you had with Lady Luo.”

Qin Mingheng clutched his right shoulder and spoke in disbelief: “You actually threaten with a young child’s life?”

“Your son’s life is a life, but my pair of premature twins weren’t lives?” Yun Chu stared at him. “You said when Xie Jingyu threw away the children, you saw with your own eyes that the children were still alive… You could watch a pair of young children die, so why can’t I use your Qin family bloodline’s life to get what I want to know! Qin Mingheng, I’m only giving you one chance. If you tell the truth, your son can live. But if I find out even one word is false, your Qin family line will end with you!”

From her eyes, Qin Mingheng saw bloodthirsty coldness.

The first time he saw her, she smiled so brightly, her eyes full of innocence and unworldliness.

He knew she had always been a kind and warm woman.

Why had she become so cold and cruel…

“Fine… I’ll speak.” Qin Mingheng closed his eyes and spoke with difficulty. “The night before your wedding, I actively sought out Xie Jingyu and made a deal with him. I gave him an ancestral divine medicine, along with a knockout drug. He put the knockout drug in the ceremonial wine for your wedding night. After you drank it, you fell asleep. At that time, I was in your bridal chamber.”

“Xie Jingyu wanted me to take you right there in the Xie family, but I didn’t want to do such a sacred thing in a room belonging to you and another man. So I took you back to the Marquis Xuanwu residence. I placed you on my bed. At that moment, do you know how happy I was? I was finally going to realize my youthful dream. I could finally possess you…”

“I called maids to remove your makeup, to undress you, to bathe you, to change you into the clothes I had carefully prepared…”

Yun Chu’s fingers tightened inch by inch.

She didn’t want to hear these details.

But she knew that this person before her had hidden this secret for so many years—he needed an outlet.

She saw several maid figures moving at the doorway. The door had been pushed open a crack. She signaled them not to come in yet.

“I loved you so much—of course I wanted to consummate our marriage in the most perfect state. I also went to bathe.”

“Looking back, the thing I regret most is using too much time bathing. When I came out, you had actually disappeared.”

“Hehehe, I went through so much effort to bring you to the residence, yet someone intercepted you!”

Qin Mingheng’s face was full of anger.

He truly regretted it deeply. After paying so much, he only received Yun Chu’s hatred and revenge!