Nanmeng Rong said nothing, because it seemed she had thought of something.

Long Feiyan’s legs were ruined, yet she could still remain within this palace. As for herself, even as a prisoner, she was at least a serious offender of some standing — yet now she had actually been brought before Long Feiyan, left entirely at her mercy.

Had she… truly been abandoned by Emperor Qiwen, handed over to Long Feiyan?

That dog of an emperor was still trying to please Long Feiyan!

After all these years, he still hadn’t given up his wicked intentions! What gave her the right?

Long Feiyan’s legs were already ruined — why would any man still be willing to court her favor? Why?

She hated this, she hated it so much!

Long Feiyan merely looked at her calmly. Seeing her despair brought no particular satisfaction.

Revenge? In truth, there was little meaning in taking revenge on her. But the Long family’s downfall had, from the very start, been her doing — the one who had framed and slandered the Long family was Nanmeng Rong.

If she did not avenge them, how could she face the kin of the Long family?

“Take your own life,” Long Feiyan said flatly. Once Nanmeng Rong had fallen into her hands, there was no possibility of her surviving.

Nanmeng Rong stared at her, and amid her despair, suddenly let out a cold, chilling laugh.

“Do you really think you can live well? Long Feiyan, do you dare walk out of this place? Do you dare live openly, with dignity, before everyone’s eyes?”

Heh, heh — so what if a man courted her favor? The Long Feiyan of now was already a cripple. How much of her former radiant spirit remained?

“So many people want you dead, they all want to see you destroyed. Do you think I’m your only enemy? Heh, your fate won’t end well either. I’ll just wait — wait and see what becomes of you.”

“Even if you die, your family won’t come to a good end either. I wasn’t the only one who harmed the Long family back then. Heh, none of you will end well — not one of you.”

She glared at Long Feiyan’s face, glaring with all her might.

She hated this face to the extreme, hated it so very much. She wanted to destroy her — even in her dreams she wanted to destroy her!

“I won’t fall into your hands. If you want to torment me, I won’t grant you that satisfaction! For your whole life, you’ll never get to humiliate me!”

Suddenly, her expression darkened. Her hands clenched tight, and abruptly, her face flushed crimson.

“No good, she’s severed her own meridians!” Qing Ye stepped forward at once, but it was already too late to stop her.

Nanmeng Rong expended every last bit of her true energy, rupturing the meridians around her heart. Two thin trails of blood slid from the corners of her lips, while blood gushed steadily from her ears and nose.

Her whole body’s vital breath weakened in an instant.

Qing Ye walked over, but there was nothing to be done. She turned to look at Long Feiyan, who simply watched with indifference as Nanmeng Rong’s life slipped away bit by bit, her face entirely without expression.

“Long Feiyan, you will surely come to a bad end. I curse you — I curse you to be abandoned by everyone, to die alone and friendless!”

Nanmeng Rong’s voice grew weaker, yet her eyes bulged more and more, fixed unwaveringly on Long Feiyan, as if trying to brand that face permanently into her memory.

Even after death, even in the underworld, she would remember her forever, and curse her forever!

At last, Nanmeng Rong breathed her last on the spot — only her bulging eyes remained, refusing to close even in death.

“Mistress…” Qing Zhi looked at Long Feiyan. Nanmeng Rong’s manner of death was, admittedly, rather unsettling. Qing Zhi said, “A vicious woman like that — Mistress, please don’t take her words to heart.”

Qing Ye also looked at Long Feiyan, wanting to offer comfort, yet not knowing how to begin.

In the end, it was Long Feiyan who looked at Qing Zhi instead, saying flatly, “Would I really take such words to heart?”

Although Nanmeng Rong had cursed her with her dying breath, and her death was indeed a grisly sight that left a lingering unease in anyone’s heart, still — what was the point of caring about the words of such a vicious woman?

She herself had done so many wicked things — what right did she have to curse anyone else?

“I have spent half my life on the battlefield, and the people I have killed are beyond counting. As for curses laid upon me — could I even keep track of them all?”

Long Feiyan wheeled herself toward the door. “I suspect that the moment she laid eyes on me, all interest in living had already left her.”

She had never regarded Nanmeng Rong as a true rival, yet back then Nanmeng Rong’s vanity and jealousy had reached an extreme — the very first time she saw her, she had already come to hate her.

The reason? At first Long Feiyan hadn’t understood, but gradually she came to know it.

Nanmeng Rong was simply jealous that she was more beautiful than her — but in Long Feiyan’s eyes, looks truly didn’t matter that much.

From the moment she had severed herself from love and affection, this face had truly ceased to matter — it was only that Nanmeng Rong herself could never let go of her own obsession.

Just now, the instant she had removed her veil, every last shred of the will to live had vanished from Nanmeng Rong’s eyes.

This woman was, in her own way, a pitiable person too — at least in this regard, both pitiable and despicable.

The most unreliable thing in this world was appearance. No matter who you were, old age would come eventually — however beautiful one might be in youth, once old, wasn’t all that remained just a worthless husk of flesh?

In the end, buried beneath the yellow earth, dust returning to dust — however beautiful one had been, what difference did it make?

Before she could even step out, two people came bursting in from outside.

The Chief Eunuch entered, and the first thing he saw was Nanmeng Rong lying on the ground, plainly already dead.

He gave a start, hurrying over to check Nanmeng Rong’s breath. His expression changed at once, and he turned to look at Emperor Qiwen standing in the doorway, saying urgently, “Your Majesty, Consort Rong has… has already died.”

Emperor Qiwen did not seem to hear, or perhaps he heard but paid it no mind — at this moment his gaze was locked entirely on Long Feiyan’s face, every thought of his fixed on her alone.

“Long’er, Long’er, you are finally willing… willing to let me look at you!”

She had finally been willing to remove the veil from her face, and this face was, astonishingly, exactly the same as it had been in his memory.

His Long’er! She truly was unlike any ordinary woman of this mortal world. Over all these years everyone else had aged, yet she alone remained as radiant as ever!

Long Feiyan looked at him, no emotion at all in her eyes. “Your woman is dead. Won’t you go take a look?”

“That vicious woman did so many evil things. If she’s dead, she’s dead — there’s nothing worth looking at.”

Emperor Qiwen indeed refused to spare even a single glance at the corpse lying on the ground — as if it might give off some foul stench, he could hardly express his disgust fast enough.

“Long’er, this place is filthy. Let’s go talk outside.”

He moved to come and personally push Long Feiyan’s wheelchair out, but Qing Ye got there first, stepping behind Long Feiyan and pushing the chair herself.

Her mistress disliked being touched by others — yet Emperor Qiwen seemed utterly oblivious to this.

Still… Qing Ye couldn’t help glancing back at the corpse on the ground, her heart filled with boundless reflection.

What did a lifetime of striving and scheming amount to, in the end? Sometimes the flowers one tends with all one’s heart never bloom, while a willow branch planted without intent grows into deep shade.

A whole life lived under the gaze of others, needing other people’s attention just to prove the worth of one’s own existence.

What meaning, then, could such a life possibly hold?