At the training grounds of the Holy Church, a group of people surrounded a young girl and started beating her up.
"Yan Xi, confess! Did you steal my jade pendant?" The girl in yellow with the steel whip grabbed the young girl's hair and lifted her head.
"Wu… Ugh... Uh... Oh!" The girl covered her neck with both hands and shook her head with great effort. She opened her mouth with difficulty, but could only utter a few short whines.
The crowd burst into laughter. "Yan Lan, have you forgotten that Yan Xi is a mute? How can a mute speak?"
Looking at the girl's sorry state, a look of satisfaction flashed in the eyes of the girl in yellow. She put her hands on her hips and said cruelly, "But I heard her say something!"
She looked down at the girl below her. "Yan Xi, as long as you kneel and kowtow three times to admit that you stole my jade pendant, I'll forgive you for stealing."
The eyes of the girl on the ground flashed with deep anger. Her blood-stained hands rubbed against the ground, and she tried to stand up.
The jeers around them grew louder and more malicious.
"Yan Lan, didn't you say that Yan Xi was like your dog? Why is your dog so disobedient?"
Embarrassment and anger flashed in Yan Lan's eyes. The cold steel whip in her hand lashed at the young girl's back.
"You don't want to confess? I'll whip you until you admit it!"
The young girl's screams of pain filled the training ground, and the crowd grew rowdier than ever.
However, they were interrupted
"The Holy Son has arrived!"
It was as if time had stopped.
The crowd was silent.
An ethereally handsome young man walked in.
As soon as he stepped in, it felt like the temperature in the training grounds had dropped to a freezing point.
The young man's eyes were as cold as ice, and there seemed to be no emotion in them. His expression was indifferent. However, his temperament was as sharp as a blade, making people stay far away from him.
People began to panic.
"F*ck, we forgot that His Highness the Holy Son and Yan Xi are engaged! It seems like the wedding is in a few days!"
"I was wondering why his Highness the Holy Son suddenly returned from the Imperial Academy. It turns out that he's back for the engagement party!"
"Lan, Yan Xi, what's wrong?" Suddenly, a soft voice rang out. The people who were gossiping among themselves finally realized that there was a beautiful woman in green standing beside the man.
At this moment, her brows were slightly furrowed as she looked worriedly at the center of the grounds.
The crowd burst into an uproar.
"Isn't that Duanmu Rou? The young lady of the Duanmu family! She's a genius who was personally recruited by the Imperial Academy this year, right? Ever since her talent was revealed, the Duanmu family became Muyun's top family!"
"She's the only student that the Imperial Academy recruited from Muyun this year. From now on, she's the Holy Son's junior. No wonder she's standing beside him."
"The two of them are standing so close to each other, so they must have a closer relationship than that of a junior to her senior."
Seeing the person who came over, the disheveled girl's dead gray eyes burst with an amazing light. She opened her mouth and let out a short whine, trying to squeeze out a warm smile on her dirty face to the young man.
Her chest was numb from being stepped on, and her wounds were so painful that she almost lost consciousness. However, all of that pain seemed insignificant now.
She knew that he would come to save her.
Just like when they were young, he had told her that he would definitely marry her.
For the sake of this promise, she had been silently enduring all this abuse.
Now, it felt like her wait was over.
However, she did not notice that the young man's apathetic gaze only swept past her, as if she were a speck of dust.
After seeing the reaction of the man in white, Duanmu Rou's lips curled up imperceptibly. "Are you bullying Yan Xi again?"
"Didn't you say that the ice jade pendant that could treat fire poison was stolen? I saw it on Yan Xi today. She was the one who stole the pendant! I know you're kind, but how can you defend a thief?" Yan Lan snorted in dissatisfaction, stomped her feet hard, and then grabbed the pendant on Yan Xi's neck.
The chain snapped, leaving a glaring red mark on her neck.
Yun Yuhan's distant gaze finally fell on Yan Xi. Hearing that she had stolen the pendant, his eyes were as cold as ice.
Yan Xi's eyes widened. Her bruised lips moved, but she could not make a sound at the moment...
Wasn't that jade pendant a gift from him?
She looked helplessly at Duanmu Rou and then at the indifferent Yun Yuhan beside her. Her eyes were red and did not show any weakness even when she was being beaten. She opened her mouth anxiously and tried to speak, "Oh... Ah... ah... ah..."
Every time she opened his mouth, it was as if her throat was being cut by thousands of knives.
Duanmu Rou frowned. "Xixi, I used fire poison in order to save you. His Highness the Holy Son was kind enough to find me the ice jade to relieve the pain of the fire poison. You're His Highness's fiancée. If you're dissatisfied that he gave me this gift, I apologize to you. Consider it as me buying the jade pendant from the Holy Son."
She paused, and her watery eyes flickered like a venomous snake's tongue. She sighed and said, "But the ice jade is very important to my healing. Why do you want to steal it?"
"F*ck! Yan Xi is really disgusting! She's a disgusting rat lusting after a swan by not letting go of the engagement with the Holy Son. And she's ungrateful as well!"
The crowd was enraged and a few of them kicked her to the ground once again.
"I think Yan Xi is jealous of Duanmu Rou's talent. She's a good-for-nothing, yet she wants to harm Duanmu Rou! How could she be so vicious?"
"Kill this piece of trash!"
The young girl fell to the ground in a sorry state, but her eyes were stubbornly staring at the ethereal young man in white in the crowd.
She endured the pain and struggled to get up. She stumbled towards the man and carefully reached out to grab his sleeve.
She did not steal anything! She would never steal anything! Yu Yuhan would definitely believe her.
"Ah…!" A powerful force suddenly flipped her over. She was thrown out like a rag doll and fell to the ground.
The pain in her body almost made her faint, but she held on to another piece of jade tightly. It was not a very precious piece of jade. However, even when she was beaten half to death, she did not let go.
She had carved this jade. When she was carving it, she had cut her hand many times, but she thought that since he had given her the precious ice jade, she had to give him a gift no matter what.
But now, she was in so much pain. Her throat hurt, her body hurt, and her heart hurt. She could not call out his name, and she did not have the strength to walk to him.
The exhausted girl raised her hand stubbornly, holding a simple piece of jade in her hand. She looked at the person who was staring at her a few steps away.
The sunlight was reflected in his eyes, which were so light that they resembled ice.
The person that she had placed all her hopes in to save her was now using the cruelest words to throw her into the abyss.