Because Xuanyuan Jinxing was not only a lover but also Xiao Yao's savior, he didn't need heaven's thunder to take his life.
Looking back now, the boon of Xuanyuan Jinxing saving her life must have also been a premeditated conspiracy, and this conspiracy now even involves the lives of everyone in the Xiao Family, from top to bottom.
Xiao Yao laughed at herself mockingly. Because of her appearance, all she ever wanted, from beginning to end, was a sincere love and the peace of the Xiao Family. Yet now, because of her, they had unwittingly been struck by a calamity and falsely accused of being traitors.
All of this happened because of her. If it weren't for her helping Xuanyuan Jinxing to ascend to power, the Xiao Family wouldn't have been involved in the political maelstrom of the princes' overt and covert struggles at all. The Xiao Family would have kept to themselves and lived in peace all along.
All she wanted was love, why was it so difficult? Was it just because of her appearance that heaven decreed she couldn't have love, lest she fall into an abyssal darkness?
In both lives, had her quest for love led her family to ruin? How could she accept this?
Indeed, she, Xiao Yao, a person who had lived two lifetimes, was still a tragic figure whose family was shattered due to love in both lives.
Looking at the prison cell infested with cockroaches and mice, Xiao Yao was reminded of a TV drama she had seen in her modern life describing a poem: "I entered a room, and I saw four walls. I looked up and saw rats, looked down and saw cockroaches."
Imprisoned Xiao Yao was deep in self-blame.
Xiao Yao wasn't the original person. Strictly speaking, when Xiao Yao was one year old, playing on the infant bed, the Xiao Family members weren't paying attention for a moment, and she fell off the bed, hitting her forehead on the ground. The little Xiao Yao passed away, and an otherworldly soul arrived—that of a 25-year-old modern Xiao Yao.
Waking up from her daze, Xiao Yao found herself with small arms and legs, barely able to walk or talk fluently, completely like a one-year-old child. A modern person aged 25 found herself reborn, and looking around at the ancient settings and people in traditional long gowns, she, slow-witted though she might be, understood what had happened.
In the modern world, her appearance and lack of social interaction led her to read novels in her spare time, especially the kind about rebirth and transmigration. Little did she expect that a car accident would bring her this transmigratory rebirth.
Therefore, she shouldn't remain immersed in the past's sorrows or continue her descent into negativity and decline.
More so because she now had a loving father and mother, along with three brothers who cherished her like a precious pearl. Although Xiao Yao was born with half of her body stained red, none of them despised her; on the contrary, they gave her double the affection and protected her without a single gap.
This moved her immensely, as someone who lacked parental care and affection since childhood in the modern world. She swore to herself that she would protect her parents and brothers and safeguard this home.
However, life is unpredictable. She would once again choose poorly in love, leading her lover to send the Xiao Family to the execution ground.
Thinking of this, Xiao Yao shed silent tears again. Her father, mother, and brothers whom she had vowed to protect, the home she was determined to defend, were now all heading to the morbid scaffold of death.
"Father, Mother, brothers, I'm sorry, it's all because of me that you've suffered this undeserved disaster. I don't know how you are now, whether you're suffering. Father, Mother, I'm sorry!" Xiao Yao covered her face with her hands, crying from silence to aloud, wanting to release all her resentment.
Xiao Yao also thought of her master, Tianji Elder. Tianji Elder was revered as the greatest person in the world, so much so that emperors from all four nations would step aside to show him respect. He was an old man whose skills in physiognomy, medicine, and martial arts were unparalleled, and Xiao Yao was the disciple of this grandmaster.
She walked out of her previous shadow and lived a carefree and happy life in the Xiao Family home.
But on her second birthday, Tianji Elder came to the Xiao Family, declaring he wanted to take Xiao Yao as his disciple.
This completely astonished the Head of the Xiao Family. It was known that within the four nations, many coveted the position of becoming a disciple of Tianji Elder—even the emperors of the four nations fervently vied to have their sons taken under his wing—all to be rejected by Tianji Elder.
And yet, now Tianji Elder was proactively seeking to take his daughter as his disciple, which thrilled him beyond measure.
However, the Xiao Family was reluctant to let Xiao Yao leave home; seeing her just a few times a year was already a thought they could hardly bear. Yet Xiao Yao was very willing and happy to do so.
She knew that to protect the Xiao Family and her parents, she needed to learn real skills. Though possessed of a modern soul, she could use modern knowledge to scheme for the Xiao Family, which was after all a prominent household and Xiao Chengguang was a high-ranking official. Therefore, Xiao Yao made up her mind to follow Tianji Elder to learn about physiognomy, medicine, and martial arts.
That day she followed her master up to Tianshan. But as soon as she reached the mountain, she encountered an 'ice block'—her senior apprentice brother, Leng Changrui, whose name and personality were complete opposites: a name symbolizing the warm sun at dawn, yet a personality as cold as ice.
Her master gave her several books, instructing her to memorize them backwards and forwards, and left her in the care of Leng Changrui. But Xiao Yao, with a mental age of twenty-five, couldn't stand her junior yet seemingly eight-years-older ice-cold senior apprentice brother who was silent all day long.
So, in her free time, Xiao Yao enjoyed teasing her senior apprentice brother, but he paid no mind to it.
As a child, Xiao Yao would simply cause trouble and let her senior apprentice brother take the blame. Each time, the master would punish her senior apprentice brother while she watched, chuckling to herself. However, her senior apprentice brother would still accept the punishment silently. As she grew older, any trouble she caused was cleaned up by him behind the scenes. But whenever she asked the master who her senior apprentice brother was, her master would only smile and not respond. When she asked her senior apprentice brother, he wouldn't even fart in reply, and during such times, Xiao Yao would get so angry she'd feel like she was battling rice.
Time silently slipped by unnoticed.
The year she turned eight and was allowed to go down the mountain to see her family, the master seriously and earnestly said to Xiao Yao, "Yaoyao, beware of letting emotions cloud your judgment, or else you will face relentless strife!"
That year was the year an eight-year-old Xiao Yao met Xuanyuan Jinxing. Perhaps her master had long predicted the tribulation that Xiao Yao would face, which was why he issued such a stern warning.
But Xiao Yao still met her calamity.
Xiao Yao lingered in thoughts and memories, and a day and night passed.
Daylight broke, but since the cell was always dark, Xiao Yao didn't know the time. She sat motionless the whole time.
"Her Majesty the Empress has arrived!"
"Long live the Empress! Long live, long live for a thousand years!" The jailer knelt down.
"Xiao Yao, kneel down!" Eunuch Li, who followed behind Chang Liying, seeing that Xiao Yao had not knelt down, yelled with the dust whisk in hand.