The heavy night had enveloped everything, oppressive and seemingly ready to crush down at any moment, suffocating.
Xiangning was dressed in a bright red wedding gown, her hair arranged in a Flying Immortal Bun, looking dazzlingly beautiful.
She stood at the entrance of the Gu Residence's main room, terrified, watching Gu Zhiqing approach her step by step.
To her, the accomplished Gu Zhiqing was nothing short of a demon!
The fall of the Zuo Family began with the death of her elder brother and Uncle Jiang in The Borderlands.
The Gu Family had been a key supporter in her brother-in-law's successful bid for legitimacy.
To secure her sister's position in the palace, she had married the Second Young Master Gu.
Who would have thought the Gu Family had someone else impersonate the Second Young Master in a marriage deception!
On her wedding night, when she saw the foolish and real Second Young Master Gu, she was utterly devastated.
What she had never expected was Gu Zhiqing's sudden appearance, driving the fool away, and then forcefully taking her himself.
He even shamelessly said he wanted her to bear his child as the Second Young Madam Gu, since after all, the child would be of the Gu lineage...
How could he utter such a preposterous, filthy act?!
She had yearned for death, but he tied her hands and feet, imprisoned her, cursed her, beat her, humiliated her...
For three months, Xiangning could neither live nor die as she wished.
She finally saw a chance to jump from the rooftop, she didn't die from the fall, but she lost the two-month-old child in her womb.
Gu Zhiqing, acting like a madman, had her main maid Pan Cui beaten to death before her very eyes and allowed another maid, Pan Xia, to be raped.
No matter how much she pleaded, he would not stop, cruelly twisting her face forcing her to watch from beginning to end.
Even today, two years later, the mere memory of those days sends shivers down her spine.
Now, her father had been stripped of his office and imprisoned, her legitimate mother lay comatose, and the whereabouts of her third brother were unknown. The one hundred and two individuals from the Zuo Residence were all locked up.
For the sake of the Zuo Family, she had no choice but to return to Gu Zhiqing's side.
"Xiangning, long time no see, do you still remember me?"
Gu Zhiqing looked at the face that haunted him, forcibly pulling her in front of him, grinding his teeth: "You know what I'm capable of, and yet you dared to escape? Didn't your dear third brother always help you escape? I broke his legs first!"
"I'll make him suffer ten times, a hundred times more than anyone else! Let's see if he still has the guts to help you!"
"By the way, you might not know yet. Your Empress Sister and the little imperial grandson, aged three, died violently in the palace five days ago, yet His Majesty the Emperor still keeps their deaths a secret..."
Xiangning's head exploded with a "buzz."
Her eldest sister was her and the Zuo Family's last hope.
"You... You are lying! That's impossible!"
Her eyes reddened as she shook her head, yet seven parts of her heart believed it to be true.
Otherwise, how could Gu Zhiqing dare to imprison everyone in the Zuo Family?
"You know I never babble nonsense to you," he said.
Gu Zhiqing's fingers lightly traced the woman's creamy cheek, pinching it slightly, then, as the red mark appeared, he couldn't help but rub it, his heart aching.
"All of this is because of you! If you had just stayed obediently by my side, would the Zuo Family have faced such catastrophe?"
Xiangning wished she could tear the man before her apart, yet she put on a weak, faint smile: "I promise you, from now on, I'll stay obediently by your side and won't run away anymore!"
"You're not trying to trick me again, are you?" Gu Zhiqing lifted her delicate chin, gazing intently into her eyes.
"Not at all!" Xiangning looked at him pitifully: "I'm tired, I don't want to hide and seek anymore!"
"I've told you before, you can't escape!" Gu Zhiqing said arrogantly with a laugh: "You and I are destined to be at odds until death!"
"I want you to release all the people of the Zuo Family," Xiangning said softly. "And also return everything that was taken from the Zuo Residence. Can you do that?"
"I'll have someone take care of it tomorrow!" Gu Zhiqing was pleased with her attitude, hugging her waist tightly.
"No, I need you to do it now!" Xiangning placed her hands on his chest, her cute insistence resolute.
Her eyes, dark and bright like dazzling black gemstones, captivated the man, who couldn't look away.
Gu Zhiqing gave her a profound look, released his hand, and walked to the door. He called out to the outside, "Someone come! Send the people of the Zuo Family back to the Zuo Residence immediately, and return all their belongings exactly as they were!"
"Also, bring the best doctor in the capital to the Zuo Residence to provide thorough medical treatment for everyone from the Zuo Family!"
Xiangning secretly opened the hidden clasp on her bracelet and lightly tapped it twice against her wine cup.
Outside, someone answered, "Yes."
Gu Zhiqing added, "Move quickly, hurry and do as I've ordered!"
After people had run out of the courtyard, Gu Zhiqing finally turned around, closed the room's door, and looking at the woman standing before him as delicate as a porcelain doll, his voice softened, "I will definitely fulfill the promise I made to you, what about you?"
"I will never go back on my word either," Xiangning said with a beaming smile as she picked up the wine cup from the table. "I toast you, my lord, to thank you for sparing the Zuo Family."
Seeing her so docile, the man laughed and wrapped his hand around the woman's slender waist.
"Had you been this cooperative earlier, why would we have wasted so much time?"
"I, too, regret my past actions," Xiangning shyly wrapped her arm around his, and brought the wine cup to his lips.
"Don't worry, I assure you that in the Gu Residence you will be the most respected woman."
Gu Zhiqing, with a grin, drank the wine down in one go, using her hand, then snatched the cup from her hand and tossed it aside. He leaned in intending to kiss the woman's luscious lips.
But suddenly, darkness flashed before his eyes, and his body slumped weakly onto the table.
"You...!" He looked at the woman in front of him with horror, mouth agape, trying to say something, but no sound came out.
"Didn't you want to be at loggerheads with me until the very end?"
Xiangning watched as blood slowly seeped from the corners of the man's mouth, and with a cold laugh, she poured lamp oil and wine onto flammable materials.
Then, she took a candlestick from nearby and, under the man's gaze—filled with horror and despair—she threw it onto the bed curtains.
"Then I shall grant your wish!" Her voice, hollow and resentful, lingered for a long time.
A massive fire consumed everything...
-
Xiangning felt as if she had fallen into a furnace, her entire body painfully hot.
She wondered if her third brother's leg was really broken and whether it could still be healed?
If her legitimate mother knew that her most prideful eldest daughter and the little imperial grandson had perished, how heartbroken would she be?
The more she thought, the less reconciled she felt, and tears began streaming down her face uncontrollably.
As the tears rushed out like a fountain, they surrounded her. Her ears, nose, and mouth began to fill with water.
Just as she seemed about to drown, she suddenly opened her eyes, instinctively kicked hard, and surfaced from the water.
She looked around blankly and it took her a long time to recognize that this... this was the backyard of Prince Qi's Residence?
Hadn't she died together with Gu Zhiqing? How did she end up here?
Suddenly, from not far away, the sound of voices reached her, and she instinctively ducked behind a rock near the lake.
"You hurry up and tell my second sister that Xiangning has been in the water for quite some time now. Why hasn't anyone come? Don't let her actually drown!"
Xiangning furrowed her brow—it was the voice of her third sister, Xiangyu.
"This servant will go right now!"
Was that... Yu Tao? But hadn't she been beaten to death by Xiangyu long ago?
The footsteps had scarcely left when they hurried back, the voice urgent, "He's here! Second Young Master Gu has arrived!"
"Let's go, let's call everyone over!" Xiangyu said excitedly.
Prince Qi's Residence, falling into the water, Second Young Master Gu... the memories flooded her mind like a landslide.
This... could it be the scene from three years ago during the flower-viewing banquet at Prince Qi's Residence?
Xiangning's eyes sparkled; she could hardly believe that she had actually returned to three years ago!
All her misfortunes had started with that drowning incident during the flower-viewing banquet.
Since heaven had given her another opportunity, she would not let history repeat itself!