When Lin Tangyue lunged forward, face flushed with fury, Ruan Jiaojiao could see the raw disgust swirling in her eyes. It was exactly as she had expected: this dancer, forced upon them by the Emperor, never learned how to sheathe her blades.
As they collided, Ruan Jiaojiao instinctively curled her body to shield the back of her head. She had intended to frame Lin Tangyue, but she was not stupid enough to gamble with her own life.
Even so, the bone-chilling cold of the snow exploding beneath her was sharper than she had imagined. She heard the waves of gasps from the crowd below, but held her breath the moment she hit the ground. She forced herself to swallow the pain rising in her throat, just as she had once swallowed the blood from scraped knees on the orphanage steps, or the agony of Prince Li’s iron whip across her back.
Chapter 88