In the main hall of the Zhenbei Estate, the atmosphere was oppressive enough to wring water from.
The dark black primary colors that once symbolized formidable martial achievements were now draped in an inescapable, withered gray.
A few wisps of desolate daylight filtered through the high windows, cutting diagonally across the cold, gleaming golden-brick floor without reflecting a shred of warmth.
The air retained the scent of precious incenses that strove—yet utterly failed—to mask the blend of stale wood and faint medicinal odors.
The vast hall was chillingly empty, save for the far end of the central axis where two sandalwood armchairs, symbolizing the master's seats, sat entirely deserted, radiating a silent irony.
In the corridor outside the hall, footsteps—deliberately softened yet unable to hide their urgency—drew closer from afar.
On the fat face of Zhao Gui, the estate's head steward, which was usually plastered with flattery, every single fold was twisted with excessive excitement.
He was almost trotting, his waist bowed extremely low while his head remained slightly raised, his small eyes gleaming with a sharp, brilliant light like hyenas sniffing out blood.
"Your Highness, Miss Su, this way please, this way please!"
Zhao Gui's voice pitched up a notch, shrilly jarring as it produced hollow echoes in the empty corridor. "Watch the steps, oh my, this place hasn't been properly tidied up in a good while, you two distinguished guests must mind your footing!"
He led the way walking sideways, his posture as humble as a tail-wagging, begging dog, while his gaze greedily glued itself to the pair walking ahead.
Xia Yuanchen, the Second Prince, strode in the lead. He wore a bright yellow brocade robe embroidered with four-clawed pythons that remained glaringly bright in the dim light.
His features were handsome, his mouth carrying its habitual, ambiguous trace of a smile. Gentle on the surface, the depths of his eyes were a frozen desolation and a condescending scrutiny.
His stride was unhurried, carrying the aloof reserve and detachment unique to imperial royalty; every step striking the gleaming floor tiles with a crisp, cold, echoing thud.
Half a step beside him, Su Qingxue wore a moon-white cloud-brocade court dress, her hem cascading like flowing clouds, jade pendants chiming with clear yet icy notes as she walked.
Her figure was slender, her appearance breathtakingly peerless, her skin whiter than snow, save for the unmelting frost gathered between her brows, her red lips tightly pressed, her chin slightly lifted—like a goddess carved from ice and snow, beautiful indeed, yet entirely lifeless, radiating only an aloof arrogance that rejected everyone thousands of miles away.
She looked straight ahead, as though what she stepped upon was not the floor of the Zhenbei Estate, but a foul, filthy swamp.
"Young Lord... ah no, that trash Qin Lie was just dragged out from the woodshed,"
Zhao Gui glanced sideways at Su Qingxue's frozen profile, lowering his voice further yet keeping every word clear and dripping with gloating malice, "Tsk tsk, that look of his is no different from a dead dog! Rest assured, you two, this won't ruin your big plans!"
Xia Yuanchen did not halt his stride, merely letting out a soft "Hmph" from his nose in response.
Su Qingxue did not even twitch an eyelash, as though what she heard were merely the chirping of roadside insects.
On the east side of the front hall, behind a heavy carved sandalwood screen, the light was dim.
Two pairs of eyes stared fixedly through the hollowed-out "magpies perched on plum blossoms" openings in the screen toward the hall entrance, flashing with undisguised excitement and malice.
Madam Liu, the wife of the Second Branch, was wrapped in an excessively gaudy rose-red brocade, the pearls and jade ornaments on her head trembling.
She gripped a crumpled silk handkerchief in her hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white due to the excessive force.
On her thickly powdered face, the muscles twitched slightly with excitement, her mouth spreading into an exaggerated arc as she silently mouthed: "They're here! They're here!"
Standing beside her was her son, Qin Xiao.
He wore brand-new sapphire archery sleeves, attempting to emulate the demeanor of a military general, yet looked awkward and out of place due to his frail build and shifting eyes.
He clung tightly to the screen, his body leaning forward in anticipation, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as his greedy gaze locked firmly onto Su Qingxue's cold and peerless figure, before swiftly sweeping over Xia Yuanchen's bright yellow robe. In the depths of his eyes, extreme jealousy intertwined with a twisted, ecstatic frenzy.
"Mother, look! That bitch Su Qingxue really came! And the Second Prince too! Haha, that bastard Qin Lie is dead for sure today!"
Qin Xiao's voice was kept extremely low, yet trembled with excitement, carrying a hiss like a spitting viper.
"Keep it down, my boy!"
Madam Liu hurriedly covered his mouth with her handkerchief, though she couldn't help letting out a low chuckle herself. "Just watch, the good show is about to start! That bastard has completely disgraced the estate, when the master comes back... Hmph!"
A vicious delight flashed in her eyes. "The position of Young Lord rightfully belongs to my Xiao!"
From the moon gate on the west side of the front hall leading to the inner courtyard came a fit of suppressed coughing and dragging footsteps, shattering the dead-still silence of the outer hall.
Two coarse-looking maidservants, with expressions of utter disgust, hoisted a figure barely capable of standing on its own, stumbling as they dragged him in.
It was Qin Lie.
He still wore that same stained, foul-smelling, ragged single-layered tunic, his hair matted like weeds, a few strands glued by cold sweat to his paper-white temples and cheeks.
His cheeks were deeply sunken, his cheekbones prominent, his lips dry and cracked, tinged with purple and stained with un wiped blood.
A pair of eyes forced themselves open beneath the messy locks; his gaze was murky and dim, as though covered in a layer of dead ash.
He looked as though he had just crawled out of a grave, so frail a single gust of wind could blow him over, relying entirely on the two maidservants desperately propping up his arms just to keep from collapsing onto the floor.
Every step he took was accompanied by heavy, labored breathing and suppressed groans of agony.
"Young Lord, you've finally been 'invited' over!"
Zhao Gui exaggeratedly raised his voice, his tone dripping with deliberate obsequiousness and undisguised contempt.
He trotted forward a few steps, a hypocritically fake smile plastered across his face, while his eyes swept over Qin Lie's wretched body like a knife.
"Miss Su and the Second Prince are both waiting for you! This state of yours... tsk tsk, you're really slighting our honored guests!"
He deliberately dragged out his tone, glancing at Su Qingxue and Xia Yuanchen as if displaying the spoils of a humiliating victory.
Receiving the hint, the two maidservants loosened their grip almost simultaneously and abruptly let go!
"Ugh!"
Qin Lie let out a muffled grunt. Losing support, his body pitched heavily forward like a bag of discarded trash!
His knees slammed viciously into the cold, hard golden-brick floor, producing a dull impact.
He lay sprawled wretchedly on the ground, his body trembling violently from severe pain and exhaustion. Struggling for a moment, he found himself momentarily unable to rise.
Beads of sweat instantly welled up on his forehead, mixing with the dust on the floor into a filthy grime.
This scene, like the most glaring brand, imprinted itself deeply into the silent front hall.
Behind the screen, Madam Liu was so excited she almost cried out, tightly covering her mouth as her shoulders heaved silently.
Qin Xiao's eyes shone with excitement, his fists clenched so tight his fingernails almost dug into his palms.
Zhao Gui stepped back two paces, standing with his hands at his sides as the trace of malicious glee on his face threatened to overflow.
Xia Yuanchen still stood with his hands behind his back, the slight, ambiguous smile at the corner of his lips deepening a fraction, as though enjoying a carefully choreographed farce, the coldness in his eyes completely unchanged.
Su Qingxue's icy gaze finally landed on the wretched, sprawling figure on the floor.
That look held no pity, no anger—only a bone-deep disgust and disdain, as though looking at filth.
Her red lips parted slightly, her voice as cold as shattering ice, ringing out clearly through the entire front hall:
"Qin Lie."
Two words, falling like a pair of daggers dipped in freezing ice.
"Today, I, Su Qingxue, acting on my father's orders, have come to annul our engagement."
She didn't even offer a single word of superfluous politeness, nor the slightest hesitation.
The icy words fell like a verdict, carrying an unquestionable finality.
Behind her, a pretty maid holding a sandalwood tray immediately stepped forward.
On the tray, a neatly folded document wrapped in fine cloud-patterned brocade lay quietly.
The deep purple of the brocade looked like congealed blood, glaring and heavy. That was the annulment document.
The maid swiftly raised the tray above her head in a respectful posture, yet her gaze carried an identical contempt as she waited for Qin Lie...
Or rather, waited for an even more pathetic reaction from him.
The air seemed to freeze into solid ice.
Everyone's gaze focused on Qin Lie, who lay on the ground like a dying wild dog.
Behind the screen, Madam Liu and Qin Xiao held their breath, their eyes flashing with bloodthirsty anticipation.
Zhao Gui's waist bowed even lower, his mouth stretching into a grin that reached his ears.
Xia Yuanchen's gaze swept indifferently over Su Qingxue's cold, peerless profile before returning to Qin Lie on the ground, like someone watching a play whose ending was predetermined.
Time stretched infinitely amid the extreme humiliation.
Right in this suffocating, dead silence, the sprawling, trembling figure suddenly... shifted.
The slightest movement.
First, the fingers pressed flat against the cold ground slowly, one by one, curled inward, their nails scraping against the gleaming golden-brick floor with a faint, grating "scratch" sound.
Then came the shoulders.
Those shoulders, thin enough to be mere bone, began to heave slightly in an excruciating manner, as if bearing a crushing weight of ten thousand jun.
Every heave was accompanied by a heavy, suppressed breathing that sounded like the wheezing of a dilapidated bellows.
His head, heavy as if filled with lead, inched upward from the cold ground... little by little.
Matted, blood-stained locks stuck to his forehead and cheeks, sliding away slightly with the movement to reveal his eyes.
What kind of eyes were those?
Deep within the pupils, the murkiness and dead ash from earlier were gone, replaced by a pool of ice frozen for ten thousand years!
Cold and dead, yet burning in their deepest abyss with a dim, frantic flame born from the depths of hell!
That flame was suppressed mercilessly by the layer of ice, yet it exuded a violent, desperate madness that threatened to burn the entire world to ashes!
Sweat mixed with dust, tracing filthy trails across his pale face.
At the corner of his mouth, a fresh, more vibrant trace of blood uncontrollably spilled over, sliding down his cracked lower lip to drip onto the cold floor tiles, blooming into a small, glaring dark-red plum blossom.
The motion of raising his head was agonizingly slow, as though every bone in his body groaned under an unbearable load.
His gaze labored upward inch by inch, sweeping past Zhao Gui's fat face full of malicious glee, passing the deep-purple, blood-like annulment document in the maid's hands, and finally...
Locking onto Su Qingxue's frozen, peerless face brimming with disdain.
Their eyes met!
For the first time, in Su Qingxue's eyes, which resembled ten-thousand-year-old ice...
A trace of the faintest fluctuation flashed past.
It was not pity, but an instinctive aversion and annoyance at being stared straight in the eye by something base.
As if a splash of filthy mud from the ground had soiled her unblemished hem.
Xia Yuanchen's brow furrowed imperceptibly.
The frozen madness in Qin Lie's eyes gave him a sliver of... extremely uncomfortable surprise.
Qin Lie's mouth parted.
His cracked lips stretched, revealing blood-stained teeth as a twisted smile, mingling pain with extreme mockery, bloomed with difficulty across his face.
From his throat came a hoarse, grating, rattling sound like a broken gong:
"Annu... llment?"
He breathed, his voice too weak to withstand even the wind, yet carrying a strange, piercing quality that shattered the dead silence of the hall.
"Su... Miss Su..."
Every word he spoke seemed to drain him of his entire strength, making his breathing even heavier as his chest heaved violently. "Really... thoughtful of you... cough, cough..."
A violent fit of coughing interrupted him. He doubled over sharply, his body convulsing in agony as though he might cough up his internal organs.
Fresh blood continuously gushed from the corners of his mouth, dripping onto the floor in a startling display.
A flash of delight crossed Zhao Gui's eyes as he hypocritically stepped forward half a step, his voice sharp: "Oh my, Young Lord! Just look at your constitution! In such a state, why push yourself? Miss Su and the Second Prince are busy people, hurry up and take the document so we can—uh!"
His words cut off abruptly.
Because Qin Lie had suddenly snapped his head up!
Those eyes, freezing over with a frantic flame, nailed themselves onto Zhao Gui's face like poisoned arrows!
That gaze was too terrifying, carrying the vicious, murderous aura of someone crawling out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. It instantly plunged the worldly, ruthless head steward into an icy abyss, making his scalp tingle so fiercely that the rest of his words choked in his throat, causing him to involuntarily step back half a pace.
Qin Lie no longer looked at Zhao Gui.
He struggled, using his mud- and blood-stained hands to brace himself firmly against the cold floor.
The veins on his arms bulged like twisting earthworms from the sheer force.
Inch by inch, with agonizing slowness and unimaginable difficulty... he tried to hoist his broken body up!
With every ounce of effort, his body shook violently, his bones seeming to groan in protest.
Sweat poured like streams from his forehead, temples, and neck, instantly drenching his ragged tunic and outlining his skeletal, slightly hunched silhouette.
His movements were clumsy, painful, and precarious, as though he might completely fall apart at any second.
Yet he did not fall!
He gritted his teeth, his jaw clicking, the blood at his corner washed away by relentless sweat as new blood welled up in its place. A low roar like a dying beast was suppressed deep in his throat.
Those eyes remained locked ahead, bone-chillingly cold, burning with unyielding madness.
Finally! Under the gazes of everyone filled with astonishment, disdain, or amusement, he swayed unsteadily... and stood up!
Though his body was heavily hunched and his legs shook like a winnowing sieve, as though he might collapse again at any moment.
He had stood up after all! He was no longer a puddle of mud crawling on the ground!
He gasped for breath, every inhalation thick with heavy blood and tearing pain.
He raised a hand trembling like an autumn leaf in the wind, using his filthy, tattered sleeve to wipe away the blood continually spilling from his mouth with agonizing slowness and force.
The movement was clumsy, yet carried a near-tragic stubbornness.
Having finished all this, he lifted his face once more—pale as a ghost, stained with sweat, mud, and blood, yet abnormally calm.
His gaze once again met Su Qingxue's frozen eyes.
His hoarse voice, carrying a strange stillness, rang out clearly:
"If Miss Su wishes to annul the engagement... naturally, she may."
At these words, Madam Liu and Qin Xiao behind the screen almost burst out laughing!
Zhao Gui also breathed a sigh of relief, his face recovering its obsequious expression. The arc of Xia Yuanchen's lips deepened, as though everything were firmly within his grasp.
The faint fluctuation in Su Qingxue's eyes vanished completely, leaving behind only a deeper frost of coldness and disdain.
Trash was trash after all.
However, Qin Lie's next sentence abruptly altered the atmosphere of the front hall!
He tilted his head slightly, and beneath his messy hair, those frozen eyes seemed to flash with a faint, almost naive confusion as his voice remained hoarse and weak:
"Only... Qin Lie is foolish, and truly cannot understand."
He paused to catch his breath, his gaze shifting slowly from Su Qingxue's peerless yet icy face toward the side, resting upon the supremely noble Second Prince Xia Yuanchen, clad in his bright yellow dragon robe.
His tone carried a near-ignorant incomprehension:
"When Miss Su comes to annul the engagement, why... must she trouble Your Highness the Second Prince... to personally accompany her?"
His voice was not loud, even halting due to his weakness.
Yet these words acted like a stone dropped into a stagnant pool, instantly stirring silent ripples!
The smile on Xia Yuanchen's lips—the smile of someone in total control—stiffened abruptly!
For the first time, a clear crack appeared in the eternal layer of icy indifference deep within his eyes!
A trace of offended malice flashed past like an undercurrent beneath the water!
On Su Qingxue's frozen, peerless face, that eternal disdain likewise fractured for the first time!
A hint of astonishment, mortification, and the embarrassment of having some secret intention exposed shattered that perfect icy mask like a stone hurled into a frozen lake!
The fingers clutching her handkerchief tightened involuntarily, her knuckles turning slightly pale.
The air in the front hall instantly grew thick and strange.
The obsequious smile on Zhao Gui's face froze solid like a clumsy mask, his small eyes rounded in utter, disbelieving panic!
This piece of trash... how dare he?! How dare he ask such a thing?!
Behind the screen, the rapturous joy on the faces of Madam Liu and Qin Xiao likewise congealed instantly.
Madam Liu's brightly painted mouth hung open, and Qin Xiao's fingers gripping the screen turned white from the force. Both looked as though they had been throttled by the throat, their excited expressions freezing into sheer bewilderment and a lingering trace of unease.
Qin Lie acted completely oblivious to this abruptly frozen shift in atmosphere.
He remained hunched, breathing heavily, his complexion paper-white, fresh blood still spilling from the corner of his mouth, while his eyes stared at Xia Yuanchen with an expression of profound "innocence," as if simply seeking a pure, perplexed answer.
That "ignorant" gaze, falling into Xia Yuanchen's eyes, was more piercing than the most venomous mockery!
The stiffness on Xia Yuanchen's face lasted less than a breath before he swiftly recovered his gentle, unhurried imperial demeanor.
He even twitched the corner of his mouth slightly, as though he had just heard an utterly harmless joke.
Only, the icy chill within his deep eyes grew a shade heavier, and the look he cast at Qin Lie now carried an imperceptible scrutiny and... murderous intent.
Without answering directly, he spoke in a calm yet formidably oppressive tone:
"Prince Qin jokes. The Crown and Miss Su were traveling the same way, and hearing that she had business at the estate, I merely came along to provide an escort. After all, the Imperial Capital of late has hardly been entirely peaceful."
He dropped the words "traveling the same way" very lightly, yet they carried the weight of a thousand jun, as if reminding each other of the vast gulf between their statuses.
Yet, this seemingly flawless explanation, following Qin Lie's "ignorant" question and mirrored by Su Qingxue's instantaneous loss of composure, instead exuded the unmistakable odor of protesting too much!
Su Qingxue's expression turned even uglier.
Xia Yuanchen's "casual escort" placed her in an even more humiliating position—as though she were helpless without a prince's protection, needing a prince to personally "escort" her just to bolster her courage for something as private as an engagement annulment?
This was practically grinding her pride into the dust!
Her chest rose and fell slightly as she forcefully suppressed the surging fury within. The look she cast at Qin Lie was no longer just disdain, but added a dense, burning revulsion!
This piece of trash, even at death's door, was still using such base tactics to disgust her!
She flung her sleeve abruptly, as if sweeping away the nauseating atmosphere.
Her icy voice, laden with suppressed rage like an ice pick, stabbed toward Qin Lie:
"Qin Lie! Cease your wild babbling here and making a laughingstock of yourself!
Today's matter has nothing to do with you, nor does it concern His Highness! The annulment is my decision, Su Qingxue's! It is a clean break between my Su family and you, Qin Lie!"
Her voice suddenly rose, carrying a sharp edge of being cornered:
"A cripple with severed meridians, a shattered dantian, poisoned, and living on borrowed time! What qualifications do you have to question me? What qualifications do you have to question the Second Prince?
This engagement was nothing more than an idle drunken joke of our fathers' generation back then! Now, how could I, Su Qingxue, ever marry someone like you... a piece of trash who can't even stand steady?!"
She bit down hard on the word "trash," driving it home like a poisoned silver needle!
She wanted to return the momentary mortification and all the humiliation Qin Lie had brought her tenfold, a hundredfold!
She stepped forward aggressively, her weak martial aura as a 3rd Layer Martial Artist turning sharp with anger, acting like an invisible needle pricking against Qin Lie's tottering body!
She wanted to watch him collapse again! To crawl at her feet like a puddle of mud!
"Take your annulment document! From this day forward, I, Su Qingxue, share not half a tie with you, Qin Lie! You..."
She pointed at Qin Lie, her fingertips trembling slightly with rage, "are only fit to rot away in the woodshed of the Zhenbei Estate and slowly wait for death!"
The moment her voice fell, the pretty maid behind her immediately stepped forward, thrusting the sandalwood tray she held high straight toward Qin Lie!
The movement carried obvious contempt and urging. On the tray, the annulment document wrapped in deep-purple brocade radiated a burning, humiliating heat like a red-hot iron brand.
Everyone's gaze once again converged upon Qin Lie.
Behind the screen, Madam Liu and Qin Xiao revealed their twisted, ecstatic smiles once more.
Zhao Gui also let out a breath, his eyes returning to their venomous state as he waited to see how Qin Lie would humiliatingly accept this final verdict.
Xia Yuanchen resumed his posture with his hands behind his back, watching with indifferent eyes as though observing a farce nearing its curtain call.
Only deep in his eyes, the final trace of scrutiny toward Qin Lie had not entirely vanished.
Qin Lie's hunched frame swayed violently under the force of Su Qingxue's martial pressure, resembling a dying candle in a gale.
His complexion turned even paler, sweat mixing with blood to drip ceaselessly past his chin.
He breathed heavily, every intake of air carrying the screech of a broken bellows, as though he might completely give up the ghost the next moment.
Trembling with agonizing slowness, he raised his mud- and blood-stained, skeletal hand, stretching it toward the tray thrust before him.
The movement was sluggish, powerless, carrying a despairing resignation.
A flicker of cold gratification crossed Su Qingxue's eyes. Finally... it was over!
This filthy engagement, this clinging parasite of trash!
At the very instant Qin Lie's trembling hand brushed against the deep-purple brocade—
A sudden transformation occurred!
Qin Lie snapped his head up!
In those frozen eyes, the final trace of feigned murkiness vanished completely, leaving only a chilling abyss and... a sharp glint of frantic plotting come to fruition!
The hand stretching toward the tray did not reach for the annulment document; instead, it whipped upward in a sudden heave!
The motion looked weak and powerless, yet at the instant it rose, his arm shook violently, covertly, and with an extremely minute amplitude!
"Cough, cough, cough... ugh!"
Accompanied by a heart-rending fit of violent coughing as if he meant to hack out his very lungs, a massive mouthful of dark-red, intensely fishy, foul-smelling coagulated blood spewed from his mouth in a frantic fountain!
This mouthful of blood was projected with uncanny precision! It didn't shoot straight out, but rather utilized the momentum of his coughing, upward-flailing arm to form a fan-shaped mist of blood!
Its target was none other than the sandalwood tray inches away!
And... the annulment document resting on it, symbolizing Su Qingxue's resolute arrogance!
And... the maid's fair, delicate hand holding the tray!
"Ah—!"
The maid had no time whatsoever to react!
She only felt a flash of red before her eyes, and a stench so violently nauseating rushed straight at her face!
Immediately following, the cold, viscous, foul-smelling filthy blood splattered head-on across her entire face and hair!
A few drops even splashed directly into her mouth, which hung open in terror!
"Ugh!"
The maid let out a shriek of distorted, horrified agony. Her stomach churned violently, and a wave of intense nausea caused her to double over and retch instantly!
She could no longer maintain her grip on the sandalwood tray, which slipped from her fingers and flew outward!
"Clang!"
The tray, along with the deep purple brocade-wrapped letter of annulment resting upon it, traced a pathetic arc through the air and crashed heavily onto the cold, polished golden-brick floor!
The tray shattered with a harsh, piercing sound!
The document, symbolizing the Su family's resolute decision, rolled out. A corner of the deep purple brocade unfolded to reveal a snow-white sheet of paper bearing the Su family's crest. Yet now, it was savagely defiled by a few drops of dark red, filthy blood, like a mark of utter disgrace!
The front hall fell into a deathly silence!
Time seemed to freeze entirely in that moment!
Everyone was stunned dumb by this sudden, bloody, and foul spectacle!
Su Qingxue stood the closest; a few drops of icy, tainted blood even splashed onto the hem of her moon-white cloud-brocade palace gown, blooming into several ugly, dark red spots!
The color drained from her peerless face in an instant, immediately replaced by incredulous shock and towering fury!
Her mask of icy arrogance shattered completely, leaving only the ultimate shame, humiliation, and disgust of being grossly violated and desecrated by something filthy!
She instinctively took a step back, as if trying to distance herself from that pool of filth, and looked at Qin Lie as though gazing at a pus-dripping ghost crawling straight out of hell!
The composure vanished entirely from Xia Yuanchen's face!
His brow furrowed deeply as he looked at the glaring pool of filthy blood and the defiled document on the ground, then shifted his gaze to Qin Lie, who was coughing violently, his body swaying and on the verge of collapse, yet wearing a faint, eerie curve at the corner of his mouth. His eyes turned pitch black and ominous!
He felt a naked, frenzied provocation!
Zhao Gui's mouth opened wide enough to fit an egg, his eyeballs nearly popping out of his sockets, his mind completely blank!
Behind the screen, the wild euphoria on the faces of Madam Liu and Qin Xiao froze completely, turning into extreme bewilderment and shock!
What... what on earth is this good-for-nothing doing?!
"Cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..."
Qin Lie coughed as if tearing his lungs out, his body hunched like a boiled shrimp, appearing ready to draw his last breath at any second.
With great difficulty, he raised his hand and clumsily wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his ragged sleeve, his voice intermittent and as weak as a gnat's, yet drilling clearly into everyone's ears:
"Ap... apologies... Miss... Miss Su... cough, cough... truly... truly couldn't hold it in... this body of mine... cough, cough... is utterly useless..."
He gasped for breath, his gaze sweeping "accidentally" across the blood-stained letter of annulment on the ground, before "laboriously" turning to look at Su Qingxue, who was trembling all over with a livid face. His tone was fraught with "sincere" apology, even tinged with a hint of "trepidation":
"I've... I've soiled your... document... truly... a sin..."
"Or perhaps..."
His panting grew heavier, as if he had expended his very last ounce of strength to squeeze out the remaining words, "You... would you care to... pick it up yourself?"
"Or... might I trouble... the noble Second Prince... to do the honors?"
Boom!
These two sentences struck like a pair of thunderbolts, fiercely splitting the dead silence of the front hall!
Su Qingxue felt a surge of rebellious blood rush straight to her head!
Dark spots danced before her eyes! Let her bend down to pick up something defiled by the filthy blood of a good-for-nothing?!
Or ask the exalted Second Prince to pick it up?!
This was no longer mere humiliation! This was taking the dignity of her and Xia Yuanchen, trampling it thoroughly into the mud, and grinding it mercilessly into the filth!
"Qin Lie! You're courting death!"
Su Qingxue completely lost control! Her frozen reason was incinerated by towering fury!
She let out a sharp shriek, and the aura of a 3rd Layer Martial Artist erupted without reservation!
A faint wave of air carrying an icy chill instantly expanded!
She stepped forward, her pristine palm carrying a fierce wind, moving as fast as lightning as she savagely whipped it toward Qin Lie's pale, blood-stained face that wore an eerie smile!
She would shatter this face! She would crush the heart-stopping madness in his eyes!
The palm wind howled, carrying all of Su Qingxue's shame, humiliation, and killing intent!
If this strike landed solidly, given Qin Lie's current exhausted state, he would either be dead or permanently crippled!
Behind the screen, raw delight burst in the eyes of Madam Liu and Qin Xiao! Strike him dead! Beat this bastardly good-for-nothing to death!
Zhao Gui shivered in fright and instinctively closed his eyes.
Xia Yuanchen's gaze was icy as he stood with his hands behind his back, showing no intention of intervening.
A good-for-nothing Heir who publicly humiliated a prince... dying might be for the best.
The palm wind reached his face! The fierce momentum had already ruffled the messy strands of hair across Qin Lie's forehead!
At this critical juncture!
The wild light in Qin Lie's frozen eyes surged violently!
He acted as though he had anticipated this all along! With an incredible, minuscule shift, his body violently swerved to the side!
His movement was as fast as a phantom, yet appeared utterly wretched, as if he had simply been knocked off balance by the palm wind!
"Thump!"
Su Qingxue's furious strike, imbued with her third-layer cultivation, did not miss entirely!
The edge of her palm, carrying a fierce gale, scraped fiercely past Qin Lie's cheek!
It tore away a few strands of hair and left a distinct bloody gash across his already pale cheek!
A burning sensation flared up!
Yet!
It was merely a graze!
Leveraging the force of the passing palm and his own wretched backward momentum, Qin Lie's body crashed heavily and solidly backward onto the ground like a broken sack of grain!
The back of his head struck the cold, hard golden-brick floor with a dull thud!
He fell in a thoroughly wretched state, limbs splayed, sending dust flying.
The instant he hit the ground, his right hand—which had just been raised and used to spew filthy blood—made a lightning-fast, highly concealed grab at the ground beside him, utilizing the cover of his fall!
The motion was fast as a spark, completely hidden by the cover of his body.
As his fingertips brushed past an unremarkable patch of shadow on the floor, a fingernail-sized, greyish, utterly ordinary stone-like object instantly vanished into his tightly clenched palm!
"Ugh, ah..."
Qin Lie let out a groan of ultimate agony, his body curling into a fetal position and convulsing violently. Fresh blood continually spilled from the corners of his mouth, his cheek, and the back of his head, instantly staining a small patch of the golden bricks beneath him red.
His eyes were tightly shut, his complexion ashen, and his breath as faint as a dying candle in the wind, as if he might extinguish entirely at any moment.
The front hall plunged into a dead silence once more.
This silence was heavier and more oppressive than before, thick with the stench of blood and an inescapable... eeriness.
Su Qingxue maintained her striking posture, frozen in place.
The edge of her palm still retained a trace of warm blood belonging to Qin Lie.
She stared at the convulsing, curled-up "good-for-nothing" on the floor who appeared to have only a breath left, and then down at her own slightly trembling hand. An indescribable sense of the absurd and an icy chill swept over her entire body!
She... she had actually almost beaten the Heir of the Prince of Northern Suppression to death in public?
Even if he was just a good-for-nothing, nominally... what had she just done?!
Xia Yuanchen's expression darkened completely, turning as gloomy as dripping water!
He looked at Qin Lie, whose life or death was uncertain on the floor, and then at the soul-drained Su Qingxue. For the first time, genuine displeasure and trouble appeared in his eyes.
Things... seemed to be spiraling out of control.
Zhao Gui had already collapsed to the floor in a heap, trembling like a sieve from head to toe.
Behind the screen, the wild delight on the faces of Madam Liu and Qin Xiao also solidified, turning into sheer panic.
Beating the Heir to death was entirely different from merely watching him get humiliated by an annulment—especially right in front of the Second Prince!
"Enough!"
Xia Yuanchen's icy voice, like grinding cold iron, shattered the dead silence, carrying an unquestionable majesty. "Qingxue, you lost your composure!"
Su Qingxue shuddered violently and snapped back to her senses. Meeting Xia Yuanchen's icy gaze, and then glancing back at the on-the-verge-of-death Qin Lie on the floor, a wave of profound humiliation and lingering fear rushed over her. Her face turned deathly pale, her lips quivered, but she could not utter a single word.
Xia Yuanchen no longer looked at her. His frigid gaze swept over the blood-stained letter of annulment on the floor, then over the curled-up Qin Lie whose life hung by a thread, and finally landed on the trembling, boneless mass of Zhao Gui.
"Zhao Gui!"
Xia Yuanchen's voice was devoid of any emotion. "The Prince's Heir has 'suffered a relapse of his old injuries.' Why haven't you carried him away to 'tend to him properly'? If there is even the slightest mishap..."
He paused, his icy gaze hardening into physical blades. "I will hold you solely responsible!"
"Yes! Yes! This slave obeys! This slave is on it right now! Right now!"
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Zhao Gui scrambled to his feet, crying out with a sob as he shrieked toward the outside:
"Someone come! Men, quickly! Carry the Young Lord... back to the woodshed! Quickly! Fetch a physician! No, find a servant woman in the estate who knows medicinal herbs! Hurry!"
A few rough-hewn servant women ran in, flustered and trembling as they scrambled to lift the convulsing, weak-breathing Qin Lie off the floor.