On the evening of September 12th, at Chengyang Courtyard in Xuan Manor within the Capital, Chu Hengyuan sat alone in his study, gazing at a portrait of Aran. Beside it lay the white jade jasmine hairpin he had repaired for her; the place where it had snapped was now intricately mended with gold thread.
"Ranran, it has been seventeen days since you disappeared. Where on earth are you?" Chu Hengyuan’s fingers gently caressed the figure in the painting—the one Aran had painted on the day she stabbed him. "No matter how much you loathe or hate me, please, just send word. I need to know you are safe to have any peace of mind."
But the figure in the portrait could never offer Chu Hengyuan a response. The men from Xinyuan Hall, unable to withstand the torture, had already confessed. The person who had hired the assassins was Murong Qingyan of the Murong Estate, who had offered ten thousand taels of silver for Aran's life. Chu Hengyuan had never imagined that in this lifetime, this woman would be even more vicious than in the last.
Chapter 137