“Ronghua.”
A soft laugh came from behind, “If you obediently come over here, I’ll make them stop, so as not to harm the innocent.”
Empress Ronghua froze.
Turning around, she suddenly met Mu Qingshuang’s smiling figure. “It’s you?”
Mu Qingshuang smiled faintly, “It’s me.”
Empress Ronghua dodged the rain of arrows, her face turning cold in an instant. “In Xiao Hanjin’s heart, I’m already a dead woman. How incompetent are you to keep chasing a corpse?”
The smile on Mu Qingshuang’s face stiffened slightly.
She tugged her lips into a cold smirk, “I’m not chasing you just for him. Didn’t you hear it yourself? Your blood can save my life, freeing me forever from this wretched illness that plagues me.”
Empress Ronghua’s pupils shrank slightly. “You saw me that day?”
The smile on Mu Qingshuang’s lips grew thicker. “Yes.”
With that, she grabbed a bow and arrow, smeared it with her own blood, and aimed it at Empress Ronghua before firing.
At the same moment, all the arrows from every direction instantly locked onto Empress Ronghua!
Empress Ronghua successfully dodged Mu Qingshuang’s shot and was evading the others, but just then, the arrow from behind seemed to grow eyes, turning midair and shooting toward her again!
“Rongrong!”
Xiaojiu screamed.
With a “刺” sound, the arrow pierced flesh!
Strange black blood sprayed!
A sharp pain surged through her, and Empress Ronghua instinctively shielded her stomach. But compared to the wound on her back, the sudden rush of blood boiling in her chest burned ten times worse, as if tearing apart her organs…
Around her were countless bodies, blood splattering everywhere, cries and screams of people dodging filling the air, an earthly purgatory.
Mu Qingshuang curved her lips into a shallow smile. “I told you not to dodge. Look at you now. With such a poisoned arrow… your blood is useless to me.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she stepped forward with long strides, intending to approach her.
But suddenly, the wind roared and lightning surged around them, followed by a blinding flash of white light!
Mu Qingshuang jolted in shock.
“Nine-tailed fox… severed tail?”
Her murmured voice carried a trace of disbelief and astonishment.
…
Four years later, in Xiliang.
Su Miao’s child was about to be born, but because something had happened to Emperor Beiyu, the entire palace was devoid of any joy.
Xiao Hanjin watched a little girl fall to the ground in the distance. After a long moment, he slowly walked toward her.
The child’s features bore some resemblance to Emperor Beiyu, so it wasn’t unreasonable for Su Miao to insist this was her daughter.
But then he recalled the note he had received…
It said that Jiangjiang was his daughter.
He couldn’t remember how he felt at the time. The first thought that flashed through his mind wasn’t joy, but rather, if this truly was her daughter, then during that cliff fall, had Empress Ronghua not died?
[Empress Ronghua might not be dead.]
This realization was enough to shatter the dead, frozen stillness of his heart over the years.
He had come from Beixi to Xiliang for this child, to see where Empress Ronghua truly was.
If he could find her…
If he found her, he absolutely wouldn’t embrace her, wouldn’t say he missed her, wouldn’t reveal the slightest hint of emotion.
She had deceived him for so many years. Just when he thought she had finally accepted him again, when he thought the delicate, playful princess who used to bicker and tease him had finally returned, she had faked her death to trick him.
He ought to resent her, ought to scold her.
Most importantly… he should lock her up forever, keep her by his side…
Xiao Hanjin closed his eyes briefly, concealing the fleeting pain that flashed within them.
