Broken Jade - Chapter 109

Chapter 109

A deafening crash erupted, carrying a vicious, suffocating pressure.

Sheng Zhaoning had yet to recover from that moment of intoxicating confusion. She instinctively looked toward the source of the noise, only to meet a gaze so furious it had turned terrifyingly dark.

Wei Heng’s heartbeat had yet to settle, and the burning heat on his face refused to fade.

Following Sheng Zhaoning’s gaze, he saw that the doors of Mingluan Palace had been kicked violently open. They stood wide beneath the snowy night, and the flakes of gold lacquer scattered across the floor testified to the sheer force of the blow.

The instant Sheng Zhaoning saw who it was, she felt as if she had been plunged into an icy abyss.

“The Crown Prince and Lord Sheng certainly share a touching bond between ruler and subject.”

Wei Yi stood beneath the doorway, half his body concealed in shadow. A cold, bloodthirsty menace blazed in his darkened eyes.

He advanced through the snow one step at a time, every stride laden with unmistakable killing intent.

Sheng Zhaoning knew that this time, he truly intended to kill.

Wei Heng was about to rise when Sheng Zhaoning pushed him back down without a second thought. Shielding him completely behind her, she cried out in alarm and panic, “Your Highness the Heir!”

She shouted loudly, trying to call him back to his senses.

But Wei Yi could no longer hear her.

At that moment, the only thing in his sight and his mind was the image of Sheng Zhaoning kissing Wei Heng.

She had done it willingly, overcome with emotion and unable to restrain herself as she pressed her lips to his face.

Wei Yi went completely mad.

His eyes bloodshot, he closed in step by step, consumed by dark, obsessive madness.

Wei Heng was completely blocked from view and could see nothing. He could only hear the approaching footsteps drawing steadily closer.

“Your Highness!” she shouted again, her voice sharp.

Wei Yi’s hand was already resting on the concealed weapon he carried.

The moment Sheng Zhaoning saw his movement, she lunged forward without time to think and intercepted him. Pressing down on his arm, she stopped him from drawing the weapon.

Before Wei Heng could even get to his feet, Sheng Zhaoning used all her strength to drag Wei Yi away.

Snow swirled chaotically around them, and the long palace road swallowed her figure in endless shadow.

Sheng Zhaoning did not dare slow down. She was afraid Wei Yi would truly bury that poison-coated weapon in Wei Heng’s body.

Keeping to the secluded paths beneath the palace walls, she dragged Wei Yi all the way out of the imperial palace.

A line of carriages waited outside the palace gates. Sheng Zhaoning maintained her grip on him, not daring to let him leave her sight as she pulled him into one of the carriages.

Hooves clattered wildly. The carriage jolted away, gradually leaving the palace gates behind.

Before Sheng Zhaoning could even catch her breath, a brutal force slammed her against the carriage wall. A large hand rubbed viciously across her lips again and again, scraping them until they were swollen and stinging.

With almost obsessive force, he tried to wipe away every trace another man had left on her lips.

Frowning, Sheng Zhaoning repeatedly turned her face away from his merciless touch, but the skin at the corner of her mouth had already split, beading with blood.

“Wei Yi, mm-”

The rest of her words were swallowed whole.

She raised a hand to strike him, but he overpowered her, pinning both her wrists above her head. The crushing force of his lips seemed intent on devouring her.

Sheng Zhaoning felt as if he were stealing every last breath from her. She was almost suffocating.

But Wei Yi did not let her go.

He no longer made any attempt to suppress the violence inside him. His sharp teeth tore at her lips, filling the space between their mouths and mingled breaths with the taste of blood.

Sheng Zhaoning was nearly driven mad by him.

For the first time, she used her inner force against him. The fierce burst of power knocked Wei Yi away without mercy.

His abyss-black eyes were vicious and chilling. Only then did the pain from the impact register in his wrists.

He glanced down at his hands, then raised his icy gaze to her panicked eyes. A cruel, sinister laugh escaped him.

“You must have a death wish.”

Sheng Zhaoning saw the killing intent in his eyes. This time, it was not directed at Wei Heng.

It was directed at her.

Wei Yi hated betrayal above all else.

He would never tolerate divided loyalties from anyone under his command.

Yet she had defied him time and again. She had even… struck him.

He would not let her live.

That was Sheng Zhaoning’s judgment of her fate, based on everything she knew about him.

“Wei Yi, kill me.”

Sheng Zhaoning gave up all resistance and used the last of her strength to speak those words.

Her life had been given to her by the Wei Clan. If he wanted it back, she would return it.

Wei Yi stared at her expression, so calm it bordered on acceptance. The darkness inside him stretched boundlessly before surging into a bottomless vortex, threatening to swallow every last shred of his reason.

“You would rather die than let me kill him. Is that it?”

His falcon-sharp gaze locked on her face, refusing to miss even the slightest flicker of emotion.

Sheng Zhaoning’s lashes trembled, and even her breathing betrayed her panic and unease.

“This is my fault.”

She had failed to guard her own heart, allowing it to sink into that gentle, tranquil pool-falling deeper and deeper until there was no escape.

Sheng Zhaoning had been wrong.

She had been wrong to forget her place and fall in love with Wei Yi from the very beginning.

Wrong to leave Liangzhou.

Wrong to… give her heart to Wei Heng.

She had brought all of this upon herself. One wrong step had led to another, until she had reached this point with no room left for regret.

Would her death be enough to extinguish Wei Yi’s fury and stop him from going after Wei Heng?

If it would keep Wei Heng alive…

Then she was willing.

Sheng Zhaoning pulled the dagger from beneath the carriage cushion and, without the slightest hesitation, plunged it toward her neck.

The cold, razor-sharp blade had barely broken the skin of her throat, warm blood trickling down her neck, when a hand suddenly seized her wrist and wrenched it viciously aside-

The dagger fell with a clang.

“You dare die? For him, you dare to kill yourself!”

Wei Yi’s grip on Sheng Zhaoning’s wrist was so tight it seemed he meant to crush her bones.

Eyes bloodshot, he glared at her and demanded, “Sheng Zhaoning, what is Wei Heng to you?”

The first time he had asked about her relationship with Wei Heng, he had still been confident that Sheng Zhaoning could never fall in love with anyone else.

This time, he was truly panicked and furious as he forced her to tell him the truth.

Beneath the swirling snow, that tender gaze, that intoxicating kiss-how could Wei Heng possibly be just the “friend” she had so brazenly claimed he was?

She had never even looked at him that way!

Wei Yi could not stand Sheng Zhaoning lying to him, yet he was even less capable of accepting the truth he had already guessed.

Some secret part of him was even pleading with her not to give him that answer.

But Sheng Zhaoning merely closed her eyes, her face turning deathly pale.

“I like him.”

The words were barely more than a soft whisper, but to Wei Yi, they struck like a deafening thunderclap.

His eyes blazed scarlet. His hands clenched until his knuckles turned white, and his rage surged into his gaze like floodwaters bursting through a dam, threatening to destroy him completely.

“Like?” he ground out, as if trying to crush the word between his teeth.

Wei Yi laughed in fury.

He seized her chin and forced her head up.

“Sheng Zhaoning, don’t you think your affection comes far too cheaply?”

She had once loved him with such unwavering devotion, and now she dared tell him that she liked someone else?!

How dare she? How dare she!

Wei Yi had never hated anyone as much as he hated her at that moment.

He wanted nothing more than to cut Sheng Zhaoning to pieces, tear her apart, and devour her whole.

All he had to do was kill her.

If he killed her, everything that made him lose control, everything that drove him to act unlike himself, would disappear.

No one was allowed to unbalance him.

No one!