Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Spring in Liangzhou was not particularly warm.

By Luochuan Lake, carved eaves reflected the moon, and distant mountains stretched on in rolling silhouettes.

Several pavilions, towers, and waterside halls stood connected along the shore, lit by brilliant lanterns. Cold moonlight spilled over the lake, casting shimmering silver ripples that swayed and spread with the water, steeping the entire lake in a misty glow.

Music drifted endlessly from the pleasure boats. From the bank, only a few graceful figures could be glimpsed in the flickering light, dancing to the melody, slender and elegant.

Sheng Zhaoning lay inside a dim cabin.

The sound of churning water filled her ears, faintly threaded with music.

With a splash, a basin of cold water jolted her awake.

Sheng Zhaoning opened her eyes. Droplets clung to her lashes, and a dull, persistent ache throbbed at the back of her neck. The confusion in her eyes lasted only an instant before clarity returned.

Chi Wan stared at her with a cold, sinister gaze. The distant lantern light fell across her face in shifting patches of brightness and shadow, giving her an inexplicably eerie, almost hideous look.

“Sheng. Zhaoning.”

She gritted her teeth and forced out the name one word at a time.

Sheng Zhaoning raised her head and looked at her calmly, not the slightest ripple in her eyes.

Chi Wan seized her chin and examined her face closely.

Without the mask to conceal it, that stunning, sharp, dazzling face was laid bare before her.

It had been many years since Chi Wan had seen Sheng Zhaoning’s true appearance.

She could no longer remember exactly how many years ago it had been, only that the very first time she saw Sheng Zhaoning, she had felt an overwhelming sense of danger from this woman.

She was beautiful. Even then, when Sheng Zhaoning had still been young, her peerless beauty had already been apparent. Especially when Chi Wan discovered that Wei Yi’s gaze always seemed to fall on her of its own accord, a violent panic swept over her, nearly suffocating her.

Chi Wan was afraid.

She was afraid Wei Yi’s eyes would forever follow someone else. She was afraid that if he kept watching her for long enough, day after day and year after year, Wei Yi would fall in love with her without even realizing it.

No one could reject a face like that.

And so, the noble young lady who had grown up in Capital City committed the first evil deed of her life.

She told Sheng Zhaoning, “Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion is selecting Shadow Guards.”

“Become a Shadow Guard, and you’ll be able to stay by Wei Yi’s side forever.”

Sheng Zhaoning really went.

Very few people ever came out of that place alive.

Because it was the first time Chi Wan had harmed someone with the intent of sending them to their death, she was so frightened she did not dare close her eyes for several nights.

Yet not long after, to her horror, she discovered that Sheng Zhaoning had actually returned alive.

She changed her identity and stayed by Wei Yi’s side like a shadow, guarding him day and night without rest.

Chi Wan was nearly driven mad.

But she soon discovered that Wei Yi’s attitude toward Sheng Zhaoning had changed drastically. He was no longer as tolerant and gentle as before, but extremely harsh. One could even say he tormented, beat, and bullied her in every way he could think of.

Sometimes he punished her by making her kneel through freezing winters and scorching summers. Sometimes he found some random excuse to have her flogged or otherwise punished. Other times, he deliberately acted intimate with other women in front of her, letting them step all over her pride and mock her to her face.

Chi Wan gradually lowered her guard.

But when it truly came to a matter of life and death, Wei Yi still could not bear to let her die.

Zhou Lingsheng’s place was filled with his people. He knew perfectly well that Sheng Zhaoning was still alive, and he had her movements reported to him every single day.

Only then did Chi Wan understand that Wei Yi had never truly let her go.

They said the deeper the love, the deeper the hatred.

Just how deep must a feeling be to give rise to such intense hatred?

Besides, was that really hatred?

Perhaps even Wei Yi himself did not know how much he loved her.

“Why aren’t you dead yet?” Chi Wan asked, nearly deranged.

Sheng Zhaoning’s gaze was like water, carrying a cool chill.

There was even a faint trace of pity in it.

She suddenly realized that she and Chi Wan were both rather pitiful, really. They had loved someone so much that they lost themselves, turning into something ugly and hateful.

Sheng Zhaoning finally understood why Wei Chengjun had asked her, “Was it worth it?”

She had only just said it was.

But now that she was seeing with her own eyes what it looked like when someone went mad for love, she suddenly hesitated.

She could not speak.

Chi Wan gripped her face, her gaze as venomous as if it had been dipped in poison. “What is that look in your eyes?”

Was she pitying her?

Sheng Zhaoning was actually pitying her?!

Chi Wan stared in disbelief at first, then burst into a sharp, furious laugh.

“Do you think you’ve won?” Her nails dug hard into Sheng Zhaoning’s face, pressing several bloody marks into her skin.

Sheng Zhaoning looked straight at her and said calmly, “No.”

Between the two of them, how were they any different?

Yet the calmer she was, the more she made Chi Wan look like a madwoman.

Chi Wan’s eyes turned ruthless. “I hate that arrogant look of yours!”

Sheng Zhaoning fell silent again.

Chi Wan released her and rose to her feet, looking down at her from above as though she were no more than an ant.

“Don’t you want to know why Wei Yi ordered you to kill Liu Qi?”

At last, Sheng Zhaoning’s expression changed.

A cold, tingling numbness crawled over her entire body. The indifference in her eyes melted away inch by inch as she stared straight at Chi Wan, her mind going completely blank.

Only then did Chi Wan feel a flicker of satisfaction. “Sheng Zhaoning, you were nothing but a pawn.”

Every word struck like a pearl, every sentence like a cold blade, stabbing straight into the softest part of Sheng Zhaoning’s heart.

“Prince Zhenbei knew long ago that Liu Qi was one of the court’s men. He had already planned to kill him. It was Wei Yi who, in order to test your loyalty, tricked you into Ao Chun’s hands and let him use every method he had to torture you.”

Chi Wan deliberately twisted part of the truth, and just as she wished, she watched the light in Sheng Zhaoning’s eyes dim little by little.

She went on, “You suffered all that torture to protect him. Even under a thousand cuts, you never breathed a word. But you had no idea that from beginning to end, the entire thing was a lie.”

Chi Wan looked at her, her tone dripping with mockery. “How laughable. You nearly died at Ao Chun’s hands, yet to Wei Yi, all of it was nothing more than a test of loyalty.”

“Congratulations. You truly are the most loyal dog at his side.”

In an instant, the color of Sheng Zhaoning’s lips turned frighteningly pale.

She staggered to her feet. The pain in her leg bones was still tormenting her nerves every moment, a glaring reminder of the suffering she had once endured.

Steel nails had been driven one by one into her joints. The bones in her legs had been shattered inch by inch. Ao Chun had interrogated her over and over, demanding to know who had ordered her to kill. Countless snakes and insects had lunged at her in a hideous swarm, while blood and sweat wrapped around her in layer after layer.

If even that had been a deception, then what was the truth?

“Do you think Wei Yi knows how you feel?”

Wei Chengjun’s question surfaced in her mind once more.

Only now did she finally understand why he had sounded so mocking when he said it, half-smiling and yet not.

It had never been a question.

It was the insight of an outsider who saw through everything. It was ridicule at how deeply she had sunk into so-called love. It was idle amusement from someone uninvolved, watching as Wei Yi played her for a fool.

Sheng Zhaoning did not know what kind of feeling she was holding on to when she forced herself to laugh, stared into Chi Wan’s eyes, and denied it. “I don’t believe you.”

And yet her heart was already a barren wasteland.

All her reason was screaming wildly, berating her for saying one thing while feeling another.

For the first time, Chi Wan set aside her jealousy and hatred. She looked at Sheng Zhaoning with the same pity in her eyes.

“Sheng Zhaoning, you really are pitiful.”