"Your Highness, I truly did not do it." Feng Ran knelt in the snow, repeatedly kowtowing, her pleas humble. Snowflakes drifted down. Within the study, the man's face was cold, his brows furrowed. Feng Ran had just lost her child but knelt in the frigid snow, her complexion frighteningly pale. Yet, she forced herself to endure her broken body, her plea sorrowful, "Your Highness, at least listen to me before passing judgment."
The man suddenly appeared before her. Before Feng Ran could react, her fair hand was stepped upon by him, sending a piercing pain through her.
"Your Highness, I truly did not poison it. If I had poisoned it, I would not have eaten the lotus seed soup myself, leading to the death of my unborn child."
"Yu Wanyan's death truly has nothing to do with me..." Feng Ran anxiously explained. Yet, a slender hand gripped her chin, and a hoarse, chilling voice echoed, "Heh, is that so? Whose child this mongrel is, perhaps even you do not know."
"She died, isn't that what you wished for."
"Feng Ran, you know very well that Wanyan is the person dearest to my heart, and yet you took advantage of my absence to harm her. You still wish to clear your name. Do you think I would believe such words?"
"You, do you want to monopolize me so badly?"
The clear, cold voice carried a deep chill. He didn't even spare her a glance. He had always been this way towards her.
Feng Ran loved him, of course she did. For him, she had killed everyone in the Feng manor. She had helped him ascend to the position of Prince step by step. The entire world knew how much she had done for the man before her, and she had borne all the infamy.
The man exuded a chilling aura and said sternly, "Feng Ran, do you want to become the Princess so badly? For the position of Princess, you cruelly killed Wanyan."
Her body trembled. She met the man's violent, bloodthirsty gaze, and she felt an extreme chill. A bitter smile played on Feng Ran's lips. If she coveted the position of Princess, she would not have chosen him, Xuan Yuanheng.
She had accompanied him from having nothing to having everything. She had made him a man of status.
And what she received was his overwhelming hatred.
"No, I did not kill Yu Wanyan. I do not know where she is." Feng Ran, kneeling on the ground, endured the grief in her heart. "Xuan Yuanheng, do you know? When Yu Wanyan disappeared, I had just been drugged and miscarried. I walked through the gates of hell. How could I have harmed Yu Wanyan?"
She was explaining, kneeling on the ground, explaining desperately.
"Heh, you were drugged? You miscarried?" Xuan Yuanheng said coldly and heartlessly, "Who can know whose child that mongrel in your belly is?"
"You had a child with me while I was not in the manor?"
"That's right. I didn't even touch you. Tell me, is the child in your belly mine?"
Feng Ran clutched her stomach, looking at the man before her, and said firmly, "Xuan Yuanheng, consider me blind for believing that Your Highness was the right person for me in this lifetime. I have ultimately been wronged."
"Yu Wanyan was not killed by me. I do not know why she died."
"Your Highness, such baseless accusations of murder cannot be casually placed upon me. I did not do it."
"Heh, me? Feng Ran, if I recall correctly, I have not yet married. You are, at most, merely a caged bird I have kept. Do not elevate yourself too highly."
"Perhaps, to clear your name, you deliberately aborted the mongrel in your belly." Xuan Yuanheng's eyes were filled with violence. He directly took out a pill and forced it into her mouth. "The child is gone, then you will never be able to have children in this lifetime."
After speaking, he directly reached out and tore her clothes, saying coldly, "Such good clothes, it's a waste to wear them on you."
Feng Ran instinctively screamed. She covered herself with her hands while in her undergarments, hoping to conceal her exposed skin.
The man's cold voice, in the weather of the flying snow, became even colder. "Feng Ran, are you so desperate for a man? Then, I shall satisfy you..."
As the man's words fell, Xuan Yuanheng forcibly shoved a pill into Feng Ran's mouth, a bloodthirsty smile curving his lips. He said sinisterly, "Feng Ran, Feng family's eldest daughter, enjoy yourself from now on."
Feng Ran looked up, her eyes filled with confusion as she gazed at Xuan Yuanheng.
But at that moment, her body began to feel hot, and her complexion instantly turned extremely pale.
Feng Ran's eyes were filled with disbelief as she looked at the man she had guarded with her life, only for him to inflict such cruelty upon her.
Xuan Yuanheng stood up, looking down at Feng Ran. "Feng family's eldest daughter, enjoy yourself from now on."
"Xuan Yuanheng, no, you can't do this to me."
"It wasn't, it wasn't me who did it."
"Listen to me explain..."
Feng Ran collapsed directly onto the ground. Her face was pale, her lips bitten tightly, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
She fell directly onto the snow. Watching Xuan Yuanheng leave her sight, she crawled laboriously on the ground. She wanted to explain, to clarify.
The things she had not done, these baseless accusations, could not be placed upon her.
Feng Ran, ignoring her miscarriage, was crawling. Bloodstains marked her path on the snow, dyeing it red, a shocking sight.
A wave of heat intermittently washed over her body.
At this moment, Feng Ran was in a state of extreme agony, as if she were about to die.
"Guards, stand by." Xuan Yuanheng looked indifferently at the person on the ground and said coldly, "If Feng family's eldest daughter requires anything, you are to help. But if Feng family's eldest daughter does not require it, then you are to wait, understand?"
"Whoever shows mercy and wants to do something for her will cease to exist from this life onwards."
Those people stood in a neat line.
"Feng family's eldest daughter, hold on." Xuan Yuanheng watched the woman slowly crawling on the ground and said with disdain, "If Feng family's eldest daughter can hold on, perhaps I will give you a chance to explain."
"As for whether you can explain, it will depend on your own ability."
The study door was closed. Xuan Yuanheng never listened to her explanation from beginning to end.
Feng Ran's body could no longer support her. The servants of the manor, when passing by, all avoided her. After all, they dared not invite trouble.
Feng Ran had brought this upon herself. The Prince paid her no mind, yet she was the one who threw herself at him and caused the death of the Feng family, while she herself lived well.
The one who deserved to die the most should have been her, not the Feng family. Didn't she know her own worth? She insisted on clinging to the Prince.
Everyone knew that Yu Wanyan was the person dearest to the Prince. And she, taking advantage of the Prince's absence, had killed Yu Wanyan, pushing her off a cliff, likely leaving no remains.