Chapter 225: Whose Daughter Is Han Yang's...
Xiao Li's eyes grew increasingly bloodshot.
He had never been among her choices.
Not in the past, and not now.
Even when she had fallen to such a state.
Those intense emotions twisted and tangled, finally coalescing into a rage and resentment he himself couldn't fully comprehend.
He even felt a metallic taste of blood in his throat with every breath. Suddenly, he wanted to know just how hardened Wen Yu's heart was to speak to him so calmly at a time like this. Deliberately provoking her, he said, "Your Highness worries too much. The beauties you gifted me are all gentle and attentive, skilled in serving others—unlike Your Highness, who is as unresponsive as a block of wood."
Wen Yu's hands, braced against the bed, showed prominent tendons from the strain, the silk fabric beneath crumpling under her grip. Yet her expression remained indifferent, even carrying a hint of relief as if finally able to speak her mind: "Could it be that Xiao Jun's skills in bed leave much to be desired?"
Xiao Li's jaw tightened instantly: "Is King Chen better than me?"
Wen Yu's eyes resembled a calm sea, concealing all emotions. She tilted her head slightly to look at him, a faint smile playing on her lips: "Does Xiao Jun not understand the principle of frequently changing one's pillow companion? Since I once shared a fleeting romance with you, why would I hang myself solely on King Chen's tree?"
Xiao Li could no longer restrain the crimson in his eyes. He clenched his teeth several times but found himself unable to utter another word.
So she truly didn't care who shared her bed.
The storm gathering in his eyes nearly spilled over. He hastily averted his gaze, unwilling to let Wen Yu see his discomposure, and pressed on harshly: "What about your daughter?"
A faint redness also circled beneath Wen Yu's eyes, but her voice instantly turned vigilant: "What do you intend to do?"
A low chuckle, neither mockery nor scorn, escaped Xiao Li's throat.
He struggled to suppress the ache in his eyes, to no avail.
—She was guarding against him.
Afraid he would harm her daughter, was she?
Last year, when she left his army, he had prepared a first-birthday gift for her unborn child. It seemed she had never even opened it.
Rage, bitterness, and overwhelming despair clashed in his chest. For a moment, Xiao Li felt he should have died at Yanle Mountain.
Died in that heavy snowfall last year after escaping the Wei residence to aid the Wolf Cavalry.
At least back then, he still dreamed of becoming a regional overlord and bringing her back from Chen.
Not like now, standing before this decay and rot, powerless—wishing he had died a thousand, ten thousand times in the past rather than face such an outcome.
Xiao Li took a deep breath, his eyes bloodshot as he glared coldly at Wen Yu: "Why so nervous? I merely wished to see what the child of you and that coward King Chen looks like. What? Is the child not his?"
Wen Yu, meeting his heart-wrenchingly red eyes, felt a pang of sorrow.
Was he hurting too?
She fought back the growing sting in her eyes and turned her head away, refusing to answer.
Xiao Li misinterpreted her reaction, assuming the child might indeed not be King Chen's but someone else's. The thought made him feel that even tearing out the flesh from his chest and trampling it to pulp amidst ten thousand soldiers would hurt less than this.His eyes brimmed with rising ferocity, reason nearly devoured by rage. Fearing what he might do to Wen Yu if he stayed any longer, he stepped back and said, "Won't speak? This marquis will interrogate them myself!"
With that, he stormed out, slamming the door shut.
Wen Yu watched the palace doors close, the tension in her shoulders and back gradually easing. She closed her eyes, weary yet forcing herself to suppress her anguish.
What did he want?
She had already apologized for that arrow from the past.
She had returned, intact, the affection he once held for her that she had trampled upon.
Back then, when he demanded she divorce King Chen and choose him, the campaign against Pei was imminent, and the interests of Liang and Chen were deeply intertwined. How could she make such a reckless decision for her own selfish desires?
A year apart, and now he was willing to bear the infamy of slaughtering surrendered soldiers for a courtesan. Today's events seemed more about making her regret her past decisions.
He hurled vicious words, but her pride would never allow her to yield even an inch.
Until she uncovered the truth, she could not let him learn A Li's true identity.
After leaving Zhaohua Palace, Xiao Li went straight to the prison.
King Chen, who had been under house arrest by Wen Yu for a year and had only just regained his freedom for a day and a half, was once again thrown into a cell. Inhaling the musty scent of the straw filling the prison, he kicked the cell door several times in fury. When the jailers approached, he pointed at their noses and berated them, "Is this a place fit for humans? Replace all of this at once!"
The jailers below had not been replaced, but Wolf Cavalry stood guard outside. None dared offend anyone, so they replied, "Your Majesty, this is the imperial prison. It has always been like this..."
King Chen, enraged, continued his tirade: "A bunch of bootlicking traitors! Once my reinforcements arrive and that Xiao family wolf is beheaded, see if I don't exterminate your nine clans..."
A voice echoed from the prison corridor entrance: "The Marquis has arrived—"
The terror of having a halberd pointed at his face was still fresh, and King Chen fell silent instantly, though his expression remained suppressed and resentful.
The jailers below felt as if pardoned. Seeing Xiao Li approach, they hurriedly bowed: "Greetings, Marquis..."
Xiao Li exuded a cold, menacing aura and issued a frigid command: "Open the cell door."
King Chen, separated only by the cell door, no longer dared to show even a hint of resentment. He stared blankly as the jailer hesitated briefly before mustering the courage to unlock the door. His mind went almost blank, unable to fathom why Xiao Li had come for him.
The iron chains clanked as the lock was turned. After the jailer unwound the chains from the door, Xiao Li issued another icy order: "All of you, withdraw."
The Wolf Cavalry who had accompanied him into the imperial prison obeyed and retreated. The jailers naturally dared not linger, bowing respectfully before backing away.
As Xiao Li stepped into the cell, King Chen instinctively retreated a step, swallowing hard as he stammered, "I... I didn't know the Marquis... Marquis was coming. Wha... what brings you here?"
Xiao Li delivered a swift kick. King Chen let out a sharp cry, flying backward like a ragged sandbag into the moldy straw. He felt his organs shudder and burn, his stomach churning violently as he opened his mouth to retch bile.
Fear overwhelmed all his senses in that moment. Clutching his abdomen, he scrambled to his knees and kowtowed frantically, pleading, "Spare me, Marquis! Spare me! This humble king will offer you anything, just let me go..."
Xiao Li watched King Chen's pathetic display with a cold gaze, the ferocity around him roiling even more intensely.How could such a lowly, contemptible thing have married Wen Yu, performed the wedding rites, and earned the right to have "Han Yang's husband" carved on his tombstone?
Was he worthy?
Xiao Li's military boot ground down on King Chen's five fingers that were propping him up. King Chen once again cried out in agony, tears and mucus streaming down his face as he continuously begged for mercy.
The imperial prison was dimly lit, the flickering flames from the wall sconces cutting sharp contours along Xiao Li's profile. The other half of his face was completely hidden in shadow, his brows and eyes concealed in even deeper darkness. The riding whip he hadn't had time to put away after his frantic gallop here was now curved in his hand, black and gleaming like a coiled serpent.
King Chen was in so much pain that he kept pounding the ground with his other hand and screaming, not daring to look up at all. In his limited field of vision, he could only see the boot mercilessly crushing his right hand and that section of black whip. Whether from pain or terror, cold sweat drenched his back in an instant.
"Today, if anyone attacked the royal court demanding Han Yang, you would have handed her over, wouldn't you?" The tone from above was icy.
King Chen wept bitterly: "This truly isn't something I can decide! I've been under house arrest by Han Yang for over a year, only released yesterday..."
Xiao Li used the curved black whip to lift King Chen's chin. In his cold eyes swirled a terrifying mix of ferocity and madness that chilled one to the bone: "Who released you?"
Too frightened to wonder why Xiao Li was asking these questions, King Chen trembled and confessed everything: "Yan Zhen! It was the Yan father and son! They're the ones rebelling against Han Yang, it has nothing to do with me!"
When the whip lashed viciously across King Chen's face with a "swish," he let out another pig-like squeal.
Xiao Li coldly spat two words: "Waste."
King Chen was sweating profusely from the pain. Blood slowly seeped from the swollen mark left by the whip on his face. Not daring to argue, he continued weeping: "I am just a waste, I beg you to spare me, my lord..."
Xiao Li moved his boot from King Chen's fingers and continued his cold interrogation: "Who is the father of Han Yang's daughter?"
Even as foolish as he was, considering how Xiao Li had directly abducted Wen Yu on horseback to the royal palace, King Chen understood he must have taken a liking to Wen Yu. Covering his crushed fingers, he hurriedly said: "Not mine, not mine!"
To sound more convincing, he even revealed his secret: "I... I was injured before, I'm impotent. I never touched that slut! She's a loose woman, who knows who she slept with to produce that bastard!"
Another vicious whip lashed down with a "swish." King Chen clutched the swollen, bleeding mark running from his ear to the corner of his mouth, barely able to remain kneeling. For a moment, only his wails could be heard in the prison cell.
Tears covered King Chen's face, stinging when they touched his wounds. Not understanding why he'd been whipped again, he could only repeatedly beg for mercy: "My lord, please believe me, everything I said is true..."
Xiao Li's expression was dark and sinister: "Where is her daughter now?"
Thoroughly beaten into submission, King Chen hugged his head and choked out: "I don't know, I truly don't know. When the Yan family launched their palace coup yesterday, her people took that bas... that child out of the palace."
Since being imprisoned, the Yan father and son had not had a moment's peace.
When King Chen's heart-rending screams came from the isolated cell at the end of the corridor, the Yan father and son, along with the other aristocratic family ministers, turned pale.An aristocratic minister cried out in fear, "We... we have already surrendered, yet must Xiao Li be so cruel and merciless, determined to exterminate us all?"
From the opposite cell, Qi Simiao slowly lifted his eyelids and said, "With a formidable enemy at our gates, you sought to incite internal strife. What do you expect now?"
Duke Yan retorted sharply, "Even the imperial guards couldn't hold back the army of tigers and wolves under that Xiao for half a day. Even if that Liang woman were in power today, what difference would it make?"
After speaking, he snorted coldly and added, "The royal court wasn't slaughtered, and you're still alive now—you should be thanking us for capturing that Liang woman and surrendering to that wolf-hearted Xiao family!"
Rapid footsteps echoed from around the corner of the passage, and the Chen state ministers, who had been ready to engage in a war of words, fell silent for the moment.
A squad of Wolf Cavalry in armor and bearing weapons approached, scanning the crowd before coldly demanding, "Who is Yan Zhen?"
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