Chapter 1206: Giving Birth to a Daughter
Everyone crowded around Xuan Ying and Shi Xiaoxiao. Left on the floor, Feng Lingxue was abandoned like an old rag.
This included Xuan Mu.
Xuan Mu was also worn out from tormenting her and he instructed two men, “Bring this disgusting slave back. I want to enjoy myself today, so I’ll deal with her after I get back.”
“Yes sir.” The two men dragged Feng Lingxue off.
The luxurious car parked outside the South Palace. Feng Lingxue held her pain in as she slowly walked into the South Palace.
Bending down over a fountain along the road, she looked at her reflection through the clear waters. She had already wiped the blood dry. Her beautiful face was now marred by the ugly carving of the word ‘slave’ on her right cheek.
This word was going to accompany her for her entire life, as a token of her shame.
Once a slave, always a slave.
Feng Lingxue knelt there and hugged her knees as her mind went to a distant place.
She was no longer crying and her eyes were dry. There were no more tears to be shed.
She couldn’t feel pain anymore.
She had gone from the pain that had ripped through her chest to numbing pain to where she was now. Pain? She could no longer feel pain.
Xuan Ying…
She no longer felt any pain when she thought of these two words. She had already hidden ‘Brother Ying’ deep within her heart. As for the lofty Xuan Ying who was far beyond her reach, she had let him go as well and no longer loved him.
At this moment, she heard someone approach. Her eyes shifted to the side. “Who is it?”
An old woman in a wheelchair appeared. There were two maids following anxiously behind her. “Madam Yu, please don’t run around. Let us take care of you. How are we supposed to answer to the Silver Mask King if you get into an accident?”
Xuan Ying had originally wanted to leave with his mother since he had obtained the tally stick, but his mother had adamantly refused to do so, choosing to remain in the South Palace instead.
So the people in the South Palace could only treat her like a god. They feared that if she were ever to come to any harm, Xuan Ying would bring his army over and raze the South Palace to the ground.
Concubine Yu had a head full of white hair and looked like an old woman. The tendons in her leg had snapped, so she could only move around in a wheelchair.
“Stop following me. I don’t want to be pushed by anyone. I’m not disabー!” Right as she said this, the wheelchair caught on a stone and Concubine Yu fell from the wheelchair onto the ground.
“Oh my god, Madam Yu!” The face of the two maids immediately turned pale as they quickly ran over to help Concubine Yu up.
But Concubine Yu only waved them away with a pale face. “Don’t touch me!”
At this moment, a small hand reached over. “I’ll pull you up.”
Concubine Yu froze and quickly raised her eyes. Feng Lingxue was standing in front of her, offering her help.
“Go away. I don’t need your false help!” Concubine Yu pushed Feng Lingxue away coldly.
Feng Lingxue stood up and asked, “Can you get up yourself then?”
Concubine Yu humphed and tried to get up herself, but her tendons had already been injured for many years and she couldn’t get up at all.
Bending over, Feng Lingxue supported her wrist and said softly, “Why make things hard for yourself?”
Concubine Yu froze. Had she been making things difficult for herself all these years?
In her surprise, she didn’t reject Feng Lingxue, and after much effort, Feng Lingxue got her back into her wheelchair.
“Humph, don’t think I’ll be grateful to you. Xuan Ying’s no son of mine, so don’t expect to achieve anything by helping me!” Concubine Yu looked away savagely.
Achieve anything? Feng Lingxue sat on a large stone beside the waterfall. She tugged on her lips gently and stayed silent. The two of them fell into silence. It was only autumn yet they suddenly felt especially cold.
“Actually, I’ve known Xuan Ying for a long time. I grew up with him in Ah Jiao’s Room. You can say that we’re childhood friends.” Feng Lingxue suddenly spoke up after a long pause.
Ah Jiao’s Room? Concubine Yu jolted in surprise and turned to face her quickly. She looked at Feng Lingxue, who was sitting beside her wheelchair. The word ‘slave’ was carved into her right cheek.
Feng Lingxue looked at the sky afar and said listlessly, “It wasn’t easy living in Ah Jiao’s Room. I had to learn to dance every day and would get hit if I didn’t do it well. He was a small and silent manservant and would get scolded as well, but we didn’t find our lives miserable at all. Even if we got beaten, as long as we stared into each other’s eyes, we would be able to smile through our tears.
“When I turned 18, Ah Jiao’s Room was going to auction me off. The day before that, he said he was going to take me away. It’s been many years and I haven’t told him this, but I had actually been waiting a long time for him to tell me that. As long as he took me with him, it doesn’t matter how difficult the rest of our days would be. We would have each other and have our own small family.
“But I fell asleep that day and was awoken by the sounds of someone fighting. It seemed like it was coming from his room, so I ran in towards that direction.
“I was running along the corridor and was about to reach his room when the door to a room beside me suddenly opened and someone dragged me into the darkness where… where I was… raped…”
Even after all this time, it was still difficult for her to say those words. Feng Lingxue lifted her eyes. They were rimmed with red. It had already been three years since then, but she could still remember that night vividly.
Concubine Yu’s expression softened as she looked at Feng Lingxue. She no longer showed as much hostility towards her.
Feng Lingxue gathered her emotions and continued, “The next day, Ah Jiao’s Room gave me a grand coming-of-age ceremony. He had been waiting for me at the place we had decided beforehand. I wanted to go, really wanted to go so much. It wasn’t my fault I was raped…
“But just as I wanted to, his father the South Duke arrived. He locked me in a room and threatened to kill him if I left. Even though he was his biological son…”
Concubine Yu clutched her wheelchair handles tight and growled, “This b*tard! I’ll make sure he dies a miserable death!”
Feng Lingxue tugged her pale lips and said, “After he left, I remained in Ah Jiao’s Room, and soon realized… that I was pregnant…”
Concubine Yu looked at Feng Lingxue in surprise.
“I thought about aborting the child, but in the end, I couldn’t bear to do it. After all, no matter who the father is, the child is still my blood…
“After 10 months, I gave birth to a daughter, whom I named Mu Mu. Mu Mu’s arrival was like a lamp that illuminated my dark life. She laughed with me when she was in my arms and cried with me when I was crying. Her tiny hands would wipe my tears away and coo at me. I hugged her to sleep and she would call me ‘Mommy’ so sweetly. We would also go down to the beach to play and pick up stones from there… That period was the happiest time of my life. Mu Mu’s arrival seemed to have… healed the pain of his departure…
“But soon, my father the North Duke came for me. He took Mu Mu away and I saw her being slapped, being pulled by the hair. I couldn’t do anything, even when she was taken away, I couldn’t do anything at all. Why? Even as her mother, I was so weak, so powerless… In the end, there was nothing I could do at all.”
With that, as Feng Lingxue looked at Concubine Yu, her voice was wistful. “So never abandon your child… Otherwise, you will end up like me, you’ll be left with nothing… Nothing at all…”