Having said all that needed to be said, Meri walked back to her own room with a much lighter heart than when she came, her footsteps still light as air, but no longer labored.

  The little palace maid standing outside her door saw her and Hong Ling return, all of whom made a frowning expression towards the room, Mei Li smiled coldly, Jing Xuan was inside, she wasn't surprised.

  Compared to her indifference, Hong Ling was extremely nervous, and when helping her into the room, she even tripped on the doorstep.

  The candlelight in the room was not bright, Jingxuan sat expressionlessly on the chair, Mei Li did not raise her eyes to look at him, but only slightly bowed her head with a hint of resistance and courtesy, then instructed Hongling to help her get into bed. After all this commotion, she was really exhausted.

  Jing Xuan, who was ignored by her, didn't get furious, but instead lightly sneered, "Want to become a nun?" His tone was full of sarcasm, yet cold and calm.

  "Mm." She turned her back on him and faced the bed, responding with a perfunctory sound.

  "Great. That's also a way of accumulating virtue and cultivating one's character." He sneered.

  She closed her eyes and wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, no longer paying attention to him.

  "I've already submitted the memorial to His Majesty, requesting that Tu Ha be transferred under my command as vanguard. He's a bit old, but... experience is valuable, after all." He chuckled coldly, successfully making her stiffen her back. "Hmm, take good care of your illness, choose a good nunnery, I'll escort you there myself."

  Meili clutched her quilt tightly, he... was just trying to scare her, right?

  He finished speaking and left without delay, neither hastily nor slowly.

  Hong Ling patted her own chest, really didn't expect that the King of Qing would know about Ge Ge's decision and be furious, but looking at his attitude when Ge Ge was ill, it seemed like he still cared a lot, didn't think he could turn cold so quickly!

  "Get me a cup of hot tea." Mei Li trembled slightly as she instructed, her heart suddenly becoming flustered. Jing Xuan's attitude was unexpected, and it seemed to make her feel more danger and terror than when he got angry.

  The tea was not yet halfway down the cup when urgent and chaotic footsteps sounded outside, the wooden soles of the clogs treading rapidly on the green bricks making a disorderly "thud thud" sound that made people inexplicably irritable and tense.

  "Gege, Yingruo..." Before the little palace maid could finish transmitting, Yingruo had already rushed in. Her face was pale and her eyes were red, looking at her with a resentful and indignant expression. Meili hurriedly got out of bed, and to her surprise, Yingruo actually knelt down in front of her, knocking her head on the cold bluestone floor with a loud thud.

  "Clang!" The teacup that Mei Li hadn't had time to hand over to Hong Ling shattered on the ground. She stared, dumbfounded, at Ying Ruo who was crying with a cold expression, and was so shocked that she forgot to help her up.

  "Gege, gege!" As if Fu Jin's voice rose higher and higher, as if cursing and begging at the same time, "Spare our family! Please show us mercy!"

  The rainbow lightly pushed the already stunned beautiful crystal, and she only then remembered to go pull up Ying Ruo Fu Jin. Originally, her limbs were weak, and with Ying Ruo Fu Jin insisting on kneeling, she couldn't pull her up at all. Not daring to receive Fu Jin's kowtow, Beautiful Crystal could only also kneel down facing her.

  "Concubine..." She silently endured the pain in her arm, which was grasped by Concubine Yu's hand, and decided to leave Yonghe, but somehow couldn't bring herself to speak up in this situation.

  "Gege, I know I'm like this... as an elder it's truly despicable and shameful, but it's all because of 'you'! She emphasized this respectful title, her tone heavy enough to make Meili shudder. "My husband is old and has to go to the front lines, my son is now locked up in the Heavenly Prison... Gege, our family had originally agreed with our ancestors' wishes, even if we didn't have any kindness towards you, we didn't owe you anything! My son, for your sake..." Ying Ruo's voice became shrill, "even considering he once had deep feelings for you, don't harm him again, don't harm our family again!"

  Meili's whole body went limp and she fell to the ground... No wonder he was so calm and composed, no wonder he was so cold and determined. He didn't need to force her or say another word to her, he had already pushed her to the edge!

  She closed her eyes, looked up at the sky and let out a bitter laugh, tears streaming down her face. At first, she couldn't cry out loud, he was the man she had thought about day and night... Never did she think that when she finally belonged to him, it would be in such despair and pain.

  "Fujin, Meryl... I know what to do." She didn't open her eyes, she suddenly lost interest in everything around her. She felt herself being pulled onto the bed by several people, and didn't know if Fujin had said anything else, when they left, or how late it was at night, or when dawn would break.

  When she opened her eyes again, the sunlight pouring in from the doors and windows was too dazzling. It was a sunny spring day, but she only felt a stinging sensation in her eyes. Sitting in front of the copper mirror, she stared straight at her haggard self, "Hong Ling, dress me up."

  Always by her side, watching her rainbow bell being frightened by her tone, rushing over to hold her shoulders, "Gege, you must not think of anything bad!"

  "Hurry up, I still have things to attend to outside. For more and faster chapters, please go to..." Mei Li urged with a faint smile.

  Her hair was easy to comb and didn't require much adornment, so she quickly finished getting ready. "Go get my pale blue robe, I want to wear that one today," she said casually.

  Hong Ling nodded and quickly left.

  Meili walked out of the room, and the flowers were exceptionally spirited in the sunlight. She smiled as she glanced over the purple and red, the door to the servants' quarters where they kept their miscellaneous items was open, and she walked in, easily finding the arsenic for rats in a drawer. Back in her room, she examined herself in the mirror with satisfaction for a moment before Hongling hurriedly brought back her luggage.

  She knew her death was meaningless, but she was too angry! She resented Xuan, and even more so, fate! When she wanted to marry him, he didn't agree. Forgetting his hardships... She looked at herself laughing in the mirror, she endured with all her might, the cold palace years of loneliness and hardship, she also endured. When she was secretly rejoicing that she had finally forgotten him, and finally had a chance to rise above, he actually wanted to possess her again! And she once again bore the pain of his desire for her with fiery passion!

  She can't control others' fate as hard as he does, turning over her hand to make clouds and covering her hand to make rain. She has always been the one being controlled and arranged! She can't even hide! She doesn't want to seek death, but there have been so many times when she was in pain and wanted to die, yet she endured. But except for dying, she had no other way to make him suffer a setback!

  She suddenly burst out laughing, finding that so many hardships hadn't completely worn away her willfulness. For more and faster chapters, please go to... Actually, if she didn't love him anymore, marrying him wasn't bad either - his family was wealthy and influential, and marrying him would mean eating well and dressing well. For more and faster chapters, please go to... But no way! She had been summoned by him and then dismissed too many times, and she was still fuming about it - she had to vent her anger!

  This is indeed Mei Li Ge Ge! She smiled as she looked at her own smiling reflection in the mirror, as if she had met an old friend.

  Jingxuan stayed in a secluded wing of the temporary palace, unlike other palaces, with many soldiers guarding it. The eunuch who was responsible for passing on messages went in for a long time before coming out and told her that the prince had not yet risen.

  Meili raised an eyebrow, and he also returned some color to her. Since childhood, he had been practicing martial arts, so he couldn't oversleep. He told her to wait, so she waited.

  For a whole half an hour, Meili's legs had been numb and sore to the point of losing consciousness before she was brought into the inner chamber. He was sitting in a Taishi chair wearing loose long gown drinking tea, seeing her pale face and dry cracked lips being brought in, he pretended to be courteous and asked the palace maid to serve her tea.

  Meili didn't bow to him again, nor did she avoid his gaze. She stared straight at his face, and her icy stare made the smile in his eyes turn cold with anger.

  "What are you looking for? Have you chosen a place of refuge?" He snorted coldly and slammed the teacup on the table.

  "I'll do whatever you want me to," she said.

  "What do you want from me?" He narrowed his eyes at her, sneering with feigned ignorance.

  "Let go of Yonghe, and don't make things difficult for him either, Ama. I'll do whatever you say." She said word by word, suddenly feeling a bit stifled and wanting to laugh. Do whatever he says? No way!

  "Hmm—" He looked at her with a drawn-out tone, "Is it?"

  "Right!" She lied to him with unparalleled delight, and even felt a sense of revenge in her own death.

  "Very well, now you will come with me to the old ancestor and personally express your decision." He stood up and ordered the palace maid to change into formal robes for him. "Oh, right." He seemed to have just remembered a trivial matter, chatting casually while being attended to and dressed, saying: "I can only let Yonghe out after I marry you. If you die, I will let his whole family accompany you in burial."

  The air in her chest seemed to be suddenly sucked out, and after a daze, she shook her head incredulously, as if muttering to herself: "No way, you won't be so reckless!"

  He pushed away the palace maid, buttoned his buttons himself and looked at her with a better mood, "How could I not? As long as I'm happy."

  "Nonsense!" She felt her last blow was completely ineffective in front of him, her head started to heat up, and the calmness she had been pretending to have collapsed. "You are also a high-ranking official, Yonghe's Ama, and a minister who is favored by the emperor, you won't be able to do anything about it!" She involuntarily took two steps back, staring at him in horror.

  He was dressed neatly, walked over with a smile and gently pinched her trembling chin as if caressing it. His tone was cold and cruel, "Even if the Qing Dynasty lacked an emperor, it would continue to be passed down, let alone a small map! Does Meili blame me?" He asked with a smile, gentle to the point of being eerie.

  She stared at him with dead eyes, unable to utter a single word, her face expressionless.

  "You shouldn't blame me, you should blame that man. If he were stronger than me and could lock me up in the heavenly prison, making me live or die at his will, why do you need to look at me with such eyes?"

  He pulled her arm and she was so startled that she stumbled and fell to the ground, unable to get up.

  He didn't support her, but instead lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. "I checked, five days later is a good day."

  Five days... She didn't want to look at him and could only close her own eyes.

  When she felt that she had no more strength to resist, and had to succumb to him, succumb to fate, the beautiful crystal that once made her jump with courage finally broke its last connection with her. She fell into endurance, fell into despair... The past beauty was thoroughly dead, leaving only her... a woman who was helpless against fate but unable to resist.

  Her grief enraged him.

  She nodded slightly, "Okay." The sooner the better, if it was all a predetermined outcome, she hoped that Yong He could suffer less.

  He gritted his teeth tightly, she didn't agree, he hated her, she agreed, he hated her even more! All because of that man! She had been entangled with him since she was twelve years old, how could it be compared to the short few months spent with Yonghe?!

  He was too angry and could only use the most sarcastic words to alleviate his anger. "I've already asked them to clean up my house in Chengde, marrying you doesn't require much effort, five days is enough to set everything up properly."

  She still didn't open her eyes, and her pale lips only uttered a faint "okay."

  "Go!" He brutally pulled her up from the ground, "You go and tell your ancestors yourself!"