A Beautiful Dream

Hearing this hysterical crying, Ye Xuan stopped in his tracks.

He suddenly burst into neurotic laughter, laughing so hard he rocked back and forth, even tearing up. Hahaha... Give your Consort Xuan back to you?

He abruptly bent down and grabbed Wu Lingxiao by the hair, forcing her tear-streaked face to look up at him.

With a face full of madness, he shouted:

Which version of Consort Xuan do you want?

Is it the Consort Xuan whose legs you forcibly broke, dragging him into the palace like a dog?

Or the Consort Xuan you deceived with lies, who loved you like a fool for ten years?

Or perhaps the Consort Xuan who, upon learning of your affair with Holy Son Yeyou, felt his heart turn to ashes, preferring to perish together with you rather than look at you for another second?

At this moment, Ye Xuan's expression revealed absolute madness.

Ye Xuan's abyss-like eyes churned with monstrous hatred and mockery. Every word was a fatal strike to the heart, mercilessly tearing open the bloody scars that Wu Lingxiao was most unwilling to face!

Wu Lingxiao was utterly terrified. She shook her head desperately, tears blurring her vision.

She did not dare to look into Ye Xuan's hate-filled eyes. She could only humbly cling to his legs, pleading bitterly:

I want the Consort Xuan from those ten years of love... I beg you, give me back the Consort Xuan who would smile at me and call me sister, okay? I don't want you to be like this... I'm scared...

What a pity, Ye Xuan coldly shook off her hands. He tilted his head, his tone laced with cruel amusement. Your birthday is about to pass. It is time to wake up from this sweet dream!

No! I don't want to wake up!

Wu Lingxiao had completely fallen into a morbid paranoia.

Having just tasted ultimate sweetness, how could she bear the pain of losing it again?

Like a drowning person clutching at a final straw, she cried, I am willing to do anything! Even if I have to give up the throne, even if you drain my origin essence, as long as I can get him back... I will do anything!

Anything?

Ye Xuan stopped moving. He lowered his head, a vicious glint flickering in his pitch-black eyes.

Very well then.

He gave a sinister smile, pulled a pitch-black pill from his sleeve, and casually tossed it into a corner of the great hall.

Clatter...

The pill rolled across the cold golden floor tiles, eventually coming to a stop in a puddle of trampled cake crumbs mixed with dust.

Ye Xuan walked back to the main seat and sat down imposingly. He looked at the former empress as if she were a piece of filthy trash. Pointing at the pill, he ordered, enunciating every word:

Go. Get down on your hands and knees and crawl over there. Pick it up with your mouth... and bring it to me.

A deathly silence fell over the Weiyang Palace.

Wu Lingxiao trembled all over, looking at Ye Xuan in disbelief.

Crawl on her knees? Pick it up with her mouth?

She was the Empress of Great Xia! A Half-Step True Immortal who ruled over billions of lives from high above! This was not just trampling on her dignity; this was stripping her soul bare, throwing it into the mud, and crushing it to pieces!

What? Unwilling? Ye Xuan sneered, making a show of getting up. Forget it then. It seems the Consort Xuan who called you sister doesn't mean that much to you after all.

I'll do it!

Wu Lingxiao let out a heart-wrenching, sorrowful cry.

She bit her lower lip so hard that blood seeped out. In her phoenix eyes, filled with a sick obsession, all her dignity, pride, and imperial majesty vanished into nothingness before this boy who had once been as pure as paper.

Under Ye Xuan's cold, mocking gaze, this once-imperious empress slowly bent her noble spine.

Her hands pressed against the cold golden tiles, her knees sinking to the floor.

She slowly crawled across the ground. Her luxurious white silk robes dragged along the floor, gathering dust and stains.

She crawled to the nauseating puddle of cake ruins and stared at the black pill mixed within. Tears smashed against the floor like water bursting from a dam, but without a moment's hesitation, she actually opened her mouth and carefully picked up the dust-covered pill between her lips.

Then, maintaining her position on all fours, she crawled back to Ye Xuan's feet step by step, lifting her breathtakingly beautiful face, now stained with tears and filth.

Looking at her utterly degraded state, with the pill held in her mouth, Ye Xuan leaned back in his chair and let out a low, cruel, and sinister laugh.

Hahaha... Lingxiao, oh Lingxiao...

He extended his foot, using the tip of his toe to lift Wu Lingxiao's chin. His eyes were filled with the thrill of revenge and a profound disgust:

The way you look right now, you really are just like a dog.

This light, fluttering sentence was like the sharpest blade in the world, shredding Wu Lingxiao's heart to pieces.

Tears streamed down Wu Lingxiao's face as suppressed whimpers, like those of a trapped beast, escaped her throat. She didn't even dare to spit out the pill in her mouth. She could only cry indistinctly, letting the tears wash over her cheeks.

Having enjoyed enough of her humiliated state, the wicked aura in Ye Xuan's eyes gradually receded.

He let out a sigh. There was no sympathy in this sigh, only deep sarcasm and endless regret:

If you hadn't betrayed him back then, you could have had that boy forever. Wouldn't all of this have been avoided?

Wu Lingxiao's body shuddered violently.

Those words struck the most painful, fatal weak point deep within her soul.

Yes... if she hadn't betrayed him, if there hadn't been that absurd affair.

She was supposed to be his one and only love. It was she herself who had single-handedly ruined that flawless piece of jade, personally forcing the boy whose eyes held only her down a path of no return.

Endless remorse and shame gnawed at her internal organs like venomous snakes. She curled up on the ground in agony, finding even breathing to be a tearing pain.

Enough. Since you are acting so obedient, Ye Xuan looked at her apathetically, I will grant your wish.

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Xuan closed his eyes again. His body went limp, and he slid from the chair, collapsing onto the floor.

Husband! Wu Lingxiao hurriedly spat out the pill and scrambled over on her hands and knees, carefully gathering him into her arms.

After an unknown amount of time, the eyelashes of the person in her arms fluttered slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Those abyss-like black pupils were gone, replaced by eyes as clear as a mountain spring, devoid of a single trace of impurity.

The boyish Ye Xuan woke up and immediately saw Wu Lingxiao right in front of him.

He was taken aback at first, then his gaze shifted downward. He saw Wu Lingxiao's disheveled state, the filth at the corner of her mouth, and the way she was kneeling beside him.

Sister? A flash of heartache and surprise instantly appeared in the boy's eyes. He quickly reached out to wipe the dirt from the corner of Wu Lingxiao's mouth. Why are you kneeling on the floor? Why are your clothes all dirty? Did someone bully you?!

Looking into those crystal-clear, worry-filled eyes, and hearing that pure utterance of the word sister.

Wu Lingxiao felt as though her heart had been viciously squeezed, the pain so intense she could barely breathe.

She hastily stood up, haphazardly wiping the tears and filth from her face, desperately forcing out a smile that looked uglier than crying:

It is... it is nothing. Sister just accidentally took a fall.

"You are so clumsy, Sister!" The youth smiled through his tears, gently brushing the dust off her skirt. "Today is your birthday, how could you be so careless?"

He turned to look at the center of the hall and suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no! Why is my cake on the floor!"

Watching the youth stomp his feet in distress, Wu Lingxiao's tears broke their banks once more. But she bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying out loud and forced a smile. "It is alright, Sister will have someone bring a new one. As long as Consort Xuan is with Sister, eating anything is fine."

Next, as if the hellish torture from just a moment ago had never happened, the two of them continued to celebrate this absurd yet tender birthday in the dead-silent palace.

A new cake was brought in, adorned with a few slender red candles.

The candlelight flickered, reflecting the youth's flawless face.

Consort Xuan carefully shielded the flame, looking at Wu Lingxiao with eyes full of anticipation, his voice so gentle it could melt a heart:

"Sister, hurry up and blow out the candles! Then make a wish! As long as it is Sister's wish, the heavens will definitely hear it!"

Wu Lingxiao sat there quietly.

She looked at the dancing flames, and at the youth behind the firelight—as pure as a blank sheet of paper, his eyes filled with nothing but her.

She knew that this was just a shadow, the cruelest punishment inflicted upon her by the man whose heart she had utterly broken.

When the sun rose tomorrow, this youth who called her Sister would disappear, and the Ye Xuan filled with hatred and calculation would return, continuing to trample upon her like a dog, a mere concubine.

Yet, she still closed her eyes and clasped her hands together.

In this absurd moment of tenderness bought with the ultimate humiliation, she desperately screamed out a wish in her heart that could never be fulfilled.

After a moment, she opened her eyes and gently blew out the candles.

The instant darkness descended, the youth's crisp voice rang in her ears:

"Sister, what wish did you make? Can you tell me?"

Wu Lingxiao did not speak.

Under the faint moonlight, she held the youth tightly, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

Tears flowed silently, soaking the youth's collar.

Deep in her heart, the answer she could never speak aloud echoed in the depths of her soul, accompanied by bleeding remorse:

"I wish... I had never betrayed you. I wish... you could forgive me."