Shen Zhaoning dreamed of that snowy night again.
She knelt in front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple under heavy snow, her forehead hitting the cold white marble steps, and her blood meandered into a stream. The sound of the long whip piercing the air behind him was endless, and every time the whip fell, there was a crisp sound of the skin and flesh being torn open.
"Shen Zhaoning, do you know your guilt?"
Prince Xiao Yan's voice came from high up, as cold as a jade chime, but more biting than the cold wind of the twelfth lunar month. He held Shen Qingwan in his arms and put his fox fur cloak on her. When his eyes fell on the people below the steps, he felt extremely disgusted.
"You pretended to be someone else and deceived me for seven years, causing Qingwan to suffer so many injustices - you are to blame for her death."
Shen Zhaoning wanted to laugh, but more blood foam oozed from the corners of his mouth. She remembered that she was trying to speak, wanting to tell the truth: on the Lantern Festival that year, at the Cuiwei Mountain hunting ground, she was the one who saved the prince from the wolves, and it was she who had half of his face torn apart by the wolf's claws. Shen Qingwan took advantage of her unconsciousness to steal the jade pendant and pretend to be her, and from then on the words "life-saving grace" changed to different people.
But she didn't say anything.
Because the whip broke her spine, the severe pain swallowed up all words.
The snow is falling harder and harder, and her blood blooms red plum blossoms on the white jade steps. On the Bell and Drum Towers in the distance, the New Year's bell has just rang, and the city is filled with bright fireworks.
The moment she closed her eyes, she saw the regent Xiao Xuan sitting on the tower. The man was dressed in a black python robe, and his eyes were as indifferent as distant mountains. He held a glass of wine in his hand and raised it to her from a distance - I don't know whether it was a greeting or a farewell.
Then her world fell into eternal night.
