Phoenix Reigns Over The Nine Heavens - Chapter 52

Yun Zishu frowned. “So, once a shadow guard is selected from the Dark Shadow Pavilion, they will no longer be under the jurisdiction of the commander?”

Leng Yue nodded. “From the moment the contract was signed, the shadow guard beside the crown prince can only obey him for the rest of her life. If the crown prince wants her to live, she will live; if the crown prince wants her to die, she must die.”

Yun Zishu fell silent.

Leng Yue turned to prepare the tea. Yun Zishu picked up a book and began flipping through it, but she couldn’t help thinking about the matter of the Dark Shadow Pavilion.

She didn’t know much about the Dark Shadow Pavilion in her previous life. She only knew that they were the most mysterious and formidable force under the royal family, feared by all court officials.

And because she had spent a lot of time with Si Cang since childhood, she knew that the training in the Dark Shadow Pavilion was very harsh. Injuries were commonplace, and death was a frequent occurrence.

However, she never knew that the various responsibilities within the Dark Shadow Pavilion were divided so meticulously, much like the six ministries in the imperial court, each with its own area of expertise.

The hierarchy within the pavilion was also strict.

However, this was normal. The Shadow Pavilion is the sharpest weapon in the hands of the emperor. Each of the Shadow Guards in the pavilion is an elite master capable of taking on a hundred enemies, killing people without a trace.

If they were not trained strictly from childhood, restrained by numerous rules, and their loyalty cultivated in a special way, how could the emperor ensure that they would not bite back? After all, the emperor too feared death. The more powerful and ruthless the expert, the more terrible the consequences if they rebelled.

Therefore, Si Cang’s rebellious nature would undoubtedly make her father lose sleep.

Yun Zishu was quietly lost in thought, and it was only at this moment that she suddenly realized that when Si Cang agreed to be her shadow guard, with incomparable calmness, he had completely placed his fate in her hands.

Perhaps he had enough ability to not be controlled by others, yet Yun Zishu knew with absolute clarity that Si Cang would never disobey her, even at the cost of his life.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t moved.

However, Yun Zishu wouldn’t give him false hope just because she was touched. It would be unfair to him. She still had many things to do at the moment and couldn’t afford to focus too much on matters of the heart.

Once she has completely resolved her grievances with the Xiao family, when she has obtained the freedom and power she desired, and when she is willing to give him an explanation, it will be because she really liked him—untainted by any other factors, simply and plainly liking him.

Then, she thought, it would really be a beautiful outcome.

……

“Yun Zishu has truly gone too far, too far!” Li Xue looked at Xiao Yunheng’s face, which was swollen beyond recognition, and she was so angry that she could only shed tears. “How can she be so cruel? Does she really even consider Brother Heng as her husband?”

Xiao Yunheng was lying on the bed in a mess. His face was more swollen than before. The raised fingerprints had turned bluish-purple, looking particularly terrible.

His once handsome and outstanding face was now completely unrecognizable.

Li Xue’s tearful anger and complaints grated on his nerves. When he thought of Yun Zishu openly associating with Si Cang, Xiao Yunheng was even more angry, and his anger burned, burning so intensely that he felt like his organs were scorching.

But he hated himself more. He had no way to deal with the situation. Xiao Yunheng had never known that he could be so useless—unable to do anything even when he was openly cuckolded.

Li Xue was still crying, and he couldn’t help but snap impatiently, “Can you stop crying? All you do is cry, cry, cry. What else can you do besides crying?”

Li Xue was startled into silence, her face pale as she looked at him with tear-filled eyes. “Brother Heng?”

The pain on Xiao Yunheng’s face was excruciating. All he wanted was to fall asleep, preferably into a deep sleep, not thinking about anything, and waking up to find that all of this was fake…

But the relentless fury burning inside him made it impossible for him to fall asleep. His organs ached, his body hurt, and his face throbbed—the omnipresent pain made him truly understand what it meant to endure each day as if it were a year.

Damn Yun Zishu, she is fickle and unfaithful. He had even considered treating her well in the future to make up for the grievances she had suffered in the past. And what did she do? She hooked up with Si Cang.

The more Xiao Yunheng thought about it, the angrier he became. He forced himself to calm down and rubbed his forehead, the sound of the chains on his wrists made him even more irritable. “Be quiet for a while, and let me think about what to do.”

Li Xue nodded blankly, biting her lip as she sat aside. She had already cursed Yun Zishu countless times in her heart, but she was utterly powerless.

Looking at Xiao Yunheng’s miserable state, Li Xue suddenly regretted coming to the princess’s mansion. How good it would have been if she had stayed in the Xiao family. Here she had to wait on Xiao Yunheng every day, exhausting herself every day with backbreaking work, unable to eat well or sleep properly. At every turn, she had to endure Yun Zishu’s disdain, and even saying a few wrong words would earn her a slap—it was simply no way for a human to live!

The more Li Xue thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. The more she reflected about it, the more resentment burned within her. Her eyes couldn’t help but turn red again, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

This time it wasn’t an act. She was genuinely so aggrieved and despairing that she couldn’t hold back her tears.