Startled, Fendai dropped to her knees, trembling all over.
“Miss, please don’t be angry, please calm down!”
At that moment, Quan Heng felt like she couldn’t breathe—her chest tight, her breath catching.
The other maids outside, seeing this, assumed Fendai had brought something the lady didn’t like and hurried to the kitchen to fetch more food, soon filling the room with plates.
“Miss Gu, we beg you, please eat a little. Otherwise, we won’t be able to answer to Young Master Shen!”
Looking at the room full of people, Quan Heng suddenly found the whole situation absurd. Laughing in rage, she stood up and swept all the plates to the floor.
In an instant, dishes shattered, the room turned to chaos.
Quan Heng shouted, “I said I won’t eat! Don’t you understand?! He already treats me like a pet he’s raising—do you all want to force me too?!”
Seeing her fury, the group of maids and Momos dropped to their knees in terror.
“Miss Gu, we would never dare!”
Quan Heng held her head, dizzy and faint. It took her a long time to calm herself.
Looking again at the people kneeling on the ground, she regretted her earlier outburst.
They were only following orders—why take it out on them?
At last, she waved her hand and said, “You all can go. Just let me be alone for a while.”
They fell silent and retreated softly, afraid of provoking her further.
Fendai wanted to stay and clean up, but Quan Heng refused.
Let it be messy. Chaos suited her.
After all, her life was already in shambles—no point pretending otherwise.
Leaning against the bed, Quan Heng wearily closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
About half an hour later, half-awake in a dream, she vaguely heard loud voices outside.
Then, it sounded like someone opened the door—too noisy to ignore. She stirred from sleep and opened her eyes—
Wen Zheng had come.
He wore a black robe, still carrying the chill and the scent of blood. Though his face was expressionless, it was clear he was in a terrible mood.
The moment he stepped into the room, he saw the mess—food and pastries scattered on the ground, dust clinging to them, nowhere even to step.
“Ah Heng, just how long are you going to stay mad at me?”
Quan Heng had just woken up and was already a little irritable. Hearing those words now, the anger she had barely managed to suppress surged back up again.
He had locked her up here, raised her like some pet cat or dog, and wouldn’t even let her go home. It was like he was trampling her dignity into the dirt. Yet in his mouth, it somehow turned into her throwing a tantrum?
At that thought, she grabbed the teacup at hand and hurled it at Wen Zheng.
With a thud, the cup struck his forehead. In an instant, blood began trickling from the wound.
Seeing this, Quan Heng was shocked. “Why didn’t you dodge?!”
At the door, Fundau wanted to come in to treat the injury, but Wen Zheng directly shut the door.
“All of you, wait outside. Stay farther away. Don’t listen in on what happens inside.”
Hearing this, the maids and old servants all withdrew, leaving only the two of them in the room again.
Watching Wen Zheng step toward her, Quan Heng panicked, unconsciously backing away until her back was pressed against the wall. With nowhere left to retreat, she finally stopped.
Blood had already run from Wen Zheng’s forehead down to his chin—it was a terrifying sight.
She hated him to the core, yet seeing him injured like this still made her uncomfortable inside.
“Your head… let’s take care of that first.”
Wen Zheng didn’t answer, only continued to close in on her.
Finally, only a fist’s distance separated them. Close enough to feel each other’s breath.
In that moment, Quan Heng couldn’t help but recall the scene from yesterday—how he had torn at her clothes. The memory made her tremble in fear, afraid he would go mad in broad daylight again.
“Don’t come near me! Don’t think that just because you’re injured, I’ll give in to you!”
At last, Wen Zheng spoke.
“Why won’t you eat?”
The question stunned Quan Heng.
She had thought he was going to humiliate her again, torment her—but instead, this was what he said?
Her nose stung. Tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks.
“Starting yesterday, you’ve changed completely. The way you’re forcing me—I thought you no longer cared whether I lived or died.”
Wen Zheng let out a long sigh, cupping her face in his hands, gently wiping away her tears. “How could that be? You are the person I love most in this world. No one matters to me more than you.”
With tearful eyes, Quan Heng looked up, grabbing his hand as she pleaded, “Ah Zheng, if you love me, then let me go, please? I didn’t come home last night—my father and mother must be worried sick. I’m begging you, just let me go home.”
Wen Zheng leaned in and kissed her lips with devotion, but the words he spoke were merciless. “That’s impossible. I won’t let you go.”
Seeing the look of utter despair on her face, he added, “Don’t worry. I’ll send someone to notify them, tell them you’re at the palace playing with the Sixth Prince. They won’t suspect anything.”
Upon hearing this, all the hope in Quan Heng’s heart died.
Before he came today, she had still held onto a shred of hope—that he had only acted on impulse yesterday, that maybe today he’d come to his senses and let her go.
But now she saw that not only had he fabricated a lie about her whereabouts, he’d also brought in a whole group of maids and old servants to this villa. From the looks of it, he planned to keep her trapped here forever, never to let her go free again.
“What do you take me for, exactly? Do you feel proud of yourself now? That everything about me is in your control, that I have no way to escape? That makes you satisfied, doesn’t it?”
“In your eyes, I’m nothing more than a soulless rag doll, am I not?! Even whether or not I eat—you have to control that too. Who do you think you are to me?!”
Wen Zheng sighed heavily and grabbed her hand.
“Ah Heng, no matter what, I hope you’ll eat properly. If you don’t, your body will collapse sooner or later.”
Quan Heng sneered, “And if I don’t eat? What then? Are you going to have the old maids hold me down and force it down my throat?”
Wen Zheng raised an eyebrow. “You’re welcome to try. One way or another, I’ll make you yield.”
His words unsettled her. “What do you mean by that?”
Wen Zheng picked up a cloth from the table and calmly began wiping the blood from his forehead. “If you dare starve yourself and ruin your body, I can guarantee—you’ll never see your parents again for the rest of your life.”
With that, he finished cleaning the blood, stood up, and strode toward the door. “I’ll come see you again tonight. Take care of yourself in the meantime.”
Fear gripped Quan Heng. She stumbled a few steps forward and grabbed his sleeve, shouting, “Wen Zheng!! What do you mean? What are you going to do to my parents?!”
Wen Zheng turned, lifted her chin gently, and said in a soft voice, “That depends on you, Ah Heng. If you don’t want anything to happen to them, then be good. Stop throwing tantrums.”
With that, he turned and left without another glance.
Quan Heng felt like she was about to go insane. She grabbed a shard of porcelain from the floor and hurled it at Wen Zheng.
The shard missed and shattered at his feet, but it was enough to make all the nearby maids fall to their knees in terror.
“Wen Zheng! I’m telling you—if you dare hurt my parents, I’ll be your enemy in this life and the next. I will never let you go!”
She had never forgotten—in that dream, in order to control her and prevent anyone from rescuing her, the Crown Prince had thrown her entire family into prison, leaving her completely isolated and without recourse.
Now, was everything really going to repeat itself? She would not accept it!
Wen Zheng looked back at her once, then shifted his gaze to the maids and servants kneeling all around the courtyard.
“Oh right, Ah Heng. Since the people in your courtyard failed to make you eat, that means they didn’t do their job. Let each of them be punished with five strokes of the rod.”
At these words, wails filled the courtyard.
Fundau looked terrified and kowtowed repeatedly before Quan Heng. “Miss Gu, I beg you—please save us, I don’t want to be beaten!”
Quan Heng stared at Wen Zheng in disbelief and shouted, “What are you trying to do?! Don’t punish them!”
Wen Zheng sneered, raising a brow. “If I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll never learn. From now on, if you dare harm yourself, others will pay the price in your place.”
With that, he snapped his fingers. Two hidden guards leapt down from a nearby tree, grabbed sticks, and began carrying out the punishment in the courtyard.
Cries and screams echoed all around, but Quan Heng only felt a bone-deep chill.
She looked at him as if seeing a stranger.
In all these past months, he had never done anything like this. She didn’t know whether this was his true nature, or if he had been putting on an act all this time.
If it was the latter, then he must have regained his memory long ago—and had been lurking by her side ever since.
Just thinking about it made her shudder.
He had only snapped his fingers, and hidden guards had appeared. Then how many more were still lurking in the shadows, monitoring her every move? It was like he had laid an inescapable trap.
No matter how far she ran, she would never escape the palm of his hand.
This man… was terrifyingly cold.
Wen Zheng took one last look at her. Seeing her sitting on the ground in a daze, crushed, his heart ached as well.
But right now, at this critical moment, he couldn’t afford any mistakes.
Once everything was settled, he would tell her everything—every last detail.
When that time came, she could hit him, curse him—he would accept it all.
Taking a deep breath, he didn’t linger and left the courtyard.
***
After leaving the villa, Wen Zheng galloped back to the capital and entered Yongning Marquis’s residence in plain clothes.
As soon as he walked in, he saw the Marquis and Marchioness in the main courtyard.
At the moment, they looked uneasy. The marquis was pacing nonstop, clearly worried.
“Madam, where do you think Heng’er could have gone? She’s been gone all night! Thankfully we managed to keep the matter quiet. If word got out, her reputation would be ruined!”
Suddenly, they looked up and saw Wen Zheng. Reflexively, they moved to bow.
Wen Zheng quickly stepped forward and supported them. “Marquis, Madam—please don’t bow to me. I wouldn’t feel right.”
“I came today with something very important to tell you—about Ah Heng, and about your whole household.”
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