Her face brimmed with mockery, her eyes openly filled with ridicule.
“Your mother endured humiliation and kept living all these years for one reason only, to protect you. But how did you treat her?”
How did he treat her?
Wen Mingfeng’s mouth went dry. His eyes flickered, grief and fury surging together uncontrollably.
He truly hated his mother deeply.
After suffering such a thing, she should simply have died!
And even if she didn’t die, once she realized she was pregnant, she should have drunk a bowl of medicine and aborted him.
Yet she had actually given birth to him!
All these years he had endured endless cold stares, treated like a dog by the Wen family.
What had he done wrong?!
Why did he have to suffer all of this?!
Gradually, he came to hate his mother more and more. Later, he had even watched coldly as the Wen family escalated their humiliation toward her, eventually sending her to the family temple in the back mountains.
Those matters had happened so long ago that even he himself no longer wanted to remember them.
But Qi Yuan knew.
“How do you know these things?” Wen Mingfeng stared at her viciously, his expression dark and savage, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.
“If one wishes to know, one naturally can.” Qi Yuan smiled faintly.
“You thought you hid it well, but the moment I first saw you, I already knew you harbored evil intentions.”
Great Zhao Temple?
Wen Mingfeng’s lips trembled. “You already knew I desired you?”
Desired?
Xiao Yunting narrowed his eyes.
Qi Yuan merely laughed softly. “If that’s how you want to think of it, then fine.”
She no longer wished to answer Wen Mingfeng’s questions. Bending down coldly, she stared at him. “So now you’re going to answer mine. Under whose orders were you acting?”
Now that all his secrets had been completely exposed, Wen Mingfeng instead became fully calm.
He met Qi Yuan’s gaze with a half-smile. “Since Miss Qi knows I don’t care about my mother, then you should know I have no weaknesses. What’s the use in saying all this to me now?”
Qi Yuan bent closer, removed her hairpin, and viciously stabbed it into his abdomen.
Wen Mingfeng immediately curled up like a shrimp, trembling violently from pain.
Qi Yuan coldly sneered. “You don’t care about your mother, but you do care about the maid beside her, don’t you? The girl who raised you. Tell me, if she saw you return covered in holes, what do you think she’d do?”
Wen Mingfeng’s eyes split with fury. At last his composure collapsed completely. “Shut up! Shut up! You’re not allowed to say it, not allowed!”
“Why not?!” Qi Yuan seized his jaw without the slightest mercy.
“Admit it. You’re just as vile and filthy as your biological father, just as shameless and disgusting as your adoptive father. Otherwise, how could you fall for a servant girl twenty years older than you? You’re a monster!”
Step by step, Qi Yuan drove Wen Mingfeng mad.
The darkest, most shameful parts of his heart had now been completely exposed beneath the sunlight. He felt as though he had been stripped naked and thrown into a crowd for public viewing.
He utterly collapsed.
Qi Yuan seized the moment and delivered the final strike. “You still think the Crown Prince is your benefactor? That he saved you? How laughable. You’re devoted to your enemy unto death, when in reality the Crown Prince was the true culprit behind your mother’s ruin! The Wen family of Jinling was originally nothing more than the Crown Prince’s puppet!”
Wen Mingfeng’s teeth clenched so hard they rattled, as though he might grind them into pieces.
Yet even so, waves of fury kept surging upward within him. Despite being severely wounded, he still struggled violently, veins bulging across his body, lips turning purple.
He glared at Qi Yuan. “You’re lying! I don’t believe you! I don’t believe it!”
Qi Yuan coldly met his gaze. “Then think carefully. Didn’t your mother ever say the same thing to you?”
The same thing?
A loud buzzing exploded inside Wen Mingfeng’s head.
He had not spoken to his mother properly in a very, very long time, much less listened carefully to her words.
But why was that?
He pounded his own head frantically with both hands and finally remembered.
Yes.
His mother had long ago warned him not to go to the capital, not to seek out the Crown Prince!
Everything matched now.
Wen Mingfeng suddenly went quiet. His gaze turned blank, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
Qi Yuan raised an eyebrow. “Can you speak now?”
Wen Mingfeng slowly lifted his head to stare at her, eyes stiff and vacant. “Don’t you already know everything? Then why ask me?”
Qi Yuan chuckled lightly. “So my guesses were all correct after all.”
She clicked her tongue. “Wen Mingfeng, your reputation is ruined, your future destroyed, and your identity as Duke Cheng’s illegitimate son has already been exposed.”
Wen Mingfeng stared at her sharply.
Qi Yuan continued coolly: “You’ve lost all value as a tool now. So tell me, who do you think most wants you dead at this moment?”
Who?
Of course Wen Mingfeng knew perfectly well.
He clenched his fists silently.
Blood still flowed endlessly from his abdomen. Covering the wound, Wen Mingfeng suddenly beckoned to Qi Yuan. “Fine. I’ll tell you.”
Qi Yuan slowly bent down.
Suddenly, he yanked the hairpin from his abdomen and stabbed toward Qi Yuan with all his strength.
Xiao Yunting reacted instantly. He kicked Wen Mingfeng’s hand aside, then cleanly stepped on his wrist and ground down hard.
Wen Mingfeng screamed in agony.
Qi Yuan had already slowly straightened back up. “No matter. Since you refuse to speak, there are ways to deal with silence too.”
She lifted a hand and snapped Wen Mingfeng’s neck.
Then she said calmly: “What a pity. Such a waste of my time.”
Xiao Yunting did not think much of it. He patted Qi Yuan’s shoulder. “It’s fine. Just as you said, even if he refuses to speak, there are still ways.”
That was true enough.
Qi Yuan stopped delaying and let out a whistle.
When Liujin and Babao hurried over, Qi Yuan instructed in a low voice: “Do me a favor. Tell the Xiang family to prepare a carriage and escort the important witness Wen Mingfeng to the Dali Temple to surrender himself. Say Wen Mingfeng has urgent matters to clarify there.”
Liujin and Babao never discounted Qi Yuan’s orders. The moment they heard her instructions, they immediately turned to carry them out.
Upon hearing the request, Old Master Xiang agreed without hesitation and immediately ordered a carriage prepared.
Qi Yuan watched as Liujin and Babao loaded Wen Mingfeng into the carriage. Then she turned toward Xiao Yunting. “Your Highness, do you think this carriage can safely make it back to the capital, to the Dali Temple?”
Xiao Yunting smiled faintly. “I don’t think so.”
Wen Mingfeng definitely possessed secrets. Otherwise he would never have dared target Qi Yuan directly.
The more someone knew, the less the people behind him could rest easy.
Now that the only living witness might fall into the hands of the authorities, would those people trust him?
They would not.
People consumed by suspicion never possess the ability to trust anyone.
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