Chapter 5

Chapter 5

In Jiangling City, everyone said I was infatuated with Xiao Qibai.

A lowly actress, having been pampered for a few years, had forgotten her place and set her heart on marrying into the Prince’s Mansion.

Xiao Qibai likely viewed me the same way.

Brushing his hand aside, I said flatly, “The marriage is between Your Highness and Miss Song. It has nothing to do with Hongxiu.”

“Nothing to do with you?”

He gripped my shoulders.

“If you truly feel it has nothing to do with you, then why do you hurt Wanrong again and again? And why do you keep that cold face-kneeling there for two shichen straight-yet still refuse to soften and beg me even once?

“Why else? Because I’m engaged to her, and you turned jealousy into hatred.”

His hand pressed down on an old injury on my shoulder. I sucked in a breath of pain and instinctively shoved him away, stumbling back.

He froze, then grew even angrier.

“What, you won’t even let me touch you now?”

Xiao Qibai hadn’t always been like this.

Even when the troupe leader drugged me and sent me to his bed, he only gave me warm water, then slept on a chaise longue in his outer robe.

When I woke and asked why he hadn’t gone to another room, he smiled.

“Because I was afraid.

“Afraid that if I stormed out, everyone would think I was disgusted by you, and afterward they’d trample the low and fawn on the high, bullying you.

“And afraid that if I slept on that bed, I’d lose control and go against what you wanted.”

…

In only two short years, every shred of tenderness and respect had disappeared.

In a raging fury, Xiao Qibai seized my throat and slammed me down onto the Imperial Consort chaise longue painted with begonias.

My clothes were ripped open.

I struggled, staring at the ceiling, while the crack of the whip from my childhood rang in my ears-the troupe leader lashing down on me:

“Remember this: an actress is just an actress, a thing meant to serve people and please them!”

…

Xiao Qibai’s kiss was about to fall. My hand had already found the scissors hidden in my sleeve.

Then the screen was knocked three times.

“Your Highness.” It was Pei Ren’s voice outside.

“Get out!”

“Your Highness…” Pei Ren insisted. “It’s Miss Song. Her old injury flared up, and she fainted.”

Sure enough, the instant he heard Song Wanrong’s name, Xiao Qibai released me.

He tossed me onto the bed like an object and turned to leave.

Pei Ren followed after him.

Right before he went out, he glanced back through the glazed screen, his gaze landing on me in a blur.

That look held pity-

and something unreadable, darkly tangled beneath it.