Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By the time I arrived, Xue Ling had already been apprehended.

She was kneeling on the ground, her face a mask of sorrow and distress.

“Princess, your servant was truly just making idle conversation with someone. I didn’t say a single word out of line.”

“Your servant has been by your side for ten years. You are the one who knows me best!”

Ten years!

That is certainly not a short time.

But the facts were laid bare before my eyes.

Time is the most useless thing of all.

Sometimes it suffers a crushing defeat in the face of love at first sight; sometimes it falls apart before a life-saving debt; and sometimes it retreats step by step when confronted by childhood sweethearts.

Its only real use is making people grow old.

I looked directly at her and said calmly, “What is there to panic about? Has This Princess said anything yet?”

“Are you in such a rush because you’re afraid This Princess won’t believe you?”

“Or are you afraid that if you die, you’ll never see your beloved again?”

Xue Ling was struck speechless.

She had likely guessed it by now.

I knew far more than she thought I did.

Finally, genuine tears began to stream down her face.

“Princess…”

Shuangwei was so furious that she stepped forward and slapped her across the face.

“Have you lost your mind?”

“You would truly sell out the Princess for a man?”

“We have been together for ten years. Have you forgotten all the days we spent together?”

After speaking, she turned and knelt on the ground, her eyes brimming with hot tears.

“Princess, please give her a chance!”

“She’s just a fool who has never seen a man before.”

“She was tricked and thought it was true love. I beg you to spare her life.”

My dear Shuangwei.

This is how a person of loyalty and affection should act.

In my dream, the story ended after Xue Ling and Wei He were married.

But one was a maid who betrayed her master, while the other was a core official who helped Prince Duan ascend the throne.

The disparity between them in terms of wealth, social status, and power was absolute.

I wasn’t particularly optimistic about her married life.

She was gambling on a man’s conscience.

But she didn’t even have a conscience herself.

How could she expect someone else to have one?

Nevertheless, I was willing to give Shuangwei some face.

“I will give you a chance.”

“If you can convince Wei He to marry you within a month…”

“This Princess will personally petition Imperial Father for a decree to fulfill this affection of yours.”

Xue Ling breathed a sigh of relief.

She prostrated herself on the ground.

“Thank you for your great mercy, Princess. Your servant will surely remember your kindness.”

Forget it.

You didn’t remember it after ten years.

But you’ll remember it now for the sake of a man?

Don’t try to coax me.

My decision to let her find a way to marry him wasn’t out of the goodness of my heart.

I simply wanted to watch the farce unfold.

I turned to leave.

Behind me, she raised her voice, sounding earnest.

“Princess, whether you believe it or not…”

“Your servant never intended to harm you.”

“Your servant knows her status is lowly and that I could never marry into the Marquis’s household.”

“I thought that if you were with him, I would be able to see him every day.”

“Your servant only had that small bit of selfishness, nothing more.”

“Princess, you are wonderful. It is your servant who is unworthy.”

Her face was covered in tears.

My heart remained as cold as water.

That night, Shuangwei did not sleep well.

Neither did I.

I had another dream.

In the dream, Xue Ling and Wei He were having their grand wedding.

Wei He lifted the bridal veil, a gentle smile on his face.

But Xue Ling’s smile was laced with tears.

She gripped a hairpin and suddenly plunged it into Wei He’s neck.

Blood splattered across her snowy-white face.

She stabbed him repeatedly, her expression bordering on madness.

“You clearly promised me you would spare the Princess’s life! Why did you kill her? Why?!”

When I woke from the dream, the sky was already bright.

I pondered that dream.

Perhaps Xue Ling was telling the truth.

But sliding into an abyss has no end.

At first, one thinks it’s just one small mistake.

But later, one is dragged into a bottomless pit by these individual small mistakes.

Moreover, betrayal is betrayal.

A fifty-percent betrayal isn’t exactly noble compared to a hundred-percent betrayal.