The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

The gates of the execution platform opened.

Tang Xixue didn't stop walking, and went straight across the high and gloomy threshold of the execution platform.

The guards on both sides looked at each other, but in the end, none of them dared to actually reach out and stop the esteemed Princess Jing.

The night wind swept in, causing the torches on both sides of the passageway inside the door to flicker, stretching the shadows of the torture instruments on the wall into a menacing shape.

The air was filled with a lingering, somber smell, a mixture of old blood rust and cheap lamp oil.

"Shen Shangqing?"

Tang Xixue looked at Fuyi with a puzzled expression.

"Your Highness, Shen Xian, the eldest son of Prime Minister Shen, is your... fiancé."

He followed closely beside her, whispering a reminder.

She knew that since his serious illness, her prince's memory had often been hazy, and many people and things seemed like flowers seen through a fog.

Tang Xixue paused almost imperceptibly.

"So it was Shen Sinian."

A few syllables escaped her lips softly, as if she had unearthed a long-forgotten jade pendant from the depths of her memory, wiping away the blurry dust to reveal the name engraved beneath.

In that instant of raising her eyes, her gaze pierced through the dim light at the end of the corridor and landed on the relatively brighter hall.

The candlelight cast a soft glow, illuminating a figure sitting upright in a wooden chair.

He is truly a man of exceptional talent and talent.

Even in this dark place, his back remained straight, and his demeanor was impeccable.

His smoky gray brocade robe with cloud patterns and silver threads made his face appear even more handsome and otherworldly.

Her features are like a painting, and she is as elegant as an orchid.

It is the composure and elegance cultivated by a family with a century-old tradition of strict etiquette and rich literary tradition that has become an ingrained demeanor.

Shen Xian, the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review, is the adopted brother of Shen Yan, the heroine of destiny, and the white moonlight in the hearts of countless young women in the capital.

"Si Nian greets Your Highness."

Shen Xian had already stood up and bowed respectfully in the direction she had come from.

The voice was clear, gentle, and impeccable.

In the instant he raised his eyes, Tang Xixue did not miss the extremely subtle furrow that flashed across his gentle brows.

It wasn't a fear of the eerie atmosphere of the place, but rather a repulsion at the sudden appearance of troublesome figures.

He thought that she had come to pester him again in the dead of night, even going so far as to step onto the execution platform.

The candlelight flickered in his clear eyes, reflecting the aloofness beneath a perfect mask.

"Shen once said that men and women should be different and should not touch each other."

"Your Highness, although we are engaged in name, the marriage has not yet taken place. To avoid causing controversy and damaging Your Highness's reputation, it would be best to... keep our distance."

He even nodded slightly when he spoke, as a sign of respect.

Everyone in the capital knows that this young master Shen, though seemingly gentle and refined, is in charge of criminal law and is known for his incorruptibility.

Gentleness is his upbringing, but unyieldingness is in his very bones.

"Shen Sinian".

Tang Xixue's gaze didn't linger on him for long before she cut straight to the point.

"I wish to take Chao Han, the commander of the guards of the Hall of Longevity, with me."

Shen Xian's eyes flickered slightly, as if a hint of surprise flashed across them, before she quickly regained her composure.

He hesitated for a moment, then said slowly:

"Commander Chao Han... is indeed here. However, he has violated palace rules and should be punished in the water dungeon according to the law. He cannot leave before his punishment is over. This is the rule, Your Highness understands."

rule.

It's the rules again.

The last trace of warmth in Tang Xixue's eyes faded away.

Without saying another word, she turned abruptly and walked toward the lower, heavier iron door on the side of the torture chamber.

There, the cold air was almost solidified, mixed with the smell of water and rust, seeping out in wisps.

"Your Highness!"

Shen Xian's tone carried a clear intention to dissuade him, and he even subconsciously took half a step forward.

His response was a dull, loud bang!

"Bang—!"

Tang Xixue raised her foot and kicked the tightly closed iron door covered with frost with all her might.

The door bolt trembled, and ice chips fell in a flurry.

On this frigid winter night, inside the water dungeon, the water must have been icy cold, perhaps even frozen solid.

She turned her head, her gaze like a tempered ice blade, sweeping over the executioners of the execution platform who were about to move at the sound but were frozen in place, finally landing on Shen Xian's stunned and frozen face.

"This princess wants to see—"

"Who dares to touch me?"

She spoke slowly and deliberately, her voice not loud, but carrying a do-or-die pressure. Her aura suddenly changed, and there was no trace of the cowardly appearance that was rumored in the past.

It was a kind of awe-inspiring authority that came from long-term high positions and the power of life and death.

"Bang—"

She exerted her strength again, and the iron door, which was already dilapidated and brittle from the cold, finally let out a groan of despair as she kicked it open completely!

A chilling, damp atmosphere swept over us, mixed with a faint smell of blood.

The interior was dark, with only a tiny window high up letting in a pale moonlight that illuminated a murky pool of sewage below, dotted with ice shards.

A figure can be vaguely seen by the pool.

"Stop me?"

Tang Xixue stood in the open doorway, her figure stretched long by the firelight of the torture chamber behind her, casting her into the darkness of the water dungeon. She resembled a deity who had suddenly descended, her icy gaze making it difficult for everyone to breathe.

"That's insubordination!"

"The crime deserves death!"

There was dead silence all around.

Shen Xian stood frozen in place, staring at the resolute yet unfamiliar figure at the doorway.

His lips moved slightly, but he ultimately did not utter any more words of obstruction.

No matter how grand the rules are, they cannot supersede the power of the monarch.

At this moment, Tang Xixue was not there to pester his fiancée, but to exercise the authority of a princess.

To stop her would indeed be an act of insubordination.

He cannot be stopped.

Princess Mirror, infamous for her outrageous behavior, seemed to be entirely within the world's expectations.

When Tang Xixue finally saw the scene inside the water prison, the imposing aura around her transformed into an even more chilling cold.

The murky icy water reached up to the man's chest, and shards of ice floated on the surface, gleaming eerily in the pale moonlight.

Chao Han was chained to the pool wall, his head hanging limply, his wet black hair sticking to his pale, resolute profile, his lips bluish-black, and his breathing so weak that his chest was barely rising and falling.

The skin on the shoulders and neck exposed to the water had turned purple from the cold, and tiny ice crystals were even visible.

Her fingertips clenched tightly beneath the heavy cloak.

She walked step by step across the wet, slippery, and cold ground toward the murky icy water.

She paused when the tip of her boot touched the biting cold air, then stepped in without hesitation.

The sound of water was soft, and a chill instantly crept up from my calves to my spine.

She stopped in front of Chao Han, leaned down slightly, reached out her hand, and lightly touched his cold chin with her fingertips, lifting his lowered face slightly.

"Morning chill".

Her voice rang out, and in the deathly silent and cold prison, it was like a pearl rolling down a crystal step, carrying a clear lightness and firmness, piercing through the stagnant darkness and cold.

"I've come to pick you up."

Chao Han's thick eyelashes trembled a few times, and she managed to open a small gap with great difficulty.

His unfocused pupils contracted sharply the moment they met her face, gathering a faint but clear light.

He saw her approaching with a lantern; the warm, dim light enveloped her silhouette, dispelling the darkness surrounding him.

Just like many years ago, the girl who pulled him out of the abyss of hell.

Was it a dream?

Within the nearly frozen body, the dormant heart, at this moment, beat weakly and frantically.

"Your Highness?"

A broken, breathy sound escaped from her bluish-purple lips.