My brother entrusted his child to me, and I livestreamed raising the baby, making the Empress cry wi

In the dense forest, countless layers of decaying leaves piled up, feeling soft and yielding underfoot, as if stepping on rotting flesh.

The air was filled with the damp, musty smell and the earthy stench of soil, mixed with a cloyingly sweet putrid odor.

The light filtered through the dense branches, leaving only a few golden specks, barely providing any illumination. We relied entirely on the torches of the surrounding soldiers.

The torches crackled and popped as the grease burned, the smell of pine smoke mingling with the aroma of decaying leaves, casting crooked plumes of smoke in the cool early spring air.

The person in the center was surrounded by torches, making every expression on his face exceptionally clear.

Shu Jingwei slumped in the mud, her hair disheveled and clinging wetly to her cheeks, with bits of leaves and mud mixed in between.

Her dragon robe was no longer recognizable as its original color, and mud had drawn hideous marks on it.

She jerked her head back, the veins on her neck bulging, her mouth wide open, and screamed with all her might—

"Lin Ye!!!" His voice was hoarse and cracked.

"Why are you targeting me like this?! I only made the mistake that every emperor makes! Why can't you forgive me? Why!?"

Lin Ye sneered in anger upon hearing her shameless words.

"I forgive you?"

His voice was lowered several octaves, as if it were being squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Dream on."

The temperature in the dense forest seemed to drop several degrees suddenly. Shu Jingwei involuntarily shivered and hunched her back.

"My brother Ye Fan's life—" Lin Ye's voice was deliberate and clear, "and the suffering my goddaughter Xiao Douzi has endured—"

"I will make you pay for all of this, one by one!"

Shu Jingwei felt as if her bones had been removed in an instant; her body went limp, she braced herself on the ground, lowered her head, and began to tremble.

Lin Ye looked at it for a while, then clicked his tongue, still feeling it wasn't enough.

He thought for a moment, then his tone lightened, as if he were talking about something very interesting: "Do you want to know how this secret passage, which should have been unknown to anyone, was exposed?"

He paused, seemingly admiring her stiff and contorted expression, before continuing to speak after a long while.

"Of course Ye Fan told me."

Shu Jingwei suddenly looked up.

The movement was too sudden, and her cervical spine couldn't withstand it, making a crisp "crack" sound.

Her pupils contracted sharply, her face filled with disbelief.

impossible!

Ye Fan—How is this possible!?

Ye Fan clearly loves her to death!

She remembers it perfectly!

The way Ye Fan looked at her back then, the way he wanted to rip his heart out and offer it to her with both hands...

Even later... later he was... murdered, and his soul returned.

He simply ignored her and never took any revenge!

Shu Jingwei later thought about this carefully and came to a conclusion—

Ye Fan must still love her, which is why he couldn't bring himself to harm her.

After all, Ye Fan was willing to give up the command of an army of 300,000 so that she could sit on the throne securely!

He was also secretly training assassins for her, who were only at her beck and call, and even Ye Fan himself couldn't mobilize them!

As for why she didn't stop Lin Ye from taking revenge on her...

Shu Jingwei thought that perhaps it was because her soul power was insufficient...

but!

This secret passage!

This was her last resort as emperor!

Why would Ye Fan tell others?

impossible!

Absolutely impossible!

But deep down, another rational voice kept saying:

It was Ye Fan who told his brother, otherwise how could Lin Ye know so much?

The soldiers who helped capture the old emperor back then were all killed by her a few years ago under various pretexts.

This secret passage was known only to him and Ye Fan. Although Ye Fan was also dead, his soul remained...

Shu Jingwei's face contorted, her nostrils flared, and her features became disorganized.

Lin Ye smiled slightly when he saw her like this.

A casual voice rang out again, even tinged with surprise: "Oh, right, you didn't know that, did you—"

"When Wang Meng and the others chased after her to the palace, they encountered Shu Rou." His voice became even lighter.

"When you asked her where you went, your good daughter sold you off without saying a word."

Shu Jingwei's mind was already a bit sluggish after the previous stimulation.

daughter?

She was stunned for a while before she suddenly realized what was happening.

By the way—

She also has a daughter!

Shurou.

Shu Jingwei froze, remembering that she had forgotten Shu Rou in the palace.

When she left, she only remembered to go to the storeroom to get valuables and forgot about Shu Rou.

But she didn't do it on purpose! She was just too anxious!

If only Shu Rou had called out to her.

I will definitely take her with me!

Why didn't she come and call me?

Why would she sell herself out?!

Just because I didn't take her with me?

I am her biological mother!

Shu Jingwei gritted her teeth, her lips trembled, and her fists, which were braced against the ground, clenched tightly, her nails digging into her palms.

Lin Ye's voice rang out again, unhurried and casual, as he delivered his critique: "Shu Jingwei, you're such a failure as a person."

Nobody loves you.

Lin Ye paused for a moment, then snorted coldly.

"The only one you killed..."

The wind blew through the woods, swirling up a few withered leaves that landed on Shu Jingwei's back.

"As emperor, your subjects and people all wish you dead. As a mother, your own daughter has betrayed you."

Lin Ye chuckled softly.

The laughter was filled with a mixture of exhilaration and irony.

"Shu Jingwei, how does it feel to be betrayed and abandoned by everyone?"

Shu Jingwei's eyes darted around unfocused, and she began to mutter to herself:

"Failure...yes...I have failed...I..."

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly looked up and stared upwards.

My gaze tried to see the sky through the layers of tree trunks, but after trying for a long time, I could see nothing but the branches.

Shu Jingwei didn't know where Lin Ye was.

But she knew!

She knew that person was definitely somewhere right now—

Looking down at her from her vantage point, she seemed like an ant.

She raised her voice, squeezing out the last bit of strength from her chest, and her scream was almost inhuman, more like the agonizing cry of a wild beast:

"No!!!"

"It's all your fault! If it weren't for you, the people wouldn't have rebelled, Ye Fan's spirit would have stayed to help me, and I would have a lovely daughter! It's all your fault—"

After shouting that, Shu Jingwei deflated like a punctured balloon.

She started twitching nervously, her eyes suddenly scanning her surroundings.

They met the gazes of Wang Meng and his men, which pressed down on them like mountains.

Every pair of eyes was filled with contempt, disgust, and hatred, without any attempt to conceal it.

Those gazes fell upon her like countless needles piercing her at once, making her shrink back all over.

Shu Jingwei finally couldn't hold on any longer and suddenly broke down in tears.

His cries were muffled, and his face was covered in tears, snot, and mud. He tried to wipe it with the sleeve of his dragon robe, but the more he wiped, the dirtier and more smudged it became.