Chapter 6: To Leave No Survivors

After a long while, Lin Jinyan finally crawled to Chu Chengyao’s feet.

She lifted her bloodied, mangled face and begged through tears

“Chu Cheng… Your Majesty, I beg you, kill me, flay me, slice me into a thousand pieces, anything is fine, but I beg you to spare my father and my brother. You can do anything to me, just please let them go. I beg you, I beg you…”

Receiving no response, Lin Jinyan began to kowtow over and over again

“I beg you, Your Majesty, I beg you, let them go, I beg you…”

She kowtowed until her forehead bled, only then did she hear Chu Chengyao’s voice coming from above

“Lin Jinyan, even someone as haughty as you has a time when you must kowtow and beg. If only you had begged the Gu family and the Lin family like this when I once begged you, things would not have ended up this way. If you had begged me like this yesterday, it might have been useful, but today…”

Lin Jinyan asked urgently, “What about today?”

Chu Chengyao stepped back and crouched down, reaching out to tuck the disheveled hair from Lin Jinyan’s face behind her ear. His eyes even held the tenderness Lin Jinyan was once familiar with, as he said gently, as if whispering to a lover

“This morning, your brother heard the tragic news about the Lin family and held Princess Yunxi hostage with a blade, intending to rescue you, but he was shot dead by the Imperial Guards. Before coming here, I heard your father vomited blood and is likely not long for this world.”

Lin Jinyan’s eyes widened, her breathing stopped. A moment later, she gasped for air, grabbed Chu Chengyao’s sleeve, and said urgently

“Impossible! You’re lying to me, aren’t you? You just want to see me suffer, right? They’re fine, aren’t they?”

A smile played on the corners of Chu Chengyao’s mouth: “Deceiving you before was a necessity of the situation; now, I have no need to lie to you.”

After speaking, Chu Chengyao stood up and ordered: “Someone, bring Lin Siyuan here.”

As Chu Chengyao rose, Lin Jinyan fell back to the ground, her eyes fixed firmly on the door.

In her heart, she prayed devoutly that Chu Chengyao was lying to her this time as well, and that her father and brother were safe and sound.

Chu Chengyao sat in the chair prepared for Zhou Yuexue. Zhou Yuexue used a handkerchief to wipe the stains left by Lin Jinyan from his cuffs, murmuring words of heartache that smoothed the lines between Chu Chengyao’s brows.

Before long, footsteps sounded from outside. Lin Jinyan propped herself up, staring intently at the door, only to see Lin Siyuan, his hair disheveled and his chest stained with blood, being dragged in by two guards holding his arms, unconscious.

Lin Jinyan cried out: “Father, Father…”

Chu Chengyao gave the guards a look, and they threw Lin Siyuan down in front of Lin Jinyan.

Lin Jinyan crawled forward, shaking Lin Siyuan’s shoulders and crying out

“Father! Father! It’s Yan’er, Father, please open your eyes and look at me, it’s Yan’er… Father…”

Lin Siyuan, whose face had already turned ashen, heard her voice and slowly opened his eyes, his breath as thin as a thread

“Yan’er…”

Lin Jinyan grabbed Lin Siyuan’s slowly rising hand and replied

“Father, it’s me.”

When Lin Siyuan saw Lin Jinyan’s face clearly, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of heartache

“Yan’er… how… did you get hurt like this? Does it hurt… Father didn’t… protect you well…”

Lin Jinyan gripped Lin Siyuan’s hand, which was trying to touch her wounds, and shook her head, crying

“It’s not Father’s fault, it’s all my fault. It was your daughter who wrongly trusted a traitor, harming Father, harming the Lin family, harming the Gu family. It is all your daughter’s fault.”

Lin Siyuan said intermittently: “It’s not… your fault… no one… blames you… live… well…”

Amidst Lin Jinyan’s tearful repentance, Lin Siyuan failed to catch his next breath; his mouth hung open, his eyes remained wide, and he ceased to breathe.

Lin Jinyan looked into Lin Siyuan’s eyes, helpless, her soft whispers turning into agonizing screams

“Father… Father… Father!!!”

After crying and screaming for a long time, Lin Jinyan reached out and slowly closed Lin Siyuan’s eyes.

(End of chapter)