However, that was not the case. Gu Lianchang quickly stripped her bare but did not light a candle, not intending to look at her. His voice was bone-chillingly cold: “Ruan Ning, you may have forgotten, but I will not. I want you to suffer the humiliation you once inflicted on me. I want you to die miserably in the future, with no one knowing or caring.”
Humiliation? When had she humiliated him? No, it was the original owner!
Ruan Ning lunged to hug him, trying to maximize skin contact to evoke his pity. But Gu Lianchang could no longer feel her skin; he was only thinking about the humiliation she had caused him.
When he was sixteen, his father, a general fighting against invaders, suffered a devastating defeat. His father neither died in battle nor committed suicide. Although military failure was typically a capital offense, it rarely affected the family. However, when the report reached the emperor, he decided to make an example and punish severely. As a result, his mother was imprisoned and died, and he, as the only son of the Gu family, was sent to the palace to be castrated.
For a man who practiced martial arts, this outcome was worse than death. He had thought about dying, but there were still relatives in the Gu family he needed to protect.
Gradually, he climbed from the bottom, serving beside the emperor who had killed his parents and stripped away his dignity. Using his mind and martial skills, he became someone who could decide others’ life and death.
But how could that feeling of living worse than death be erased?
Gu Lianchang suddenly put down Ruan Ning and retrieved silver needles from a cabinet. She was terrified of pain, so he would make her hurt.
The fire starter sparked to life, and in the flickering light, Ruan Ning saw his grotesque face and the cold gleam of the silver needle. Panic consumed her. She and Gu Lianchang were far apart in age and had never interacted. How had she offended him? If it happened during the original timeline, the system would have provided a hint. Perhaps it was during her youth—but surely he wouldn’t hold a grudge for that?
