Chapter 232: Scorching and Unrestrained Possessiveness

Chapter 232: Scorching and Bare Possessiveness

The maidservant helping her bathe brought a wedding dress.

Seeing this wedding dress, so similar to the one in her past life, Jiang Shuning felt only a surge of helplessness rising from the depths of her heart.

Those humiliating memories she had desperately tried to forget, Xiao Lingchuan insisted on recreating them in full.

If that isn’t torture, what is?

She let the maids dress her in the bridal gown and carefully painted gorgeous makeup onto her face.

When she was escorted back to the bridal chamber, the glaring red candles flickered before her eyes, casting an eerie glow over Xiao Lingchuan's strikingly handsome face.

He had already changed into his wedding robe and was gazing at her with a smile.

Everything before her overlapped perfectly with her past life.

The only difference was the look in his eyes now—no longer the cold indifference and disgust of that time, but the scorching, bare possessiveness of a hunter eyeing its prey.

He stepped forward, took her cold hand, and pulled her down to sit at the table, his voice full of tenderness: "Shuning, do you know how long I, this prince, have waited for this day?"

These affectionate words, however, coiled around Jiang Shuning's spine like a venomous snake, sending a chill through her entire body.

From the moment of his rebirth, he had been scheming for this day.

What he wanted was for her to repeat her fate all over again, to be trapped by him once more in this beautiful cage called the Jing Prince's Mansion.

Ten years in her past life, until death did them part.

How many years would she be trapped this time?

Xiao Lingchuan ignored her silence. He picked up the nuptial wine from the table, handed her a cup himself, and then forcefully linked his arm through hers.

"In our last life, we never got to drink this nuptial wine. In this life, let us make up for it," he said softly.

She said nothing, only feeling the irony.

Was all this elaborate effort meant to brand the humiliation of this sacrifice into her memory forever?

After drinking the wine, Xiao Lingchuan's voice had already gone husky, his gaze like liquid fire, tracing every inch of her features: "You've had a tiring day. We... should rest now."

What was coming would come eventually.

Jiang Shuning's heart was cold and dead.

She slowly raised her hand, removing the hairpins from her hair and untying her elaborate robes.

His scorching, greedy eyes roved over her like a thousand hands.

Until she was left in just a thin shift, she silently lay down on the bed, stiff as a board, like a fish on a chopping block, awaiting the anticipated plundering and claiming.

The mattress dipped slightly beside her as he removed his outer robe and blew out the red candles.

In the darkness, Xiao Lingchuan's burning body was inches away, exuding an invisible pressure that seemed about to swallow her whole. Yet, he just lay still beside her, his breathing steady and restrained, without making a single move to cross the line.

What was happening?

This completely unexpected calm instead turned Jiang Shuning's shock into a deep unease. Had he changed his mind? Could he not bring himself to kill Jiang Yaozhen?

She had finally steeled herself for this trade. How could he back out now?

She abruptly opened her eyes and turned toward him in the darkness, her voice trembling, even to her own ears: "Your Highness..."

"Sleep."

His voice in the dark was unusually hoarse, as if he were forcibly holding something back: "You've had a tiring day. Rest well. We... have all the time in the world."

Jiang Shuning's astonishment was as great as if she had witnessed a predator willingly release its captured prey.

But before she could dwell on it, the exhaustion from a day of tumult and travel surged over her like a tide, instantly engulfing her.

She slept very uneasily, as if trapped in a nightmare.

In her dreams, Xiao Lingchuan was sometimes cold as ice, sometimes burning with obsession—two completely different faces overlapping and merging, leaving her disoriented.

She also dreamed of the bone-deep bitterness of the contraceptive tea she drank daily, followed by the coppery, bloodlike taste rising in her throat before her death in her past life...

The fears she had forcibly buried in the depths of her memory now turned into countless hands, dragging her into an abyss.

"No... Don't!" She finally broke free from the nightmare's grip, letting out a shattered cry.

"Eldest Miss? Eldest Miss, wake up!"

A warm, soft handkerchief gently wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

Jiang Shuning's eyes flew open, and the first thing she saw was Ling Wu's face, etched with worry.

For a split second, she was disoriented, thinking she was still in the Prime Minister's residence, still in her own room.

But as her vision slowly focused, the glaring red and luxurious furnishings around her were like a bucket of ice water, dashing all her self-deceptive illusions.

She was imprisoned in the Jing Prince's Mansion, in this exquisite cage that Xiao Lingchuan had built for her with his own hands.

"How... are you here?" As soon as she spoke, she found her throat dry and raw, as if scraped by sandpaper, painful and hoarse.

"His Highness sent someone to fetch me here overnight," Ling Wu quickly helped her sit up and handed her warm water. "His Highness said you were frightened last night and ran a fever, so you needed someone you trust to attend you. The Master also agreed. He was worried about you, so he told me to come and take good care of you."

Jiang Shuning's hand holding the water cup trembled slightly: "Father... he knows I'm here too?"

"Yes." Ling Wu nodded. "The Master heard that His Highness risked everything to rescue you from the Dali Temple prison, and he... is very grateful to him."

"Grateful to him?" Jiang Shuning laughed as if she had heard the greatest joke, a sharp, icy smile curling at the corners of her lips. "Grateful for what? Grateful for moving me from one cage to a more exquisite one? Grateful for branding me with the stain of being a prison escapee, leaving me no hope of ever seeing the light of day, forcing me to be his secret, shamed concubine?"

These sharp words made Ling Wu's face turn pale. She hurriedly urged, "Eldest Miss, the case of Third Miss being poisoned to death—now the witness is dead, and all the evidence points to you. The people in the Prince Rui's Mansion all insist that the maid was instructed by you to poison Third Miss... Without new strong evidence, if you had stayed in the prison, there would be no way out but death."

Ling Wu paused, lowering her voice even more.

"Besides... the Master said he can see His Highness's feelings for you. He said His Highness truly wants to marry you and protect you. Eldest Miss, are you truly not moved at all? His Highness has done so much for you..."

Jiang Shuning said nothing more.

She only felt exhausted—a boundless, bottomless exhaustion rising from the depths of her heart.

Her maid, her father—perhaps in the future, more and more people—would only see the "deep affection" that Xiao Lingchuan had shown for her, the merit of "saving" her from the jaws of death.

No one would understand the price she had paid: freedom, dignity, the suffocation of every moment in the long years ahead.

In this hunt disguised as love, even her cries for help seemed like ingratitude.

Ling Wu, seeing her dazed look, quickly brought over a bowl of medicine and comforted her gently, "Miss, you are still ill. Please drink the medicine while it's hot."

The bowl of medicine was pitch black, emitting a strong and bitter odor.

Jiang Shuning instinctively recoiled.

After being reborn, she had developed a fear of medicinal soups; every time she saw one, she thought it might be poisoned.

She subconsciously groped along the edge of the bed, trying to find a silver hairpin to test it.

But Ling Wu, before her, took out a silver needle from her sleeve and dipped it into the thick, black medicinal liquid.

After a moment, the silver needle was taken out, still shiny, without any discoloration.

"Miss, it's not poisoned. You can drink it safely." Ling Wu put away the silver needle before handing the bowl to her lips.

Seeing Jiang Shuning staring at her in astonishment, she explained, "The Prince ordered it. He said that from now on, everything you eat or drink must first be tested with a silver needle to confirm it's non-toxic before it can be presented to you. Miss, the Prince... he really does care about you."

Jiang Shuning's eyes flickered.

Could her death in her past life have traumatized him that much?

This cautious protection didn't seem like something that arrogant, conceited man would do.

"Where is the Prince now?" Jiang Shuning forced herself to endure the discomfort of her illness and asked in a hoarse voice.

"The Prince went to court early this morning," Ling Wu blurted out, "The Prince said that yesterday Prince Ning recklessly broke into the mansion and caused damage. It's time he paid for what he did!"

Jiang Shuning's hand holding the medicine bowl paused abruptly.

Xiao Lingchuan really held a grudge over the smallest thing!