A young girl in green was pinned against the wall, her face so pale it seemed almost transparent. Her eyes were tightly shut, as though she had resigned herself to her fate. She neither struggled nor spoke, yet tears kept streaming down her face. Who else could it have been but A'ke?
"This little lady is truly beautiful. Even I can barely bring myself to do it," a eunuch beside her said with a smile.
Another eunuch sneered, "You don't even have anything down there. You still know how to pity a beauty?"
The first eunuch's face flushed red. "As if you have any either!"
The old matron holding the scissors immediately flew into a rage. "What a little vixen! Even eunuchs without balls can be bewitched out of their minds by you. Let this old woman cut up that slutty face of yours!" As she spoke, she raised the scissors toward A'ke's delicate, pale face.
"Ah~" Though A'ke had resigned herself to her fate, she still cried out in terror when the moment came.
Yet the agonizing pain she expected never arrived. Instead, several far louder screams rang out beside her. She opened her eyes in confusion and found the hateful eunuchs and matrons sprawled on the ground, their fate unknown. When she turned around, she suddenly saw a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
"Am I dreaming?" A'ke rubbed her eyes instinctively. She had seen this man in her dreams countless times, but whenever she tried to catch him or embrace him, she would always wake to find it had all been an empty dream.
Seeing the panic and unease in the girl's limpid eyes, Song Qingshu felt endless guilt. "A'ke, I came too late. I let you suffer far too much grievance and fear."
"Brother Song,