After finishing, Zhu Zhuqing felt a little more relaxed, and her heart no longer seemed quite so weighed down.
These things had piled up inside her all this time, with nowhere to pour them out and no one to listen.
Speaking them aloud now made her feel much better.
It was like clearing a channel for the floodwaters trapped behind a landslide dam. For a moment, she felt wonderfully relieved and at ease.
It had been a long time since she had spoken so much.
Ever since awakening her martial soul at six, she had been named a candidate for succession by her family, just like her elder sister, Zhu Zhuyun.
From then on, everyone who had once been close to her-family, friends, and playmates alike-had distanced themselves from her.
She, too, had gradually grown cold and unfeeling, until there was no longer anyone by her side she could talk to.
Although she still had several guards assigned by the family, they were not loyal to her. Beyond following the family's orders and fulfilling their duties as guards, they would never grow close to her.
After all, in their eyes, she was merely a whetstone the family had provided for her sister Zhu Zhuyun, a sacrificial pawn who could never defeat her sister.
Since she could not wrest the right of succession from her sister, naturally no one wanted to grow close to her, much less pledge their loyalty to her.
It was no exaggeration to say that Zhu Zhuqing was utterly alone within her family.
Originally, Zhu Zhuqing had not wanted to bring up her family either, yet when Ye Qifeng asked, she found herself quite willing to speak.
She even wanted to tell him everything: her private worries, the pressure she faced, her suffering, and more.
For some