When someone else's scheme had already succeeded and their arrangements were all but flawless, an ingenious stratagem might break the deadlock, but simple violence was the more direct solution. The plan Hu Xiaotian and Xue Shengjing devised was to sever their enemy's claws and fangs. While Li Chenzhou poured his energies into consolidating his power at the center and tightening his control over Great Yong, they would disrupt his arrangements and cut down his helpers one by one.
Jian Rongxin had been ill for three days. By the time she had the strength to get out of bed, another heavy snowfall had arrived. When she stepped outside her room, she saw Qin Yutong admiring the snow. Qin Yutong had been looking after her these past few days.
Qin Yutong's voice was level, without a trace of warmth. "If I were you, I would stay in my room and get some proper rest."
"Lying in bed makes me feel as though I'm already dead!" Jian Rongxin said.
Qin Yutong turned and saw the blank expression on Jian Rongxin's beautiful face, as though the light of life had suddenly left her.
First abandoned by her husband, then forced to witness her family's destruction and her loving father's gruesome death-few women could have endured such blows. Even now, Jian Rongxin could not understand why the husband who had shown her such devoted care since their marriage had suddenly become so cold. Though they had always been husband and wife in name only, they had treated each other with the respect of honored guests. She had long since decided to follow him for the rest of her life, yet reality had proved so cruel.
"Thank you all for looking after me these past few days," Jian Rongxin told Qin Yutong. "I'm much better now.