With her deceased husband as her dowry, would Your Highness dare to marry her?

There is no day or night in the cellar.

Time seems to stand still here, like the cold frost on the four walls.

The light of the eternal lamp flickered weakly, illuminating only a corner in front of the coffin.

Lin Ci took out a jar of wine and offered it as a sacrifice to the person in the coffin.

She knew he had been wronged today, and felt guilty and saddened.

"Ah Xuan... I'm so sorry."

Lin Ci spilled some wine on the ground and then drank some himself.

As the bitter wine went down her throat, she mentally went over everything that had happened along the way.

We left Zhangjia Village in a hurry.

There was no paper money, no prayer flags, and no monks chanting sutras to guide the way. Even the seventh day memorial service couldn't be properly held for him.

My master said that a memorial service should be held every seven days so that the departed souls will know that someone is waiting for them.

But she gave him nothing.

If Song Xuan returns from the underworld, will he still be able to find her?

Lin Ci lowered her head and thought for a moment, then suddenly realized something: she hadn't dreamed of him in a long time. Was he resenting her?

It must be resentment...

She hadn't been able to take good care of him along the way, and today, she almost couldn't even preserve his last shred of dignity.

A wave of bitterness washed over Lin Ci, and her eyes gradually reddened. She regretted that she had been too lenient and had let Princess Yongle get away with it. But where else could she go besides the Jing'an Prince's Mansion?

She took another swig of wine and choked, coughing twice.

She closed her eyes and pressed her face against the coffin; it was cold, very cold, just like his hand.

"Ah Xuan, are you there?" Lin Ci murmured.

The only response she received was the sound of her breathing.

As the effects of the alcohol wore off, her hands gradually went limp, and her mind became a little hazy.

Something from long ago suddenly took advantage of the situation.

Song Xuan used to be able to speak; his voice was clear and pure, like a bird in the forest.

One summer solstice, she contracted a plague. Her master searched for hundreds of medicines but could not find a cure. Song Xuan then used himself as a test subject, again and again. In the end, she recovered, but he became mute and could no longer utter a sound.

He was only nine years old that year.

In the days that followed, she and Song Xuan depended on each other for survival. The years in the mountains were long, and so was their affection. She didn't know when it started, but his gentle gaze would always fall on her unintentionally, and he would look at her for a long time.

A man falls in love, a young girl is in love.

Lin Ci naturally understood; she also admired Song Xuan and had secretly pledged her life to him.

She thought that it would be fine to live like this for the rest of her life. Although life in the mountains was poor, at least she had her master to protect her.

But fate had other plans. The master died in a fire caused by alcohol poisoning, and even his dwelling was burned down.

She and Song Xuan had no choice but to enter the mortal world and find their own way to survive.

Song Xuan is mute, and everyone bullies him.

But he was also kind-hearted and couldn't bear to see people suffer.

Lin Ci recalled that he once met an old man outside Shengzhou City.

The old man was covered in sores, flies swarmed around him, and passersby covered their noses and walked around him.

Seeing how pitiful he was, Song Xuan cleaned his sores, applied medicine, and even broke up his own precious dry rations to feed him.

The old man expressed his deepest gratitude and said he would definitely repay the debt.

Three days later, the old man arrived, carried by his sons on a door plank.

They smashed the herbal medicine stall, pinned Song Xuan to the ground, and insisted that Song Xuan had killed someone and wanted to drag him to the government office to pay compensation.

Song Xuan was speechless, and several people were relentlessly accusing him.

They took advantage of his inability to speak, robbed him of his money, and trampled his medicine.

Lin Ci learned of this near dusk.

Every household was cooking, and the alleyway was filled with the aroma of food. She waited and waited, but no one came. The food was heated up and cooled down repeatedly. Finally, the person returned, but he was covered in wounds and couldn't even lift his hand.

He smiled at her and gestured with his hands: "I accidentally fell."

Lin Ci believed it for the time being.

She applied the medicine for him, listening to his gasps for breath, swallowing all the pain back down.

The next day, she learned the whole story from her neighbors.

That night, while Song Xuan was asleep, she got up, went out, found the old man's house, and burned it down.

The firelight danced excitedly in her eyes.

She didn't know whether the old man's sons were dead or alive, and she didn't want to know.

She and Song Xuan left Shengzhou overnight.

He asked her why she was leaving in such a hurry, and she said she wanted to go somewhere else.

He didn't ask any more questions, but simply tightened his grip on her hand.

Perhaps because of the sins she committed, Song Xuan fell ill. Lin Ci wanted to do the same thing he had done to save her back then, but his health deteriorated day by day.

Left with no other choice, Lin Ci brought him to Zhangjia Village, thinking that the village was beautiful with clear waters and lush vegetation, and that with proper care, he could recover in a while.

After resting for more than half a month, Song Xuan was indeed much better. He no longer needed to stay in bed all day and could sometimes even go to the mountains to collect herbs.

But he couldn't bear to see Lin Ci working so hard, and he always felt that he was a burden to her. When he heard that the village chief of Zhangjia Village intended to invite him to be a doctor, he agreed without much thought. He planned to earn some money to buy Lin Ci a hairpin, and in the future, when he had extra money, he would have a son or daughter, and then his life would be worthwhile.

I never imagined that Zhangjia Village was such a cannibalistic place.

Taking advantage of his drunkenness, the village chief tricked him into signing a contract to sell himself as a long-term laborer, and then set his sights on Lin Ci.

The village chief's wife laughed at him for being stupid, saying, "Who would hire a mute as a doctor?"

Song Xuan had nowhere to turn for justice, watching helplessly as he dragged his beloved wife into a living hell. In just a few days, he suffered both emotional and physical ailments, and was bedridden.

In his final days, Lin Ci held him in her arms every day, their fingers intertwined. She watched his eyes go from clear to cloudy, from bright to unfocused, and felt his fingers slowly lose strength and turn cold.

She couldn't save him.

There's absolutely no way to save them.

Song Xuan traded his voice for her life back then.

But she couldn't even keep him for a few more days.

Tears silently streamed down her face, dripping onto the coffin, a testament to her enduring longing.

Lin Ci drank the wine in the jar in one gulp, wanting to forget the pain completely, even if it meant dying here.

The effects of the alcohol kicked in, and my consciousness gradually faded.

In a hazy state, Lin Ci felt a weight on her shoulder, and a warm feeling descended from above, enveloping her entire body.

She opened her eyes and saw Song Xuan, still looking like a young man, his peach blossom eyes beautiful even without smiling.

"Ah Xuan." She smiled, tears welling in her eyes, and hugged the person in front of her like a moth drawn to a flame.

She was afraid he would escape from her dreams, so she held him tightly in her arms, almost as if she wanted to embed him into her flesh.

"I'm sorry... Ah Xuan, I'm so sorry..." Her voice was muffled against his chest, the smell of alcohol mixed with her tears, which stained his clothes.

Pei Jinxuan froze.

His hand hung in mid-air, unsure whether to let go or retract it.

At this moment, Lin Ci trembled slightly in his arms, like frost on a plum blossom, seemingly cold, but melting as soon as it touched his palm.

This transformation stirred something indescribable within Pei Jinxuan.

After hesitating for a long time, he gently patted Lin Ci's back and whispered, "The cellar is cold, let's go back."

"I don't want to go back. Once you step out this door, you'll be gone," Lin Ci murmured, still trapped in her dream, unwilling to wake up.

Pei Jinxuan looked down at her, his mind a jumble of thoughts.

She used to hate him and Princess Yongle so much that she wanted to kill them both, but now she's become a completely different person, charming and delicate.

Is this another case of playing hard to get? And this tactic always seems to work?

Pei Jinxuan tried to push her away, but his hands wouldn't obey him and remained on her back.

Lin Ci trembled even more violently. Pei Jinxuan couldn't bear it, so he took off his cloak with one hand and wrapped it tightly around her, then used his own body to warm her.

She was trapped in this dream and didn't want to wake up.

Soon, Lin Ci seemed to have cried herself to sleep, and the effects of the alcohol and exhaustion overwhelmed her. She fell asleep, basking in the warmth of his body.

Pei Jinxuan was worried that she would get cold, so he supported her shoulders and back with one hand and put the other hand under her knees, and picked her up horizontally.

She was lighter than he expected, as soft and warm as a cat.