Yue Ran looked at Yue Yu with hatred. "Do you think I do not know that you are the one who made this group of bandits attack my carriage?"

    Yue Ran''s words immediately pierced his heart like an arrow laced with fire, burning him as they stabbed through his chest, locking on his heart.

    "Do you not just want to see me abandoned by His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince?" Asked Yue Ran in a malicious and sarcastic tone. "Do you not just want to see me in such a miserable situation?"

    She naturally knew that Yue Yu was in love with her, especially when his favorability for her was already more than 95. But so what? What does that have to do with her?

    Yue Ran has always acted very professionally, and this was the scene where she had to abuse the main male protagonist thoroughly with hard and piercing words.

    This was the moment where she had to open his heart, knead it, crush it in her hands just like playing dough, and then take his pride down a few pegs until he would have zero to no bottom line for her.

    Moreover, it was always fun to accuse others and put all the crimes on their heads.

    A shower of arrows came firing at him. Yue Yu''s heart burned so painfully and was riddled with holes.

    Yue Yu''s face paled, and he clutched his painful heart with a hand on his chest.

    "No, no, I have never thought of that!" he shouted.

    Yue Yu felt extremely flustered. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    How did Yue Ran know that it was all his plan? How did she know that he had designed everything from the very start? Not even His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, was aware of it!

    "You have never thought of it?" Yue Ran laughed, short and sarcastic. "I know that Brother Yu has never liked me before, and even more so now," she said. "How can someone like you ever like me?" She paused before continuing, "Brother Yu, you have been pretending to be so kind and nice in front of me for so long; you must feel very tired and uncomfortable for doing so, right?"

    Yue Ran smiled and suddenly burst into tears.

    "It''s okay," she said softly. Even if the wind was howling, her voice still sounded so pleasant and clear, but the words she was saying were so heart-wrenching to everyone''s ears. "All of you will be free soon."

    After speaking and without waiting for everyone to react, Yue Ran jumped, and Ming Ze, who was still embracing the girl, followed her movements. Both of them leaped from the cliff and into the infinite abyss.

    "Yue Ran!!!"

    The three male protagonists shouted as their eyes widened, and they rushed ahead to try and catch Yue Ran from falling to her doom.

    Yue Yu reacted the fastest, but he only caught the afterimage of Yue Ran''s fluttering red sleeve.

    He stared at the empty hand in a daze.

    "Yue Ran," Yue Yu whispered, then clenched his hand, blue and green veins popping out of the pale skin due to the force. "YUE RAN!!!"

    His shout was so loud that the tree leaves shook and birds soared to the sky, and it echoed down the cliff.

    Time seemed to pass slowly, and it was already night. The sky was a hue between navy and jet-black, and stars studded the sky like a bejeweled blanket. But the most captivating part of all, of course, was the moon. It was full and bright, illuminating the entire ground in an ethereal light.

    However, Yue Yu, who was still kneeling on the ground facing the dark cliff below and the obscure horizon, could not appreciate the beauty of nature at night.

    He did not know when and where Ming Chen and Xia Zhan had gone, and he did not care about them either.

    The only thing that kept repeating in his mind was Yue Ran''s face when she jumped back into the bottomless abyss.

    It was a face so full of despair that Yue Yu felt breathless just thinking about it.

    Yue Yu did not know when it started to rain.

    He heard a rumble in the distance. And before he knew it, he felt cold droplets of water on his face and eyelashes. He did not attempt to shield himself and only looked up at the night sky full of dark clouds.

    The blood had long drained from his face, and he nearly fell sideways from kneeling.

    He needed to find Yue Ran.

    Yue Ran must be waiting for him below, injured and alone.

    And if not, then he would find her corpse. Most definitely.

    Yue Yu''s rationality occupies the high ground at this moment, but every cell in the body is restless, sad, and collapsing. It was so painful and nauseous, and a sense of despair permeated his whole body. Dizziness. Fatigue. Fever. And pain.

    There were several moments when he also wanted to jump down, but then, thinking of his unfinished business and his revenge for Yue Ran''s injustice, Yue Yu''s eyes, which were previously full of sorrow, changed into ones of madness.

    Therefore, he stood up with shaking legs.

    Yue Yu''s leg muscles felt numb, and every step felt like ants were biting and squirming in his legs. But he did not stop until he saw a white handkerchief on the ground, wet with mud.

    It was lying in the position where he was previously kneeling.

    Yue Yu was about to turn away with a shaky sigh when a sudden streak of white lacerated the darkness of the night before the clamorous crackle of thunder tore violently through the pouring rain.

    It was a heavy downpour, cascading down as if it were a waterfall as it viciously pelted everything on the ground.

    Yue Yu instinctively placed a hand on his chest, his heart racing unsteadily.

    He saw it—the pattern on the handkerchief.

    There was a familiar red embroidery on the handkerchief.

    A memory, a series of images, and unforgettable feelings flashed through his mind as if the incident had only occurred yesterday.

    It was the time when he went into, or rather, barged into, Yue Ran''s boudoir while she was just learning embroidery and practicing it on a white handkerchief.

    Her eyes back then, when she spotted him staring at her while leaning against the wall across her with folded hands, looked dazed, like a startled kitten. So cute.

    They had a short conversation, and then he got angry.

    A dangerous glint flashed through his eyes as he wrapped his fingers around Yue Ran''s delicate, jade-white neck. He lightly pulled her up, and Yue Ran followed his movements by standing up from the bed.

    As long as Yue Yu presses harder and twists it, Yue Ran will disappear, leaving no one left to scorn him.

    Just a dull crack and she was no more.

    He had the urge to kill her back then, to nip his weakness in the bud.

    However, there was an unfathomable sense of leisure in Yue Ran''s expression that made Yue Yu''s teeth itch. In the end, he still chose not to take any action.

    It was definitely not a good thing that Yue Ran could so easily affect his mood with her every move.

    As smart as he is, how could he not have realized that he may have fallen in love with his nominal sister? But the existence of Yue Ran is too important, and he wants to use her to lower the vigilance of the now ignorant crown prince.

    How could he ruin his grand plan just for his own selfish desires?

    What''s more, Prime Minister Yue is now currently assisting him with his affairs, so he can''t kill the prime minister''s daughter over a trivial matter.

    Hence, he decided to forget it. He would just bear her temper rather than face the troublesome consequences of her sudden death.

    Yue Yu didn''t believe that he would not be able to control his own heart.

    But how wrong he was now!

    How would he know that the word "love" is the most uncontrollable and unpredictable thing?

    After all, love recognizes no barriers; it knows not its own depth—as deep as the abyss or as shallow as a puddle—until the hour of separation; it is invisible yet so clear.

    Yue Ran took a step back and fell.

    She had accidentally hit her foot against the corner of the bed and tripped because of that.

    Her black hair swayed, and her body suddenly lurched back.

    With fast reflexes, Yue Yu immediately wrapped an arm around her waist, but instead of pulling her up, they both fell on Yue Ran''s bed. The handkerchief, with incomplete embroidery, was spread out and now lay uncovered by Yue Ran''s head.

    Blooming red peonies.

    Yue Yu was now on top of Yue Ran. On the bed.

    Yue Ran looked up at Yue Yu in fright, and her bright eyes seemed dazzling. Her soft black hair was scattered all around the white fabric underneath, and her skin was so white that it seemed to glow like the moon outside the open window.

    An intoxicatingly sweet fragrance flushed his cheeks. It was not certain whether it was from the scent of the bed or Yue Ran herself.

    "T-too close," Yue Yu heard Yue Ran murmur as he placed a hand on his chest to push him away.

    Yue Yu felt his heart stop for a bit at the image of Yue Ran getting flustered.

    It was then that he realized that she could get shy too.