Perhaps because she had received Xiao Jingcheng's comfort before going to bed, Ye Wanmian still had a faint smile on her lips when she fell asleep.
The fireflies by the stream left a deep impression on her. After falling asleep, she had a dream. In the dream, she returned to the stream. She was wearing the gorgeous clothes she had worn when attending the Spring Banquet two years ago, holding a palace fan in her hand, and chasing the flying fireflies in the air. Not far away in the woods, there stood a tall figure silently.
The man didn't make a sound but watched her flit around in the woods like a happy colorful butterfly.
She leaped forward and finally caught a firefly. She ran towards the man joyfully, raising her hands and showing it to him like offering a treasure. "Look, I caught it!"
The firefly in her palm flew up, and its light illuminated the man's face.
He had an extremely handsome face. His eyebrows were like they were carved with a knife, the corners of his eyes slightly raised, and his pair of glass-like pupils were like they had been dyed with frost and snow.
Different from the smile blooming on her face, he looked down at her haughtily. The tiny firefly was refracted into a cold light in his eyes, without the slightest trace of emotion.
The next moment, the man raised his hand and grabbed her neck, tightening his grip!
The feeling of her throat being tightly choked was so real and clear that Ye Wanmian woke up from the dream with a start the next moment. But immediately, she met a pair of cold eyes just like those in the dream.
"Who are you? Why am I here?"
The man grabbed her neck with one hand and coldly questioned her.
By this time, it was getting bright. The faint morning light illuminated the whole room, making it possible to see the expressions on each other's faces.
Xiao Jingcheng was still the same Xiao Jingcheng, but those once innocent and simple eyes were now cold and heartless, filled with unfamiliarity towards her.
His voice was filled with a killing intent. He had said to her last night before going to bed, "Miaomiao, don't be sad." But now, he was interrogating her like a prisoner.
Whether it was because of the lack of oxygen or those cold eyes, a kind of indescribable dull pain welled up in her chest. She tried to open her mouth wide to breathe and struggled with both hands to break free the hand on her neck. Tears overflowed from the corners of her eyes.
"I... no..."
At this moment, not only was she observing Xiao Jingcheng, but Xiao Jingcheng was also sizing her up.
The girl's face couldn't be considered beautiful. Her skin was rough and sallow, and the whole person exuded a rustic flavor. She was indeed extremely strange to him. He searched every corner of his memory but couldn't find the slightest bit of memory related to her.
But when she looked at him with those tear-stained eyes, the surprise and the fleeting sadness in her eyes were like a thorn, stabbing into his heart.
Ye Wanmian wanted to say something, but the force on her neck suddenly increased. Just when she thought she would be strangled to death by him, the man threw her away.
She fell heavily to the ground. Her shoulder hit the ground, and she seemed to hear the sound of a bone breaking. The sharp pain made her body tremble involuntarily.
Suddenly able to breathe fresh air, she ignored the sharp pain from her neck and shoulder and coughed violently while supporting herself on the ground.
Xiao Jingcheng sat on her bed, looking down at Ye Wanmian who was lying at his feet and coughing violently. There was not the slightest ripple in his eyes.
Ye Wanmian finally recovered from the feeling of suffocation. By chance, she looked to the side and was shocked to find Dahuang lying limply under the two tables put together. It seemed to have lost consciousness.
"Dahuang!" Ye Wanmian's heart suddenly tightened. She crawled over on all fours, picked up Dahuang, and trembled as she felt for its breath.
Finding that it still had a heartbeat but was just unconscious, she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, Dahuang was still alive.
"I'll only give you one chance. Tell me who you are and why I'm here. If you hide anything, I'll let you know the consequences of deceiving me."
The man's cold and emotionless voice came from behind.
Hearing him say such cold and heartless words so smoothly and clearly, Ye Wanmian was even more shocked.
His current state was completely different from the "Goudan" who had chased fireflies with her last night. He was more like the Crown Prince Xiao Jingcheng in Ye Wanmian's memory.
But how could it be?
How could he ask her such words? Didn't he have the slightest impression of what happened last night or in the past few days?
Moreover, he had attacked Dahuang so severely...
Ye Wanmian subconsciously hugged the yellow dog in her arms tighter.
Just as Ye Wanmian had thought, Xiao Jingcheng really didn't remember what had happened last night. In fact, he only had the memories before falling off the cliff in his mind.
Early in the morning, he felt something warm and moist sliding back and forth on his face, and there was also a strange sound in his ear.
"Wake up, wake up. Mother said that it's dawn and we should go out!"
Who was talking?
He opened his eyes groggily, and in front of him was a magnified dog's face. His head ached badly. Sensing the offense, he subconsciously reached out and chopped the yellow dog on the back of its head, pushing the unconscious dog away.
Sitting up, he found that he was lying on an extremely simple bed. The wooden bed not far away was much wider than his, and there was also a person lying on it, sleeping soundly.
This room was extremely small for him. It was difficult to even turn around, and it was filled with a musty smell.
He clearly remembered that before losing consciousness, he had encountered three assassinations. One trap after another had separated him from his bodyguards. The assassins had pressed on step by step, forcing him to a cliff. In order to avoid the hidden arrows shot from nowhere, he had fallen off the cliff.
When he woke up again, he was here.
Realizing that he must have been saved, he immediately lowered his head to check himself.
The clothes on him were no longer the ones he had worn before. The fabric was extremely rough, and the style was very ordinary, just like the clothes of ordinary people seen everywhere in the countryside.
At that moment, countless thoughts flashed through Xiao Jingcheng's mind, and he quickly analyzed the situation in front of him.
His inspection trip to the south of the Yangtze River this time was not a secret, so he had not disguised himself or hidden his identity on the way. The clothes were made by the Palace Clothing Bureau with the best materials from the weaving bureau in the south of the Yangtze River. Even the most ignorant person should know its value and thus infer that his identity was either rich or noble.
Since the person who saved him had changed his clothes, they should have known that his identity was either rich or noble. However, they had let him sleep on such a simple bed and covered him with such a simple quilt, while occupying the best bed in the room themselves. What was their intention?
Getting closer to the bed, he found that it was a woman sleeping on it. He couldn't help but sneer.
This ignorant rural woman. Don't think he couldn't see her thoughts. She was treating him as someone she could rely on and intended to repay the favor by taking advantage of him?
He would let her know that not everyone in this world could be provoked.
However, seeing the woman just hugging her yellow dog and ignoring his existence completely without saying a word, he felt inexplicably annoyed. He swept the pillow on the bed to the ground and coldly said,
"I'm asking you a question. Are you deaf?"