After killing four concubines, the queen was sentenced to death and reborn

A hint of worry passed across Lu Lingyuan's face like morning mist, but she still forced herself to remain calm and nodded gently, "Yes." After that, she turned around, her sleeves fluttering, and led the palace servants and guards behind her to slowly retreat, retreating a full dozen steps away.

Zheng Xiyan's footsteps were heavy and slow as she slowly walked to Xiao Xuanchen's tombstone. She slowly stretched out her hand, and her fingertips gently touched the cold tombstone. The touch was like touching fragments of the past, both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Xiao Xuanchen, did you ever expect that I would come here to see you today?" Zheng Xiyan's voice was low and hoarse, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from the deepest part of her heart, without the slightest warmth, only endless desolation and determination.

"During these years in there, have you received the punishment you deserved? Have you begun to atone for your sins?" Her face was as cold as ice, but there was an undying hatred flickering in her eyes.

"Ji'er, I know better than you how to control this country and how to become a true monarch." Zheng Xiyan's words were filled with pride and irony about the past, and her eyes were complicated.

"Half a year ago, Concubine Wen and Concubine Yi also passed away. You loved them very much during your lifetime. Now, you are finally reunited in another world. Are you relieved?" At this point, Zheng Xiyan's voice suddenly became sharp and harsh, like silk torn by the wind, with an indescribable grief and anger. Her eyes were red, and tears were rolling in her eyes, but they never fell.

The wind blew gently around, causing the leaves to rustle, as if it was nature's sigh for the past, or mourning for the deceased. The sun shone through the sparse clouds and sprinkled on this quiet cemetery, but it could not illuminate the eternal darkness in Zheng Xiyan's heart.

"Actually," Lu Lingyuan spoke softly, each word seeming to linger on the tip of her tongue a thousand times, "I've always wanted to ask you a question, from the moment you decided to use me, has there ever been a ripple in your heart? Have you ever felt guilty towards me...for a moment?" The night breeze blew by, causing my clothes to dance lightly, and it seemed as if I was humming a low voice for this unfulfilled love.

However, before I finished speaking, a bitter smile crept up on the corners of my mouth. "But now, all of this has dissipated like smoke, and I no longer need your answer." I murmured to myself, and my voice seemed particularly lonely in the empty courtyard, as if even the wind stopped to listen.

"Xiao Xuanchen," I looked up at the bright moon, with complex light flashing in my eyes, "In my last life, I walked into an irretrievable situation because of you, and ended up miserably; in this life, although I defeated you with wisdom, I also paid the price of half my life's freedom. In the end, I asked myself, is this a victory, or another form of failure? I won you, but lost my freedom." The corner of my mouth curled up with a self-deprecating smile, which contained both relief and unwillingness.

"However," I changed the subject, my tone becoming firm and cold, "There is one thing I am extremely sure of, and that is that in my next life, no matter what, I will avoid you and go far away, preferably to the ends of the earth, never to see you again. Because the entanglement of the two lives is enough to exhaust me, and I don't want to repeat the same mistakes again."

After saying that, I turned around, with my back to the bright moon and to you, and stepped into the depths of the night step by step.

All around me was the silence of the night and the whisper of the wind, as if the whole world was silent for my decision. And I, at this moment, finally found my own way to liberation. Even if the road ahead was unknown, I had to go on bravely.