The two of them quickened their pace and stepped onto the muddy public road.
Although the asphalt surface was slippery, it was much easier to traverse than the muddy ground in the forest.
They continued forward along the road, hoping to find signs of civilization or a vehicle.
“I am sorry,” Little An suddenly spoke.
Mu Xi turned her head to look at her, not understanding why she was apologizing.
“Before… I did that to you,” Little An’s voice was filled with shame, “I should not have betrayed your trust.”
“This is not the time to talk about that.” Mu Xi’s voice was cold, but her gaze wavered slightly.
“The most important thing right now is to survive.”
They walked for a long time, their muscles aching until they almost lost all sensation.
Just as Mu Xi felt she was about to collapse, Little An suddenly grabbed her arm.
“Little Mistress, there is a car ahead!”
Mu Xi followed Little An’s gaze.
Sure enough, about 100 meters ahead, a black sedan was parked quietly by the side of the road.
The two exchanged a look and quickened their pace toward the car, their hearts filled with both hope and a wariness of potential danger.
Upon approaching the vehicle, Little An carefully checked the interior.
She suddenly gasped and took half a step back.
Mu Xi leaned closer to the window and saw a person sitting in both the driver’s and passenger’s seats.
They were two corpses, each with a clear gunshot wound to the head.
Blood had already dried on the car’s interior trim.
“They were shot.” Mu Xi’s voice did not fluctuate at all, as if she were merely stating a simple fact.
“I can drive.” Little An quickly checked the vehicle’s condition and said, “The keys are still here, and there is more than half a tank of gas.”
Mu Xi did not hesitate.
She opened the rear door and carefully settled Ye Lan into the seat.
Little An placed Li Xin on the other side, and then the two worked together to drag the corpses out of the car, leaving them in the grass by the roadside.
Mu Xi noticed that Little An’s movements were clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation, as if she had done similar things countless times before.
“Have you done something like this before?” Mu Xi asked, her fingers gently brushing the rainwater off Ye Lan’s forehead.
Little An’s movements paused for a moment.
“Before I became a servant, I did many… things.”
She offered no further explanation, simply wiping the blood off the steering wheel and the seats.
Mu Xi sat in the passenger seat, while Little An took the driver’s seat and skillfully started the vehicle.
The roar of the engine was exceptionally loud on the silent public road.
“It is good to have a car.” A hint of relief touched Little An’s voice as her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly.
“If we follow the road, we will eventually find supplies. There is always a way out.”
Mu Xi did not respond.
She only turned her head to look at Ye Lan and Li Xin in the back seat.
Ye Lan’s face was as pale as paper, while Li Xin’s cheeks were flushed from a high fever.
Both of them were on the brink of life and death.
“They won’t last much longer,” Mu Xi whispered, as if talking to herself.
Little An glanced at the back seat through the rearview mirror and gave Mu Xi a comforting smile, “We will find a safe place, Little Mistress. As long as you are safe, nothing else matters.”
Mu Xi frowned at Little An; the hidden meaning behind those words made her uneasy.
However, she said nothing, turning her gaze instead to the rainy scenery flowing past the window.
The car moved along the road.
The rain began to lessen, but the sky remained gloomy.
Mu Xi noticed occasional abandoned vehicles and buildings by the roadside, as if the civilization of this world had suddenly collapsed.
“What do you think happened?” Mu Xi asked, her fingers lightly tapping the window glass.
“Why is it like this everywhere?”
Little An’s eyes were focused on the road ahead as she replied, “I am not sure. In truth, I know nothing about the outside world.”
“We can get out, right?” Mu Xi’s voice was calm, but her fingers instinctively tightened.
Just as Little An was about to answer, her pupils suddenly contracted, and she slammed on the brakes.
The car came to a sudden halt.
Both of them were thrown forward by the momentum before being pulled back by their seatbelts.
“What is it?” Mu Xi followed Little An’s gaze, and her heart instantly sank.
Not far ahead, the road was blocked by a row of barricades.
Several armed figures stood behind them.
They wore uniform black combat gear and appeared well-trained.
“Little Mistress, get down!” Little An’s voice was tense, her hand already moving toward the holster at her waist.
Mu Xi’s brain worked at high speed, but before she could decide on their next move, a gunshot pierced the curtain of rain.
The bullet shattered the windshield and directly hit Little An’s shoulder.
Little An let out a cry of pain and instinctively jerked the steering wheel.
The car spun out of control to the right, crashing heavily into the roadside guardrail.
Despite wearing a seatbelt, Mu Xi’s head slammed violently against the window.
A wave of sharp pain hit her, and her vision began to blur.
In her final moments of consciousness, she saw Little An, her face covered in blood, struggling to turn toward her with lips moving as if trying to say something.
Then, darkness swallowed everything.
***
Mu Xi sank into the depths of a dream, and memories flooded back like a tide.
She saw her 12-year-old self standing atop the towering stone walls of Wu City.
The sunlight dyed her silver hair golden, and a gentle breeze brushed against her delicate face.
The castle’s banners snapped in the wind, as if proclaiming the unshakable authority of this place.
Wu City, her father’s city, and her home.
Every stone brick, every city wall, and every corner of this place carried the weight of her carefree childhood.
“Miss, please be careful,” a guard reminded her respectfully, his eyes full of genuine concern.
The young Mu Xi simply nodded with a smile and continued her stroll along the wall.
She wore a custom-made white dress, its hem fluttering in the wind like a cloud dancing with the breeze.
When the citizens in the city saw her, they would stop their work to bow or wave at her.
The identity of ‘the City Lord’s daughter’ gave her supreme dignity and protection.
‘She will surely become an even better leader than the City Lord in the future.’
‘Look at those eyes; she is so clever, just like her father.’
Praise was endless.
The 12-year-old Mu Xi accepted it all as a matter of course, as naturally as one accepts sunlight and air.
Then she saw Ye Lan.
At that time, Ye Lan was still very young, but she already displayed an extraordinary temperament.
Standing at the edge of the crowd, Ye Lan had flowing black hair and eyes as sharp as an eagle’s.
She wore simple but clean clothes, forming a stark contrast with the magnificent City Lord’s manor.
When Ye Lan’s gaze fell upon Mu Xi, the complex emotions within seemed almost ready to overflow.
Initially, it was pure longing, which was gradually swallowed by the shadow of envy.
The unfairness of destiny was particularly evident at that moment.
Mu Xi was born into a life of luxury, while Ye Lan had to struggle for survival in the darkest corners of the city.
One was born surrounded by a thousand layers of love, while the other had to use sharp claws to protect herself from being torn apart by life.
Memory fragments reassembled in the dream, and Mu Xi suddenly understood everything Ye Lan had done to her in the past.
Those cruel training sessions, that deliberate humiliation, being forced to display her naked body in front of others, and being made to experience all kinds of unspeakable pain and shame.
It was not just hate.
Ye Lan could not accept Mu Xi’s purity and flawlessness because it made her acutely aware of her own unworthiness.
She needed to drag Mu Xi down from her pedestal, to let her be stained by dust, and to make her experience the same darkness and pain she had gone through.
Only in this way could the invisible chasm between them be erased.
Ye Lan was using a twisted method to change Mu Xi, turning her into someone who could stand at the same height as her.
On the boundary between pain and pleasure, in the entanglement of hate and love, Ye Lan was trying to create a world where they could coexist.
In the depths of the dream, Mu Xi saw the truth hidden in Ye Lan’s eyes.
Beneath those seemingly cruel acts lay untold amounts of unspeakable longing and fear.
Memory and understanding intertwined.
Within the dream, Mu Xi felt a sense of clarity she had never experienced before.
She finally saw the essence of this twisted relationship.