Chapter 002

Throw You Out to Feed the Wolves

Xuan Rui gazed at the pitiful girl on the bed, who resembled a stray kitten, and the memory of his kick from earlier in the day made his brow furrow tighter.

Though he had killed countless people, he rarely laid hands on women.

The E’er Hai people had precisely targeted this weakness, sending different women each time to gather intelligence. He had long grown weary of it, which was why he had kicked without hesitation this time.

“Everyone out,” he ordered coldly, removing his leather gloves and placing them on the bedside table.

Yuchi Meng felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding. Could it be that the general had taken pity on this female spy? Still, the woman did have some courage—even after being kicked flying, she had dared to approach them for help.

While hesitating, he felt the general’s icy glare upon him. Yuchi Meng immediately snapped to attention and led all the unnecessary personnel out of the room.

Xuan Rui remained by the bedside, his eyes fixed on the girl’s pale face. Hearing her call for her mother in her sleep earlier had inexplicably softened his heart.

As he pulled back the goose-down quilt, her petite body shivered slightly.

The dress she had been wearing earlier had been changed. She now wore a ruqun, commonly worn by women of the Central Plains, with a faint cherry-colored bodice embroidered with a lotus flower. The green ties resembled the stem of the lotus, and the pleated skirt tightly enveloped her upper body.

Beneath the hem of the skirt, two slender, pale calves were visible, along with feet as soft and delicate as mutton-fat jade.

He knew that women of the Central Plains valued their chastity above all else—some would rather die to preserve their purity for their future husbands. If touched before marriage, they would become desperate, insisting on marrying the man who had touched them.

He knew full well he could never marry her, and in his view, nothing was more important than life itself.

Glancing at the full shape of her chest, Xuan Rui coldly turned her over onto her stomach. He then placed his palm on her back, slowly channeling some Inner Force into her.

Li Youqing, already in severe pain from her chest injury, felt even more discomfort lying face down on the wounded area. She groaned softly, trying to turn back over.

Xuan Rui pressed his other hand against the back of her head, preventing her from lifting it.

Her faint, whimpering cries reached his ears, and he couldn’t help but frown, wondering to himself what kind of creature she was.

Every part of her beneath his hands was soft and delicate, as though the slightest pressure would shatter her spine and skull in his grasp.

“You’d better not be a spy sent by E’er Hai,” he said in a sinister tone, suppressing the innate brutality within him as he continued to channel Inner Force into her.

If she were, he could always kill her later.

Li Youqing, with her head pressed sideways into the pillow, found her gaze fixed on the man’s lean waist. Hanging from his black Python-patterned Waistband was a Black Jade Pendant carved with an unfamiliar totem.

She couldn’t muster much voice, and her eyelashes fluttered incessantly, like a frightened butterfly.

What was most suffocating was the rough, large hand pressing down on her back.

This madman was touching her!

“Stop!” The surge of grief and indignation she felt emerged as nothing more than a soft, feeble whimper, utterly lacking in deterrent power.”

Li Youqing stretched her arm out with effort, swinging a fist toward the man’s waist.

The moment her hand made contact with his body, a threatening voice came from above: “If you don’t behave, I’ll throw you out to feed the wolves.”

The hand that had been causing trouble at his waist immediately retracted, as if scalded.

Lying face down on the bed, Li Youqing thought in despair, The desert at night is fraught with danger. If I leave this place, I’ll surely have no chance of survival.

Though she couldn’t see the man’s face, she was absolutely certain this was Xuan Rui.

Through the thin layer of fabric, she felt the heat radiating from his palm, her back bearing down as if pressed by a thousand-pound stone.

That detestable hand was still slowly moving, fortunately stopping at the tailbone, otherwise…

Despite such rude and disrespectful behavior, she dared not move, lying prone on the bed with her hands tightly clutching the quilt corners.

Li Youqing was already feverish, and now her body felt even hotter, as if she were about to combust.

In despair, she called out hoarsely: “General Xuan—”

Xuan Rui remained unmoved, responding coldly: “I am Xuan Rui, commander of the Zhenbei Army. And who are you?”

“I am… Yang Zhi, daughter of the Grand Councillor of Great Liang.” Li Youqing’s words came in broken fragments, having expended all her strength.

The girl’s voice was hoarse yet carried a hint of clear softness, the trailing notes particularly faint and delicate—enough to stir pity even in the hardest of hearts.

Xuan Rui recalled the intelligence brought by his subordinate: Yang Zhi, who went missing at Deer Cry Mountain, was the thirteenth child in her family, an overlooked concubine-born daughter, which was why the Grand Councillor’s residence hadn’t mounted an extensive search.

The person on the bed was trembling so violently that he asked no further questions. Ceasing the infusion of Inner Force, he pressed two fingers against her pulse.

Having dealt with northern tribes for years, he was familiar with their underhanded methods. Would the E’er Hai people truly send a defenseless Han captive to deal with him?

After checking her pulse for a while without detecting anything unusual, he noticed the woman’s breath growing gradually fainter, as if she were nearing her end.

Over the years, countless lives had ended by his hand—he had long grown indifferent to life and death.

In these perilous northern borderlands, everyone had their own destiny.

Withdrawing his hand, he saw the small figure still lying motionless on the bed.

When Xuan Rui laid her flat and glimpsed the blood beads on her pale bitten lips and the twin tear tracks streaking her ashen cheeks, he froze momentarily.

Her lips moved again. Leaning close, he heard her whispering: “Mother…”

According to scout reports, Yang Zhi’s birth mother had long passed away. She was raised by another concubine—likely the maternal figure she yearned for.

Xuan Rui had grown up wild until age ten, when the Prince of Zhenbei adopted him as a foster son. His life had been drenched in bloodshed for over a decade, leaving no room for tenderness toward some unprotected girl.

His question came out icy: “Do you want to live or die?”

“Save me,” she breathed, slightly opening her eyes to gaze at him through tears.

Yet in truth, she held little hope.

She had once regarded the Crown Prince as her final lifeline, only to be betrayed into this wretched state.

But there was no one else to beg for rescue—the pain was simply too excruciating, too unbearable—

Without further hesitation, Xuan Rui hooked two fingers under the neck tie and ripped away the lotus-embroidered fabric covering her chest.

Blue and red bruises mottled her chest where congested blood had accumulated. Only gradual massage with medicinal liquor could disperse the stagnation.

He had thought his kick wasn’t forceful, forgetting she wasn’t one of the robust northwestern women—utterly unable to withstand it.

With her entire chest exposed to the air, Li Youqing stared at him in disbelief, pain forgotten.

This beastly madman—she was wounded near death, yet he still intended to violate her.

When trapped in a desperate situation within the palace, she had imagined many ways she might die, but never had she thought she would end up being humiliatingly killed on a bed in a foreign land.

Li Youqing drifted in and out of consciousness, completely unaware that the man had first poured some medicinal oil onto her chest before gently massaging it with his palm.

But the pain was simply too excruciating. Driven by instinct, she pushed against his hand, trying to stop it all.

Unexpectedly, the man used his other hand to seize both her wrists, pinning them above her head, and said coldly, “There’s only one maid in this residence, and she doesn’t know how to perform massage. Having her do it would only hasten your death.”

Xuan Rui didn’t know why he felt the need to explain, but her act of playing the chaste and virtuous woman was simply unbearable to watch.

The persistent ringing in her ears made it impossible for Li Youqing to hear anything. Once the pain subsided slightly, she fell into a deep, unconscious slumber.