Being a reborn legitimate daughter is not easy

002 The Pain of Insult

002 The Pain of Insult

A heart-wrenching scream suddenly came from the backyard. Ye Pianran was pinned to a bench, her tendons in her hands and feet cruelly severed. Her limbs trembled and hung limply, and bright red blood splattered all over the ground. Immediately afterward, a thick wooden stick was mercilessly beaten on her body, leaving her with torn flesh and a bloody mess.

The other servants of the Prince's mansion stood not far away watching her being tortured, their eyes filled with nothing but indifference and disgust, devoid of any pity.

"Is she the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Anshi's family?"

"How could the princess have a sister like that, who is so ugly!"

"Being able to marry into the royal palace as a concubine is already a blessing for her, but who knew she would be so shameless! Ugly people always cause trouble!"

The insulting gazes and hurtful words were like a sharp knife stabbing into her heart, sharply reminding her of her current status and position.

Yes, she was nothing more than an ugly, powerless, and bullied woman. Everyone said that becoming a concubine to Prince Chunyu Jing of Nanping was the best outcome for her, and she had thought so before. But now, she would rather remain the unloved legitimate daughter of a marquis's mansion, an ugly woman whom no one dared to marry, than marry such a tyrannical, cruel, and cold-blooded man!

This is clearly a case of someone deliberately framing her. Why won't he listen to her explanation at all? Is it just because of the scar on her face?

Despite the excruciating pain in her body and mind, she stubbornly bit her lower lip, refusing to utter another humiliating cry.

Suddenly, a vibrant purple appeared in the backyard. Ye Yingrou, dressed in a soft, floral-patterned silk dress and a purple cloak embroidered with gold begonias, gracefully walked towards Ye Pianran. This exquisite and luxurious attire accentuated her dignified beauty and exceptional grace, creating a stark contrast with Ye Pianran's disheveled appearance and blood-stained body.

The gossiping maids, upon seeing her, immediately knelt and bowed, saying, "Your Highness!"

Ye Yingrou casually walked into the courtyard and asked, "How many boards are left?"

"Your Highness, fifty strokes remain," one of the servants carrying out the executions replied.

"His Highness said that not a single one of the eighty strokes of the cane will be spared. If anyone dares to cut corners, I will make them pay," Ye Yingrou said calmly.

Ye Pianran was shocked. She forced herself to lift her head. The woman who used to call her her sister no longer had the gentle and kind expression on her beautiful face. Only coldness and mockery remained.

"It was you!" Ye Pianran released her bloodied lips and glared hatefully at Ye Yingrou. "It was...it was you who set me up, wasn't it?"

“That’s right, I had someone add aphrodisiac to your incense, and I arranged that man too.” Ye Yingrou curled her bright red lips into a beautiful but malicious smile: “Even your face, your marriage, everything you’ve lost, I did it all.”

"Why...why!" Ye Pianran shouted, her eyes bloodshot. "What did I do to offend you that you would treat me like this, so ruthless!"

"Why?" Ye Yingrou sneered, her expression twisting. "If it weren't for your mother's interference back then, my mother would have been the legitimate wife of the Marquis's family long ago! She was the legitimate daughter of a tea merchant from Fuzhou. She was afraid of offending your maternal grandfather's family's power, so she couldn't be a secondary wife, and she didn't want to become a concubine in the Marquis's family. What did she do wrong? But your mother still went to great lengths to take my brother away from her, making her suffer the pain of separation from her own flesh and blood!"

"Why should you be born the legitimate daughter of a marquis's family, while my mother and I have to live without any status or identity! I'll make you understand that even if you are the eldest daughter of a marquis's family, you still have to kneel before me and be trampled to death by me!"

Taking a deep breath, Ye Yingrou said with a cold smile, "Sister, I am quite satisfied with your appearance now."

Is that all? If you just hate that her mother married into the Marquis's mansion first and that she took the status of the legitimate daughter, then just come after her and her mother. What wrong have the other innocent people done?

Thinking of her mentally challenged and prematurely deceased younger brother, the two maids who died unjustly, and the pain of her maternal grandfather's family being massacred, Ye Pianran could no longer control the surging hatred in her chest. It was as if the severed tendons in her hands and feet had reconnected, giving her the strength to break free of the sticks binding her and lunge at the arrogant Ye Yingrou—

"I am going to kill you!"

Ye Yingrou was terrified, her face turning pale. She screamed and backed away, yelling, "Quickly, grab her for me!"

The servants rushed forward to restrain Ye Pianran. Ye Pianran's fingers failed to touch Ye Yingrou, but she tore off a jade pendant that Ye Yingrou had worn since childhood. Ye Pianran, clutching the pendant, fell to the ground, laughing shrilly.

"Ye Yingrou, you have committed so many heinous acts, you will surely be punished! If there is an afterlife, I swear I will seek justice for those who died innocently because of you!"

The torture on her body did not lessen in the slightest, but Ye Pianran could no longer feel any pain. She only felt that her heart had sunk into an icy pool, so cold that it had no warmth at all. Tears of resentment flowed from her once bright and beautiful phoenix eyes, slid down her pale face, and fell into the blood-stained soil, never to be seen again.

After the eighty strokes of the cane were finished, Ye Pianran lay on the ground without a sound. The servant who had carried out the punishment reached out to check her breath and said to Ye Yingrou, "Your Highness, she is no longer breathing."

Ye Yingrou discovered that her jade pendant was missing. She frantically pried Ye Pianran's fingers off, snatched back the blood-stained pendant, and turned around, saying with utter malice:

"Throw her up the hill behind the mountain to feed the dogs!"