Chapter 1318: The Woman I Want to Protect for a Lifetime

to take care of my elder brother while I'm away."An Xuetang raised an eyebrow, "Do you mean you're going to the south yourself""Yes, Big Brother's poison can't be delayed.""It really can't be delayed...But this was just Xiaoqin's own thoughts. In Ye Er's mind, it was a completely different matter.

Ye Er is not the biological son of Ye Family's matriarch. Over the years, Ye Er has been tormented by his stepmother and elder brother, Ye Xiaoming, falling ill as a result. He can only survive in this world by pretending to be crazy and foolish.

And he never held any hatred for Xiaoqin from beginning to end, only guilt.

He was very clear about why Ye Xiaoming had targeted Xiao Qin back then, it was all because of him.

He was the one who fell for Xiaoqin first, silently paying attention to this only girl who showed him kindness. That's how Ye Xiaoming, who had been keeping a close eye on him all along, discovered his secret.

Ye Xiaoming, in the eyes of outsiders, had a mild and gentle temperament throughout his life. He was considered a good person and the heir to their Ye family.

Who would have thought that such a kind and polite person in public, upon returning home, would take pleasure in abusing him

He also had various poisons developed and tested on himself, taking pleasure in watching him foam at the mouth and writhe in agony.

Someone like Ye Xiaoming, after knowing he has feelings for Xiaoqin, naturally wouldn't give up easily and just let things be.

In order to see his beloved woman day and night with other men, openly affectionate and loving, Ye Xiaoming didn't care whether he liked Xiao Qin or not. He disregarded the fact that Xiao Qin and Jiang Qingyang had feelings for each other. He still stepped in and got the emperor to grant them a marriage.

At that time, he could imagine the pain and suffocation Xiaoqin would feel upon learning that she couldn't marry Jiang Qingyang.

So he hated, hated Ye Xiaoming through and through. After Ye Xiaoming came to show off that he had received the emperor's betrothal, at that moment he wished he could kill Ye Xiaoming with his own hands.

But he simply doesn't have the capacity for it!

So later he found a way to hide the poison. As luck would have it, the day he poisoned the food was also the day Ye Xiaoming was supposed to go with him to Anle Hou's mansion for his betrothal.

He hoped Ye Xiaoming would die. As long as he was dead, Xiaoqin wouldn't marry into the Ye family, and she could be with the man she loved.

But he truly never thought that on the day he poisoned Ye Xiaoming, Xiao Qin would actually stab him with a knife.

As the Northern Border Princess had guessed, the poison he administered was the most direct cause of Ye Xiaoming's death. In other words, he was the real murderer of Ye Xiaoming.

Xiao Qin's knife didn't actually hit any vital organs. After all, she didn't have that much strength. With just such a careless slash, Ye Xiaoming couldn't possibly die.

But Ye Xiaoming was poisoned at the time. The poison not only made Ye Xiaoming bleed uncontrollably but also accelerated his blood flow, ultimately leading to excessive blood loss and his death.

And he knew even more clearly that he couldn't tell Ye Xiaoming's family about poisoning him. Because even if he confessed to poisoning Ye Xiaoming, Ye's family wouldn't let Xiao Qin go.

They saw Xiao Qin stab Ye Xiaoming with their own eyes. In their eyes, Xiao Qin was also the murderer. He confessed and it would only lead to his death first, while Mrs. Ye would find a male heir from the Ye family's collateral branch to adopt after he died.

Xiao Qin will still be forced to marry into the Ye family and suffer a miserable death.

Instead of letting things escalate like that, it's better if he pretends to be married to Xiaoqin on the surface, and in these years he has been trying to find a way to kill Mrs. Ye.

It's a pity that after Ye Xiaoming's death, his stepmother poured all her anger on him, tormenting him more severely than ever before.

Day and night, he made his life a living hell. If it weren't for him constantly finding ways to make his so-called 'good father' run into trouble, he would have been tortured to death in these three years.

His so-called 'good father' wouldn't care about his life or death, but he was the only bloodline of the Ye family. So before he had any offspring, his father was still unwilling to watch him lose his life.

Later, Lady Ye frequently tortured him to the point of near death. His father only sent people to watch him, and would only intervene if he sensed that his son was in mortal danger.

Over the past few years, it's been a struggle for him to even survive. He simply doesn't have the means or ability to kill his father and stepmother.

When he was powerless, he actually hoped that Jiang Qingyang could save her, no matter by blowing her up or any other way. He desperately wished that Jiang Qingyang could take her away from this mess.

But he never received any news about Xiaoqin leaving Beijing or faking her death. From that moment on, he was disappointed in Jiang Qingyang.

As his wedding to Xiaoqin drew nearer, the Ye family's attention gradually shifted to the Anle Hou Mansion. After all, they were also afraid that Xiaoqin's family would cause some trouble.

After he was finally not watched so closely, he immediately started thinking about how to make poison.

Even if I couldn't poison the two people from the Ye family before the wedding, I could still find a way to confess to Xiao Qin after she moved in and team up with her to deal with these two.

As soon as that "good father" and "good mother" of his die, he will take the blame himself, give her a divorce paper, and find a way to spread the word that he was inhumane so she remains innocent. This way, even with the mark of divorce on her, she can still live a clean life.

But unexpectedly, a noblewoman of the Northern Border, such as the Princess Consort, would appear among them.

The Northern Frontier Princess not only helped them solve the problem of the two treacherous and vicious people from the Ye family, but also cured his illness. They were finally free from torment.

She finally got her freedom.

They shouldn't have crossed paths again, but he couldn't help himself from paying attention to her.

But now he doesn't regret his occasional attention to her at all, otherwise, it would have been impossible to save her from Jiang Qingyang that day.

From that day on, he realized for the first time that what they called childhood sweethearts and close companions didn't necessarily mean they would love her unconditionally or care about her feelings.

It was only after experiencing that day's events that he chose to accept the emperor's proposal and enter official service. Even if he wanted to quietly protect her and help her, he needed an extremely powerful position to keep her safe.

He thought she would never want to see him again for the rest of her life, after all, seeing him would remind her of the messy past with the Ye family. He had prepared himself to silently protect her for a lifetime in the shadows.

Today on the way to the palace, when he lifted the curtain, he saw a figure that looked just like her following behind the carriage. He comforted himself that his mind was full of her, so he mistakenly thought any woman he saw was her.

He still chose to lower the curtain, but after entering the palace and learning that the emperor had ordered the Cheng family and Mo Yunze to deal with the Northern Border Princess, he suddenly felt that the figure he had seen on the road earlier was very likely her.

The Northern Frontier Princess was like a reborn mother to her. She couldn't stand by and watch the Northern Frontier Princess come to harm.

And the fact that Ye Er had become the most trusted favorite of the emperor in recent days was no secret in court.

So his mind kept circling the thought, could that figure he had seen on the road be her Could it be that... she was coming to inquire about him for the Princess of Beijangeached out and gently patted her back, his voice soft, "Did you have a nightmare"An Xuetang hummed softly, she had indeed had a nightmare. She rarely dreamt, but just now her dream was so vivid, as if...