Chapter 160: The Worst Possible Outcome

It was as if Nan Xueyin were sinking into a quagmire.

Her consciousness, her limbs, all seemed to be wrapped in something viscous.

She did not know where she was now; she remembered that she seemed to be planning to steal something, and seemed to be intending to return somewhere.

But she racked her brains, yet could not think of anything clearer.

In a haze, Nan Xueyin saw her mother's thin, gaunt face.

Even though she was thin to this extent, her mother's brows and eyes remained charming and beautiful.

She crouched down, looked at Nan Xueyin tenderly, and opened her right hand, revealing a White Jade Guanyin Pendant lying in her palm.

"Little Xue, keep this. In the future, when Father and Mother are no longer here, this will take our place and stay by your side."

Nan Xueyin was shedding tears, patter by patter, and said with a choked voice: "But Mother, I am afraid of being alone."

Her mother stroked her cheek and wiped away her tears, "Don't be afraid. Life is so long, and the world is so vast; in the future, you will always meet someone who will like you and treat you very well. With him there, you will not feel that the days are lonely at all."

Nan Xueyin was still crying, and her mother kissed her again, "Besides, have you forgotten? You still have an uncle. Although he and your father were half-brothers, they were very close to each other. Your uncle is a scholar and will surely have a bright future. When Father and Mother are no longer here, he will certainly take good care of you..."

The scene changed rapidly, and Nan Xueyin was already kneeling in front of two small mounds of earth.

She lowered her head and looked at her own hands.

All ten fingers were bloody; the skin and flesh on several fingers were even worn away, revealing the ghastly white bones inside.

But after a short while, the wounds healed; if not for the remaining bloodstains, it would have been as if no injuries had ever been left behind.

Nan Xueyin continued to kneel alone, from daytime until nightfall.

Raindrops suddenly fell from the sky, starting from very small and fine ones, gradually becoming a torrential downpour.

Nan Xueyin could no longer stay kneeling, and she ran under the eaves of the house, soaking wet.

When the rain stopped, her stomach was hungry too.

She clutched the White Jade Guanyin Pendant at her neck tightly and left home.

The scene changed once again.

Nan Xueyin was burying her head and eating hard.

While eating, she heard a young man's voice carrying a smile: "Eat slowly, no one is snatching it from you."

Nan Xueyin shoved the last grain of rice into her mouth, wiped her mouth, and only then looked up.

The teenage Xiao Mingyu sat before her, resting his chin on one hand, looking at her with a smile: "I heard that you train even more ruthlessly than those boys. You are a little girl, why suffer like this?"

Nan Xueyin frowned and said, "Women aren't necessarily worse than men."

Xiao Mingyu was intrigued: "Is that so? I thought you wanted to protect me better."

Nan Xueyin was stunned, feeling baffled, and blushed a little.

The scenes continued to change.

It was either her Assassin training or Xiao Mingyu.

More often, it was Xiao Mingyu.

She always looked at him from afar; even if many people were standing together, she could always capture his location at a single glance.

There seemed to be no women by Xiao Mingyu's side.

But there were definitely women by his side.

Nan Xueyin tried hard to see clearly, but only saw Xiao Mingyu looking toward her with a smile, while his low murmur sounded in her ears: "Yinyin, you like me."

"Nan Xueyin likes Xiao Mingyu."

"Nan Xueyin only wants Xiao Mingyu."

These voices cycled repeatedly, as if trying to forcefully leave some mark in her head.

Yet Nan Xueyin did not think so.

She knew that the person she liked was not Xiao Mingyu.

She frowned hard, and in the blur, she saw a tall, slender figure sitting by the bed, looking at her without blinking.

Nan Xueyin struggled and called out to him: "Xiao..."

"Yinyin?"

Xiao Mingyu leaned in slightly.

Nan Xueyin's movement of reaching out stopped suddenly; Yinyin? It's not Yinyin. It's not Yinyin.

If it were him, he would never call her Yinyin.

"What on earth is going on?"

Seeing Nan Xueyin's reaction, the Xiao Mingyu before the bed could not help but voice his interrogation.

A sorcerer to the side said respectfully: "Answering the Prince, this girl's will is truly too firm. It is firmer than that of many men. She is very stubborn and refuses to forget the past, constantly trying hard to remember those things."

"Xiao Youlan..."

At this moment, Nan Xueyin on the bed suddenly spat out these three words.

Xiao Mingyu's expression sank instantly.

Nan Xueyin sat up; because of the long-term hypnotic torture, her face was pale to the point of having no color at all.

She was still in an unconscious state, and the things she said and did were entirely subconscious actions.

"Who are you calling?" Xiao Mingyu asked.

"Xiao Youlan." Nan Xueyin's eyes were hollow.

Her eyes were unfocused, but her body was very honest, and she made a move to climb off the bed.

Xiao Mingyu was furious; he gripped her wrist and pressed her back onto the bed, "Is Xiao Youlan that good to you? No matter what, you are still thinking of him?!"

Nan Xueyin, however, seemed not to have heard what he said, only saying: "Xiao Youlan. I... I miss you so much..."

Xiao Mingyu's expression was extremely ugly.

After a long while, he squeezed two words out through his clenched teeth: "Continue!"

The sorcerer sighed, "But, having been hypnotized to this extent, the young lady still remains obsessed; I... truly have no other way."

Xiao Mingyu flew into a rage: "Are you trying to die? I, this Prince, paid a high price to bring you here, and now that you haven't accomplished the task, you say you have no way?"

The sorcerer hurriedly knelt down, "It is truly because this young lady's will is far too firm!"

He had been hypnotizing her for nearly an entire day here; if it were an ordinary person, even a battle-hardened, rough man, they would surely have been tamed into submission, remembering what they should and forgetting what they shouldn't, all according to the sorcerer's hypnosis.

Yet this woman, she never once yielded.

He wanted to make her remember that she liked Xiao Mingyu, who was this Duan Wang.

She insisted on the opposite.

She stubbornly murmured another name: Xiao Youlan.

The sorcerer felt this name was very familiar; could it be some member of the imperial clan?

"What must be done for her will to be less firm?" Xiao Mingyu asked.

"This..."

"If you cannot say, then go die," Xiao Mingyu said, enunciating each word.

The sorcerer was startled, breaking into a cold sweat in his anxiety!

He truly regretted it; he shouldn't have been greedy for money and come to this Duan Prince Mansion, but the price this Duan Wang offered was just too high, and he couldn't resist...

Now it was a fine mess; the task wasn't accomplished, the reward couldn't be collected, and he feared he would even die here!

Perhaps driven by the desire to survive, the sorcerer suddenly looked up, "There is one more method!"

"Speak."

"However, this method is extremely dangerous; the young lady might very well be unable to withstand it."

"Unable to withstand it, and then what?"

"The worst possible outcome," the sorcerer swallowed his saliva, "is that the young lady will... become a simpleton, remembering nothing and knowing nothing, like a child of five or six."

Xiao Mingyu sneered: "How is that the worst possible outcome?"

She deeply loves Xiao Youlan and dreams of returning to Xiao Youlan's side; that is the truly worst outcome.

Becoming a simpleton is nothing.

As long as she is foolish, won't she be able to stay obediently by his side from now on?

Xiao Mingyu curled his lips, "Do it!"