Chapter 488 - 485: Lost Her

Chapter 488: Chapter 485: Lost Her

Jinying’s eyes were like shattered glass, filled with unspeakable agony.

He stared intently at the couple entwined under the moonlight, his heart feeling as if it were being repeatedly kneaded and torn apart by an invisible hand.

Every breath was a searing pain that tasted of blood.

But he knew clearly that even with this bone-gnawing agony, he had no right to blame her, much less the standing to interrupt her moment of tenderness.

Because... he was the one who had lost her with his own two hands!

Endless regret and self-reproach churned in the depths of his memory.

Back then, he had arrogantly believed that with just half a year, he could seize full control of his family’s power. He thought he could sweep away all obstacles and create a world of absolute safety for her. Then he would give her everything and make her happy!

But time had not been on his side.

Cruel reality had slapped him hard across the face.

In less than half a year... she met with an accident. After that, she vanished completely from his world, without a single word.

"Urgh..." A muffled groan, suppressed to its absolute limit, escaped from the depths of Jinying’s throat.

He felt the original consciousness he had suppressed within his body begin to stir again. It was violently ramming its cage, frantically fighting for control.

Jinying clenched his jaw. Veins bulged on his forehead as cold sweat streamed down.

He mustered all his willpower, like the strongest of chains, to desperately hold down the madness that threatened to break its shackles.

Before his consciousness was dragged completely back into the cold darkness, he took one last, greedy, almost desperate look at Bai Wanwan.

Her delicate, beautiful profile as she nestled in Zhu Xiu’s arms, the soft halo of light the moon cast upon her...

He seemed to want to etch this image into the depths of his soul, for it to become the only starlight guiding him through the endless darkness.

Finally, after a violent tremor of his soul, the eyes churning with desperate love were replaced by a bottomless, icy stillness.

Jinying regained control of the body.

He slowly raised his hand, pressing it to his chest where a tearing pain still lingered. He could feel unfamiliar emotions churning within.

Intense possessiveness, soul-deep jealousy, the despair of loss... they were all utterly foreign to him, and they made him deeply uncomfortable.

He silently watched the figures still embracing on the distant wooden platform. Heaving a confused and helpless sigh, he finally turned and left without a sound...

＊＊＊＊＊

In the end, Jiao Yuan returned to the home he shared with Lan Yi.

The door was shut tight. He knew this was Lan Yi’s silent protest.

"Lan Yi, open the door!"

"I won’t! Go away!"

This time, he didn’t indulge Lan Yi’s temper. He simply raised a hand and easily tore the wooden door from its frame.

Lan Yi, clutching Coral, shrank back like a frightened rabbit when she saw Jiao Yuan barge in, her eyes filled with fear and avoidance.

"Get out. I don’t want to see you."

Even now, Lan Yi was still willfully trying to evade the truth by treating him coldly.

But this was no small matter. For Jiao Yuan, it had crossed a line.

"Look at me, Lan Yi." Jiao Yuan’s voice was terrifyingly low, laced with an undeniable authority.

"Tell me what really happened back then. Why was our female cub swapped?"

Lan Yi didn’t answer, nor would she look up at him.

Jiao Yuan advanced on her step by step, his gaze like a physical blade, trying to unearth the truth from her every expression, her every glance.

Lan Yi trembled all over. Her lips quivered as she turned her head away, her face streaked with tears. "I... I don’t know what you’re talking about..."

Jiao Yuan looked at his mate’s state. In the past, he would have already been comforting her without a second thought.

He subconsciously raised a hand, but the thought of the countless hardships his own biological female cub might have suffered made his heart feel as if it were being repeatedly sliced by a Bone Knife.

In the end, reason won out. He didn’t move. He didn’t pull his mate into his arms to comfort her.

His voice was several degrees colder than usual. "Lan Yi, it’s come to this. Coral is not our female cub—that young female is. How much longer did you plan on deceiving me?"

Lan Yi knew it too. With that young female’s appearance, the secret was out.

As if she’d been provoked, she whipped her head around to glare at him.

"What was I supposed to do?" she shrieked, as if she had found an outlet for her feelings. "Do you think I wanted this? What could I have done in that situation?"

Jiao Yuan’s pupils constricted. "So... you’re the one who swapped our female cub?"

His voice trembled, his last shred of hope utterly shattered.

He never imagined that the gentle Wife he saw could be capable of such a thing!

Realizing she had let it slip, Lan Yi’s face went white as a sheet, her eyes wild with panic. "No... It wasn’t me! I didn’t want to, either! It was... It was..." She rambled incoherently, trying to salvage the situation.

"You didn’t want to? Did someone hold a knife to your throat and force you?" Jiao Yuan’s voice suddenly rose, filled with explosive anger and incredulous disappointment.

Lan Yi flinched at his fury, crying out, "At the time... At the time, the one I gave birth to was clearly a ’useless female’! Her breathing was weak, and it was obvious she wasn’t going to make it. And the Clan Witch said that giving birth to her had damaged my body, that it would be hard for me to have cubs in the future."

Snot and tears streamed down her face as she sobbed. "Jiao Yuan, if you weren’t the Clan Leader, and if your cub didn’t bear the responsibility for the Life Tree’s legacy, how could I ever have had the heart to abandon my own biological female cub?"

"If you knew she was connected to the legacy of the Life Tree, why did you abandon her?" Jiao Yuan stared at his Wife in disappointment, unable to comprehend her thoughts.

Lan Yi broke down, screaming, "Do you think I wanted to? If I couldn’t have any more children and only had a single ’useless female’ cub, what would the clan elders think of me? They would have forced you to immediately pair with another powerful Holy Female!"

"They wouldn’t have!" Jiao Yuan said, heartbroken. "You should have discussed it with me then, not made a decision on your own and doomed our female cub."

Lan Yi’s defiance crumbled. "Jiao Yuan, I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was so worried you’d be taken from me by another Holy Female. At that time... there was a Beastman... she said she knew a Cat Beastman female who had just given birth to a female cub. That cub looked very healthy..."

She covered her face, sobbing wretchedly. "I... I was just so scared of losing you back then! I wanted to protect our little family! In a moment of folly, I... I agreed to the swap..."

Jiao Yuan stood as if frozen solid.

He listened to Lan Yi’s tearful confession, every word a poisoned Ice Cone plunging into his heart.

So it was... from the moment she was born, his female cub had been seen as a burden by her own Mother, abandoned by her own Mother’s hands.

He took a deep breath, and the cold air stung his lungs.

He stared at Lan Yi, doing his utmost to suppress his emotions. "Just a swap? Then why does Coral carry the aura of my bloodline? And why does our true female cub have no Flood Dragon aura whatsoever?"