She still remembered that night, their one and only bridal chamber, and yet he wore an expression of disgust, rushing through it as if merely completing a task.

She thought it was because she hadn’t done well enough, so she didn’t dare cling to him. Even in the days that followed, everything between them amounted to nothing more than that one night.

She kept thinking that after the child was born, everything would get better.

But she never expected that what awaited her was his departure, and many years of separation between her and An Yu.

She had long known he didn’t like her; her foolish waiting was nothing more than refusing to let go of the love she once held in her heart.

In the end, there would never again be any possibility between them.

What Madam Yan said seemed to be meant for An Ning, but in truth she was also speaking to herself.

She really did want to give up completely.

Yet every time she thought of it, the pain in her heart was like a drill.

The same went for An Ning.

Only, what made her ache was the heartache she felt for Madam Yan.

If back then she hadn’t met An Bingfeng, but an ordinary man instead, then even if her life couldn’t be called rich and noble, she would at least have been happy.

Unfortunately, Heaven just loved to toy with people; good women never seemed to meet good men.

After that thought crossed her mind, An Ning gave a bitter little laugh.

Maybe she was wrong; it wasn’t that good men couldn’t be met.

Gao Mutou didn’t have great prospects, but he could support a family, and his feelings for Madam Yan were sincere and wholehearted.

It was just that she happened not to like the good man who gave her his whole heart.

At first, Madam Yan had been quite worried.

Because she didn’t know who had captured them and brought them here.

But it wasn’t hard to imagine that anyone capable of such underhanded deeds could not be a good person.

Yet once she calmed down, she remembered that her daughter was still a thirteen-year-old child.

At a time like this, if she herself was afraid, then a child like her must be even more terrified.

So Madam Yan forced herself to be strong. Her body stopped trembling so much as she wrapped her arms around An Ning and comforted her, "Ningning, don’t be scared, we’re definitely going to be fine..."

Although that was what she said, her heart was still unsteady.

At this moment, the people who came to her mind were neither An Bingfeng nor An Yu, because in Madam Yan’s heart, An Yu and An Ning were the same—they were both just children.

Gao Mutou’s figure did flash through her mind, but only for an instant.

Because she knew deep down that even if he wanted to save her, he simply didn’t have the ability.

Holding An Ning tightly in her arms, the person Madam Yan thought of at this moment was Sikong Wuyou.

The County Magistrate had always been good to An Ning—one could even say he treasured her to the extreme. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Though Madam Yan had only seen him a few times, after moving back and seeing how the household had changed, she finally understood that her daughter could also be held in someone’s palms, with her food, clothing, and lodging all arranged perfectly, and even Lan Ru specially assigned to attend her.

What happened to herself no longer mattered. Her life had already turned out this way; it couldn’t get much worse. At most, she would just lose her life.

If it were only her, Madam Yan even wished she could die here.

That way, she wouldn’t have to go on living in torment and pain, wouldn’t have to endure the contemptuous looks of others, or drag An Ning and Xiaoniu down with her, letting them be gossiped about by everyone!

But her An Ning was different.

An Ning was still a child; her life had only just begun. If Sikong Wuyou could keep guarding this child the way he did now, then her future would certainly not be as tragic as her own.