His Rui

Li Rui was still stunned when the maids uncovered an unconscious girl's face and that girl turned out to be Li Na.

She saw her first aunt crying and her mother comforting her first aunt while shedding tears herself. Her father's grim face lingered in her eyes.

When she saw Li Na looking in her so-called husband's direction with a confused face, her mind, for a moment went blank.

She suddenly looked at the man in front of her with blank eyes.

'Did he want her away for this purpose? She had been a fool to think that he just went to meet the Princess.

He had already started to work on his plan.'

Her already cold heart was now getting colder.

Xi Ying didn't notice Li Rui's gaze on himself. He was instead focused on checking if her body temperature was more than normal or if she was ill.

When he raised his head to look at her, she abruptly moved her eyes away as if afraid that he will find out what she was thinking just by looking into her eyes.

Inside her sleeves, her fists were clenched tightly which she had to loosen when Xi Ying tried to hold her hand.

She didn't even react when she heard Li Caihong shouting at her.

Till the time she reacted Xi Ying had already taken out his whip. He flung it in his hands and threw the whip on Li Caihong.

"No…"

Shouts echoed in Lianxin hall but only one was audible to Xi Ying's ears. It was Li Rui's.

His face went pale when he saw her trying to stop the whip in his hand with her hand and he instantly pushed her away from himself to An Ju.

With his other hand, he tried to retract his whip however the purpose for which he had taken out his whip had been fulfilled already.

An Ju had caught Li Rui and didn't let her fall to the ground.

After maintaining her balance and standing firmly on the ground, Li Rui turned around and hurriedly looked towards Li Caihong.

She covered her mouth and inhaled sharply when she saw Li Caihong's figure on the floor. In every few seconds, Li Caihong would let out a shout or whimper because of the pain caused by the whip.

Her one hand was covering her face but Li Rui could see the blood leaking out from the gaps of her fingers.

No…

The view was blocked when a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders firmly and turned her to look in their direction.

"Rui, are you alright?"

Xi Ying's asked.

His voice was laced with panic and concern and he checked her hands and arms looking for any wound and injury. It was only when he didn't find any trail of blood leaking through her dress, he left her realizing a sigh of relief.

After that, what came was the anger.

Xi Ying raised his head to look at the blank eyes of the woman in front of him. It only angered him more.

"Rui"

He spat out her name with gritted teeth.

"Why did you try to stop me? Do you even know how painful and serious injury you could get because of your actions just now?"

However, Li Rui didn't even seem to hear what Xi Ying was saying.

She was just trying to look behind him at Li Caihong to check whether she was fine or not. When she couldn't see what she wanted to see, she tried to push aside Xi Ying.

Her push didn't have any force but Xi Ying let her push himself away and saw her walking past him to Li Caihong with blank eyes.

"Caihong"

Li Rui called out softly and kneeled down in front of Li Caihong.

"Don't rub your face. It will make the wound more painful and deep."

Li Rui said as she tried to lower down Li Caihong's hand from her face.

However, Li Caihong screamed when Li Rui's hand was about to touch her hand and cowered back in fear.

"Stay away…my face…you ruined it."

Her voice came out muffled and choked behind her hands as she sobbed and tried to speak.

Everyone was shocked by the turn of the events.

Li Na still looked blank about everything while Li Rong looked at both of her daughters with a sorrowful pair of eyes as if she has lost the world.

She walked towards her younger daughter slowly.

When she was in front of her, she kneeled down and lowered down her hands from her face but Li Caihong insisted to cover her face.

"Caihong…it's mother."

Li Rong told her daughter in a trembling voice and tried again.

This time Li Caihong didn't resist her mother. However, when she saw her mother's pale face on seeing her uncovered face, Li Caihong was horrified and she covered her face again.

But everyone had already seen what there was to see.

Li Caihong's face was completely disfigured.

There was a long and deep cut that ran down from the left side of her forehead to the right side of her chin. All in all, she looked very ugly.

"M…m…other…take me away from here."

Li Rong had seemed to have lost all of her energy so she didn't hear her daughter's words. Her children, especially her daughters, she had brought them up with great care and love.

The three of them had always been the apple of her eyes.

She had never hit her children and never let her husband hit them.

However, today she hit both of her daughters. Not only this, their future…it seemed to be in darkness at this moment.

Li Rui was still kneeling on the ground not knowing what she should say. She saw the lost look on her aunt's face and lowered her head.

A moment later, she raised her head and looked at her father only to find that he had been looking at her already.

After a momentary eye exchange, General Li moved his eyes away from his daughter and turned to the silent Emperor.

"Your Majesty, this General demands an Imperial Physician to treat Li family's third miss, Li Caihong."

The Emperor didn't say anything to General Li but turned to look at Eunuch Wang who immediately sent a Eunuch to look for an Imperial Physician.

After that, Li Caihong was taken away by the maids to a separate room.

Everyone waited for the Emperor to say something to Lord Xi, however, nothing happened.

It was at this moment, Li Rong seemed to have woken up suddenly and she looked at Xi Ying with red and cold eyes.

"Your Majesty, Lord Xi can't just hit my daughter and disfigure her like this.. Your Majesty, this one demands justice."