Ruan Xiao nodded expressionlessly, his gaze lingering briefly on Ruan Shu before ending the video call.
He immediately made another call. “Haven’t you caught her yet?”
He would make that woman pay for this!
Originally, he had planned to wait until he caught the doctor before convicting and sentencing Xiao Yuanyi along with her.
But now, with barely restrained anger, Ruan Xiao urged those searching for her to speed up their efforts. After handling a few matters, he went alone to the prison.
“Marshal Ruan.”
Ruan Xiao gave a cold nod. “How is she?”
“Xiao Yuanyi has been clamoring to see you this entire time.”
Ruan Xiao’s gaze was icy, his aura oppressive like a towering iceberg on the move.
“Take me to her.”
Life in prison was grueling, with many tasks to complete every day and not a shred of freedom. The weak could be beaten at any time.
Xiao Yuanyi’s star beast form was that of a fox, and she wasn’t particularly strong. Her greatest pride lay in her beauty.
However, her prized appearance was useless here and, if anything, only brought her trouble.
The people thrown into this prison were all bad news, and all her cellmates were women; her looks were of no use here. Only a few days in, and Xiao Yuanyi was already finding it unbearable.
“A-9938, someone’s here for you.”
The door to Xiao Yuanyi’s cell was knocked on as she was being beaten by the cell boss. Hearing the sound, she scrambled over frantically.
“Someone’s here for me! Someone’s here for me!”
A glimmer of hope appeared in her eyes as she hurriedly followed the guard, her hair a tangled mess.
Whoever it was, she would seize this opportunity to find a way out; she couldn’t bear another second in this hellish place.
But instead of being taken to the visiting room, the guard led her to an interrogation room.
When she saw the man seated inside, Xiao Yuanyi’s pupils contracted, and she instinctively stepped back.
“Go on in. Didn’t you keep saying you wanted to see Marshal Ruan? Now that he’s here, what are you backing away for?”
The guard behind her gave her a shove, looking at her with mocking eyes—as if she were overreaching her station.
Did Xiao Yuanyi want to see Ruan Xiao? Of course, she did.
She was ambitious and greedy; she wanted to be the Marshal’s wife. She had gone to great lengths to give him a child, but the child she birthed turned out to be a weak, obscure star beast.
Xiao Yuanyi had never thought she was to blame for this; instead, she placed all the blame on the child.
She despised the child, ignored her, and even beat her when she was in a bad mood.
Ruan Shu’s star beast form was visibly weak, and Xiao Yuanyi believed that someone as powerful as Marshal Ruan could never love such a fragile star beast daughter.
Especially after the Jingshen test came back with an F-level result—a worthless rating that shattered her last shred of hope.
Xiao Yuanyi’s dreams were shattered, yet she couldn’t reconcile with all the years she had spent hiding and suffering only to gain nothing in the end. Driven by resentment, she found a way to send both the genetic report and the paternity test results to the Marshal’s mansion, using the opportunity to blackmail them for a sum of money before revealing the child’s location.
Her plan was to take the money, leave, and rely on her looks to latch onto someone else. However, she was caught the moment she arrived at the port.
Since entering this prison and enduring a life filled with humiliation, Xiao Yuanyi had desperately hoped for someone to rescue her. But she knew it was Marshal Ruan himself who had ordered her arrest—who would dare to come to her aid? Those who knew her now wished they had never met her.
As a result, her only possible escape lay through Marshal Ruan.
She had longed to meet him, but now that the awaited moment had arrived, Xiao Yuanyi felt a pang of regret.
“Marshal…Marshal Ruan!”
She fell to her knees in front of him, weeping with remorse plastered all over her face.
“I know I was wrong. Marshal, please, I’ll never dare to do it again. I beg you, let me go.”
Ruan Xiao looked down at her coldly, his icy blue eyes sharp as blades, freezing her in place, rendering her unable to come any closer.
The oppressive presence of a high-level star beast made it hard for her to breathe.
With an impassive face, he asked, “What exactly have you done to Shushu…”
The interrogation, conducted personally by Ruan Xiao, lasted less than half an hour.
When he exited, his expression was cold and somber, his face even darker and more intimidating than when he had arrived.
Fury smoldered in his eyes, and as he left, the entire prison fell silent from top to bottom, no one daring to make a sound.
After Marshal Ruan’s departure, the guards entered the interrogation room, only to find Xiao Yuanyi reverted to her star beast form—a three-meter-tall fox, barely breathing, battered and bruised.
“What nerve, offending even the Marshal.”
“People have dared to offend Marshal Ruan before, but for him to personally interrogate someone, and to leave in such a rage—Xiao Yuanyi is the first. What could she possibly have done to make him so furious?”
Ruan Xiao’s visit to the prison was a well-kept secret, known only to one person: His Majesty Almer, Emperor of the Star Beast Empire.
Inside the imperial palace, Almer lazily leaned against the window, his slender fingers playing with the shell wind chime hanging by the window.
The crisp sound of the wind was pleasant, and Almer narrowed his eyes, looking down at the fierce, carnivorous creatures feeding below.
“Ruan Xiao went to the prison to see that woman?”
Os, his head attendant, nodded. “He interrogated Xiao Yuanyi personally and left, visibly angry.”
Almer straightened up, his black hair adorned with a snow-colored accessory, crafted from gold and red threads and encrusted with jewels that glistened in the sunlight. The otherwise modest accessory appeared exceptionally regal on him.
In contrast to Ruan Xiao’s reserved demeanor, Almer wore the gift from Ruan Shu with a flamboyant pride, as if he wanted the whole world to notice it.
“So, has something happened to Ruan Shu? Any unusual activity in the Ruan family?”
“A psychologist named Shen Yu visited, but he is a friend of Mr. Ruan Qingran, so it should be fine.”
Almer’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not fine.”
He recalled the day he had last met with Ruan Shu.
At that time, there were only the two of them in the room. Just the sound of his voice had frightened the little one so much that she seemed ready to curl up into a ball and run away.
She was timid, fearful of interacting with strangers, and didn’t like to talk. Even after he coaxed her into speaking, she always kept her head down, avoiding eye contact.
Almer took out a black pearl, about the size of an egg, and rolled it between his fingers.
“Go and investigate.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The young man touched the snow-colored accessory in his hair and the wind chime hanging by the window.
These were items that had come with Ruan Shu’s letter in response to his own.
He liked them very much.
So… he could hardly wait to meet that soft, glowing little one.