SBCEJM -Chapter 23 At the End of the Tunnel Wasn’t Freedom—But Her Cold Toes

Having received the order, Wang Da no longer hesitated. He waved his hand.

Several burly guards stepped forward, preparing to ram the gate together.

A shadow flashed past their eyes.

Using Wang Da’s shoulder as leverage, Feng Zexuan lightly tapped the doorframe with the tip of her foot. Her body floated over the high wall like a weightless falling leaf, silent and swift.

The movement was so fast it almost looked like an illusion.

Outside the wall, the noblewomen widened their eyes in shock.

Inside the courtyard—

Beneath a crooked peach tree, a skinny servant with a monkey-like face hummed a little tune.

Suddenly, a chill crept up the back of his neck.

A dark figure stood before him.

His mouth opened into a perfect “O,” his scream stuck in his throat before a hand tapped an acupoint on his body, freezing him stiff instantly.

Without even sparing him a glance, Feng Zexuan walked straight to the gate and removed the bolt.

Creak—

The door opened.

She lifted her brother’s wheelchair over the threshold, then gestured for Qi Yanran and the guards to stay quiet.

“Light footsteps.”

One of the guards immediately went ahead to scout. Before long, he returned and whispered:

“Madam, he’s in the study.”

Qi Yanran’s body tightened like a fully drawn bowstring. Her nails dug into her palms, yet she felt no pain.

Holding their breaths, the group crept deeper into the courtyard like hunters stalking prey.

Inside the study, Xiao Lin was holding a storybook, a foolish grin hanging on his lips.

A faint rustle of fabric instantly made every hair on his body stand up.

He jerked out of the world of the book, pressing his ear tightly against the door.

Something was wrong!

Those weren’t the footsteps of a servant!

Too many. Too heavy. More than one person.

A thought exploded in his mind like thunder.

Qi Yanran!

She had found him!

Cold sweat instantly soaked through his inner robe.

Scrambling frantically beneath the desk, he lifted a disguised floor tile, revealing a pitch-black opening.

Thank heavens!

Thank heavens he had dug a tunnel!

As long as he escaped, the capital was vast enough for him to assume a new identity and start over!

He leapt inside without looking back, desperately crawling into the darkness.

Bang!

Feng Zexuan and Qi Yanran burst into the study.

No one was there.

A storybook lay open on the table. Beside the window, the leaves of a potted plant still swayed slightly from disturbed air.

“Where is he?!” Qi Yanran’s voice was hoarse with fury.

The guards were equally dumbfounded, sweating profusely.

“Madam, I… I clearly heard—”

【Host! Under your feet! That bastard dug a tunnel—hurry and chase him!】

The system’s voice rang in Feng Zexuan’s mind.

But her eyes had already locked onto the stone floor beneath the desk.

Along the edge of one slab were nearly invisible traces of fresh dirt.

She tapped it lightly with her heel.

A hollow echo answered.

Without another word, she lifted her leg, inner force surging into her heel—

And stomped down hard.

BOOM—!

Wood splinters and dust exploded into the air.

The sturdy stone floor shattered beneath her foot, leaving behind a massive crater and exposing the dark tunnel below.

From his wheelchair, Feng Zekai’s eyelid twitched.

His little sister was still as ferocious as ever.

Behind him, the gathered noblewomen collectively sucked in a sharp breath.

This Top Scholar Feng…

Really was no ordinary person!

Feng Zexuan glanced at the bottomless opening and ordered Wang Da, the head guard:

“Guard this place. The other end should be the abandoned well at the end of the street.”

The moment she finished speaking, she jumped down.

The tunnel reeked of damp mildew. Its structure was crude, dirt and pebbles constantly raining from above.

Ahead echoed Xiao Lin’s panicked breathing and frantic curses.

Feng Zexuan followed at an unhurried pace, like a cat toying with a mouse.

Just as Xiao Lin saw light pouring through the well opening ahead and joy burst across his face—

Feng Zexuan suddenly accelerated and kicked a support beam beside her.

RUMBLE!

Earth and stone collapsed.

Xiao Lin was instantly buried beneath the falling dirt, pinned down just before the exit.

A short while later—

Feng Zexuan leapt out of the tunnel carrying a mud-covered man in one hand like a plague-stricken chicken, casually tossing him at Qi Yanran’s feet.

It was Xiao Lin.

Having been dragged back, he simply shut his eyes, adopting the attitude of a dead pig unafraid of boiling water.

The crowd looked him over.

He was no longer the fair, refined scholar he once had been, but a pale, bloated man with the sickly complexion of someone who hadn’t seen sunlight in years. Dark circles hung heavily beneath his eyes.

Ten years of isolation had transformed the once-handsome scholar into nothing more than an utterly ordinary middle-aged man.

Looking at that face—both familiar and strange—Qi Yanran’s overwhelming hatred oddly subsided somewhat.

All that remained was a hollow sense of absurdity.

“Why?”

She spoke coldly.

Just one word, yet it weighed a thousand pounds.

Hearing the voice he had both loved and feared for ten years, Xiao Lin’s body trembled violently.

An overwhelming sense of shame swallowed him whole.

At last, he broke down.

With a thud, he dropped to his knees, tears pouring down his face.

“Yanran… I’m sorry… I was wrong…”

He clutched at her knees, crying miserably.

“I truly loved you! I couldn’t bear to be apart from you even for a day! These past ten years, I watched you every day through the cracks in the window. Seeing you and the children safe was enough to satisfy me…”

“Please forgive me, alright? Let me come back—I’ll do anything!”

Qi Yanran looked at him as though he were nothing more than a clown.

She lifted her foot and mercilessly kicked his hands away.

“Don’t romanticize your selfishness and cowardice.”

Her voice was terrifyingly calm.

“If not for Top Scholar Feng, you would already have escaped.”

“What mentality drove you to do this, and why you did it—none of that matters anymore.”

“I did not come today to judge you, nor to punish you.”

Her gaze swept across his stunned, bewildered face as she enunciated each word clearly:

“I came to inform you that from this day onward, I, Qi Yanran, divorce my husband.”

“Your name will be completely erased from the Qi family genealogy. From now on, all ties between us are severed!”

“Divorce me?”

The sorrowful expression on Xiao Lin’s face instantly froze before twisting into venomous rage.

He sprang to his feet, face distorted.

“How can you divorce me?!”

“I became like this—do you think you bear no fault at all?!”

“If you weren’t so capable, so dazzling, would I have lived in such suffocating misery?!”

“You forced me into this! You ruined me!”

Smack!

A crisp slap interrupted him.

Qi Yanran struck him across the face with one backhand.

Before he could react, another slap landed on the opposite cheek.

The force split the corner of his mouth open.

Too disgusted to waste more words on this piece of trash, she turned and walked to the desk.

She spread paper.

Ground ink.

Lifted her brush.

Every movement carried cold, decisive finality.

Clutching his swollen face, Xiao Lin stared at her in shock and confusion.

Looking at her icy profile, at the words she was about to write, an unprecedented terror seized him.

He completely panicked.

Dropping to his knees once again, he begged humbly:

“Yanran, don’t drive me away! Please… even if… even if I have to live like a dog…”

Qi Yanran finished writing the final character, blew the ink dry, then turned and slapped the divorce letter hard against his face.

“A dog,” she said, staring at him word by word, “would never betray its master.”

“You are not worthy.”