Ye Wan'er shrieked and woke up from her dream, startling the female disciples sharing her room.
“Wan'er, what’s wrong? It’s the middle of the night…”
“Leave me alone!”
Ye Wan'er roared at the female disciple who had spoken out of concern, her expression twisted and her eyes bloodshot. The disciple, terrified, grabbed her outer robe and ran to someone else’s room.
She had dreamed of her previous life.
In her previous life, she stood on the city wall with a desperate hidden guard. The man’s slightly upturned phoenix eyes gazed at her, filled with a chilling coldness.
Then, he took the hidden guard’s longbow, slowly drew the string, and aimed it at her head.
The sound of the arrow cutting through the air as it left the string made her face turn ashen—the 'thud' of the arrowhead piercing flesh made her body tremble. She looked again, and the hidden guard who had shielded her was dead.
Her cries made the man’s crimson lips curl slightly. In the moonlight, he wore a black robe, incomparably handsome, like a jade-faced Asura come to claim her life.
Ye Wan'er hugged herself, burrowing into the covers and weeping incessantly. It was too terrifying, that man was too terrifying… Thankfully, it wasn't her who entered the palace in this life.
Moonlight streamed through the window, and she suddenly remembered that tonight was the night of the full moon.
Sui Xing had been in the palace for half a month without any news. The night of the full moon was when the tyrant’s poison would act up—
The poisoned tyrant would kill indiscriminately, and only enough bloodlust could calm him down.
If he lost control and killed Sui Xing, and then captured and imprisoned her in the palace…
Ye Wan'er cried and shook her head, no, absolutely not. She hoped Sui Xing wouldn't die, she didn't want to enter the palace.
Meanwhile, in the palace.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty, it’s your servant, Your Majesty…”
“Quick, quick, go invite Sui Xing!”
“Your Majesty…”
The man held a long sword, his eyes red, his skin as pale as paper, his demeanor bordering on madness.
Black blood vessels were constantly creeping up his neck, a sign that the toxins had invaded his bone marrow.
Once the blood vessels reached his face, his heart would be compressed by the poisoned blood until it could no longer beat, and he would die a very painful death.
Sui Xing, also suffering from the poison’s onset, ran over with her medicine box. Without thinking, she was about to go up and calm the man, but she heard the chief eunuch say with a mournful face:
“Miss, please stay far away! Just tell us what to do and we’ll do it! You mustn't get hurt!”
The half-month Sui Xing had been in the palace was the most peaceful half-month since His Majesty ascended the throne.
Normally, angering him would result in torture, or even confiscation of property and exile. Recently, however, it had only meant a few months in the Heavenly Prison, and even the punishments were merely symbolic.
Sui Xing looked at the man with concern: “It’s alright, I have a way to calm him. You should let these guards leave, too many people will only agitate His Majesty more.”
“Yes, yes, please be very careful.”
The chief eunuch was an unreachable figure in the eyes of the palace staff, yet now he was following the orders of a common medical woman. It was unheard of.
Sui Xing endured the severe pain in her body and walked in front of the man.
A faint, harmless scent of medicine gently diffused, and the bulging veins on the man's forehead slowly subsided, but his eyes remained fixed on the approaching person, and the raised sword quickly came to rest against her neck.
It was still stained with blood.
Sui Xing’s eyes were soft, and her raised hand, without the slightest hesitation, rested on the man’s wrist. Her soft, clean white fingers closed, gripping his wrist.
The man’s eyes froze on her hand, his breathing heavy, his gaze revealing a deeper, heavier longing—
A longing for her to touch him more, to caress him more, even if the price was a blade plunged into his heart.
“I’m a little afraid of your sword. Could you put it away? I would be very grateful.”
In the dim candlelight of the night, her eyes were as clear and bright as the autumn waters.
The starlit sky, shrouded in mist, shimmered with tiny lights in her eyes. That light was not specific, like the warmth of myriad household lamps, and also like the quiet peace of a mountain's ghostly fires.
She did not fear the gloomy, terrifying aura around him, like a purgatory. She did not fear the long sword he might swing at any moment if he lost control, nor did she fear his fierce and sinister gaze.
She was the light that pierced through the endless night, slowly shining on that heart, sealed airtight by black toxins—piercing through the shadows and sins, finally gently enveloping his heart, making his frozen blood flow again.
At that moment, he heard a powerful heartbeat, and he felt as if he had been reborn.
The sword in his hand was slowly taken away by that hand and dropped to the ground with a 'thud'. He was disarmed, staring blankly at the face approaching him.
Finally, his trembling arms eagerly lifted, embracing the waist he had longed for day and night.
“…”
The hearts of the distant onlookers relaxed.
Sui Xing still has a way! Ordinary people wouldn't dare to approach His Majesty at this time; they would truly have their heads cut off by the long sword in His Majesty's hand!
Yet, His Majesty wouldn't even blink, as if what died was an ant, a speck of dust floating away.
The man’s tall body trembled slightly from the intense pain. Sui Xing gently stroked his back: “It’s alright, I told you I would cure you.”
The next day.
Rong Huai woke up.
He had never slept so soundly, and his head didn't even hurt when he woke up.
Soon, he felt something pressing on his arm. Thinking it might be some woman casually sent to his bed, he immediately felt a murderous intent—until he turned his head and looked.
The woman lay quietly beside him, still clutching his sleeve, as if afraid he would go out and kill. In her other hand, she held a medicine bottle, ready to fearlessly feed him medicine at any moment.
Rong Huai’s cold eyes immediately softened. He hadn't forgotten last night…
Wait.
Rong Huai stiffened.
He cautiously touched the woman’s sleeve, gently rolling it up…
He saw several layers of white gauze, hastily bandaged, with bright red blood already soaking through the lower layers.
He had still lost control last night, biting her in several places on her body, each wound bleeding profusely. Yet, her hand, holding him, never let go, even though she herself was suffering from the pain of the poison.
Those wounds pained him more than if they were on himself.
Rong Huai got out of bed with extremely light movements, without disturbing the sleeping Sui Xing.
She was so close, yet he dared not entertain any improper thoughts; he was afraid of hurting her again.
Rong Huai went to the outer chamber to get dressed, telling the palace staff to be quiet. He ordered Chief Eunuch Fu Quan to invite imperial physicians to examine Sui Xing.
Chief Eunuch Fu Quan cautiously glanced at the moody emperor: “Your Majesty’s wounds…”
“It’s nothing.” Rong Huai’s heart was entirely with the person in the imperial bed; how could he care about himself?
Chief Eunuch Fu Quan boldly said: “Please allow this old servant to speak. Last night, Sui Xing worked tirelessly to stabilize Your Majesty. If she wakes up and sees Your Majesty not taking care of himself, she will surely worry.”
“…”
Hearing her name, Rong Huai’s expression paused slightly. He thought of her dedication to medicine, how she disregarded herself to cure him… A slight pang of sourness rose in Rong Huai’s heart.
Was it only to cure him? Was that why she fought so desperately?
Rong Huai said nothing, his face tightly drawn, but when the two imperial physicians arrived, he did not refuse their pulse diagnoses.
However, the cold aura around him intensified, making the two kneeling imperial physicians tremble.
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