Chapter 62: Fragrance from Bone Marrow
“You little tramp, get in there!”
The two old women shoved Xue Sui forcefully into the room. Seeing her fall and crawl on the ground, motionless, they exchanged a lewd smile and slammed the door shut.
*Click!*
The sound of a heavy lock falling outside made the surroundings exceptionally quiet.
There was no one else in the room.
Xue Sui was silent for a moment, then slowly raised her head, only to collide with a pair of dark, deep eyes.
Misty, burning, like a bottomless abyss, merciless yet profound.
Clearly, Li Zhao had also fallen victim.
He was in a state of soft weakness, as if drunk, sitting limply on a soft couch meant for rest. His neat Crown Prince’s casual clothes were slightly wrinkled, his fair cheeks flushed with an unhealthy redness, his chest heaving, and his eyes bloodshot. This inexplicably made his handsome face appear ethereally seductive, like a cold immortal who had fallen to the mortal world, moved by mortal feelings, possessing an indescribable charm…
Xue Sui suddenly felt like laughing.
Li Zhao, who loved to scheme against others, didn’t expect to be ambushed, did he?
She could imagine that if Li Zhao and she couldn’t resist the effects of the Love Silk Lure poison and engaged in illicit acts here, Ping Le would lead those noble ladies, and even the Empress, Mother of the World, to witness their disgrace.
They would see her with disheveled clothes, lying in the Crown Prince’s arms, see Xue Yuechen’s shock and disappointment, see Empress Xie’s fury, wanting to tear her apart. They would see the entire Shangjing City mock the Crown Prince’s debauchery and scorn the Xue Mansion’s Sixth Miss for her shameless promiscuity…
At that time, Ping Le would reveal that familiar, languid smile.
Disdainfully, she would utter, “How utterly uninteresting…”
Ping Le was vicious and bold, but unfortunately…
She was facing not the weak and easily bullied Xue Liu from ten years ago.
Xue Sui smiled softly, slowly pushing herself up, meeting Li Zhao’s piercing gaze.
“Is Your Highness well?”
When she arrived today, to avoid spoiling the nobles’ mood, she had applied a little cosmetic powder, changed into a new spring outfit, and dressed up nicely. Coupled with the effects of the Love Silk Lure, even after taking the antidote from Senior Sister Yuheng, she couldn’t help but feel a bit dazed. Her eyes sparkled with a hazy, affectionate light, like a dew-kissed flower, radiating a blush-like watery hue…
Vivid and alluring.
An inappropriate word popped into Li Zhao’s mind.
His heart jolted. He ignored the ripples of emotion and spoke coldly.
“Sixth Miss Xue, you are awake…”
His clear voice, laced with a hint of passion-induced hoarseness, made her ears tremble slightly.
The air seemed to be filled with a decadent aura.
Xue Sui narrowed her eyes, appraising Li Zhao, “Your Highness is too.”
Seemingly controlled by the drug, yet her mind remained clear.
After speaking, she walked to the heavy wooden desk, picked up a pot of cold tea, and poured it onto the incense burner with its flickering embers.
With a “hiss.”
The incense ash was extinguished.
Yet, wisps of soul-stirring fragrance lingered in the room.
Li Zhao watched her with cold eyes, his gaze like a sharp, icy knife, yet his chest inexplicably burned with heat.
In this deep palace, Li Zhao had seen his fill of ordinary women and had never been moved by female beauty. Yet, the maiden before him, in this amorous atmosphere, seemed to transform into a bone-sucking demon. Even with his astonishing self-control, he found it difficult to restrain himself, as if an invisible hand had gripped his throat, making his breathing tight. He tugged at his collar, but the stuffiness and heat did not subside.
Xue Sui walked towards him.
In the hazy light, her steps were light…
“Can Your Highness still endure?”
The air froze for a brief moment.
Her voice was like a clear spring in a mountain stream, and the flowers in her hair bun seemed to hold the dewdrops of early morning bloom, evoking endless imagination…
Li Zhao shielded his lower body with his robe, his body stiff. Yet, his voice was mocking.
“Is this another of Sixth Miss Xue’s schemes?”
Xue Sui observed his expression and suddenly smiled.
She had been pushed into the room by the old women, but her mind was clear, unlike someone poisoned. It was no wonder Li Zhao was suspicious.
“Xue Liu has no interest in Your Highness.”
She slowly bent down, her eyes fixed on Li Zhao’s face, so close their breaths mingled, her voice steady and clear.
“Who do you think is behind the aphrodisiac poison Your Highness has taken? If you and I are disgraced, who in this palace benefits?”
She lowered her gaze to Li Zhao’s arm, which he was using to shield himself, her eyes smiling.
“I observe, Your Highness is reacting?”
Li Zhao’s feigned composure was about to crack.
His body felt hot, sweat beaded on his back, and his mouth was unbearably parched. A boiling hot blood surged downwards like a wild beast. Especially under her indifferent tone, as if she were discussing the weather, his agitated emotions burned like flames, his skin feeling as if it were being roasted in her gaze.
“Therefore, Your Highness can rest assured. I have tasted many herbs in the Old Mausoleum Swamp, so my body is very resistant to poison. I am more afraid that Your Highness will not be able to hold on and will beg me to… you…”
“Audacious!”
Li Zhao’s cold, beautiful face was filled with frost.
He instinctively reached out and grabbed her, his grip tightening forcefully.
“Do you think I dare not kill you?”
“Your Highness dares, and has wanted to kill me for a long time.” Xue Sui stared at the Crown Prince’s flushed face, tinged with a broken despair under the soft sunlight. She curved her lips and looked at him with an incomparably sympathetic and serious gaze.
“But right now, Your Highness probably wants something more than killing me…”
The flush on Li Zhao’s face rapidly spread to his ears and neck. The hand gripping her arm tightened slightly, his thumb moving upwards, and with a sudden force, he pulled her entirely towards him, making her lean against his chest.
“Xue… Liu!”
He gritted his teeth, his warning voice trembling slightly.
“Even now, I have ways to kill you.”
Xue Sui frowned.
Under the restraint of the man’s strong arm, she should have had the strength to struggle and get up, but a devil within her seemed to be calling out, making her stiff body tense, unwilling to move away.
It was the Love Silk Lure at work.
She took a shallow breath, like a shrewd merchant, bargaining with him.
“I am here to save Your Highness. Killing me is not cost-effective.”
She used her hand to support herself on Li Zhao’s shoulder, attempting to rise.
The next moment, she was pulled towards him forcefully by Li Zhao.
She fell into Li Zhao’s embrace, like a soft willow catkin landing on his heart.
Li Zhao’s breath hitched.
“Don’t move!”
Xue Sui’s heart constricted.
Was Senior Sister Yuheng’s antidote taking so long to work?
Xue Sui avoided looking at his seductive, cold demeanor and spoke casually, “This poison is called Love Silk Lure. It is made by mixing Southern Xinjiang gu worms with exotic Western flowers and refining it for forty-nine days. It is not immediately fatal, but if one cannot achieve yin and yang union within half an hour, the poison will gradually spread throughout the body, and thereafter, desire will grow like wild grass. After one or two years, one will slowly descend into madness, neither human nor ghost…”
Li Zhao’s eyes flickered slightly.
Her words seemed to strike his bones.
Following the gradually heating blood, they crept into his marrow.
Xue Sui hesitated slightly, “If Your Highness’s brain has not been damaged by the poison, you should understand how to choose. Cooperating with me is more cost-effective than killing me…”
Cooperate, how could they cooperate now?
Li Zhao’s eye twitched.
Images from some erotic paintings he had seen uncontrollably flooded his mind…
His breathing grew tight. He looked at her crimson lips, wishing he could bite them.
Audacious.
Xue Liu was too audacious!
He exhaled softly, his expression awkward as he released Xue Sui’s hand. He supported himself on the corner of the desk, perhaps with too much force, as the veins on the back of his hand bulged. His voice carried a slight tremor.
“You leave. I… don’t need you.”
Xue Sui slightly curved her lips, appraising him.
A man who appeared calm but whose heart was being eroded by the Love Silk Lure.
“Your Highness worries too much.”
Xue Sui actually admired Li Zhao. He hadn’t taken the antidote like her, yet he could still resist his desires with reason.
Perhaps due to a shared plight, she felt no aversion towards Li Zhao at this moment.
“The cooperation I speak of is not the kind Your Highness is thinking of. I have no intention of sacrificing myself to save Your Highness…”
Xue Sui placed a hand on Li Zhao’s shoulder, sensing his broad shoulders stiffen. She smiled slightly again, lowered her brows, and pressed down with force. Li Zhao slumped onto the beauty’s couch, completely devoid of strength.
“You see, what I want to do to Your Highness right now is as easy as pie…”
“Your Highness is powerless to resist me.”
Li Zhao panted slightly.
His limbs were numb, and so was his heart.
Where she had touched him, it felt as if it had caught fire…
Xue Sui said, “Your Highness need not doubt my intentions. I understand the poison because the Love Silk Lure originates from the Old Mausoleum Swamp. Therefore, what I said earlier was the method for ordinary people to detoxify. Besides yin and yang union, there is another method of detoxification.”
Li Zhao’s eyelids twitched slightly.
The woman’s voice reached his ears, unusually hazy at this moment…
This woman was seducing him…
Even if Xue Sui’s tone and demeanor were normal, to him, it sounded like temptation.
“Come.” Xue Sui grabbed Li Zhao’s hand. Her fingertips were warm, like a soft vine, entwining him, sliding, skillfully rolling up his sleeve.
“What are you doing?” Li Zhao’s cheeks flushed crimson. The drug surged within him, reason and instinct warring madly in his mind. Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
“I warn you, do not be disrespectful to me…”
Xue Sui suppressed a smile and spoke with utmost seriousness.
“Your Highness is truly saying one thing and meaning another. You are hoping I will be disrespectful to you, aren’t you?”
“Hiss!” Li Zhao was brought back to his senses by the pain.
Xue Sui reached for her hair bun, calmly pulled out the jade hairpin, and from it extracted a thin, sharp iron needle. She forcefully cut his finger…
Li Zhao’s consciousness instantly cleared…
Then he watched, wide-eyed, as Xue Sui poured half a cup of clear water into a teacup and pulled his hand towards it.
Blood dripped onto the water’s surface, gradually dyeing it a crimson color.
She showed no respect to the Crown Prince, pinching his pained finger very hard.
Li Zhao did not move, frowning as he looked at her profile.
Her skin was extremely fair, her eyes extremely dark, her waist extremely slender. She had injured the current Crown Prince with an extremely composed expression.
“My turn.” Xue Sui said calmly, releasing Li Zhao’s hand. Using the same method, she pricked her own finger and let drops of blood flow into the teacup.
Confusion appeared in Li Zhao’s eyes, and the corners of his lips twitched.
“Sixth Miss Xue, are you going to make a blood pact with me?”
Xue Sui smiled slightly, her voice laced with a hint of mockery.
“Bleeding to detoxify. The other method I mentioned earlier was for our blood to mix. This can also be considered a form of yin and yang harmony. Then, we each drink half a cup, and perhaps the poison can be resolved.”
She used the word “perhaps,” not a definitive “yes.”
Li Zhao forced himself to remain calm and asked in a deep voice, “Sixth Miss Xue, what trick are you playing now?”
He was not a fool. How could mixing two people’s blood and drinking it resolve poison through yin and yang harmony?
It was illogical, there must be something sinister.
Xue Sui did not respond to him, not even glancing his way.
After enough blood had dripped in, she held the teacup and shook it with feigned seriousness, mixing the two bloods more thoroughly. Then, she raised it and handed it to him.
“There isn’t much time. Ping Le could bring people over at any moment. Drink it.”
Li Zhao stared into her eyes, not moving.
Sixth Miss was cunning and her methods were both ruthless and malicious. He had to be on guard.
“Hmph!” Xue Sui chuckled, suddenly withdrawing her hand. She tilted her head and drank half of the contents from the teacup.
She then placed the remaining half-bowl before him.
“I’ve tried it. It’s not poisonous.”
Her expression was blank. She sat down cross-legged beside Li Zhao.
“If Your Highness wishes to drink it, then drink it. If you don’t wish to be detoxified, that is up to you. At worst, Daliang will have another mad Crown Prince, Prince Duan, Ping Le, and Consort Xiao will be at ease, celebrating their success, while Empress Xie weeps… It is indeed a sad thought.”
Li Zhao stared at her, his gaze icy.
Slowly, he extended a trembling hand, picked up the teacup Xue Sui had drunk from, and drained it.
A cool, smooth sensation rolled down his throat. He frowned slightly.
“When will it take effect?”
Xue Sui: “I don’t know.”
A strange feeling suddenly arose in Li Zhao’s heart. He grabbed her hand, his hoarse voice trembling slightly.
“What did you give me to eat?”
Xue Sui’s lips curved into a smile. “Guess?”
I’m not feeling very well today, the update is finished. There’s one more chapter, I’ll write it this afternoon. Please check it during dinner…
Sending hearts, thank you for your understanding! Love you all.
