Chapter 244: Hating to the Bone
The autumn rain poured down, causing white mist to rise from the blue stone slabs of the Ministry of Justice prison.
A black cloak swept past the prison bars, stirring up a series of echoes.
“Your Highness…”
Without waiting for the jailer to greet him, Li Zhao raised his hand to stop him.
“Withdraw!”
“Yes.”
Li Zhao slowly paced in, surveying the surroundings.
The straw was damp with moisture, and the smell of mold fermented in the humidity. The 《 ivy 》 on the stone walls was still there, with traces of dark red blood between the characters…
The shackles and chains lay scattered on the ground.
Only, the person in the prison was gone.
Only a few white hairs were tangled among the chains, like spider silk wound around harp strings.
He bent down and picked up a wooden hairpin from the damp straw pile.
It was made of peach wood without any ornamentation, its color dark and dull.
The female prisoners in the jail used such hairpins to tie their hair, but this one was broken…
He stared at the wooden hairpin in his hand, recalling the humble yet resolute look on her face when she requested to become a nun, and also remembering her words that day as she leaned here, her voice faint…
“The rules of the Old Mausoleum Swamp do not save fools.”
Li Zhao’s fists gradually clenched.
He had sent people to investigate and only then learned that half of the jailers on duty that night had been replaced, and afterward, they had vanished like night crows, leaving no trace.
With such methods, it could only be the Old Mausoleum Swamp.
And he, who prided himself on being heartless, had become that damned fool.
A hint of bitterness rose in his throat, and he chuckled self-mockingly, tucking the wooden hairpin into his sleeve.
“Your Highness!” Yuan Cang entered, sweating profusely, and cupped his hands. “Mister Mei has been invited.”
In the prison corridor, hurried footsteps could be heard.
Li Zhao snatched the sash knife from Yuan Cang’s hand. As Mei Ruhui stepped into the cell, he flicked his wrist, bringing the blade around with a whistling wind, the cold glint aimed directly at him…
“Your Highness!” Mei Ruhui was terrified, his liver and gall shattered, and he immediately knelt down.
The blade grazed his ear as it fell, and wood chips flew behind him.
“That night, Li Huan trespassed into the prison. You delayed reporting for two quarters of an hour, what was your intention? Half of the jailers in the prison were infiltrated by people from the Old Mausoleum Swamp, and you concealed it. Who were you trying to cover for?”
Li Zhao suddenly spoke, his voice filled with suppressed anger.
Mei Ruhui crawled on his knees, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, then cupped his hands and raised his sleeves.
“Your Highness, please see clearly—”
“Although your humble servant did not wish for Your Highness to be in danger, I did not intentionally delay the report, nor did I realize that people from the Old Mausoleum Swamp had infiltrated the prison and controlled the mouths. I was afraid of leaks and alarming Prince Duan…”
“So, you deliberately let me miss the opportunity to take her away?”
Mei Ruhui’s heart pounded with fear.
“Failing to report to Your Highness in time was my dereliction of duty. However, at that time, Prince Duan arrived, the situation was sudden, and seeing Sixth Miss Xue poisoned, I, to prevent the situation from escalating and becoming unmanageable, could only observe the developments…”
He paused, then kowtowed heavily again, his voice filled with earnestness.
“I believe Sixth Miss Xue also did not wish for Your Highness to give up what you had so hard-won, and thus resorted to this desperate measure… Her taking such a risk, was it not also to protect Your Highness and preserve your reputation?”
The Crown Prince was different from Li Huan.
Li Huan had been favored by the Emperor since childhood, entering and exiting the palace with gilded saddles and jade bridles, walking as if strolling through a garden with every step.
As for Li Zhao, he had to exert all his effort to earn a single word of praise from the Emperor, and scheme against people’s hearts to gain half a step’s advantage…
“In my humble opinion, this was Sixth Miss Xue’s act of fulfillment, and also a good opportunity for Sixth Miss Xue to break free from her cage and be reborn. From now on, with the vastness of the sky and sea, she will no longer be confined by red walls and green tiles. It is not necessarily a bad thing…”
As expected, a silver-tongued advisor, with a single mouth, could twist black into white.
Li Zhao coldly sheathed the knife back into Yuan Cang’s scabbard, his expression weary.
“I don’t care at all…”
Halfway through his sentence, he turned his head to look at the mottled prison wall, pressing his fingertips to his brow.
“I will spare you this time. If you conceal anything again, do not blame me for not showing mercy!”
Mei Ruhui felt as if he had received a great pardon and prostrated himself on the ground.
“I thank Your Highness for sparing my life. Your humble servant will certainly do his utmost and dare not disobey.”
–
Returning to You Huang Ju, he dismissed everyone and sat alone by the window, gazing at the wooden hairpin in his hand.
Rainwater from the eaves formed a stream, watering the three Love Silk Flowers in the courtyard, dripping drop by drop…
The medicinal soup that Lai Fu had brought was already cold on the desk.
He had not drunk it, nor did he intend to.
The metallic sweet taste surging in his throat would constantly remind him of his humiliation, of being toyed with in the palm of someone’s hand.
The Love Silk Gu not only connected qi and blood meridians, but also the meticulous schemes of that person. Only through heart-wrenching pain would he understand that it was not that he had truly fallen in love, but that the Gu poison was at work, and he was being controlled…
Xue Liu had not forgotten the rules of the alliance.
He was the one who had forgotten the rules—
When the Gu is resolved, I will kill her to vent my anger.
–
Prince Duan’s Mansion.
Xue Yuechen leaned against the head of the bed, gently stroking her swollen face, her eyes filled with bitterness.
Since returning from the dungeon, she had been ill, and the fetus in her womb was also restless, with constant dull pain in her lower abdomen. The imperial physician had prescribed medicine to stabilize the pregnancy, but it had little effect, only saying that her emotions were not open and she was filled with worry and melancholy.
“Fei Cui, did the Prince come today?”
She had asked this question for the fifth time…
Fei Cui lowered her head, not daring to meet her eyes. “Replying to the Princess Consort, the Prince returned from the palace after noon and has been in the study ever since, not coming out.”
A desolate smile curved Xue Yuechen’s lips, and she tightened her grip on the brocade quilt.
“Did he not mention that I was unwell?”
Fei Cui bit her lower lip, afraid of hurting her feelings, yet unable to conceal the truth.
“He, he did mention it. The Prince instructed the kitchen to simmer ginseng soup and asked Medical Officer Chen to take good care of the Princess Consort.”
Take care?
No matter how meticulous the care, what was the use?
“Does he think I don’t want to be peaceful and calm, and nurture the fetus?”
Xue Yuechen smiled bitterly, suddenly recalling the night in the Ministry of Justice prison, the back of him carrying Xue Liu away, and the almost frenzied look in his eyes when he looked at Xue Sui. Her nails dug deeply into her palm, and her lips trembled slightly…
“It’s no wonder, in his heart… there is someone more important, how could he spare me another glance.”
Fei Cui saw her lips turn pale and her breathing unsteady, and she knelt down with a thud, clutching her hand.
“Princess Consort, you must take care of yourself… If not for yourself, then for the little Heir Apparent in your belly. Don’t be so hard on yourself, relax your mind, and once the little Heir Apparent is born, there will be hope…”
Before she finished speaking, the room door was suddenly pushed open.
Li Huan walked in.
His brocade robe was unfastened, the jade belt loosely outlining his lean shoulders.
He had lost a lot of weight.
A flicker of joy flashed in Xue Yuechen’s eyes, but when she saw his haggard face, her heart ached.
“Why are you here at this time, Prince… Fei Cui, quickly offer the Prince a seat…”
Li Huan’s gaze swept over her swollen face, his throat bobbed twice, and his voice was hoarse.
“Princess Consort, has your health improved?”
Xue Yuechen forced herself to get up, pressing her palm to her lower abdomen and gently stroking it.
“Thank you for your concern, Prince. I am just… a little worried about Sixth Sister…”
“Princess Consort need not worry!” Li Huan’s brows furrowed, his voice suddenly turning cold.
After a pause, he softened slightly. “Imperial Father has already permitted her to recuperate in Hanzhang Hall. Do not worry about others, and focus on your own health.”
“Others?” Xue Yuechen suddenly let out a bitter laugh. “She is my own sister, the person in the Prince’s heart. How can I not worry?”
Li Huan’s eyelashes trembled when he heard the words “in his heart.” He clenched his hand behind his back, suppressing his emotions and enduring for a moment before stepping forward to sit down, gently supporting her shoulder, and comforting her in a soft voice.
“Princess Consort, do not overthink things. Nurturing the fetus is important. If you lack any good medicinal materials, have Chen Henian fetch them from the Imperial Pharmacy…”
“Does the Imperial Pharmacy have medicine for the heart? Does the Prince know that the imperial physician says this is a heart ailment? She is the cinnabar in your heart, am I just a decoration in your eyes…”
Xue Yuechen looked directly into the red veins in his eyes, her voice growing much louder.
“Enough!” Li Huan suddenly looked up, his hand in his sleeve clenching and then releasing.
Today, he had been impeached by a censor in Xuanzheng Hall for forming factions, and after the court, he had argued with the Crown Prince in front of the Emperor. The imperial court was turbulent, with political enemies lurking everywhere, and his mind was already chaotic. He had originally forced himself to come see her, but unexpectedly, she bombarded him with questions, each one hitting his soft spot.
“Princess Consort was always virtuous and sensible before. When did you become so suspicious and jealous…”
Before he finished speaking, he seemed to have lost the energy to argue and simply turned and left with a flick of his sleeve.
“Rest well. I will come to see you again another day…”
Xue Yuechen watched his straight back, then collapsed onto the soft pillow, sobbing.
–
The brazier in the study had embers glowing red.
The candlelight cast sharp shadows on Li Huan’s brow bones, his jawline taut like a knife.
Liu Yin, his advisor, looked at the scattered files on his desk and sighed with a frown.
“The Princess Consort’s pregnancy is unstable. Why doesn’t Your Highness show her more consideration…”
Li Huan rubbed his forehead impatiently, picking up his brush and smearing it on the Xuan paper.
“She should not repeatedly lose her composure and be jealous of the Consort!”
“The Princess Consort is, after all, your lawfully wedded wife, and she carries Your Highness’s blood…”
“Wife?” Li Huan suddenly sneered, smashing the brush handle onto the inkstone. Ink splattered, casting a shadow of gloom over his handsome features.
“Back then, the Xue Mansion, in order to curry favor with imperial power, fabricated the fate of their daughter as an Eight Auspicious Star, deceiving my Imperial Mother into seeking a marriage decree. I haven’t settled the score with them yet…”
Liu Yin hesitated, then glanced at the cloth strip wrapped around Li Huan’s fingertips…
It was an injury sustained in the dungeon while trying to loosen Xue Sui’s shackles, and it had now formed a purple scar.
“Since Your Highness wants to use Consort Xue to restrain the Crown Prince, why have you spared her repeatedly? Especially this time, imprisoning her and then personally rescuing her…”
The charcoal in the brazier suddenly popped.
Li Huan listened to the autumn rain outside, which grated against the window frame like sandpaper.
“Harming her was to avenge my Imperial Mother. Rescuing her…”
He paused, his fingertip rubbing the frayed edge of the cloth strip. “It was to make the Crown Prince watch his beloved rot in my hands, without even being able to pick up a single piece of dregs.”
Having said this in one breath, he seemed to have released a surge of anger, and slowly leaned back in his chair, his expression returning to a calm and detached demeanor, gentle yet decisive.
“She schemed and schemed, thinking she could control my feelings. How could I let her have her way?”
Amidst the pattering rain, only the residual warmth of the brazier illuminated the room with mottled light and shadow.
Liu Yin looked at the fierce aura churning in his master’s eyes and quietly fell silent.
Does he truly hate her to the bone?
Or is he saying one thing and meaning another? Perhaps only the Prince himself knows.
Li Zhao: I told you, it’s not sad at all, not even a little bit…
Li Huan: Indeed, the meat is stewed to a pulp, and it’s still in the pot.
Xue Sui: Becoming a nun, what does that have to do with me!
