Chapter 279: A Sip for a Peck
“Self-respect?”
Li Zhao chuckled lowly.
His hot, wine-scented breath brushed her trembling eyelashes. In his unfathomably deep, dark eyes, it seemed as if monstrous hatred churned, along with a desire that was being fiercely suppressed…
“When you were meticulously planning and scheming at every turn, did you not let this Prince have self-respect? You even exploited this Prince’s triumphant return to the city, forcing this Prince to be your blade on the Imperial Street, in front of all the people. Did you not let this Prince have self-respect?”
“Your Highness misunderstands…”
“Xue Ping’an.” Li Zhao interrupted her.
“You used this Prince so readily. Did you ever consider… how this Prince would react?”
“I did.” Xue Sui, enduring the dual agony of the wounds on her wrist and arm, suppressing a heart-pounding itch, met his predatory gaze and slowly, clearly, pulled into a faint smile.
“Precisely because I did, I dared to trouble Your Highness.”
Her smile was pale, yet carried a calm understanding.
“This Nun believes the Crown Prince, with his decisive judgment, has his own considerations.”
Li Zhao’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
She continued, “Even if Your Highness hates me to the bone, you would never pass up this opportunity to establish authority and consolidate power. Your thunderous actions today, which have shocked the court and country, are not precisely to your liking?”
“You are truly incorrigible.” Xue Sui’s unyielding stance, her almost “I understand you” demeanor, infuriated Li Zhao, darkening his eyes. His voice suddenly rose, hoarse from the wine.
“Even now, you are still quibbling!”
“Your Highness is too harsh.” Xue Sui’s voice grew a little hoarser, carrying a barely perceptible tremor from the pain and her effort to suppress a cough, yet it remained exceptionally clear and calm.
“An outsider, with compassion in her heart, does not wish to see scourges gnawing at the National Foundation, nor soldiers’ blood chilling on the battlefield. The Duke of Zheng’s mansion has mountains of evidence of its crimes; heaven’s justice is clear. This Nun merely brought the truth into the light, using Your Highness’s hand to restore order. This action not only resolves the common people’s hatred but also comforts the Heroic Spirits of the fallen soldiers. Your Highness… do you not feel exhilarated?”
She paused, the faint curve of her lips deepening slightly.
“Your Highness has eliminated traitors for the nation, a righteous act that will be recorded in history books. This Nun merely offered a small effort; how can it be called exploitation? Surely the wronged Heroic Spirits of those fallen soldiers would also be pleased. Your Highness… what do you think?”
“You exploited this Prince, and you expect this Prince to be grateful?”
Li Zhao let out a short, cold scoff.
His laughter was filled with absurdity and the fierce aura of being deceived.
“Xue Ping’an, how dare you?”
“If Your Highness feels exploited…” Xue Sui took a deep breath, meeting his gaze, “you may kill this Nun right now.”
“Kill you?” Li Zhao scoffed, his thumb rubbing the faint scar on the inside of her wrist. “Is there such a cheap thing in this world?”
Xue Sui frowned but refused to show weakness.
“Then what does Your Highness want?”
“What you owe this Prince, you shall repay a hundredfold—”
“This Nun has nothing.”
“You do.” Li Zhao’s voice suddenly lowered, carrying a dangerous, almost whispered tone. “You have this life.”
His palm covered the back of her neck, his thumb pressing on sensitive acupoints, forcing her to look up, his dark eyes glinting menacingly.
“And, you yourself.”
They were very close.
So close they could see the reflections in each other’s pupils.
Xue Sui’s expression darkened slightly. “Why doesn’t Your Highness try to act?”
Li Zhao raised an eyebrow, his gaze brushing over her pale lips as if by chance. “Do you want to die so badly? Or are you so certain that this Prince will let you have your way?”
“It’s not about having my way.” She shook her head gently. “It’s about mutual benefit.”
“When has there ever been mutual benefit between us?”
He sneered.
“This Prince lost utterly.”
“……”
Li Zhao suddenly leaned in half an inch, tightening his grip on her wrist, almost to the point of hearing the faint creak of bones. This forced her to tilt her head back slightly, compelled to endure the malevolence in his eyes that was about to erupt.
“Xue Ping’an. Your face, your heart, what are they made of? Stone? Or… profound iron?!”
He stared at her intently, his gaze lingering on her pale yet still stunningly beautiful features, trying to find even a sliver of guilt or wavering.
There was none.
Nothing at all.
Only a cold, almost void-like calm.
Although the fervent obsession from when she was controlled by the Love Silk Gu, and the excruciating pain of Gu removal and heart-digging, had long since been muddled into mangled flesh by the blood and fire of the Western Frontier…
He still found himself captivated by those eyes.
Eyes that were pained, desolate, holding ashes and abysses.
“Xue Ping’an…”
Li Zhao’s voice was broken, hoarse and dangerous like a wounded beast, each word seeming to be ground from the depths of his throat, coated in blood.
“From beginning to end! From that damned Love Silk Gu, you have schemed for this Prince’s affections, his power, his life—and now, you want to drain this Prince’s last drop of blood to pave your path of revenge.”
“Xue Ping’an, you madwoman, how cruel you are!”
Xue Sui was ensnared by the almost frenzied crimson in his eyes.
Li Zhao’s eyes were bloodshot in his rage.
His originally dark eyes appeared somewhat demonic in the candlelight, like a reawakening viper, faintly overlapping with the memories of him during his Love Silk Gu episodes, carrying a humid, invasive, and predatory intensity—
Her skin felt hot, and that burning sensation in her blood vessels surged back.
An absurd and horrifying thought struck her chaotic mind like lightning!
Could it be…
That the Love Silk Gu… had not been completely removed?!
And the price of Gu removal was far more than what Senior Sister Yuheng had said?
Once this thought arose, it grew like a vine, instantly seizing her.
A near-suffocating panic, mixed with the sharp pain of her wounds and a spreading numbness, made her fingertips icy cold, even her breathing becoming difficult.
“Crown Prince…”
A crack finally appeared in the calm on her face, and her voice carried a barely perceptible urgency.
“You and I are not irreconcilable enemies, nor should we end up with blood spilled on the ground…”
Li Zhao let out a low, cold chuckle from his throat.
He did not let go. Grasping her injured left arm, he knelt on one knee at the edge of her seat, enclosing her entirely in his embrace, his nose brushing faintly against her ear.
“Scared now? You madwoman, aren’t you heartless as iron?”
“We are alike.” Xue Sui swallowed the metallic sweetness in her throat and said calmly, “Your Highness is no different, willing to do anything for power and position.”
“This Prince is not as wicked as you!”
“This Nun is merely doing what must be done.”
Li Zhao’s gaze swept coldly over her furrowed brow, finally settling on her left arm, which he held firmly and was trembling slightly.
“Don’t touch it!” Xue Sui grunted.
“You have the ability to get injured, but not the ability to endure pain?” Li Zhao’s voice was low, with a hint of gritted-teeth concern.
“Might as well kill you, and be done with it.”
“Do it, Your Highness. It’s best not to hesitate.”
Li Zhao laughed again, a cold laugh.
The hand, calloused from holding a spear and sword, which had also once brushed her temple, suddenly grabbed Xue Sui’s left sleeve, with an impulse to tear open her disguise, and pulled hard.
“Rip—”
A crisp sound of tearing fabric was exceptionally jarring in the deathly quiet Guest Hall.
Li Zhao paused slightly, a hint of surprise in his eyes.
The soft fabric, fragile as thin paper under his fingers, instantly tore from her shoulder to her elbow…
A large expanse of fair skin was exposed to the cool air, and at the same time, it completely revealed a wound about an inch long—
Its edges were already slightly red and swollen, but the oozing blood was a deeper, darker red.
And his careless action was like an out-of-control rogue.
Li Zhao’s Adam’s apple bobbed violently…
All his movements, all his anger, came to an abrupt halt.
Though arrogant and unrestrained, he never behaved inappropriately with women. Seeing this, he was momentarily disheartened…
“Xue Ping’an…”
Xue Sui looked at him calmly.
“The Crown Prince’s hospitality is indeed… unique.”
Li Zhao slowly raised his eyes, his gaze moving extremely slowly, extremely strangely, from her gruesome wound, to her face, pale from extreme pain and restraint, and then to her eyes, which finally revealed a hint of genuine pain and mockery…
Moments later, his expression became extremely unpleasant.
“You madwoman! You won’t soften your words even when injured…”
As if scalded by the shocking wound, he subconsciously lessened his grip on her wrist, replacing it with a deeper, more complex hatred, and… a hint of panic that even he himself had not noticed.
“Does it hurt?”
“Your Highness need not worry…”
Xue Sui gasped in pain, the severe pain in her left arm and the discomfort of being exposed to the cold air making her sway, almost collapsing, her vision blurring.
“Your Highness, please let go, lest my blood stain Your Highness’s brocade sleeve…”
She instinctively tried to pull her arm back, but her voice was broken by the pain, carrying a hint of weak annoyance.
“Shut up!” Li Zhao roared, drowning out the wind and rain outside the window.
He looked down at the wound, then suddenly turned and shouted sternly towards the door.
“Summon Zhang Huaicheng!”
Li Zhao: I didn’t mean to tear her sleeve…
Reader: Those who know, know.
