“I remember in childhood, Acin and I often boated here for pleasure, talking about everything under the sun,” Xue Cen looked at the jagged withered lotus on the water surface that had not yet sprouted as if recalling a distant past. “At that time, Second Miss’s health was poor, so you would watch us from this waterside pavilion from afar.”

Yu Lingxi had thought Xue Cen would harbor some resentment, or be prideful and cynical like during their last meeting in her previous life.

Unexpectedly, he was very calm, a calmness bordering on sorrow.

“In autumn of my tenth year, I saw you two poling the boat among lotus leaves, and I was filled with envy, demanding lotus seeds. But how could there be lotus seeds at that time? All my siblings tried to coax and make excuses, but only you reached out to pick some.”

Yu Lingxi stood half a zhang away, saying softly, “But unexpectedly, you slipped and fell into the pond, developing a fear of water from then on.”

Xue Cen smiled: “Childhood joys are the best, youth doesn’t calculate parting sorrows.”

His choice to come at this hour surely couldn’t be as simple as reminiscing.

Yu Lingxi’s gaze fell on the pair of dragon and phoenix glass cups. The cups had flowing light and were exquisitely transparent, clearly superior items.

“This pot contains ‘Hundred Years Together’ wine buried for ten years, originally meant for the wedding ceremony. Now I have no use for it, so I might as well give it to Second Miss.”

Xue Cen’s gaze fell on that unopened pot of wine, his Adam’s apple bobbing several times before he said gently, “May I… have a small drink with Second Miss, as a farewell?”

Yu Lingxi asked: “Farewell?”

Xue Cen hastily shifted his gaze, saying bitterly: “Tomorrow is Second Miss’s wedding banquet. I won’t come to disturb the joy.”

He made a “please” gesture.

Yu Lingxi sat down, instructing the maid to bring new tea and refreshments. When she turned back, she saw the servant boy Xue Cen had brought a step forward and opened the jar of “Hundred Years Together” that had been treasured for ten years.

The amber-gold wine rippled slightly in the cups, reflecting her clear eyes.

…

By Qu Jiang Pool, a tinkling sound came from a secluded courtyard.

“Master, rest assured, I have ordered the modification of the ‘Hundred Flowers Kill’ poison to make it more potent and delay its effects for a day, ensuring nothing can go wrong.”

Xue Song closed the hall door, saying to the shadow behind the screen, “My younger brother has taken this poison into the Yu residence. Tomorrow, after the wedding ceremony, Prince Jing will suddenly die.”

Behind the screen came the crisp sound of a rattle drum.

That slightly hoarse voice spoke: “To have fallen so low as to accomplish our great undertaking by implicating a woman, I ultimately feel guilty.”

“Master is benevolent, but great deeds cannot be bound by small concerns.”

Xue Song said, “Prince Jing’s mansion is impenetrable, and he is treacherous and cunning. We can only start from the Yu family’s weakness.”

The person behind the screen put down the rattledrum and stood up, saying: “This poison has no antidote. I heard your brother specifically tasted a cup of wine for verification before leaving. Will it cost him his life?”

“Although my brother is naive, he wouldn’t blindly obey me. He will certainly taste the wine first to ensure it’s not poisoned before agreeing to see Yu Lingxi.”

Xue Song’s brow clouded with shadows as he said: “Master, rest assured, I didn’t put the poison in the wine at all.”

“Oh?”

“I applied the ‘Hundred Flowers Kill’ poison to the rim of the glass cup. As long as Yu Lingxi drinks from the cup in farewell, even just a slight touch to her lips, she will be poisoned.”

“How do you know your brother will give the poisoned cup to Second Miss Yu?”

The person behind the screen sighed deeply, “Young Master Xue’s infatuation cannot be erased in just a few months. What if he can’t bring himself to do it?”

Xue Song seemed to have anticipated this, nodding: “Master is right. Acen is pure-hearted by nature, he definitely won’t be able to go through with it.”

There was a pause behind the screen, then the person asked: “Then why still have him…”

“Precisely because I know this, that’s why I told Acen he must give the phoenix cup to Yu Lingxi, and he should take the dragon cup.”

Xue Song was silent for a moment, then said coldly, “Acen will grow suspicious and will certainly switch the cups, taking Yu Lingxi’s place.”

He never trusted his brother who was like a blank sheet of paper. What he trusted was only his control over human nature.

So the poison was applied to the dragon cup.

Yu residence, waterside pavilion.

Xue Cen’s breath tightened, and he said abruptly: “Wait.”

Yu Lingxi withdrew her hand, looking at him with slight confusion.

“Second Miss likes spicy food, but this wine tastes a bit bland.”

Xue Cen reached for the small silk pouch hanging at his waist, seemingly absentminded. It took him a long time to untie the small silk pouch.

Xue Cen smiled apologetically, taking out two spicy-sweet plums from the pouch and placing them in the glass cup in front of him.

Yu Lingxi felt momentarily dazed. After so many years, Xue Cen had still been carrying things she liked with him.

But since today was about parting ways, wasn’t this gesture too intimate and unnecessary?

Just as she was thinking this, Xue Cen pushed the dragon-patterned glass cup to her, smiling: “Second Miss, please.”

He first picked up his phoenix cup, solemnly raising it: “This cup, to our innocent childhood.”

After speaking, he paused, then drank it all in one gulp.

Xue Cen had always been disciplined and restrained, never drinking heavily. Drinking so quickly made his eyes red and wet from choking.

He stopped Yu Lingxi who wanted to advise him, and poured another cup, saying: “This cup, to a future of spring winds across ten thousand miles.”

Yu Lingxi felt that at this moment, his eyes contained too many things, as if about to overflow.

She suppressed the hesitation in her heart and picked up the dragon-patterned glass cup in front of her without changing her expression, raising it to Xue Cen from a distance.

The servant boy holding the wine pot fixed his unwavering gaze on the rim of the cup slowly approaching Yu Lingxi’s lips.

Yu Lingxi almost imperceptibly pursed her lips, her eyes reflecting the ripples in the wine, light and shadow fleeting.

Just as the cup was about to touch her lips, Yu Lingxi paused slightly.

Then Xue Cen suddenly reached over, snatched the cup from her hand, and drank it all in one gulp.

Yu Lingxi couldn’t stop him in time, and the servant boy also froze in place from shock.

Taking advantage of the servant boy’s momentary lapse, Xue Cen, with reddened eyes, hissed: “The wine is poisoned, don’t touch it!”

In an instant, the servant boy came to his senses.

Knowing the plan had failed, he turned to run but was knocked down by Yu Huanchen who rushed over.

This servant boy was extremely skilled. He rolled up, quickly climbed the rockery to the wall, and escaped to the outside.

Yu Huanchen wanted to pursue but was concerned about the situation in the pavilion. After a moment’s hesitation, he assigned the pursuit task to Qingxiao and other attendants, then strode toward Xue Cen.

“Carefully collect the glass cup on the ground and call for the Imperial Physician! Hurry!”

Thinking of something, the surprise in Yu Lingxi’s eyes gradually turned to horror as she stepped forward: “Is it ‘Hundred Flowers Kill’ in my cup? Quickly spit it out!”

“It’s too late.” Xue Cen just shook his head gently.

From the moment his brother deliberately used Yu Lingxi and Prince Jing’s marriage to repeatedly provoke him, he became suspicious. The despair of being betrayed by his closest kin had shattered his remaining hope.

He had no other way. Rather than letting someone else deal with Yu Lingxi, he preferred to take the risk himself.

Xue Cen’s eyes were slightly red as he maintained a gentle smile: “If not this way, I wouldn’t have had the chance to inform you.”

Yu Lingxi was momentarily speechless.

As her former fiancé, Xue Cen’s visit was somewhat abrupt.

If it were in her previous life, Yu Lingxi might not have been so guarded.

She had agreed to meet him, thinking that if the Xue family, like in her previous life, used Xue Cen to harm her and Ning Yin, she could seize the opportunity to catch Xue Song’s use of “Hundred Flowers Kill” to eliminate opponents.

But she hadn’t expected Xue Cen would be foolish enough to swallow the poisoned wine himself.

Yu Lingxi watched as Yu Huanchen supported Xue Cen, struggling to remain calm: “Brother, make him vomit.”

“Acen, spit it out!”

Yu Huanchen’s face was stern as he extended his finger to press Xue Cen’s abdominal acupoints to induce vomiting, but it was already too late.

No one knew better than Yu Lingxi how vicious the effects of Hundred Flowers Kill were.

“No… no need to care for me.”

Xue Cen grabbed Yu Huanchen’s hand, looking up at Yu Lingxi, hastily saying, “They have made two preparations. They have also planted assassins among the wedding guests, intending to assassinate Prince Jing! Now that I have failed, alerting them, their assassination plan will certainly be advanced… go help him, quickly.”

Xue Cen’s eyes remained gentle, but now with a composed determination.

Yu Lingxi stepped back, requesting her brother with her eyes to handle the matter at hand, then quickly turned and ran.

As the setting sun gathered its last bit of light, quiet resignation disappeared in Xue Cen’s slightly reddened eyes.

“Fortunately…”

Fortunately, this time, he hadn’t been too late.

…

A carriage departed from Prince Jing’s mansion, heading toward Yongle Gate.

The incense curled on the table. Ning Yin pressed his fingertips against his forehead, eyes closed for a brief rest, his lowered eyelashes casting a circle of shadow beneath his eyes.

He rarely dreamed, but these past two days he had repeatedly dreamed of walking in a long black passageway, seemingly without end.

But this time, he reached the endpoint.

It was like a door. Pushing it open forcefully, a faint blue light emerged.

It was a narrow cell, the pale blue light emanating from an ice bed in the cell. At the center of that blue light, a black-haired, red-lipped beauty lay quietly.

“Lingxi.”

Ning Yin examined the sleeping beauty on the ice bed, reaching out to touch her rigid lips, but only felt coldness.

His heart suddenly ached violently.

Sensing something, the gray falcon on the eaves suddenly swooped down, its sharp cry accompanied by the piercing sound of cutting through the night sky.

Ning Yin’s eyes snapped open. He tilted his head slightly, and a frosty blade stabbed toward him.

Cold light reflected in his eyes, a frost-like chill.

A moment later, a spine-chilling crack came from the assassin’s arm, followed by the blade that had stabbed into the carriage flying out, piercing his throat.

The assassin’s eyes still held disbelief as he hung like a rag doll, nailed to the ward wall, blooming a splash of blood.

“Finally took the bait.”

Chenfeng, hidden in the shadows, breathed a sigh of relief, then nudged Zhejue beside him with his elbow, “Why didn’t His Highness deal with these assassins in the mansion, instead of laboriously luring them here?”

Zhejue glanced at the flashing blades in the alley, only saying: “Because there’s a wedding at the mansion tomorrow.”

His Highness would not allow this small fry to stain the mansion’s tiles. He wanted to welcome Second Miss Yu in pristine cleanliness.

“Go.”

Zhejue drew the heavy sword from his back, watched for the right moment, and charged out first.

The peach blossoms on the wall bloomed brilliantly, a swath of pink clouds.

The breeze stirred gently, moonlight filtered through leaves, and peach blossoms floated down to the ground, dyed a bizarre bright red by viscous, meandering liquid.

Ning Yin frowned, wiping away the blood spattered on his hand with disgust, glancing at the assassin in the corner with all four limbs broken.

This was the only surviving member of the ten top assassins, though he was barely different from the dead.

The assassin sat limply among the pile of corpses like a broken puppet, blood flowing from his mouth and nose, yet still laughing wildly.

“Facing death and still arrogant? What are you laughing at?”

Chenfeng muttered, walking forward saying, “Hey, what are you laughing at? Do you still have some trick up your sleeve?”

The assassin hacked twice, then suddenly spat out a jet of blood.

As blood splattered, some images flashed rapidly through Ning Yin’s mind.

On a silk bed, someone spat out a mouthful of black blood, staining his snow-white clothes.

Suisui.

As his chest ached sharply, he stumbled a step in confusion.

“Your Highness!”

Zhejue instinctively wanted to support him.

But Ning Yin steadied himself, suppressing the metallic taste rising in his throat.

Guessing something, he went straight past his attendants, mounting his horse with a short blade viciously stabbing into the horse’s rump, and galloped toward the Yu residence with a body covered in blood.

“I once had a dream.”

“I dreamed that I died because of this, leaving you all alone in the world.”

Was it a dream?

If it was just a dream, why did his heart hurt so much?

If it wasn’t a dream…

The horse foamed at the mouth and neighed, rearing up. Ning Yin saw Yu Lingxi leading a squad of guards, preparing to leave.

They gazed at each other across a distance of several zhang, momentarily silent.

“Ning Yin!”

Seeing him appear safe and sound before her, Yu Lingxi’s eyes brightened, and she heaved a long sigh of relief.

But immediately after, her heart tensed again.

Because Ning Yin’s complexion was terrible, his face nearly pale in the darkness, blood splattered on his jaw, his eyes sunken—a cold and heavy appearance never seen in this lifetime.

His eyes were so black, containing a dark red. Yu Lingxi couldn’t see through the emotions surging in his eyes.

She anxiously jogged over, looking up and saying: “Are you alright? I just heard that the Xue family had bribed assassins…”

Before she could finish speaking, Ning Yin had dismounted, his tall figure enveloping her completely.

He looked down at Yu Lingxi’s face for a long time, then raised a cleaned finger, as if confirming something, and gently touched the corner of her mouth.

“Ning Yin?” Yu Lingxi was puzzled.

Ning Yin began to laugh softly, his laughter stained with blood, beautiful and manic.

“It’s warm.”

He caressed Yu Lingxi’s cheek, revealing a satisfied expression.

“Ning Yin.”

Yu Lingxi took the opportunity to grasp his fingers, letting him more directly feel her body temperature, and asked gently, “What’s wrong?”

The lantern shadows wavered beneath the wall, and the light was devoured in Ning Yin’s eyes.

“I dreamed you were lying on an ice bed in a dark room, unable to smile, unable to speak. I touched your cheek, but felt only rigid coldness.”

Ning Yin’s voice was consistently deep and pleasant, elegant yet obsessive, “How could my Suisui possibly become like that?”

Yu Lingxi’s heart tightened as if struck heavily, spreading a dense pain.