Ever since that day, Qi Yue and Chen Shi had barely seen each other a few times. Later, being busy with the medicine factory affairs and Little Prince Sima’s matters, she hardly returned home at all, only having someone come daily to report her safety.

Stepping through the door now, she discovered that things seemed to have changed greatly – all those servant women in the household were nowhere to be seen.

Zhou Maochun was walking out.

“Foster father,” Qi Yue called out hurriedly.

“Oh, you’ve come. No need to rush – she won’t die just yet. Tomorrow morning, more or less,” Zhou Maochun said.

Qi Yue stamped her foot.

“Foster father!” she called out.

Zhou Maochun made a couple of grunting sounds.

“I know, I know. You should prepare yourself for grief,” he said.

“Is there truly no hope?” Qi Yue asked.

Zhou Maochun looked at her and shook his head.

“You’re also a physician yourself. Don’t you know what it means when a physician says these words?” Zhou Maochun said. After speaking, he felt something was wrong – those physicians with poor skills often said such things, so he hurriedly added, “When a physician like me says these words, it means…”

But then he remembered that he had previously said people couldn’t be saved, like Madam Xie with the throat obstruction, yet Qi Yue had managed to save her life. So what should he say?

While he was struggling with this, Qi Yue stamped her foot, unable to bother with him, and ran inside.

Cai Qing heard the commotion and stood outside the door waiting. Seeing her, she bowed with tears in her eyes.

Qi Yue stepped into the room.

The room was the same as always, except there was no longer any medicinal smell.

Qi Yue paused at the doorway for a moment, as if afraid of disturbing Chen Shi, and lightened her footsteps.

“Aunt…” she called out.

Chen Shi stirred and turned her head.

“Yueniang, you’ve come?” she asked.

Chen Shi’s appearance was unchanged, wearing light makeup and a gentle smile, except for her eyes…

“Aunt, you… you can’t see anymore?” Qi Yue stepped forward and waved her hand in front of Chen Shi.

Her gaze had no focus whatsoever.

“It’s alright, I can still hear,” Chen Shi said with a smile, reaching out her hand.

Qi Yue quickly took it and sat down on the kang.

She couldn’t believe at all that someone in this condition would lose her life tomorrow morning.

Or was this… a final surge of energy before death?

She couldn’t help but reach out to take her pulse.

Chen Shi smiled and pulled down her hand.

“No need. It’s real – I know my own life,” she smiled. “This isn’t an illness. It’s accumulated poison from years past.”

Poisoning?

“What poison?” Qi Yue asked. “How is it that there’s no way to cure it?”

Chen Shi smiled without speaking.

Given Chen Shi’s position, if she truly wanted to find something, what in the world couldn’t be found? That meant there was no cure.

“The people here don’t know, but perhaps I do. Tell me what poison it is,” Qi Yue gripped Chen Shi’s hand tightly.

You people? Here?

“Let’s not talk about this. It’s nothing. I should have died long ago,” Chen Shi smiled, not picking up this topic.

“What do you mean ‘should have died long ago’? Which person deserves to die?” Qi Yue said anxiously.

“People say that my father once wanted to use poison to harm others, and later I also used poison to try to harm people. So now, dying this way is most fitting,” Chen Shi smiled.

“Past events are past events – they have nothing to do with the present,” Qi Yue said urgently.

“How can they have nothing to do with it?” Chen Shi shook her head, looking at Qi Yue with her unseeing eyes. “Without the past, how could there be the present? Without your relatives, how could there be you?”

Qi Yue looked at Chen Shi.

The room fell silent for a moment.

“I still have to try,” Qi Yue said, about to stand up.

Chen Shi held her back.

“Yueniang, Chang Yuncheng has already left, hasn’t he?” she asked.

“Yes,” Qi Yue answered. “But I’ll go find him soon.”

“What if I asked you to promise me not to go?” Chen Shi asked.

Qi Yue sat back down.

“Alright. I promise you,” she said readily.

Chen Shi was stunned for a moment, as if she hadn’t expected this answer, yet seemed to have expected it.

“This way I can die peacefully?” she said with a bitter smile.

“I’d rather you live unpeacefully, Aunt,” Qi Yue said. “Aunt, at this time, please don’t make trouble. Let’s quickly think of ways to save your life.”

Chen Shi let go of her and lay back down, a weak smile on her face.

“Yueniang, so many people have died…” she murmured. “Only you remain… how can you not want the past?”

Qi Yue’s heart skipped a beat.

She could certainly not want the past, because she wasn’t Qi Yueniang.

“Yueniang, you stay in the capital. Don’t go looking for Chang Yuncheng again,” Chen Shi looked at her again. “I’m doing this for your own good.”

Qi Yue sighed.

“Why? Aunt, what reason is there that I must be separated from the person I like?” she asked.

Chen Shi looked at her.

“For your bloodline, for your clan,” she said, reaching out to grasp Qi Yue’s hand again. “Yueniang, you must take back everything your clan and bloodline lost. That belongs to you, to your family!”

“Aunt, the things in this world – what’s yours is yours. If it’s lost, that means it wasn’t yours. Better not to force it. The most important thing is to protect what you already have,” Qi Yue said, lowering her head for a moment before raising it again. “I’ll say it again – I am Qi Yueniang, merely the fatherless and motherless Qi Yueniang.”

Chen Shi shook off her hand.

“Has the blood in your body flowed in vain?” she said in a trembling voice.

“No. I live happily, joyfully, uprightly and cleanly. This doesn’t betray this body of flesh and blood, so this blood hasn’t flowed in vain,” Qi Yue said, reaching out to take Chen Shi’s hand. “Aunt, you should let go too.”

Chen Shi trembled slightly.

“They bore you for nothing, raised you for nothing… Why didn’t you die with them in the fire back then? Your relatives – why did they want you to live?” she suddenly raised her voice.

Though Chen Shi couldn’t see, Qi Yue still smiled slightly at her.

“I think they simply wanted me to live,” she said.

Chen Shi was stunned, and the figure of Old Madam Chang appeared before her eyes.

“What do I want? I want nothing. What is there to want? I only want her to live well!” Old Madam Chang turned around, looked at her, and said calmly.

“How can that be acceptable?” She stepped forward and grabbed Old Madam Chang’s hand. “Mother-in-law, she is her! She is the only bloodline of their family! The palace is selecting new people. Mother-in-law, you needn’t worry. I can get her into the palace. Mother-in-law, let her enter the palace. Let the Princess enter the palace. That belongs to the Princess…”

Old Madam Chang shook her off.

“Xue Niang, you’ve gone mad,” she said. “That belongs to the Princess. But not to Yueniang. It’s all in the past, all in the past. Don’t think about it anymore!”

“No! The Princess has been waiting! The Princess is unwilling! The Princess let her live – she can’t have lived for nothing!” Chen Shi grabbed Old Madam Chang’s hand again. “I can give it to her. I can give her the chance to enter the palace…”

“The Empress and Princess don’t want unwillingness! After all these years, they’ve long been willing. Xue Niang, wake up! It’s you who’s unwilling, not them!” Old Madam Chang grabbed her hand and said sternly. “They want nothing anymore. They only want this one child to live well! I’ll give her the entire Marquis Dingxi estate, so she can live without worry! That’s enough! The Empress and the others can rest in peace!”

Not enough!

Not enough!

How could this be enough!

You people just want to trap them. Trap them to death! You just don’t want them to live!

Chen Shi suddenly waved her hand, and the illusion before her eyes disappeared, replaced by complete darkness.

“Yueniang, listen to me. Of course I also want you to live. And to live well,” she said, reaching out to grab Qi Yue’s hand again. “Yueniang, I do this for your sake. Why can’t you understand?”

Qi Yue’s hand moved away, and Chen Shi, unable to see, grasped at empty air.

“Though this shouldn’t be said, especially at this time, but…” she said, “Aunt, I think all you’ve done isn’t really for me, but for yourself.”

Chen Shi’s expression paused slightly, then she smiled again, reaching up to stroke her heart.

“For me? I’m doing this for me?” she said, laughing through tears.

“Isn’t that so?” Qi Yue looked at her. “For your obsession, or for your own sense of loyalty, you’re determined to achieve your own wishes. What does this have to do with me? Have you ever cared about my obsessions, my wishes?”

Chen Shi looked at her and smiled again, then the smile faded.

“I’m a bad person in your eyes, aren’t I?” she said. “Then, let this bad person do bad things to the end. Yueniang, do you know how your relatives, your father died? Do you know who you really are? If you don’t leave, I’ll take this matter to my grave. No second person in this world will know. But if you don’t listen to me…”

She stopped here, took a deep breath, and slightly raised her head from the pillow to look in Qi Yue’s direction.

“I will tell this matter to my family. Then, Yueniang, I can guarantee that you absolutely won’t live, let alone go looking for Chang Yuncheng,” Chen Shi said word by word.

Qi Yue’s expression froze as she looked at Chen Shi.

The room fell into suffocating silence.

Just then, the door was pushed open.

“Who?” Chen Shi was startled and sat up suddenly, shouting. “Is that Cai Qing?”

Qi Yue turned to see the old lady walking in step by step.

“It’s me,” she said slowly.

Chen Shi’s face remained terrified, her unseeing eyes looking in the direction of the voice.

“Aunt? Where’s Cai Qing? Where’s Cai Qing? How did you get in? When did you arrive? What did you hear?” she asked in rapid succession.

Old Madam of Duke Deqing walked over and sat down nearby. She seemed very tired from walking and caught her breath.

Qi Yue looked at her, but from beginning to end, she never once looked at Qi Yue, as if there was no such person in the room.

“Don’t worry. I’ve secured this place – no one can enter casually. Rest assured,” Old Madam of Duke Deqing said.

Chen Shi’s face went ashen as she leaned back, turned her head, and closed her mouth.

“You needn’t worry either. I’m not here to ask you anything, nor do I need you to answer me anything,” Old Madam of Duke Deqing said. “Haven’t you always wanted to know how your father died? I’m here now to tell you.”

Chen Shi smiled and closed her eyes.

“I’ve wanted to tell you this for a long time, but you never wanted to listen to us, never wanted to hear anyone speak, never wanted to hear anything that didn’t suit your wishes,” Old Madam of Duke Deqing said, smiling at this point. “Now you can’t move, can’t run away, and can finally listen to me speak quietly.”

Qi Yue hesitated for a moment and turned to leave.

“You child, stay put as well,” Old Madam of Duke Deqing called out to her.

Qi Yue stopped.

“I know you don’t want to listen either, but still listen. Good words or bad words, this is the last time,” Old Madam of Duke Deqing said.