As soon as Jing Hengbo heard the term “medicine cauldron,” she stopped in her tracks.

Unfortunately, she had no presence in that old man’s eyes. The old man rushed out urgently, passing by her as if she were invisible, urgently saying to Chunshui: “Bring Pearl back! This matter cannot be delayed any longer! I’ll prepare a list for you here, and you can also get some medicine while you’re at it.” He was about to go find writing materials, but before he could take a step, he was blocked by an arm.

Long Zhai steadied himself, raised his head, and stared at Jing Hengbo in front of him with very cold eyes.

Jing Hengbo remained fearless, smiling as if she found him quite interesting.

After a long while, Long Zhai slowly said: “Step aside, don’t delay important matters.”

“What if I don’t?” Jing Hengbo tilted her head to look at him.

“If you don’t, then you are shameless, despicable, selfish, heartless, jealous, vicious, and a murderer!” Long Zhai suddenly roared, veins bulging on his forehead, his eyes seeming to burn with fire that could scorch Jing Hengbo.

“Oh?” Jing Hengbo restrained her smile and asked slowly.

“Last time when Pearl was supposed to unite with him, you interfered. This time you want to interfere again. You keep saying you care about our family head, constantly clinging to him, yet you always place his life and safety in danger. Do you have the face to say you care about him? Do you have the face to cling to him? Do you have the face to stay by his side like a wife?” Long Zhai suddenly turned and pointed toward the room, lowering his voice to roar: “His true energy was already very difficult to control, and recently there was a major loss, causing the dam to be completely destroyed and torrential floods to be released. He’ll become useless sooner or later. Without asking, this must be your doing. Only harm caused by you would make him say nothing!”

Jing Hengbo was silent for a moment, then said: “It is indeed because of me.”

“Then you should know to repay kindness! Let go and let him use the medicine cauldron! I cannot understand what reason you have to obstruct this! You are the latecomer, you are the one who seized the magpie’s nest! Pearl is the medicine cauldron the family cultivated for our family head since childhood. How much suffering has she endured for him, how many years has she waited? Now she doesn’t care about status and is willing to sacrifice herself. Your position as his wife is secure and stable – what face do you have to obstruct? There are plenty of men in this world with three wives and four concubines – where is there room for you women to interfere? If you think that as a queen you cannot tolerate other women, then let go early and don’t cling to him and ruin his life!” Long Zhai heavily flicked his sleeve. “Hmph, you speak of deep love and affection, yet you won’t even give him a chance to survive. If you truly like our family head, don’t you know that besides life and death, nothing else is important? What could be more important than life!”

He was spitting as he scolded, when he turned and saw Nan Jin coming in with clothes, listening expressionlessly. He immediately pointed at Pearl and said: “Perfect timing. Throw away those clothes – there’s something more important for you to do.”

Nan Jin glanced at his expression, at Jing Hengbo, then at the room inside. Her face changed slightly, then returned to her usual expressionless appearance. She handed the clothes to Jing Hengbo and turned to leave.

“Stop!” Long Zhai was stunned, then roared after being dazed for a moment.

Nan Jin stopped, her back to them, not turning around.

Long Zhai was furious, rushing forward to grab Nan Jin: “You’ve gone mad too! Both of you are so unreasonable! Is this the time for your willfulness?”

Nan Jin slowly put both hands into her sleeves, looked up at the sky, and didn’t answer.

Long Zhai trembled with anger all over his body. He had no choice but to turn around sharply, pointing at Jing Hengbo, and roar: “This is all your doing, all your obstinacy! Meeting you has been eight lifetimes of bad luck for our Dragon family!”

Jing Hengbo stared at him fiercely, not yielding at all. Long Zhai paced in place twice irritably, then suddenly grabbed her sleeve, saying: “Come with me!”

He forcefully pulled Jing Hengbo into the room. Inside, Gong Yin was sleeping quietly, apparently having been pressure-pointed by Long Zhai.

Long Zhai pulled Jing Hengbo all the way to the bedside, sat at the head of the bed himself, and suddenly undid Gong Yin’s hair knot.

Jing Hengbo’s gaze contracted, staring unblinkingly at his movements.

This action was strange for a man to do, but her heart began pounding. Some questions hidden deep in her heart suddenly surfaced like dregs from the depths of her heart’s tide, churning over and over. She suddenly felt her breathing become unsteady.

Under Long Zhai’s hands was Gong Yin’s black hair, so black and bright, with a lustrous sheen like brocade.

Long Zhai filled a basin with water. Jing Hengbo stared at him – it wasn’t that she hadn’t seen Gong Yin’s hair wet before without noticing any changes.

Long Zhai sprinkled some medicinal powder into the water, a full three types, then put Gong Yin’s hair into that basin of unchanged water.

At first there was still no change. Long Zhai gently scrubbed the hair ends. After a while, a layer of faint black began to spread. That black actually didn’t dissolve in water – it was like glue.

Jing Hengbo didn’t look at the black glue-like substance. She stared fixedly at those hair ends, at the gradually revealed silver-white that pierced her eyes.

When did his head full of black hair turn white overnight?

Long Zhai glanced at her and smiled coldly without a word. He was about to continue scrubbing when Jing Hengbo grabbed his hand and closed her eyes.

No need to look anymore. The white hair started from the roots – even the ends were white. Naturally, it was a full head of silver hair.

She was cowardly. She didn’t have the courage to see that head of silver hair, which would not only make her ache to her very core but also make her hate herself more – it seemed that long ago, she should have already discovered signs of his white hair. In her memory, there had been several instances of white hair flying, but she had ignored them.

She couldn’t help but question herself – did she truly care about him enough?

Across from her, Long Zhai didn’t miss the opportunity to interrogate her: “Your Majesty the Queen, you look like you care so much about our family head, but do you really care? Our family head’s white hair hasn’t been just one day. You’ve spent time together morning and night many times, through life and death – why couldn’t you discover this?”

Jing Hengbo was speechless.

“His white hair was initially concealed with wigs, but later he found wigs unsafe and dyed his hair. Later he discovered that dyed hair easily lost color when soaked in water, so he tried medicines. The medicine lasted for a while, but then the lower layers would start losing effectiveness. He researched new medicines again and finally completely concealed this head of white hair. But these medicines still harm his body. Just to keep you from being sad, he didn’t hesitate to be harmed.”

“And you,” Long Zhai’s voice carried faint contempt, “in the earliest period when his white hair hadn’t found a perfect concealment method, you never discovered it.”

Jing Hengbo turned her face away. She wouldn’t feel guilty before Long Zhai, but at this moment, the white hair seemed to fall like snow on her heart.

Gong Yin… why was this necessary!

This painstakingly concealed white hair might have hidden momentary pain, but ultimately couldn’t block the belated suffering. And that pain would be deeper because of guilt and self-blame.

Long Zhai had no intention of letting her off. He put down the water basin, re-tied Gong Yin’s hair, then undid his sleeve, pulling it up to his elbow area and pointing to the elbow tip: “Press here.”

Jing Hengbo pressed, and the slightly sharp sensation under her finger made her face change again.

“There’s something underneath!” she said in alarm.

A cold smile flashed across Long Zhai’s face: “A needle.”

“A needle?” Jing Hengbo felt that thing was very small. Had he been hit by a hidden weapon? Why couldn’t it be removed?

“A needle, a broken needle. It’s precisely this thing that blocked his meridians, causing him to be unable to move for a full year after leaving Imperial Song. When he saw you later, he still couldn’t walk properly.” Long Zhai pointed to various joints on Gong Yin’s hands and legs. “One broken needle, shattered into countless pieces, traveled throughout his body, finally blocking all the joints and important acupoints. It cannot be removed – once removed, his meridians would be completely destroyed. It can only be slowly dissolved. He used over a year to dissolve the fragments in his limbs, but actually, he should have taken at least three years.”

Jing Hengbo slowly widened her eyes.

“Because of you, because you found him, in order to protect you, he prematurely forced his way through the acupoints.” Long Zhai pointed to his right leg. “He used his leg prematurely when he shouldn’t have. Now this leg should cause severe pain and difficulty walking whenever there’s slight rain or dampness. Of course, you surely don’t know this.”

Jing Hengbo remembered that time in Luoyun when she was falsely accused of killing the Luoyun prince, and Gong Yin was responsible for gathering evidence. It was then that he started walking on his legs. She remembered when he turned around, she seemed to have heard a faint “crack” sound.

So that was the sound of him forcibly expelling the needle, forcibly making his legs recover their ability to walk, so he could more conveniently create chaos in Luoyun for her sake.

“This needle…” she felt difficulty breathing, “why would it…”

Long Zhai already understood her meaning and said lightly: “The needle was naturally complete originally. It’s the Snow Mountain’s method of controlling all disciples, a complete needle in the… lower abdomen area, controlling the true energy of the lower dantian. This technique was to train Snow Mountain disciples’ heartless endurance. But our family head caused it to move. It could have been safely removed, but then something went wrong, causing the needle to shatter throughout his body, turning his hair white overnight.”

Jing Hengbo suddenly understood everything.

That needle was for restraining desire and forbidding lust, so when Gong Yin was first with her, he couldn’t be moved at all. Once moved, his true energy would lose control, becoming ice-bound and snow-trapped.

Later it probably traveled near his heart meridians, so that he no longer dared guarantee life and death, beginning to ruthlessly arrange her escape routes. So for a period of time, she could feel the bone-chilling cold near his heart. So once, when she just slightly resisted, his true energy became uncontrollable.

That time must have nearly cost him his life.

Yet she didn’t know.

She knew nothing at all.

Across from her, Long Zhai looked at her with light mockery, saying the simplest yet most heart-piercing words: “You know nothing.”

“You enjoy his protection and care, even his sacrifices, yet you’re unwilling to know his suffering.”

“Or perhaps you should have known, but deep in your heart you feared bearing that kind of pressure and guilt, so you turned a blind eye, preferring not to know.”

“A woman like you, such a selfish woman – are you worthy of his sacrifice? Are you qualified to obstruct now? From what position do you obstruct? What have you done for him? What have you sacrificed?”

“You just feel you’ve been hurt by him, but actually he’s suffered injuries a hundred times worse than yours. Now, asking you to sacrifice once – is it really that difficult?”

“You…”

“Stop talking!”

Long Zhai coldly stopped speaking.

Jing Hengbo slowly lowered Gong Yin’s sleeve, her finger pressing on that elbow spot – ice cold, the familiar ice cold.

She didn’t even dare touch his other joints. She felt that perhaps she really was guilty of avoiding, and despite having the closest relationship with him, she had never known what she most should have known.

Deep in her heart, was she as Long Zhai accused – so selfish?

Unwilling to see, avoiding seeing, so she wouldn’t have to bear responsibility?

At this moment she suddenly understood the feeling of having her heart in chaos like tangled hemp, with thousands of entanglements wrapping around her heart, strangling until even her heart seemed to ache, strangling out drops of heart’s blood, cherry-blossom red.

This day she finally saw his white hair; this day she finally knew her heart’s foolishness.

Past events flew like shuttles through her heart. Each and every one was like fragments of her heart stuck in her limbs and bones – unable to be pulled out, removed, or taken down, waiting to be dissolved with time and life.

In this moment she suddenly achieved enlightenment. If fate didn’t allow her obsession, perhaps persistence would only make the road narrower and narrower.

A thousand cares and ten thousand attachments ultimately couldn’t overcome the hope of seeing his black hair flowing freely in her field of vision as he lived his life.

The room was silent as death, with Long Zhai’s cold laughter continuing.

She suddenly said: “Is it true that aside from the medicine cauldron, there’s really no other way for Gong Yin’s problem?”

“Besides the medicine cauldron, there’s no other way to make him completely recover! The medicine cauldron was originally the most effective method to help our family head remove his bloodline hereditary poison! Last time was actually the best opportunity. Because of your interference, his problem became serious. Now even with the medicine cauldron, he cannot fully recover. If we delay further, even the medicine cauldron will become ineffective. You defend your position and dignity, but then you’ll lose your husband. I’ll wait to see you cry!”

“What medicine were you just asking Chunshui to find?” Jing Hengbo asked again.

Long Zhai ignored her, turning to find writing materials. How could such a place have writing materials? So he used his sword to write several medicine names on the ground.

Jing Hengbo watched from the side. Long Zhai glanced sideways and sneered coldly: “What are you looking at? Why put on this false pretense? With your jealous shrew behavior of preferring death to rescue, who would really believe you care about him?”

Jing Hengbo gazed at him for a long while. Her eyes at this moment were still bright as stars, brilliant as fire, making Long Zhai uncomfortably turn his head away.

Then he heard Jing Hengbo say lightly: “Fine.”

Long Zhai whipped around, his old face full of joy. He stared at Jing Hengbo, but couldn’t find any reassuring normal expression on this face that still held a seemingly present, seemingly absent smile – previously Jing Hengbo had been so unwilling, not hesitating to fight over it. Now she said she agreed just like that, and her face showed no signs of difficulty, struggle, or pain. It really made him uneasy.

He asked uncertainly: “Are you… sincere?”

“Once I give my word, it cannot be taken back even by four horses,” Jing Hengbo looked up at the sky and said leisurely.

“You… you won’t interfere again?”

“Although you speak nonsense, one thing you said is correct. Besides death, nothing else is important. Nothing is more important than his life.”

Long Zhai didn’t mind being insulted, and said urgently: “Then will you persuade him?”

“So you know persuasion is needed,” Jing Hengbo sneered coldly. “You should understand that my stopping my obstruction won’t be useful. Will your family head agree?”

“So you’re still being evasive?” Long Zhai’s face changed dramatically. “If you’re truly doing this for his good, you should find a way to make him accept!”

“I have no good methods. Do you have any?”

“What if… you and he find some excuse to quarrel and break up?” Long Zhai thought for a long time and asked tentatively.

Jing Hengbo laughed with a “ge ge ge.”

Her laughter was too mocking. Long Zhai stared at her with quite an uncomfortable expression.

“You’re really naive,” Jing Hengbo chuckled. “Do you think Gong Yin and I are little lovers playing house, or mentally disabled children with IQs under 45? You brought Nan Jin here to treat his illness. If I inexplicably break up with him at this time, do you think he can’t see through it? Gong Yin and I have even had life-and-death misunderstandings, yet we still ended up together. Do you think a random quarrel now could cause a breakup?”

“Then what do you think should be done?” Long Zhai thought about it and asked while suppressing his anger.

“Think of it yourself!” Jing Hengbo flicked her sleeve and glared at him unkindly. “Forcing me to give up my man is one thing, but asking me to strategize for this matter too – you’re going too far!”

Long Zhai really did think by himself. After thinking for a long while, he said: “You lend your rouge and clothes to Pearl…”

Jing Hengbo took a breath and stared at him unkindly.

The old man was probably doing this kind of thing for the first time. His face was quite embarrassed as he stammered for a long time. The meaning was that he needed Jing Hengbo to cooperate a bit – he had a way to make Gong Yin think Pearl was Jing Hengbo.

Jing Hengbo stared at him for another long while, until Long Zhai humbly averted his gaze, before saying: “I’ll provide whatever you need, but don’t even mention other requirements. I respect Gong Yin’s life, and I also respect his will. If I conspired with another woman to deceive him into bed, he wouldn’t forgive me, and I would despise myself.”

“How could that be?” Long Zhai said awkwardly. “It would just be you being virtuous and grateful. How many virtuous wives actively arrange good concubines and chamber maids for their husbands…”

“That’s other people, not me. If Gong Yin wanted that kind of woman, he would have married and had children long ago. His choices, my choices – only we can understand each other. You don’t understand.”

“You agree to step back, yet you won’t help to the end…” Long Zhai became irritated.

“My stepping back is already the limit. If I help with this favor too, I’d be a saint. I’d be insulting his feelings for me and my own feelings without any principles.” Jing Hengbo threw over a box of rouge. “Figure it out yourself!”

Long Zhai caught it, thought about it, and made up his mind: “Then don’t regret it halfway and interfere again. Then there really would be no hope…”

“I’ll leave for a trip right away to attend that trade conference.”

“Good, I’ll send our most outstanding young men to protect you. We can also see if there are any medicinal materials we need at that conference.” Long Zhai asked about the trade conference, set his mind at ease, felt his chances were much better, and said with a face full of relief: “In that case, we still need to thank you. This old man thanks you on behalf of Nan Jin first. Rest assured, she will respect you in the future and will never overstep your position. Also, thank you for being considerate of her years of waiting and sacrifice, not letting her efforts be in vain…”

“I’m not being considerate of her. You don’t need to accept this favor.” Jing Hengbo interrupted him and walked to the window. “I admit I’m moved by Nan Jin’s waiting and sacrifice. I also feel it’s a pity that she sacrificed so much but I picked the fruit. But I don’t think this is a reason I should give up Gong Yin. Love is only between two people. He needs me, I need him. No matter how much others give, it’s not what we want. When he hasn’t accepted, I have no reason to accept on his behalf.” She paused and turned back to look at Gong Yin, saying gently: “My only reason for stepping back is simply hoping that he can live well.”

I hope you live long, I hope you stay healthy, I hope your white hair turns back to black, I hope you’re freed from this ceaseless torment day and night.

Long Zhai was silent. Outside, Nan Jin continued looking up at the sky, her upturned pale face seeming to have a flash of moisture.

“If he had even one other hope, I would never hand him over to someone else. But if this really is the only way, I can only try it. There’s no other reason, just for him. Just for him.” Jing Hengbo’s voice lowered as she held the pile of clothes, no longer looking at those people, and turned to leave the room.

Upon leaving, she immediately looked up and sighed deeply, as if wanting to exhale all the depression in her heart into the cramped sky cut apart by narrow alleys.

How could she be willing? It was just unavoidable. Life had too many unavoidable circumstances.

She had always thought about finding a famous doctor to solve his problems, but in her heart she also understood that after years and years of repeated harm, his physical foundation was already depleted, already pushed to the limit. No amount of medicine would be more than pouring water into something barely supporting itself with borrowed time. Otherwise, with his nature, why would he constantly lay groundwork for dead ends and desperate paths? He was supporting himself for her sake, supporting beyond imagination, performing exceptionally, but the more he overdrew, the more fierce the repayment would be. She dared not think about what the days ahead would be like.

Sometimes she would rather see him bedridden with illness while she cared for him, than see him supporting himself well one moment and collapsing before her the next. Such unpreparedness, such a bolt from the blue – she didn’t know how she would bear it when the time came.

In her heart she had always understood that only the Dragon Ying family, having researched their family’s longstanding illness so deeply and prepared for so many years, with their stored medicine cauldron, was surely the best prescription for treating Gong Yin. However, this best choice required burying her happiness. Once there was another person between her and him, even if it was an emergency measure, in the heart of a woman like her who believed in one lifetime, one world, one couple, it would forever be an unbridgeable chasm.

She had delayed, hesitated, yearning for a miracle to happen, until today when she was struck by his white hair and protruding joints.

Fate pushed her, pushed him toward others.

Nan Jin in the courtyard still stood there in a daze. Jing Hengbo lowered her eyes… If tonight, if tonight he and Nan Jin could truly unite as cauldrons, she wouldn’t stay anymore for some kind of wives-and-concubines-under-one-roof situation. Let Nan Jin enjoy the fruit she deserved from her waiting.

She was willing to spend the rest of her life peacefully and independently with her child, leaving him to walk healthily in the mortal world.

Behind her, Dragon family disciples were slowly gathering, preparing to accompany her to tonight’s Myriad Phenomena Trade Conference.

On the other side of the courtyard, Long Zhai confidently pulled Nan Jin into another room.

Jing Hengbo didn’t turn back, but seemed to see and hear everything. She was still in the same place, but already understood the taste of farewell, understood the mental journey he had gone through that snowy night at Imperial Song years ago, when he wrote the abdication and self-exile letter in the Jade Reflection Palace.

In one moment, already at the ends of the earth.

She looked up. The pale blue sky was cut apart by slanted tree branches, the sunlight gradually fading in the pale yellow dusk, like a faded old silk.

Her brilliant and beautiful love was also like a folded brocade, hidden deep in her heart, slowly being pulled, grinding her heart until it bled.

She took a long deep breath, didn’t turn back, and stepped forward.

“Let’s go.”