“Your Highness, what are you saying?” Xiang Wei cried hoarsely, falling to her knees and embracing Qing Xia’s thighs. “Xiang Wei and Sister Xiangju entered the palace at the same time—we’re like sisters. How could I possibly harm her? Xiang Wei is the eldest daughter with many younger siblings at home. I often do rough work, so how could a servant’s hands be as soft and smooth as Your Highness’s noble hands? Xiang Wei just arrived at Lan Pavilion Hall today. Knowing Your Highness is in a bad mood, I naturally act carefully and cautiously—I don’t even dare to breathe or walk loudly. How can Your Highness suspect Xiang Wei of being a bad person based on these things…”
The little palace maid cried pitifully, and people outside whispered among themselves. Qing Xia laughed coldly and said sternly, “Do you know where you gave yourself away? An ordinary palace maid at this point would hardly be able to argue and make excuses so eloquently, yet you seem to have prepared your explanations in advance. You claim you’re just an ordinary palace maid—who would believe that?”
Xiang Wei was stunned. Qing Xia continued, “This dagger—it’s full of the scent of Milan fragrance from Nanjiang tribute. This fragrant powder was just sent over by His Highness at noon today. Besides me, only you have handled it. Are you going to tell me that after you came in and found Xiangju dead, you went forward to touch and examine this dagger?”
Xiang Wei looked shocked but still stubbornly protested, “Your Highness, I…”
“Shut up!” Qing Xia shouted fiercely, her eyes instantly shooting forth frost-like cold light. “At this point you still dare to be stubborn. Xiangju was stabbed in the heart—blood would definitely splash and spurt out. But there are no blood spots in the vertical direction, only blood that flowed out. If I just have someone search your room now, you’ll immediately be exposed. Do you still dare to deceive me?”
Xiang Wei’s face turned deathly pale. Hearing this, she straightened up and said loudly, “Since Your Highness suspects Xiang Wei’s innocence, then please go to Xiang Wei’s room and search to see if there are the bloodstained clothes Your Highness mentioned. Whether Xiang Wei is the murderer or not will be clear at a glance!”
“Good!” Qing Xia snorted coldly, turned and walked toward the door. Just as she passed by Xiang Wei, she suddenly tugged with her hand, immediately grabbing Xiang Wei’s palace dress.
With a “swoosh” sound, Xiang Wei’s clothes tore and fell open, causing everyone to cry out in alarm.
Inside Xiang Wei’s pink palace dress, she was actually wearing another light green palace dress of the same style, except the front had several dark blood stains that looked shocking.
“Someone take her away and hand her over to the Supreme Court for disposal.” Chu Li’s expression was grim as he spoke sternly. Xiang Wei seemed to know the situation was hopeless and collapsed to the ground, no longer crying or resisting. Several guards came forward, lifted up Xiang Wei, and walked outside.
At this moment, a strong sense of unease suddenly struck Qing Xia’s heart. She couldn’t identify the source of this panic, but this alertness honed from years of living on the edge of life and death had saved her too many times. So in this instant, she chose to completely trust her instincts. Her entire body suddenly sprang up from the ground, her figure flying swiftly. A sharp dagger instantly swung out, positioned horizontally in front of her, using absolutely powerful advantage and posture to quickly crush the agile figure that suddenly appeared before her eyes. However, before she could react, Xiang Wei’s body suddenly flew toward her like a ghost.
This awakening still seemed somewhat too late. Xiang Wei’s body, struck by the dagger, instantly flew backward, but the corner of her mouth revealed a faint evil smile. Qing Xia instantly knew that the final desperate strike couldn’t injure her vital points, but as a top assassin launching a hidden weapon from the optimal position, it was completely sufficient to kill the enemy!
This was the complete true portrayal of a desperate gambit!
Qing Xia had never imagined she would encounter such a skilled assassin in this era. Once again, she would pay the price for her carelessness!
Just when everyone including Qing Xia herself thought she couldn’t escape, suddenly a streak of blood light shot up to the sky. The sound of a blade entering flesh rang out in front of Qing Xia. A short sword flickering with dark blue light was immediately stained with blood and fell to the ground. In an instant, even the blue floor tiles beneath their feet turned ashen gray.
Chu Li held Qing Xia’s body with one arm and positioned the other horizontally in front of her. A extremely deep wound on his wrist was now gushing out large amounts of black blood, and his arm was also rapidly turning ashen gray.
“Your Highness!” The attendants and guards outside cried out in unison and rushed into the room. Xiang Wei, severely injured, was instantly subdued by everyone.
The poison spread extremely quickly. In just this short time, Chu Li’s lips had already turned blue-purple, and he leaned weakly against Qing Xia. While supporting Chu Li, Qing Xia shouted loudly, “Don’t kill her, keep her alive!”
However, before she finished speaking, Xiang Wei had already lowered her head, a trace of black-purple blood at the corner of her mouth, showing no sign of life.
“Your Highness!” Rong Yuan suddenly pointed at Qing Xia and shouted. Qing Xia was startled and quickly looked down to see a mass of black energy rapidly rising to Chu Li’s face, looking eerie and terrifying.
What kind of poison could be so powerful! Qing Xia frowned tightly, grabbed Chu Li’s hand, placed it to her mouth, aligned with the wound, and sucked forcefully!
“Your Highness!” All the servants cried out in unison.
When Qing Xia woke up, it was already late night the next day. The maid Xiang Yun was keeping watch beside her. Seeing her wake up, she immediately ran out crying to call for people. It was still Sun Juzheng, the chief judge of the Imperial Medical Academy. The elderly man in his seventies looked somewhat weary at this time, but his smile appeared very kind.
After taking Qing Xia’s pulse, Imperial Physician Zhang nodded and said, “Fortunately, the toxicity has subsided, and the residual poison is nothing to fear. This old man will prescribe several doses of detoxification medicine. If Your Highness takes them on schedule, you will recover quickly.”
Qing Xia still felt her lips burning, and tentatively asked, “Chu Li…”
“His Highness the Crown Prince is fine. This poison is made from a poisonous flower from Nanjiang, containing seven types of venomous insects, also called Flower Seven. Its toxicity is not the strongest among Nanjiang’s hundred poisons, but it acts the fastest. Once the toxicity invades the brain, even immortals cannot save the victim. Although His Highness was stabbed in the wrist, it’s far from the brain, and Your Highness sucked out the poison for him, buying time. This old man arrived just in time to treat him. As for Your Highness, the poison entered your mouth and strongly invaded the brain, but for some unknown reason, Your Highness seems to have a resistance to this toxicity. The poison remained dormant and didn’t manifest, and you actually woke up before His Highness—truly a strange occurrence.”
Qing Xia pondered deeply. Sucking out the poison for Chu Li was an expedient measure. Logically, since her mouth had no ulcers, she shouldn’t have been poisoned. But Nanjiang toxins have always been strange—just look at how that dagger could even transmit poison to the floor tiles, let alone her flesh and blood.
When she was in the modern world, her body had been injected with various toxins and had long developed antibodies. But why did Zhuang Qing Xia’s body also have antibodies? Did she have some secret before? Or did her soul’s transmigration also bring her strong constitution along?
“Your Highness,” Xiang Yun suddenly ran in frantically, her face full of joy as she said to Qing Xia, “His Highness has awakened and wants to see you.”
Qing Xia’s heart sank—what was meant to come would eventually come.
After Imperial Physician Zhang took her pulse, he withdrew. In the huge bedroom, only Qing Xia and Chu Li remained. This poisoning incident was kept secret from outsiders, so it didn’t cause any commotion. Qing Xia looked at Chu Li lying on the bed with his eyes tightly closed, knowing in her heart that he had long since awakened. She couldn’t help but sigh and say sternly, “Whatever you want to ask, just ask.”
Chu Li’s eyes slowly opened, then gradually turned toward Qing Xia, staring intently at her eyes, which contained undercurrents that even Qing Xia couldn’t understand, surging and churning.
“You…” Chu Li’s voice was low and hoarse, his lips slightly pale, his facial lines like marble sculpture. He deliberated as he spoke, finally asking sternly, “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
What should she say? Qing Xia smiled bitterly, curving her lips. Should she say she was possessing someone else’s body? That she wasn’t really Zhuang Qing Xia? That she was a super agent from the 21st century with special forces background? Or should she say she was the one who released Qi An from the palace to deliver messages? All of this would just be dismissed as excuses anyway. His suspicions about her—were they really limited to today? From beginning to end, from start to finish, all the favor and tenderness were nothing but tests one after another. From the first day she woke up, he had already suspected her.
“Since you’re asking, whatever I say would be useless.” Qing Xia smiled faintly, then looked deeply at Chu Li with no small amount of mockery. “You trust my father, you trust the Zhuang clan’s loyalty to you, but you don’t trust Zhuang Qing Xia. This entire Lan Pavilion Hall is full of your spies—this palace itself is a cage. All the previous palace servants were masters skilled in martial arts. Xiangju had to come in carefully to spy every two hours each night. The space under the bed is hollow, with someone using copper tubes to listen in all day. You’ve already taken precautions to this extent—what more is there for me to say?”
A sharp gleam flashed in Chu Li’s eyes. His lips gradually pressed into a straight line. He looked coldly at Qing Xia and said sternly, “But I want to hear you say it.”
“What do you want to hear?” Qing Xia sneered, “Do you want to hear the final song of this caged bird?”
“You consider yourself a caged bird?” Chu Li’s expression was ice-cold. He sat up and said coldly, “This past year, you’ve indeed disguised yourself very well. Your constant submissiveness actually made me underestimate you.”
“So you ignored me for a year, wanting to see whether Zhuang Qing Xia’s heart still belonged to Qi An? You even allowed Concubine Dan to make a scene at Lan Pavilion Hall, and afterward let Princess Jiayun come repeatedly to cause trouble, wanting to see if this weak woman would show any resistance when pushed to a certain point?”
“Exactly, and you certainly lived up to my expectations!” Chu Li’s eyes turned cold. He suddenly leaned forward, grabbed Qing Xia’s throat, and said in an icy voice, “You really are a spy sent by Qi An. When Grand Tutor Zhuang told me initially, I still didn’t believe it. What spell did he cast on you to make you so willing to risk everything for him?”