What a vicious curse!

Ziqing had waited with her life on the line, only to be met with a result like this!

Mi’er, that liar!

Ziqing’s expression froze on her face, unable to accept what had just happened for a moment. In the silence, only the sound of Jun Beiyue and Xiong Xiaobao—father and son—clenching their fists until the knuckles cracked could be heard!

Mi’er lay sprawled on the ground, watching Ziqing’s stunned expression from a distance, and suddenly burst into laughter.

Who could have imagined that Han Ziqing would fall like this, at her hands?

Laughing and laughing, she tilted her head back toward the sky. “My lord, I’ve avenged you! My lord, the things you didn’t dare say, I’ve said them for you! I curse her, I curse the man she loves, may he die a terrible death!”

The moment the words left her mouth, Ziqing’s hands clenched into fists, her fury beyond words!

“Kill… kill her!”

Ziqing’s eyes had gone red with rage. If it weren’t for his concern for Ziqing, Jun Beiyue would have already struck. Hearing her say this, Jun Beiyue suddenly slammed his fist into the ground, and in an instant, a blade of wind surged along the ground, sweeping toward Mi’er with overwhelming force!

“To die a terrible death—you don’t even have the right to curse this prince!” Jun Beiyue said coldly, his gaze icy.

The entire cell trembled. With a thunderous boom, an immeasurable force struck Mi’er’s body directly, and in that instant, she was shattered to pieces!

After the boom, everything fell still again.

Gone. Everything was gone. Whatever last hope remained concerning Xuanyuan Lige was gone too. Nothing was left—only a curse that would never fade.

The room fell into a terrifying silence.

And yet!

In that very silence, Baili Weisheng suddenly lifted his head and cried out in shock, “Blood zither!”

Blood zither?

For a moment, everyone was stunned. What was wrong with Baili Weisheng? What had happened to him?

Blood was seeping from his forehead as he knelt there, his face full of excitement, even tinged with a kind of panic. “Blood zither! Blood zither! Blood zither! I remember now!”

He threw his head back and shouted, “I remember! The blood zither—it’s the blood zither! The blood zither Xuanyuan Lige left behind!”

Everyone was baffled, yet a nervous joy began to rise in them all the same. Had the foul-mouthed scholar gotten his memory back?

Xiong Xiaobao was the first to jump up, rushing toward Baili Weisheng like the wind, throwing his arms around him and immediately bursting into tears.

“Uncle Scholar, did you remember? Did you really remember?”

“Uncle Scholar! Did you remember everything?”

…

With Xiong Xiaobao hanging off him, Baili Weisheng finally calmed down. He looked down at the boy, and a bright smile immediately spread across his lips as he teased, “Tsk tsk, Little Bear, you really do look awful when you cry!”

At those words, Xiong Xiaobao immediately stopped crying and looked up at him, snot and tears streaked all over his face.

Baili Weisheng looked at him with obvious distaste, but Xiong Xiaobao broke into laughter through his tears, looking foolishly pleased. “You remembered, you really remembered!”

“You look hideous!”

Baili Weisheng was still clearly disgusted, but then he looked up toward Ziqing, saw the state of her injuries, and glanced at Jun Beiyue’s expression. A flash of doting affection and heartache crossed his face before he looked at them both and smiled faintly.

For a long moment, they simply faced each other in silence.

It was Jun Beiyue who finally let out a breath and smiled faintly as well.

They smiled at each other, wordless.

Only Ziqing’s tears had not stopped flowing since.

“Little Qingqing, why are you crying? Aren’t you the one who never cries?” Baili Weisheng asked teasingly.

Better he hadn’t said it—that “Little Qingqing” only made Ziqing’s tears fall even harder.

Jun Beiyue and Baili Weisheng were both suddenly at a loss for what to do. After all, this woman never cried!

Baili Weisheng, his head and face covered in blood, hurried over anxiously. “Han Ziqing, you’re… you’re not really crying, are you?”

But then suddenly, Jun Beiyue cried out in alarm, “Ziqing!”

Something was very wrong with her!

Her eyes… her eyes seemed to be struggling to stay open, as if they were about to close.

“This is bad!”

Jue Mingzi shouted urgently, quickly pulling out a pill and forcing Ziqing to swallow it. “She’s lost too much blood, it’s dangerous! Quick, protect her heart meridian!”

Without a word, Jun Beiyue guarded Ziqing’s heart meridian while channeling his true energy into her.

“Little Qingqing, hold on! Mi’er wasn’t lying to you—Xuanyuan Lige really did leave something for you!”

“He told me to give it to you, and I damn well forgot! Little Qingqing, the thing Xuanyuan Lige wanted to give you is inside the blood zither. I don’t know what it is either, but you have to hold on, all right? You have to go get it yourself, all right?”

“Han Ziqing, Xuanyuan Lige said that thing is extremely important! I was hurt this badly and I still managed to remember it—if you can’t hold on, damn it, I’ll cut ties with you!”

…

Baili Weisheng was so anxious he was babbling incoherently. Xiong Xiaobao, clinging to his shoulder, watched his mother’s lips grow paler and paler, clenching his jaw tightly, not daring to add to the chaos.

Ziqing felt so, so tired. In her memory, ever since she had crossed over into this unfamiliar world, she felt she had never truly had a moment’s rest.

From the time she unknowingly bore the scent of the enchantment, to when the truth of that scent finally came to light, to falling in love with Jun Beiyue, to the two of them as husband and wife searching hand in hand for a way to cure the poison of the enchanting scent. Later, the poison was cured, but then she had no choice but to worry about the future, to worry for their child.

Then, from Xiong Xiaobao, from what she learned from Meng Wanyue’s own mouth, she discovered the way to break the curse of the Gu-body constitution.

On and on, always rushing about, always searching!

Later on, finding the isolated island stopped mattering so much—it was all for one single wish: to clear the wrongful injustice done to an entire clan.

And now, having found nothing, she had returned to the imperial capital of Da Zhou. She had planned that from now on she would truly start living for herself, and for Beiyue.

But of all times, it was now that Mi’er had left her with a curse like this!

Perhaps, at this very moment, everyone’s concern was for the thing Xuanyuan Lige had left behind, the thing Ziqing cared about.

But right now, Ziqing, drowsy and on the verge of sleep, only knew that Baili Weisheng had regained his memory. She hadn’t heard a word of what he’d actually said.

At this moment, Ziqing—call it selfish if you must—her mind, her heart, were filled entirely with Jun Beiyue.

What did any of this have to do with this man?

Why had Mi’er cursed them like that?

Why direct her anger at Jun Beiyue?

Was it wrong, simply and purely, to love only one man?

No matter how good another man might be, she wouldn’t love him—was that wrong?

She always felt she owed Beiyue so much, so much. Why, at a time like this, did she have to bring down a curse this vicious upon them?

Through her tearful vision, Jun Beiyue’s sharply handsome face grew more and more blurred. Ziqing didn’t know what was happening to her—she suddenly felt as though they were about to be parted, and she couldn’t bear it.

Jun Beiyue looked at the drowsy, fading Ziqing, his face written all over with anguish. Even though he didn’t want to, hearing Baili Weisheng threaten her like that, he couldn’t help but join in with a threat of his own!

“Han Ziqing, this prince is warning you—if you dare not wake up, this prince will personally smash the blood zither to pieces! I’ll cut every single string!” He said it through gritted teeth. Aside from this, he found he couldn’t think of anything else to threaten her with.

The room was so silent—and then suddenly, Xiong Xiaobao let out a wailing cry, “Mommy!”

Ziqing had completely fainted away.