With a “bang,” the door swung open.

Both inside and outside the room fell into complete silence. Ziqing kept her eyes closed, feeling as though the entire world had gone utterly still.

He was right there, right in front of her—and yet, she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. If she never opened them, would everything simply remain frozen in this one moment forever?

She was a mercenary who had crawled her way out of countless brushes with death; she understood the scent of death, the chill of death, better than any physician ever could.

She wanted to see with her own eyes, wanted to ask—but her lips trembled, and still no words came. Instead, she slowly opened her eyes. Even this small measure of courage seemed beyond her, and she despised herself for it.

But the moment she opened her eyes, she froze. Inside the room, separated by a thin screen, she could faintly make out Jun Beiyue lying silently on the bed, Physician Gu seated beside him, turning to look back at her—utterly silent, without the slightest movement.

What had happened?

Neither Ziqing nor even Yingzi dared step forward, dared ask further.

If the outcome was one they couldn’t bear to accept, they would rather stand forever at this door, forever not knowing.

Physician Gu remained seated in silence, watching them through the screen.

Why wouldn’t he say anything?

Ziqing clenched her teeth and stepped forward, one step at a time. But suddenly, Physician Gu rushed straight toward her, shoving the screen aside with a single motion, drenched in sweat, both hands stained with blood, glaring furiously at Ziqing.

Ziqing froze in her tracks, finally seeing clearly. The bed was in complete disarray, blood everywhere, blood-soaked bandages scattered all around. On the small table beside the bed, an oil lamp burned, illuminating rows upon rows of silver needles of varying sizes and thicknesses, several of them completely stained crimson red, a truly horrifying sight!

And on the bed itself, this man’s face was deathly pale, his lips white and bloodless, his stern face entirely drained of color except for his brows and eyes!

He lay so still, so quiet, that his very stillness terrified Ziqing, making her want desperately to rush forward and wake him at once!

Her hands were trembling now. Her blurred vision slowly drifted downward, and she saw Jun Beiyue’s bare chest, covered in blood, a wound clearly stitched together thread by thread, resembling a blood-red centipede coiled directly over his heart!

Stitching a wound closed by hand, thread by thread—even with all the sophisticated medical equipment and medications of the modern world, this would be a terrifying ordeal to endure. How much more so under such primitive conditions!

Heating a fine needle over fire until red-hot, piercing through flesh and blood, needle after burning needle, piercing again and again, at the most vulnerable point—right over the heart!

How much pain must that have caused!

She stared blankly at that wound, and finally, unable to hold back any longer, she clapped a hand over her mouth and burst into sobs.

She was truly crying! For as long as she could remember, from childhood onward, she had never once cried aloud!

But just then, Physician Gu, his hands still stained with blood, suddenly seemed to lose his mind entirely, lunging forward and grabbing Ziqing by the throat, shaking her violently. “Han Ziqing, you foolish, foolish woman, you’ve ruined Prince Yao! You’ve ruined him!”

“Han Ziqing, do you have any idea how good Prince Yao was to you, do you have any idea how much he doted on you!”

…

If not for the many people present at the time, he would have done this back at the Court of Judicial Review already!

Though Prince Yao was his master, he was also the child Physician Gu had personally watched grow up. It had been his own hands, just moments ago, that had heated needle after needle red-hot, piercing them one by one through the prince’s flesh.

He hadn’t woken, hadn’t stirred at all throughout. And yet, each time the red-hot needle tip pierced his skin, each time it passed through flesh and blood came flowing out, his brows had furrowed—even completely unconscious, he had still felt the pain. How much agony must that truly have been!

How could Physician Gu possibly bear it? How could he not be furious?

His hands were completely covered in Prince Yao’s blood, his own heart bleeding right alongside, yet he couldn’t stop his hands from working—if this wound wasn’t treated and stitched closed properly, Prince Yao’s life would have been lost then and there!

Physician Gu, driven half-mad, wanted nothing more than to punish Ziqing. If this woman had never appeared, everything would have been entirely different! Prince Yao had never intended to choose a consort when he went to the Han prime minister’s residence that day—he had only been going through the motions!

He’d had more than enough reason to reject every single woman there!

“Han Ziqing, why were you so foolish, why were you so heartless!”

“Han Ziqing, if Prince Yao doesn’t wake up, I will absolutely kill you myself!”

…

Ziqing let him choke her, nearly passing out, offering no resistance at all. She deserved this, didn’t she—who told her to be so foolish?

Yingzi and Hongyi rushed forward to pull him away. Yingzi finally managed to drag Physician Gu back, shouting angrily, “Old Gu, enough! She didn’t know anything! It’s not her fault!”

Physician Gu was pushed aside, laughing coldly. “Doesn’t know anything, is that it? Fine, I’ll make sure she knows everything right now!”

“Han Ziqing, do you know there’s poison in your body, do you know you’re carrying a secret you don’t even know about?”

Ziqing froze. Hongyi and Shiliang froze too. Only Yingzi remained silent, closing the door and leaning against it, watching helplessly as Physician Gu, in his fury, revealed the entire truth.

It had been Physician Gu himself who had attended to Prince Yao the night of the House of National Beauty incident. Prince Yao hadn’t even bothered to glance twice at the woman lying there in the darkness, certain she would die regardless—he had left the body behind deliberately as a warning to Consort Yi, to stop her from ever attempting such aphrodisiac assassination schemes against him again!

But who could have expected that, the very next day, this woman not only failed to die, but instead turned the whole affair into a scandal that spread throughout the entire city, leading Prince Yao to finally take notice of her unusual physical constitution.

Even so, their chance encounter at the prime minister’s residence during the consort selection had truly been just that—pure chance. Heaven only knew what had possessed their master that day.

And yet, the moment this woman entered Prince Yao’s mansion, everything changed, everything began revolving around her.

“Han Ziqing, do you have any idea how good Prince Yao has been to you? He gave you something as significant as the scorpion-shaped ring—what more could you possibly want!”

“Do you know what that dagger is? Ha, that very murder weapon—it was the only thing Prince Yao’s birth mother ever left him, the only keepsake he has for finding his birth father!”

“Han Ziqing, why do you care so much, why are you so vicious, so ruthless? Isn’t it just that whole mess at the House of National Beauty? He already married you, what more could you possibly be upset about!”

As Physician Gu spoke, growing more and more agitated, he began rambling incoherently, and in his heightened state, he suddenly lunged forward again. Hongyi and Shiliang couldn’t stop him in time, and he grabbed Ziqing by the throat once more, slamming her against the wall, roaring, “Do you have any idea how important this moment is for him? Xichu has been dealt a heavy blow, and he and Emperor Tianhui have already shown their true colors to each other. These next few years are precisely his moment to make his move, precisely the time for him to achieve his ambitions! And yet you… you’ve made him…”

At this point, Yingzi, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke up furiously, “Gu Haicheng, enough! She had absolutely no idea the man in black was our master! What’s the point of scolding her, what fault does she bear! What exactly happened to our master, tell us!”

The moment these words left his mouth, Ziqing finally came back to herself, shoving Physician Gu away with sudden force, shouting furiously as well, “What exactly is wrong with him! What did he mean by three years!”

“Three years? Ha, three years…” Physician Gu let out a loud, bitter laugh. “He lied to you!”