Hold on!
But could she?
By now, Ziqing’s right arm was completely covered in needles, so densely packed it was a horrifying sight. The sensation of the poison being drawn out was no longer subtle—it was overwhelming.
At that very moment, Imperial Physician Gu’s blade was pressed against her wound, and she was staring straight into his eyes, murder blazing in her gaze. He kept averting his eyes from hers, a quiet unease growing in him—he was beginning to doubt whether this method could truly keep the Princess Consort under control.
The poison master moved quickly, not daring to delay, and with his assistant’s help, began inserting needles into Ziqing’s other arm. But the moment the first needle went in, Ziqing roared with fury. “I’ll kill you all!”
The instant the words left her mouth, Imperial Physician Gu looked up, but it was already too late. Ziqing’s body suddenly convulsed violently, and in an instant the heated couch shattered beneath her with a thunderous crash, sending her tumbling into the wreckage. All the ropes snapped free at once.
For a moment, the poison master, his assistant, and Imperial Physician Gu were all thrown into panic, at a complete loss. The Princess Consort had fallen to the floor and was now tearing frantically at the needles in her arm like a woman possessed.
“Your Highness, don’t! Please, hold on, you’ve come so far, don’t let it all go to waste!” the poison master pleaded urgently, but Ziqing paid him no mind at all. It was as if pulling out each needle brought her one step closer to release—she looked as though she wanted nothing more than to hack off her own arm.
Imperial Physician Gu could no longer afford to hold back. He lunged forward and forced her hands open, shouting furiously, “You mustn’t!”
Ziqing, caught completely off guard, was knocked flat to the ground. Imperial Physician Gu seized the moment to grab both her hands and press them together, calling out coldly, “Rope!”
“Get lost!” Ziqing roared, thrashing suddenly, and Imperial Physician Gu, no match for her strength, was immediately knocked to the ground.
But right then, Yingzi suddenly appeared, looping a rope around Ziqing’s arms from behind. Ziqing tried to struggle, but she couldn’t overpower Yingzi’s strength.
“Poison master, hurry!” Yingzi shouted furiously. She had only just arrived, having pushed straight past Guxi and Shiliang at the door—she hadn’t expected to find the room in such a state.
The poison master and his assistant finally snapped back to their senses and rushed forward. With Ziqing pinned to the ground by Yingzi, arms bound behind her back, she still thrashed without pause, making it impossible to insert even a single needle precisely.
“Let me go, let me go!”
“Yingzi, I’m warning you—if you don’t let go, I won’t hold back!”
…
Ziqing roared on, drenched in sweat, hair plastered to her face, so wretched no one would have recognized her. She had even lost control of herself entirely, saliva spilling from her mouth as she gasped for breath, still fighting with everything she had—every thought, every ounce of will, every bit of self-control poured entirely into the struggle.
The needles still lodged in her arm kept drawing the poison from her body, and she felt as though her very organs, her flesh and blood, were all in agony—not quite pain, but an indescribable torment, as if something inside her were about to erupt.
“Let go!”
“Let me go, all of you!”
By now she had completely lost her clarity, incapable of calm, as if the only thing left in her entire existence was to make them let go. If they would just pull out every last needle, she would want for nothing else in this life.
The more it hurt, the harder she struggled, and neither the poison master nor his assistant could get near her.
Even with Yingzi pinning her down like this, there was no calming her. Could they drug her? No—during the cure, no medicine of any kind could be used.
The only option left was… Imperial Physician Gu, gripping Liuguang tightly in his hand this whole time, finally couldn’t hold back any longer. He drove the blade in once more—this time, not into the old wound.
Perhaps the old wound had already gone numb to this woman.
This cut landed right beside the old wound, joining the new cut with the old into one.
“Ahh—” Ziqing suddenly threw her head back and screamed, her features twisted, so ferocious it was terrifying to behold. At that moment, calling her a “mad dog” would not have been an exaggeration.
And yet even so, her clarity lasted only a moment. After that startled cry came even greater fury. “Let me go!”
She struggled with one side of her body while still trying, again and again, to pull the needles free with the other.
“This won’t work! If she keeps struggling like this, even with the needles hitting the right points, the muscles are too tense to draw the poison out quickly!” the poison master fretted. Only by finishing all hundred needles as fast as possible could they cure the planted poison at maximum speed—otherwise, the suffering would only multiply.
Yingzi and Imperial Physician Gu exchanged a glance, both instinctively turning to look at their peacefully sleeping lord. What should they do?
“Let’s wake His Highness to finish the cure! Only he has the right to decide this!” Yingzi said seriously.
But Imperial Physician Gu hesitated. He himself couldn’t perform the cure—the poison master and his assistant certainly could—but if the poison were cured this way, how would they explain it to the Princess Consort once she came to her senses?
The Princess Consort had gone to such painstaking lengths precisely to avoid two things: first, that Prince Yao would see her in such a wretched state, and second—most importantly—that he would have to wield the knife on her himself.
A man who loved her so tenderly, forced to be so cruel to her—that wouldn’t just torment her. It would torment him.
The Princess Consort truly understood her own condition better than anyone. To cure it, she had to endure what no ordinary person could, all while remaining conscious.
“Yingzi, His Highness won’t be able to do it. It has to be you and me,” Imperial Physician Gu said helplessly, lowering his voice. “Go and prepare some chili water.”
The moment he said this, not only Yingzi but even the poison master and his assistant were stunned, whipping around to stare at him.
The wound on the Princess Consort’s leg was already down to the bone—if chili water were poured over it, the consequences would be… no one dared imagine it. Just the thought of the process alone was horrifying.
“No! We’re not curing this anymore!” Yingzi suddenly snapped furiously.
“It’s too late to say that now!” the poison master said seriously before Imperial Physician Gu could even respond.
“Go, now. The Princess Consort said this poison must be cured, so it will be cured! Go!” Imperial Physician Gu shoved Yingzi aside and took over holding Ziqing down in her place.
But Imperial Physician Gu’s strength was truly no match for Yingzi’s. Ziqing broke free at once, rolling violently to the side, hands still bound behind her back. She stopped struggling and simply rolled as far away as she could, as if trying to flee, and abruptly tried to stand.
But the moment her right foot touched the ground, it gave out beneath her entirely, and her left knee slammed down hard onto the floor with a sickening thud. It was a wretched sight.
Her right leg had no strength left at all—she couldn’t even stand.
And yet, even so, she crawled, dragging herself across the floor inch by inch toward the door.
The scene was hauntingly similar to years ago, when she’d been trapped as a child in that fighting pit, forced to kill until she alone remained standing—when she had crawled the same way, inch by inch, out through the pile of corpses, dragging a long trail of blood behind her, all just to survive. But this time—what was she even fighting for?
The resilience she’d cultivated since childhood, the strength to survive without ever relying on anyone—today, all of it was being poured into this. What was she trying to do?
Was it that the poison craving no longer wanted her to pull out the needles, but wanted her to flee instead?
Behind her, no one moved. Everyone simply stared, stunned, hardly able to recognize the woman before them anymore.
With her hands bound, how could she even crawl properly? She could only drag herself along by shifting her body, as pathetic as a worm.
Suddenly, she stopped. She lay prone on the floor, her back to everyone, her expression hidden from view. Seeing her stop, Imperial Physician Gu and Yingzi both froze in alarm as they watched her draw her knees up beneath her, kneeling.
“Don’t let her get out!” Imperial Physician Gu cried out, moving to step forward—but in that split second, Ziqing suddenly lunged forward, slamming herself violently against the door’s threshold!