Ming Yi wasn’t surprised. After all, people live for themselves, and Earl Ji indeed had no reason to help her. If he wouldn’t give it, she’d find a chance to steal it. If she couldn’t steal it, she’d give up and use the remaining half year of her life to see the desert sunset.
So she fell silent, continuing to lean lazily against the carriage to rest.
Earl Ji was unsatisfied with her reaction. “Not going to continue?”
“Continue what?” She smiled with her eyes closed. “Even if I desperately begged my lord, you might not keep your word even if you agreed.”
“Your resentment seems to be about more than just the antidote.” He raised an eyebrow. “What else are you dissatisfied with?”
“How dare I? My lord’s Yuan Power is so strong, you could strangle me without lifting a finger.” Her smile was radiant. “Being dissatisfied with my lord would be seeking death.”
Earl Ji was displeased.
He didn’t like this version of Ming Yi much. He preferred her previous self, looking up at him with a soft, sweet smile, without any coldness.
But he also felt that the person before him was more like her true self.
How did a woman with Yuan Power end up as an enslaved dancing girl?
“I originally planned to kill you,” he said softly.
Her closed eyelashes trembled slightly, and Ming Yi pursed her lips.
“But I’ve changed my mind now,” he said casually. “Since you’re going to die anyway, stay by my side. I want to watch you die slowly.”
How cruel. He treated his other favorites so well, why was he so harsh only to her?
Ming Yi couldn’t understand, but she didn’t dwell on it. She turned her head to look out the window.
The night in Mu Xing City was truly beautiful, with a dazzling Milky Way unseen in other cities. The nearby stars were larger than the moon, their surfaces uneven, as if someone had dug craters on them.
If she could be buried in those craters after death, wouldn’t that be interesting? She thought.
The person in front of her tilted her head up, her eyes particularly bright, not at all like someone facing death.
Earl Ji was momentarily dazzled by her eyes and turned away, somewhat resentfully.
Back at the mansion, Earl Ji had people search Liu Zhao Jun’s quarters and bring out all the hidden medicine bottles. He said with a hint of mockery, “Who would carelessly hide such important antidotes?”
Ming Yi smiled, “In my desperation to survive, I didn’t think it through.”
He waved his hand, ordering people to take everything away, then stepped forward, forcing her to retreat step by step.
“Come on, my lord.” Her smile became increasingly forced. “After all that’s happened today, you still have the mood for such intimate affairs?”
“I’ve never examined your meridians. It wouldn’t hurt to do so tonight.”
Ming Yi’s face darkened, and she said bluntly, “I don’t want to.”
“Fine,” he said. “Then I won’t spare Twenty-seven’s life.”
“…The difference between humans and beasts is that humans have humanity,” she gritted her teeth. “Twenty-seven has never harmed you, why should he lose his life?”
“I said before, anyone who trespasses in the Blue Tile Courtyard must die,” Earl Ji said coldly. “Did you think I was joking?”
It’s just a broken courtyard, and she didn’t even find the antidote. Was it really necessary?
Ming Yi lowered her head and took a deep breath. When she looked up again, her small face wore a bright smile. “My lord, examine as you wish.”
Earl Ji lowered his head, picked her up, and threw her onto the bed.
Ming Yi rolled with the momentum, wrapping herself in the brocade quilt like a cocoon. However, the quilt couldn’t block anything. As soon as he pressed down on her, his ink-black Yuan Power invaded her meridians.
Cold sweat broke out on her forehead. Ming Yi closed her eyes, trying hard to use the techniques she had seen in the secret scrolls in his study to disguise her meridians as those of a Mu Xing City fighter.
Earl Ji didn’t notice which city’s fighting style her meridians resembled, but he was secretly shocked by the extent of their damage.
The insidiousness of the Lihentian poison lay in its attachment to the meridians. If the antidote was discontinued for more than three months, the poison would seep into the meridians, corroding the channels that fighters had spent years cultivating until they were in ruins.
Ming Yi’s meridians were already like a sieve. That she could still use Yuan Power today was perhaps truly a dying person’s last effort.
As a fellow fighter, he felt despair looking at these meridians, but she seemed to feel nothing, appearing carefree and accepting, not the least bit distressed.
He couldn’t help but wonder if these meridians were even her own.
“Now that you’ve seen my meridians, I’ve been completely honest with you, right?” Ming Yi chattered. “So, my lord, could you treat me a bit better in my remaining half year? Even if not with silk and jade, at least don’t keep locking me in the woodshed. It’s really dirty in there.”
Withdrawing his Yuan Power, Earl Ji said heartlessly, “It depends on your performance.”
“What kind of performance?” She wrinkled her nose.
“Don’t overthink it. I’ve lost interest in you,” he got up and sat on the other side of the bed, saying coolly, “But the Grand Si intends to raise your status. From now on, you’ll have more places to go and more things you can do for me.”
Ming Yi laughed bitterly, “You even want to enslave a dying person?”
“Complete my requests, and after your death, I’ll take good care of Twenty-seven.”
“Deal.” She snapped her fingers.
Earl Ji, uncomfortable with her behavior, frowned and said, “In my presence, please maintain your previous demeanor.”
So many demands.
Secretly rolling her eyes, Ming Yi turned her head and put on a coquettish smile. “This slave understands~”
“The day after tomorrow, when the envoys leave Mu Xing City, find a way to place something in Bo Yuan Kui’s carriage,” he said. “I’ll give you the item two hours in advance.”
Bo Yuan Kui’s carriage?
Ming Yi’s face fell. “My lord, with his Yuan Power, won’t he sense someone approaching?”
“That’s why I’m sending you,” he said coldly and mercilessly. “Figure it out yourself.”
What a fickle man. In romantic moments, he called her “Yi’er,” but now that he’d lost interest, he told her to figure it out herself.
“This slave will try her best,” she pouted.
The man before her got up and left without looking back, leaving Liu Zhao Jun. As he stepped out the door, he instructed Matron Xun, “Prepare the beast carriage for the villa.”
“Yes, my lord.”
She was the only woman in the main mansion he wasn’t interested in, so naturally, he had to go to the villa.
Ming Yi watched him, feeling somewhat regretful. Why hadn’t she bought several villas and kept several men when she was still powerful? What a waste.
After several turns in the corridor, Earl Ji summoned Bu Xiu.
“Find someone to investigate which family in Chaoyang City has a daughter with Yuan Power, and also look into Twenty-seven’s true origins.”
“Yes, my lord.”
He stood in the courtyard, looking at the flowers in the flower beds for a while, then turned back to look at the lush bamboo by Liu Zhao Jun’s wall. He shook his sleeves in frustration.
It wasn’t that he cared about what she had been through before. He just wanted to know his enemy to ensure victory in every battle.
Women were bound to be replaced sooner or later. There was nothing special about it.
However, it was one thing for him to choose to replace them, and quite another for others to force him to do so.