The room fell silent once again. After standing still for a while, Zhu Yan sat down by the bed and gently caressed Shen Du’s face, tears welling up in her eyes.
Shen Du was the most vigilant person in this world. He had said that after leaving the imperial harem, he volunteered for a border mission to earn merit. Countless brushes with death had led him to sleep with a sword under his pillow. Once, he had nearly strangled her when she approached him during his light sleep. But now, Shen Du lay on the bed completely unaware.
Tears fell like pearls into a silver plate, dropping onto the brocade quilt with soft “plop” sounds and seeping into the fabric.
“Shen Du, if you don’t wake up, I’ll remarry, live in your house, take seventy or eighty male concubines, and feast every night.”
“I’ll also stop helping the Shen family clear their name and seek justice.”
No matter what she said, Shen Du showed no reaction. His once thin, tightly pressed lips were now purple and black as if he had drunk poison, making his skin appear even more pale and lifeless.
“I am a burden.”
Useless, and only good at putting on a brave face.
The tears flowed more and more, impossible to wipe away. Zhu Yan rubbed her eyes, her gaze hardening:
“I will definitely find a way to save you.”
Zhu Yan ran to check the local coroner’s records, then carefully examined the sealed Guangchun Hall, and even went to dissect the body parts brought back from Guangchun Hall, but to no avail.
Unless she could find Lai Luofu, there was still no solution.
It all came back to this woman.
Although Shen Du was being kept alive daily with antidotes, he was visibly wasting away. This poison wasn’t as frightening as “Breaking Cocoon Becoming Butterfly” with its silk webs, but it was truly insidious. When it flared up, it was faster and more severe than “Breaking Cocoon Becoming Butterfly.”
Zhu Yan guessed this must be Lai Luofu’s ultimate poison, specially reserved to deal with Shen Du. The calculation was flawless – wounding Shen Du with an arrow without killing him, letting him escape without pursuit. What else could it be if not absolute confidence?
Did Lai Luofu really believe in her illusion? Zhu Yan didn’t think so.
But who in Yingzhou City could now infiltrate the enemy camp to find Lai Luofu and get the antidote?
Zhu Yan felt increasingly desperate.
“Are we truly fated to never fulfill our destiny in this lifetime?” She choked back a sob and whispered, “If I had persuaded you to decline the Gannan assignment, at worst you’d have been punished by Her Majesty but not lost your life. If I hadn’t insisted on so-called justice, how could you have fallen into such danger?”
Lying with her head on Shen Du’s arm, Zhu Yan almost forgot the passage of time until a painted eyebrow warbler perched on the windowsill, chirping “jiu jiu” and awakening her from her daze.
Her eyes gradually focused, falling on the hopping warbler. Zhu Yan suddenly sprang up.
Now was not the time to lose heart.
She splashed cold water on her face, wiped away the water and tears, and tidied her clothes in front of the bronze mirror.
Zhu Yan left the room and headed towards the study. The most urgent matter now was to inform the imperial court of the situation here and hasten the dispatch of reinforcements.
She ground the ink, spread out a letter paper, picked up the brush Shen Du usually used, composed herself, and began to write, intending to send it to the capital by express courier.
But she was startled by a voice.
“I’m afraid it won’t reach the capital,” said Jing Lin, who had come over hearing the call. He had just returned from patrol outside. “Yingzhou City is now completely surrounded.”
The letter in her hand was crumpled. Jing Lin continued:
“Scouts can neither get out nor come in. We don’t even know how far the reinforcements have reached.”
The situation couldn’t be worse.
“I’ve made arrangements. Tonight we’ll raid the Fire Moth Party’s stronghold to get the antidote and save the Chief Commander.”
Zhu Yan suddenly looked up. Jing Lin’s face was weary, but his eyes shone brightly, speaking of the night raid with unwavering determination.
Nodding hastily, Zhu Yan stumbled away, only to be intercepted by someone in the second corridor.
Zhu Yan raised her head, her face streaked with tears.
Pan Chi’s heart skipped a beat, startled by Zhu Yan’s state.
In his memory, Zhu Yan was lively, adorable, and wise, with rosy cheeks still bearing a hint of baby fat, her bright eyes comparable to stars. But the Zhu Yan before him now had sunken cheeks, dark circles under her eyes, disheveled hair, and a gaunt figure that felt fragile when she bumped into him.
Pan Chi smiled, “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were the sick one.”
However, Zhu Yan ignored him and pushed him past.
Pan Chi felt uneasy and quickly caught up: “I woke up this morning to news that Shen Du was poisoned and unconscious. What exactly happened?”
Zhu Yan glanced at him and brushed past.
Frightened by this gesture, Pan Chi hurried after her: “I know Shen Du was poisoned while finding an antidote for me. How is he?”
Pan Chi had come to find Zhu Yan as soon as he woke up because none of the guards would tell him anything.
Zhu Yan stopped, covered her face with both hands, and after a long moment looked up at the sky, forcing back her tears before turning to Pan Chi.
“Shen Du,” she choked, “Shen Du’s poison isn’t from Central Plains, it’s from the Western Regions, and it’s even more virulent than the poison you had before.”
Pan Chi had been ill these past few days and hadn’t fully recovered. Now, standing in the sun, he was breaking out in a light sweat, but he kept his sleeve raised to shield Zhu Yan from the sun. Hearing this, he abruptly dropped his arm and asked urgently, “Poison from the Western Regions?”
“Yes,” Zhu Yan nodded, glancing at Pan Chi, “Lai Luofu applied the poison to the outside of the antidote bottle. It only works if there’s an open wound on the body, and Shen Du had just been wounded by arrows when surrounded by the Half-Face Ghosts.”
Pan Chi understood immediately and gritted his teeth: “That Lai Luofu did it on purpose.”
Zhu Yan closed her eyes briefly: “Shen Du had seen the antidote for ‘Breaking Cocoon Becoming Butterfly’ before, and even my third sister and I had taken it. Any tampering would not have escaped Shen Du’s notice.”
“So she tampered with the porcelain bottle to lower Shen Du’s guard,” Pan Chi concluded.
What else was there to understand? Shen Du had obtained the real antidote for “Breaking Cocoon Becoming Butterfly,” but he had been poisoned.
Enemy camp, ambush, antidote.
These words swirled in Pan Chi’s mind. It meant that Shen Du’s night raid on the Fire Moth Party to save him had been calculated by Lai Luofu and Mo Qianzi, resulting in his poisoning and current coma, which in turn led to Zhu Yan’s haggard appearance.
I didn’t kill Bo Ren, but Bo Ren died because of me.
Pan Chi finally felt some guilt. When he followed Zhu Yan to see Shen Du lying unconscious on the bed, the mixture of guilt and admiration surged in his heart, making him feel very uncomfortable.
Shen Du had always been dissatisfied and jealous of his closeness to Zhu Yan, yet he was willing to risk his life and infiltrate the enemy camp alone to get the antidote for him, just to make Zhu Yan smile.
He was undoubtedly a true man.
Leading Zhu Yan to the study, Pan Chi paced back and forth, seeing Zhu Yan lifeless and feeling anxious and helpless.
“At least eat something.”
Zhu Yan showed no reaction, like a walking corpse.
Pan Chi gritted his teeth and stamped his foot, wiping his face to hide his earlier sorrow, and deliberately said:
“If he really dies, you’ll be free, you know.”
“Then I could take you far away and no one would stop us.”
Zhu Yan glanced at the crumpled letter.
Getting no response, Pan Chi smiled somewhat forcedly: “What? Not happy about gaining your freedom?”
Zhu Yan’s eyelids flickered, but she didn’t respond.
Silence filled the space between them. He noticed Zhu Yan’s lips twitch at the sight of the letter, as if she might cry again.
“No, don’t cry.”
He had seen countless women cry, all of them infatuated with him and reluctant to let him go. Some cried miserably, some cried like a pear blossom in the rain, some cried softly, some cried lingeringly. But he had never seen a woman cry like Zhu Yan, so heartbroken and desperate that she was unaware, crying silently and without sound.
Pan Chi fumbled, wanting to raise his hand to wipe her tears as he had done with those women before, to tell her that years would pass and they might never meet again.
But he couldn’t do it.