Because of the sudden assassination attempt, the palace walls had been mostly cleared; in the towers remained lanterns left behind by the ladies in their haste.

The Xuande Gate was in chaos, with Imperial Guards standing strict watch, yet none dared to obstruct Ning Yin’s steps.

The night wind was bitter cold, causing stars to fall from the sky.

Ning Yin carried Yu Lingxi to Prince Jing’s carriage, then opened his cloak to wrap her in his embrace, gently stroking her trembling shoulders.

The guard, keeping his eyes straight ahead, asked: “Where does Your Highness wish to go?”

Ning Yin lowered his eyes and said gently: “To take Suisui to see the lanterns, would that be alright?”

How could Yu Lingxi still have the mood to see lanterns?

She remembered the magnificent burning of living people as sky lanterns in her previous life, remembered Ning Yin’s desperate madness with his purple robe stained with blood, and her throat choked.

“Call the imperial physician to treat the poison.”

Yu Lingxi tightly grasped Ning Yin’s collar, her breathing trembling as she spoke.

Ning Yin laughed and took hold of Yu Lingxi’s hand: “I’ve tasted poisons since childhood; my constitution is different from others. This small dosage won’t kill anyone.”

“Go call the imperial physician!”

Yu Lingxi stubbornly raised her eyes, emphasizing her words.

The guard outside the carriage heard the stern, delicate shout from within and involuntarily shuddered.

Since Prince Jing had risen to power, with his deep thoughts and ruthless methods, who had ever dared to command him in such a tone? This young lady was truly spoiled.

He touched his lips to the bright flower mark on Yu Lingxi’s forehead and said calmly: “Return to the mansion and call for the medicine master.”

On the palace wall, Cui An’s hat was knocked off by Yu Huanchen’s sword.

His slightly curly hair, different from that of Han people, fell, adding a touch of sinister gloom to his fair face.

Cui An was, after all, a eunuch. Without the Empress backing him, his authority was illegitimate. The few dozen Imperial Guards under him had all lost heart, with only a few close followers still stubbornly resisting.

Yu Huanchen pointed his sword at Cui An and said in a deep voice: “The seven tribes of the Northern Desert have long been destroyed. Why do you still stir up trouble?”

“If you had personally watched your father cut down from his horse if you had changed from the promising son of a general to a eunuch slave of the guards, would you advise yourself the same way?”

The night was as dark as ink. Cui An slowly tidied his disheveled hair. “General Yu made his name by killing my father and my people. Now his son comes to question me ‘why’… What noble character indeed.”

Yu Huanchen frowned: “My father was merely following orders to march north at that time. If you hadn’t used beautiful women to poison the late Emperor, how would you have brought such disaster upon your tribe?”

“Cause and effect, so I seek revenge for my people. What’s wrong with that?”

Cui An’s face, which usually wore a smile, finally showed some bitterness. “In last autumn’s northern expedition, your Yu family should have died in the northern frontier.”

The Emperor, without even having time to comb his hair, rushed to Xuande Gate under the escort of Ning Zizhuo and Yu Xinyi, just in time to hear Cui An’s words.

“Rebels! All rebels!”

The Emperor widened his cloudy eyes, coughing repeatedly in anger.

His trusted attendant turned out to be the remnant of an enemy general who had infiltrated the palace!

If he hadn’t seen and heard it himself, he would probably still be kept in the dark!

Cui An narrowed his eyes.

He finally understood that Yu Huanchen had deliberately delayed time to extract information, allowing the Emperor to understand who the real “traitor collaborating with external enemies” was.

“Defeated by your hand, I have no regrets.”

Cui An raised both hands and stepped back until his back touched the carved railing of the palace wall, then stepped up.

Before Yu Huanchen could stop him, Cui An had already leaped backward off the tower.

He quickly adjusted his body to climb onto the crisscrossing lantern ropes, using the rope’s tension to buffer his fall, rolling to the ground. He then killed two Imperial Guards who hadn’t had time to react and was immediately taken away by accomplices who had been waiting, using the cover of night to blend into the scattering crowd.

Yu Huanchen slapped the railing heavily, his brows tightly knit.

Yu Xinyi had Ning Zizhuo settle the Emperor, then stepped forward and said: “We’ve already sent people after him; he won’t escape.”

Yu Huanchen wasn’t thinking about this matter; even if he didn’t act, Prince Jing’s people would never let Cui An go.

He just hadn’t expected that from such an early time, Cui An had already been implementing his revenge plan.

If he hadn’t fallen seriously ill by coincidence last year and missed the northern expedition, he didn’t know what would have awaited the Yu family.

……

Ning Yin’s people moved quickly. By the time they returned to Prince Jing’s mansion, the medicine master with half his face disfigured was already waiting in the courtyard.

Prince Jing’s mansion had no brightly colored lanterns; the only bright colors were the pairs of floor-standing flower branch candlesticks crisscrossing in the hall.

The medicine master had come prepared. After taking Ning Yin’s pulse and examining his symptoms, he said lazily: “Though this poison is fierce, because of Your Highness’s special constitution and minimal inhalation, it’s not yet life-threatening.”

The medicine master took out two black pills and handed them to Ning Yin.

One look and you could tell these pills would be bitter. Yu Lingxi was about to pour water to help him take them, but she saw Ning Yin pick up the two pills, put them in his mouth, and chew them thoroughly before swallowing.

The pills, bitter enough to make one’s tongue numb, he seemed to enjoy as if savoring some delicacy or candy.

About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea after taking the pills, Ning Yin raised his hand to his lips and, without changing expression, coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. His nose also seeped a thread of bright red.

Yu Lingxi’s breath caught: “Why are you still coughing blood?”

“Don’t fear, young lady. It’s good for the poisoned blood to come out.”

The medicine master wrote a prescription and handed it to Ning Yin, saying, “Two doses daily for seven days. After tonight, I’ll be leaving the capital to wander the four seas. I hope Your Highness takes care; even a body immune to a hundred poisons cannot withstand such strain.”

Having said this, he didn’t linger but picked up his medicine box and took his leave with clasped hands.

The attendant took the prescription and went to decoct the medicine, leaving only Yu Lingxi’s short, suppressed breathing in the hall.

“Why cry?”

Ning Yin took Yu Lingxi into his arms, raising his hand to wipe away her tears, and said in a low voice, “With just this one precious Suisui, if you were to cry yourself sick, even if I died ten thousand times, it wouldn’t be worth it.”

Yu Lingxi had held back all the way, but when she saw the fresh blood on Ning Yin’s lips, her tears flowed uncontrollably.

She raised her sleeve to wipe his lips and said hoarsely: “But, I also have only one precious Ning Yin.”

Ning Yin looked at her silently.

The candlelight before him shone brilliantly, and the damaged place in his heart was slowly healing, filling with warm, flowing heat.

He smiled, and that smile, against the blood suffusing his thin lips, appeared particularly enchanting and wild.

“You know, Suisui.”

Ning Yin lightly touched his forehead to the flower mark on Yu Lingxi’s brow, nose tip to nose tip with her, and said softly as if to himself, “I am very happy tonight.”

In his lingering voice, there was a morbid satisfaction, as if he had finally obtained a rare treasure after torturous self-abuse.

Yu Lingxi had a thousand words stuck in her throat but finally softened her body.

Fortunately, after taking the pills, Ning Yin truly stopped bleeding from his nose.

He removed his clothes and soaked in the steaming bath pool, his complexion gradually gaining some of the color of a living person.

After a moment, he stood up with a splash, water droplets sliding down his cold white, graceful body as he strode boldly across the wet floor to the shore.

Yu Lingxi had originally removed her shoes and socks and was reclining on the couch when she suddenly encountered the full view of his slender-waisted, long-legged, solid form, causing her heart to jump.

She instinctively turned her face away and said with pursed lips: “Did you know the Empress was going to harm you?”

Ning Yin casually grabbed a black outer robe to wrap himself, sat down opposite Yu Lingxi, and said: “To catch a big fish, one naturally must use oneself as bait.”

Seeing her furrowed brows, Ning Yin laughed unconcernedly, “I won’t die anyway.”

“If you won’t die, does that mean no one will worry about you?”

Yu Lingxi glared at him, saying with lingering fear, “Since you were prepared, why didn’t you act sooner? You could have acted sooner.”

Ning Yin’s black hair fell loose, and the thin black robe made his face unusually pale.

He leaned against the chair back, thought for a moment, and said: “Because I wanted Suisui to worry about me.”

He had thought at the time: Lingxi’s heart was so soft, perhaps if he appeared pitiful enough, she would never bear to leave him.

But seeing Yu Lingxi so worried that she shed tears, seeing her thrust the dagger in her hand unhesitatingly toward the enemy…

In the end, he was the one who worried.

“Just for this?” Yu Lingxi couldn’t believe it.

Ning Yin said nothing, reaching out to pull her.

But Yu Lingxi avoided his hand, staring at him for a long while, then enunciated again: “You gambled with your life, just for this?”

She was a little angry; she didn’t like Ning Yin’s disregard and neglect of his body.

Probably seeing her annoyance, Ning Yin’s expression grew quiet.

Water dripped from the edge of the pool into the bath, making a pinging sound, opening rings of faint ripples.

After a long time, so long that Yu Lingxi thought Ning Yin wouldn’t explain, his pale thin lips slightly parted: “That woman hated me. On the day she escaped from the palace…”

He said only one sentence, then closed his lips tightly.

Yu Lingxi was stunned for a moment before understanding that the “woman” Ning Yin referred to was probably his mother.

This was the deepest secret buried in Ning Yin’s heart. In her previous life, he would rather erase everything related to Concubine Li than mention even a bit of it.

Yu Lingxi intuitively felt that all of Ning Yin’s obsessions and pain were related to this sharp secret.

The slight irritation in her heart dispersed like smoke blown by the wind, leaving only faint bewilderment and confusion.

She sat on the couch looking at Ning Yin for a long time, seeing that he had no intention of speaking again, and asked in a muffled voice: “May I lean against you?”

Ning Yin looked at her, his tightly pressed lips curving upward, and he bent his finger to tap his knee.

So Yu Lingxi got up, holding her light lavender-colored jacket and skirt, and sat on Ning Yin’s leg, resting her head on his shoulder.

Ning Yin didn’t say anything, lowering his head to nuzzle her temple with his nose tip, closing his arms in an embrace.

Yu Lingxi allowed him to bury his face in the hollow of her neck, knowing that at this moment, it was this little madman who had gambled with his life that truly needed support.

“I was sickly from childhood, so my mother devoted all her energy to caring for me, teaching me to speak and read, making clothes for me, and combing my hair.”

Yu Lingxi rambled on, smiling, “She was, in my eyes, the most gentle and considerate mother.”

“Is that so?”

Ning Yin’s deep voice came from beside her ear, “When I was born, that woman didn’t look at me once, because I had the blood of her husband’s murderer flowing in my body.”

Yu Lingxi pressed her face closer, her voice dropping lower: “My nickname was also obtained by my mother from Ci’an Temple; she hoped that I would be safe and sound year after year.”

“My nickname, well, I had one too.”

Ning Yin laughed lightly, “Little beast, bastard… but most of the time, she disdained to call me anything.”

Yu Lingxi wrapped her arms around his waist, unable to continue.

Perhaps because he had started, or perhaps because the soft warmth in his arms was too comforting, Ning Yin continued on his own.

“That woman prided herself on her noble character, yet was weak and timid. She was unwilling to compromise but lacked the courage to die, so she lived in great pain…”

Ning Yin’s voice was gentle and calm as if he were telling someone else’s story.

He said that woman had been forcibly taken by her enemy, who somehow managed to change her identity and enter the palace, but was tortured until she developed hysteria. She often sat in a daze, cried in pain, and gradually, even her enemy lost interest in her.

Having a mad concubine was an embarrassing thing, especially since the woman driven mad was his former sister-in-law. Fearing his image as wise and mighty would be tarnished, her enemy simply sealed off the woman along with her palace, forbidding anyone to enter or leave.

In the Cold Palace, Concubine Li’s only pleasure was tormenting her son.

It seemed that only by inflicting pain on her son could she gain temporary relief.

Days passed into years, and gradually even the Emperor forgot the existence of this son.

Until one deep night, two eunuchs from Kunning Palace were disposing of bodies in a dried-up well outside the Cold Palace. Just as they were burning the evidence, they were discovered by Concubine Li on the other side of the wall.

The dead were all palace maids who had served the Empress during her childbirth and were killed to silence them on the eve of their scheduled departure from the palace.

Beside the dried well was half a page of the Imperial Physician’s medical records that had not been completely burned. Thus, Concubine Li learned a shocking secret—a secret big enough to bring down the Empress, but also big enough to bring fatal disaster upon herself.

“When she took you out of the palace that year, was it to escape danger?”

Yu Lingxi’s voice was tense.

“Yes, and no.”

Ning Yin had one arm around Yu Lingxi and one hand supporting his head, saying slowly, “She did want to escape the palace, but she had no intention of taking me along. I’ve said it before—she hated the filthy blood of that man flowing in me.”

Yu Lingxi remained silent.

“Her former husband’s old subordinates had contacted her with great difficulty, saying they would help her escape the palace, escape far away. She was overjoyed and personally cooked a sweet soup for me—the first time in her life she made soup for me. She said she would be good to me forever, coaxing me to drink the soup and go to sleep quickly.”

Ning Yin half-closed his eyes and laughed, “There was medicine in that soup—it was Nine Abyss Incense, the same kind that Lingxi once sought in Desire Realm.”

Yu Lingxi’s heart suddenly jumped; this was the first deception Ning Yin had experienced.

“But she hadn’t anticipated that from a young age, I had been forced and tricked into taking many poisons, making my constitution different from others. The medicinal soup didn’t have much effect on me, and I hazily woke up late at night. Her plan was disrupted, so she had to take me with her.”

At this point, Ning Yin laughed.

That laugh was somewhat cold and low; it was hard to tell if it was sympathy or mockery.

“She was too foolish. How could a mad woman imprisoned in the Cold Palace for years be worth the risk of others coming to save her? We barely escaped to a ruined temple outside the palace, but waiting there were the Empress and Imperial Guards who had come to ‘catch adultery.'”

Ning Yin’s pitch-black eyes grew cold, and he sneered, “Lingxi already knows what happened next.”

All of this was merely a trap set by the Empress, who had bribed Concubine Li’s old subordinates to eliminate her openly and legitimately.

The dilapidated small temple, the pitying, mottled stone Buddha—the night was so dark, so cold, and no one came to save them.

Empress Feng couldn’t have children, but she delighted in destroying others’ maternal instincts.

She threw a dagger down in front of the mother and son, forcing her to make a choice.

“That woman didn’t know that the old subordinates she had placed her hopes in had long been bribed by the Empress and had betrayed her. She thought freedom was just within reach.”

Ning Yin said with an ambiguous smile, “She looked at me and cried, saying ‘I’m sorry.'”

“Ning Yin…”

Yu Lingxi’s heart stabbed with pain; she couldn’t bear to hear the rest.

“When the dagger first pierced me, I heard a squelching sound, then intense pain, a thousand times more painful than any whipping I had ever received.”

Ning Yin recalled, using the calmest tone to narrate the cruelest scene, “When too much blood flowed, gradually I couldn’t feel the pain anymore, only darkness and cold.”

“Don’t say anymore…”

“That woman was truly foolish enough; she knew such a big secret, how could the Empress possibly spare her? Perhaps thanks to the Nine Abyss Incense, or perhaps because that woman’s hand shook too much to stab accurately when I woke up, I was still lying in the ruined temple. That woman lay beside me, her body violently convulsing from the Qianji poison, blood flowing from all seven apertures.”

Qianji poison…

Yu Lingxi had heard of it. Those who took this poison wouldn’t die immediately but would struggle in extreme agony for a day and a night before dying in contortions, their appearance completely changed.

Ning Yin said Concubine Li’s beautiful face and body were twisting, but her bloodshot eyes stared at him without blinking.

She was begging Ning Yin to give her a quick death.

So, the boy, covered in blood, cried as he plunged the dagger into her convulsing body.

She finally quieted down, her purple-red lips trembling as they parted, saying brokenly: “Thank… sor…”

A tear slid from the corner of her eye into her temple hair, and no one knew for whom that tear was shed.

“The first time I killed someone, I don’t remember what it felt like anymore. I only know that fresh blood splashed into my eyes, and the sky and bright moon were all dyed a beautiful bright red…”

“Stop!”

Yu Lingxi embraced Ning Yin and said in a trembling voice, “Stop, Ning Yin.”

Ning Yin stroked Yu Lingxi’s hair, then took her hand and, through his open collar, placed it on his left chest.

“This place was wounded.”

His black eyes were profound as he guided Yu Lingxi’s hand to touch the narrow scar on his chest. “That woman said, no one would ever love me.”

Such a thing as “love” was too intangible, so for Ning Yin, it was enough that Yu Lingxi stayed by his side forever.

This was his way of loving.

“Are you a fool? Are you a fool!”

Yu Lingxi’s eyes stung as she opened her beautiful, glistening eyes and said, “What are you trying to prove? Can’t you feel my feelings for you?”

Ning Yin lowered his head and silently held her tight.

He had felt it long ago; it was very warm.

After all, no one else would foolishly hold a dagger to “protect” him as she had.

Feeling the strength of Ning Yin’s embrace, Yu Lingxi pressed her lips together, held his handsome face in both hands, and gazed into his pink-colored eyes.

Then she bent down, her soft breath brushing past his Adam’s apple, past his collarbone, finally placing a gentle kiss on the scar over his heart.

Ning Yin’s relaxed body tensed slightly, and he narrowed his eyes: “Suisui, what are you doing?”

“Loving you.”

Through the mist and haze, the flower mark on the young woman’s forehead glowed like fire, her face more enchanting and alluring than all the lantern lights in the pool.

With her hands against his chest, she lightly but earnestly pressed her lips to each old wound, kissing the suffering and despair of his youth.

Ning Yin was visibly stunned.

Then, his dark eyes suffused with a smile, and his palm moved down from her waist, embracing her and lifting her slightly.

“Not enough.”

Ning Yin pinched her chin, “Love me more.”

Yu Lingxi blinked, then without hesitation kissed the tip of his nose, then moved downward, pressing her soft, fragrant lips against his thin ones.

Ning Yin’s eyes lowered, covering that deep, surging darkness.

He opened his mouth, allowing his beloved to tenderly have her way with him.