the truth

Xie Shangjia was called by Shen Yanhui's disciple to give acupuncture again. Shen Qianyue did not go with him, saying that she would prepare a table of food and wait for him to come back.

After everyone left, Shen Qianyue walked towards Pei Miaoyin's bamboo house alone.

The door of the bamboo house was ajar.

Shen Qianyue didn't knock on the door and walked in.

The room was filled with a bitter medicinal fragrance. Pei Miaoyin stood by the window, twisting a dried herb in her hand, observing it carefully in the morning light. When she heard the door open, she looked back.

"You're here."

Shen Qianyue stood at the door, facing the morning light, her figure looked particularly cool and upright, and her voice was without a trace of emotion.

"How long have you known about the cold poison? How much do you know?"

The usual delicate smile on Pei Miaoyin's face disappeared, replaced by an almost calm calmness, even... a hint of imperceptible fatigue. She gently placed the herbs in her hand on the bamboo table by the window.

"I knew you would come. About five months ago, Minister Xie came to see me and said he might have been poisoned by some strange thing. He felt unusually cold even though it was summer. I took his pulse and concluded it was a cold poison."

The chill emanating from Shen Qianyue's body almost froze the air.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Pei Miaoyin raised her head and smiled: "Sister Yue, you shouldn't ask me. Xie Shangjia used a wolfhound jade pendant worth a thousand gold in exchange for me keeping this secret. I am a businessman, you know."

Shen Qianyue asked, "What else did he use in exchange?"

Pei Miaoyin laughed out loud: "Sister Yue is really smart. To be honest, I am fed up with Xie Shangjia to this extent. If he hadn't run out of tricks, he wouldn't have come to me. He promised me ten thousand taels of gold."

Her tone was calm and calculating, typical of a businessman.

"I found the antidote, but it was so hot at the time that I couldn't transport it here. I discussed it with him and decided to wait until winter, as the herb couldn't withstand the heat. But I didn't expect him to have lost his memory."

Shen Qianyue's heart sank a little bit: "So, because he lost his memory, you don't plan to fulfill your promise?"

Pei Miaoyin was silent. She looked at the vibrant medicinal garden outside the window, her eyes a little vague.

"No, I want to wait until he recovers his memory before discussing the herbs. If he doesn't recover his memory, then it's fate. Just wait and see."

Shen Qianyue's voice was icy and penetrating: "The cold poison will become increasingly difficult to suppress over time. Are you planning to just drag it out like this without telling me?"

Pei Miaoyin turned her head and looked at Shen Qianyue again, her eyes were complicated and difficult to read, and her tone was strangely calm.

"The premise of the deal is that he's alive. If he dies, the deal will naturally end. But if I heal him and he denies it due to amnesia, wouldn't my ten thousand taels of gold be wasted?"

Shen Qianyue asked the question that had been accumulating in her heart for a long time: "Why do you have so much prejudice against him? Many years ago, you and I were not familiar with each other, but you know me very well and often show your kindness to me."

The bamboo house fell into a dead silence, which prolonged the confrontation between the two figures.

Without waiting for a reply, Shen Qianyue turned and left the bamboo house. The hem of her plain skirt brushed past the threshold and disappeared in the morning light.

Pei Miaoyin stood there, looking at the direction where Shen Qianyue disappeared, without moving for a long time. She slowly raised her hand, and her fingertips unconsciously knocked over the cup of cold tea on the bamboo table by the window.

The tea poured out and flowed on the smooth bamboo table. She looked at the puddle of water, and the forced calmness on her face finally collapsed completely, leaving only deep fatigue and a trace of... indescribable loneliness.

"Chen Qianyue, don't you really understand... When he came to me for treatment, I asked for ten thousand taels of gold, but when you came, I only asked for a few pieces of cloth..."

At this moment, the half-closed door of the bamboo house was suddenly pushed open.

Xie Shangjia's face was as pale as paper, and he had to hold on to the door frame to barely stand. He had obviously just come out from Shen Yanhui's place, and he had not yet recovered from the weakness after the acupuncture.

"Where's Qianyue? I heard from the herbalist that she came to your place."

Pei Miaoyin sneered: "What does it have to do with you whether she comes to me or not."

Xie Shangjia twitched his lips and said, "Let's go. I don't want to bother with you."

Pei Miaoyin shouted, "Stop!"

Xie Shangjia stopped and frowned: "If there is anything, we can talk about it next time when there are more people around. It's not good for a man and a woman to be alone in the same room."

Pei Miaoyin poured a cup of cold tea: "Don't you want to know why I treat you this way? Don't you want to know the complicated relationship between Qianyue and King Dingwu?"

Xie Shangjia turned around and forced himself to remain calm: "What nonsense are you talking about! What is the relationship between my uncle and Shen Qianyue?"

Pei Miaoyin stood up, pulled him in, and closed the bamboo door.

"You know, the world we exist in is just a biography, and I come from a higher world. Chen Qianyue was supposed to be the wife of Dingwu King Xie Zhiyun. They went through ten years of ups and downs and almost got married.

Because you are so popular, the author temporarily changed the male lead. You are just an intruder. Do you understand?

The reason you and I are so tired of each other is because when you got married, I deliberately instigated Shen Qianyue to run away and find Xie Zhiyun. She didn't leave, but you heard what I said, so you and I have a grudge. "

Xie Shangjia looked at the mad Pei Miaoyin, opened the bamboo door and walked out: "You are really inexplicable. A doctor cannot treat himself. Go see your master when you have time."

Pei Miaoyin laughed until tears came to her eyes.

After Xie Shangjia walked away, he began to lose strength, staggered and fell to the ground, his eyes went dark. He shouldn't have believed her words.

But many questions followed, all the things that I had ignored before. Ordinary women get married at the age of seventeen or eighteen, so why did Shen Qianyue marry me at the age of twenty-seven? What was she doing in those ten years?

And why was the booklet in the study recording her engagement torn off...

Pain came like a vine, the cold poison lost its suppression and was like an uncontrolled torrent. The severe pain made him stoop suddenly, and a mouthful of dark red, almost black poisonous blood splattered on the ground.

Xie Shangjia struggled to stand up, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, and walked slowly along the path towards the guest house where he lived.

There were herbs half a person's height all around, and no one would find him if he fell here. He couldn't die here. He wanted to ask Shen Qianyue. He would not listen to other people's instigation. He only believed in Shen Qianyue.

After Shen Qianyue returned to the guest house, she prepared a simple breakfast as agreed, and then sat at the door of the guest house waiting for him to come back.

Seeing his figure from afar, Shen Qianyue stood up to greet him. Usually, Xie Shangjia would rush towards her like a tired bird returning to its nest, but now he did not react and his steps were heavy. She hurried to meet him.

Xie Shangjia looked at Shen Qianyue who was rushing towards him, and tried his best to curl up a smile at the corner of his lips, and hugged her waist with his hands: "I'm back..."

Shen Qianyue was suddenly knocked down by the hand on her waist and fell on Xie Shangjia. Black blood began to flow out of his nostrils and the corners of his mouth.

"Thank you Shangjia!"

Xie Shangjia opened his eyes hard, trying to see her clearly: "What on earth are you..."

His voice was too soft to be heard clearly, and his consciousness quickly sank into endless darkness and coldness.

Shen Qianyue was completely panicked: "Someone come! Someone come quickly! Go and get the Valley Master!"

The leader of the guards pulled Xie Shangjia up with great force and carried him back to the soft couch in the guest house.

"Madam, please don't worry. Good luck will come to you."

Shen Qianyue looked at the dying Xie Shangjia and held his hand tightly. "It will be fine, it will be fine. He even said he would come back to try my cooking."

After about a cup of tea, hurried footsteps were heard outside, coming from far away and getting closer.

After Shen Yan returned to the house, she immediately gave him acupuncture and blocked all his meridians.

Xie Shangjia's consciousness floated in the boundless darkness and biting cold, and some images emerged in his mind uncontrollably.

At the Royal Stables, under the bright spring sunshine, the young girl Shen Qianyue, dressed in black riding clothes, rode her horse and waved the whip, smiling freely, and beside her was her uncle.

Xie Zhiyun was wearing a black suit, and his sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes showed the sharpness tempered by the battlefield. He looked at Shen Qianyue with admiration. The two of them were very close, and their hair was entangled in the wind.

At the palace banquet, the music was soft and the Shen family's eldest daughter, Shen Qianyue, who was highly regarded, sat at the table. Dingwu King Xie Zhiyun raised his glass and chatted with the king, and proposed that Shen Qianyue be sent to the border as a military advisor.

At the grand engagement banquet at Prince Dingwu's mansion, the two of them, wearing the same robes, walked among the guests, while he was just a spectator...

The immense grief engulfed him like a tsunami, and the cold poison was like millions of ice needles piercing his bone marrow crazily, causing him to scream in pain.

However, another picture, with a faint but extremely clear warmth, stubbornly penetrated the boundless cold.

The bright red dragon and phoenix wedding candles crackled as he lifted the bride's veil. Shen Qianyue's stunningly beautiful face, illuminated by the candlelight, was more beautiful than an ordinary person. The corners of her lips curved upwards with a hint of shyness in her smile.

Immediately afterwards, more fragmented but real images came in.

The sweetness of marriage, the invisible tacit understanding between the two, and the gradually warming relationship...

“Cold… so cold…”

Xie Shangjia, who was in a coma, whimpered in extreme pain, and his body twitched violently. More dark poisonous blood flowed out from the corners of his mouth, staining the pillow.

Shen Yanhui's golden needle was as fast as the wind and pierced several vital points again. Fine beads of sweat had already seeped out of his forehead.

"Hold him down!"

Xie Shangjia's body was like a broken container, and every violent fluctuation of his emotions accelerated the degree of shattering.

Shen Qianyue's complexion was not much better than Xie Shangjia's. Her eyes were bloodshot and her lips were tightly pursed into a pale straight line.

Her body reacted faster than her mind, and she practically threw herself to the edge of the couch, holding down his arm, which was convulsing in pain, and using all her strength to prevent him from hurting himself.

When Xie Shangjia stopped twitching, Shen Qianyue grabbed a clean cloth, dipped it in water, and, ignoring the fishy and smelly poisonous blood, wiped the filth that kept flowing out of the corners of his mouth.

"Xie Shangjia, hold on!"

Shen Qianyue's voice was hoarse, filled with undisguised panic.

"I won't let you die. You haven't even eaten the food I cooked for you since you lost your memory. Li'er is waiting for you at home, and my second brother has gone looking for medicine. You have to hold on, do you hear me?"

When her fingertips were wiping his cheek, they accidentally touched a drop of hot liquid, which was a tear sliding down the corner of his eye.