Immunity card

The pardon could only be used once. Master Sun gave it to Wu Qi. Wu Qi thought that since Master Sun could give her this token, she should also be able to use it on Zhou Liuhu.

Apart from Yi Shen, everyone looked at Wu Qi in surprise.

They never expected that Wu Qi would have a get-out-of-jail-free card, let alone that she would use it on Zhou Liuhu.

Wu Qi met everyone's gaze, tilted his head and smiled, and asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Her carefree and nonchalant attitude towards the pardon left Lin Kuo feeling utterly helpless. He even began to doubt whether Wu Qi had any idea how rare and useful the pardon was!

This could save a life!!

Lin Kuo chuckled at Li Xi, then pulled Wu Qi and Song Yinxing to a corner. He pinched Song Yinxing's index finger and poked Wu Qi's head, saying gently, "Xiao Qi, I know you want to save Miss Zhou, but you don't necessarily have to use the get-out-of-jail-free card. We can think of other ways, right?"

After saying that, he glanced at Song Yinxing, hoping that she could also persuade Wu Qi, but Song Yinxing took the opportunity to poke his forehead with her index finger and said, "There won't be any other way."

Wu Qi agreed, "Hmm, there really isn't any other way."

Wei Si orchestrated such a grand scheme, going so far as to grab Zhou Liuhu's waist and cause him to vomit blood, not to kill Zhou Liuhu, but to make Wu Qi use his immunity token.

He knew that Wu Qi would definitely save Zhou Liuhu, so he devised a plan that would force Zhou Liuhu to die, leaving Wu Qi with no choice but to grant him a death-exemption token.

Wu Qi must find a solution to this puzzle.

If this is not understood, Zhou Liu will surely die.

Lin Kuo said, "Since he wants you to use it, then you absolutely mustn't! If you do, you'll fall into his trap!"

Wu Qi said, "Since he wants me to use it, then I have to use it. Otherwise, there will be another Zhou Liuhu. Since there will be a continuous stream of Zhou Liuhu, I might as well save the first Zhou Liuhu."

It's obvious that Wei Si is after her, or rather, Wei Si will do everything in his power to kill her, even though she doesn't know why Wei Si wants to harm her...

But are such random, unprovoked events rare in the world?

Furthermore, Wu Qi wouldn't let Wei Si off the hook. How could she know Wei Si's next move if she didn't hand over the pardon? And how could she kill him and avenge the old man and Pianpian if she didn't know his next move?

She had promised Pianpian that she would do everything in her power to protect her...

Lin Kuo continued, "That's how things are, but you can't say it like that. Xiao Qi, think about it. What does the 'immunity token' mean? It means you have an extra life. Even if you stab Wei Si to death with one sword, with the 'immunity token,' you can still live! But if you don't have the 'immunity token,' if you make even the slightest mistake, you might..."

Realizing that what he was about to say might be inappropriate, he swallowed his words, which were already on the tip of his tongue, and instead said tactfully, "You understand, right..."

Wu Qi nodded, and just as Lin Kuo was feeling gratified, thinking that his persuasion had been effective, Wu Qi said, "Brother Lian Shi, that's true, but that's not how things are! Think about it, Wei Si is Princess Pingyi's son and the current emperor's nephew. His father is the invincible General Wei! If I really stabbed him to death, our aristocratic family would be completely ruined!"

"Who said General Wei was invincible... No, who said our aristocratic family is finished!" Lin Kuo didn't even know what he was saying, and started rambling incoherently in anger.

Song Yinxing took Lin Kuo's hand, looked up at him, smiled, and asked, "Should we call Brother Weichong over to help you persuade Xiao Qi?"

What she meant was that she supported Wu Qi and wouldn't try to persuade him otherwise. Lin Kuo sighed and said, "Even if Wei Chong came, he might not be able to persuade him, and even if he did, he might not succeed."

Wu Qi was overjoyed and said, "So, I'm going to use my get-out-of-jail-free card!"

Seeing that persuasion failed, Lin Kuo had no choice but to compromise. He sighed and said, "Use it, use it. We'll deal with whatever happens later. If all else fails, we can always run away. We can run to the ends of the earth. Do you really think they can kill us?"

“That’s true,” Wu Qi said.

The world is vast, so if all else fails, I can just run away.

Wu Qizhen decided to use her get-out-of-jail-free card. She returned to Li Xi and Yi Shen's side, and in front of everyone, she tiptoed and hugged Yi Shen, whispering, "The Master really guessed right."

Master Sun once said to Yi Shen, "No matter whose life Xiao Qi saves with the death-exemption token, as long as Xiao Qi uses it willingly, then the death-exemption token is worth using." Moreover, Master Sun also said, "As for who she uses the death-exemption token on, I can't control that."

The Master at that time probably already anticipated that Wu Qi would use the pardon on someone else; otherwise, why would he have said such a thing?

Yi Shen put his arm around her waist, helping her stand properly on the ground, and asked, "Have you made up your mind?"

Wu Qi said, "Alright! Use it!"

She entered the palace alone and was led to the inner hall. There, before the Emperor, she revealed her imperial pardon. The Emperor accepted the pardon but didn't even glance at it, casually placing it on a pile of scrap paper. Wu Qi, however, thought of Master Sun and glanced at the pardon. Unfortunately, she saw two words on the scrap paper—"My Beloved."

The words at the end were buried in the folds and she couldn't see them very clearly, but the words "My Love" were also written on another crumpled piece of paper.

While waiting for wontons at a wonton shop, Wu Qi overheard people talking about the Emperor. Because the person they were talking about was so unusual, the person only dared to point to the sky quietly and say, "He has married another wife."

The man who was discussing this with him, whether out of envy or disgust, said with some displeasure, "He has to marry every daughter of a powerful and influential father in the world."

Once Wu Qi realized that the person they were talking about was the Emperor, she lost interest in listening. She waited for the wontons and for Yi Shen to arrive, but the next sentence he said made her frown.

The man scoffed, "If I marry so many, will I have enough for the night?"

These words were extremely explicit, but Wu Qi frowned not because of their explicitness, but because she felt they were inappropriate and disrespectful to the women the Emperor had married. If names were mentioned, would those men dare to speak out? Of course not, not even their fathers would dare.

They knew all along that the women's fathers were powerful officials, and that their lives would end in the blink of an eye. But even so, they still said a few words to the women, as if their words would make them determined to marry them.

Besides, love between men and women is a natural human emotion. Why only look at women from a man's perspective? Why not consider things from a woman's perspective and ask, "Is this man suitable? Won't the night be too long?"

Wu Qi grew angrier the more he thought about it, and just as he was about to speak, he heard another person say, "One of my aunts is a wet nurse in a high-ranking official's household. She said," the person pointed to the sky, "that person never touches anyone in the harem, nor does she ever step into the harem!"

One man exclaimed, "Really? Those are top-tier beauties!"

After a moment, the men laughed gleefully, "So it doesn't work out after all. What a pity for those beauties, they'll be living like widows. If you ask me, they'd be better off marrying you or me, then they could enjoy themselves at night..."

Hearing this, Wu Qi was extremely unwilling to listen. He slammed his hand on the table and laughed at the men, "Toads that want to eat swan meat will all die. Do you know how toads die?"

The men didn't know why Wu Qi was talking to them, but when they saw Wu Qi's face, they all sat up straight. One of them asked with a smile, "How did you die?"

Wu Qi smiled and said, "Dying from dreaming."

After saying that, without caring about the men's expressions, she loudly said to the wonton shop owner, "Boss, aside from these toads, the rest is on me."

The men's expressions changed several times before they finally slammed their fists on the table and stood up, glaring angrily at Wu Qi. Wu Qi, resting his chin on his hand, lazily looked back and said, "Did I hit the nail on the head, or are you just broke?"

After hearing this, the men became even angrier, but were stopped by the women at the wonton shop. "This lady paid for our meal. You may not have money for food, but we can certainly eat our fill."

The two sides ended up arguing, but instead of fighting, they just cursed at each other.

That day was too chaotic. Wu Qi only remembered two things: first, she didn't have enough money, and it was the maid who brought her money that saved her; Yi Shen also came. Second, the women in the wonton shop were so kind! All the women who helped her were women!

After that day, the image of the Emperor in Wu Qi's mind was that of a man who was not interested in women, decisive in killing, scheming in secret, and self-disciplined. But who knew that this man actually had a pair of fox eyes. A few days ago, he was holding a flawed white jade plate, and today he wrote many drafts for his beloved, just to write a satisfactory letter.

"Yaoling, are you sure you want to use the pardon on that Miss Zhou?" the Emperor asked.

Wu Qi said, "Confirmed."

After a moment, he said, "Alright, let's go pick up that Miss Zhou."

When Zhou Liuhu was taken inside, she was still a little confused. The prison was gloomy and she didn't want to make friends there, so she simply sat on the ground and thought through the whole story.

She gritted her teeth and said, "Wei Si, you're using me to kill me?!"

But then she thought about it again and realized that wasn't right.

She was just an ordinary citizen from Pingwu City, and she had to carefully budget even when going to Langyue Tower for a meal. She had never offended Wei Si, so why did Wei Si insist on killing her?

Before Zhou Liuhu could figure it out, she was taken away. Unaware that Wu Qi had already rescued her, she thought they were taking her to be beheaded. Struggling, she tried to reason with them, saying, "It can't be that fast! I just got in and I'm going to die?!"

The man glanced at her but didn't say anything.

Zhou Liuhu panicked even more, feeling that there was no such thing as fast or slow; if the Emperor wanted to kill her, it would only be a matter of a single word. She hung her head, thinking, "Is the blade dull? I've heard that a dull blade hurts quite a bit. Wait, am I being beheaded?"

As she stepped out the door, she was greeted by a bright light.

The light came suddenly, making her blink uncomfortably. Then, the two men released her. She looked back in confusion and saw that they had returned the way they came, leaving her alone there.

She asked, "What's going on?"

As soon as she turned around, she saw Wu Qi standing in the morning sun, wearing the same dress as yesterday, and even her hairband and flowers were still the same. Her smiling eyes were full of the light of dawn, a light that would never fade.

Dawn, dresses, flowers, hairbands, smiling eyes, and light.

She stood there, bringing only good things with her.