Chapter 539 Death

As night deepened, the rain washed over the entire land, carrying away countless grime and dirt.

Shen Wantang, dressed in a coarse cloth shirt, wearing waterproof leather boots and a raincoat, walked alone in the pitch-black night.

After walking for a while, she stopped in front of an old rosewood door.

Looking at the door, she took a deep breath and slowly pushed it open.

She didn't know where Gu Qianhan had escaped to, so she could only try her luck here. There were Imperial Guards everywhere outside, so he definitely couldn't leave the city. This was probably the only place he could hide.

In his previous life, he had hidden here with his nephews and nieces.

Shen Wantang stepped over the threshold, closed the door again, and then entered the courtyard.

In the dim moonlight, a figure leaned against a tree. Hearing the noise, he spoke in a hoarse voice, "Ah Tang, is that you?"

Shen Wantang felt a pang of pain in her heart and quickly walked over. When she saw his appearance, she gasped.

He was covered in blood, with arrows stuck in his shoulder and a broken sword embedded in his leg. His face was pale and bluish, with faint purple veins visible.

This is a sign of being poisoned.

Shen Wantang immediately touched his wrist to take his pulse.

"No need for a doctor, I won't survive."

Shen Wantang had already finished examining him. It wasn't that her medical skills were particularly outstanding, but rather that his pulse was extremely weak, clearly indicating that he was nearing the end of his life.

Her voice was extremely hoarse: "The poison has already invaded your heart meridian, and the antidote cannot cure it."

“I know that the Crown Prince used the most potent poison on me. Even if it didn’t penetrate my heart, there is no cure. Before you came, I was already in unbearable pain.”

Gu Qianhan used all her strength to raise her hand and gently stroked Shen Wantang's face: "You shouldn't have come."

Shen Wantang covered his hand with her own. His once warm and dry hand was now ice-cold, so cold that Shen Wantang's heart trembled.

But her voice remained relatively calm, because what she saw before her was the ending that both she and he had anticipated: "Besides the antidote, I also brought you poison that will relieve your pain. Do you want to take it?"

"Eat, you feed me."

Shen Wantang lowered her head and reached into her bosom for the medicine bottle.

Her hands were trembling uncontrollably.

In her previous life, when she fed Gu Qianhan the same medicine, her hand holding the medicine didn't tremble at all. She didn't feel heartache or hesitate then.

And now, before she has even fed him, her heart is already aching unbearably.

She took out the medicine, but hesitated to feed it to Gu Qianhan.

Gu Qianhan chuckled softly: "What's wrong? Why aren't you feeding me? Are you a little reluctant to part with me?"

Shen Wantang raised her head and asked, "The Crown Prince knew about your plan all along, didn't he? Who betrayed you?"

Gu Qianhan was taken aback, then said, "This is my business. You don't need to know, and you shouldn't get involved. The less you know, the better it is for you. After I die, you should live well and pretend that I and the Gu family never existed."

After a long silence, Shen Wantang said with difficulty, "Okay, I understand."

After she finished speaking, she opened the medicine bottle, poured out the pills, lifted Gu Qianhan's face, and fed the pills into his mouth.

A smile returned to Gu Qianhan's face: "Thank you."

Shen Wantang knelt in the rain, listening to his breathing gradually cease, tears streaming down her face.

She no longer had the courage of her previous life, and dared not look at his dead face as she had in her previous life.

Twice now, he died in front of her both times.

But why does my heart ache so much this time?

She once naively believed that her rebirth was due to divine mercy, but now she realizes that it wasn't!

Rebirth is merely a punishment for her to experience pain and sorrow she has never felt before; it is not a reward!

The ending remained unchanged; he still died!

Next, it's her turn, isn't it?

She cried for an unknown amount of time before finally standing up and walking out of the courtyard.

Rain lashed her face, but she felt numb and oblivious. She returned to the palace in a daze, where the maids were in a panic. Dujuan hurriedly changed her clothes, while Qinxin rushed to prepare medicine for her.

Shen Wantang's blurred vision gradually cleared, and she looked at Du Juan standing beside her.

At least, Dujuan isn't dead yet.

Of all the people who died in her past life, only Du Juan was saved by her in this life.

Seeing Du Juan's worried eyes, she reassured her, "I'm fine, I'm just feeling a little unwell. I should be fine after a nap. Remember to wake me up to take my medicine."

"Yes, don't worry, I will remember."

After listening, Shen Wantang went into the inner room and lay down on the bed.

Her consciousness began to blur, and she heard some sounds around her, but she couldn't wake up no matter what she did.

She felt very cold, and her bones started to ache. In her hazy state, she felt that she might have developed a high fever.

In the end, she still couldn't shake off the cold.

She didn't know how long she had slept, but she felt that the coldness and pain in her body seemed to have dissipated a bit.

Someone seemed to be feeding her medicine, and she thought it was Du Juan, so she opened her mouth and drank it.

As she swallowed, a strange sense of familiarity suddenly welled up inside her.

Why does this medicinal smell seem so familiar?

It was definitely not the prescription she gave to Dujuan, but she felt as if she had drunk a similar medicine at some point.

A sharp pain shot through her stomach, and Shen Wantang abruptly opened her eyes.

She remembered!

This is the taste of the medicine for catching a cold that she drank before she died in her previous life!

"Oh, you're awake? A final burst of lucidity before death?"

It was another voice, both strange and familiar. Like the taste of the medicine, the memory was hazy, and Shen Wantang couldn't recall the owner of the voice for a moment.

When she looked out the window and saw the man's face, her pupils suddenly contracted.

It was actually the Seventh Princess!

The seventh princess who forced Liao Youhe to divorce his wife and marry her in his previous life!

"Looks like I didn't give you enough medicine this time. You're still awake. Last time I gave you enough, and you were poisoned to death without even waking up!"

Shen Wantang's eyes were icy cold. She looked at Xiao Yuerong and finally understood that she had not died of a cold in her previous life, but of poisoning!

She was careless; she hadn't expected that Xiao Yuerong had also been reborn.

What she didn't expect was that Xiao Yuerong came to kill her again.

In her previous life, she had met Xiao Yuerong a few times. Although she was always put in a difficult position by Xiao Yuerong, Xiao Yuerong would become extremely obedient whenever Liao Youhe appeared.

Therefore, she never actually had a direct conflict with Xiao Yuerong, and she never took Xiao Yuerong to heart.

Because she knew perfectly well that Liao Youhe would never divorce her, much less marry Xiao Yuerong. Otherwise, his homosexuality would be exposed immediately, and his official position would be in jeopardy, since she would no longer be able to help him solve cases once they divorced.

When Xiao Yuerong saw Shen Wantang looking at her, she gave an innocent smile: "It's okay, it's good that you're awake, you must be in so much pain!"

"Who told you to steal the man I had my eye on in your past life? Oh, even though you didn't steal him in this life, I still can't stand the sight of you, so you might as well just die!"

"Oh, by the way, just so you know, I poisoned your maid too. See how good I am to you? I even made sure to bring you a companion to the underworld!"

Shen Wantang looked down at the ground and saw blood flowing from Du Juan's mouth and nose. She was lying there, no longer breathing.

"ha!"

Shen Wantang suddenly burst into a bitter laugh. It turned out that she hadn't managed to save a single one!

The next moment, she began to vomit large amounts of blood.

The excruciating pain spread from her stomach to her limbs and bones, causing her to spasm and convulse uncontrollably.

Before her consciousness faded into darkness, she heard Xiao Yurong laugh happily: "Great! You're dead again, so I can be with Youhe again! He promised me he'd be with me for all eternity!"