Hatred

Gu Yu shook her head. Her once amorous peach blossom eyes were now cold and piercing, and the crimson blood added a touch of brilliance to her pale face.

It seemed that this stunningly beautiful appearance was the most suitable for her. She opened her lips and silently said to Shen Changqing, "No, you lost."

She looked into the distance, where reinforcements were approaching, arriving amidst billowing dust.

Shen Changqing understood her lip movements, his pupils contracted, and the fingertips holding the bow trembled.

Gu Yu smiled as she walked down the city wall. If Shen Changqing had been more ruthless and had been more accurate with his shots, she might have actually been ambushed.

But this person may have had other intentions, wanting to torment her in every way possible before sending her to hell.

This saved her life once again.

Hey, Shen Changqing, you've lost again. You lost because you still have some soft spot for me. If I were you, I would definitely strike at the heart of my enemy with an arrow.

Gu Jin looked at his sister, who had somehow climbed up the city wall, and scolded her, "Ayu, it's one thing for you to act recklessly all the time, but now that there's a war, is this the time to act recklessly? Qiuju, take Miss back to the manor and keep her under house arrest. She can't go out until the war is over."

Chunyue held the medicine, her eyes filled with concern. "Miss, what happened? Let's apply some medicine first. It won't look good if it leaves a scar."

Qiuju supported Gu Yu, who was just recovering from a serious illness. She was still shaken by the arrow and her body began to tremble, her forehead covered in cold sweat.

Gu Yu thought to herself, "What a useless body. What's there to be afraid of? I've already survived."

Before leaving, she smiled at Gu Jin and said, "Brother, the Crown Prince and his men are about to launch a full-scale attack on the city gates. When I went up to the watchtower, I could vaguely see reinforcements. Father will arrive within two hours."

"Don't be afraid, brother, we've won." Gu Yu reached out and smoothed his furrowed brows.

I won.

An hour later, Gu Hanying, together with the newly appointed Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia military commander Liu Xuqi, led nearly 160,000 reinforcements and surrounded the Crown Prince and the remaining rebels.

Jing Zikun looked at Liu Xuqi and understood something.

Gu Hanying looked at the rebel army behind him and said loudly, "Those who surrender will not be punished for their crimes."

The defeat was inevitable, yet Jing Zikun laughed wildly, as if he had gone mad. "Father, why are you treating me like this? What did I do wrong during my seventeen years in Shengjing? I am the Crown Prince, do I want to rebel?"

He saw Liu Xuqi, and what else did he not understand? Only if Liu Xuqi feigned surrender would he dare to raise an army and march north.

Who could make Liu Xuqi act so ambivalently? Only the ailing Emperor Shengyuan.

"Hahahaha... Is it I who want to rebel? You're all plotting against me..." He glanced at Shen Changqing, who had closed his eyes and remained silent, "Changqing, even you are one of them..."

He knew Shen Changqing too well; that guilty and remorseful look was the expression of someone who had done something wrong.

So Shen Changqing knew about the mastermind behind it all along, but he remained silent, which also pushed him to take this step forward.

He's gambling, even with such a slim chance, he's willing to take the risk.

"Changqing, I trust you so much. If you tell me the truth, I might help you. Why don't you believe me?"

"Your Highness, I'm sorry."

Shen Changqing clenched his fists. His path ahead was already a bottomless abyss, and one wrong step would lead to certain death.

"Father, Father, what did I do wrong?" Jing Zikun stopped looking at him, looked up at the gray sky, and questioned loudly.

The ruler is Heaven, the father is Heaven, but if Heaven wants to destroy him, how can he survive?

He laughed loudly, and two lines of clear tears rolled down his cheeks.

Two soldiers tentatively captured Jing Zikun. The crown prince did not resist, but simply stopped talking.

Ordinary soldiers and civilians in the rebel army were dismissed and sent back to their original places, while the high-ranking generals and officers were to be punished and are now imprisoned in the imperial prison.

Shen Changqing was an important prisoner and was kept in solitary confinement in a cell.

Ironically, this wasn't his first time in prison.

He remained calm during his first imprisonment because his parents were still by his side, and even his seemingly devoted fiancée came to the prison, saying that she believed him.

He even ridiculously developed feelings for that person.

Things are different now. His father was convicted and beheaded at the Meridian Gate. His mother poisoned all the female relatives to protect him and also drank poison herself. The Zhuang family provided money and supplies for the Crown Prince's rebellion. As long as the Emperor wants to take action, the Zhuang family will not benefit.

He is now the principal offender in the rebellion, and if the Crown Prince still has a sliver of hope, he will surely die.

I'm finally going to die. It's so painful. Day and night I watch my loved ones being tortured in my nightmares, asking them when they will find the culprit. How can I not feel pain?

Unfortunately, there was no one left to avenge the Shen family.

How should we calculate the cause and effect between him and Gu Yu?

She harbored ulterior motives from the start, yet he couldn't kill her with his own hands. Just now, he had a chance, but a thought crossed his mind and he missed.

Death is a relief for him now; continuing to live in hatred is too painful.

The dark and damp dungeon was filled with the noisy cries of prisoners wailing and protesting their innocence.

The cold wind howled, and there was no sign of springtime here, only endless darkness.

Shen Changqing closed his eyes, leaned against the corner of the wall, and looked numb.

Whether one is hungry or cold is not important, whether one is glorious or not is not important, and it is a trivial matter if one's white clothes are covered in dust.

The copper lock on the cell fell, close to her ear. Someone was led by the jailer into this narrow, dark place, her small, delicate embroidered shoes landing lightly on the dry straw.

"Heh—" she chuckled softly, her voice, which was becoming his nightmare, rang out in front of him, "Shen Changqing, it's been a long time. This time I won, so you're going to die."

"...Why?" He moved his hand slightly, and the heavy shackles rattled, as did the shackles on his feet.

It was too ridiculous to sit there so pathetically, so Shen Changqing stood up. "Gu Yu, why?"

Why did they want to harm the Shen family? Why did they want to ruin him and cause his family to be destroyed?

Gu Yu deftly placed the poisoned wine on the tray on the ground, as if she were giving it to him as a handout. "You actually asked why? Hahaha, that's hilarious. I'd rather ask your father why."

"I'm not a good person, but what good are you, the Shen family? You've harmed so many people and done so many wicked things. When vengeful ghosts come knocking for revenge, do you even know who they are?"

“I don’t regret sending you to Bianjing back then, because I didn’t have the ability to kill you then. But now it’s different. You are doomed.”

The resentment in her eyes was so intense it was almost overflowing, and Shen Changqing frowned in confusion.

Gu Yu shook her head with a cold laugh and left. The jailer locked the cell door again. She took out some money, gave the jailer some silver, and told him to leave for a while.

How could Shen Changqing be completely innocent after what happened back then? Before Guan Yiyun died, he told him everything about his contact with the Shen family, proving that Shen Changqing was not innocent.

"This cup of poison is the best outcome for you. You are the main culprit. If you admit your guilt and hang yourself, you might be able to help your great-grandfather's family."

Shen Changqing picked up the glass of wine and sneered, "Aren't you afraid that the Emperor will blame you, or that your presumptuous actions will lead to such an easy end for the main culprit?"

He knew Gu Yu wouldn't have come alone.

“Of course I’m not afraid,” Gu Yu said. “The reason is simple: if you die, all the blame will fall on you, and the Emperor will spare the life of the deposed Crown Prince. Even tigers don’t eat their cubs, so the Emperor doesn’t want to kill the Crown Prince.”

“And…” Her eyes finally lit up with a smile when she looked at him, a smile like that of a seductive demon, “If you drink this glass of wine, I will tell you why I did it.”

Only the dead can know the secret.

Shen Changqing stared at the cup of poisoned wine for a long time. Was this the best outcome? Ha, perhaps. This outcome might save the life of the deposed crown prince, and he would ultimately feel guilty towards him.

"Alright, I'll drink it." Without hesitation, Shen Changqing downed the poisoned wine in one gulp.

She smiled. "Do you remember the Tang family case from the twenty-first year of the Shengyuan era? Tang Simiao, Fu Wanqing, Tang Xuanzhe, Tang Yuzhu, and... Tang Qingning."

"They all died because of this case."

Shen Changqing had just finished drinking the poisoned wine when his internal organs began to cramp, blood flowed from his seven orifices, and his vision turned blood red.

Her voice, filled with piercing hatred, stabbed into his eardrums like needles. He sneered, "Gu Yu, what does all this have to do with you? What do those five people have to do with you?"

“Because…” She reached out and pulled Shen Changqing closer through the gap in the railing. Drops of blood from his lips fell onto her sleeve.

“I am Tang Qingning.” Shen Changqing’s eyes widened, as if she had been frightened. “I am not Gu Yu, and I never will be Gu Yu.”

His eyes rolled upwards rapidly as a flood of memories rushed into his mind, reminding him of things he had long forgotten.

Seventeen-year-old Shen Changqing had just returned from a banquet when he heard that a poor scholar had come to the mansion. Because he was recommended by an official from the capital, the steward of the mansion let him in.

He had a shifty, rat-like appearance, and his eyes seemed to dart around as if he harbored ill intentions. Shen Changqing frowned as he accepted his poems and finally saw the man off.

He glanced disdainfully at Guan Yiyun's poems and essays, which were full of flattery, but he still accepted them and planned to give them to Shen Xiuwen when his father returned.

Several days later, Shen Changqing remembered this incident.

Shen Changqing knew that his father had served as the deputy examiner, so he would not participate in this imperial examination. The banquet and entertainment would proceed as usual.

Unexpectedly, when they arrived at Shen Xiuwen's study, they heard him roaring in anger. It turned out that his subordinate hadn't paid attention to the identity of the person selling the test questions and had sold them to someone of unsuitable status.

That person had been staying at the home of Tang Simiao, a censor in the Ministry of Personnel. If Tang Simiao got the exam questions, he would definitely make things difficult for him.

Shen Xiuwen was selling exam questions, and Shen Changqing knew about it, but he didn't care or get involved.

Shen Changqing heard the name of the person, which turned out to be the owner of the poem in his hand, Guan Yiyun.

He knocked on the door, then pushed it open and entered. He handed the poem to his father, explained the whole story, and concluded that the man was greedy for fame and fortune. He suggested that his father recruit the man for his own use.

As he had predicted, he promised Guan Yiyun fame and fortune, and Guan Yiyun easily switched sides, ending the matter of selling exam questions with the Tang family being punished.

So, is this how the cause and effect between him and Gu... Tang Qingning came about? Everything between them was fake, nothing was real except for their hatred.

He hated her, and she hated him.

He wasn't the only one suffering from hatred.

Shen Changqing collapsed to the ground, his consciousness growing increasingly blurred. In his hazy state, his mother came to pick him up. Finally, he was free from pain and had finally found release.

His raised hand slammed heavily to the ground.

Gu Yu frowned as she looked at her blood-stained sleeve. It was too dirty; the blood of her enemy was too filthy. A strange sense of irritation arose in her heart.

"Sister Ayu, you've finished the task, haven't you?" Fifth Prince Jing Zichen looked at her with a smile. "This was a task that Father Emperor originally assigned to me. I'm sorry to have troubled you to play the villain for me this time, Sister Ayu."

"It's alright. After all, we had a connection. If he really is going to the underworld, I will see him off."

Gu Yu lowered her eyes, a slight smile appearing on her usually calm face.

“Sister Ayu, let’s go back now. Your health hasn’t fully recovered yet, and staying in this prison for too long is really a bit eerie.”

Jing Zichen crossed his arms and rubbed his arms, as if trying to smooth out the goosebumps on his skin.

"Alright, go back now." Gu Yu looked at him and smiled faintly. "Your Highness, I still want to thank you no matter what."

"Hey, Sister Ayu, what nonsense are you talking about? No need to thank me. It's just to let you meet people, it's a small matter." He said with a simple smile, "I have to thank Sister Ayu for reminding me. I got a freebie without losing a single soldier or putting in any effort."

"It's not my achievement, it's Your Highness's own wisdom. Your Highness, could we perhaps discuss this matter elsewhere?"

Gu Yu saw through it but didn't say anything, just watched Jing Zichen continue to play the fool.

Since you're going to play dumb, then let her be the one to use you to do your dirty work.

"Alright, then I'll escort Sister Ayu back home, and while I'm at it, may I stop by your residence for a cup of tea?"

The two arrived at the Duke of England's mansion by carriage, and coincidentally, both Gu Hanying and Gu Jin were waiting there.

"Ayu, you're back."

Gu Hanying suppressed the joy in his voice and deliberately sat in the hall with a serious expression, waiting for her.

Gu Jin glanced at Jing Zichen standing beside him; his originally serious face was now even more gloomy.

"Duke of England, Admiral Gu, it's been a long time." Jing Zichen greeted them with a simple smile, as if he hadn't noticed anything.

"May I ask what brings Your Highness here today?"

Gu Hanying looked at him as if he were a pig trying to steal his cabbage, which was not friendly at all.

Jing Zichen felt a chill run down his spine under her gaze. "This..."

He glanced at Gu Yu, and seeing that he would be in trouble if he stayed any longer, he immediately made an excuse and left.

"...It's nothing, nothing at all. I just brought my sister Ayu back. I'm leaving now; I still have to report to my father."

After the others left, the two men's gazes, filled with considerable pressure, fell upon Gu Yu.

"I went to the imperial prison today and saw Shen Changqing," Gu Yu said calmly.

"Ayu, do you like His Highness the Fifth Prince?" Gu Jin asked.

"Huh? I don't like him." She knew that the two of them were mistaken. "I only have a friendly relationship with him, there is no romantic feeling between us."

Gu Hanying was just wondering if his family was about to produce an empress when Gu Yu's words brought him back to his senses.

"Okay, if you don't like it, that's fine." He smiled. "Ayu, your own feelings are more important. There's no need to wrong yourself for anything else. As for that kid Xu Qiu, if he makes you unhappy, then get a divorce. He's still not a big deal yet, so he wouldn't dare to hold a grudge."