Chapter 114 "This is the last time I'll do it for you..."

Inside the dungeon, the damp air was filled with the smell of decay. Water droplets seeping from the stone walls dripped onto the ground with a soft "plop," a sound that was both extremely faint and clearly audible, further emphasizing the silence of the dungeon.

When no one comes, the dungeon is always deathly quiet.

Suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps came from the end of the passageway, the steps were slightly heavy, as if carrying something heavy.

They're coming in his direction.

Xiao Che slowly opened his eyes.

The chains rattled, and the cell door was suddenly kicked open from the outside.

Xiao Jue appeared anxiously in the cell, carrying a person in his arms, completely wrapped in a cloak. Judging from the figure, it should be a woman, but her face was covered by a hood.

"Xiao Che, Jia Rou has had a relapse! You must help her!"

As soon as Xiao Jue finished speaking, the woman seemed to be unable to bear it any longer. Her slender neck arched back along his arm, and her hood slipped off, revealing her face completely.

Beautiful and charming, that is Yan Jiarou.

Her once snow-white cheeks were now flushed, her lips slightly parted, and she was breathing rapidly, as if she were extremely hot or extremely thirsty.

As if sensing his presence, she laboriously turned her head to look at him, her thick eyelashes trembling, her beautiful eyes brimming with tears, and she called out to him pitifully and aggrievedly, "Waaah, brother..."

Her voice was already soft and sweet, as if it were dipped in honey. When she acted coquettishly or whimpered, it became even sweeter, as if it had a hook, making people feel extremely tender.

It resembles the mating behavior of some small animal during estrus.

He was all too familiar with that expression and that tone.

He raised an eyebrow slightly. Oh? So soon, it's flared up again?

Indeed, during this period, either he went to Chenghuan Palace or she came to Hanguang Palace. She became more and more attached to him, and the two were inseparable. Naturally, they would do "that" whenever they met. He had fed her too much, and her threshold kept rising.

Now, she can't live without him for even a day.

It's laughable that she still had the audacity to betray him even in her current state.

I don't know if they're just brave or brainless.

Or perhaps he was certain that no matter how she treated him, he would continue to obediently be her antidote.

Xiao Che smiled slightly.

He gave a slight smirk: "You want me to help her?"

"That's interesting. Do you know how I can help her?"

Xiao Jue's face twisted upon hearing this, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Haven't you done this kind of thing enough? What, do you think I'll be jealous? Xiao Che, I've said it before, in my eyes you're nothing more than a medicine for her. Jia Rou is sick, and I'm just using you to treat her illness, nothing else—I still have that much tolerance."

Xiao Che lifted his eyelids and gave him a cold look: "Just because you have the capacity to tolerate others, does that mean I should play along?"

"roll."

"Xiao Che, how can you bear to see her suffer like this?"

“If she can be so heartless, why can’t I?” Xiao Che lowered his head, his voice unreadable. “When she chose to betray me, she should have known this day would come.”

A soft sob came from her arms; Yan Jiarou was crying.

Xiao Jue grew increasingly anxious: "Xiao Che, if you stand by and watch Jia Rou die, how can you live with yourself if something happens to her?"

"Don't worry, she won't die." Xiao Che said calmly, "After she had an affair with me, the symptoms of this disease became no different from those of a fox in heat. In a human, it's like the reaction after being drugged with an aphrodisiac. The only difference is that only I can cure it. If I can't cure it, she will feel uncomfortable, but there won't be any pain or damage."

“She has been pampered since childhood and has never suffered any hardship, so she can’t bear the slightest discomfort and comes to me eagerly, but she refuses to take her medicine. This will only make her more and more addicted to me. Xiao Jue, I don’t think this is what you want to see either. Now I will teach you a method, listen carefully.”

"I will give you a prescription. Prepare the medicine according to the prescription and feed it to her. This will calm her agitation and slow the progression of her illness. After that, you send someone to collect blood. I will give her the blood, and you feed her my blood. Combined with the medicine, she should be able to return to her previous state and won't need anything else."

Xiao Jue hesitated upon hearing this, and was about to ask again when Yan Jiarou in his arms suddenly began to wriggle.

She seemed even more agitated, crying, "No...don't take the medicine...I'm going to die...Brother, it hurts..."

Xiao Jue immediately frowned and looked at Xiao Che, saying, "No, it will take at least an hour to brew the medicine, and we don't even know if it will be effective. Jia Rou can't wait any longer. Help her now, quickly!"

Xiao Che's expression was indifferent. He simply said, "I said I would give her blood, and I can only give her blood."

"Can you really bear to see her suffer like this? Even if she's not your woman, she's still your sister! Taking care of your sister and helping her through her troubles is only natural!"

"Besides, this whole thing started because of you! If it weren't for you, how could that wild fox have bitten Jiarou and given her this strange disease!"

Xiao Che found it absurd: "Ridiculous. That fox wasn't acting on my orders. In the end, what does her being bitten by the fox have to do with me?"

"I helped her simply because I like her and wanted to help her. Would I treat any other woman bitten by a fox? Do you think that's possible?"

Xiao Jue took a deep breath and said, "Any woman? Is she any woman? She was raised by your mother since she was a baby. You held her when she was a baby, ate and slept with her. We watched her grow up. Can any other woman compare to her?"

"Xiao Che, do you know what she came to the East Palace to ask me for? She asked me to come with her so she could explain things to you. She only advised me not to rebel, because the outcome was destined to fail. As for anything else, she didn't reveal much. I didn't want to tell you this originally, but if you resent her because of this and don't care about her life or death, I can tell you now that she didn't intend to betray you. She just didn't want me to be ruined forever."

"You and she are childhood sweethearts, that's true, but she and I are also childhood friends. She knew you were plotting against me, and she couldn't bear it, so she came to warn you. What's wrong with that? After so many years of friendship, do you expect her to just stand by and do nothing? What reason do you have to blame her?"

"Did you hear that? I said, she didn't betray you, so you can't treat her like this. How many tears has she shed for you? How dare you make her so sad?"

Xiao Che's hand, resting at his side, had his fingers slightly curled.

He lowered his eyelashes, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Whether she intended to betray me or not, the result is the same. She ruined my plans and put me in jail. In the end, she lied to me. I'm tired. I can't bear this kind of fickle, lying affection, and I don't want to continue."

"I only do that kind of thing with people I like."

"But to me now, she is no different from any other woman."

"I don't like her anymore."

He looked up at him expressionlessly and said, "Xiao Jue, you have time to waste talking to me here. The medicine should be ready by now."

Xiao Jue was taken aback. Just as he was about to say something, Yan Jiarou in his arms suddenly lost control of her emotions and burst into tears.

She was already feeling unwell, and Xiao Che's words, "I don't like you anymore," had really upset her. She had come to apologize, but instead, she became somewhat angry.

She thought that explaining things to Xiao Che would solve everything, but he still treated her the same way after knowing the truth.

She was both aggrieved and angry, and in a fit of pique, she said, "Crown Prince, let's go... I don't want him anymore... Even if he doesn't forgive me, I'll never speak to him again... I'd rather die than beg him again... Waaah..."

That's what I said, but my body just wouldn't cooperate.

However, at this moment, anger rose within him, and he felt that a person should have backbone. He could no longer fawn over Xiao Che like a puppy in heat, displaying his ugly side and having no dignity whatsoever.

In a state of mental confusion, he pulled out the shimmering hairpin from his hair bun and stabbed it into his arm, trying to force himself to come to his senses.

The sharp hairpin pierced the skin, and bright red blood slowly seeped out. The bloodstains floated on the snow-white arm, just like red plum blossoms blooming in the snow, extremely eye-catching.

Both men's expressions changed simultaneously.

"Jiarou!"

"Yan Yan!"

Xiao Jue was heartbroken and glared at Xiao Che fiercely: "This is all your doing!"

Xiao Che's brows furrowed, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he finally reached out to Xiao Jue, saying, "Fine, give her to me."

Xiao Jue's eyes flickered several times, but he still handed the person over in the end.

As soon as Xiao Che took her in his arms, Yan Jiarou, like a water snake, immediately wrapped herself around him and snuggled up to kiss him: "Brother..."

Xiao Che: "Didn't you say you'd never talk to me again?"

She blinked, then immediately changed her attitude, saying spinelessly, "That's not what they said..."

Xiao Che let out a soft, ambiguous hum, then turned and gently placed the person on the wooden bed beside him.

Yan Jiarou was delicate, so he placed the fox fur cloak she had given him under her.

He sat on the edge of the bed, wrapped his arms around her, glanced down at her, and said in a cold tone, "The last time."

Yan Jiarou hummed and mumbled without saying a word.

But in her heart she thought to herself: You always say that.

After the last time, there will always be another "last time".

There will never be a true last time between them.

She curled her lips into a smug smile, her soft, boneless hands tightly encircling his waist. Her cheek nestled against his chest once more, feeling the familiar warmth and scent. Her restlessness subsided temporarily, and she finally let out a comfortable sigh: "Brother... I love it so much..."

This simple embrace was merely scratching the surface; the restlessness that had briefly subsided was now surging back at her. She rubbed against him, her body aching from the intense desire, tears welling in her eyes as she urged, "Brother..." Her voice was so sweet it could melt away.

Xiao Che glanced down at her, remaining unmoved: "What, even now, you don't still expect me to serve you, do you?"

"Do it yourself."

Yan Jiarou puffed out her cheeks and muttered softly, "Fine, I'll do it myself. It's not like I can't!"

As she spoke, she began to shakily undress, but her fingers kept trembling, and she couldn't undo the clothes even after a long time.

Xiao Che's Adam's apple bobbed as he suppressed the urge to help her.

...It's finally solved.

Her dress fell away, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin.

Xiao Che quickly pulled her into his arms, raising his hand to cover her body, while looking up at Xiao Jue with a warning: "Aren't you leaving yet? Does Your Highness intend to stay and watch over the Living Chun Palace?"

Xiao Jue's face turned pale, and he abruptly flung his sleeves and left in a huff.

However, after leaving, Xiao Jue did not go far. Instead, he stood in the corner of the wall, listening to the sounds inside, as if torturing himself.

Soon, the sounds of the approaching sun could be heard, one after another, and were particularly clear in the quiet dungeon.

Amidst the sticky sounds of water and the woman's soft moans, as passion reached its peak, she called his name again and again: "Xiao Che... Brother... I love you so much..."

Xiao Jue's eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his forehead throbbed.

He closed his eyes tightly, clenched his fists, and suppressed the urge to go in and kill Xiao Che.

Listening to the woman he loved moaning and groaning under another man's body, while he could do nothing, was, to him, nothing less than the cruelest punishment in the world.

Although he always said that he only saw Xiao Che as a medicine for Yan Jiarou and didn't mind, hearing it with his own ears was a different story, and he couldn't bear it for even a moment.

Xiao Che, he thought, one day, he would definitely kill him!