Only after seeing that his father's official position was saved did Jiang Zhou have time to visit his brothers.

His brother was much more relaxed than him. Even when he was locked up in a cell, he was still relaxed. He would lie on the wooden board and even have the mood to sing songs.

When Jiang Zhou came closer with the food box, he could clearly hear that he was not singing a song, but counting.

"Three, two, six, one..."

Jiang Zhou: "What are you counting? It's all mixed up."

Lu Ling smiled and said, "Counting heads."

Jiang Zhou: "...Can't you just be a little more normal?"

This brother was insane before, but at most his thoughts were different from those of ordinary people. But now he is so insane that it is scary.

Lu Ling glanced to the side and said, "You are the one who is abnormal. I am talking about the people who were recently detained here."

Jiang Zhou suddenly realized what was going on and looked to the side: "It seems that quite a few people are indeed imprisoned there."

Lu Ling has only been here for a few days, but the place is almost full and quite lively.

Lu Ling asked: "What has the Empress been doing these past two days?"

Jiang Zhou cleared the table and replied, "I just met with a few governors and examined them."

Lu Ling tilted his head and hung on the edge of the wooden board: "Did she mention me?"

Jiang Zhou was speechless: "You think too much."

The Empress doesn't want to bother with you at all.

Jiang Zhou put out some delicious food and went to help him. Seeing the marks on his body, his brows furrowed instantly: "You can save Rong Qing, but can't you save yourself?"

Lu Ling didn't care: "I've been dealing with this corpse insect for many years, and it can't do anything to me. Doesn't it look cool like this? Maybe I can become the only immortal."

Jiang Zhou didn't want to listen to his bragging. Even if he was immortal, what was the point of living for a person who was neither human nor ghost?

"Even if you are immortal, you still need to eat. Get up quickly."

Lu Ling stood up and looked at the three dishes on the table. They were all his favorites, and he could tell by the smell that they were made by Jiang Zhou himself.

Lu Ling's lips curled up into a stiff smile: "Although this corpse insect can't kill me, it is indeed a bit uncomfortable. How about you help me share some of the burden, and then we can achieve immortality together."

Jiang Zhou took it seriously and immediately replied, "I don't care about immortality, but I can help you share the burden."

"How do we divide it? Sucking blood? Do I bite you or you bite me?"

Lu Ling suddenly hugged her stomach: "Hahahaha..."

Jiang Zhou was baffled. "What are you laughing at? Is the poison taking effect?"

Lu Ling laughed even more exaggeratedly and rolled over on the ground, scaring Jiang Zhou so much that he quickly protected the table. It was really tiring to let a lunatic eat.

Lu Ling finally stopped laughing and started eating. Seeing Jiang Zhou pouring him some wine, Lu Ling asked him, "Jiang Zhou, do you remember how we became brothers?"

Jiang Zhou: "How could I forget this? It was raining that day, and I skipped school to go out and play. I fell into the river, and I saw you climbing out of the river. We were both covered in mud."

"I tried to pull you ashore with good intentions, but you dragged me back down. We had a fight on the riverbank, but I managed to wash myself clean in the end."

Later, Lu Ling would occasionally appear at the riverbank. They started out fighting, but later ended up grilling fish together after the fight. Once, Jiang Zhou discovered that Lu Ling was well-educated, so he brought out his homework and asked Lu Ling to help him.

After many times, the two became tacit friends. Later, Lu Ling disappeared and came back three years later. When they met again, it was as if they had never been apart and they immediately became friends again.

In recent years, Lu Ling has come to see Jiang Zhou once a year or once every two years. Jiang Zhou was afraid that Lu Ling would not be able to adapt to the living situation, so he bought a house for him. Whenever Lu Ling came, he would drop everything to accompany him. They were absolutely close friends.

Lu Ling: "Actually, I wanted to drag you into the river and kill you."

Jiang Zhou looked at him in surprise: "Really?"

Lu Ling nodded: "Really."

Jiang Zhou was afraid: "It turns out it wasn't my illusion, do you really want to kill me?"

Lu Ling laughed: "I didn't expect your reaction."

Jiang Zhou: "How do you think I should react?"

Lu Ling remained silent. There was no need to say anything now.

Jiang Zhou continued drinking without asking any further questions. Lu Ling was not a good person, and he was not stupid either, but being friends was just a feeling.

Anyway, he and Lu Ling have been friends for many years and no longer care about what happened in the past.

After eating and drinking, Lu Ling continued to lie down. Jiang Zhou, who had just been treated like a beast of burden, envied him.

"No, you're not going to lie here all the time, are you?"

"You said you saved General Rong and had earned a little trust from His Majesty. Now you've ruined it all. I don't know what you're trying to achieve."

"Jiang Zhou, what kind of person do you think the Empress is?"

Lu Ling suddenly asked.

Jiang Zhou thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to say. He's intelligent, decisive, powerful, and cunning. In short, he's very powerful."

Lu Ling shook his head: "Then you don't understand, Empress..."

He smiled and said, "The Empress and I are the same kind of people."

Jiang Zhou felt that Lu Ling was still sleepy and talking nonsense.

Lu Ling knew he didn't believe it, but that was the fact.

"The Empress herself is a madwoman, a lucid madwoman. I like her very much. The aura of the same kind simply fascinates me."

"What a pity, the Empress doesn't like her own kind."

He felt extremely regretful.

In his opinion, he and the empress were meant to be a couple. The empress was sober and powerful, but actually crazy, while he had always been crazy, but had a passion as fiery as fire that could melt ice and snow. They were a perfect match!

Jiang Zhou: “…”

It's over, brother, I'm completely crazy.

However, when Jiang Zhou came back the next day, he found that Lu Ling was not in the prison. He thought that Lu Ling had finally escaped from prison, but he found out that he was taken away by the empress.

So, did they all go crazy together? Or was the body destroyed by the Empress?

-----

In the dark night, a team was sneaking silently.

Arriving outside a dilapidated temple, everyone stopped for a moment as they looked at the only light inside.

"Master, he is inside."

The man in black surrounded in the middle was none other than Xiao Li.

Xiao Li came to Yanpingzhou with only one purpose - to get rid of Xu Nianqing.

Her intuition told her that she could not kill Xu Nianqing, just like Liu Xueyin before, but she did not give up and sent people to intercept and kill her along the way.

There were seven groups of people in total these days. Xiao Li was sure that these people's martial arts were better than Xu Nianqing's, and they could kill him easily.

It was either a coincidence that they missed each other, or Xu Nianqing happened to be rescued by someone. To this day, Xu Nianqing has only suffered some minor injuries, while her people suffered heavy losses.

Xiao Li knew that it was the world consciousness that was protecting Xu Nianqing. As long as Xu Nianqing was still the male protagonist recognized by Him, no one could kill him.

However, Xiao Li just didn't believe it. Since her subordinates couldn't kill him, she would do it herself.

If she can't kill him once, she'll try twice. If she can't kill him twice, she'll try three times. Just like Liu Xueyin, she will definitely make Xu Nianqing disappear completely in the end.