Chapter 249 Powerless, Resign to Fate

The door to the Cold Palace was ajar, and Li Jin could see Granny Xi standing at the door from afar.

A look of joy spread across her expectant face. She quickly pushed open the door, greeting Li Jin as she turned to Consort Xiao, who was tending to the flowers and plants, and called out, "Your Highness, Prince Jing and Mr. Jin have arrived."

Consort Xiao paused for a moment, then turned around with a smile, her eyes meeting Li Jin's as he stepped over the threshold.

"Jin'er is here." Then she walked straight to Jin Shu and said, "Let me take a good look at her."

She said, "My Jin'er is a rough person. If she has offended you, I hope you will be lenient with her."

Jin Shu looked at her sunken eye sockets and her rough fingers covered with a thick layer of calluses, and her heart skipped a beat.

She grinned and glanced at Li Jin: "The Prince treats me very well, Your Majesty, please rest assured."

Upon hearing this, Consort Xiao's smile became even more radiant.

She's thinner than before.

Perhaps because she was already physically weak, and now she had been poisoned with such a potent toxin, she was forcing herself to stay awake, which was heartbreaking.

She seemed to notice the bewilderment in Jin Shu's eyes, so she smiled and invited her inside to talk.

"Everyone gets old eventually."

Li Jin supported her arm and carefully helped Consort Xiao sit down: "When you were young, you didn't take it seriously. You went through thick and thin with His Majesty and thought you had a long life ahead of you."

Granny Xi brought out a plate of pastries, which were pastries that Yan Zhao used to bring to Jin Shu from the imperial kitchen.

“The moment I saw you, I knew you were a woman disguised as a man.” She laughed and pushed the plate towards Jin Shu. “Many years ago, I was just like you, serving by His Majesty’s side.”

Jin Shu felt a pang of sadness when she saw her warm smile.

To avoid her noticing, he reached out and took a piece of pastry, then put it in his mouth.

It's still just as sweet.

"Back then, His Majesty was just like Jin'er, arguing fiercely with the late Emperor in the Imperial Study." Consort Xiao chuckled, placing Li Jin's hand in her own and patting it gently a few times. "Indeed, my son is smarter. The situation that couldn't be changed in sixty years has been achieved in my son's hands."

She lowered her eyes and said softly, "In that case, I can die without regrets."

Li Jin paused, frowning and complaining, "How could Mother say such a thing..." He raised his eyes, his gaze fixed intently on Jin Shu, "Your son still needs Mother to take care of a grandson!"

Upon hearing this, Consort Xiao regained some color in her face. She turned to look at the astonished Jin Shu and deliberately asked, "You're already pregnant?"

Jin Shu looked at Li Jin, whose eyes were like knives piercing her. After a long while, she stammered, "Re...re...re..."

"We're not married yet, no rush," Li Jin said. "It'll be soon."

Consort Xiao smiled, took Jin Shu's hand, and placed it in Li Jin's hand.

She happily held their hands and looked at Jin Shu tenderly: "I'm entrusting our Jin'er to you from now on."

Jin Shu looked at Consort Xiao's happy smile, her gaze moving from her slightly bluish-black cheekbones to her lips, which were already somewhat dark.

She knew that this was the deathly aura unique to those who were about to die.

Looking at the gentle Consort Xiao, she felt a lump in her throat and couldn't bring herself to refuse.

Jin Shu smiled and nodded: "Your Majesty, please take care of your health. Once you're fully recovered, I'll accompany you to see the opera troupe's new play. It's very good."

"And Jin Rong." At this moment, Li Jin took out the two priceless jade pieces from his bosom, the jade pieces from the late Crown Prince's wedding.

He gently placed it on the table, and the two pieces of jade fit together perfectly.

Consort Xiao stared blankly, then asked in surprise, "Found it?"

Li Jin nodded: "Found it."

"Is that child still alive?" She reached out and tugged at Li Jin's arm.

He paused for a moment, then shook his head.

Consort Xiao's gaze darkened in the blink of an eye.

“However, before the Crown Princess died, she met a good family.” Li Jin said, gesturing in the direction of Jin Shu. “After giving birth to the Crown Prince, she entrusted him to Jin Shu before closing her eyes.”

Upon hearing this, a glimmer of hope seemed to ignite in Consort Xiao's eyes. She looked at Jin Shu with deep emotion and exclaimed, "Heaven truly has eyes."

Then, those withered fingers trembled as they reached out: "You're a girl, raising a little baby all by yourself, you must have suffered a lot, right?"

Jin Shu held her hands and shook her head: "The young master is wise and has never let me suffer."

“But we can’t bring him to see Mother yet.” Li Jin frowned. “The matter is not over yet. It would be too dangerous to expose him to the outside world.”

But Consort Xiao chuckled and said, "Alright, then I will try my best to live on until the dust settles."

The winter sun sets, its rays melting the sky like gold, and darkness falls early.

When I came out of the Cold Palace, it was already pitch black in the east.

Granny Xi handed Li Jin a lamp, smiled slightly, and said nothing.

Two people, guided by a flickering lamp, remained silent.

Jin Shu didn't know how to start the conversation. She knew that Li Jin had brought her here not only to please Consort Xiao, but more importantly, to hope that she could find a way to detoxify her.

But she was powerless to do anything about it.

Arsenic poison cannot be cured on its own.

If we lived in modern society, where chemistry is highly developed, we could still find detoxifying drugs.

While it cannot completely repair the damage to the body, it is not enough to slowly kill it.

But in the Great Wei, at this moment, she was powerless.

Seeing his silence, Li Jin had more or less guessed the answer. He slowed his pace and changed the subject: "Do you know why I withdrew all the shadows guarding Pei Yide?"

In the darkness of night, Jin Shu looked at Li Jin's smiling profile and felt a pang of sorrow in her heart.

She sighed: "Because the prince knows that this is the crown prince's way of luring the tiger away from the mountain."

Li Jin paused.

"His Highness just said that Su Wanying is bait, and that we don't have any direct evidence pointing to the Crown Prince." Jin Shu glanced at the star-studded sky. "Does this mean he wants to keep an eye on Su Wanying and wait for the Crown Prince to take the bait?"

After the grand court assembly, the crown prince outwardly restrained his behavior, but in reality, he was cutting off his own arm to save himself.

Yan Zhao died partly because he knew too much, and partly because he got too close to the emperor of Wei.

So close, the Crown Prince was unsure of whose confidant he was.

Having lost face on the Winter Solstice, he held Yan Zhao accountable for it.

“He wants to eliminate those who work for him personally but whose absolute loyalty cannot be guaranteed,” Li Jin said. “The fundamental reason why Su Wanying became one of the Crown Prince’s subordinates is that she wanted to become the Princess Consort of Prince Jing.”

He lifted the hem of his robe and stepped over the threshold: "So for the Crown Prince, the existence of this woman is itself an uncertain factor."

The Crown Prince was afraid that if Li Jin showed any goodwill, Su Wanying would "abandon the darkness and embrace the light" and expose all his previous actions.

"So, his decision to have Lian Shui keep an eye on Pei Yide was just a pretext to distract the Six Doors."

Jin Shu pondered for a moment, then shook her head: "Not necessarily." She said, "There's another person who meets this criterion."

“Song Zhen,” Li Jin said.

Looking at the already darkened Taihe Hall Square, he lowered his head and blew out the lamp in his hand.

In the darkness, he grabbed Jin Shu's wrist and walked in front of her: "The Crown Prince's next target is either Su Wanying or Song Zhen."

“But Song Zhen isn’t stupid.” He chuckled. “I had Shen Wen go to see him during the day.”

"If I can guess it, he can guess it too."

That's true.

But at this very moment, Song Zhen was huddled inside a wardrobe in the inner room of Jinhua Tower, watching through a small crack as the man in black, holding a long sword, drew ever closer…

I took a deep breath and slowly closed my eyes.

Let fate decide.