Chapter 92 A Woman Living in Her Own Fabricated World

Li Jin glanced at her coldly, arms crossed, not even bothering to reply.

He walked to the table, picked up his teacup, and blew away the foam on the surface: "Because Miss Liu and Liu Mingze were in love with each other, and she learned from him that you, her 'sister,' loved oranges the most, she spared no expense and bought half a cartload of oranges."

"And you went along with it, and went all out, buying an ounce of arsenic from the pharmacy." Li Jin took a thick stack of testimonies from Zhou Zheng's hands. "Although you rarely went out dressed as a woman, the pharmacy clerk recognized you at a glance as the talented and famous 'Mr. Ren' in the capital."

"To be absolutely sure, you even went to the Liu family to inquire about what kind of teapot Miss Liu liked." He chuckled. "Because the question was so abrupt, Miss Liu's maid remembers it vividly."

The spacious and brightly lit theater was so quiet at this moment that you could hear a pin drop.

As time passed, the angle of the sunlight grew wider, and the fragmented shadows falling on the ground through the window gradually merged together, forming a shimmering spot of light.

Ren Jing's hands trembled.

Her lips were pressed tightly together, and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

Li Jin sat there, holding a scroll of official documents in his hand, never once glancing at her again.

The tense standoff in the theater gradually intensified as the sun rose higher and the temperature increased.

As time went on, Ren Jing's gaze began to dart away. She first looked at Li Jin, but saw that he was expressionless and didn't even spare her a glance.

She looked at Jin Shu again, her eyes filled with a pitiful look that made Jin Shu feel uncomfortable all over.

After a long while, Jin Shu couldn't bear to watch any longer, so she turned her head and looked elsewhere.

And so they remained silent and suppressed for another half incense stick's time.

The woman kneeling there finally clenched her fists and let out a long sigh: "I'll talk."

She smiled wryly: "I said..."

"Just as you said, Your Highness, he only sees me as a younger sister." Unlike before, Ren Jing's words were neither sad nor happy, as if she were telling someone else's story.

But hidden within this language is a sense of peace and tranquility, yet also a deep sense of despair.

"He told me that he wasn't going back, that he wanted to be with Miss Liu. Then he said he wanted to introduce me to her." Perhaps Ren Jing was tired of kneeling, or perhaps she knew she was doomed, she sat down on the ground, stretched out her legs, and looked unusually relaxed.

“They wanted to treat me to oranges and moon-viewing, and I happily agreed,” she said. “That night, I put arsenic in the same pot as Miss Liu beforehand. After exchanging pleasantries, I poured half of the orange juice into my own pot when they weren’t looking.”

"Those two were so engrossed in their romance, they had no idea I switched the teapot." Ren Jing raised her hand and pointed to the table next to Li Jin's chair. "Coincidentally, it's this table and this chair."

She pursed her lips: "Right here, I watched the two of them drink the arsenic."

Ren Jing took a deep breath, slowly curled her legs up, and buried her head in them.

She was lost in her memories, with the moon from that night, the stage from that night, and the two people struggling and suffering after drinking arsenic, gradually being beaten to death.

"Ha! He actually questioned me about why," she muttered to herself. "Because I love him, I gave him everything! But he took my money and wants to marry someone else and run away!"

She stared coldly at the bluestone ground: "How could I possibly agree? How could I!"

After that, Ren Jing sat there without saying another word.

As the story unfolded, Jin Shu found a small wooden box in Liu Mingze's room.

When the lock on the box came off, the land deed and notarized documents from the government office came into view.

And on it lay an unsealed letter.

Liu Mingze only wrote half of the letter before, for some unknown reason, he interrupted his words of advice and instructions to his "sister".

The last words will forever remain: July is almost here, and your birthday is coming up again. This house is a birthday gift from me to you...

Standing behind Jin Shu, Li Jin looked at the letter in her hand and, seeing that she was struggling to control her emotions, reached out and snatched the letter from her hand.

"Don't look anymore." He folded the box twice, said calmly, then put it in the envelope and locked the box again.

“If you write too many stories, you live in your own story,” Li Jin said with a faint smile. “She is actually quite pathetic.”

Jin Shu watched him take the box away, and after a long while, nodded.

It is indeed both pitiful and tragic.

Standing beside Liu Mingze as a giver, she lived in her own story with her love that felt like moral blackmail.

Liu Mingze never loved her, but she believed that she was entitled to have a place by his side.

A person who only believes what she believes will have her fragile soul crumble along with the events she believes in, when those events collapse in ways she cannot accept.

“Liu Mingze has never betrayed her,” Li Jin said as they walked. “It was she who betrayed her.”

At this point, Li Jin suddenly stopped and turned to look at Jin Shu's face: "There are quite a few people like this who live in their own dreams."

Jin Shu paused for a moment, looking at him with confusion, waiting for him to say the next thing.

“You’ll soon…” Li Jin took a deep breath, and his brows furrowed in the blink of an eye. “I mean, you’ll soon meet someone who’s also living in his own dream and has been bothering me for over twenty years.”

"Huh?" She was somewhat surprised. "The prince's childhood sweetheart?"

Li Jin paused.

"Don't talk nonsense!" he complained with one eyebrow raised and the other lowered, "If I had a childhood sweetheart like that, I'd rather be alone for the rest of my life."

After saying that, he flicked his sleeves, looking annoyed, and strode forward.

Jin Shu stood in the theater, the question mark above her head could circle the entire capital.

As Zhou Zheng walked past her, she reached out and grabbed him, exclaiming, "Lord Zhou! Lord Zhou!"

Pulling Zhou Zheng along, he took two steps forward and asked in confusion, "The prince said that a childhood sweetheart has been bothering him for over twenty years. Who is she?"

Zhou Zheng stopped, bent down solemnly, and whispered in her ear: "It's the Prince's..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Jin, who had already walked several meters away, turned back! He pulled Jin Shu to the other side, his face showing a hint of anger, and questioned Zhou Zheng: "Where's the carriage?"

That left Zhou Zheng completely baffled.

He quickly bowed and strode towards the carriage.

Seeing him walk away, Li Jin turned around and stared intently at Jin Shu's face, letting out an annoyed snort: "What, is Lord Zhou's voice more pleasant than mine?"

"All you do is call me Lord Zhou, Lord Zhou. Am I a monster? Are you going to just ask me if I can have my heart ripped out and my blood drained?" He let out a long breath, his anger rising at Jin Shu's bewildered expression. "Can't you just..."

"Your Highness!" Before Li Jin could finish speaking, the white feather on the roof fell to the ground with a thud.

He held a bamboo tube in his hand, sealed tightly with wax, on which were written the words "Urgent".

Li Jin paused, then drew the knife from his fan and traced a circle along the wax.

Inside the bamboo tube was only a small letter with a single sentence: "In the distant mountain road, Chen An was silenced; he was nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead."