Chapter 94 [VIP]

“There are many snake nests here, be careful. If we fall in and wake up those hibernating snakes, and we get bitten—we won’t even have to wait to report to the general, we’ll die on the way.”

"Where can we find the Ninth Prince? We've searched all night, turned over every corpse, but we haven't found him. Do you think... it's possible he's hiding in this Cobra Cave?"

“I’ve already checked. There are only a few corpses down there, all wearing silver helmets. Let’s hurry and search among the remaining corpses. If he’s really in this cobra hole… he’ll be crushed to death by these corpses.”

Murong Yue overheard the soldiers' conversation from below. He tried to twist his wrist, which had been broken when he fell; every movement brought a tearing pain to his wrist bone. The broken bone wouldn't obey him. He slowly moved his body, one cheek pressed against the frozen, bluish-purple cheek of a soldier's corpse, the other against the sleeping Cobra.

With a loud thud, another corpse fell from the ceiling, and he realized his body was pinned down and unable to move. The corpses filled the cave completely, but because of the withered ivy on the walls and the uneven surface, the bodies had frozen stiff from the snow, so they didn't completely press down on him. It was just that the accumulated corpses blocked the already thin air in the cave.

With a loud bang, the light from above was completely blocked. The white dome and snow disappeared, revealing distorted human faces shrouded in cold and fear. The air was thick with the stench of blood and rotting corpses; the blocked air made breathing increasingly difficult.

"..." He struggled to climb deeper, his broken wrist unable to move, and he could only drag his heavy body forward in the dim environment with one hand.

A fog gradually rolled into his head, and his vision blurred. He could vaguely hear faint sounds, and his senses became incredibly dull due to the difficulty in breathing. The sounds and sounds of the soldiers above, the damp sensation of his fingers digging into the soil, and the barely perceptible breathing of the cobra not far away—these sensations and sounds echoed, lingering for a long time.

We need to get out of here and find my brother.

He saw double; the arc of his hand, broken, returned to its original shape. His soul left his body and saw himself. Countless corpses plummeted from the cave ceiling, dozens of eyes fixed on him, as if gloating over his impending death. The soldiers he had personally killed stared at him with unseeing eyes. His mangled body, buried at the bottom, struggled to crawl outwards.

"Hiss hiss hiss—" He thought he was hallucinating, hearing the sound of snakes flicking their tongues.

"Yue'er—"

Suddenly, Lu Xuejin's voice calling him echoed in his mind, like an ordinary afternoon when he was lazing around in his room taking a nap, a comic book lying on his head. The young man took the comic book away, and what came into view was the young man's helpless expression. The young man rubbed his head and told him to get up and eat.

"Why are you still sleeping at this hour? The sun's already high in the sky. Get up and have dinner."

"Your Highness always reads these idle books. After you've eaten and drunk your fill, you get sleepy. I've confiscated these comic books for Your Highness."

"Wake up quickly, Yue'er—"

--wake up.

His mind suddenly cleared, and the scene of the cave came into view: the damp soil, the swarms of corpses pressed down, the withered vines, and the small cobra awakening from hibernation. Seemingly sensing that the environment was no longer suitable for hibernation, the small snake burrowed deeper into the cave after waking up. He could faintly hear the whistling wind not far away.

He saw the snake's movements clearly, and heard his own heavy breathing. He dragged himself along the ground with one hand, inching forward to chase after the snake. This cobra was the true owner of the cave; perhaps it could lead him to a more suitable place to live.

His fingers were filled with rusty, coal-smelling mud as he followed the small snake through a narrow tunnel—the remnants of previous mining operations, now a habitat for snakes and rats. Onward, ever forward, despite his exhaustion, he wouldn't stop as long as he could move—

Stopping will only lead to certain death.

Until the faint glow of fireflies appeared around him, surrounding him with a dim light that blurred his vision, making it impossible to tell whether it was the light of fireflies or the phosphorescence of the dead. He had a strange feeling that it wasn't him who had emerged. It was just his imagination; in reality, he had already perished here, his heavy body collapsing at the bottom of the cave.

A sharp, icy wind swept across his face, penetrating the bottomless cave and landing beside his ears, jolting him awake. Before his eyes appeared specks of blood, like splattered droplets.

That wasn't blood.

As winter descended overnight, the plum blossom branch that had inadvertently fallen into the cave quietly burrowed into the soil, striving to spread its branches on the side wall, and blooming a cluster of bright red plum blossoms just before winter arrived. The barren earth became a diseased tree, pouring out all its nutrients to nourish a resilient flowering branch.

He stared at the cluster of red plum blossoms, lost in thought, his memory drifting back to a long time ago. Back in Shengjing, he had left the palace in the middle of the night to search for Weng San's body, thinking he was about to fall among the corpses. He had seen the red plum blossoms just before dawn, and now he had encountered them again—it seemed they were destined to meet.

...Could it be that we are destined to be together?

Outside the capital city.

Xiao Luo: "Miss, our people have already sent a letter to General Xiao. General Xiao has already read the letter."

Wei Ning: "Alright. Let's see how he decides. Don't act rashly for now."

"That place looks very lively," Wei Ning said, looking at the distance.

Xiao Luo also looked over, having already learned what had happened when she arrived. She said to Wei Ning, "I heard that General Xiao had been guarding the city gates for the past few days, preventing the villagers outside the city from entering. Only today were a group allowed in, and they're all waiting outside the pharmacy to buy medicine. Because the pharmacy wants to do business outside the city, they've raised the prices of the medicinal herbs at this time. Currently, each household outside the city is only allowed to enter the city once a month; this was a rule the general issued a few days ago."

"There are policies from above and countermeasures from below. How can the people be bullied like this? Let's go and see."

Wei Ning watched from afar as the people lined up in front of the pharmacy. He saw a bitter expression on their faces. The villagers in front were arguing with the merchants about the prices of the medicines, and he could hear some harsh words. Such words were things like, "Don't buy if you don't have money," or "You can buy medicine from other shops."

She asked Xiao Luo, "In that case, going elsewhere to buy it wouldn't be a bad idea. Why are you all queuing up in front of this pharmacy?"

Xiao Luo: "Miss, you may not know this, but the doctor at this pharmacy specializes in treating colds and flu. He knows a secret formula... which is a common practice in the capital of mixing two herbs together to enhance their effects. Not everyone knows this formula, and this doctor uses the remarkable efficacy of the herbs, claiming they are precious, to inflate the price tenfold."

Wei Ning: "The common people do not understand these things, so this is tantamount to deception."

As they spoke, Wei Ning and his maid arrived at the entrance of the herbal medicine shop. The people arguing with them were a young couple who had traveled from outside the city to buy medicine for their parents' medical treatment. They were now arguing with the shopkeeper over the price of the medicine, and many onlookers had stopped to watch the commotion.

"Hey you two, if you're not in a hurry to buy, could you please make way for those behind you? I already said, if you think our herbs aren't effective, you can buy them elsewhere. Nobody's forcing you, are you?"

"This is absolutely outrageous! You unscrupulous merchant are profiting from the suffering of the people! Aren't you afraid of retribution after you die?!"

"Wait." Wei Ning stepped forward and stopped the woman who was about to make a move. She said to the pharmacy merchant, "How much are your medicinal herbs? I'll buy them all at twenty times the price."

The pharmacist, initially thinking some troublemaker had appeared, looked up and saw a strikingly beautiful woman. Her attire and hairstyle didn't resemble those of a local, and the official badge she wore suggested she was from the capital. Upon hearing that the pharmacist would buy the herbs at twenty times the price, the people queuing behind her panicked, while the pharmacist beamed with delight.

"Miss... my wife is seriously ill. Please, have mercy and leave us some."

"Yes, yes, young lady, please have some compassion and leave some for us!"

The pharmacist said, "Alright, alright! Please come in, young lady."

Wei Ning followed them inside. She had Xiao Luo pay the bill and then said to everyone, "Don't worry, everyone. As you all saw, I offered twenty times the price, and he immediately agreed. According to the laws and regulations of our Great Wei, anything exceeding five times the market price is a violation. The consequences range from confiscation of money to closure of the shop. Does your little pharmacy know that you've engaged in illegal business?"

The pharmacist's face immediately darkened. "Miss, are you here to cause trouble? My doctor's prescriptions are famous for miles around, and the law stipulates that prescriptions made from herbs not available on the market are not outside the scope of commercial regulations."

"Go and tell the officers and soldiers about this," Wei Ning said, summoning his guards. Upon hearing Wei Ning's summons, the garrison deputy commander, Chen Guang, immediately came over.

Chen Guang: "Miss Wei, this subordinate is at your service. What has happened here?"

The herbal medicine merchants didn't recognize Wei Ning, but they did recognize Chen Guang. Upon seeing Chen Guang, their legs immediately went weak. Wei Ning explained the situation to Chen Guang and ordered his guards and maids to sell the herbs to the queuing people at below-market prices.

When the pharmacist was taken away by the guards, he kept crying out that he was innocent. Wei Ning couldn't help but laugh. "From childhood to adulthood, what I've been best at is causing trouble."

As she spoke, she suddenly heard a laugh. The laugh was old yet powerful, belonging to an elderly blind man in the crowd. The old man was dressed as a beggar, wearing only tattered clothes, his exposed skin as white as tree bark, yet he showed no sign of shivering in the wind and snow. On the contrary, he was remarkably sprightly, and although he couldn't see clearly, he laughed heartily in her direction.

Wei Ning couldn't help but ask, "Hey, old man, aren't you cold dressed like that?"

“I am not cold. I never expected to meet the chosen one while passing by. When you saw me, you asked if I was cold in the snow. You are so kind-hearted, so I will give you a great gift.”

A parchment scroll was tossed to Wei Ning, who barely caught it. Before she could even ask any questions, the old man vanished into the crowd in an instant. She looked at the scroll in her hand again; it exuded an old, dusty aura, and at the end were the Sanskrit characters "Galing".

She opened the parchment scroll, inside which was a painting. In the cave, cobras coiled around red plum blossoms, and a bluish-purple soldier in a silver helmet lay face down, baring his fangs and claws, about to attack the boy crawling out from below.

As the night passed, Lu Xuejin remained sleepless. Hearing news of Murong Yue on Caoqi Mountain, he would frequently glance in that direction during the night. He ordered Ziyan to deliver a message to Yege, while he himself stayed by Xue Yi's side, never distancing himself from Xue Yi in the slightest.

He glanced at the faintly visible mountain peaks from the window. In his youth, he had not understood what it meant for his mind to wander, but now he did. He was in this warm, spring-like palace, yet his mind had already drifted away with the swirling snowflakes, heading towards where His Highness was.

I wonder how Your Highness is doing now... I wonder if Your Highness was able to escape from Xiao Qi's clutches? Why did you not listen to him and insist on going to the city? If he hadn't agreed to Your Highness's request... perhaps Your Highness wouldn't have suffered so much.

His thoughts were in turmoil, but he managed to maintain a semblance of composure. Beside him was another patient who was always watching his expression. If he were to show any distress, Xue Yi would likely fall ill before him.

"We're leaving for the capital today. Changyou seems lost in thought; is he reluctant to leave?" Xue Yi asked him.

His face was reflected in Xue Yi's eyes, and Xue Yi could capture every expression of his. Whenever there was a slight change in his expression, Xue Yi would notice it before he did, and he would be affected by his emotions and worry about them as well.

The love and affection of this world became a corrosive disease in Xue Yi. Once it flared up, the pustules immediately became itchy and festering, affecting his entire body. Xue Yi's body turned into spider silk like lotus roots, corroded by the threads of love. He sank into a muddy pool, becoming a clay sculpture of a sorrowful bodhisattva.

Creating a clay Bodhisattva statue... how easy is that?

Is this a feasible plan?

Thinking of this, he composed himself and replied, "No. I was just thinking about Song Zhao... I wonder how he is doing in the palace."

Upon hearing this, Xue Yi said, "Changyou can rest assured that the palace is in his hands. Song Zhao knows what he's doing. I can tell he misses Changyou very much... The other day he wrote to me, always talking about which books he read in the library, or asking me if Changyou had read them. He's still competing with Changyou."

Mentioning this, he paused slightly, recalling how Song Zhao had followed him outside the library, and couldn't help but find it amusing, a slight smile playing on his lips.

“I’ve read through the entire library. Compared to me, he’s a bit more stubborn. I read books casually and don’t study them in depth. Whenever Song Zhao encounters a book that interests him, he can read it for ten days or half a month… He has to figure out why.”

Xue Yi: "Every time I look at him, I think it's good that he has this kind of personality. He's always obsessed with things that ordinary people don't notice. It's very interesting to watch, and he doesn't have so many worries."

“I don’t think so,” he thought for a moment and said to Xue Yi, “Brother, you may not know, but in my opinion… Song Zhao is very concerned about your affairs. Your brother is much more important to him than anyone else. That’s what I’ve noticed… He was loyal to your brother even when he was in the academy. He wasn’t the type to write letters before… If you are willing to cherish Song Zhao’s loyalty, you should try to think more positively every day and not get bogged down in your emotions.”

“I am much better now,” Xue Yi said, looking at him and touching his arm, placing his palm on top of his.

The shadow cast by the lowered brows enveloped a sigh.

"With Changyou by my side, my heart ailment was cured without treatment."

A note from the author: