Chapter 64
The black horse was kicking wildly.
While dodging, Zisang's clothes were torn in one corner, and the stray hairs on her forehead were wet with cold sweat and stuck to the edge of her cheeks.
The horse's hooves were hurtling towards his face!
If her face is disfigured, will Her Majesty still smile at her?
He felt a little...regretful.
But he wanted to take a gamble!
Zi Sangqi closed her eyes and curled up.
Instead of the expected pain, there was the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh!
"Thud—" The dagger pierced the horse's body.
Zi Sangqi opened his eyes and saw Ling Wu coldly pulling the dagger from Mad Horse's body!
To her, that mad horse seemed like an ant, easily crushed!
Not a single drop of blood stained her body from beginning to end.
The mad horse struggled a few times as she withdrew her strength, but finally collapsed to the ground obediently, not even daring to lick its wounds!
Lingwu took off her cloak and bent down to cover his disheveled appearance.
She then knelt down and tucked his messy hair behind his ears.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here."
The air was thick with the stench of blood, and even the maddened horse succumbed to the allure of her gaze. Her eyes, which had just been cold and gentle, were now filled with soothing tenderness.
"Your Majesty..." His expression was somewhat dazed.
Zi Sangqi stared blankly at her slender wrist, his mind filled with her coldness and murderous aura just moments before, followed by her worried and gentle face.
Seeing his dazed expression, Lingwu had no choice but to instruct Jingchun and the others who had rushed over: "Go and fetch the imperial physician."
Then, in a detached tone, he said, "If they can't find out, everyone at the horse farm will be given fifty strokes of the cane."
In winter, fifty strokes of the cane meant death.
But this mad horse affected the Empress, and even if everyone at the horse farm died, no one in the world would say a word against her.
When the devastating news of his death broke, no one dared to hide it.
"yes!"
Ling Wu looked at Zi Sangqi, "Are you still able to get up?"
Still somewhat dazed, Zi Sangqi's deep blue eyes showed a slight fading of confusion, but the pain in his ankle made him frown. "It seems like I twisted my ankle..."
"Your Majesty!" Zi Sangqi exclaimed as Ling Wu lifted him into the air, then instinctively hugged Ling Wu.
Feeling ashamed of her own frailty, Zi Sangqi did not struggle, but simply buried her face in Ling Wu's chest.
Ling Wu frowned almost imperceptibly, but ultimately said nothing.
"Your Majesty...you smell so good, cool and fragrant, just like you." Zi Sangqi's low, husky voice carried a hint of shyness.
Ling Wu: "..."
Zi Sangqi held her tighter and tighter, and then he heard her ask, "Does it not hurt anymore?"
"……pain."
A muffled sound came from below. Lingwu pondered the bloodthirsty, enemy-fighting Zisang Qi from Sang Lingwu's memory, and asked with a rare amusement:
"So, are you going to ride a horse and do somersaults again next time?"
Feeling embarrassed, Zi Sang remained silent.
Ling Wu chuckled softly. Zi Sangqi looked up at her words, only to meet Ling Wu's gentle gaze as she looked down at him.
Are those eyes hiding a hot spring laced with aphrodisiac? Otherwise, why would he feel his face burning and his heart beating much faster than usual?
Realizing what she was thinking, Zi Sangqi was startled, then quickly looked away and buried her face in Ling Wu's arms.
Unlike the ambiguous atmosphere here, Lu Chengfeng, who had just been released from confinement in Weiyang Palace, calmly watched a group of maids turn his bedchamber upside down.
The initial statement, "Lu Shushi, this humble servant is acting on imperial orders and has offended many people," felt like a slap across his face!
The servant beside him was trembling. Just as Lu Chengfeng sensed something was wrong, he was interrupted by the words "We found it."
He looked down at the packet of powder in the maid's hand, then glanced at the young servant supporting him, and couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow.
“Lu Shushi, please come with us.”
Lu Chengfeng nodded silently, letting the maids lead him to Zisangqi's Changning Palace.
Along the way, he noticed many strange looks and whispers.
He was branded with stigmas such as viciousness and jealousy.
He unconsciously let out a mocking smile.
He hadn't stepped out of Weiyang Palace for three months. How could a lowly servant who had never served the emperor have connections to poison him?
He didn't even know what had happened!
Upon entering Changning Palace and seeing Lingwu, he felt somewhat fortunate.
Fortunately, Sang Lingwu is here, and fortunately, she always believes in him unconditionally.
but……
When he met Ling Wu's cold eyes, his heart was still irresistibly drawn in, as if it were being tightly gripped!
"You don't believe me?" He thought he would roar, but his voice was extremely calm.
In a daze, it seemed as if Sang Lingwu was the same. When he discovered that she had poisoned other concubines, Sang Lingwu only glanced at the "evidence" and then asked him in an extremely calm tone, "You don't believe me?"
Ling Wu's voice the next moment overlapped with the voice she remembered, "The evidence is there, what else do you want to argue about?"
His servant also knelt down with a thud, crying and begging for mercy.
"Your Majesty, please spare my life! I was acting under the orders of Attendant Lu! Attendant Lu said that He Duanli would receive your attention at the banquet, while he wouldn't even be allowed to sit down. We were both appointed on the same day, yet our statuses are worlds apart. That's why Attendant Lu became jealous!"
"I tried to persuade him, but the servant threatened me with my life! Please, Your Majesty, spare me..." he sobbed.
Standing beside Ling Wu, Yun Ji, disregarding his usual gentleness and attentiveness, spoke with a voice filled with anger: "Just because of jealousy, does Lu Shushi disregard His Majesty's safety and plot to harm He Duanli?"
Remembering his temper in front of Ling Wu, he turned pale and tightly held Ling Wu's hand. "Fortunately, Your Majesty was not injured, otherwise... otherwise, sob sob sob..." He cried with tears streaming down his face, which was heartbreaking.
The slight tremor in his voice, which he could hardly conceal, and the way he tightly gripped Lingwu's hand, also revealed the fear and anger in his heart.
Lu Chengfeng stared intently at Ling Wu with red eyes, "I didn't harm him, and I certainly won't harm you!"
Ling Wu, however, remained calm as she looked at him. "This wasn't your doing?"
Lu Chengfeng shook his head, "I didn't! Lingwu, you have to believe me!" His tears fell, hot and burning.
Yun Ji exhaled a breath of stale air, "Your Majesty, Lu Shushi is so disrespectful to you. He always refers to himself as 'I' in front of you, and this time he even called Your Majesty by your name. Even Yun Ji... cannot address Your Majesty like that yet."
He was both angry and aggrieved, his face covered in tears.
Lu Chengfeng paused, staring intently at Yun Ji, while Yun Ji was frightened by such a fierce gaze and timidly shrank behind Ling Wu.
"That's enough. You know perfectly well whether you did these things or not." Ling Wu stared at Lu Chengfeng with a face full of disappointment.
“I thought you were just not used to it at first, but I never expected you to be so vicious. Everyone in the palace knows that He Duanli loves to ride horses. He has no grudge against you, but you poisoned him on his horse out of vanity and jealousy, putting him in danger.”
"When you were in the Yongxiang Palace, I took pity on you and ordered Jingchun to save your life. But you became arrogant and proud because of this, pushing the work that should have been yours onto Yunji. Now you have repeatedly disrespected Yunji."
This was the first time Lu Chengfeng had seen Ling Wu speak so much since he transmigrated to the matriarchal dynasty.
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