Chapter 79 Miss, why don't you come back to my residence with me for a few days...
The Crown Prince did not let go despite hearing his thoughts. Instead, Yun Kui, when looked at by Sheng Yu's seemingly unintentional gaze, instinctively stiffened and slowly withdrew her hand from the Crown Prince's palm.
The Crown Prince glanced at her, then stopped pressing her. He turned his gaze to Feng Yu, who was kneeling on the ground, and sneered, "General Feng, you have worked hard all these years to hide your true identity. Now that you have seen the light of day again, are you getting used to it?"
Feng Yu clenched his back teeth, the muscles at the corners of his mouth twitching slightly: "Your Highness, I do not know what you are talking about."
"My identity is known only to Heaven and Earth; apart from His Majesty, I have never revealed it to a second person. How could the other two possibly know?"
The Crown Prince chuckled lightly, but his gaze turned cold in an instant: "It's time to settle the old score between me and General Feng from the Battle of Wolf Mountain back then."
He ordered in a deep voice, "Take him away."
Qin Ge immediately obeyed the order and stepped forward to bind Feng Yu's hands and feet. The remaining men in black, leaderless, were also subdued one by one by the Crown Prince's secret guards.
Yun Kui kept her eyes down, her heart filled with a complex mix of resentment towards her father, a lingering curiosity and anticipation, and a feeling akin to the trepidation of returning home.
But at that moment, he noticed a dark red bloodstain on Sheng Yu's arm.
"Was he injured too?"
She then raised her head, and their eyes met. Sheng Yu hesitated to speak, while Yun Kui clutched the hem of her clothes, unsure of what to do with her hands and feet.
The Crown Prince's gaze swept over the wound on Sheng Yu's arm. "Thank you for your help today, General Sheng. You are injured, so please come with me back to the East Palace to get it bandaged."
"So your surname is Sheng..."
Sheng Yu cupped his hands and said, "Your humble servant obeys the decree."
Cao Yuanlu ordered the carriage to be re-harnessed. Seeing the young lady and the future father-in-law of the emperor being reserved with each other, he quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "Your Highness's headache has flared up. It would be best to return to the palace for treatment as soon as possible. Lord Sheng is also injured and should not be jostled around immediately. Why don't you get in the carriage together to get bandaged and rest?"
Yun Kui's eyes flickered, and she clenched her fingers tightly.
"If he gets in the carriage, wouldn't we be running into each other all the time... Your Highness, I'm not ready yet..."
She said this to the Crown Prince in her heart.
Upon hearing this, the Crown Prince was about to speak when Sheng Yu noticed his daughter's embarrassment. He thought there was no rush to recognize her and decided it was best not to make her feel uncomfortable, so he said, "The injury is minor and nothing to worry about. I'll ride my horse."
"This isn't good. What if the wound reopens? Wouldn't that make things worse?"
The crown prince frowned and ordered, "Prepare two carriages."
Cao Yuanlu hurriedly sent people to make preparations, and two carriages soon came to a stop. A hint of anticipation rose in Sheng Yu's eyes.
"If I have the chance to share a carriage with the young lady, I can explain the past to her. Even if she is unwilling to acknowledge me for the time being, it would be good to be able to talk to her. Today is also her birthday..."
Yun Kui became uneasy again.
"Does he know I'm His Highness's bedchamber maid? If not..."
Before she could continue guessing, the Crown Prince took her hand and said, "Let's go back to the palace first."
Sheng Yu watched helplessly as the Crown Prince led the girl onto the carriage.
He was full of doubts and didn't know where to start asking. When His Highness said that the young lady worked in the Eastern Palace, he thought she was just an ordinary palace maid, but he didn't know that the two of them were so close.
Cao Yuanlu invited Sheng Yu into another carriage and said in a low voice, "Lord Sheng, you may not know this, but the young lady has a special sunflower scent that can help His Highness relieve his headaches. Therefore, she has been serving him closely in Chengguang Hall."
Sheng Yu suddenly realized, "So that's how it is."
No wonder His Highness travels in the same carriage with her.
Sheng Yu suddenly remembered that her mother, Qi Ying, also seemed to have a fresh floral fragrance, but it was mostly covered by the scent of medicine and could only be smelled when you got close. Perhaps this was hereditary.
He sighed softly, never expecting that the young lady and His Highness would have such a predestined connection.
Cao Yuanlu dared not offer too many suggestions, since His Highness had not given any instructions, and it was best to proceed step by step.
Upon returning to the East Palace, He Bailing was already waiting for him in Chengguang Hall.
After taking the Crown Prince's pulse, he pondered for a moment and asked, "Your Highness, was your headache today triggered by the bathing Buddha's fragrant water?"
Based on Emperor Chunming's thoughts, the Crown Prince roughly guessed that "my headache is not caused by congenital deficiency, but by Gu worms."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the hall was shocked.
For a century, the current dynasty has banned Gu poison and imposed severe punishments on those who practice it. Over the past hundred years, no one has dared to use this dark and evil technique to make money or kill people. Even Cao Yuanlu and Sheng Yu had only heard of it, and Yun Kui had never heard of it before.
He Bailing asked in surprise, "How did Your Highness know this?"
The Crown Prince simply said, "It's a conspiracy between Emperor Chunming and Feng Yu."
Cao Yuanlu hurriedly asked, "Does the army doctor have a way to cure the poison?"
He Bailing had read some toxic scriptures about Gu poison before. "Finding the person who cast the Gu and refining the antidote is the fastest way. If it is a child Gu, then the mother Gu must be destroyed and the child Gu will naturally be cured. Apart from that, there are some unorthodox and baseless spells. If Your Highness wants to cure the Gu, you need to find out what kind of Gu it is so that you can prescribe the right medicine."
Sheng Yu clenched his fists tightly. "Your Highness has been plagued by headaches since birth. Could it be that a Gu worm has been implanted in your body since then?"
As soon as the words were spoken, everyone felt a chill in their hearts, and Yun Kui's eyes immediately welled up with tears.
Gu magic is inherently cruel and vicious, and is unacceptable to the world, let alone when it is used on a newborn child!
The prince was pale, had a dull pain in his head, and was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat.
If it weren't for his mind-reading ability, he would still be kept in the dark and unable to find a cure; this worm might even torment him for the rest of his life.
On occasions like today, if he hadn't heard Emperor Chunming's thoughts beforehand, the poison in the incense would have caused him to lose control in front of everyone before he stepped onto the altar.
He remembered his past madness, even accidentally killing someone...
The prince clenched his fists and closed his eyes tightly.
Feng Yu was imprisoned in the East Palace's torture chamber, knowing his life was in danger. He never imagined that the secret he had kept for twenty years would be known to the Crown Prince and Sheng Yu!
Back then, he secretly colluded with the enemy. In order not to arouse the suspicion of the late emperor, he risked his life and was shot in the right cheek by a crossbow of the Northern Wei. He managed to get away with it by hiding among the dead, making everyone think that he was buried in Langshan.
Even though he managed to extricate himself later, his face was completely injured, and he could only show his face with a mask.
Despite paying such a heavy price and concealing her appearance and identity for twenty years, she never expected that the Crown Prince would still discover her true identity!
His Majesty will certainly not tell anyone, and his wife is also imprisoned and has no contact with outsiders.
As for Sheng Yu, he had been repeatedly assassinated over the years and was already too busy to take care of himself. Being in Pengcheng Guard, he had never seen him before, having changed his appearance and become the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. It was only this year that he was suddenly transferred back to the capital by the Crown Prince, which was really strange.
But how did the Crown Prince find out? He wasn't even born when the Battle of Wolf Mountain took place.
Footsteps sounded outside the cell. Feng Yu looked up and saw that it was the Crown Prince and Sheng Yu who had come.
The Crown Prince cut straight to the point, staring coldly at him and said, "Twenty years ago, General Feng was already a third-rank official with a promising future. Why did you betray the late Emperor and collude with the enemy to sell out the country? Or did Emperor Chunming offer you some benefits that made you prefer to be a rat in the gutter, a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who could never show his true face, rather than be ennobled and promoted step by step?"
Feng Yu had nothing to argue about. Since he was still alive and his identity had been exposed, the Crown Prince must have already thoroughly investigated his past actions of faking his death to betray the enemy.
“A defeated opponent, I have nothing to say.” His hideous face was half-hidden in shadow. “But there is one thing I do not understand. Your Highness has never seen my true face. Everyone in the court believes that I died twenty years ago. No one has ever doubted my identity. How did Your Highness know this?”
The crown prince naturally wouldn't tell him that he had a little lucky star by his side who could enter his dreams.
He also knew that no amount of torture would help such a patient person.
However, on the way here, he heard Feng Yu say the word "wife" in his mind. It seems that apart from Emperor Chunming, Feng Yu's wife also knows about his actions over the years, but she has been imprisoned by him.
The crown prince pondered for a moment, then chuckled and said, "Naturally, it was your wife who told me."
Feng Yu suddenly stood up, gripping the cell door tightly, his burned cheek twitching slightly. "She's in your hands? What have you done to her?"
Even Sheng Yu, who was standing to the side, looked astonished.
As far as he knew, Feng Yu's wife was frail and sickly. Twenty years ago, when she heard that he had died in Langshan, she was heartbroken and soon passed away. Could it be that she did not die?
That makes sense. Since Feng Yu is living as Lu Qi, he must hide his wife, otherwise his identity would be easily exposed.
The Crown Prince followed his words and said, "She is a guest in the lonely palace. If we want her life to be safe, we will need General Feng's cooperation."
Feng Yu immediately roared, "Haven't you already found out everything you wanted to know? Everything back then was done by me alone, it has nothing to do with her, so let her go!"
The Crown Prince smiled enigmatically: "So, it was you who poisoned me with the Gu poison?"
Feng Yu's eyes widened in surprise; he hadn't expected that the man even knew this.
His mind raced in confusion as he thought, "Yes... the Gu doctor from back then is long gone. I'm the only one in the world who can cure this. If you kill me, the Gu worms will haunt you for life, torturing you to death! You can't kill me..."
The Crown Prince scoffed, "If this Gu were effective against me, I should have gone completely insane and lost control in front of everyone at the Prajna Temple today. Have you considered why?"
Feng Yu's expression changed drastically. "You've been cured of the Gu? Impossible! I clearly saw your headache flare up today; the Gu worm must still be on you!"
The Crown Prince said, "It is still there, but there is a woman by my side who can suppress the activity of the Gu worms. She has been by my side for only half a year, and my headache has never flared up once. Even if you used a sufficient amount of incense poison today, the effect on me would be negligible."
Feng Yu had no choice but to believe him; otherwise, how could the Crown Prince have remained rational at the Prajna Temple today?
Feng Yu gripped the prison door tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.
Upon hearing this, Sheng Yu glanced at the Crown Prince again. Was the woman he was referring to his daughter?
Feng Yu murmured, "No, it won't... As long as the Gu worm doesn't die, it will always rise from the ashes, unless it dies completely..."
The crown prince looked at him with amusement: "Don't you know that if a Gu worm is suppressed for a long time and loses its vitality, it will eventually dissolve on its own within the body over the years?"
Feng Yu's eyes widened: "Impossible!"
His cloudy eyes darted anxiously, and his damaged face was contorted in extreme pain.
"No... That Gu doctor said that there is no cure for this Gu, and it is immortal and indestructible. Unless a person kills the Gu worm inside their body when it is most active, it will trap the Gu worm for life until the person dies..."
"Now that he has that woman by his side, the Gu worms can't function properly and will remain in his skull forever. In the future, if they are stimulated, they can still drive him mad and cause him to die in agony!"
The Crown Prince heard his thoughts clearly. He had only been using words to deceive him, and he had indeed managed to extract the solution to the Gu worm.
He chuckled and said to the people in the cell, "I have something to discuss with your wife. General Feng, please take care of yourself."
Having said that, he turned and left, leaving Feng Yu behind, desperately pounding on the prison door: "She knows nothing! Only I can cure your poison. If you release her, I will cure His Highness!"
After leaving the torture chamber, the Crown Prince summoned Qin Ge: "Feng Yu's wife is still alive. Go and find out immediately."
Qin Ge immediately bowed and accepted the order.
The Crown Prince then told He Bailing about the antidote for the Gu poison he had just heard.
He glanced at Yun Kui beside him and said, "You cannot stay by my side during this time."
Yun Kui roughly understood that although she could suppress the Gu worms temporarily by staying in the East Palace, she could not completely eradicate them. His Highness needed to stimulate the Gu worms under certain conditions to completely kill them.
However, this method would also cause him immense pain, and he would have to maintain a sliver of rationality on the verge of losing control, swiftly and decisively eliminating the Gu worms; otherwise, he might very well go to the other extreme, go into madness, lose control, and explode to his death...
Yun Kui was filled with worry, and said in a trembling voice, "I...I still have to stay with Your Highness. Is it alright if I don't go into Chengguang Hall?"
At this moment, Sheng Yu suddenly spoke up: "Why don't you come back to my residence with me for a few days, and wait until His Highness is cured of the Gu poison, then we can... decide based on the situation?"
Everyone in the hall turned to look at him.
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