The two embraced tightly, tears instantly blurring their vision.
She went through many dangers and finally met her; thankfully, she was still alive.
And she finally survived countless days and nights of despair and pain. When she appeared, thankfully she was still alive.
For some reason, the two people embracing at this moment seemed to be as affectionate as long-lost friends. No one would believe that they had only been doctors and patients for a few short days at the Prince of Qin's residence, nothing more.
Or perhaps, the most beautiful encounters in life often become eternal in a single moment.
None of them could have imagined that their reunion after parting ways at the Prince of Qin's residence would be under such circumstances, and each of them was filled with mixed emotions.
Suddenly, Yu Niang snapped out of her daze and hurriedly pushed Yi Shangyun away. She immediately knelt before her and kowtowed repeatedly, saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's all Yu Niang's fault. Yu Niang shouldn't have been so eager to hear news of my safety before I died that I made a deal with them, telling them the name of the woman in the portrait they had—your name. That's why they arrested you too. Yu Niang truly deserves to die, deserves to die a thousand deaths, no, no, even if I die a thousand deaths, Yu Niang can't escape my guilt..."
Yi Shangyun was stunned by the sudden and astonishing scene before her eyes. When she came to her senses, she quickly reached out and groped in the dark again to pull Yu Niang out, saying, "Get up quickly, it's okay, it's okay, it's really okay. This is not your fault. I came here to find you."
"What? Miss Yi came looking for me?" Upon hearing this, Yu Niang suddenly stopped what she was doing and asked in a daze.
Yi Shangyun smiled and nodded, and the two of them helped each other to sit down on the ground against the corner of the wall. Yi Shangyun then held Yu Niang's hand and said slowly, "On New Year's Eve, I saw my mother-in-law and Ling'er at the Qin Prince's mansion. Only then did I learn that you were willing to come to such a place to inquire about your husband in order to find him. I thought I would come here to see you while I still had time, but I didn't expect that something really happened to you. Yu Niang, you have suffered so much."
“No, Yu Niang is not suffering. As long as she can find her husband and reunite with her family, she would do anything, even go through fire and water. It’s just a pity that he said Ping An is already… dead.” Yu Niang said, her voice trembling as she wiped away her tears.
"Dead? Who said that?... Right, you just said that before you died..." Yi Shangyun asked with a furrowed brow and full of doubt as she listened to Yu Niang's words.
Yu Niang thought for a moment and said, "Ever since I returned to Wan Jiao Pavilion, they have continued to give me various kinds of medicinal soups every day without fail. Until a few days ago, the madam brought a masked man here. At first, I thought my time had come. But then the man said he had news of Ping An, on the condition that I tell him the name of the woman in the portrait. I... I missed Ping An so much, I wanted to know if he was alive or dead, so I told them. But they told me that Ping An was dead. After that, the madam came towards me with a sharp dagger. I thought I was going to die, but I was still lingering on in this dark dungeon. Rather than living like this without any hope, I might as well just die and be done with it..."
As soon as she finished speaking, Yu Niang burst into tears again.
Yi Shangyun quickly grasped her hand and comforted her, "No hope? Yu Niang, how can you say there's no hope? Ling'er and your mother-in-law, aren't they your real hope? Besides, how can you believe the words of those bad people? Just because they say your husband is dead, does that mean he's really dead? Good people are rewarded, and Heaven has eyes; it certainly wouldn't dare to take a life in vain."
"But so many years have passed. It's been too long, I really can't take it anymore..." Yu Mian's words and expression showed exhaustion and helplessness.
However, Yi Shangyun firmly said, "Since you love your husband so much... 'I want to see him alive or dead.' Even if he's dead and buried in the dust, I still want to dig up his bones and examine them. How can you be so self-destructive unless you see it with your own eyes? That's the attitude you should have, isn't it?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Yu Niang felt an inexhaustible surge of power welling up inside her. Her breathing became much easier, and her eyes widened instantly, radiating a brilliant light. She exclaimed, "Yes, yes, yes, I shouldn't give up, I can't give up."
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangyun finally breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.
Just then, Yu Niang suddenly started coughing violently and continuously, "Cough...cough...cough cough cough...cough cough cough..."
Yi Shangyun hurriedly patted her back anxiously, "What's wrong? Why are you coughing so badly all of a sudden... water... water... someone come here, someone come here!"
Seeing that she was coughing and unable to speak, she quickly let go of Yu Niang's hand, stood up against the wall, and frantically tried to reach the door for water. However, she tripped and fell to the ground after only a few steps. A scream rang out as her wrist was cut by something, and blood immediately flowed. Before she could treat it, Yu Niang's coughing, which sounded like she was about to suffocate, made her already fearful heart even more terrified.
Finally, she reached the door and pounded on it, shouting, "Give me water! I need water! Give me water now!"
Sure enough, the guards outside heard the noise and quickly came over, opened the small window on the door, and shouted, "What are you shouting for? It's not like someone died. If you shout again, I'll get rough with you."
"Give me water quickly! If there's no water, do you think people will die?" Yi Shangyun shouted angrily at him without fear, while showing his wrist, which he had accidentally cut earlier, to the small window.
Upon seeing this, the guard was indeed quite frightened. After a moment of hesitation, he immediately went over and handed her a small pot of water and a white porcelain teacup, and then quickly closed the small window.
Without the slightest hesitation, Yi Shangyun followed the wall again, groping his way step by step in the dark until he found Yu Niang, poured her a bowl of water and fed her.
Little did she know that as she was pouring water for her in the dark, countless drops of blood from the untreated wound on her wrist dripped into the teacup and were drunk by Yu Niang along with it.
Not long after Yu Niang swallowed the bowl of bloody water, her cough stopped. Only then did Yi Shangyun ask with concern, "Are you feeling any better? Drink some more."
By this time, Yu Niang was able to hold the teacup herself, so Yi Shangyun freed his hand to take her pulse. He exclaimed in surprise, "You've been poisoned! It looks like some different kinds of slow-acting poisons that have accumulated over time to form a potent toxin."
Just then, with a creak, the door to the dark room was suddenly opened again. Under the long-lost, dazzling light, dust flew up and slowly revealed the figure of a tall and imposing man.
"Light the lamps!" The man stood ramrod straight in the doorway and commanded in a deep voice.
Immediately afterwards, a guard entered carrying an oil lamp and lit all the oil lamps in the four corners of the secret room.
The secret room was instantly brightly lit, unlike anything seen before.
The man came alone this time and did not wear a mask to conceal his identity, so Yu Niang was still unaware of his true identity.
Only after a long while, as she gradually adjusted to the bright environment, did she exclaim in surprise, "You are... how is it you?"
Before the man could speak, Yi Shangyun stood up and angrily cursed, "You bastard, you liar! You actually locked me up in a place like this! You have no integrity and dare to dream of cooperating with me! You're treacherous, despicable, and shameless! You'll never get the chance! Now, what do you want? Just say it!"
With one hand behind his back, Tuoba Ze chuckled and retorted, "Hmph, Miss Yi, do you really believe that you would willingly and obediently return to Beilie with me? I'd like to ask you, what exactly are you up to?"
"So you are the prince of the Northern Lie Kingdom, and also the master of this Wanjiao Pavilion. Why did you lie to me?" Yu Niang suddenly realized what was going on and murmured softly.
"The poison in your body..." Upon hearing this, Tuoba Ze looked at Yu Niang's face, seemingly feeling quite guilty and uneasy, yet unable to speak due to a deep-seated secret.
But under the bright lights, when he saw Yu Niang's rosy and healthy complexion and her extremely energetic spirit, Tuoba Ze hurriedly came forward, half-squatted down, grabbed her wrist, and eagerly began to take her pulse.
After a long while, as if he had confirmed it in his heart, he suddenly stared at her in surprise and exclaimed, "Your poison... it's actually cured? How did this happen?"
Looking at his surprised eyes, Yu Niang forcefully pulled her hand away from his tight grip and said with a bitter smile, "Hmph, so you knew about my poisoning; or did you know about my poisoning all along; or... was this all done by your Northern Lie Kingdom's Crown Prince Tuoba Ze?"
Faced with the questioning of a woman he longed to love but could not, he was utterly speechless. Perhaps, silence was the best response he could offer.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, he shifted his gaze to Yi Shangyun's eyes and said, "It's you? How did you manage to cure this beauty's blood poison?"
"What? Beauty's blood?" Upon hearing Tuoba Ze's words, Yi Shangyun finally came to his senses and looked up at him in surprise. There really was such a thing as beauty's blood in this world.
Upon reflection, Tuoba Ze said that I was the one who cured the poison of the beauty's blood, but all I did was check Yu Niang's pulse to confirm that she was poisoned; I didn't do anything else. She quickly checked Yu Niang's pulse again, and sure enough, her pulse was steady and gentle, completely different from the pulse she had checked in the dark.
Then, her gaze fell on the wound on her wrist, and she felt a slight pain. She then tore a piece off the hem of her skirt and used it to quickly bandage the wound.
Suddenly, in the bright candlelight, she clearly saw the bloodstains remaining in the white porcelain teacup that Yu Niang had just drunk from—stains now stained red with her own blood. A chill ran through her, and she murmured in disbelief, "Could it be...my blood..."
Tuoba Ze only vaguely heard a few words she murmured, then looked at her and asked, "What blood?"
Yi Shangyun snapped out of her daze, but quickly interrupted his questioning with a lie, "Oh, my blood, it's dark here, I accidentally tripped and fell, broke a teacup, cut my wrist, and bled a lot, look... oh, my head... I'm so dizzy, so dizzy, so dizzy..."
As she spoke, she showed off the wound that she had just bandaged and was still bleeding, and then pretended to massage her temples.
Yu Niang, who was standing nearby, believed her and quickly stood up to help her sit down. "Miss Yi, is it because of your wound? Quickly sit down and rest for a while, and take care of yourself."
He then revealed a worried expression, but Yi Shangyun avoided Tuoba Ze's eyes and secretly gave Yu Niang a wink, and Yu Niang then understood.
However, Tuoba Ze was currently preoccupied with what he was thinking: Yu Niang had been locked up in this secret chamber for so long without any problems, but as soon as Yi Shangyun entered, the poison was neutralized. Even a fool could guess that she was the one who cured the poison. But what exactly did she use to neutralize it?
It turns out this woman is truly an extremely mysterious expert in detoxification. She was able to cure the almost incurable poison of beauty's blood without anyone noticing. It seems we've really struck gold this time.
Bringing her back to Beilie would be the right decision. Even if she wasn't willing to serve him now, he believed that one day she would change her mind. On that day, he would be like a tiger with wings, and would surely conquer the world.
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