Chapter 137 Don't Believe the Fakes
Gao Huan felt he should be relieved, because the other person had returned to normal, but he still couldn't stop trembling.
"Are you cold? The ground is chilly, get up and talk."
Guan Zhiwei put her arm around him, picked him up, and pushed him onto the bed. His hands, resting on Guan Zhiwei's shoulders, were still trembling.
She knelt down on the ground, rested her head on Gao Huan's knees, and murmured, "So you were scared. Don't be afraid, I'm just disappointed."
"Disappointed in Zhijun Yuan?"
"Even after becoming emperor, he didn't go home."
Guan Zhiwei closed her eyes: "It's always like this. I'm exhausted, tired of everything that exists. I just want to find a corner to shrink into. Then something pops up, tempting me to try harder. If I try, maybe I can go home. But all my efforts are in vain."
Gao Huan's face turned pale. He was already very fair-skinned, but now he was deathly pale.
He said that becoming emperor might allow him to return home, so why not give it a try?
Guan Zhiwei tried, but was disappointed.
He tried to kneel down to beg for forgiveness, but Guan Zhiwei held his legs firmly down as soon as he moved.
"Don't move."
"Yes." Gao Huan's body stiffened, and he remained motionless.
Like a drowning person, with ringing ears, instinctively holding their breath, a strong feeling of pressure in their chest, and their heart pounding like a drum, extreme fear makes their consciousness somewhat blurred, and they feel weightless and falling downwards, about to suffocate.
But he didn't actually move at all, because Guan Zhiwei was pressing him down.
She was very strong, yet she was also light and airy, as if she hadn't exerted any force at all.
He was just too tense.
He was lost in thought several times, but then came back to his senses and heard every word clearly.
"Gao Huan, I miss my mom, I want to go home."
"I don't remember what my mother looks like."
"But as soon as I see her, I can remember her immediately."
“She can’t live without me, Gao Huan. My mom can’t live without me. She only has me left.”
Guan Zhiwei's face was covered in tears by the end of her story.
This was the first time he had ever seen her cry.
The feeling was no less than seeing a tiger belly dancing.
He was terrified, yet he also felt so sorry for her; he was being driven crazy by the tension.
Their eyes met.
His voice trembled slightly: "Then what should we do?"
Kill them, of course we should kill them.
Guan Zhiwei wiped away her tears, stood up, her face shrouded in shadow, and said expressionlessly, "Go kill Zhi Junyuan. I dreamt about him. You have a hundred lives. I want to see what happens when a bug meets another bug."
Gao Huan couldn't understand her words, but he understood her commands.
"I'll do it."
He picked up the bottle of poison, clenched it tightly in his hand, and sweat broke out on his brow.
The rain was still falling, and a tile on the roof was leaking. I secretly went inside and watched the rain dripping through the window until dawn.
There was no earthy fragrance after the rain, only a faint fishy smell. The room had been kept tightly closed, which created a strange odor.
Knowing you're far away, he felt listless and leaned against the wall, his beard unkempt. Hearing the door open, he didn't look up at first, but when a pair of official boots came into view, he slightly raised his eyelids.
"Lord Gao, why do you keep coming here instead of vying for His Majesty's favor? Have you fallen out of favor too?" he said sarcastically.
"By order of His Majesty, I have come to send you on your way."
Gao Huan was holding a tray with a wine jug on it, the poison already mixed in.
Zhi Junyuan was stunned for a moment, his first reaction was resistance, he didn't believe it at all: "You're falsely conveying His Majesty's edict, trying to kill me?"
Everyone thought His Majesty wouldn't be so heartless, including Zhi Junyuan.
Gao Huan, however, knew very well that this had nothing to do with feelings.
This was just her trying it out.
"Do you think that with the passage of time and the fading of this matter, His Majesty will still remember you? Don't even think about it anymore; death is your only end."
"If you want me dead, you'll need a formal decree!" Zhi Junyuan sat upright. She was the Empress personally appointed by His Majesty, and even if she were deposed, her life wouldn't be ended so easily.
Gao Huan shook his head: "There will be no official decree. I will be the only one to send you on your way. I may be punished afterward, but this is indeed His Majesty's will."
"You're trying to trick me into dying; your methods are as despicable as ever."
"Knowing you're far away, at least try to be more dignified."
"The most undignified thing I've ever done in my life is being a fool. She only loved me briefly, yet I foolishly dreamed of having a home with her," Zhi Junyuan sneered repeatedly.
Gao Huan said expressionlessly, "His Majesty asked me to convey a message to you—I have never loved you. You are not even as good as Gao Huan. At least he chose loyalty and filial piety, while you have neither."
Zhi Junyuan's expression changed drastically.
He could almost see that heartless face through the layers of walls.
Only she could utter such words, so cold and ruthless as to be mocking.
She called me an unfaithful and unfilial person, even though she knew I wasn't! But I was loyal and filial to both!
"You knew my weakness all along, and used it without hesitation."
His vision was blurred by tears, and he laughed uncontrollably until his clothes were soaked with tears. Suddenly, he leaped up, snatched the wine pot, and without using a cup, drank straight from the spout, tilting his head back and drinking deeply.
Snap.
The empty wine jug was lying on the ground.
Gao Huan completed the mission, but his mood remained heavy.
Zhi Junyuan's gaze was fixed straight ahead, hovering in the void.
Death was approaching, he was lifeless, feeling his life slowly being stripped away, and he had no more attachment to this world.
He slowly closed his eyes, a tear sliding down his cheek. He would die in sorrow.
Suddenly, he seemed to see something, his eyes snapped open, pupils contracted, and he said urgently, "She lied to me, remember that, she lied to me! Nothing else matters, she lied to me!"
He spoke hastily and somewhat incoherently, and with a sharp pain in his chest, he vomited a mouthful of blood, which splattered onto Gao Huan's face.
Gao Huan was puzzled. "She lied to you. Didn't you already know about this? Why are you in such a hurry all of a sudden?"
Zhi Junyuan stumbled forward and lunged forward, grabbing Gao Huan's shoulders. His face was filled with indescribable anxiety as he desperately tried to say, "...She lied... Huan... It's fake... It's fake..."
"What? What are you saying?" Gao Huan realized that Zhi Junyuan seemed to have some important information to convey. He put his hands on Zhi Junyuan's shoulder and listened attentively.
"...Don't...believe..."
Zhi Junyuan's eyes widened as the building collapsed with a crash, leaving only endless dust being stirred up by the strong wind and then slowly falling back down, intertwining with the sunlight and dancing continuously.
Gao Huan was knocked to the ground, feeling dizzy and disoriented, but he didn't care about himself and quickly went to look for Zhi Junyuan, wanting to hear him say something more.
He is dead.
Gao Huan rubbed his face, trying hard to remember every word he said and analyze it.
I still don't understand.
What don't you believe? What's fake?
Since there was no one around, were he saying these things to me?
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