Hell on Earth
Inside the magistrate's hall, the bluestone floor reflected the rising morning light, and floating dust floated restlessly in the beam of light.
Liu Changxing crawled on the cold brick surface, the hem of his official robe was covered with dried mud, and every breath he took was trembling with despair.
Murong Mo sat upright in the main seat. The gold thread on the cuffs of his black python robe hurt his eyes. His fingertips tapped rhythmically on the rosewood armrests. Every crisp sound made Liu Changxing's back hunch a little more, and finally it almost broke and stuck to the ground.
"County Magistrate Liu."
Murong Mo's voice was like ice in the coldest days of winter. "You lied about the disaster and concealed the source of the poison, causing the people of Northern Xinjiang to die and become homeless."
His voice was solemn, and he grabbed the gavel and slammed it down, "Do you admit your guilt?!"
Liu Changxing's forehead slammed against the blue bricks. The dull thud made the dust on the beam fall down. Blood instantly gushed out from the cracked flesh and dripped down his nose into his trembling lips.
He kowtowed frantically, admitting his guilt. The blue brick soon became stained with dark red blood. "This humble official deserves death! Please, Your Highness, have mercy on me!"
"Yes—"
The moment Murong Mo changed the subject, Liu Changxing's dilated pupils suddenly contracted.
The gavel spun lightly on the table. "After the disaster, you opened the granaries to distribute grain and spent all your wealth to comfort the refugees. You can be considered to have returned to the right path after your mistakes."
A yellow silk imperial edict slipped from his sleeve. "You are allowed to make meritorious contributions while serving your sentence. If you can restore vitality to the Northern Frontier within three months, you will be allowed to remain in office."
Wen Ciyuan slowly blew away the tea foam, and the mist obscured the cold light in his eyes.
Liu Changxing held the imperial edict tremblingly, and suddenly knelt to the dead tree in front of the hall. With a tearing sound, he tore off the white cloth lining of his official robe and tied it to the branch.
As the cloth cut into the bark, he secretly pinched his fingertips and smeared the blood on the cracks: "If I betray the people, I will be like this tree, and I will cut myself off from the loess of the northern border!"
Wen Ciyuan watched the farce in front of the hall coldly, the celadon teacup turning slowly between his fingers. While Liu Changxing was performing the role of a loyal minister with tears in his eyes, he was stroking the secret report in his sleeve.
The file that Mo Yu sent this morning clearly stated: In the spring of the twelfth year of Yongkang, Murong Mo personally recommended the poor student Liu Changxing to be the chief clerk of the Northern Frontier. At that time, the prince was still able to ride a horse and draw a bow, and his left leg had not yet been crippled by the poisonous arrow at Yanmen Pass.
"Prime Minister, do you think this is an appropriate way to deal with this?" Murong Mo suddenly turned his head, and the wheelchair made a slight sound as it rolled over the blue bricks.
When Wen Ciyuan raised his eyes, his expression was already indifferent as usual: "Your Highness is clear about rewards and punishments, so that's naturally good."
Liu Changxing's face lit up with exaggerated joy, and he almost ran out of the hall, stumbling a little as the hem of his official robe swept across the threshold.
There were only two people sitting opposite each other in the bluestone hall. The sound of water in the copper kettle gradually changed from gurgling to a sharp hissing. White steam rose over the carved armrests of Murong Mo's wheelchair and condensed into a mist in his eyes.
"The Northern Frontier event is now over. We will return to Beijing in three days."
Wen Ciyuan held the kettle and poured tea, the arc of the water falling into the cup was perfect: "It is indeed time."
At one quarter past midnight, the northern Xinjiang region is immersed in gentle moonlight. The bluestone pavement reflects the bright and clear light. The newly hung mugwort under the eaves sways gently in the wind, and the air is filled with the faint bitter fragrance left by the decocted medicine in every household.
Zhang Quanfu, an old man selling pancakes, was smacking his lips in his sleep, with a half-eaten candy pill rolling beside his pillow. The coarse cloth clothes hanging on the windowsill were blown by the night breeze, making a soft rustling sound.
At this moment, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, and the piercing thunder awakened countless sleeping people. The lightning tore through the night sky like a silver snake, and in an instant, the entire city was illuminated palely.
Immediately afterwards, thunder rumbled, making the window frames buzz. A woman woke up from her light sleep and found that her pillow was empty. Her husband was no longer in bed.
Raindrops began to fall, first a few sparse drops, hitting the tiles and making a crisp sound, then in a blink of an eye, they became dense and heavy, pouring down like a river bursting its banks.
The woman put on her coat and whispered her husband's name, but there was no response.
She walked to the window and saw the shadows of the trees swaying in the rain, and the light and shadows distorted in the water. Suddenly, a scream that did not sound like a human voice pierced the sound of rain, and the woman's heart tightened.
"Husband?" she called again, her voice trembling unconsciously.
There was a sound of breaking porcelain from next door, but no answer, only some strange, wet chewing sound.
The woman pushed the door open and froze in place.
Her husband was squatting on the ground with his back to her, his shoulders shaking in an unnatural rhythm. Lying on the ground was the chicken they raised, its neck torn and blood oozing out. It mixed with the rainwater coming in from outside the door and dyed the entire ground red.
"Husband..." The woman's voice was stuck in her throat.
The man slowly turned his head. His eyes were no longer the gentle eyes that the woman was familiar with. Instead, they had turned into a turbid milky white. The corners of his mouth were stretched to an incredible width, and his blood-stained teeth were particularly eye-catching.
Thunder rolled across the sky again, as if playing the background music for this nightmare. In this bloody rainy night, death had just begun.
At this time, Qi Xiuming, who was awakened by the thunder, suddenly sat up from the couch. Heavy rain was pouring outside the window. He suddenly remembered the incident when Gu Nanzhi was a child and caught a cold due to thunder. He rushed into the rain without even fastening his coat.
"Nanzhi!"
He broke open the door of the wing room, the candlestick fell to the ground, the medicine bowl shattered into porcelain pieces, the bronze mirror on the dressing table cracked into spiderweb patterns, and the peach wood hairpin he had given her broke into two pieces.
Qi Xiuming opened his eyes wide. This is...
Footsteps came from the corridor.
He turned around in surprise, his tone filled with anxiety: "Where are you running to..."
The words got stuck in my throat.
Gu Nanzhi was standing only half a foot behind him, with the tip of her nose almost touching his cheek, but her almond-shaped eyes, which always smiled, were now filled with milk, and her mouth was stretched to her ears, revealing her fangs stained with blood.
She still had the peach blossoms he had picked that morning pinned in her hair, but the petals had already withered, turned black, and curled up.
"Nan...zhi?"
Qi Xiuming reached out to touch her shoulder, but his fingertips felt an icy coldness that was not like a normal human body temperature. Only then did he realize that her neck was covered with spider-web-like black lines.
The moment the thunder exploded, the monster Gu Nanzhi suddenly opened its mouth and bit his neck!
He was so scared that he collapsed on the ground, his vision blurred by the rain mixed with tears. The face that belonged to Gu Nanzhi was now filled with bloodthirsty madness.
"Why! The antidote was clearly working..." He growled hoarsely, digging his nails into the cracks in the bluestone, "Why... did it turn out like this..."
When the monster pounced on him on all fours, Qi Xiuming rolled and crawled to avoid it. He saw that the silver engagement hairpin in Gu Nanzhi's hair was piercing into his scalp as she moved, and dark green juice was oozing out.
"Nanzhi, wake up!" He tried to grab her wrist, but his touch felt cold skin. In desperation, he tore off the jade pendant from his waist and threw it at her. It was the token they exchanged when they secretly agreed to spend their lives together.
The jade pendant shattered on the monster's forehead. The monster paused and its movements slowed down a lot, but it returned to its original state after a moment, and an even more ferocious hoarse sound came from its throat.
Qi Xiuming's eyes lit up. She remembered! She remembered! There must be a way!
He turned and rushed towards the rain, every step he took was in blood. The sound of flesh tearing came from behind him. Qi Xiuming didn't dare to look back. Tears covered his face as he ran desperately towards Ruan Yunsheng's yard.
Shen Yunzhou will definitely find a way! He will definitely be able to save her!
Qi Xiuming's palm left a bloody mark on Shen Yunzhou's door, and his roar split the rain curtain: "Shen Yunzhou! Save her, please save her!"
The door suddenly opened, and Shen Yunzhou's outer robe slipped half off his shoulders. When he saw the scene in the corridor clearly, his pupils suddenly shrank.
Qi Xiuming was kneeling in a pool of blood, soaked all over, while Gu Nanzhi, who was on all fours ten steps away, was staring at him with milky white eyes.
"how so?"
Before Shen Yunzhou finished speaking, Wen Ciyuan arrived like a black eagle.
As the black robe sleeves fluttered, Wen Ciyuan dodged the sharp claws and hit Gu Nanzhi's knee accurately with the scabbard of his sword. The monster roared and pounced on him. He turned around and wrapped his belt around its neck. The neck was scratched by the accessories on it, and blood flowed. The fabric was instantly corroded and emitted green smoke.
"Activate her Baihui acupoint!"
When Wen Ciyuan shouted, the hilt of the sword had already pressed against the monster's back. Shen Yunzhou's silver needle broke through the air and the moment it pierced, Gu Nanzhi suddenly let out an inhuman scream.
Qi Xiuming took the opportunity to pounce and held down the struggling legs and feet with his body. Wen Ciyuan pulled down the curtain in front of the hall, soaked it in rainwater and twisted it into a rope, and tied the monster tightly to the stone bench.
At this moment, Murong Mo was also awakened by the huge noise. He hurried over and was shocked when he saw the scene in front of him.
Qi Xiuming's fingers were almost digging into Murong Mo's luxurious clothes, his voice torn by extreme anger and fear: "Antidote! Hand over the real antidote!"
However, Murong Mo seemed to have not heard his roar at all. He slumped in his wheelchair, his face paler than a dead person. His once sharp and deep eyes now stared blankly at the monster on the chair that was constantly twitching and emitting inhuman roars. His lips moved silently, and he kept muttering the same words: "Impossible... This is impossible... How could it be..."
He seemed to have his soul sucked out of him, and was completely trapped in some kind of huge, incomprehensible horror and despair. He did not respond to the external pull and questioning.
This completely infuriated Qi Xiuming. His last hope seemed to be completely shattered in Murong Mo's distraught state. Bloodshot filled his eyes, and he raised his fist to strike down.
"Your Highness!" The trusted guard behind Murong Mo shouted loudly, and the long sword was instantly unsheathed half an inch, with a cold light pointing directly at Qi Xiuming. The atmosphere instantly became tense to the extreme.
At this tense moment——
“Cough… cough cough…”
A suppressed and painful cough came from the side. Wen Ciyuan was about to step forward to stop Qi Xiuming, but suddenly his body trembled and he covered his mouth with his hands.
Dark red blood seeped out uncontrollably from between his fingers, dripping onto his plain clothes, leaving glaring marks.
Everyone paused.
Wen Ciyuan felt a familiar, cold numbness rapidly spreading from his heart to his limbs. He seemed to realize something and suddenly tore open his collar.
Sure enough, the strange black line, like a living poison ivy, had quietly climbed up his chest and was spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Ci Yuan!"
A scream of extreme fear was heard, and Ruan Yunsheng, who had been paying close attention to the situation, turned pale in an instant. She no longer cared about anything else and rushed to his side with her skirt lifted up.
She saw the blood flowing from between his fingers and his face suddenly turned pale, and she was completely panicked.
"Ci Yuan? What's wrong with you? Don't scare me..."
Her voice was trembling noticeably. Her cold, slender fingers carefully and with endless panic touched the corner of his blood-stained lips. Then she eagerly cupped his cheek, trying to see what was happening in his eyes. "What's wrong with you? Why are you coughing up blood?"
Her touch was as gentle as a feather, yet filled with an unconcealable fear, as if she was afraid that if she used a little more force, the person in front of her would shatter.
Wen Ciyuan felt her slightly cold and trembling fingertips on his cheek, saw the tears in her eyes and the complete fear, and the cold and numb feeling that suddenly spread in his heart seemed to be stung by this burning worry.
The shadow of death not only strangled Wen Ciyuan's throat, but also instantly dragged Ruan Yunsheng into the ice cellar.
Murong Mo was slumped in a wheelchair, taking in all of this. The madness and ridicule on his face gradually faded away, replaced by a deeper, almost numb dejection.
He murmured to himself, his voice so soft that it was almost inaudible, yet with a chilling understanding: "...As expected...it's all the same...no one can escape...no one can escape..."
Wen Ciyuan slowly raised his head and wiped the blood from the corner of his lips. He took a deep breath and forced himself to suppress the turmoil in his heart and the strange corrosive feeling that was spreading rapidly.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again. The panic in his eyes had been replaced by a cold determination. He pulled up his clothes to cover the terrible mark. His voice was unusually calm, but it carried a heavy burden.
"Murong Mo,"
Wen Ciyuan's voice broke the suffocating silence, "What on earth is this? Explain clearly."
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