She thought he wouldn't recognize her voice, but to her surprise, he knew who she was from just one word.
"ruler?"
He slowly crawled out of the corner of the water dungeon, his posture strange and laborious.
She remembered that his arms and legs had been broken by Yuwen Sheng, and they hadn't healed yet?
"Qiu, do you hate me?"
She suddenly asked.
He paused for a moment.
After a while.
In a low, hoarse voice, he asked in a trembling tone, "Ruler, do you hate me?"
Zheng Quchi said, "I was the one who asked that question first."
"But if we're talking about hatred, shouldn't you be the one who hates me first?" Qiu stopped moving. Perhaps he had already reached the furthest distance he was allowed to move, and the iron chains held him firmly in place.
“I never knew before that people could feel hatred towards someone who wanted to kill them. I didn’t understand what hatred was before, but now I think I do.”
In the empty stone cave, any slightest sound would be amplified, and even if he was murmuring, she could hear it clearly.
"Qiu, my feelings for you are too deep to say I hate you, and too shallow to say I don't hate you. You took my life once, and I was given a second chance at life. I'm not so magnanimous as to erase the past. I didn't hold a grudge before because I didn't have the right to hold a grudge. I know my own limitations."
"Now that you see me like this, has your hatred subsided?" he asked calmly.
Zheng Quchi squatted down by the dry pool. She couldn't really see his face and expression clearly. Firstly, because the light in the water dungeon was indeed too dim, and secondly, because he was now disheveled and unkempt, like a blurry black shadow.
“I came here specifically not to see how miserable you are. The matter between you and me cannot be explained in a few words. I know that you killed me not out of personal grudge, but simply to obey the orders of the Mo family. But Qiu, you are a human being, not a tool. You should learn to grow up and learn how to think independently.”
Qiu remained silent for a moment before saying, "You came to see me for something else, didn't you?"
"It seems that you have indeed thought a lot during this period of time, and you have come to understand the meaning from the sound," she said.
Qiu then said, "Something must have happened to Yuwen Sheng, otherwise he wouldn't have let you come to see me."
Zheng Quchi remained noncommittal to the probing in his words, only saying, "Qiu, do you recognize this symbol? I have a vague impression of it, but I just can't remember where I've seen it before."
She made a rubbing of a symbol on paper, then wrapped it around a stone and threw it to Qiu.
Qiu had spent more than half a year in the dark and had long been accustomed to it. He could see the pattern even in the faintest light. He fiddled with it for a moment, then closed his eyes: "...I know."
"Will you tell me?"
"Can I make a request?"
Zheng Quchi nodded: "Of course, except for the matter of releasing you and contacting the Mo family, which I cannot make decisions about."
"Can't you make the decision? Aren't you Yuwen Sheng's wife?" He suddenly turned cold.
Zheng Quchi never expected that he would be imprisoned here and also learn about this matter.
If that's all he asks for, then there's no point in discussing it.
"If you're not willing to help, then forget it."
She stood up, but heard him call out in a slightly panicked voice, "Don't go—"
Zheng Quchi stood there without moving, waiting for him to continue.
Sure enough, he stopped being coy and said directly, "I want a lamp. I want a lamp that never goes out, day and night."
A light that never goes out, day and night?
That's not difficult.
As long as there is enough oil, the wick will burn continuously.
Zheng Quchi hadn't expected his request to be so simple, so simple that it stung her conscience: "...Okay."
She summoned the guards and had them bring candles. Once the water dungeon was illuminated, she realized just how bad his condition was.
It was estimated that he hadn't been cleaned for more than half a year. His limbs were still locked up and limp. His hair was messy and tangled. His clothes were dirty and torn, and the fabric was so worn that the original color was indistinguishable. He looked no better than a beggar.
She frowned slightly: "Have your hands and feet been treated?"
"Do you think Yuwen Sheng would be so kind as to treat my injuries?" he retorted sarcastically.
She knew he harbored resentment. He used to be a man of few words, but simple and stubborn, single-minded to the end. Even killing was just a simple, thoughtless act. He was thinking with his left brain, without any emotional involvement.
But now he has changed.
After enduring torture and being imprisoned for more than half a year, he finally developed emotions and thoughts he had never had before.
This is a good thing, isn't it? Before, she always felt that he was just a tool, without a self, and only knew how to obey orders. But now he's like a person.
She returned to the main point and asked, "What is it?"
Qiu raised her dark eyes and stared quietly and intently at the woman in front of her. She had become fairer, plumper, and even more beautiful.
"This is the Mo family's private seal, which is only possessed by the Mo family's high-ranking members."
Zheng Quchi seemed unsurprised upon hearing this.
"The Mohists are here again."
She chuckled.
The laugh came out of nowhere.
Qiu asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"You know, the Mo family and my Zheng family have a feud."
"Know."
"Now that Yuwen Sheng is gone, they've come back with a vengeance. But this time, I won't give them another chance to silence me. If they dare to harm even a hair on my family's head, I can turn the entire Mo family upside down and make them live in chaos."
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