"Xin Kui!" she shouted sharply, her voice filled with unprecedented authority and urgency. "Prepare the carriage immediately! Go to the Imperial Hospital! No! Go directly to the Lin residence! Invite Miss Lin Wanyi! Immediately! Right now!"
"Yes!" Xin Kui dashed out like an arrow released from a bow.
Clutching the cold box, Xin Jiuwei turned and ran towards the study, saying to Qin Lang, "General Qin, please come with me! You Ye! Seal off all news from Jingyuan! No one is allowed to enter or leave! Anyone who disobeys will be killed!"
Her command was decisive, carrying a ruthless, all-or-nothing intensity. You Ye and Qin Lang both stiffened and immediately obeyed. Jingyuan instantly became like a taut bowstring, filled with a chilling atmosphere.
The study was brightly lit. Xin Jiuwei placed the heavy oilcloth wrapping on the desk, her fingers trembling slightly from tension and effort. She took a deep breath and, with all her might, tore open the layers of oilcloth.
The oilcloth peeled off, revealing an ancient and heavy rosewood box inside. The box was plain, with only a small but unusually complex brass lock.
"Where's the key?" Xin Jiuwei wondered anxiously. Qin Lang shook his head beside her: "His Highness only mentioned the box, not the key."
Xin Jiuwei's gaze was fixed on the brass lock. Before Xiao Xun lost consciousness, he only instructed that the box be given to her... He trusted her, believing she could open it? Or rather... the key was on her?
A thought flashed through her mind like lightning! She abruptly pulled out the empty porcelain bottle of the imperial secret medicine that she always carried with her, which belonged to Xiao Xun! At the bottom of the bottle... there was an extremely tiny bulge!
With trembling fingers, she pressed down hard on the protrusion at the bottom of the bottle.
A barely audible click.
The brass lock on the rosewood box popped open with a click!
Xin Jiuwei's heart almost stopped! She abruptly flung open the box lid!
Inside the box, there were no miraculous elixirs as one might have imagined, only two things: a thin, old handwritten note with yellowed and brittle paper, the cover of which was blank; and a smaller, sealed jade bottle with a note attached to it, bearing two characters written by Xiao Xun himself, the words "Blood Guide" written with such force that they seemed to penetrate the paper!
Bloodlust? Xin Jiuwei didn't have time to think it through. She immediately picked up the old notebook and quickly flipped through it. The handwriting on the notebook was extremely ancient and obscure, but several pages were clearly folded, densely filled with descriptions of the symptoms and antidote for a strange poison called "Bone-Corroding Orchid"! The description of the symptoms perfectly matched Qin Lang's account of Xiao Xun's condition: struck by a cold arrow, the wound was black and festering, he had a high fever and was in a coma, the poison was corroding his heart meridian...
The antidote, at its core, is a domineering technique called "Blood-Guiding from the Same Source"! It requires the fresh blood of the poisoned person's closest relative as a guide, combined with several rare medicinal herbs, to forcibly draw out the toxins! A small note beside it states: If there is no close relative, then a person with whom the heart and blood are intertwined must use their heart's essence as a guide for even a glimmer of hope! However, this method is extremely dangerous, causing immense damage to the person drawing the blood; the slightest mistake will result in the death of both!
Blood relatives? Xiao Xun's closest relatives are in the deep palace! A meeting of minds? A fusion of blood? The very essence of their hearts?!
Xin Jiuwei's gaze was fixed on the words "mutual understanding, intertwined bloodlines," and "essence of the heart," as if struck by lightning! Xiao Xun... he gave her this box... the only thing he thought of before he lost consciousness... was this?! He actually gambled his life on her "heart's desire"?! Gambled on the possible... faint connection that existed beneath their cold contract?!
Absurd! Shocking! Unbelievable! And a surge of bitterness and...thrills, which she herself could not understand, instantly broke down all her defenses!
"Miss Xin! Miss Lin has arrived!" Xin Kui's urgent voice rang out from outside the door.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
