40. Collecting interest
"Madam Hua, may I take a look at your gold hairpin?" Ouyang Ziren asked Hua Nishang with a meaningful look in his eyes.
"Yes. Of course."
Under Ouyang Ziren's all-knowing gaze, Hua Nishang seemed to have nowhere to hide, yet she had no choice but to pretend to be calm as she spoke while taking off the gold hairpin from her head and handing it over.
Ouyang Ziren took the gold hairpin, turned it over and over, secretly comparing it to the wound, and then held it to his nose to smell it. Sure enough, a very faint smell of blood came out. If Ouyang Ziren hadn't often dealt with blood, he would have easily missed it.
The carefree prince had been keeping a close eye on Liu Hanruo, and he cared a great deal about anything related to her. When his gaze inadvertently fell upon a faint scratch inside her collar, he thought of Ouyang Ziren's unusual behavior. He was not an ignorant person, and he knew a thing or two about the power struggles in the inner quarters, but he had never paid attention to them before. A bad premonition followed, and various speculations arose.
"Ziren, how is Ruo'er?"
“The blood loss is too much, which is a bit troublesome.” Ouyang Ziren sighed and said, “If an ordinary person loses blood, they only need to take good care of themselves and replenish their blood. However, the princess has already been poisoned. We cannot add any more medicine to her body. We can only let her recover slowly on her own. But in this way, she only has seven days left to live.”
Upon hearing this, the Carefree Prince glared murderously at Hua Ni Chang, who was leaning against the carriage, and then said to Ouyang Ziren:
"Seven days is still enough. Now we can only place our hopes on your master. I don't care what happens to me, as long as he can save Ruo'er! Ziren, bring the medicine. I'll apply it to Ruo'er first!"
Ouyang Ziren lowered his head slightly, using the act of getting the medicine to conceal his true thoughts. In his eyes, he and Che had been close friends for ten years, sharing joys and sorrows. Liu Hanruo was just an outsider. How could he let Che disregard his own safety just to save her!
Taking the medicine from Ouyang Ziren, the Carefree Prince carefully and meticulously began applying it to Liu Hanruo. When he saw the shocking wounds, he felt a pang of pity. He had never hated himself so much. He cursed himself for being foolish. He knew that Hua Nishang was not as simple as she seemed, but because of his arrogance, he always thought that Hua Nishang would not be so bold as to harm Ruo'er in front of him. He never expected that in the end, Ruo'er would be bullied by Hua Nishang.
After carefully tending to Liu Hanruo's wounds, the Carefree King looked at Hua Nishang with cold, emotionless eyes and spoke indifferently:
"Was it made by that hand?"
"Your Highness, this lowly concubine does not understand. Please enlighten me." Hua Nishang tried to deny it, pretending not to understand.
"Which hand is it? I don't like repeating myself!"
"Your Highness, this humble concubine truly does not understand," Hua Ni Chang continued, feigning innocence.
"If you won't talk, then you'll have both hands!"
After speaking, the Carefree King arrived in front of Hua Nishang, grabbed her left hand, and with a crisp cracking sound, the bone in her left little finger broke. Then, with another cracking sound, her left ring finger also broke. Soon after, the other three fingers were not spared either. It is said that the ten fingers are connected to the heart, and this excruciating pain made Hua Nishang cry out in pain.
The pain in her left hand alone was already unbearable for Hua Ni Chang. When she saw the Carefree Prince coldly grab her right hand, she finally couldn't hold back and knelt down, crying and begging for mercy.
"Your Highness, I used my left hand. I know I was wrong. I will never do it again. Please forgive me, Your Highness. I truly know I was wrong!"
The carefree prince glanced at it coldly and said in a chilling tone:
"I asked you a question earlier, and you refused to answer. Now, even if you wanted to, I don't want to hear it!"
Five more crisp sounds rang out in succession. The carefree king remained unfazed, his movements clean and efficient, completely unaffected by the shrill screams and pleas for mercy coming from his ears.
Ouyang Ziren felt no sympathy whatsoever for Hua Nishang. He watched everything unfold with a smile, and at the very end, he presented her with the golden hairpin, saying with a faint smile:
"Isn't it more satisfying to treat someone in the same way they treat you?"
The carefree prince took the golden hairpin and thought to himself, "It must be this golden hairpin that hurt Ruo'er. If that's the case, I'll collect some interest for Ruo'er first, and she can deal with the rest herself after she wakes up."
The carefree king knew exactly what women cared about most. Without a second thought, he used his palm to control the golden hairpin to wreak havoc on Hua Nishang's face. In no time, her entire face was a bloody mess, covered with scarlet scratches.
Hua Nishang felt excruciating pain and could no longer tell where the pain was coming from—whether it was from her fingers, the scars on her face, or the wound on her chest—before she fainted.
The Carefree Prince glanced at Ouyang Ziren, who immediately understood. Ouyang Ziren stepped forward to apply medicine to Hua Nishang and held a bottle of medicine to her nose. The medicine slowly brought Hua Nishang back to consciousness, but the pain made her grimace, feeling as if she were dying. The thought that her face was ruined and that her life was meaningless made her think that she had no reason to live. Hua Nishang seemed to have made up her mind to bite her tongue and commit suicide, but then she heard the Carefree Prince's indifferent voice:
"You can die, but your whole family will be buried with you!"
These words were more effective than anything else. Hua Nishang might not care about her own life, but she couldn't ignore her parents. She pleaded weakly:
"Your Highness, please grant me a quick death, for the sake of my many years of service!"
"Want to die? Go ahead, I won't stop you! But I'll say it again, your whole family will be buried with you!"
"Your Highness, are you really going to be this heartless?" Hua Nishang's eyes suddenly changed, as if she had a do-or-die mentality.
"Whether I'm ruthless or not depends on the person. Your life belongs to the princess, and I'm just collecting some interest on her behalf!"
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