Chapter 99 From this moment on, there is only this life. ...
The cold dagger pierced his chest. The prince didn't even react at first, just staring blankly at Lou Xueying.
Her hands trembled incessantly, and she didn't stab all the way in at once, but rather pressed the dagger down little by little at an extremely slow speed.
At first, he didn't feel any pain. Later, he couldn't tell which hurt more, the pain from his leg injury or the pain from his leg injury. Then, he truly understood what it meant to feel like his heart was being torn apart and to be in unbearable pain.
"Swish..." Cold sweat soaked his temples. He wanted to sit up and just let her give him a quick death, but Li Pan stepped on his shoulder, leaving him lying on the ground unable to move.
The sharp tip of the dagger parted the meridians and separated the flesh. With each step deeper, the resistance in her palm changed. She could even feel the dagger jumping more violently the further it went.
Thump, thump, thump—she had never felt someone else's heartbeat so clearly before; it was absolutely chilling.
Lou Xueying's hands trembled more and more violently, and the more violently she trembled, the more the Crown Prince's wound expanded.
“Susu, why…” The Crown Prince looked at her, tears welling up in his eyes.
Lou Xueying paused for a moment.
"You clearly don't dare to kill... and you wouldn't kill anyone... so why didn't you let someone else... why did it have to be you who killed me?"
After a suffocating silence.
"Why can't it be me!" Lou Xueying seemed to be suddenly provoked, twisting the dagger in a sharp motion, her voice rising hysterically, "Liang Ji! I hate you, I hate you to death! I wish you would go to hell! Never to be reincarnated! I did nothing wrong, why should I suffer such humiliation and abuse from you! You are not human! I will never forgive you! A ghost like you who never leaves should go to hell! So what if I killed you with my own hands, shouldn't you have killed me!"
The prince's face was deathly pale. The sound of flesh tearing through his body reached his ears, mingling with her devastated cries. His chest was soaked in blood, and his body convulsed uncontrollably.
Why, why did I feel like I died so quickly in my past life... but now it feels so slow, so slow...
"Swoosh...swoosh..." Blood welled up in his throat, his eyes were almost unfocused, yet he still gazed in her direction, mumbling incoherently, "You...you killed me with your own hands...aren't you afraid I...will come to you in my dreams...or...in the next life...we'll meet again..."
"So what! Liang Ji! I'm not afraid of you anymore! Go to hell!" Lou Xueying's mind exploded, and she pressed the dagger down hard, piercing his heart completely.
The prince let out a muffled groan, the veins on his neck bulging, his body convulsing in extreme pain, yet he still seemed to want to raise his hand and reach out to her.
Lou Xueying pressed down hard on the dagger, almost pressing the hilt into the flesh of the body.
She finally exhausted all her strength, her vision blurred, and Li Pan caught her.
She collapsed into Li Pan's arms, breathing heavily, her hands trembling uncontrollably, still stained with the Crown Prince's blood.
She looked at her hands and felt they were so unfamiliar.
She looked again at the prince's distorted face and felt even more unfamiliar with him.
She seemed unaware of what she had just done; her mind was blank, her face was blank, and she stood there in a daze, as if she had been detached from her own being.
The prince's eyes were wide open, the light in his pupils gradually fading, and the sound in his throat rolled a few times before abruptly stopping.
His mouth was open, and his hand hung three inches off the ground before falling heavily to the ground.
His body, after a few final tremors, fell into complete stillness.
"Ji'er... Ji'er..." The Empress's voice was hoarse from crying. She tried to get closer to the Crown Prince, but the soldiers held her down tightly.
Li Pan glanced at it coldly and said, "Take him away and deal with him."
The soldiers lifted the empress up. She staggered to her feet, but in the instant the soldiers loosened their grip, she broke free and threw herself onto the crown prince.
Li Pan immediately stepped back while holding Lou Xueying.
Without hesitation, the empress pulled the dagger from the crown prince's chest and plunged it into her own.
She collapsed to the ground and soon fell silent.
The soldier hesitated and said, "General..."
Li Pan waved his hand.
So the soldiers took the bodies of the Empress and the Crown Prince, along with General Liao who was still bound, away.
The Ganyang Palace immediately returned to silence.
Li Pan helped Lou Xueying up, turned around, and looked at Emperor Jinghui, who was standing silently to the side.
"Where is he?" Li Pan lowered his head and asked her softly.
Lou Xueying slowly came to her senses, looking at her hands covered in blood, and her eyes gradually welled up with tears.
“…Never mind then,” Li Pan said. “I’ll do it.”
"Could you..." Emperor Jinghui suddenly began, his tone full of bitterness and pleading, "...allow me to say a few last words to her?"
Lou Xueying suddenly turned around, hugged Li Pan, and shook her head, trembling.
Li Pan looked intently at Emperor Jinghui.
Emperor Jinghui was stunned.
"General." Wu Zhao peeked in from the doorway.
Li Pan turned around: "What is it?"
Wu Zhao said, "The Imperial Hospital has been cleaned up. The imperial physicians have all left, but the medicinal herbs are still there. The military doctor has arrived. Shall we send Madam over to take a look?"
Li Pan looked at Lou Xueying: "I don't know what that bastard Liang Ji fed you, it's making you so sick. How about I have the army doctor take a look at you?"
Lou Xueying, who had been shouting herself hoarse, could no longer speak and could only nod.
Li Pan frowned.
Lou Xueying is still very weak and cannot walk on his own. Even holding on to something is difficult; he either needs to be supported or carried. However, it is not easy for him to walk away right now...
Just as she was pondering whether to have Wu Zhao find a wounded soldier's stretcher to carry her away, she heard Eunuch Zheng behind her let out a shrill cry: "Your Majesty!"
Li Pan suddenly turned his head and saw that Emperor Jinghui had fallen to the ground, along with the spear that Li Pan had placed next to the dragon throne.
The spear tip was stained with fresh blood, while blood continued to gush from Emperor Jinghui's neck.
He committed suicide.
As the emperor of Dayue, he ultimately did not want to die at the hands of the rebels, so he committed suicide, which could be considered as giving himself a final bit of dignity.
Li Pan looked at him quietly.
Emperor Jinghui lay on the ground, half his face pressed against the brick floor of the Ganyang Hall, staring straight at the figures of two people not far away.
He only realized now that the ground of the Ganyang Palace was so icy and cold.
She not only refused to listen to his dying words, but she didn't even look back at him again until he died.
She silently turned her back to him and buried her face in her husband's arms.
Her husband simply looked down at her with a detached gaze.
"Shu...Jun..." he murmured, a tear sliding down his cheek, "I...regret..."
He embarked on a path he shouldn't have taken in his first life. In this second life, he may have had many chances to turn back, but each time, he chose the wrong path.
He failed to seize this opportunity for rebirth.
If... if...
If it was anything, he no longer knew.
He closed his eyes. The last emperor of Dayue died in the Ganyang Hall, where he held his daily morning court session.
"His Majesty--"
With a loud bang, Eunuch Zheng crashed into the wall and died, falling next to Emperor Jinghui.
Li Pan closed his eyes and slowly exhaled.
Wu Zhao stepped forward, examined them carefully, and reported, "They're all dead."
Li Pan: "Take them with you too."
The soldiers quickly dragged the bodies of Emperor Jinghui and Eunuch Zheng away.
Lou Xueying remained silent and did not look up.
Finally, only the two of them remained in the hall. Li Pan stroked her hair and said softly, "I'll take you to Tai now..."
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw her press against his chest armor and burst into tears.
Although she was supposed to be wailing, she couldn't make much of a sound due to the effects of the drug. However, her chest was heaving violently, and she was breathing rapidly like a broken bellows from her throat, occasionally interspersed with a sharp and hoarse gurgling sound. It was as if her throat had been worn through or burned through by something. Every cry of anguish sounded like she was vomiting bloody and fishy.
Her shoulders heaved, and tears streamed down her face like a burst dam, splashing onto the hem of her clothes and quickly leaving a large, deep welt.
She thought of the Crown Prince's unseeing face, the cage she had been imprisoned for the past few days, the pavilion that had trapped her during the autumn hunt, the stained glass window in the secluded palace reflecting the snow scene, her unborn child, and the day on the nineteenth day of the third month of the sixteenth year of Jinghui, when she borrowed his carriage and he shook his head and chuckled, saying, "Meeting is fate, there's no need to return it."
She let out a piercing scream.
She thought of Emperor Jinghui asking if she could say a few more words to him, of his imperial edict to the Northwest, of the zither he insisted on giving her, of the sleepless nights she spent being forced into the palace, of the letters she had carefully collected and treasured, and of the sixteen-year-old time when she opened the zither score filled with the unspoken understanding between strangers, filled with trepidation and anticipation.
She pounded her heart and clutched her chest repeatedly, as if this could alleviate her pain and clear her mind.
Why, why?
They were finally dead, and she was finally free, but why did she feel no joy, only endless pain, like a landslide and a tsunami, sweeping over her body and soul?
Li Pan, his eyes red, looked at her silently.
Tears streamed down her cheeks and into her mouth, the salty liquid seeping into her throat, causing her to cough violently.
Her eyes felt like they were being torn apart, but she couldn't control her reaction, as if she wanted to shed all the tears she had left for the rest of her life at this moment.
"Shushu." Li Pan gently embraced her, creating a small, dim space for her with his body, and whispered, "It's okay, you can cry for as long as you want, you don't have to hold it in. I'll stay here with you."
“Li Pan…” She looked up, gripping his arm, her voice hoarse and weak, “They are indeed dead…, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” Li Pan said. “They are all dead, completely dead, not one of them is faking death.”
"My past life...is completely over, isn't it?"
“Yes,” Li Pan said, “From this moment on, there is only this life.”
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