Chapter 101 Distraction
Tie Laolu was short and had short legs, which made it easy for him to dart around in the alley. Unfortunately, before he could hide in the hole, he was caught by the agile man.
The man hadn't expected that the guy he'd been chasing for so long would be such a strange and clumsy creature. A sense of unease crept into his heart, and he questioned, "Are you deliberately not running away?"
Tie Laolu, who had just been struggling, immediately deflated, his eyelids drooping as he looked at the ground: "I didn't want to do this anymore, who would have thought that kid could be so ruthless to me..." Little did he know that he could actually hide. Zhen Su had given him a token to leave the capital and a generous reward enough to marry seven, eight, or nine wives long ago, but he hadn't done what Zhen Su had instructed him to do, and he felt uneasy about his "conscience," thinking that he had to contact Zhen Su before leaving.
But who would have thought that instead of receiving Masaku's disdain, they would receive news of Masaku's death.
Xiao Dunzi approached him, clearly hoping to learn something from him, but he was just a useless person dismissed from the outer court; what could he possibly know?
Tears streamed down Tie Laolu's scarred face. "I've never been treated like a human being by many people in my life, so why is it that kid who has to suffer like this..."
Although the man felt a chill, he could guess who he was talking about from the man's incoherent words.
"Then why are you still spreading rumors about him?! You won't let him go even after he's dead?" And you've made up such nasty stories about him.
Tie Laolu glared at him angrily, "It was his own request!! I'm fulfilling his last wish!!"
Therefore, he had long since given up on the job.
The man was taken aback.
.
When Zhao Kelin was invited to the carriage, he was unaware of what had happened in the palace, nor did he care to find out.
Whether he was exiled or inexplicably stopped on his way to exile, and his whole family was subsequently settled in Wuzhen under assumed names, he never delved into the reasons behind it, but simply lived a quiet and peaceful, dull life.
His family was extremely grateful.
Oh.
Zhao Kelin's eyes were full of indifference.
It wasn't until the carriage drove into the capital city late at night, heading towards the red walls he had never forgotten, that a strange expression appeared on his face.
He clutched his simple cloth clothes tightly, his posture becoming somewhat awkward.
Fortunately, after returning to the palace, a eunuch gave him a brand new set of imperial physician's clothes. Zhao Kelin touched his face, which was dry and rough from the sun, and his eyes couldn't help but dim.
The bells outside rang, signaling the change of shifts for the Imperial Hospital staff. He followed the eunuch outside and discovered that the palace was desolate and bleak. It was as if an invisible thread was taut in the air, and the palace servants dared not breathe, silently handling their tasks as if afraid of disturbing that thread.
Zhao Kelin felt uneasy, sensing that something unexpected was about to happen.
"Sister Zhixi, we've brought the person over." The eunuch stopped in front of the main gate of the Scorpion Shadow Palace.
Zhixi glanced at Zhao Kelin behind her father-in-law, nodded slightly, and then said to her father-in-law, "You may leave now."
"Come with me."
Zhao Kelin kept his head down the entire time, only glancing up briefly before stepping over the threshold. The dark hall resembled a monster's gaping maw, emanating a chilling aura. Zhao Kelin felt uneasy and quickly lowered his head again.
But the deeper he went into the palace, the more his heart began to pound, a sound he hadn't heard in a long time. His ears were filled with the clamor of his heartbeat, and he couldn't hear anything else. So he didn't even realize that he had been led to the inner room—the bedchamber of the Poison King.
"..." Zhao Kelin's palms immediately became sweaty, and he couldn't help but clench the handle of the medicine box tightly.
So, he really wants me to treat His Majesty's illness? If His Majesty is here, then... is he here too?
"An anonymous person greets Your Majesty." Zhao Kelin nodded habitually, but after a few breaths, he realized what was happening and quickly changed it to a full kowtow.
After a moment of deathly silence, a whispered murmur came from the dragon bed, as if the Prince of Zhen were talking to someone: "Imperial Physician Zhao is back. Aren't you going to get up and take a look?"
Zhao Kelin was secretly puzzled as to who the King of Zhen was talking to on the bed, but the King of Zhen did not tell him to rise, so he could not raise his head.
The King of Zhen lowered his eyes to look at the face of the True Monk who showed no sign of opening his eyes. One corner of his mouth was slightly raised, while the other remained motionless, but his brows were still filled with a fierce aura.
"Imperial Physician Zhao, come and examine Qing'er."
When Zhao Kelin heard the name "Qing'er", his elbow slipped and he almost lost his balance.
His mind went blank for a moment.
After a thousand thoughts swirled in his mind, Zhao Kelin finally propped himself up on his knees and slowly got up, walked to the side of the bed, and raised his eyes.
He had considered all sorts of possibilities, thinking it might be a genuine chronic illness, or that he might have been injured after having an intimate relationship with the Poison King… He had imagined many worst-case scenarios, but none of them were quite like this…
Zhao Kelin felt as if someone was choking him, and for a long time he couldn't utter a complete "Aqing".
The person lying in the bed was completely unrecognizable from the one who sweetly smiled and called him "Ah Lin" in his memory; not a single patch of his exposed skin was intact.
As the former head of the imperial physicians, he knew without even needing to diagnose the body's condition and extent of decay that there was nothing he could do to save it.
But Zhao Kelin still stepped forward and grabbed Shinju's wrist. He pressed his fingertips lightly, but the skin stuck to it, whether from congealed blood or detached flesh.
His hands immediately began to tremble violently.
The King of Zhen suddenly grabbed his hand, roughly pinched the foreign object off his fingertip, and gently placed it back in Zhen Su's hand. He then placed a comforting kiss on the wrist bone and turned to glare at Zhao Kelin with eyes as sharp as frost.
Zhao Kelin was filled with incomprehension and shock. The tears that welled up in his eyes were startled back, and he couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty... what exactly happened?!"
The King of Poison wanted to pull Shinju back into his arms, but Shinju's limbs were already stiff. He couldn't bear to break them with force, so he had to put himself behind Shinju, letting Shinju lean against his chest.
The Poison King said slowly and deliberately, "Qing'er has been poisoned and her chest has been pierced by a short gun."
Zhao Kelin wished that what he was seeing was just a nightmare, but the words of the Poison King were so clear, like a ghost chanting in his ear, that he couldn't even turn a deaf ear.
"...Who did this?" Zhao Kelin looked away, a murderous glint in his eyes, and gritted his teeth as he spoke.
The King of Poison recalled Xiao Hengzi, who was still being held in the torture chamber and watching his relatives being subjected to the torture of being combed and washed, and Pan Chengfang, who was strung up like a human pig and hung upside down in the Gu pool. His eyes shone with a merciless dark light.
However, he did not intend to answer Zhao Kelin and was about to issue an order to leave when Zhixi's report came from outside.
"Your Majesty, An Yi says he has something extremely important to report! It's incredibly urgent!"
King Zhen glanced around, clearly deep in thought, and then summoned someone in.
An Yi was carrying someone in her arms, but because of her small stature, even when being carried, her legs couldn't touch the ground, and she was struggling and swaying.
An Yi glanced calmly at Zhao Kelin, who was kneeling at the foot of the bed, and the two people on the bed. Concealing the horror in his eyes, he knelt on one knee and said, "Your Majesty, I have thoroughly investigated the rumors circulating in the streets and have brought the witnesses with me."
Tie Laolu was thrown to the ground and immediately scrambled to his feet in front of the bed. He howled and rubbed his buttocks. As soon as he looked up, he was so frightened by the inhuman figure on the bed, and the person who was holding the inhuman figure that his crotch became wet.
After listening to the trembling words of the old man Tie Lu recounting the plan of the man Zhen Su, the room fell into a deathly silence, so quiet that even the sounds of sweeping in the front yard could be heard clearly.
The King of Poison noticed that Xiaodun had come to the Scorpion Shadow Palace to eavesdrop again, trying to wake up Shinju's little mound, but he had no time to pay attention to it at the moment.
His mind was filled with what Tie Laolu had just said.
It turns out that the person who deliberately amplified and spread so many rumors among the people about him being misled by treacherous officials was none other than Shinju himself.
They attributed all the policies that branded the Emperor Zhenwang as inhumane, as well as his actions that made him a "tyrant," to "treacherous officials," completely ruining their own reputation. Even after his death, they sent people to continue promoting the "purge of the court of corrupt officials," so that they could leave this world with a smear, suppress the power of the eunuchs, and wash away the mud smeared on the Emperor Zhenwang. It was a win-win situation.
Such painstaking efforts and profound affection are truly astonishing.
Zhao Kelin couldn't help but show a look of jealousy and resentment, but having left the scene so early, he seemed to have no right to even feel that way. Besides, now that no one could obtain the true love, that was the case.
He glanced furtively at Zhen Su in the arms of the King of Zhen, then closed his eyes tightly, concealing the extremely complex emotions within them.
The King of Zhen could not find a trace of lying on Tie Laolu's face. The arm around Zhen Su tightened unconsciously, the force of which could crush a person's bones.
Everyone said that his Qing'er was delusional, wanting to be the "Emperor of a Thousand Years," second only to the emperor, interfering in politics, disrupting social order, abusing his power to amass wealth, and being insatiably greedy.
But in the side room of the mansion, there were piles of gold, silver, treasures, books, paintings and brocades, but he never took them to wear, let alone use them to befriend any officials or to do any favors. He just left them casually in the room.
That's right. Zhen Su is a supreme expert in the cultivation world. How could such mundane things possibly catch his eye?
So... he was using this to get money from Pan Chengfang and other corrupt officials without any investment, and the things in that side room... were all left for him?
The King of Zhen showed no emotion; instead, the darkness in his obsidian-like eyes gradually intensified, and his breathing suddenly became heavy.
All of this has one major premise! That is—Shinjuku knew he was going to die.
"No...no..." How could he be worthy of Qing'er doing this?! This is all fake! Qing'er wouldn't so easily become a mortal...If this isn't true, then Qing'er didn't scheme so much because she was about to die.
At the same time, another voice rang out from within the Purple Mansion of the Poison King.
"It is said that domesticated raccoons, knowing that their lives are nearing their end, will hide themselves away and embrace death alone, not wanting to worry their owners."
"How similar they are..."
"He did all that because he knew he was going to die soon. Even without that assassination, he wouldn't have lived much longer..."
The King of Zhen shook his head violently, burying his face in the crook of Shinju's neck, and roared, "You lied!! Qing'er promised me she wouldn't leave me!!!"
The sound startled all three people in the room, leaving them stunned.
They didn't know who the King of Poison was talking to, and they looked at each other, only to see the same confusion.
"Qing'er loves me, that's why he did this. Do you want to erase his true feelings?" The nightmarish voice still echoed in my ears.
"I don't need him to do these things for me, I want him by my side!! If he loves me, why doesn't he kill me? He's unwilling to die with me, unwilling to take me with him, which ultimately means he doesn't love me!! Since he doesn't love me, he would never do such a thing for me! Qing'er is not dead!!"
"Qing'er loves me."
"Qing'er doesn't love me!!"
"Love".
"I don't love her!!"
Two forces were pulling at each other in the Purple Palace of the Poison King, and suddenly thick, lead-gray clouds gathered in the sky, with faint crimson lightning flashing among them.
Before the thunderous roar even arrived, crimson divine lightning descended, striking the Poison King's Purple Palace head-on—
The Poison King abruptly stopped talking to himself. In the realm unseen by the others, a phantom that looked exactly like the Poison King emerged from the Purple Mansion, surrounded by malevolent energy and purple lightning dragons, and slowly hovered in front of the Poison King and the True Monk.
Then, under the gaze of the King of Poison, who could not hide his surprise, he gently leaned down and kissed Shinjuku's closed eyelids.
But before the King of Poison could call him back, he flashed away, breaking through the black and gold alternating restriction, and disappeared without a trace.
"..." King Zhen stared at his own distracted state, which was the first time he had shown human form but then immediately left, and was speechless for a moment.
The three people inside the room couldn't even see the lightning strike; they simply lowered their heads, not daring to peek any further.
Thus, no one saw the person in the King of Poison's arms suddenly transform into specks of starlight, fading into nothingness in an instant.
The King of Zhen's dark pupils suddenly contracted.
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