Chapter 209 [VIP]
"Meow~"
The cat wriggled its whiskers expectantly.
His angular, tiger-like eyes were slightly narrowed, and his strong arms were taut with muscles.
If what Gu Zhizhuo said is true, then isn't everything I'm doing now digging my own grave?
"Thank you for the compliment." Gu Zhizhuo extended his hand and said matter-of-factly, "Give me the tinder."
His breathing grew heavy as he tried to find a clue on her face. After a long internal struggle, he finally asked tentatively, "Can you decide whether or not we can leave?"
"one day."
Gu Zhizhuo raised a finger and shook it, saying calmly, "I'll give you one day. At this time tomorrow, I will lead my troops out of the capital. How far you can run, whether you can hide, and whether you can return to Liang alive—we'll see... it's up to us!"
"Do they really think they're lambs?!" Duo Leng's subordinate blushed and cursed as he spoke.
Duo Leng almost laughed in anger: "One day?"
"one day."
Gu Zhizhuo's smile faded, and he repeated it.
She paused for a moment, her gaze sharp as she stared at him, and said, "Does the eldest prince think he can let the matter of his father's murder go so easily?"
Duoleng snorted and said coldly, "War between two countries..."
“When two countries are at war, each uses its own methods, and I accept that.” Her voice grew colder, “but that doesn’t mean we can become friends.”
Duo Leng met her gaze and said sarcastically, "Ha, you thought I would agree?"
“If you agree, you still have a chance to go back alive. Maybe you can catch the Prince of Liang off guard and take his place.” Gu Zhizhuo carried the cat and walked towards him, his military boots leaving a few shallow footprints in the muddy ground. “If you don’t agree, today will be your death day.”
"Hey, why are you so stubborn?" Gu Zhizhuo laughed casually. "You haven't even gotten your own throne yet, and you're already meddling in other people's business. You're just throwing your life away."
Duo Leng: "Death date? Hahahaha, Miss Gu is too arrogant."
Gu Zhizhuo stopped, only ten steps away from him, and said with a half-smile, "Do you believe me?"
The tension was palpable, as if things were about to spiral completely out of control at any moment.
Duo Ling certainly didn't believe it, but seeing her calm and composed expression, as if she were confident of victory, yet still somewhat uncertain.
Don't listen to her!
A shrill scream came from the direction of the carriage, and the carriage curtain swayed slightly.
Gu Zhizhuo gave Qingmei a wink, and Qingmei quickly stepped forward, yanked open the carriage curtain, revealing Ji Nanke's pale and lifeless face.
She looked extremely weak, her injured shoulder hastily bandaged with strips of cloth, which were dripping with blood.
As the carriage curtain was lifted, a pair of venomous eyes were cast towards Gu Zhizhuo, the bloodshot corners of the eyes filled with intense hatred, wishing they could tear Gu Zhizhuo to pieces and then bite him into their bellies.
Seeing her here, Gu Zhizhuo was initially surprised, but upon reflection, it seemed to make sense.
Xie Jing lost.
If Ji Nanke stays in the capital, she will either die or be imprisoned with Xie Jing, with no chance of ever turning her life around.
She won't accept this.
Sure enough, she found a way out for herself.
No wonder she appeared in front of the Zhenbei Prince's Mansion with Liang Ren.
Don't believe her.
Duo Leng frowned and ignored her.
Since Gu Zhizhuo had already seen it, Ji Nanke decided not to hide it anymore. She gritted her teeth, endured the pain of her wound, stumbled off the carriage, and walked unsteadily to Duo Leng's side.
Suppressing her anger, she demanded, "Your Highness, you promised me!"
Duo Leng coldly shook her off, saying disdainfully, "I only agreed to take you to Daliang. As for anything else... you'd better know your place. I won't be like Xie Jing, acting like a dog in front of you."
Ji Nanke threatened, "You don't want the blueprints anymore?"
Duoling turned to look at her, his gaze fierce, like a wolf on the plains eyeing its prey. Ji Nanke instinctively took a half-step back, and the next moment, Duoling grabbed her chin.
His strength was immense; the veins on the back of his hand bulged. Ji Nanke felt a sharp pain, and a suffocating sensation washed over her. She opened her mouth wide, desperately trying to draw in a breath of air, and desperately pulled at Duo Leng's wrists, trying to pry open his grip.
"I was wrong." Tears streamed down her face as she said with difficulty, "I was wrong..."
Duo Leng threw her to the ground, glanced at her out of the corner of his eye to make sure she wasn't dead, and then ignored her.
Ji Nanke braced herself on the ground, panting heavily. Her chin and neck were bright red, and a burning pain spread through her. Her wounds, which had not yet healed, burst open again, and blood flowed down her arms.
Ji Nanke's eyes were filled with resentment and venom:
Why?
Why is everyone so nice to Gu Zhizhuo?
Why does she insist on competing with me?
I've already given her everything, why does she have to take away even this last refuge I have?!
Ji Nanke stared intently at the tinderbox held in someone's hand. The flame burned and flickered, reflected in her pupils. Her fingers unconsciously dug into the soil, her fingertips turning white.
After much deliberation, Duoleng agreed: "Okay. I agree."
The best outcome of igniting this fire would be for them to escape in the chaos. However, the Great Qi would suffer such a great loss, undoubtedly forging a deep-seated grudge against him. Since the king now wishes for his death, he could no longer afford to be at odds with the Great Qi to the death.
Right now, even if Gu Zhizhuo only gives him one day, that would be enough.
Duo Ling probed again, "Will Miss Gu keep her promise?"
“Of course.” Gu Zhizhuo’s smile deepened. “Your Highness, if I catch up with you in a day, we’ll settle things with our skills. If I don’t, and you return to the capital alive to fight the Liang King to the death, it will only benefit our Great Qi. We can meet again on the battlefield someday.”
She held down the restless cat's head, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "What do you say, Your Highness?"
Duo Li's initial wariness lessened somewhat.
Her straightforward statement of benefits is more credible than any guarantee.
Duo Leng raised his hand and gave her a high five; the crisp sound echoed in the air.
Both sides were fighting for their own country, but Duo Leng's eyes still couldn't hide a hint of admiration. As a warrior of the grasslands, he admired his enemy: "This trip to Daqi has not been in vain."
Duo Lengchong raised his chin in Ji Nanke's direction.
Gu Zhizhuo understood: "The eldest prince can take him away."
In her mind, Ji Nanke's life or death was not even a bargaining chip.
Duoleng gestured to his men to extinguish the tinderbox.
"Meow?"
The cat's ears perked up, and its golden cat eyes widened.
Ji Nanke lay prone, her eyes surging with hatred that almost overwhelmed her. She stared intently at the tinderbox, the corners of her mouth slowly turning upwards as she silently murmured, "If I'm not having a good time, then no one else will either."
Suddenly, she pounced like a wounded mother beast, slamming her body into the man holding the tinderbox. Caught off guard, the man stumbled, and the tinderbox flew out of his hand.
Apart from the small patch of ground where they were standing, the entire area was covered in kerosene, which Ji Nanke had personally witnessed being poured on.
Wherever the tinderbox goes, a fire will surely start!
The flames flickered in the air, reflecting the madness and distortion on Ji Nanke's face, revealing undisguised malice.
"Gu Zhizhuo, why didn't you burn to death just now!"
Why didn't I kill you!
"Why aren't you dead yet?!"
Gu Zhizhuo took a few steps forward and kicked Ji Nanke in the stomach.
Ji Nanke groaned and fell out of the way in pain, her back slamming heavily against a pile of rotten wood at the entrance of the alley. The force of the impact made the rotten wood shake a few times before collapsing with a loud thud, pinning Ji Nanke underneath.
As luck would have it, the tinderbox fell onto the pile of rotten wood.
Most of the kerosene was spilled around the alley entrance, in the corners of houses and walls, and on roofs piled with straw. Some of it was also splashed on the surface of this pile of rotten wood. When the tinderbox was thrown down, the flames licked the kerosene on the wood and burst into flames with a whoosh, crackling and bright.
Qingmei exclaimed in surprise, "Young lady, fire...fire! Huh?"
Her voice stopped abruptly as she stared in disbelief at the scene before her, her lips agape.
"this?"
"It's karma."
A pleased smile appeared on Gu Zhizhuo's lips as he spoke matter-of-factly.
The pile of rotten wood landed on Ji Nanke, and with her acting as a buffer, the tinderbox didn't touch the oil on the ground; it only burned the pile of wood.
Flames raged across Ji Nanke's cheek, scorching her skin. Half of her face was almost engulfed by the flames, and the intense pain caused Ji Nanke to let out a heart-wrenching scream.
The wood crackled and popped as it burned, and she instinctively struggled desperately, the tinderbox on the rotten wood swaying precariously.
"Hey," Gu Zhizhuo reminded them, "If we don't save them now, they'll burn to death. Do you still want your blueprints?"
What she was thinking was that if Ji Nanke moved around again, and the tinderbox fell down, burning the oil on the ground, everyone would be doomed, and wouldn't she have wasted her time?
Multifaceted:!
"You want to ask me how I know?" Gu Zhizhuo pointed to himself with his thumb and said with a smile, "Everyone in Daqi knows that I am the Divine Calculator."
Duo Leng didn't believe it at all and signaled his men to rescue the person.
Gu Zhizhu stroked the cat's head to prevent it from jumping into the fire in its excitement, and said casually, "Did she tell you that she has the blueprints for a repeating crossbow and knows how to improve firearms, on the condition that you take her to Liang Kingdom, and she guarantees that she will enjoy everything a noble should have there?"
Her smile was beautiful, like a blooming flower, but in Duo Leng's eyes, the flower was covered with thorns, ready to prick someone at any moment.
"Right, Your Highness?"
Multifaceted and ambiguous.
This attitude also proves that Gu Zhizhuo was right.
After the palace banquet that day, Duoleng took a liking to the musket. Later, Xie Jing's concubine took the initiative to approach him and gave him half a blueprint, saying that it was a repeating crossbow that could fire ten arrows at once.
She made a request: if the emperor won, she would give him the second half of the blueprint and pretend nothing had happened.
If the emperor loses, he will take her to Daliang, and she will give him the second half of the blueprints, along with a blueprint for a musket. She also said that the repeating crossbows and muskets in the hands of the Prince of Zhenbei were made by them after they stole her blueprints.
The power of the musket truly captivated Duoleng.
Dosso casually mentioned the kerosene, meaning to tell her that the emperor would definitely win.
If she wins, he wants a musket too; in exchange, he can do her one more thing.
If he loses, he will take her with him. After the Great Cold, she will give him the blueprints, and he will provide her with a life of wealth and luxury for the rest of her life.
Ji Nanke agreed.
Whoosh!
A bucket of cold water was poured on Ji Nanke.
When the residents knocked on the door of the house in the alley, they discovered that it was on fire. Many people rushed out of their homes to fetch water and put out the fire.
With Ji Nanke underneath, only a few sparks occasionally splashed onto the ground, and with the help of the kerosene, tiny flames sprang up, only to be extinguished by cold water.
When the Liang people pulled her out of the charred pile of rotten wood, her clothes were burned to shreds, and her exposed skin was covered with burn marks.
She covered her face, which was burned by the flames, with her hands. Through her fingers, she saw Gu Zhizhuo standing in front of her, looking down at her.
Ji Nanke felt no joy at surviving a disaster, only trembling and despair. She forced out a hoarse voice from her throat, choked by smoke: "Why...why did you do this to me?"
Gu Zhizhuo: "..."
She herself had ill intentions and disregarded the safety of the people in the capital, which is why she ended up in this situation, yet it has become someone else's fault?
Gu Zhizhuo used his toes to lift her chin, forcing her to raise her head.
Ji Nanke was forced to meet her gaze, her breathing rapid and weak. Tears welled up in her eyes, soaking the red, swollen, and charred marks on her face. Half of her face was covered with large and small blisters, blackened and ulcerated, and she was likely to be disfigured.
"Oh."
Gu Zhizhuo's soft laughter echoed in the air.
She put her foot down and subconsciously touched her cheek. Ji Nanke's wound was in the exact same spot as the one that had disfigured her.
Master said that Ji Nanke is a blessed woman, a favorite of Heaven, and Heaven will give her the best of everything in the world.
Therefore, she will have the best luck in the world and everything will turn out well.
And all the calamities will be shielded from her by someone.
Since her rebirth, Gu Zhizhuo has long avoided recalling the pain of her disfigurement in her previous life. However, she still clearly remembers that it all started when, during a game of pitch-pot, a girl accidentally dropped the arrow, which flew towards Ji Nanke. Then, for some reason, a gust of wind blew by, causing the arrow to deviate slightly and strike her, who was standing next to Ji Nanke.
Later, Xie Jing took the opportunity to poison her.
Her appearance was completely ruined.
Strictly speaking, Gu Zhizhuo did shield Ji Nanke from a disaster.
Master said: Zhuo'er, after the destiny is redefined, Fu Nu will no longer be the darling of Heaven, and everything that Heaven once bestowed upon her will be taken back.
"I see."
Gu Zhizhuo understood. So that's what Master meant by taking everything back—everything Ji Nanke had gained through good fortune over the years would come back to haunt her in the most cruel way.
Protect from disaster!
The tinderbox that just fell, if it had landed on the kerosene, would have inevitably risen in the wind, just as the divination indicated, endangering thousands of people. It certainly wouldn't have been extinguished by a few buckets of cold water.
Therefore, Ji Nanke averted the disaster; the tinderbox fell onto the pile of rotten wood and only burned her face.
Just like Gu Zhizhuo before, she was disfigured.
What happens next...?
Gu Zhizhuo's lips curved into an intrigued smile; she was a little reluctant to see her die so soon.
Ji Nanke's arms were being held up, her wounds were bleeding profusely, her body was trembling, and the burning sensation on her face felt like a knife cutting into her, like being slowly sliced to death.
it hurts!
Has she been disfigured?!
Her face was contorted, and her charred, swollen skin looked particularly ferocious, like a demon crawling up from the underworld.
Why is this happening...? She's a blessed woman! She should be the "protagonist" of this world.
Why did her good luck disappear? Why?!
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