Chapter 75 You don't deserve to be treated like that by me!
With a slight dryness in her throat, Sheng Zhiyi lowered her head and watched as clear water slowly flowed out from the shattered, curved porcelain shards, seeping into the ground little by little, wetting a large area and giving it a deep color.
A small stream of water slowly flowed towards her, like a winding little snake trying to lick the tips of her shoes.
Sheng Zhiyi felt a chill run down her spine. She took half a step back but still didn't say anything.
Silence spread between the two.
A faint hint of displeasure flashed across Ji Fuguang's eyes, his narrow phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, and a sinister glint appeared in them.
He reached out and pinched Sheng Zhiyi's chin, forcing her to raise her head.
“My junior sister is now turning a deaf ear to what I say, which really saddens your senior brother.”
When her face was lifted up, Sheng Zhiyi's body stiffened almost imperceptibly, but she still lowered her eyelids to cover her eyes.
She doesn't want to see Ji Fuguang right now and doesn't know how to face him.
Ji Fuguang, however, did not let her off the hook. His voice was flat and emotionless, as if he were stating an insignificant fact.
"Now the teapot is broken, and there's no water to drink. Or are you, Junior Sister, planning to use this method to prove your pathetic resistance to me?"
Sheng Zhiyi finally lifted his eyelids, his face as pale as paper, whether from his injuries or his movements, only his almond-shaped eyes burning with a cold flame.
However, this moment seemed like an illusion; she quickly shifted her gaze to the side and whispered:
"I didn't mean to resist... Your Majesty... I was just thirsty and momentarily lost my manners..."
She has no leverage now, and is like a mayfly trying to shake a tree when facing Ji Fuguang; she can't do anything to him at all.
You must be patient, lie low, and wait for the right opportunity.
Upon hearing the words "Your Majesty," Ji Fuguang's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
He loosened his fingers and slowly repeated:
"So you were just unwell and were simply being impolite?"
Sheng Zhiyi performed a bow with difficulty.
"Yes, Your Majesty. I have just woken up and my mind is not very clear. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me."
Ji Fuguang gave a cold laugh, his voice soft and pleasant:
“I remember, when you were unconscious, I ordered that you be given the best medicine in the palace, yet your mind remained so muddled. Could it be… that Huanlu secretly switched the medicine? Such a treacherous servant deserves to be torn to pieces as a warning to others. Junior Sister, don’t you agree?”
...
It's impossible.
She couldn't bear to watch a living, breathing person suffer so much because of her excuse.
Moreover, they all knew that none of this had anything to do with Huanlu.
Sheng Zhiyi slowly raised her head and met Ji Fuguang's eyes.
A cold spark burned within her almond-shaped eyes, while beneath the gentle appearance of her narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes surged a dark, turbulent sea.
"Your Majesty, I feel much better now. It seems the medicine hadn't taken effect yet, and it wasn't that Huanlu secretly switched it. Your Majesty need not worry."
Sheng Zhiyi was telling a lie that both of them knew perfectly well.
Ji Fuguang smiled faintly. He reached out and tucked Sheng Zhiyi's hair behind her ear, like a gentle senior brother caring for his junior sister.
"In that case, senior brother can rest assured. Now that you have recovered, junior sister, would you like to invite senior brother to sit down and have a chat?"
"I am truly flattered that Your Majesty has such an elegant interest."
Their eyes met, their gazes filled with coldness, yet their tones were unusually gentle.
Sheng Zhiyi once again felt as if a snake had crawled over her feet.
Sticky and slippery, it's nauseating.
The two sat at opposite ends of a table, which was completely empty except for a puddle of water that had splashed out when the teapot had been accidentally dropped, resembling an ugly, unhealable wound.
Ji Fuguang leaned back in his chair with a relaxed posture, his fingertips lightly tapping the table, as if he were really just enjoying a casual chat after a long separation.
He broke the silence first, his tone almost eerily gentle:
"Junior Sister, have you settled in well these past two days at the Demon Palace? If you feel unwell, please let your senior brother know."
He nodded slightly, looking very considerate. "After all, your senior brother specifically instructed me to take good care of you."
Sheng Zhiyi's hands, resting on her knees, clenched quietly, her knuckles turning white.
To live? To live in a water dungeon?
She had been treated with medication all over her body and was almost fully recovered, but the despair of being submerged in water remained in her mind.
I was submerged in water and dared not breathe. My chest felt tight and painful, and my vision blurred. Finally, I couldn't help but take a breath, but I was immediately choked by the cold water. I coughed violently, as if I was coughing up my internal organs, and my mouth was filled with the bloody taste of torn organs.
He called it "taking good care of himself".
She forced herself to meet his unfathomable phoenix eyes, her voice steady yet tinged with barely perceptible tension: "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. Everything is fine."
"Is that so?" Ji Fuguang's lips curved into a perfect arc, but there was no smile in his eyes. "But I heard that after Junior Sister woke up, the palace maids came to ask you what you wanted to eat, but you said you didn't want to eat anything... Were you dissatisfied with the food here, or were you still being childish?"
Someone did come to ask just now, but Sheng Zhiyi really had no appetite, so she declined. Little did she know that Ji Fuguang would use this as a pretext to interrogate her.
Ji Fuguang's gaze swept over the puddle of water and debris on the ground, seemingly casually.
Sheng Zhiyi's heart clenched. He was able to smash the teapot just now, what was he planning to do now?
She had to forcefully suppress her surging anger, lower her eyelashes to hide the emotions in her eyes, and whispered, "I dare not, I'm just recovering from a serious injury and don't have much of an appetite."
"Oh? I see." Ji Fuguang nodded as if he had just realized something, then his tone carried a touch of nostalgia, "Speaking of which, it reminds me of when we were at the Tianyan Sect, Junior Sister, you loved to eat buttered snails. But the first time you bought them, you wanted to give them to me..."
"Your Majesty!" Sheng Zhiyi suddenly interrupted him, her voice rising sharply with an uncontrollable shrillness.
Those past events that he had casually mentioned now felt like a red-hot iron, searing her heart and leaving only humiliation and shame.
She stood up abruptly, her fingers clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms, forcing herself to remain calm.
"The teapot broke by accident just now. I'll go and ask Huanlu to come and serve His Majesty a cup of tea."
She had to get out immediately. If she stayed here, she didn't know if she could remain calm, or what she would say or do.
"etc."
Ji Fuguang spoke up to stop her.
He leaned back in his chair, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.
"Junior Sister, why bother calling a maid? Back in the Tianyan Sect, didn't you personally pour tea and grind ink for me?"
He turned the Night Snow in his hand around and pointed it at the storage bag on Sheng Zhiyi's waist from a distance.
"My tea set has always been there, why don't you take it out?"
Sheng Zhiyi's face turned deathly pale.
Ji Fuguang was a germaphobe, a fact little known within the sect. At that time, he also had to maintain the image of a gentle and approachable senior brother, so he rarely drank tea outside.
After Sheng Zhiyi discovered this, she put his tea set in her storage bag so she could brew tea for him whenever she wanted.
They went to great lengths to prepare it, just so he could have a sip of hot tea.
Back then, doing these things secretly carried a faint sweetness in her heart. But bringing it up now feels like a slap in the face, a hard blow to her own cheek.
"Your Majesty, I have not brewed tea for many days, and I am afraid I am not up to the task. Please let Huanlu do it."
Sheng Zhiyi quickened her pace and walked towards the door.
But then came Ji Fuguang's leisurely voice from behind:
"Back then, I only glanced at a teacup, and my junior sister would rush to serve me tea and water, trying every possible way to please me. If she could do that then, why can't she do it now?"
Each word was like a poisoned ice blade, piercing Sheng Zhiyi's heart.
Her once sincere feelings have all become the subject of his mockery.
Sheng Zhiyi trembled, a surge of intense anger and shame welling up inside her. She whirled around and shouted:
"How dare you bring that up again?!"
The forced calm was finally broken. Seeing the anger and resentment on her face, Ji Fuguang seemed to have discovered something interesting.
He withdrew his hand, revealing an expression of great interest, a smile playing on his lips, and began to speak slowly and deliberately.
Why should I be embarrassed?
Her chest swelled with a suffocating tightness; the willingness she had felt then had now transformed into immense humiliation, gushing forth from Sheng Zhiyi's body with an overwhelming urgency. She shouted angrily:
"Because you don't deserve it! You don't deserve for me to treat you like that!"
"Is that so?" Ji Fuguang said indifferently, "If I am not worthy, who else would Junior Sister want to be so attentive to?"
He got up, walked over, reached out, grabbed Sheng Zhiyi by the neck, and lifted her high up.
With her meridians sealed, Sheng Zhiyi was like an ordinary person, her breathing cut off, and her face gradually turned red.
The veins in her neck pulsed with the rise and fall of her heart, pulsating at his fingertips. Her eyes swirled with complex and turbulent emotions as she stared intently at him.
Ji Fuguang's smile deepened, his voice low and authoritative, like a small snake burrowing into Sheng Zhiyi's ear:
"Don't you realize, Junior Sister? That dignified and upright Ji Fuguang was just your fantasy from the very beginning, a one-sided illusion. From start to finish, the only person you've tried so hard to please is Demon Lord Ji Fuguang."
Ji Fuguang suddenly released his grip, and Sheng Zhiyi stepped on the ground. Her body trembled as if she had been whipped by an invisible whip. She bit her lower lip tightly, almost tasting the blood.
Humiliation, anger, and the embarrassment of having her sincerity forcibly trampled over overwhelmed her like a tidal wave.
She abruptly raised her head, her almond-shaped eyes no longer able to suppress the icy hatred, her expression teetering on the brink of collapse:
"Yes, I was so stupid back then! I completely trusted you and let you manipulate me. Are you satisfied now? Torturing me wasn't enough; you have to repeatedly remind me how foolish I was. Are you really that happy?!"
Her voice trembled sharply with emotion, choked with sobs, yet she forced it back, making it sound unusually broken.
Killing someone is just a matter of beheading them, but Ji Fuguang insisted on destroying her spirit and trampling on her last shred of dignity.
The smile on Ji Fuguang's face faded.
He watched her sudden outburst of emotions, saw the undisguised hatred and pain in her eyes, and watched her break down because of the past.
The slight displeasure that arose in his heart from her interruption of his memories was strangely covered by a more complex emotion, an almost suffocating sense of irritation.
He disliked her using terms like "stupid" and "foolish" to describe her past efforts, and he disliked even more her completely negating everything as pure humiliation.
"Happy?" he repeated, the feigned gentleness vanishing instantly, replaced by the silent, chilling pressure of a demon lord. "If I only wanted to be happy, I have countless ways to do so. Why waste my breath on you here?"
He stood up and walked towards her step by step.
The tall figure cast a shadow that completely enveloped Sheng Zhiyi.
"Bring out the tea set," he commanded, his voice leaving no room for argument.
Sheng Zhiyi stood stubbornly, motionless, making a final, futile resistance with silence.
A sinister glint flashed in Ji Fuguang's eyes.
He didn't make a move, but his gaze grew even colder: "What do you think this feeble resistance will do? Do you want to go back to the water dungeon to be tortured, do you want me to turn you into a puppet, or do you want Huanlu to taste this kind of pain? I have a thousand ways to make you wish you were dead, do you hear me?"
Sheng Zhiyi's pupils contracted sharply, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
Of course she knew that everything he said was true, and that he was capable of doing it!
In the end, all the anger and humiliation turned into powerlessness.
With trembling hands, Sheng Zhiyi took out the incredibly familiar tea set from the storage bag, but it felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
The jade-white teapot and celadon teacups, each meticulously polished by her, brimming with the secret and passionate feelings of a young girl, now rested on the table with a crisp yet heartbreaking sound.
Ji Fuguang sat down again, resuming his relaxed demeanor, as if he hadn't been the one exuding terrifying pressure just moments before.
"Break tea," he ordered casually, his gaze not on her, but on the sky outside the window, as if he were doing something completely ordinary.
Sheng Zhiyi stood frozen in place for a long time before she finally began to move, like a puppet on strings. Fetching water, warming the utensils, placing the tea leaves, brewing... she knew every step by heart, but now it was incredibly difficult to do, her fingers cold and clumsy.
The scalding steam rose up, blurring her vision.
She recalled that back in the Tianyan Sect, when sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves, she would brew tea for him in the same way, and he would always gently say, "Thank you for your trouble, Junior Sister," and occasionally give her some pointers.
Those memories she once held dear now felt like countless tiny needles, piercing her heart and causing her so much pain she could barely breathe.
Why? Why did you do this to her?
A cup of tea was finally brewed, its aroma wafting through the air, yet carrying an indescribable bitterness.
Sheng Zhiyi gently pushed the teacup in front of him, her eyelashes lowered, her voice so low and hoarse it was almost inaudible: "Your Majesty, please have some tea."
Ji Fuguang withdrew his gaze and fell on the cup of tea in front of him. He then looked up at her red eyes and her fingertips, which were trying to remain calm but were still trembling slightly.
He picked up his teacup.
Sheng Zhiyi's heart skipped a beat.
However, he merely held the teacup to his nose, sniffed it lightly, and then tilted his wrist—
The clear tea soup, along with the tea leaves, was spilled all over the ground, mixing with the water stains from the broken teapot, making it completely murky.
"The heat is too low, it tastes bitter." He put down the empty cup, his tone as indifferent as if he were commenting on an insignificant item. "It seems that Junior Sister's heart is in turmoil."
He stood up, no longer looking at her pale face and swaying figure.
"Clean it up. I will come back to taste it at this time tomorrow."
After saying that, he turned and left, his black robes brushing against the threshold without a trace of lingering.
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