Great Zhou World
By the time Xiao Ziyi arrived, Ning Yangyang was practically unconscious. She lay unconscious, her face, once stunning countless people, now a frighteningly pale, her lips a deathly gray-purple. Her long lashes were tightly closed, masking their once sharp edge. Cold sweat soaked her hair, clinging to her smooth yet cold forehead. Her breathing was as weak as a gossamer thread, and only the slow, almost imperceptible rise and fall of her chest was heard.
A soft, thin brocade blanket covered her body, with only a corner of her left leg deliberately uncovered. Above her calf, near her knee, was wrapped in a thick, fine linen bandage. Dark blood stubbornly seeped from the inside of the bandage, spreading a dark, expanding wet mark across the plain fabric.
The palace maids and eunuchs standing in the hall and the imperial physician kneeling on the ground all held their breath and dared not breathe. The air was as heavy as if it were filled with lead.
Xiao Yuhuan sat on a round rosewood stool next to the bed, leaning forward until he was almost touching the edge. His brows were furrowed into a deep, straight line, and his thin lips were pressed into a pale line. His deep, phoenix-like eyes, fixed on Ning Yangyang's lifeless face, were filled with an inextricable worry, fear, and an almost insane obsession.
One of his hands tightly wrapped around Ning Yangyang, leaving her exposed outside the quilt. With the other, he held a damp, warm handkerchief, gently and carefully wiping the cold sweat from her forehead.
"Yangyang..." His voice was low and hoarse, with suppressed trembling, and he whispered in her ear again and again, "I'm here... Open your eyes and look at me... Don't sleep, Yangyang, don't sleep..."
The imperial physician knelt on the ground a little distance away, sweat dripping from his face, afraid to breathe, as he carefully reported the extent of the injury and the poison. When he heard, "Seven days of cold will definitely kill her," Xiao Yuhuan's body stiffened. He raised his head, his gaze towards the imperial physician instantly becoming terrifying. He sternly declared, "I don't care about 'seven days of cold'! I want her to wake up! In good health! Use the best medicine! Find me the rarest treasures in the world, no matter how hard to find! If there's even the slightest mistake..." His words remained unspoken, but the chilling murderous intent that emanated from them had already caused the entire palace temperature to plummet.
The imperial physician was so frightened that he prostrated himself on the ground and nodded repeatedly.
In the shadows a few steps from the bed, Xiao Ziyi stood quietly, his fox eyes warily observing the poor figure on the bed. "Seven Days of Cold? Wasn't that the poison he gave to Nangong Xiang a few days ago? Why did it end up on Ning Yangyang?" Xiao Ziyi, seeing the wound on her left leg, roughly guessed the reason for this drama. It was just a delusion. How could he be trapped in the palace forever? Or could her life keep him? Xiao Yuhuan was in a state of grief. Before Xiao Ziyi could say anything, just as she was about to turn and leave, she heard the call of "brother" echo from within the room.
“Brother…brother…brother…”
An extremely faint call, like a spider silk torn by the cold wind, floated out from the silent bed intermittently but clearly! It instantly pierced the solemn silence in the hall!
“Yangyang?!” Xiao Yuhuan, who had been guarding the bed, felt as if struck by thunder, his tall body trembling violently! His bloodshot eyes suddenly burst into a terrifying light, drowning out all his sorrow! He practically threw himself to the bedside, tightly grasping Ning Yangyang’s cold hand, his voice trembling with excitement: “You’re awake?! Yangyang! Look at me! It’s me!”
However, what happened next shocked all the witnesses!
The body on the bed, seemingly shrouded in the aura of death, suddenly erupted with astonishing strength! Ning Yangyang suddenly jumped up from the bed without warning! Her movements were so swift that they didn't seem like those of a seriously injured and dying person. She even lifted the quilt beneath her! Her long, tangled black hair tumbled out with the movement, sticking to her cheeks, which were covered in cold sweat and as pale as fresh snow. The eyes that had been closed for who knows how long suddenly opened! However, their pupils were unfocused and didn't reflect any human figure. Instead, they were staring straight into the void ahead, filled with the fear and confusion of a drowned person!
"Ah!" Xiao Yuhuan was so startled by the sudden outburst that he subconsciously let go of his hand. He stumbled back half a step and bumped into the rosewood stool behind him, making a sharp scraping sound. When his mother was dying, the terrifying "last breath" scene instantly overlapped with his eyes! The huge panic was like a cold iron claw that tightly grasped his heart! He immediately steadied himself and rushed forward desperately. With irresistible force, he pressed his hands on her paper-thin shoulders, his voice distorted by extreme fear: "Yangyang! Don't move! Lie down! Lie down quickly! Imperial Physician! Imperial Physician!"
But Ning Yangyang felt as if she had completely fallen into another world of icy cold. Her emaciated body trembled violently under her loose, plain white nightgown, her delicate bones trembling like a sieve, her bones seemingly ready to collapse at any moment. Her gray-purple lips trembled violently, and she let out a cry like the blood-curdling cuckoo's cry: "Brother! Brother! It's cold... so cold... my bones... my bones are all frozen... Brother! Save me... save me..."
Her voice was hoarse like sandpaper, and every word was saturated with the despair and physical pain that penetrated her bones. Her eyes, once empty and unfocused, unconsciously glanced at the bedside before suddenly fixating on the dark figure—Xiao Ziyi, who was about to turn and leave!
The next second, she suddenly lunged towards the outside of the bed! Her arms, so thin that they seemed to break at the slightest bend, now seemed like iron shackles, tightly encircling Xiao Ziyi's wrists, which were wrapped in black brocade, with a frenzy of mutual destruction!
Ice cold! Biting!
The touch felt like gripping a piece of black ice freshly pulled from the bottom of a frigid pond! A sudden, immense pulling force caught Xiao Ziyi off guard, his body stumbling and dragged to the edge of the bed! He was forced to lower his head, staring directly into Ning Yangyang's nearly bulging eyes—still without focus, without reason, only a heart-wrenching expression of desperate dependence on his "brother" and a pleading cry for help!
"Brother! Don't go! Don't leave Yangyang! It's cold... too cold... Brother, it hurts... my whole body hurts..." She shouted "Brother" over and over again. Her fingers were like cold iron claws, digging into the flesh of Xiao Ziyi's wrist. Her nails were even deeply embedded, leaving several glaring scratches on his cold white skin in an instant, oozing blood!
The eunuch outside the door rushed in with a bowl of ice cream and whispered a few words to Xiao Yuhuan's ear. Xiao Yuhuan hurriedly left the room, glanced at their clasped hands, and said only, "Take good care of her."
In the bedroom, only Xiao Ziyi, Ning Yangyang who was dying on the bed, and the palace maid who was silent in the corner and wished she could shrink into the cracks in the ground were left.
Ning Yangyang's consciousness struggled between the icy cave of the cold poison and the sharp hum of the system. "Host! Return! The original owner's consciousness is about to dissipate! Warning! Warning!" The cold mechanical voice was like an awl, piercing her chaotic mind. She continued to unconsciously conflate a few broken words: "Money... car... house..." Her voice was slurred, like the muttering of a dying person.
Xiao Ziyi's wrist was gripped tightly by Ning Yangyang's cold, yet incredibly strong, fingers. Sharp nails dug into her flesh, causing waves of stinging pain. His narrow, fox-like eyes narrowed slightly, their scrutiny like a cold probe, scanning her face, twisted in pain, her body trembling violently from the cold. The wound was real, but the poison... oh, the poison was hard to say. He sneered inwardly. This girl had a talent for playing dumb, forcing the audience to believe. She acted so convincingly, even mimicking the bone-chilling cold so perfectly? Was she just trying to buy time, to trap him here? Foolish! He moved his wrist slightly, trying to break free from the iron-like grip, but the grip only tightened, the nails nearly digging into his bones.
However, just as the mocking thoughts in his heart had not yet dissipated——
"puff--!"
Without warning, a mouthful of dark red, black, sticky blood with a strong fishy smell suddenly gushed out from Ning Yangyang's mouth while she was talking nonsense! The blood came so fast and so heavily that it instantly splattered all over her plain white nightgown and even Xiao Ziyi's dark brocade sleeves, which were just a few feet away!
Xiao Ziyi's pupils suddenly contracted! The sensation of the scalding, life-ending blood splattering onto the back of his hand was like a red-hot iron! All his calmness, all his calculations, all his sarcasm, were completely shattered by the gushing blood!
"Ning Yangyang!" He almost roared, his voice filled with obvious, undisguised panic for the first time! He grabbed the clean handkerchief beside the bed with his free hand and frantically covered her mouth with it, trying to stop the blood from flowing out!
But the blood was like a flood bursting through a dam, carrying the warmth of her life, instantly soaking through layer after layer of silk handkerchiefs! The warm, sticky liquid continued to flow out from the gaps between his fingers covering her mouth, staining his palms red, and also staining his heart red. He changed handkerchiefs one after another, each stained with the glaring bright red, his movements getting faster and faster, more and more chaotic! This wasn't an act! This wasn't a self-torture tactic! This was... this was her final swan song! She was truly gambling with her life!
"Why are you doing this?!" Xiao Ziyi's voice was hoarse from his haste. He leaned over her, his fox eyes, always filled with calculation, now filled with shock and a nearly uncontrollable rage. "Giving yourself a 'Seven Days of Cold'? Just to trap me for seven days?! Do you know... do you know this is an incurable poison!!" His question was tinged with a sense of incredible absurdity and a hint of panic that he himself was unaware of. She actually risked her life for Nangong Xi's illusory seven days?!
At that moment, a faint light seemed to gather in Ning Yangyang's sluggish pupils. The sharp buzzing of the system was like a warning bell, forcibly pulling a glimmer of clarity back from her drowsy, almost eternal darkness. She felt a powerful force surge through her body, and a last glimmer of hope caused her eyes to open wide, her sluggish gaze briefly focused on Xiao Ziyi's face, etched with shock and anger!
"This poison... is yours!" Ning Yangyang's voice suddenly rose, carrying a hatred that penetrated her bones and the strength of her last breath. Every word was wrapped in gushing blood, like a tearful accusation. "It's you... It's you who has brought me to this point! Am I really your sister?"
Her voice was loud and filled with the penetrating power of despair, like thunder exploding in the deadly silence of the chamber! The palace servants in the corner were terrified and dared not listen any further. They tumbled and crawled out silently, leaving behind only a bloody handkerchief scattered across the ground and two people locked in fate.
Xiao Ziyi's hand, covering her mouth, suddenly froze, blood still flowing between his fingers. He looked into those eyes that suddenly burst with astonishing hatred, listened to the bloody accusations, and slowly withdrew his blood-stained hand, allowing the dark red blood to continue flowing from her lips, dripping onto the quilt, spreading deeper despair.
He looked down at her, his voice low, cold, and emotionless, as if reading a verdict: "Of course you are my sister, the one who has been against me since childhood, the one without any feelings." His eyes were sharp as a knife, as if to peel away even the last trace of her disguise. "In fact, you deserve to die, but not now. But it doesn't matter now." The corners of his mouth curled up in an extremely cruel arc, "This is your fate."
Ning Yangyang stared at him, her gaze piercing his icy exterior, reaching the depths of his soul. She coughed up blood, her breath weak, but her voice carried a knowing sadness and mockery. "Heh... cough cough... I... I've known all along... that people like you... are... cold, selfish, and self-loving... You only love... yourselves... cough cough..." Blood continued to flow from the corner of her mouth as she labored to breathe, each word akin to dancing on the edge of a knife. "You lack love... so you force... yourself to enjoy... nothing but the... arrogance of those in power..."
Xiao Ziyi's pupils shrank slightly, but his expression remained as cold as stone.
Ning Yangyang stared at him intently, and used up her last bit of strength to spit out the secret that was enough to overturn the court. Although her voice was weak, every word was as sharp as a knife: "It was... it was you who wiped out Nangong...'s family... You were very smart... ahem... you poisoned... your uncle... which led to the birth of... that... weak child... your methods... were very powerful..." Her eyes were filled with a kind of pleasure in dying together, "The Nangong family... was just a scapegoat you found at random... What I said... was not wrong? You turned Nangong... into someone in the same situation as you... and thought... she would like you?" She looked at Xiao Ziyi's face, which suddenly became extremely gloomy because his deepest secret was finally exposed.
As the system had predicted, the difficulty of this world could be lowered if Ning Yangyang were a bit more ruthless. The heroine's still-zero love ratio was a perfect example of this. But she hated male protagonists like this the most when reading novels. The most disgusting character possessed the strongest popularity. How could the heroine, baby, love him? How could she love him?
The bedroom was dead silent, with only Ning Yangyang's labored breathing and the faint sound of dripping blood.
After a long moment, the gloom on Xiao Ziyi's face slowly faded, replaced by a heart-pounding coldness. He slowly raised his blood-stained hand and, with an eerie tenderness, used his fingertips to wipe the blood that continued to flow from the corner of Ning Yangyang's mouth, smearing the glaring red on her pale cheek, as if applying the final touch of makeup.
"That's right," he said in a low and steady voice, his emotions unrecognizable. "You're not stupid."
Ning Yangyang felt the touch of cold fingertips across her cheek, and her heart went cold. She closed her eyes, her thick eyelashes trembling slightly like the wings of a dying butterfly. It seemed as if all her strength had been exhausted in the accusation she had just made.
"My fate... is like this... If I can buy her... seven days of absence... it will be enough... Seven days without you... will definitely be... extremely happy..."
"But Yangyang, you miscalculated. She won't leave." Xiao Ziyi still looked confident. This was the hero of the female-oriented series, the author's beloved son, a bug-like existence within the system, and a man prone to unpredictable events once the game was released. Ning Yangyang wanted to struggle and confront him directly, but she truly had no strength left.
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