"I am willing to die with you!"
These five words, uttered by Lin Wanwan in a vague yet resolute manner, resounded like thunder in the deathly silent Kunning Palace.
Time seemed to have been paused once again at this moment.
All eyes were focused on the young empress who had collapsed to the ground, sugar stains on her lips, her eyes filled with tragic sorrow.
Xiao Che, who had raised his longsword, ready to tear her to pieces, froze in mid-air. For the first time, his face, contorted by poison, revealed an emotion beyond murderous intent and anger—utter shock and disbelief.
He watched helplessly as Lin Wanwan, whom he thought was an assassin sent by the enemy or a pawn sent by her family, demonstrated her "innocence" to him in the most tragic and reckless way.
perish together.
Are there such assassins in this world?
Just as Xiao Che was in shock, Lin Wanwan keenly caught the change in his expression above his head out of the corner of her eye.
The skull burning with raging fury disappeared, replaced by a tiny figure with wide eyes, an open mouth, and countless shocked vertical lines in the background.
[Shocking! What is she trying to do? .jpg]
Seeing this meme, Lin Wanwan's heart, which was hanging on a precipice, finally found a faint foothold.
She won her third gamble!
Her madness, her decisiveness, successfully carved a crack in his mind, which was clouded by rage, and a sliver of reason appeared.
However, she didn't have time to feel fortunate.
Because the deadly poison had begun to rage wildly within her body.
Almost exactly ten seconds after she swallowed all the candied fruit, a violent, burning pain suddenly rose from her stomach and instantly engulfed her internal organs!
"Ugh—!"
Lin Wanwan could no longer control herself and let out a painful groan. Her vision went black, the world spun around her, and it felt as if she had been thrown into a giant, churning blender.
She felt as if her throat was being tightly gripped by a red-hot iron clamp, making it incredibly difficult to breathe. A strong, sweet, metallic taste surged from her stomach up to her throat.
"puff……"
She uncontrollably spat out a mouthful of blood, the color of which was even blacker and more terrifying than Xiao Che's.
Because she ingested a larger dose, the poison took effect faster and more violently than on Xiao Che.
The excruciating pain left her almost completely drained of strength, and her consciousness began to blur. But she knew she couldn't just pass out like that.
Her performance is just one step away from completion.
With the last ounce of strength in her body, just before she was about to lose consciousness, she raised her hand, which was trembling violently from the pain, and pointed her index finger precisely and without hesitation at Li Dequan, the chief steward of Kunning Palace, who was already paralyzed with fear on the ground, his face ashen.
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
But her eyes and her movements had already conveyed all the information.
After completing this action, Lin Wanwan could no longer hold on. Her vision went completely black, and she collapsed limply onto the cold floor tiles, losing consciousness completely.
Her final gesture struck Xiao Che's heart like a heavy hammer blow.
He understood instantly!
If the Empress truly intended to poison him, she could have simply used a candied fruit and, after he took the poison, done everything in her power to clear herself of any wrongdoing. She would never, and had no need to, resort to such a horrific, near-suicidal method to prove anything.
Unless...she herself is a victim!
Unless, of course, she didn't know that the candied fruit was poisoned!
So the problem isn't with her, nor with the candied fruit itself, but with... the servant who was supposed to be responsible for checking all the dowry and ensuring everything was perfect!
Having figured this out, Xiao Che felt a surge of strength welling up from somewhere within his poison-ravaged body.
A chilling clarity flashed in his bloodshot eyes.
"Guards!" he roared in a hoarse voice, "Summon the imperial physician! Immediately! Right now!"
His voice was weak from the poisoning, yet it carried an undeniable imperial majesty.
The guards and palace servants outside the palace, who had been terrified, were relieved and immediately scrambled out.
"Imperial Physician! Summon the Imperial Physician immediately!"
"His Majesty and the Empress have been poisoned!"
Screams and chaotic footsteps echoed throughout the Kunning Palace.
Immediately afterwards, Xiao Che's gaze, like a poisoned ice blade, shot fiercely towards Li Dequan, the head eunuch identified by Lin Wanwan.
"Take this scoundrel away!" he commanded through gritted teeth, enunciating each word clearly. "Seal off Kunning Palace! No one is allowed to enter or leave! Conduct a thorough investigation! Investigate everyone who has come into contact with the Empress's dowry! Not a single one can escape!"
Upon hearing this, Li Dequan trembled violently, as if his bones had been removed, and collapsed to the ground, making incomprehensible "uh uh" sounds, unable to utter a single word of pleading.
Two fierce-looking guards immediately rushed forward and roughly dragged him away.
The entire Kunning Palace was instantly plunged into unprecedented chaos.
Soon, a group of white-haired imperial physicians, carrying medicine chests, rushed in, panting. When they saw the horrifying scene in the hall—the emperor and empress both coughing up black blood and lying unconscious on the ground—everyone was terrified.
"Quick! Save the Emperor!"
The head of the academy almost cried out as he rushed forward.
Inside the bedchamber, palace servants were running around, guards were on high alert, and the imperial physicians were in complete chaos.
Some rushed towards Xiao Che, while others ran towards Lin Wanwan.
Silver needles, medicine bottles, stethoscope threads... all sorts of first aid equipment were quickly laid out.
"His Majesty has been afflicted with 'Traction Point'! Quickly! Use golden needles to puncture Guanyuan and Qihai acupoints!"
"Your Majesty's pulse...it's bad! Your Majesty's poisoning has worsened! Quickly induce vomiting!"
"A vomiting infusion! Quickly, go and make a vomiting infusion!"
...
Lin Wanwan's consciousness floated and sank amidst the noisy and chaotic sounds.
She felt like a lone boat adrift in a storm, about to be capsized by a giant wave and sink into endless darkness.
The excruciating pain in my body had become numb, leaving only a bone-chilling cold.
She tried hard to open her eyes, but could only manage to pry them open through an incredibly heavy slit.
Through that blurry line of sight, she saw countless swaying figures and smelled a strong, nauseating odor of medicine and blood.
She saw several imperial physicians surrounding her, inserting a cold tube into her throat, which brought on a wave of intense nausea.
Not far away, Xiao Che, who should have been unconscious like her, was now sitting back in a grand chair.
His face remained deathly pale, his lips were bluish-black, and several long golden needles were stuck into acupoints on his chest, indicating that he was receiving emergency treatment.
But his eyes were open.
He ignored the imperial physicians circling around him, and instead, through the shadows of the crowd, stared at her with a cold, piercing gaze, full of scrutiny and inquiry... without moving.
That look in his eyes was incredibly complex.
There was a sense of relief at surviving the ordeal, an overwhelming hatred for the mastermind behind it all, and a deep suspicion of her as either an "accomplice" or a "victim."
Lin Wanwan's heart sank suddenly.
Just before she was about to fall into a complete coma again, she used her last bit of strength to lift her eyes up slightly.
She saw it.
At the edge of that chaotic, swaying vision, above Xiao Che's head, the pixelated figure reappeared.
It was no longer shock, nor anger, but an expression of arms crossed, chin slightly raised, and a meaningful curve at the corner of the mouth.
[Interesting.jpg]
Seeing this expression, Lin Wanwan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, boundless darkness completely engulfed her.
She knew that she had survived for the time being.
But in this perilous palace, where danger could strike at any moment and leave no trace, the real test has only just begun.
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