Inside the study.
A middle-aged man in plain clothes knelt on the floor, his face filled with terror. His head was bowed low to the ground, his back trembling.
Seated in the pear blossom sandalwood chair in front of him, Xie Beihan, clad in purple robes, had an sinister face. His sharp phoenix eyes were slightly upturned as he gazed at the plum blossoms outside the window.
An eerie silence filled the room, so quiet one could hear a needle drop.
Only his pair of pale hands played with two black jade beads, making a clinking sound.
"She's really dead?"
His voice was as cold as the water in the moat, causing all the attendants in the room to tremble.
The middle-aged man kneeling on the floor replied with utmost trepidation, "Before the fire, I went to find Miss Ye and encountered an assassination at Moyun Hall. I couldn't find her anywhere."
"I waited until Prince Dingbei returned, and then a body was brought out of the fire. Its build was very similar to Miss Ye's, and that body was wearing the twin rings."
"The twin rings?!" Xie Beihan's smile was tinged with a chilling coldness. "They don't melt in fire or break when cut. Are you sure that body was wearing the twin rings?"
The middle-aged man said, "Your subordinate saw from afar that they looked like the twin rings, very much like the ring on Prince Dingbei Xiao Chizhan's hand."
Silence descended upon the room once more.
The sound of the two black jade beads clashing against each other was eerily amplified within the room.
"I'm curious, where did these assassins in Moyun Hall come from?"
His calm voice carried a familiar, bone-chilling killing intent, and everyone present cowered to their knees.
"Your subordinate failed in his duty."
Huo Dao bowed. "Your Highness, could it be people from the imperial palace?"
"Oh."
His deep voice was followed by several flying hidden weapons, which, imbued with sharp lethality, embedded themselves into Huo Dao's shoulder.
Huo Dao immediately knelt and respectfully said, "Your subordinate misspoke."
Xie Beihan slowly withdrew his hand, took out a handkerchief to wipe his hand, and after discarding it, asked in a faint voice.
"Where is Xiao Chizhan?"
"Scouts at the posthouse reported that he knelt in the rain all night, and after dawn, he was taken away by Tantai Ye and others."
That lunatic, famous throughout Kyushu, knelt in the rain all night?!
Xie Beihan licked his lips and smiled sinisterly.
"Truly interesting!"
"Your Highness, with the fire yesterday, Zhongzhou is bound to be in chaos. Should we set off for Qingzhou Prefecture now and catch them off guard?"
He did not respond to Huo Dao's words, instead casting a sideways glance. "Go investigate Jing Zhi's whereabouts."
Huo Dao frowned. What did His Highness mean by investigating the Crown Prince's whereabouts?
"Does His Highness suspect that the assassins yesterday were the Crown Prince's loyal shadow guards? Is Miss Ye not dead?"
Xie Beihan stood up, his sinister face completely indifferent, his smile devoid of any warmth.
"Dead is dead."
He strode out. After leaving the study, his stern figure suddenly paused. When he looked back at Huo Dao, his gaze held a chilling coldness Huo Dao had never seen before.
"Report to me immediately once you find Jing Zhi's whereabouts."
The two black jade beads were suddenly crushed into sand, cascading onto the floor.
Huo Dao swallowed hard. "Your subordinate obeys."
Jingyu Ice Chamber.
Xiao Chizhan, dressed in a white robe, stood dishevelled and dejected beside the ice coffin. His bloodshot eyes seemed fixed on the corpse.
He reached out with his pale, stiff hand to caress the face of the corpse in the coffin, gently pulling at the corners of her mouth, his voice chillingly strange.
"Darling, smile."
The burnt corpse was already unrecognizable, with no good flesh anywhere on its body. How could it possibly smile?
When Tantai Ye and Li Qiongyu entered, they saw such a bizarre scene.
The burnt corpse in the ice coffin was dressed in red, being forced to smile by the white-haired, red-eyed man.
He seemed to have gone mad, his eyes filled with a morbid obsession.
His expressionless face was terrifyingly cold.
"Smile."
"Why aren't you smiling at me?"
In the quiet and empty ice chamber, the man's voice echoed softly.
The smile that curved his lips was colder and more terrifying than the ice chamber itself.
Li Qiongyu frowned, unsure what to say, and stopped where she was.
Tantai Ye, however, couldn't be bothered and went forward to pull him.
"Stop acting crazy. She's dead, let's bury her."
Pulled by him, Xiao Chizhan seemed to lose all his strength, his body slumping down beside the ice coffin.
"She's not smiling, she won't smile at me anymore."
His sinister and indifferent pupils showed no fluctuation, as if he had lost all sense of the outside world.
"Xiao Chizhan, she's dead, really dead—"
Xiao Chizhan remained unmoved, his stern face eerily still. Then, as if remembering something, he looked at the two of them.
"Dan Shi Zhu. Tantai Ye, go to Beidi and find the Corpse Restorer. I want Dan Shi Zhu to repair her."
Tantai Ye gritted his teeth in anger. "She's burned to this extent, you can't even see the shape of her mouth. What's the use of Dan Shi Zhu? Can you pull yourself together?"
"No, she's not dead, not dead, I want to revive her, revive her."
"She's dead! She's dead! She's almost turned to ashes. Can't you see the twin rings on her hand? There's only one pair in the world, and they can't be taken off."
His roar was particularly clear in the silent and desolate ice chamber.
Xiao Chizhan smiled. "Dead, she's dead."
Seeing him like this, Tantai Ye couldn't help but roar, "With this half-dead appearance, are you planning to be buried with her? Are you crazy?"
"Yes, this world is so meaningless to live in."
His expressionless demeanor was too frightening, and both of them were shocked by his words.
Tantai Ye took a deep breath and sat down powerlessly beside him, leaning against the cold coffin.
"What is so good about Ye Luan that makes you like this?"
What was so good about her?
Xiao Chizhan leaned against the ice coffin and slowly closed his eyes.
Memories flashed through his mind, causing him pain as if a knife were being dug into his heart.
"Xiao Chizhan, one day, I will kill you."
"If you have the guts, marry me. I want to be your princess consort."
"Chizhan Gege, carry me on your back, okay?"
"Xiao Chizhan, I will never love you. We! will never see each other again in this life!"
"It's you I love, it's you, Xiao Chizhan. Why do you always torment me?"
"Wangye, Chizhan Gege, Xiao Chizhan, Xiao Chizhan—"
The girl's delicate voice seemed like a spell, trapping his nerves, echoing and reverberating through his limbs and mind, impossible to shake off.
Li Qiongyu noticed something was wrong with Xiao Chizhan. Her eyes narrowed, and she immediately ran out. She found the medicine he had been taking in the outer chamber, opened the stone door, and re-entered.
"Hold him down and feed him."
"Give it here."
After drinking the medicine, Xiao Chizhan's aching nerves recovered somewhat. He shook his head vigorously, coming back from his dazed consciousness.
"You can't be stimulated, have you forgotten? How long do you have to take this medicine?"
Xiao Chizhan ignored Tantai Ye's words. His face was dejected as he leaned against the ice coffin, his eyes fixed on the burnt corpse.
After a long pause.
"She loved beauty. She would be sad in this state."
Tantai Ye, "----"
Li Qiongyu, "-----"