"A Chu?"
Chu Qianli never dreamed that upon hearing the news of the Empress Dowager's demise, she would stumble upon a breathtakingly handsome man poisoned and on the verge of death.
A Chu!
How could this be?
Crane's peak red! A potent poison!
Chu Qianli immediately helped him inside. After laying him on the bed, she took his hand.
For a fresh poisoning, saving him wouldn't be too difficult for her.
An injection, bloodletting, and detoxification!
Outside, the sounds of grief were pervasive. Chu Qianli couldn't afford to pay them any mind; she had to save this inexplicably appearing man first.
Time trickled by, and more than half of the poison in Feng Dingchu's body was cleared.
By the latter half of the night, his breathing had stabilized somewhat.
But he did not wake.
Drowsy, murmuring, his starlike eyes tightly shut.
Chu Qianli soon realized something was amiss.
It wasn't that he couldn't wake up, but rather, he was unwilling to.
He wanted to die!
Even ants cling to life; what reason could make this man possess not a shred of will to live?
His thin lips parted slightly, as if saying something.
But his voice was too faint to be heard.
Chu Qianli couldn't help but lean closer, her head bowed, her lips near his: "A Chu, what are you saying? What are you thinking?"
She had noticed a long time ago that Feng Dingchu carried a profoundly decadent aura. She had even told Feng Yexuan that Feng Dingchu lived like a walking corpse.
But she didn't know why.
Now, it seemed, he truly had no desire to live.
"A Li." Fulong arrived stealthily, having seen the drone's signal.
"Are there any particular anomalies in the palace?" Chu Qianli lowered the gauze curtain and walked to the outer room.
Even through the screen, Fulong could see someone lying on the bed inside.
He looked like a man.
He lowered his voice and said, "The Empress Dowager has passed away, and everyone is in mourning. The palace will be very busy tonight. That person is..."
"My friend, he's unconscious from poisoning... I don't know why he was poisoned. Besides the Empress Dowager's death, has anything else happened in the palace?"
Fulong understood immediately. Poisoned in the palace, and a man at that!
This was the inner court!
If he weren't of special status, responsible for the palace's security, he wouldn't be able to move so freely in this place.
But here lay a poisoned, unconscious man.
Fulong shook his head, "There have been no reports of assassins in the palace. He..."
"I suspect he heard that the Empress Dowager was gravely ill, so he returned to see his... mother."
"What?" Mother?
Fulong's entire body trembled!
He couldn't believe it!
"The previous generation's princes are already..." Aside from the Emperor, aren't they all gone?
Suddenly, Fulong's eyes lit up. He looked at Chu Qianli, wanting to say something but unsure.
Could it really be him?
The God of War Ninth Prince who, years ago, had left the capital for a beauty?
Chu Qianli nodded, "It's him, but he has another identity: Wuchenzi."
In front of Fulong, Chu Qianli had no secrets.
Suddenly, she began to understand why her interactions with Prince Xuan were so difficult.
It was because they each kept secrets from the other.
Ultimately, they couldn't fully confide in each other.
Ultimately, it was impossible.
Fulong took a long time to fully process this news.
"So, he has been living incognito all these years?"
"You might know more about the palace's affairs than I do."
She had called him here precisely because she wanted to find out why Feng Dingchu lived like a walking corpse.
Why didn't he want to wake up? Why did he have no will to live?
"Did the Ninth Prince really leave the imperial palace for a beauty back then? Or was there another hidden reason?"