The wicked imperial concubine is courting death again; the comments section teaches her how to win w

"Your Majesty, I apologize for the offense."

The person in front of him was Zhao Yan, Xie Jingyu's confidant.

Before their falling out, Qi Yitang and Xie Jingyu had been childhood sweethearts for so many years, so she was naturally familiar with Zhao Yan.

Even when Xie Jingyu angered her, she would take it out on Zhao Yan, who came to apologize, by making sarcastic remarks and throwing things at him. Zhao Yan always endured it expressionlessly without uttering a single complaint.

Qi Yitang never expected that it was Zhao Yan who had kidnapped her.

Most importantly, Xie Ling had just told her not long ago that Zhao Yan was her cousin Ning Zheng, whom she had been searching for.

He suffered from amnesia as a child and was rescued by Xie Jingyu. After Xie Jingyu died, he fled to Longxi. Xie Ling ordered people to continue the search and capture him, and then bring him back to the capital.

My cousin's younger brother is naturally her cousin.

Although she was not familiar with this cousin at all and had never met him before, he was still a relative, and he dared to kidnap her. He was quite capable.

Since the crime was committed by someone she knew, Qi Yitang wasn't so panicked.

Just as she was about to unleash a torrent of abuse on him to vent her anger, she suddenly noticed his left arm—

The sleeves were loose and drooped down from the shoulders, looking as if... they were broken.

What happened to your left hand?

Even Zhao Yan had no idea that Qi Yitang's first reaction would be to be concerned about his arm.

He paused for a moment, then his expression quickly hardened again. "What does Your Majesty think?"

Qi Yitang was about to say, "How would I know?", but the words suddenly caught in her throat, and she felt a tightness in her throat. "It was... the hand under the inkstone?"

Zhao Yan did not answer, but his silence itself was the answer.

Qi Yitang opened her mouth, as if to say something, but no words came out.

She didn't know; Yanzhi didn't tell her.

"The victor is king, the loser is villain. It's just an arm." Zhao Yan didn't care much. "Your Majesty, rest assured, I will not harm you. I only want to use you to exchange for the prince with His Majesty. As long as the prince is rescued, I will definitely release Your Majesty unharmed."

Qi Yitang was taken aback; she hadn't expected Zhao Yan to have kidnapped her specifically for this reason.

"But Xie Jingyu is already dead..."

The first attempt failed; it was Xie Ling who personally took matters into his own hands.

Zhao Yan stubbornly shook his head, "No, the Prince is definitely still alive!"

The prince's heart is different from that of ordinary people. Qin Lianyue's sword could not kill him. Moreover, the prince has survived Liu Ruyan's torment. How could he die so easily?

Zhao Yan guessed that it must be a false message released by the emperor, and in reality, the prince was secretly imprisoned and tortured day and night.

The prince had shown him great kindness by rescuing him from the slave market. Even knowing there might be a trap ahead, Zhao Yan had to try and rescue the prince.

After much thought, the only way to force Xie Ling to open up was to start with Qi Yitang.

She was the only one who could make the emperor compromise.

Qi Yitang really wanted Zhao Yan to face reality: Xie Jingyu was dead beyond any doubt, and the dead could not be brought back to life.

But the words caught in his throat.

He was convinced that Xie Jingyu was still alive, and that he could use her as a bargaining chip to get his master back. No matter what she said, it couldn't outweigh his obsessive loyalty.

……

Qi Yitang was locked in a room by herself, which was probably a woodshed.

There was definitely no bed in the woodshed; it was just a mess of firewood and dust. The windows were crooked and let in the cold wind.

In the corner was a pile of dry straw. Qi Yitang shrank over and curled up into a ball, pondering her current situation.

Zhao Yan kidnapped her to exchange her for Xie Jingyu. If Xie Jingyu were still alive, Xie Ling would definitely agree to the exchange, and at worst, he would kill her later.

The problem is, where can we find a Xie Jingyu for him?

Liu Ruyan asked her for "Brother Yu", and Zhao Yan also asked her for "Your Highness" - Qi Yitang curled her lips, no wonder he was the former male lead, even after he died so many people still care about him.

If she were to tell Zhao Yan now, "Actually, you are my cousin," he would only think she was playing tricks, and might even become angry and embarrassed.

Qi Yitang decided that if the enemy didn't move, she wouldn't move either, and she would just play it safe for now.

Previously, when I was on the road, I could vaguely see the bullet comments, but now there is nothing in front of me.

Qi Yitang propped herself up and looked down through the broken window.

It was pitch black at dusk, with a cold wind howling and the faint sound of water. This abandoned temple was built against the mountain, and there must have been a riverbed below it.

If he jumped from here and swam back to Shengjing... Qi Yitang realized that the chances of surviving were slim.

Forget it, it's more realistic to hope that Xie Ling will come to her rescue.

Although Qi Yitang also wanted to learn from the clever and resourceful protagonists in the storybooks and find a way to escape, she had a clear understanding of herself—if she recklessly jumped down, she would either fall to her death or faint and freeze to death, and she could easily get herself killed.

It's better to just wait patiently than to make a fuss.

Glug glug.

Qi Yitang's lips twitched; she was hungry.

She had lunch before leaving the palace, and had planned to return to the palace to have dinner with Xie Ling, but... the roast duck she bought was still in the carriage.

The duck skin is roasted to a golden brown and crispy color, sliced ​​thinly, wrapped in lotus leaf pancakes, dipped in sweet bean sauce, rolled with scallions, and bursting with oil with every bite.

Qi Yitang felt hungrier the more she thought about it, and she almost cried. She wished she had taken a few bites first.

"boom--"

The door was pushed open, something was thrown in, and then it was closed again.

Qi Yitang waited in the corner for a while before moving over and bringing a pot of ice water and a steamed bun that had been thrown onto the pile of straw.

This is her dinner.

Zhao Yan probably thought she couldn't escape, so he tied her hands in front of her so she could barely hold them to eat.

From childhood, Qi Yitang disliked eating steamed buns, finding them tasteless. But at this moment, she couldn't care less; she had to survive and couldn't starve to death.

Despite eating, Qi Yitang still tore off the outer skin of the steamed bun and took a tentative bite—it was dry and tasteless, like swallowing sawdust.

She stared blankly at the half-eaten steamed bun for a while.

Xie Ling was born in a cold palace. When she was a child, she probably didn't even have steamed buns like these to eat.

He could only gnaw on tree bark, chew on grass roots, and catch grasshoppers to roast and eat...

He's probably eaten everything that won't kill him.

When he used to talk about those things so casually, Qi Yitang felt sorry for him, but she never really felt it.

But now that she herself has fallen into this predicament, Qi Yitang suddenly realized what her "timely help" meant to Xie Ling back then.

When she was little, she wasn't a vicious woman; she couldn't stand seeing people pitiful.

At first, she just did it on a whim, taking a steamed bun to feed the cat, but by a twist of fate, she fed it to Xie Ling instead...

Later, under the guise of feeding the cat, they sent him a lot of warm clothes and medicine for his injuries, and even some imperial snacks that they had taken from the late emperor's desk...

It may not seem like much now, but to Xie Ling at that time, it must have been more precious than any delicacy, which is why he was so devoted to her.

But why didn't she go later?