Demoting my wife to a concubine? After being reborn, I turned around and married into the imperial f

At this moment, Chu Mingli was not in a solitary cell, but was being held with other people.

Three burly men grabbed him and teased him as if he were a toy.

His clothes were torn into long strips that hung to the ground.

The person felt as if they had suffered tremendous damage.

"Your Highness, we have arrived."

Ankang Gonggong spoke softly, which immediately startled the people in the prison cell.

Chu Mingli looked up and saw Chu Xunzhen.

"Zhenzhen, save Second Brother. Please get Second Brother out of here!"

Chu Mingli suddenly lunged forward, grabbed the cage, and cried out.

Chu Xunzhen glanced at him and said, "Chu Mingli, you really do have a bad memory. You were sent here because you wanted to harm me. Now you can enjoy yourself."

Chu Mingli stretched his right hand out of the cell and called out, "Zhenzhen, I know you're angry. Your second brother promises you, we'll resume our relationship as soon as we get out. I'll tear up that severance letter as soon as I get back. You're still my sister, okay?"

Chu Xunzhen's gaze turned slightly cold as she said, "This is bad. Why would I want to sever ties with you? You don't actually think I'm here to save you, do you?"

Hearing this, Chu Mingli felt uneasy and forced a smile, his expression grim: "Zhenzhen, don't joke around. If you didn't come to save me, why did you come to see me? Surely not to laugh at you, right?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Xunzhen chuckled and said, "This princess consort certainly doesn't have the time to come and see you make a fool of yourself. I've come today to discuss something with you."

Hearing this, a fierce will to survive ignited in Chu Mingli's eyes. He said, "Tell me, as long as I can do it, I will do my best. Zhenzhen, please let me go?"

Chu Xunzhen's gaze turned cold, and he said, "Don't call me that. It disgusts me."

Chu Mingli choked on his words.

Three burly men behind him stuffed their smelly socks into Chu Mingli's mouth.

"The princess said you're dirty, did you hear me?"

"Still trying to escape? Do you think the three of us are treating you badly?"

"Now that you're here, you'll become our entertainment. Don't even think about letting you go."

As the three burly men spoke, they punched and kicked Chu Mingli.

Before long, Chu Mingli had countless more scars on his body.

"That's enough!"

Chu Xunzhen snorted coldly.

The three burly men were taken aback at first, then burst into laughter.

Chu Xunzhen's gaze turned slightly cold, and his right thumb trembled slightly.

The next instant, rats from the other cells suddenly scrambled toward this cell.

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

Upon seeing the three burly men, the rats let out eerie cries and suddenly surrounded them.

Thousands upon thousands of insects swarmed into the cell.

Cockroaches, scorpions, and all sorts of other small insects, swarmed toward the three of them in dense numbers.

"No!"

"Your Highness, spare my life!"

"Your Highness, spare me!"

The three men were so frightened that their faces turned pale. They lay on the ground, trembling, and begged for mercy.

They would rather be hacked to death than be devoured by these tiny insects.

Chu Mingli took a deep breath.

He looked at Chu Xunzhen with some fear and said, "Zhenzhen..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chu Xunzhen's sharp gaze fell upon him.

Chu Mingli paused for a moment before speaking, "You can command these poisonous creatures?"

"good!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Mingli burst into laughter.

"See this? This is my own sister! My own, haha!"

Chu Xunzhen remained expressionless and said coldly, "If Chu Mingli agrees to one thing, I will let you out."

Upon hearing this, Eunuch Ankang became anxious and said, "Your Highness, His Highness has repeatedly instructed that he must not be allowed to leave like this. This boy is inherently rebellious and disloyal to his own family. For Chu Wanrou's sake, he even betrayed Marquis Ping'an and his wife. He cannot be called a human being; he can only be called a beast."

Chu Mingli immediately flew into a rage: "What nonsense are you spouting? When did I ever wrong my mother and father? Even though you are a favorite of the Princess Consort, you can't just slander people without evidence."

Chu Xunzhen raised her right arm, waved her hand, and said, "It's alright. I will speak to the Prince myself."

"If you want to leave, it's simple. Now pluck a lock of your hair and give it to me. Also, I, the princess, want three drops of your fingertip blood."

With that, Chu Xunzhen threw the porcelain bottle into the cell.

Chu Mingli's expression changed, and his body stiffened, remaining motionless.

Chu Xunzhen curled her lips and said, "What's wrong? Didn't you just say you'd do anything to get me out? Were you deceiving this princess?"

Chu Mingli mechanically turned his head and said, "Could I ask the Princess Consort what the purpose of this hair and fingertip blood is?"

Chu Xunzhen smiled and said, "No."

"Well? I'll give you three breaths to think it over. One, two, three."

Chu Xunzhen suddenly turned around and was about to leave.

"Wait a minute!" Chu Mingli said, "I'm willing to do as you say."

He suddenly picked up the bottle, bit three of his fingers, and dripped blood into the porcelain bottle.

Ankang Gonggong raised an eyebrow and smiled.

This is more than three drops; it's probably almost half a bottle full.

Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Mingli tore off a lock of his hair in full view of everyone.

He held a blood-soaked porcelain bottle in his right hand and a lock of hair in his left, and said to Chu Xunzhen, "I've done everything. Please, Your Highness, let me go."

Chu Xunzhen raised an eyebrow and smiled mockingly: "Too late! When I asked for it earlier, you weren't willing to give it to me. Now I don't want it anymore."

After she finished speaking, she turned and left without looking back.

Chu Mingli stood there, watching Chu Xunzhen's back, and suddenly shook the wooden door of the cage.

"No! Chu Xunzhen, you said you would let me leave as long as I offered these two things. Come back, Chu Xunzhen, come back to me."

Chu Xunzhen paused, turned around, and said, "I've changed my mind now."

With a flick of her right thumb, the poisonous insects and rats receded like a tide.

The three burly men sneered and dragged Chu Mingli into a dark corner of the cell.

"No!"

His masculine dignity is about to be lost.

At this moment, he was filled with regret. He should have just agreed to Chu Xunzhen's request. Why did he have to be so coy?

Outside the prison cell.

Ankang Gonggong involuntarily clenched his buttocks. Thinking of Chu Mingli's plight, he suddenly felt that he was still very fortunate.

"Your Highness, if needed, I can send someone into the prison to retrieve his hair and the porcelain vase."

Chu Xunzhen nodded and said, "Alright! I'm tired anyway. Go and fetch it now. Have him leave tomorrow."

"Yes, Your Highness is kind and benevolent."

Ankang Gonggong sighed.

Chu Xunzhen found it quite amusing upon hearing this.

If she were kind, she would have let Chu Mingli out long ago.

She had long suspected that the three men had taken a liking to Chu Mingli.

They know he's leaving, so they'll definitely torture Chu Mingli tonight.

In his previous life, Chu Mingli once said to her, who was being humiliated, "If you hadn't been so deliberately seducing, why would those men have bothered with you?"

With just one sentence, he broke her heart, and she never had the slightest expectation of him, her brother, again.

Chu Xunzhen returned to the side room.

A short while later, Eunuch Ankang arrived and handed over Chu Mingli's hair and the porcelain bottle containing the blood from his fingertips.

Chu Xunzhen locked the door to the side room, sat down at the desk, and suddenly cut off a lock of her hair. She then took out a piece of Xuan paper and wrapped the two locks of hair in it.

Chu Xunzhen stuffed the Xuan paper containing the hair into the porcelain bottle.

She gently shook the porcelain bottle, letting the blood soak into the Xuan paper inside.

Suddenly, a mysterious and profound feeling descended upon her.

She seemed to have developed a special connection with Chu Mingli.

"It's done."

Chu Xunzhen smiled.

This was the art of grafting flowers and trees that Piaomiao taught her when she was at Baiyun Temple.

If anyone tries to harm her using the art of destiny again, the spell will be transferred to Chu Mingli.

It seems that although Chu Mingli didn't know what she wanted his hair and blood for, he guessed it must be something bad.

"Eunuch Ankang, has the Prince not returned yet?"

An Kang shook his head and said, "The Prince has not returned. I heard there was a commotion in the palace. The palace gates have been sealed off. The secret guards have sent word that the Prince is safe."

Chu Xunzhen's eyes flickered slightly as he asked, "Do you know what happened in the palace?"

Eunuch Ankang replied respectfully, "It seems that something has happened to the eldest princess."

The eldest princess?

Has something happened to Princess Jiamin's mother?

Chu Xunzhen then asked, "Were the other princes all kept in the palace?"

"Yes. Except for the Third Prince, who is ill and unable to enter the palace, all the other princes are in the palace."

Chu Xunzhen walked towards the side room, a faint pain coming from her back.

It must be because he had been in the death row for too long and had been exposed to the evil and deathly aura there, which caused his wound to reopen.

Chu Xunzhen entered the room, lifted his clothes, and was about to re-bandage.

Suddenly, her expression changed, and she stared intently at the figure behind the screen.

Her voice was cold and sharp as she shouted, "Who dares to trespass into my chambers?"

The person hid behind the screen, not saying a word, just hiding quietly and not moving.

Chu Xunzhen sneered, tied the thin ribbon on his clothes, and kicked the screen.

The screen collapsed in the next instant, revealing a trembling figure.

Nangong Xinghe?

Chu Xunzhen breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Xinghe, what are you doing here?"

She had thought the assassins were so brazen.

Anshun has already checked and replaced all the guards and maids in this mansion.

If that's the case, and an assassin still manages to infiltrate, then it's a dereliction of duty.

Nangong Xinghe was pale and pleaded with Chu Xunzhen, "Mother, I'll stay here for a while. Please don't send me away."

Chu Xunzhen's expression changed. Forcing herself to stand, she slowly walked over and extended her hand to Nangong Xinghe, saying, "Come, Xinghe, come to your mother. Tell her what happened?"

Nangong Xinghe stared at Chu Xunzhen for a long time before finally asking, "Are you my mother?"

"I am your mother."

As soon as Chu Xunzhen finished speaking, Nangong Xinghe suddenly threw himself into her arms and burst into tears.

Chu Xunzhen hugged him, cradling his little bottom, and asked, "What's wrong? Did someone bully Xinghe? Mother will stand up for Xinghe, okay?"

Nangong Xinghe shook her head violently, tears streaming down her face, and cried out in grievance, "No one is bullying Xinghe, but everyone in the manor wants to eat Xinghe! My sister wants to eat Xinghe, and my wet nurse wants to kill Xinghe. Mother, save me!"