Favored concubine deposed empress? I'll seize your throne and marry you to a powerful minister.

She knew there would come a day of separation, but she didn't expect it to come so soon.

Looking down at Ling Xianru's face, she found the black bloodstains on the corner of his lips glaring, so she raised her sleeve to wipe them away, gently cleaning them from his face.

He then ordered that Ling Xianru be placed in the Chengqian Palace, where foreign officials stayed overnight.

After that, he took a sword and went to the dungeon.

Watching her figure disappear outside the palace, Physician Qian turned around blankly and looked at Ling Xianru.

Then she looked at Mo Bai.

Mo Bai stood by the door with his arms crossed, his face indifferent.

Physician Qian dared not provoke Ling Xianru, and only dared to tremblingly take out a medicine bottle from his sleeve and hand it to Mo Bai: "After the Heart-Eating Gu was cured last time, Miss Wen developed a medicine to cure the Gu. She instructed us that if His Highness the Crown Prince is infected with the Gu again, he should take one pill, and it will cure him completely. You haven't forgotten, have you?"

"I forgot," Mo Bai said calmly. "Didn't Master say he was going back to Donglin?"

Since it was Ling Xianru's own idea, he was just going along with it.

Only His Highness the Crown Prince knows what he means.

and--

Three days earlier, they had intercepted a secret report that Xiao Yi was secretly raising assassins and intended to kill Wei Rong.

Having made thorough preparations in secret, the assassin had no chance of succeeding.

Ke Lingxian, however, risked her life.

Physician Qian then shakily carried the antidote to the bedside: "Your Highness, this medicine—?"

Do you want some?

"I won't eat it."

The Heart-Eating Gu is real; it travels through the body and causes excruciating pain.

Ling Xianru's weakness and pain were not feigned, but she resolutely refused to take the antidote.

He was forcing Wei Rong to make a choice.

She was clear about right and wrong, cared for the people, and had a magnanimous heart. Having experienced Xiao Heng's betrayal and the tragic changes in her family, she had long since seen through the coldness and indifference of powerful emperors and her will was as firm as a rock.

The mountains and rivers of Dajing, the responsibilities of the Wei family, and the thousands of her old subordinates—these layers of shackles bound her, making it impossible for her to easily give up everything and leave Dajing.

Ordinary acts of kindness and promises of power cannot sway her in the slightest.

However, Donglin and Dajing are thousands of miles apart, and he will have to return to Donglin one day.

Since Wei Rong didn't want the power of Da Jing, he would make her think clearly about what she really wanted.

Therefore, he was willing to risk his life.

He deliberately allowed the assassination to happen, calculating the arrow's landing point, the severity of the poison, and the extent of the injury.

Without damaging her foundation or destroying her physique, it is dangerous and brutal enough, enough to protect her with one's life, just enough to pierce through her layers of hard defenses.

What he wanted was never the throne of the Great Jing Dynasty.

He knows her too well.

She is cold-hearted and ruthless towards her enemies, but she can never be indifferent to those who protect her, respect her, and treat her sincerely.

Today, he was poisoned and nearly died for her. If she shows even the slightest hesitation or heartache, he will feel confident.

What's so special about this mere Gu poison?

Imperial Physician Qian: "..."

When he visited Dajing years ago, he said that His Highness the Crown Prince would not stay here for so long without a reason. Moreover, he had even summoned him from Donglin half a year ago and placed him in the palace.

Even more so, disregarding their own safety, they insisted on climbing the cloud ladder step by step to reach the position of Prime Minister of the Great Jing, second only to the emperor.

Alas, the word "love".

"The word 'love,' haha." Xiao Yi, his hands bound by iron chains and suspended from a cross-shaped wooden stake, sneered, "Even the Empress has condescended to come to the dungeon."

He had already been taken into custody and sent to the dungeon.

Wei Rong looked at him coldly: "I need the fastest way to detoxify the Heart-Eating Gu."

She thought that the most unassuming Prince Yong was actually a brute.

They were determined to get rid of her as soon as possible in order to secure their throne.

They even used such insidious methods as Gu poison.

Just now, when Ling Xianru fell into her arms, she vividly recalled the events of when she was six years old for the first time.

She never understood why Ling Xianru remembered her for so long.

But it turns out that when someone breaks through a desperate situation like a strong wind, that moment truly brings a profound sense of redemption.

Even before she risked her life, Ling Xianru still revered her as a goddess.

The fact that Ling Xianru risked her life to protect her without hesitation means that even after she drinks the Meng Po soup, she will never forget the panic she felt at that moment.

Her only thought was that Ling Xianru must not die.

"Antidote? Your Majesty is overthinking it. The victor is king, the loser is villain. Why would I leave an antidote?" Xiao Yi's eyes were tinged with madness. "I didn't know that the Crown Prince of Donglin was such a romantic."

Wei Rong's expression changed, and she drew her sword, pressing it against his neck: "What nonsense are you spouting?"

The identity of the Crown Prince of Donglin is not a secret, but if too much news about the Crown Prince of Donglin being in Dajing is leaked, it will definitely bring a lot of trouble to Ling Xianru.

He has been hunted since childhood, and the Eastern Lin royal family is eyeing him covetously. Especially now that he is poisoned by Gu, if this is revealed, who knows how many deadly disasters he will attract.

"Is this king talking nonsense?" Xiao Yi said, seemingly indifferent to life or death since he had been caught. "The news that he mobilized troops from the eastern border to intercept King Su Meng for your sake has already spread. Don't you know that?"

What?

King Sumon.

The King of Sumon who wanted to make a deal with her.

No wonder they disappeared after that night.

Has Ling Xianru gone mad?

If we send troops from the east to intercept the King of Sumon, wouldn't that be openly offending Sumon? What if the two countries develop a rift and the border becomes unstable in the future?

Moreover, he was not afraid of being ridiculed by the world, and he went to great lengths for her, the Empress of Dajing.

With the Crown Prince to the east, the future is bright; why bother...?

"It seems you really don't know," Xiao Yi continued, "Why did I have to kill you? Because with him around, even if I became emperor, I would be a puppet for life. But I didn't know that a prince of such high status would risk his life for you!"

I'd give my life for you.

Yes, Wei Rong, what makes you so special?

The dungeon was chilling, the wind penetrating silently to the bone.

After Xiao Yi's two questions landed, the surroundings suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

Wei Rong felt a tingling sensation in her fingertips, and the grip on the sword hilt loosened slightly before tightening again.

She was usually calm and collected, adept at weighing the pros and cons and analyzing cause and effect. She had a solution to everything in her life, but at this moment, her mind was in such a chaotic state that there was no way to follow any pattern.

She has always seen things very clearly.

She and Ling Xianru were destined to be just passersby on a journey through life.

He came from the far east, and he will eventually return home;

She was trapped in the mountains and rivers of Dajing and could not escape.

Therefore, she always maintained a proper distance, accepting his help and remembering his kindness, but never daring to delve too deeply into the matter.

She fears debt, but even more so, she fears chaos.

Having experienced betrayal and witnessed the self-interest of people, she no longer believed in the existence of genuine, altruistic sincerity.

Before today, Wei Rong thought she could pay it all back.

Once the situation in Dajing is stable, she will repay Ling Xianru's efforts in another way.

She believed that everything had a bottom line and a way out.

Only now did Xiao Yi shatter all the illusions.

He's willing to risk his life, how can Wei Rong repay him?