After being thoroughly violated, he ran away with the enemy emperor's child.

"What kind of deal?"

"I give you my heart's blood; on the day of the hunt, you helped me leave Zhao Kingdom."

With more than twenty days until the hunt, it was the perfect time for the King of Chu to take leave to recuperate from his injuries.

Moreover, the hunting grounds are less guarded than the palace. As long as Wu Xu is willing to help him, he can definitely leave Zhao and return to Dayong.

Wu Xu paused for a moment, then asked, "What makes you think I would agree?"

"You don't want me to stay by Mo Yan's side either."

"..."

Wu Xu tacitly agreed.

Since His Majesty met Mo Ci, he seems to have become a different person, with only love on his mind and no longer any great cause.

Now it has come to the point where she is willing to give up her life for Mo Ci...

Everyone could see that Mo Ci was his weakness, but an emperor shouldn't have any weaknesses.

So he nodded and agreed to the deal: "I'll arrange everything on the hunting day."

"Um."

Having received a satisfactory reply, Chu Junci sheathed his dagger. "Go outside and wait for me."

Wu Xu nodded, turned around and closed the door.

Inside the room, Chu Junci removed his robes, gazed at the cold gleam of the blade, and suddenly plunged it into the area above his heart.

As the blade pierced his body, his face turned deathly pale, and his body trembled slightly.

Fresh blood flowed from the dagger into the jade bottle, emitting a faint lotus fragrance. He endured the pain, filled the bottle halfway, and then pulled out the dagger.

A few drops of blood splattered on the ground. After applying the medicine, he put on his outer robe and opened the palace door again.

"Don't forget our deal."

His voice was weak, Chu Junci's forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his vision was blurring.

"…nature."

Wu Xu clenched his fist, said nothing more, and strode away with the jade bottle in his hand.

After he left, Lu Shu returned to the doorway and exclaimed, "Your Majesty?! Why do you look so pale...?"

With a face as pale as paper, Chu Junci gently shook his head: "Help me inside."

"Yes."

Lu Shu dared not delay and quickly helped him sit down in the hall. When he saw the blood on the ground out of the corner of his eye, he was even more surprised: "Your Majesty, you are injured?"

"Could it be that Eunuch Wu injured you?"

"It wasn't him."

Chu Junci didn't want to say more. Every word he spoke made his wound hurt even more, and he didn't know if it was his imagination, but he also felt a dull pain in his abdomen.

He was sweating more and more, and he tried his best to steady his breathing. "Lu Shu, help me to bed to rest."

"it is good."

Helping the woman to the bed, Lu Shu stood anxiously to the side, clutching his robes. "Your Majesty, should we summon the imperial physician?"

"..."

No one answered his question. He glanced up and saw that Chu Junci seemed to have fainted.

"Empress?"

The person on the bed had their eyes tightly closed, and their once rosy lips were completely bloodless. If it weren't for the rise and fall of their chest, Lu Shu would have thought they were already...

After a few seconds of thought, he strode to the door and said to the guards, "The Empress has fainted! Quickly, fetch the imperial physician!"

The guard looked at him but did not make a move.

"We are ordered to guard the gate; we have only one duty."

His tone was cold and ruthless. The guard thought to himself: His Majesty has not come for several days. He must have grown tired of the so-called Empress.

Furthermore, Lord Wu left with a displeased expression, likely after a quarrel with the Empress. He was just a powerless male favorite, whom they didn't take seriously.

"you!"

Lu Shu paced anxiously, "Then let me out, I'll go to the Imperial Hospital to fetch a physician."

"His Majesty has decreed that no one is allowed to leave Qiyue Palace."

"You, all of you!"

Lu Shu's hands trembled, but he was powerless to do anything and could only run back to his bedchamber.

"Empress? Empress?"

Chu Junci remained unconscious and developed a fever.

He was in a daze, dreaming.

In his dream, he saw Chu Ling, still with that same face that he couldn't make out.

He stood beside a precipice, below which lay a bottomless abyss.

The wind was strong at the edge of the cliff, blowing his disheveled hair. He was wearing a red fox fur coat, but it couldn't hide the marks on his neck.

After an unknown amount of time, a man appeared, riding a snow-covered horse, his face clearly showing terror.

"Ah Ling!"

Mo Yan dismounted and strode forward, shouting, "Chu Ling! You come back here!"

Hearing the noise behind her, Chu Ling turned around, her fox fur coat billowing in the wind.

"Mo Yan".

He took a step back and shook his head at him: "Don't come any closer."

Mo Yan paused in his steps, frozen in place: "Fine, I won't go."

"Ah Ling, come here, okay?"

"Didn't you want the Kingdom of Yong? I'll give it back to you, and you will still be the ruler of the Kingdom of Yong from now on."

"I'll go back to Yong Kingdom with you, and we'll live in the Yong Kingdom's royal palace from now on, okay?"

Mo Yan spoke softly, taking a tentative step forward: "A-Ling, let's start over, okay?"

"What about A-Li?"

Chu Ling looked at him quietly: "And my other people."

"..."

Mo Yan moved his lips, but couldn't speak.

"Mo Yan".

He called out to him one last time: "The victor is king, the loser is villain; I've lost this life."

"But if there is an afterlife, I will kill you first."

Without hesitation.

As she spoke, Chu Ling took a few steps back, while Mo Yan's eyes widened in fury: "A-Ling!"

The red figure plunged into the cliff. Mo Yan strode forward, about to jump, when Wu Xu and the other guards grabbed him: "Your Majesty! Think it over!"

"Ah Ling!"

Mo Yan could no longer hear Wu Xu's words; his eyes were only fixed on the disappearing red. He struggled desperately, but Wu Xu struck him on the back of the neck with a palm strike.

Before darkness fell, he saw a red ribbon floating down from the bottom of the cliff; it was the ribbon he had tied himself when he styled Ah Ling's hair that morning.

Ah Ling...

Mo Yan collapsed at the edge of the cliff.

"Take His Majesty back," Wu Xu ordered coldly.

Everyone else left, and Wu Xu stood alone on the edge of the cliff, picking up the red ribbon from the ground.

With a slight loosening of his right hand, the ribbon plummeted to the bottom of the cliff and disappeared completely.

He turned and went back to the camp. The cliff edge was deserted, as if nothing had happened.

Chu Junci stood aside, taking in everything. He came to the edge of the cliff and looked out over the bottomless precipice.

He felt that something was off.

Sure enough, a hand reached out from the edge of the cliff a short while later, and Chu Ling climbed up.

-

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty?"

The sound grew louder as it approached, disturbing Chu Junci's sleep.

He frowned, and his chest and lower back ached slightly.

In a daze, he felt someone touch his wrist and then say something, but he couldn't hear it.

His consciousness plunged into darkness again, and this time, he didn't dream.

When I woke up again, it was already dark.

He opened his eyes and looked at the curtains above him. His memory was fragmented, and he couldn't remember many things.

For example—he seemed to have a dream, but couldn't remember the specific details of it.

He thought for a long time but still couldn't remember, so he sighed and had to give up.

Before long, he remembered what had happened during the day.

He made a deal with Wu Xu, exchanging his heart's blood for the chance to leave.

Everything was going according to plan, but he didn't expect his body to be so weak. He fainted after only taking half a bottle of blood.

But his subconscious told him that his body shouldn't be this weak...