Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

230. Bitter Remorse

Translator: Bryan

Du Chuxuan didn’t move, but Ashina Yi, surprisingly, was not at all annoyed. He pushed the wine cup over to Du Chuxuan and said, “This is good Turkish wine. Even in the imperial palace this kind of wine is something of a rarity. It was buried underground for over a decade. It tastes much better than ordinary wine does.”

Du Chuxuan made no response. He just gazed at Ashina Yi’s eyes. After a long moment, he finally dropped his guard, but then he tucked his dagger back into his belt. Du Chuxuan was just about to pick up the wine glass when Luo Er reached out his hand to stop him. “Your Highness, please let me drink this for you.”

Luo Er’s hand was within an inch of touching the wine cup when Ashina Yi’s eyes grew cold. He threw a dart at Luo Er’s palm so rapidly that his hand was a blur of movement. Du Chuxuan had extremely quick reflexes. With a flick of his hand, he shoved Luo Er aside, but his own arm was scratched by the dart.

“What are you doing?” Ashina Yi was stunned for a moment. He shoved Luo Er out of his way, hurried up to Du Chuxuan in a big stride and swept him into his embrace. Du Chuxuan felt limp and powerless, unable to summon his strength. He instantly came to know that the dart was poisoned. If it had hit Luo Er, the consequences would be imaginable.

“What are you doing!?! Let him go!” Luo Er also reacted immediately. However, Du Chuxuan was in Ashina Yi’s tight embrace, unable to move an inch. Though Luo Er had consummate kung fu skills, there was nothing he could do to Ashina Yi. He was so anxious that he would’ve sacrificed his own life if that was what it took to rescue Du Chuxuan.

On hearing Luo Er’s voice, Ashina Yi calmed down. He glared at Luo Er coldly. “If you want him to live, get your ass back to the city right away. Stop being an eyesore. Tell Yuxing Tianrui I would never set his man free again.”

With that Ashina Yi scooped up Du Chuxuan in his arms and headed for the far end of the tent. Luo Er swooshed over and blocked Ashina Yi’s path. “If you want a fight, bring it on. Just now you said His Highness was your fellow apprentice. What are you doing now? This is no way to treat a fellow apprentice!”

Ashina Yi snorted and gave Luo Er’s stomach a kick. Caught off guard, Luo Er was sent flying and slammed against the railings. The loud commotion alarmed the guards outside. “Your Highness, did something happen?” asked the guards outside, intending to enter the tent.

Ashina Yi flicked a frigid glance at Luo Er who, teeth clenched, was struggling to his feet with the intention to make more trouble for him. Having run out of patience, he said, “I’ve caught the assassin. Throw this man into the dungeon. I’ll personally interrogate him later.” Having finished speaking, he swept off. When the two guards entered, he was nowhere to be seen.

Originally, Luo Er had wanted to resist, but then he realized that it would be easy for him to escape from the two guards, but getting information about Du Chuxuan would be difficult. If he stayed here, the worst-case scenario would be for him to suffer some pain. For the sake of Du Chuxuan and the crown prince, he should tough it out.

He resistlessly let the two guards march him out. He tossed a searching glance at the inner compartment, but he couldn’t see what was happening inside. He took a deep breath and, when the two guards were not looking, secretly pulled a dainty item from his inner pocket and tossed it into the shadows.

After applying the antidote to Du Chuxuan’s wound, Ashina Yi squatted down at the bedside, watching over Du Chuxuan. He remembered that when they had been little, Du Chuxuan had had a weak constitution as well, which was why Du Chuxuan hadn’t made his name in the martial arts world, though he had great talent for martial arts.

When they had been little, Ashina Yi had seen Du Chuxuan sick in bed quite often. Every time Du Chuxuan was ill, Ashina Yi stayed at his bedside keeping him company. Du Chuxuan talked in his sleep groggily at night and asked for water. Du Chuxuan always denied it after he woke up, but Ashina Yi had never felt that Du Chuxuan was a drag on him.

Having noticed that there was still strong poison in Du Chuxuan’s wound, Ashina Yi for the first time ever deeply regretted having invented such a vicious poison. If he had known beforehand that someday Du Chuxuan would fall victim to this poison, Ashina Yi would never have invented it. He would rather lose everything. However, what was done was done. All he could do was take good care of Du Chuxuan.

The darkness of night deepened and then lightened. Though knowing that moon had slid out from the clouds, Du Chuxuan did not open his eyes. His whole body was burning up alarmingly. Ashina Yi didn’t have any medical knowledge, but he knew Du Chuxuan was in a critical condition, that he must not waste any time.

He secretly summoned all the physicians in the encampment and instructed them to treat Du Chuxuan from outside the curtains. Though unable to see the face of the patient, the physicians knew that the person must be very important to Ashina Yi, given that Ashina Yi let the patient lie on his own bed.

Standing on the side, Ashina Yi looked very irritable. Naturally, he had confidence in the medical skills of these physicians, but none of them could offer a cure. Clearly, this was no common fever. If the fever continued, Du Chuxuan might really die.

“Your Highness, please forgive us. There’s nothing we can do.” The last physician put down his stuff and shook his head resignedly. “The patient has clearly fallen prey to the rare poison you invented. You better than any of us know about the potency of the poison. It’s not that we’re taking this lightly. This is really beyond our capabilities.”

The others also tremulously dropped to their knees. They had seen Ashina Yi have multiple men beheaded in a fit of anger. They vaguely guessed that the person lying in bed was even more important to Ashina Yi. They feared that they would very likely die a miserable death.

Surprisingly, Ashina Yi just took a deep breath. “Is there a way to dampen the poison in his body?”

The physicians exchanged uncertain glances. Eventually, the eldest one stepped out and said, “Your Highness, back at the time when you gave us the order to concoct a poison like this, you made it clear that we must make sure there’s no way to dextoxify it, but I felt that was too merciless, and I didn’t have the heart to do that, so I disobeyed your order.”

The physician inhaled deeply. He was also taking great risks. He was wagering his life that Ashina Yi cared more about the patient lying in bed than his heirship. If he was mistaken, he would die, but the one lying in bed was a living person as well.