Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

56. Zhou’s Story

Translator: Flying Lines

When Su Jie went back to his residence, the courtyard was filled with strong fragrance of herbs. These days, Zhou Zaiyue had been cooking medical soup for him, at first to nurse his health so as to promote the healing of his inner injuries and then to inhibit the growth of the Death Gu (a poison cultivated by witchcraft with poisonous insects).

Because the Poison had been entrenched in Su Jie’s body for many years, it wasn’t an easy thing to remove it.

The Death Gu laid eggs every decade, and it was one year away before it laid eggs in Su Jie’s body. Once the eggs were laid, the mother Gu would fall into dormancy, while the eggs would grow by absorbing the essence qi of the human body and that of the mother Gu, thus growing into young Gu in three months.

It was most difficult to expel a young Gu out of the body. Therefore, once a young Gu existed in one’s body, even the Guqin Master who was a master-hand of controlling Gu poisons would find it hard to remove it.

In general, each man of sacrifice of the Guqin Master only had a ten-year lifespan, because when a young Gu was cultivated in the body of the man of sacrifice, the Guqin Master would kill the man in order to take out the young Gu and then use it to control new man of sacrifice. In the eye of the Guqin Master, a decade of killing and suffering would inevitably excite in a man of sacrifice the sense of resistance, so every ten years, the Guqin Master killed a batch of men of sacrifice and found a new batch.

Su Jie or the other men of sacrifice didn’t know it.

Zhou Zaiyue did.

Zhou Zaiyue put out the fire and gently churned the dark medical juice with a spoon.

“Where is His Highness?” Seeing only Zhou Zaiyue was in the yard, Su Jie asked casually.

“He went to run some errands. Probably he will come back after dinner. We don’t have to wait for him.” Zhou Zaiyue poured the soup into a bowl, the heat of it spiraling up in steams which then faded out in the air…

“For how long do I need to take the medicine?” Su Jie looked at the dark-colored soup and frowned.

“Until I collect all the herbs I need to inhibit the Death Gu.” Zhou Zaiyue put the medicine on the table. The juice was taken once a day before dinner and, though bitter, wasn’t that hard to bear.

When the temperature of the juice was alright, Su Jie took up the bowl and drank it up in one breath.

The bitterness spread out in his mouth, and Su Jie’s brows furrowed tighter.

“I went up the lookout tower today.” Su Jie said.

Zhou Zaiyue’s eyes seemed to gain a flicker of light, and his eyes narrowed from the smile, “Stand higher and see farther.”

“However high I stand, the tower doesn’t give me the sight of Yanling. Even Xi could only be seen vaguely.”

Zhao Zaiyue smiled, “There will be one day when you once again set your foot on Yanling’s territory, but it’s not now.”

“I understand. I just want to know in what kind of country I was born. I want to…see the faces of my parents.” Su Jie’s eyelashes fluttered, his voice had a trembling that even himself didn’t discern. Now he was in City Hao, only a country, State Xi, away from State Yanling. It’s very very close…

“Though His and Her Majesty both had portraits, they were in the palace and very likely destroyed by Lan Buhui.” There was a flash of anguish crossing Zhou Zaiyue’s eyes.

Zhou Zaiyue had a deep relation with the previous emperor of State Yanling. He had received the education of loyalty towards the emperor since childhood and dreamt of entering the court as an official. He had been quite self-conceited when he was young and, due to his amazing talent which enabled him to memorize everything after a glance and to compose an excellent article upon touching the pen, had become an advisor of a governor. Then, owing to his detesting of the evil, he offended the governor who sentenced his death, but Zhou Zaiyue laughed at the last moment before execution, “I’d rather die than give in!”

At that moment, the previous emperor had arrived at the site on a private tour. He had stood among the commoners and hearing it, admired his unyielding character and thus stepped in to save Zhou Zaiyue’s life.

The previous emperor and Zhou Zaiyue afterwards had had a great talk through the night, where Zhou Zaiyue responding satisfactorily everything the Emperor brought up and gaining his admiration and appreciation.

Later, Zhou Zaiyue had become a regular company of the Emperor as the most beloved official for a time, until one year, an adjacent small nation had provoked repeatedly at the borders and Zhou Zaiyue had volunteered to go on an expedition to the frontier. Unexpectedly, upon his leaving, he had been fated to never see the Emperor again…

Hence, this had made the biggest regret of Zhou Zaiyue’s life. He would rather stay in the palace and die together with the Emperor than survive in the world alone in shame.

On that year, hadn’t he learned that the Emperor’s children survived, which ignited hope and determination in Zhou Zaiyue, he would have long followed the Emperor’s step to show his loyalty.