Chapter 4: Drinking Poison to Quench Thirst

The jade steps were like washed, the eaves rain like a downpour.

Zi Hao stood with his hands behind his back before the bedchamber, quietly looking toward the north of the royal palace, his clothes soaked by rain, yet he remained unaware.

Li Si stood a step behind him, raising her head to look in the direction of his gaze. Beyond the heavy pavilions and flying eaves, a palace appeared vaguely at the end of her sight. That was Langxuan Palace, the deep palace that had been sealed for seven years, revealing only a blurred outline in the pitch-black night rain, yet the woman's figure was so clear.

A woman of peerless beauty, beautiful and near-demonic. Quiet as a lotus, spreading like a phoenix in flight.

The Nine Princess of the Xiang Emperor, Zi Rao, born to Lady Wan. The Empress Dowager purged the Xiang Emperor's heirs, hating her mother's seductive beauty and jealous of her country-toppling looks. She set up firewood and poured tung oil at the Yao Guang Terrace in Langxuan Palace, intending to execute her by fire. When the execution began, a torrential rain fell from the sky, extinguishing the flames three times, and a violent wind arose, making it impossible for people to stand. The ministers knelt and begged for mercy, and the Empress Dowager had no choice but to pardon her. As the princess descended the steps, a thunderbolt struck the sky, hitting the firewood and burning the Yao Guang Terrace. The flames rose ten zhang high, destroying the palace and tilting the buildings, thick smoke obscuring the sun, visible for a hundred li. People tried to put it out, but it did not stop for three days, the terrace destroyed and the fire extinguished. The Empress Dowager was terrified, thinking her a demoness, and built the Nine-Layer Profound Tower at Langxuan Palace to imprison her, never to be pardoned.

Li Si still remembers that day. The flames soared to the sky, enchanting like blood. Inside and outside the hall, ministers knelt and begged, sounds of mourning everywhere. The Nine Princess, in white robes and bare feet, stood gracefully before the Yao Guang Terrace, her phoenix eyes slanted and seductive, looking at the Empress Dowager on the phoenix throne with a smile that was not a smile, never once begging for mercy from beginning to end. Under the scorching flames, those soul-stealing eyes were filled only with mockery and disdain...

The cold rain pattered, the light and shadow blurred. The profile of the man close at hand was clearly defined—how similar the brows and eyes, the cold mockery beneath the smile, the faint pity amidst the indifference. When he looks at you, the gaze is so clear it is heart-stopping. Li Si was lost in thought when she suddenly heard Zi Hao sigh lightly, as if talking to himself, or perhaps asking her: "Seven years. I wonder how she is now?"

Li Si said softly: "Master will be able to see the Princess very soon."

Zi Hao turned and smiled silently: "I have made her wait for seven years. Seven years—too long!"

Li Si was about to speak when Mo Heng walked quickly from the direction of Chonghua Palace. Arriving close, he knelt on one knee, holding up a box carved from jade, inside which were nine keys forged from black gold.

Langxuan Palace, the Nine-Layer Tower, was built by sealing ninety thousand blocks of Kun Mountain profound stone, with forbidden doors cast from East Sea black gold, each door weighing a thousand catties, nine layers in total. If one enters the tower, one cannot see the sun or sky. Without these nine keys, wanting to open the tower and release someone would be as difficult as carving through mountains and splitting ridges.

To imprison this so-called "demoness," the Empress Dowager did not hesitate to mobilize the craftsmen and stone materials of the Qishan Imperial Mausoleum, launching a labor force of ten thousand, making a great show of force, and keeping all the keys under her personal control. Zi Hao's gaze swept over the jade box, a faint sneer emerging in the depths of his eyes: "Go."

Mo Heng received the order and left. The chill was biting. Zi Hao faced the rain curtain and exhaled a long breath, when suddenly, a sharp pain came from his meridians, striking straight at his heart. His body swayed, a patch of cold rain splashing onto his clothes, his face instantly losing all color.

"Master!" Li Si hurried forward, reaching out to support him. Zi Hao, however, pressed his lips tightly together, brushing her hand away, and walked toward the bedchamber alone.

It was the beginning of the Yin hour, the darkest and coldest time of the night. The heavy rain poured down continuously, showing no sign of stopping. The heavenly terraces and heavy buildings were in chaos.

The Eastern Emperor's residence had always been deep and quiet. Tonight, with the turmoil just settled, the guards were exceptionally strict. The figures of the two rows of armored guards standing before the corridor, hands on their swords, were as solid as rock. The murderous aura of the swords permeated inside and out through the shadows of the lamps, making the surroundings deathly silent.

The palace slaves on duty stood outside the outer hall. Under the oppression of the heavy rain, everyone was silent. Suddenly, a sudden wind mixed with urgent rain roared, and the long window that had not been closed tightly was blown open. The cloud curtains before the window suddenly lifted, sweeping away a patch of lamps. The wind and rain, like an angry dragon that had been imprisoned for too long, broke free from its cage and roared in, scaring the palace slaves so much that they ignored the rain hitting their faces and rushed to close the window.

While they were busy, a chaotic sound suddenly came from the inner hall, indistinct through the wind and rain, like the sound of silver bottles shattering and jade vessels falling to the ground, vaguely accompanied by a low, almost inaudible gasp.

Everyone was stunned, looking at each other in uncertainty. A thunderbolt rolled across the sky, startling everyone. When they listened carefully again, there was no sound in the hall, the heavy palace curtains casting shadows that dimmed even the lamplight, adding to the unease.

"Your Majesty..." A palace slave hesitated for a moment, not daring to enter the inner hall privately, and boldly raised his voice: "Respectfully wishing... Your Majesty peace!"

The inner hall was deathly silent. After a long while, the Eastern Emperor's voice came low through the wind, rain, and heavy curtains: "I am well."

The heavy curtains cast deep shadows, blocking everyone's view. In the bedchamber, tables were overturned, a pair of green jade coiled-dragon lamps were already shattered, the bronze cracked, jade grease splashed, and the soft silk curtains stained with colors like blood. A cluster of cold flames jumped on the floor, casting messy shadows onto the cloud-and-water painted screens.

Those two short words just now seemed to have exhausted all of Zi Hao's strength. His bloodless lips and locked brows showed he was enduring some kind of immense pain. Li Si kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, the medicine cup in her hand trembling slightly.

She managed to help him drink the medicinal soup, but he suddenly turned, and several mouthfuls of blood sprayed out with violent coughing. The blood was black-purple, almost ink-like, landing on his flowing white robes and the jade couch's dragon curtains, a shocking sight.

A lamp flame flickered. The pale face under the lamp had no sign of life left; the medicine clearly could no longer suppress the toxicity. Li Si knew that if this continued, something terrible would happen, so she hurriedly took out a small leather pouch. The pouch had complex patterns, and something seemed to be wriggling inside. Li Si knelt on one knee before the couch, waving her hand to open the knot, and quickly drew a blade across her finger, a few drops of fresh blood splashing onto the jade stone beside her.

The scent of blood slowly dispersed. After a while, a red tongue flickered from the pouch, and a small snake with golden scales and green eyes crawled out. The snake was covered in gold, with only a cinnabar mark on its forehead as red as blood. It was a venomous creature from the Western Regions beyond the Kunlun Mountains, fed exclusively on the blood of living things, killing instantly upon contact. Leaving the pouch, it crawled straight toward the bloodstains, when suddenly a hand flashed like lightning, and in a blink, the snake's head was restrained in her hand.

The golden snake immediately became ferocious, tightly coiling around Li Si's wrist, venom dripping down. Li Si looked at the couch, hesitated for a moment, and finally carefully lifted the Eastern Emperor's sleeve, dripping the blood from her finger onto his arm, and slightly loosened her grip. The golden snake, furious and restless, bit down as soon as it smelled the blood, its sharp fangs piercing the skin, the potent venom flowing out with the blood.

Zi Hao groaned, but he regained consciousness, gritting his teeth and remaining silent. The golden snake greedily sucked his blood, then suddenly thrashed violently in Li Si's hand, then hung limp. In a moment, the originally golden-scaled snake body turned pitch black.

Throwing away the venomous creature, Li Si felt a void in her heart, all her previous composure suddenly disappearing without a trace, and she knelt weakly before the couch. Zi Hao leaned back on the pillow, as if exhausted to the extreme. Where his cloud-silk wide sleeves fell, they touched a pair of soft, trembling hands. Suddenly, a coolness fell upon his skin, quietly sliding down his arm. He sighed secretly, raising his hand with great effort: "Silly girl, what are you crying for?"

His voice was weak, too low to be clearly heard. Li Si only called out "Master," but could say nothing else. Wiping away her tears, she silently applied medicine to his wounds. When the wounds were treated and she looked up again, she saw he had already fallen into a deep sleep.

The silk curtains cast heavy shadows, and the jade floor was mottled with dampness. The auspicious beast patterns soaked with tears and blood revealed a dark green color, like a deep pool, dark and bottomless, quiet and lightless.

Li Si gently tucked in the quilt, looking at the man's sleeping face behind the bed curtains, his brows tightly locked. Except in his sleep, he rarely frowned like this; most of the time, he wore a mask of smiles—a refined smile, a calm smile, a detached smile, a proud smile, even a heartless smile... Only five years ago, when she, not knowing how many times she had used the opportunity of delivering medicine to secretly beg him to find a way to rescue the Nine Princess, did he finally put away that ubiquitous smile. The profound wariness in his eyes turned utterly cold and desolate at that moment, and he said, "Li Si, give me some time."

That one sentence was five years.

Nearly two thousand days and nights, watching him drink the medicine sent from Chonghua Palace on time every day, stamping the already drafted memorials according to the Empress Dowager's will, and performing rituals during state ceremonies. The twenty-seventh monarch of the Yong Dynasty, Zi Hao, left only a thin, frail shadow in everyone's eyes, obeying heaven's command but controlled by others, causing the ministers who once held hope to lose all confidence, making the Empress Dowager's faction disdain him, and even taking the blame for the harsh policies that poisoned the common people, suffering the insults of the world's populace.

Personal loss, separation, ministers' grief, people's resentment... yet no one knew, and no one could know, that the Eastern Emperor, standing alone in the center of ten thousand people, had two people who remained loyal to him—one was Mo Heng, who had once been ordered to hunt down the fifth young master Zi Yan who had fled to the Xuan State, and had personally taken his head in the Xuan royal palace to offer to the Empress Dowager, thereby being highly appreciated and promoted to Left Guard General; the other was Li Si, originally a slave in Langxuan Palace, who had been spared death for presenting a secret beauty technique to the Empress Dowager, and had gradually gained her trust.

Li Si withdrew her gaze from Zi Hao, looking down silently at her own hands. Slender fingers, crystal clear like jade, the candlelight casting a faint glow on her palms, making the clearly intersecting lines appear hazy, the scent of herbs still lingering on her fingertips.

It was these hands that, for seven years, had selected East Sea pearls for the Empress Dowager, collected fairy dew from the gardens, gathered spiritual herbs from the spirit mountains, and scooped jade nectar from the jade pools... It was also these hands that accompanied his loneliness and pain, bearing his resilience and strength, finally turning enchanting bones into withered wood, burying all the romance in the yellow earth...

Li Si knelt before the couch, slowly burying her face in her palms. The silk was cold, like the seven years of long darkness, winding around her skin, melting into the quiet, cold night. Everything seemed to have ended, and yet seemed to have just begun. Her heart, which had been empty and without a place to land, suddenly surged with a hundred flavors. The rain was cold and the wind urgent, only the faint scent of the man nearby made her feel a little peace and tranquility.

Awakened by the light in the morning, Li Si discovered she had fallen asleep in her clothes by the dragon couch, a soft white robe draped over her shoulders, faintly carrying the man's refined warmth. The silk curtains were like smoke, and there seemed to be no one around. She was truly startled, quickly rising to lift the curtains and exit, only to see Zi Hao had awakened at some point and was looking back from the window.

A breeze blew outside the window, the cold hidden. Li Si hurried to rise, taking an outer robe to drape over him. He reached out casually to let her handle it, and when she bowed to apologize, he smiled faintly: "Li Si, if you don't wake up again, my medicine will be cold."

This familiar voice was as warm as ever, vaguely carrying a trace of low fatigue, tugging at the heart. Li Si lowered her head in embarrassment, hurrying out to dismiss the medical maids who had been kneeling outside the hall for a long time, and brought the medicine in: "Master, Eunuch Shang has come."

Outside the screen, an old and slightly sharp voice said: "Old slave Shang Rong respectfully wishes Master peace."

Zi Hao returned to sit by the couch, taking the mutton-fat white jade cup Li Si handed him, slowly playing with it in his hand. The bitter medicinal scent entangled on his slender fingertips. He raised his hand to flick it lightly, asking calmly: "How did the matter go?"

Shang Rong said respectfully outside: "Returning to Master, none of the seventy-two shadow slaves in Chonghua Palace escaped last night. All were left alive, but six are seriously injured. How to deal with them, please instruct, Master."

Zi Hao was expressionless, looking up and drinking the medicine in one gulp. He threw the jade cup back into the tray with a flick of his hand. The heavy bitterness of the medicine went straight into his internal organs, pulling a sneer at the corners of his lips: "What about the Golden Phoenix Stone?"

"There is no clue yet. According to the confessions of all, the Empress Dowager never revealed the whereabouts of the Golden Phoenix Stone, and even that Yuexi does not know."

"Continue to investigate." Zi Hao lowered his eyes and slowly sipped a little clear dew: "Go back and save those six. Do not let them die easily. Keep the others detained in the Yeting Division, waiting for the Nine Princess to deal with them personally. From now on, anyone from Chonghua Palace who dares to escape or resist, you may deal with them yourself; no need to report to me again."

The blurred shadow on the screen bowed, and after the voice fell, the shadow disappeared, and the outside returned to its original silence.

This light-footed skill of coming and going without a sound made Li Si secretly startled. The shadow slaves, the most mysterious in the forbidden palace, had identities different from ordinary palace people. These people were trained in the palace from childhood, everyone swearing loyalty to the royal family with blood, obeying only the royal command. Many years ago, the Empress Dowager controlled most of them with an iron fist, thereby firmly grasping the forbidden palace, but a portion of them swore to follow the royal family to the death, fleeing the palace under the Eastern Emperor's secret instruction to seek refuge, planning for the future. This Shang Rong was the one with the highest seniority and the oldest qualifications among them, his soft-style martial arts having reached perfection, and his actions were also very experienced and ruthless.

Although Shang Rong spoke lightly, judging by the situation in Chonghua Palace last night, for those who had once defected to the Empress Dowager, death was already a luxury. Li Si couldn't help but shudder. Suddenly, a snowy sleeve entered her sight, and in a daze, her chin was gently hooked by Zi Hao.

Zi Hao looked down at her, a ripple appearing in his long eyes, asking calmly: "What's wrong, Li Si, what are you afraid of?"

Li Si was forced to meet those eyes, feeling a panic of having her thoughts seen through. Zi Hao seemed to feel the slight trembling under his fingers, and with the elegant arc of his lips, his brows lifted slightly: "Afraid of me?"

"Yes." Li Si lowered her eyes gently, answering him truthfully.

This short word made the smile in his eyes deepen: "Li Si, it is rare that you never tell me a lie."

"No matter what happens, Li Si will never deceive Master." Li Si said almost without thinking.

Watching her like this, the waves surging in the depths of Zi Hao's eyes gradually returned to a quiet stillness. After a moment, he smiled slightly and said calmly: "Then tell me the truth, how much time is left?"

Li Si's body trembled. This light, airy inquiry was like a thin, sharp blade slicing through her heart, both fast and painful. Looking up at him, the hidden pain brought a strong sourness that rushed to her eyes, blurring the thin figure before her.

"Three years?" Zi Hao turned to look out the window, asking calmly.

In the Imperial Garden, clouds drifted, and the morning light was cold. Li Si stood stiffly by his side, a bitterness suppressed in her throat. The answer she had been unwilling and unable to think about could not be spoken, for fear that once spoken, it would truly become an irreversible fact.

"Two years?" He tilted his head slightly.

Seeing she still did not answer, he smiled again and sighed lightly: "One year, or perhaps that is barely enough."

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 5 =====