Chapter 166: with translation of chapter title

Li Qingluo: "The past? Who said it's over?"

"You say it's past, so it's past?"

"If you can move on, did you ever think, when you hurt me, that I could never get over this for my whole life?!"

"You can move on, but can you move on here with me?"

"I'll never get over it in this lifetime! Unless your whole family dies out."

Li Qingluo's voice was soft, yet it heavily dragged Zhao Shi into fear.

"You... you wouldn't dare, Zhu'er is now Prince Yun's beloved, the Prince saved our Liu family for her sake, he chopped off your elder brother's leg for Zhu'er! He... he won't just watch you deal with the Liu family and do nothing!"

"He will back Zhu'er, he will protect our Liu family..."

Li Qingluo: "You think Li Qingzhu, oh no, Liu Qingzhu is still alive only because her fate hasn't decreed her death yet?"

"She, I deliberately left her a life."

Zhao Shi stared at Li Qingluo, eyes wide with shock.

"You... you, you!? It's actually you!!"

"Why, why!? What do you want to do... what exactly do you want to do!!"

Li Qingluo: "You schemed all this, isn't it just for the whole Liu family?"

"But I refuse to let you be pleased."

"The more you want to get, the more I will make you never obtain it for eternity!"

Zhao Shi wailed in pain: "Vile person! Your heart is so cruel!!"

"I, I will kill you——"

Zhao Shi, summoning all her strength, actually crawled forward two inches.

Deng Mama stepped forward and kicked her over again, sending her sprawling on the ground.

"Pah! Old poisonous woman, you have your day too!"

Zhao Shi lay on the ground, sobbing "wu wu".

Li Qingluo looked at her coldly: "Zhao Shi, I ask you one last time. Back then, when you abducted me, was it truly just your own idea? And was your motive truly only to let your own granddaughter live well, while you stayed away from Jinling, merely to lie low awaiting the family's chance to rise?"

Zhao Shi refused to answer.

Li Qingluo wasn't in a hurry either.

She still had enough patience.

So she slowly said from the side: "Zhao Shi, do you still not see it?"

"Everything you painstakingly built back then, you will never enjoy even a day of it. They abandoned you, they live well now, but what about you?"

"Here you suffer punishment and torment, you can't even die. And they don't think of saving you; they'd rather you die quickly!"

"Do you really think it's worth it? Idiot!"

Li Qingluo's words, like knives, were repeatedly stabbed into Zhao Shi's chest.

She gazed foolishly at Li Qingluo, thinking of the pain she was enduring now, thinking of her family, and actually felt a bit shaken...

But she quickly came to her senses and gritted her teeth: "From beginning to end, only I had the idea, and only I know the truth!"

"I just thought being a midwife had no future, the whole family couldn't reach the heights of success, so I bore ill will toward you—kill me, cut me, bring it on!"

"I'm just an old bunch of bones; how long can you torture me?"

"But remember, you vicious little wretch, if you dare to do anything to our Liu family in the future, even as a ghost I won't let you go!"

Li Qingluo didn't glance at her again, turned and walked out.

"Granny, don't let her die."

Deng Mama took the long whip, gave a cold smile: "Old servant understands, miss. I'll leave her a breath."

Li Qingluo left the prison, faced the sky-full of snow, and drew a deep breath.

Soon, snowflakes fell and covered her head in white.

Suddenly a shadow fell over her head; Li Qingluo looked up and saw a snow-shielding umbrella, then turned her head and met Prince Su's overly cold, deep eyes.

She shivered.

She turned, knelt, and paid respects: "I have seen Your Highness."

Duan Rongshi saw her still so polite, frowned involuntarily: "Please rise."

His voice held no trace of emotion, yet Li Qingluo felt a little drumbeat in her heart.

She had just tortured Zhao Shi in the prison; he probably heard it all, right?

But what Li Qingluo cared about wasn't how Prince Su viewed her, but why he himself had come here tonight.

Moreover, he seemed to know she wanted to go see Zhao Shi; all the way he brought her in, and even brought her straight to Zhao Shi's prison door.

Li Qingluo felt as if everything about her was being tightly watched by him.

This made her feel somewhat creepy.

This Prince Su... why does he know her affairs so clearly?

Could it be that he suspects her of something?

She feared that if he suspected her, and linked her to the Lotus Sect, that would be truly unjust.

Since the last time she went to the Pei manor annex, Li Qingluo has constantly felt as if someone is watching her.

Moreover, who exactly is that cold-fearing person in the Pei manor annex?

She harbors too many doubts, fearing she might unknowingly fall into some abyss.

"Tonight's matter, thank you, Your Highness, for lending a hand. If not for you, I and Granny would probably still have to wait a while before we could get in to see Zhao Shi."

Duan Rongshi: "It was just a trifle. I heard someone mention that you wanted to enter the official prison to see someone, but you couldn't get in for a while. And I happened to be passing by on business; it wasn't specially for you."

He glanced at her, as if deliberately explaining his actions tonight.

Li Qingluo secretly let out a sigh of relief.

If it truly is so, then it's merely a coincidence?

But she still didn't dare to relax her vigilance, keeping a degree of caution.

"Miss, have I disturbed Your Highness?"

Duan Rongshi's gaze fell entirely on her: "You have disturbed me."

Li Qingluo: "……"

Duan Rongshi continued: "However, Miss Li's methods are still too soft-hearted. To make someone speak, I, Prince Su, have a thousand ways. Would you like to try?"

Li Qingluo: "……Thank you, Your Highness, commoner girl next time……" She took a deep breath, "Next time before acting, I will again seek Your Highness's guidance."

Sha Lei and Leng Dian exchanged a glance from behind.

Are these two really normal?

Especially his lord, the Prince, has now even learned to say one thing and mean another.

If it weren't for deliberately coming here tonight to see Miss Li, would you believe in ghosts?

Yes, he also stopped by to take a look at the recently imprisoned Qingyangzi.

But upon going to Qingyangzi's cell, claiming he was there to play chess, he hadn't moved a piece for a long time, clearly listening with perked ears to Miss Li's tormenting sounds.

They made Qingyangzi so angry he flipped over, pulled the blanket over his head, and went to sleep, just treating tonight as if a plague god had occupied the place.

Moreover, the lady politely asked a question, and he actually gave a proper retort!!

This has Sha Lei and Leng Dian in a panic!

Tsk, Prince, how long will it be before you open your apertures if you keep going like this?

Besides, where in the world do you find a lord and lady chatting like this??

Teaching someone how to torture for a confession is truly something only his lord, the Prince, could devise!

It's enough to drive someone to death.

However, this Miss Li is truly remarkable; if an ordinary girl encountered the Prince's words like these, she probably couldn't respond with a single sentence……

And she must have already been scared out of her wits!

Only this Miss Li, whose birth and experience are extraordinary, dares to boldly ask the Prince for guidance.

If she were truly sent to the Dali Temple prison, she probably wouldn't dare think that way anymore.

Just then, Deng Mama came out.

"Miss, the poisonous woman is willing to speak! Please come in quickly!"

Li Qingluo turned and walked away; after two steps she turned back and bowed to Prince Su: "In any case, thank you for tonight, Your Highness. Your Highness always extends a helping hand; I, the commoner girl, have nothing to repay. If Your Highness ever has use for me, please just speak up."

Although she felt he didn't really need her for anything, aside from possibly making a few dishes that might suit his taste, she seemed only able to draw a few of her wildly imaginative weapon designs.

So Li Qingluo thought it over and still said: "The commoner girl will diligently practice and think to draw more designs that will please Your Highness."

Watching her hurriedly departing back, Duan Rongshi's expression grew even stranger.

Could it be that she actually thinks I came to urge her to draw some manuscript?

A murky qi inexplicably blocked his chest, making him feel somewhat stifled and gloomy.

"Return to the Dali Temple, to try the case!"

Sha Lei and Leng Dian: "Your Highness, with heavy snow still falling, can't we just have a hot pot and a drink?"

Li Qingluo appeared again before Zhao Shi, who now had only a breath left.

Where she lay, there was a pool of black blood.

Although her body bore several blood marks, Deng Mama had previously given Zhao Shi medicine, so it wouldn't fail so quickly.

Seeing this state, Li Qingluo was somewhat startled and hurriedly asked: "Granny, has the medicine's effect worn off?"

Deng Mama: "Indeed it has worn off, but it wouldn't cause someone to waste away so quickly. It's because she drank a mouthful of water that she ended up like this. Miss, she has been poisoned."

Li Qingluo: "Poisoned?"

Deng Mama pointed to a waterskin in the corner: "I whipped her a few times, and she cried out for her parents, begging for mercy, saying she was willing to die and also willing to tell Miss what she wanted to know, but she first wanted a sip of water."

"This water was sent to her specially by someone before we arrived."

Li Qingluo: "Who?"

Deng Mama shook her head, lowering her voice to the softest: "But I lied to her, saying it came from Miss Li Qingzhu's side. She believed it."

"She suffered unbearable abdominal pain, spat several mouthfuls of black blood, seeing that she couldn't hold on, she suddenly said she truly was willing to tell Miss what she wanted to know."

So earlier she was deceiving Deng Mama, because wanting water was genuine.

But she didn't know the water was poisonous; after drinking it, realizing someone wanted to harm her life, she completely broke down and truly was willing to speak.

Li Qingluo came before Zhao Shi and called out to her several times.

Zhao Shi opened her cloudy eyes; upon seeing Li Qingluo, she split open the cut in her mouth, the bloody face with exposed red muscle twitching.

"In the end…… I actually died at your hands……"

"Haha, hahaha……"

"How ridiculous, how ridiculous……"

"I raised her to be above others, yet she despises me as a burden…… You're right, what exactly am I seeking?"

"I am truly foolish, truly foolish——"

Li Qingluo silently watched her, watching her go mad and frenzied, watching her final unwillingness and resentment toward life.

But it was useless.

Having come to this point, everything is her own doing, the retribution of sinful karma.

Zhao Shi laughed until she couldn't catch her breath, then barely managed to say: "I never expected…… you would be the one to send my Zhao Xiu'er on her final journey…… How ridiculous…… how sorrowful……"

"If that's the case, how could I not accept my fate……"

You don't want to know... how I exchanged you back then?

And why must I insist on exchanging you away...

Your suspicions are all correct...

With just me alone, how could I possibly really be able to steal you... the esteemed eldest daughter of a Jiangjun Fu... away...

They treat me this way, even more eager than you to see me dead... Since you want to know, I'll tell you... what's the harm?