In an instant, Qunqing’s thoughts were pulled back to that lively banquet.
Only during evening banquets held for festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice, and Lantern Festival could civil and military officials, princes, and princesses gather together regardless of rank.
That night, lanterns and decorations were everywhere. The sounds of pitch-pot games, drinking games, and toasts filled the palace with laughter and excitement.
At one point, a bowl of mutton soup was spilled onto someone’s skirt, and in the chaos, several young women left their seats.
People moved around on both sides, offering drinks and watching the singing and dancing.
Qunqing moved sideways through the crowd when an arrow from the pitch-pot game flew past her nose. She quickly stepped backward and accidentally fell against a table, pushing it back about a foot and spilling soup all over it.
She should have hit the sharp corner of the table, but a hand quickly covered it.
Qunqing landed heavily on the back of that person’s hand.
She turned her head and saw a young man dressed in white calmly pull his hand away. He looked down at the red mark on the back of his hand and rubbed it with his fingers.
His fingers were long and well-shaped, with clear knuckles. His eyebrows and eyes were equally striking.
The flickering candlelight fell across his face, giving him an almost unreal, cold beauty.
The Great Chen Dynasty had strict rules about the colors of official robes, with different colors showing different ranks. Only commoners and newly successful candidates wore black or white robes.
Qunqing had never seen this young man before, but his clothes were simple yet clearly of good quality. He was probably a candidate who had passed the imperial examination that year.
When Qunqing looked at him, he immediately raised his eyes and met her gaze.
His eyes were dark, and his features were handsome. There was something about him that made Qunqing feel uneasy, as if she might accidentally break something fragile.
But then a smile appeared in his eyes, gentle like ice melting in a spring stream.
Qunqing thanked him.
Since childhood, she had always tried to avoid anything too eye-catching.
She straightened the table, but another stray arrow suddenly flew past her temple and headed toward the young man.
Qunqing caught it with her sleeve and casually threw it back into the pot.
The person playing pitch-pot was a friend of Princess Danyang. He was known for being careless and flirtatious.
When he saw Qunqing angrily throw the arrow back into the pot, he clapped and laughed, praising her excellent aim.
Amid the cheers and the effects of the wine, the smooth silk of the young man’s clothes still seemed to linger against Qunqing’s fingers.
She wanted to leave quickly, but a man dressed in plain clothes stopped her.
He had a stern expression and sharp eyes.
“What is going on? Weren’t you just sitting at my table?”
The young man in white, who was sitting there, said, “It was only an accident. Don’t make it sound so serious.”
The man in plain clothes became even more annoyed when he saw the soup covering the table.
“I’m a sixth-rank official. You may treat me as if I don’t exist, but I haven’t even had a sip of this soup, and now you’ve spilled it all over my seat. You didn’t even bother to clean it up.”
The young man in white casually lifted the stool, letting the soup drip down, and laughed.
“Why are you barking like a dog? I’m cleaning it.”
“I wasn’t talking about you!”
The man turned his cold gaze toward Qunqing.
Qunqing did not recognize him.
However, seeing that he was wearing plain clothes at the banquet, she guessed that he might be Lu Huating.
Afraid that her secret might be discovered, she immediately took out a silk handkerchief and wiped the stool clean.
After calming him down, she poured him a cup of wine and raised it toward Chief Secretary Lu.
The banquet was noisy, so Qunqing could not tell whether Lu Huating had heard her toast.
He frowned and looked as if he were about to slam his fist on the table and start shouting.
The young man in white beside him quickly grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
The young man gave a helpless smile.
His eyes swept over the stain on Qunqing’s dark blue dress before he pointed behind him.
“You want to change your clothes? Go quickly. The east gate is locked, but the west gate is still open. Go out that way.”
Qunqing was grateful.
She bowed and hurried away, but from the corner of her eye, she saw the young man return her bow.
Even after she had walked away, the man called softly after her.
“My lady.”
Qunqing turned around.
The young man spread out his five fingers, casually picked up the lantern sitting at the corner of the table, and tossed it toward her.
“It’s snowing heavily, and it’s dark outside. Take this lantern with you.”
That night, heavy snow fell, covering the palace roads with a thick layer of white.
Qunqing walked through the snow, her steps uneven.
Then she suddenly realized that the lantern the young man in white had given her had been specially designed.
The candle inside hung in the center. No matter how the lantern was turned, the candle remained upright.
The flame was large and steady, unaffected by the wind and snow.
It lit the road ahead and made the falling snow shine brightly.
Qunqing carried the lantern back to her residence and placed it on the cabinet.
As she changed her clothes, her slow and careful movements were clearly reflected on the screen behind her.
The woman living next to her was an eighth-rank female official.
Seeing that Qunqing was not good at drinking, she advised her to rest.
Qunqing said, “I’ll lie down for a while before going back. Come wake me up in half an hour.”
The woman helped her settle down and then closed the door.
After the attendant left, Qunqing immediately got up.
She quietly tied up her hair, changed into a maid’s palace dress, climbed out of the window, and quickly returned to the side hall beside Hanyuan Hall through a hidden shortcut in the palace.
The lively banquet in the side hall was still going on.
Simple clothes and maid uniforms were prepared in the eastern side hall for nobles who had drunk too much. They could change their clothes there and sober up for a while.
During the banquet, Qunqing had seen Minister Wei drunk and unconscious, being helped toward the side hall by two people.
As soon as he left, she made an excuse to leave as well and secretly followed him like a shadow.
Minister Wei had once been a general of the State of Chu.
When Chu fell, he led the officials in a mass suicide attempt.
No one knew how Lu Huating had persuaded him to surrender, or whether Wei Feng was truly a loyal man who had simply made a difficult choice.
When he realized that the State of Chu was doomed, he surrendered to the King of Yan and brought military secrets from the various palaces with him.
In only one year, he was promoted to Minister.
Such a person made Crown Prince Zhao hate him to the bone, so the mission to assassinate him in Southern Chu was given to Qunqing.
Minister Wei lay back in his chair, snoring loudly.
Just as Qunqing was about to approach him, she noticed two fake palace maids in the corner moving at the same time. She immediately sensed that something was wrong.
That was when she fell into the ambush.
The “Minister Wei” sitting in the rattan chair and pretending to sober up was actually one of Prince Yan’s guards, who was highly skilled at disguise.
He suddenly jumped up, drew a dagger, and killed the two fake palace maids.
At the same time, dozens of armed assassins rushed in and surrounded the entire side hall.
The barbed blade tore through flesh with terrible pain, almost splitting a person in two.
Qunqing first crashed against the wall, then collapsed among the corpses. Her hands and feet were covered in cold sweat, while hot blood poured from her wound like a fountain. The warmth slowly drained from her body.
Fortunately, before entering, she had placed a medicinal ring on the lamp stand.
The assassins kept the doors tightly closed so that no one outside would notice them. When the lamp burned, the flames flickered and filled the room with smoke, causing several people to faint.
Qunqing crawled across the floor and chewed the ginseng slices she had prepared earlier. Only then did she regain a little strength.
She tore off part of her clothes, wrapped it tightly around her wound several times, and pressed down hard.
Slowly, she moved away from the corpses and crawled into the secret passage beneath the side hall.
When she was young, her mother had taught her how to bandage wounds and stop bleeding. Her mother had even divided flour into small packets and pretended they were medicine.
Since there was no one else in the family to play the patient, Qunqing would wrap bandages around her own stomach.
She had played this game countless times.
So when she was truly injured, she could bandage herself perfectly in one attempt.
It was as if her mother had saved her life long ago.
After returning to her room, Qunqing let down her hair and wiped the blood from her hair and hands.
Then she suddenly noticed the lantern the young man in white had given her sitting on the table.
Its warm light made her feel strangely comforted.
She gently straightened the lantern and pulled it closer so the warm light could shine on her.
Then she unbuttoned her clothes, gritted her teeth, and wrapped the wound again.
Half an hour later, Si Zan pushed open the door to call her.
Seeing that Qunqing was already awake and standing behind the screen doing her hair, she covered her nose and asked in surprise, “Why do your new clothes smell so strongly of alcohol, Siji?”
“I forgot for a moment and folded my new clothes on top of my old ones,” Qunqing replied.
“You’re already so drunk. You might as well stay here and rest. It’s snowing outside, and it’s freezing. Besides, it seems something serious happened at Hanyuan Palace, and the banquet has been canceled.”
Qunqing applied red rouge to her pale lips and turned her face slightly.
She rarely wore such a bright color.
Against her snow-white skin, her red lips looked almost eerie in the darkness.
Si Zan was momentarily stunned.
Qunqing gave her a faint smile.
Her expression was different from usual.
“I’ll just return the lantern and come back.”
When Qunqing returned to the banquet hall, the table was empty.
The candles had already been extinguished, and only leftover food remained.
Qunqing returned the lantern to the palace maid who had brought it to her. She had carefully wiped away every trace of blood from it.
“Please return this lantern to Chief Secretary Lu. Also, please give my thanks to the gentleman who was sitting at the same table.”
“The gentleman sitting beside Chief Secretary Lu…” the palace maid thought for a moment. “Oh, that’s Xiao Erlang.”
Qunqing memorized the name Xiao Erlang and asked whether either of them would be returning.
The palace maid replied, “Lord Xiao has already returned to his duties. As for Chief Secretary Lu, I’m not sure. He seems to be in a very good mood today. He said he had set a trap to catch the assassin.”
The wound in Qunqing’s abdomen was still bleeding.
Every step caused terrible pain.
She could only stand there calmly through sheer willpower.
She slightly raised her eyes.
“Did he catch the assassin?”
“I heard that one of them escaped. His Highness Prince Yan has already sent people to search the palace. He probably won’t return until the assassin is found. It’s not very safe outside, so it would be better for Siji to have someone accompany her.”
Qunqing nodded and walked out.
Although Minister Wei did not die that night, six of Prince Yan’s personal guards were killed.
Based on the testimony of the palace officials and the maids responsible for the lanterns, Prince Yan’s men searched almost every palace maid in the palace.
They searched every corner of the six departments, almost turning the palace upside down.
But they found nothing suspicious about Qunqing.
The escaped assassin became a thorn in Prince Yan’s side.
…
“I have been looking for you for more than a hundred days.”
At last, Lu Huating revealed the truth.
He stared directly into Qunqing’s eyes.
“Before that, you kept me awake for more than four hundred nights.”
“It was you who killed Minister Wei that day.”
At that moment, Qunqing finally realized that she had mistaken one person for another.
The person who had given her the lantern that night was Lu Huating.
The man sitting beside him was Xiao Erlang.
She and Lu Huating had clearly met and spoken to each other that night, yet neither of them had known the other’s identity.
At the banquet, Lu Huating had smiled gently at people and helped female officials out of trouble.
He had been in such a good mood because he had set a trap that day, believing he could finally kill her.
That was probably why he had broken his usual habits and dressed so carefully, just as he had today.
When Qunqing remembered the snowy night and the warm lantern light, an indescribable feeling rose in her heart.
Her heart felt as heavy as lead and slowly sank into her stomach.
A dull, painful ache spread through her body.
Amid that pain, Lu Huating’s voice continued to echo in her ears like a ghost.
“You were the one who assassinated Minister Wei, weren’t you?”
Through the dark square opening in the wall, a scarred face suddenly appeared.
The sound of chains clanking followed.
The man shouted, “Qingqing! Have you forgotten that we grew up together beside the Wei River? You’re engaged to me! You can’t… How could you submit to such a despicable man?”
Someone must have dragged the man to the window and forced him to look inside.
Lu Huating was sitting while Qunqing was kneeling.
Her slender neck was forced backward into a fragile curve, while Lu Huating held her chin in his hand.
The scene looked strangely intimate.
“Qingqing…”
Lu Huating repeated the two words with amusement.
Just now, Doctor Su had been willing to ruin his own reputation to help her.
And now another man had appeared.
He had never expected Qunqing to have so many admirers.
Cold sweat covered Qunqing’s face.
Through the pain, she finally recognized the disheveled man shouting wildly.
It was Lin Yujia.
When they were children, Qunqing’s grandfather had exchanged betrothal tokens with the second son of the Lin family beside the Wei River without asking for her consent.
That second son was Lin Yujia.
Lin Yujia liked her, but Qunqing disliked the Lin family’s old-fashioned and rigid ways. Whenever she saw him from a distance, she would deliberately turn away.
Later, Lin Yujia became an official in the Ministry of Rites.
He pretended to serve the Great Chen Dynasty, but in reality, like Qunqing, he was secretly working to restore Southern Chu.
Several times, he had been the one who assigned missions to her.
Knowing that Lin Yujia was also a spy, Qunqing had developed a greater respect for him.
But now, seeing him in such a miserable state and hearing him openly call her by her childhood name, Qunqing suddenly understood.
Lu Huating had caught Lin Yujia first.
And Lin Yujia had revealed her identity and her relationship with Princess Bao’an.
Anger burned through Qunqing’s body.
Yet her mind suddenly became clear.
She looked up at Lu Huating.
“It wasn’t me.”
“Whether it was you or not, take off your clothes. If there are dagger wounds on your body, we’ll know.”
Lu Huating’s voice was calm.
There was no warmth in his words, only cold and frightening indifference.
He withdrew his hand and looked at his fingers.
He had not expected Qunqing to be this nervous.
Cold sweat had soaked his fingers.
He disliked this chaotic and unpleasant feeling.
So he took out a silk handkerchief and wiped his fingers clean.
Lin Yujia had fallen silent.
It was unclear whether he had been dragged away or had been frightened into silence by the torture instruments.
When Lu Huating turned around again, he saw Qunqing place one hand against her neck and begin unfastening the hidden buttons of her dark green official robe.
But something seemed to be stopping her.
She struggled with the buttons for a long time.
She did not look like a frivolous woman at all.
Lu Huating watched her with some surprise.
The room was not hot, yet sweat covered her forehead.
A very faint fragrance came from her clothes.
It was so subtle that it made people uneasy.
The handle of his folding fan suddenly pressed down on her hand, stopping her.
Qunqing sensed the contempt behind the gesture.
It seemed as though he was saying:
What is the point of pretending?
Qunqing’s hand stopped.
But the fan handle did not.
It traced the embroidered flowers on her shoulder blade, then moved down along her waist.
It slipped into her leather belt, hooked it, and pressed hard against the old dagger wound.
The veins on Qunqing’s neck bulged.
She could not help letting out a muffled groan.
“This is clearly an injury. Tell me, where did you get the medicine?”
Lu Huating spoke calmly.
One hand supported her waist while the other pressed the fan handle against her wound.
His smile disappeared.
His expression became as terrifying as a demon from hell.
His eyes fell on Qunqing’s hand, which was tightly gripping the peach-wood doll because of the pain.
What beautiful hands.
Her fingers were long and pale, delicate like young green onions.
“What poison did you give Prince Yan? What’s it called? What is its purpose? Explain everything clearly.”
“I have something to tell Chief Secretary Lu.”
Qunqing’s eyelashes were damp.
She opened her eyes with a faint smile.
“The Love-Sickness Elixir is not actually a poison. It is a Gu.
“Once it becomes a Gu, there is no cure unless you find the person who raised it.
“I have been searching for that person for a long time, but I still haven’t found them.”
Lu Huating suddenly grabbed her collar and pulled her closer.
Their eyes met.
His expression changed completely.
It was as if he were staring at the person he hated most in the world.
Qunqing could tell that Lu Huating was considering torturing her.
But he did not want to use someone else as a substitute.
He only stared at her and asked coldly, “Do you still want to make a deal with Siji?”
“Didn’t Chief Secretary Lu refuse to believe me from the beginning? And didn’t you already decide not to accept my offer?”
Qunqing smiled at him.
Her voice was slow.
Her eyes were becoming redder and redder.
She lowered her gaze to his white fan.
It was stained with blood.
But the cramps in her abdomen were becoming stronger, and she could no longer feel the pain clearly.
It was so hot.
“Yes,” Lu Huating said. “Even if I turn around and kill Princess Bao’an after you die, what can you do to me?”
Perhaps because of the intense pain, Qunqing grabbed his sleeve.
Her fingers crumpled the soft fabric.
“What is longing?
“It is only when two people are separated that they long for each other.
“This is a love Gu. One Gu for two people.
“I had the Crown Princess give the Longing Gu to Prince Yan, but she didn’t know that I had already planted the same Gu in her.
“From that moment on, their lives became connected. If one suffers, the other suffers. If one dies, the other dies.
“You can kill the princess. You can torture her.
“But unless you want to watch Prince Yan die with her, you cannot touch her.”
Sweat covered her temples and eyebrows.
Yet her beautiful eyes still held a mocking, defiant look.
“Or perhaps Chief Secretary Lu is actually a traitor who wants Prince Yan dead so that you can take the throne for yourself?”
Faced with such a provocation, Lu Huating’s expression changed.
But suddenly, Qunqing spat out a mouthful of dark blood.
Lu Huating froze.
He watched as her body suddenly collapsed to the ground, completely losing its strength.
She fell backward into a pool of blood.
Bright red blood flowed across the floor like a stream.
Slowly, it turned dark red, almost black.
Lu Huating lifted the hem of his robe and looked at the blood.
The deep red stain had already soaked into the edge of his robe and was slowly spreading upward through the silk.
Arsenic.
He had poisoned many people in this hall before. The pain was so severe that even a grown man would roll on the ground and beg for mercy. Yet this woman had endured it to this extent and remained so quiet.
So quiet that he had not even noticed she had taken poison beforehand.
Lu Huating’s expression was impossible to read. His face had turned extremely grim, and there was sweat at his temples. He lowered his robe and looked toward the window. Outside, the trees swayed in the wind, while flowers and leaves scattered across the ground.
“You said yourself that Yang Fu is weak and useless. If the Crown Prince of Southern Chu had been capable, he would not have abandoned you back then. What is so important about these people? Why do you have to go this far?”
Qunqing’s eyes were unfocused. Her lips were stained with a thin layer of bright red blood.
In a weak voice, she said, “You think the Prince of Yan is any better… He’s only… a victor telling his own story…”
Her voice slowly faded away.
Only the wind pushing against the window remained, along with the cool dampness of the rain that slowly filled the room and swept away the sorrowful atmosphere.
The heavy bronze door suddenly opened. Two guards carried Eunuch Liang inside. When he saw Lu Huating’s expression, he immediately stopped struggling.
“You gave Qun Siji poisoned wine?” Lu Huating asked.
Covered in sweat, Eunuch Liang knelt down and repeatedly kowtowed.
“This servant is guilty. This servant was ordered by His Highness Prince Yan to poison Qun Siji before you carried out the punishment. She alone will bear all the blame, and everything will end with her. There is no need to investigate further. Please do not involve anyone else!”
By “do not involve anyone else,” he simply meant that he did not want Yang Fu to be implicated.
Lu Huating silently played with his fan, lost in thought.
After a long while, he gave a quiet laugh.
“What use is apologizing to me? Go apologize to Qun Siji.”
Eunuch Liang opened his mouth but could not say anything. After a long pause, he turned around and repeatedly kowtowed toward Qunqing’s body.
“Qun Siji, this servant is sorry. I’m truly sorry! This servant is so sorry…”
“Drag him away and beat him to death,” Lu Huating said.
Eunuch Liang’s face changed immediately. He cried out and begged for mercy.
“Spare me? Fine.” Lu Huating smiled. “Qun Siji said she forgives you, so I’ll spare you.”
Looking at Qunqing’s silent body lying in a pool of blood, Eunuch Liang finally understood what he meant.
He immediately began cursing.
“Lu Huating, how dare you kill me! I’m a royal eunuch, while you’re only a fifth-rank official! How dare you do this to me? You’re not worthy! Bah! You bandit! This old servant has served His Highness Prince Yan since he was a child. His Highness will never let you go! He will punish you! Lu Huating, you’ll die a horrible death!”
All four hidden doors were open, and several guards stood nearby, looking at Lu Huating hesitantly.
After all, this was not something a strategist was supposed to do—beat a person to death.
Lu Huating had already sat down on the floor. He straightened his clothes, then grabbed Qunqing by the collar and pulled her up, letting her rest against his chest.
With his left hand, he used a handkerchief to wipe the blood from her face.
The blood on Qunqing’s lips was so dark that it could not be wiped away. A hairpin in her hair was still pressing into Lu Huating’s collarbone.
He removed the hairpin and threw it onto the floor.
Another hairpin was poking into his arm. He shifted his position several times, clearly annoyed.
Then he suddenly said, “Bring my coffin here.”
The two guards were stunned.
Lu Huating had been weak and sickly since childhood. It was said that when he was young, he had drawn a fortune slip at a temple that predicted he would have a short life. Because of this, a coffin had been prepared for him and kept beside his residence for many years, in case he suddenly died.
The coffin was beautifully made, decorated with carved lotus patterns. It was said to have been a gift from the famous monk Zengjia and was extremely valuable.
Yet now, he was giving it to a dead woman.
Lu Huating skillfully straightened Qunqing’s official robes, making her look neat and proper.
When his fingers touched the knife wound on her lower abdomen, he carefully avoided it.
Then his fingers suddenly stopped.
There was another knife wound there.
He continued searching and felt a scar on her chest, long and twisted like a centipede.
This woman had too many injuries.
She was like a broken porcelain vase that had been carelessly pieced back together.
Filled with doubt, Lu Huating lifted Qunqing’s hair and moved it behind her ear.
His expression suddenly changed.
In the past, whenever he collected a corpse, he would dip the tip of a blade of grass into cinnabar and place a small red mark behind the person’s ear, where it could not easily be seen. It was his way of marking the bodies.
He had not even had the chance to do it yet.
But there was already an old pill mark behind Qunqing’s ear.
Something seemed to suddenly explode inside Lu Huating’s chest and rush upward from deep within him.
Before he could understand what was happening, he spat out a mouthful of foul-smelling blood.
Then he began vomiting blood again and again.
Lu Huating raised his fingers.
The two fingers that had touched Qunqing’s collar had already turned dark and bruised.
The four guards immediately fell into chaos.
Lu Huating could not help but sneer.
Suddenly, he remembered Qunqing’s awkward hands as she had struggled to undo the hidden buttons on her clothes, as well as the faint, strange fragrance that had come from her body.
The button had contained poison.
She had been crushing the poison bead hidden inside it, using it to poison him…
Qunqing was still tightly clutching the peach-wood doll in her hand.