Luo Zhiheng gasped. Had Mu Yunhe infected his new lover? Just one glance, and he'd already been infected? How powerful must that infection be?
577 Corpse Poison!
Updated: 2014-01-26 11:34:52 Word Count: 4564
Mu Yunjin naturally thought of this as well, and quickly moved away from Luo Zhiheng, shouting angrily, "Quickly cordon off this courtyard and send the little princess away! Luo Zhiheng, go back and quickly take off these clothes and burn them, now!"
“Yes, Heng’er, leave here quickly. All of you, stay here and take care of Yunhe.” Prince Mu also spoke, pointing to the group of women who were already trembling with fear.
Having witnessed the severity of Mu Yunhe's infectious disease, the group of women felt only despair and fear, and they all cried out. Not one of them was willing to stay and take care of Mu Yunhe!
Behind the door, Mu Yunhe's heart gradually cooled, but he felt neither pain nor disappointment. All he felt was a faint sense of realization and curiosity about Luo Zhiheng. As it turned out, not all women would rush to his aid without hesitation when he was in trouble, but his father, brother, and Xiao Xizi told him that Luo Zhiheng could.
Throughout countless years, Luo Zhiheng had steadfastly accompanied and protected him. He believed his family's words, but he hadn't trusted Luo Zhiheng before. A woman who had never appeared in his memory suddenly appeared and started bossing him around, which affected and constrained Mu Yunhe's arrogant and unrestrained personality. Mu Yunhe disliked the feeling of being controlled.
But now, he has no choice but to believe that he has lost everything he once had!
Mu Yunhe had some reservations about Luo Zhiheng, but at this moment his resolve softened slightly. He could hear the women's shrill cries, and before him was Luo Zhiheng's unreserved approach.
"In the face of such a terrible infectious disease, is she really not afraid? What makes her so brave? Is it love?" Mu Yunhe had no time to care about other women; his chaotic mind was filled with Luo Zhiheng.
Luo Zhiheng was forcibly sent away. After Madam Huoyun arrived, Prince Mu actually asked Madam Huoyun to treat Luo Zhiheng immediately, which surprised everyone. Prince Mu's change was remarkable. This change made people realize that this man, who once seemed absurd, was not really absurd. He had enough magnanimity to have the courage to let go of all prejudices and the past, change himself, and accept others.
Luo Zhiheng sighed, "Sometimes a person's magnanimity is truly the key to their success or failure! No wonder Prince Mu, despite his absurdity, still enjoys such high prestige in the army."
The entire Mu royal palace was gripped by a state of high panic due to Mu Yunhe's illness and its highly contagious nature.
Mu Yunhe coldly observed the women. Every morning, noon, and night, a different woman would come to serve him. Before, each of them had acted as if they couldn't live without him, deeply in love with and admiring him, wanting nothing more than to be by his side all day. But now, these women were scrambling to escape his presence, afraid to spend even a little more time with him, yet also worried that it would be unfair if other women couldn't come to his side as well. They were actually taking turns serving Mu Yunhe morning, noon, and night!
Isn't this incredibly ironic? It was just a test, and before anything even happened, these women had already shown their true colors. It's truly humiliating. These women, who all claimed to love him to death, are now so wary, fearful, and disgusted even in his presence.
Every time Mu Yunhe saw the wariness and disgust in their eyes, he would think of Luo Zhiheng's gaze that day—there was no disdain, no fear, no resistance, only heartache and care that Mu Yunhe himself could not deceive himself about. Every time he saw the ugly faces of these women, he would think more of Luo Zhiheng's gentleness and courage.
Luo Zhiheng's image had somehow seeped into his thoughts and etched itself into his heart every single day and every moment.
Mu Yunhe didn't want to end this absurd test quickly. He secretly wanted to see how long Luo Zhiheng could endure for him, and when these women would finally break down. The current Mu Yunhe was definitely not a good person; he still possessed the ruthless and capricious nature left by the Great Demon King. Anyone who offended him would definitely not have a good time.
"Are you afraid of me?" Mu Yunhe leaned back on the soft couch, a rotten spot on his face ruining his good looks. Combined with his deliberately gloomy expression, he looked terrifying and ferocious.
A young girl was lying opposite him, but the once beautiful woman now had disheveled hair, a face as white as frost, and her eyes were filled with fear, as if she would be infected by Mu Yunhe if she looked at him. Her low voice was filled with panic and disgust: "This humble woman dares not."
"Little lady?" Mu Yunhe savored the three words, then chuckled and said, "Didn't you previously claim to be my concubine? How come you've become a little lady in just a few days? Are you trying to sever ties with me?"
Upon hearing this, the woman raised her head and said in fear, "Your Excellency is wise. I have never been your woman. I am still a virgin. Your Excellency has a compassionate heart. Please forgive me and let me go. I will never forget your great kindness."
This is telling Mu Yunhe that they are not really related. Since you are about to die, you should do good deeds and have mercy on her, this insignificant outsider.
Tsk, how utterly heartless! He hasn't even done anything yet, and they're already trying to sever ties with him? He won't!
"Come here," Mu Yunhe said with a smile, but the rotting on his face was so horrifying that the woman was terrified.
"Please spare my life, Your Excellency!" the woman begged in terror, preferring death to getting any closer to Mu Yunhe.
Mu Yunhe abruptly stood up, his long legs carrying him to the woman in a few strides. He grabbed her chin, his face almost touching hers. Seeing the despair on her face, Mu Yunhe gave a mischievous smile, his large hand maliciously stroking her cheek as he said viciously, "You dare to despise me? Wasn't it when you shamelessly clung to me? Wasn't it when you were willing to do anything to be my woman? Wasn't it when you kept calling yourself my beloved concubine? I've never been rejected by a woman before, I've always been the one who rejects others. You have a lot of guts, but you'll have to pay the price for your courage!"
The price was self-evident. The woman's body stiffened, and she felt as if the hand on her face was a death knell. She screamed and fainted.
Mu Yunhe's eyes were filled with undisguised disgust and hostility: "Guards, drag this slut out and lock her up with those vile women!"
Mu Yunhe had already been examined by Madam Huoyun, and the conclusion was different from that of the others. The imperial physicians knew that this was not a terminal illness, but the disease was spreading rapidly, and Mu Yunhe was of high status. They did not dare to ruin Mu Yunhe's plans, so they could only exaggerate the severity and cooperate with Mu Yunhe.
Lady Huoyun's expression changed after examining him. She left Mu Yunhe some medicine pills, instructing him to take two every day, and then hurriedly left. Shortly after, the Poison Saint arrived, examined him, and also left with a grave expression. With these two authoritative figures in the medical world in such a state, Prince Mu's heart sank further.
Mu Yunhe knew this wouldn't escape the notice of Madam Huoyun and the Poison Saint, but he hadn't expected their expressions. Mu Yunhe's heart skipped a beat. Better safe than sorry; he knew he might have been tricked. So, from that day on, he truly refused to see Luo Zhiheng. Even when he wanted to test her or bully her, he only did so through doors and windows. He also took the medicine left by Madam Huoyun on time.
Mu Yunhe's current personality is quite carefree; he doesn't dwell on things excessively. Since he's already done it, even if he was fooled, he doesn't resent anyone, only blaming himself for being too curious and inexperienced. He's had no concept of life and death in his life, so he doesn't care about them. Only when he thinks of Luo Zhiheng, that woman, does Mu Yunhe's utterly disillusioned heart feel a sliver of warmth. But he would never admit that he was moved by Luo Zhiheng's daily, persistent visits and gentleness.
On the seventh day of Mu Yunhe's illness, he started to have a low-grade fever early in the morning and slept in a daze, his mouth dry but unable to speak.
When Luo Zhiheng arrived, Mu Yunhe didn't make a sound. Because Mu Yunhe had strictly forbidden Luo Zhiheng from entering for the past few days, she hadn't even seen Mu Yunhe for the past seven days. She missed him terribly, so she stood outside the door and bickered with Mu Yunhe, deliberately lingering a little longer. But today, Mu Yunhe didn't make a sound at all, so she got anxious.
"What exactly happened? Let me through so I can see." Luo Zhiheng tried to go in, but the two people at the door stubbornly stood guard.
"No, Your Highness, please forgive us. Last night, when we were having sex, Your Highness specifically instructed that you must not be allowed to enter. You were worried that you might be infected. Please don't make things difficult for us."
Luo Zhiheng's eyebrows shot up: "What contagious! Father and elder brother are fine, aren't they? They left this courtyard, didn't they? I hear Mu Yunhe is very energetic every day, there's no way he's contagious. It's dangerous that he's not talking or moving now. You all move aside. If Mu Yunhe blames me later, I'll take full responsibility."
“But…” the guard hesitated, conflicted.
"Get out of the way!" Luo Zhiheng shouted sharply, and actually drew her battle sword. The two had no choice but to take a step back.
The moment Luo Zhiheng stepped into the room, memories surged forth like a tidal wave, breaking free from the constraints of time. She remembered a day many years ago when she too entered Mu Yunhe's room, thus stepping into his life. That room was also dark, oppressive, suffocating, and filled with despair. Just like now, as she approached, she saw Mu Yunhe lying on the bed like a lifeless puppet.
The strikingly similar scenes and situations made Luo Zhiheng's heart pound wildly. She even stumbled in with slightly unsteady steps.
Mu Yunhe's face was flushed, and the rotting flesh on his face and neck had merged into one patch, making him look extremely gruesome. His breathing was heavy, as if something was blocking his throat; his nostrils flared violently, and his lips were cracked. He was in a daze, neither fully asleep nor fully conscious.
Luo Zhiheng felt a sharp pain in her heart, as if she were being pricked by needles. She gently grasped Mu Yunhe's hand, the burning heat almost reaching her heart, causing her intense pain.
"Yunhe, are you feeling unwell? Don't worry, you'll be fine soon." Her voice was calmer than she had imagined, and she calmly called out, "Quickly, go and fetch Lady Huoyun, Mu Yunhe has a fever!"
The person outside quickly responded and left.
Lady Huoyun arrived quickly, her face grim as she looked at Luo Zhiheng with a grave expression. Seeing that she was about to speak, Luo Zhiheng said, "You don't need to tell me the situation. Go and tell Prince Mu to do what needs to be done. Use whatever you need, and if you don't have it, ask Prince Shi for help. Just remember one thing: I'm not forcing you to save Mu Yunhe, but I'm entrusting our lives to you. You decide what to do."
Lady Huoyun's pupils constricted. Luo Zhiheng hadn't forced her, but she had told her that if Mu Yunhe was gone, Luo Zhiheng would be gone too.
Lady Huoyun suddenly felt a heavy responsibility on her shoulders. She went out with heavy steps and briefly explained to Prince Mu, "Your Excellency has been poisoned, a kind of corpse poison. This corpse poison is very potent and dangerous. I could only tell you were poisoned before, but I couldn't be sure. I've been trying to find an antidote, but nothing has worked. The pills I gave you were only a good antidote, developed by the Poison Saint. These past few days, the Poison Saint and I have searched for many prescriptions and consulted many ancient books, but they all mention this corpse poison very little."
"The Poison Saint returned to his family territory three days ago, hoping to find some way to detoxify. Although we haven't found a way to detoxify, we've always hoped that we were just wrong in our diagnosis. But now it seems that we were too optimistic. Although you won't be contagious, your body will rot. If you can't detoxify soon, eventually even your bones will rot away, leaving nothing behind."
"Dead without a complete corpse?!" Prince Mu exclaimed in horror, grinding his teeth.
"Yes, it means death without a complete corpse. This poison comes from the demon race, but since the Great Demon King was destroyed, the demon race can no longer come to the mortal world. We also consulted the old man in the Heavenly Palace of Divination, but he seemed to have no solution either," said Lady Fire Cloud.
Prince Mu was shocked and furious: "How could he have been poisoned out of the blue? Someone must have deliberately tried to harm my He'er! Investigate! Find out who hurt He'er! If I find out who harmed He'er, I will make sure they die a horrible death!"
Luo Zhiheng stepped forward and said coldly, "If someone really did intentionally harm you, then that person might have the antidote. They must have had some ulterior motive for plotting against you. Otherwise, they would have released the news of your serious illness and poisoning, and then just waited for the fish to take the bait. Let's see what the person behind this is planning!"
Chapter 1 is here. Chapter 2 is expected to be posted around midnight. Keep up the good work! Please vote, leave comments, and give monthly tickets! Group chat, muah!
578 Fragments of memory are shattered, but when I wake up from my dream, the beauty's smile is radiant!
Updated: 2014-01-26 13:12:25 Word Count: 3427
Luo Zhiheng addressed Mu Yunhe as "Lord Mu," implying that Prince Mu should use Mu Yunhe's identity for his own purposes. Poisoning a diviner—that person was incredibly audacious, and their ambitions were likely immense. They needed to use Mu Yunhe's identity to instill fear in him.
Prince Mu left in a hurry. The others watched Luo Zhiheng carefully, fearing that something might happen to her.
But Luo Zhiheng just smiled calmly and said, "What are you looking at? Aren't we all doing our jobs? Although there is no antidote now, Madam Huoyun still needs to find a way to bring down Mu Yunhe's fever. I'll take care of Mu Yunhe."
Madam Huoyun tried to persuade her, but Luo Zhiheng had already returned to her room. The wet nurse was at a loss as well.
Placing the cool handkerchief on Mu Yunhe's forehead, Luo Zhiheng looked at his face, which was red and swollen, while the other half was rotten and black. Her eyes were filled with pain, but she laughed lightly and said, "Look at you. You were such a handsome man, but now you've become an ugly monster. You deserve it. Who told you to treat me badly?"
"Let me wipe your hands for you. Don't wake up suddenly and accuse me of molesting you. I've noticed you've become very unreasonable since I came back, and even more arrogant than before. Can forgetting me really change you so much? You haven't even noticed it yourself, have you? You now adore wearing red. You know, you didn't used to like red this much. Even though you've forgotten me, you still remember my favorite color, don't you?"
A cool sensation spread across Mu Yunhe's arm, soothing the slightly aching, festering wound. In a daze, he heard a woman's playful and cheerful voice, a mix of complaints and self-satisfaction, which seemed to wash away the irritation in his heart, leaving him feeling incredibly refreshed.
Mu Yunhe wanted to open his eyes to see who was so gently accompanying him. But his eyelids were heavy; he felt this woman should have used her fingers to pry them open. Thinking of this, a smile crept onto his lips.
Luo Zhiheng was pleased to see him smiling in his sleep. She whispered in his ear, "What are you laughing at? Did you dream about me too? At least you have some conscience. You reject and scold me so much, do you know how sad and upset I am? If it weren't for your good behavior in the past, and the little bit of hope I still had for you, I would have left you long ago. Remember to tell me what you dreamed about when you wake up. Actually, I used to dream about you often too, dreaming about our past, dreaming about you without me, dreaming about that imposter by your side, dreaming about you no longer loving me..."
Mu Yunhe found the incessant chatter in his ear incredibly pleasant; he couldn't get enough of it and wished she could come closer. He vaguely heard what she was saying, and his heart pounded with each passing moment.
She said she also felt sad and upset, and he felt remorseful and blamed himself, realizing that he had indeed gone too far with his words in the past.
She said she wouldn't want him anymore, and he nervously tried to speak, but couldn't utter a single word. He was sweating profusely with anxiety.
As Luo Zhiheng spoke, Mu Yunhe seemed to see some scenes in his daze. It was as if he was guarding a woman who was unconscious. He was expressionless every day, like a walking corpse. Then another woman appeared, and he began to become flesh and blood. But why did that woman leave him?
The scene began to spin, changing so fast that Mu Yunhe couldn't grasp it or see it clearly. His heart ached with anxiety, and in a daze, he seemed to remember the woman's name, calling out weakly and urgently, "Ruilin, Ruilin..."
Luo Zhiheng paused, looked up in surprise, and saw Mu Yunhe covered in sweat and looking pained with his brows furrowed. Hearing him calling her by another name, she rushed over with a mixture of joy and surprise: "Yunhe! You remember me? You're calling me! You remember me, don't you? Yunhe!"
"Don't leave me, Ruilin, don't leave me. I won't let you cry, I won't let you die, I don't want you to die. Forgive me, Ruilin, Ruilin..."
It's unclear which word in those ordinary words touched Luo Zhiheng, but it instantly brought tears to her eyes. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed, "I've never blamed you, Yunhe, Mu Yunhe, can you hear me? I've never blamed you. Even during those three most painful years, I still loved you. I just wanted to come back to you, no matter what you're like, even if you don't remember me, I just want to see you. Mu Yunhe, how could you be so cruel? How could you abandon me time and time again!"
Scenes from the past replayed in Mu Yunhe's mind, as if she were a traveler who had stepped into another world, going from a detached observer to a terrified participant. The man in those scenes was him, yet not him. He didn't know when this had happened; the images were fragments, shattered beyond repair, offering no hope of reconciliation. Pieces drifted before his eyes, one after another. In the images, there were golden masks, desperate weeping, and where was he? How could he let her cry?
"Aheng..." From Mu Yunhe's cracked lips, the two broken words were as chaotic and fragmented as those images. His face was full of pain, yet he could not extricate himself from the nightmare.
Luo Zhiheng suddenly looked up, tears streaming down her face. For the first time, she lost all reason, her composure shattered, and her feigned calmness crumbled. She shook Mu Yunhe violently, screaming and pleading, "I'm here! Aheng is here! Yunhe, wake up! You remember me, don't you? I'm right beside you. Open your eyes and look at me!"
However, Mu Yunhe was still unable to wake up from the nightmare.
After crying, and finally exhausted from crying, Luo Zhiheng felt as if the resentment, anger, and fear within her had vanished with her tears. She became more composed and at ease. Quietly staying by Mu Yunhe's side, she personally cared for him, kissing his lips and whispering their past in his ear. She firmly believed that Mu Yunhe could hear her.
Two more days passed, and Mu Yunhe remained in a coma with either a high or low fever. He was not in mortal danger, but his inability to wake up was enough to cause concern.
Everyone was busy—searching for an antidote, investigating the mastermind, and preparing to apprehend the person who harmed Mu Yunhe. Meanwhile, the women in the Mu royal mansion were causing trouble again. The thing that brought Luo Zhiheng the most relaxation these days was finding joy in dealing with those women every day, a way to remind herself that she was still alive!
On the twelfth day after Mu Yunhe fell seriously ill, after sleeping for five days, Mu Yunhe finally woke up in the early morning.
At that moment, Luo Zhiheng was outside preparing to give the group of women who were trying to escape by climbing over the wall a good beating.
"What are you doing?" The sarcastic voice sounded sexy because of its hoarse tone.
Luo Zhiheng was stunned for a moment, then turned around and screamed with delight. Like a happy little bird, she threw down the stick and rushed towards Mu Yunhe.
Mu Yunhe's expression changed, and he stumbled backward, but before he could take more than a few steps, Luo Zhiheng grabbed his arm and pulled him into her arms. Mu Yunhe groaned, feeling an incredible softness in his arms. He blinked, and an uncontrollable smile spread across his lips, but it quickly faded. He pushed Luo Zhiheng away forcefully and hissed, "Let go of me! I'm sick!"
Luo Zhiheng smiled sweetly, snuggling against Mu Yunhe's chest with a charming and innocent look, and looked up at him with bright eyes: "Yunhe, you're so good to me, you care about me so much. But I'm not afraid, I don't care if you're sick, I'm your lucky star, I'm by your side, you'll definitely get better."