Su Majestad - Capítulo 15
"What do you need it for?" Tang Qiefang was taken aback. "I'm asking about your body. When will this inexplicable drowsiness end? Has that quack doctor treated you—"
Tang Congrong interrupted him sharply: "Tell me the poison formula!"
He had always been gentle and mild-mannered, and had never spoken so harshly since he was thirteen.
Tang Qiefang was taken aback. This pause was like the wind suddenly stopping, birds folding their wings, and flowers ceasing their swaying. His expression, which had always been fluid, seemed to freeze at this moment. "What do you need the poison formula for?"
"Give it to me." Two simple words, leaving no room for refusal or questioning.
Tang Qiefang suddenly smiled, her red lips bright red. "The Heavenly Fragrance Poison Formula can only be seen by the lord of the Imperial Pharmacy. Even if you are the head of the family, you are not allowed to see it. This is an ancestral rule. Don't you know that?"
“I don’t care about any rules.” Tang Congrong stared intently at him. “—Give me the poison formula.”
Tang Qiefang turned her face slightly, "The prescriptions for poisons are complicated, and I haven't memorized them all."
A thin mist welled up in Tang Congrong's eyes, and although she tried her best to suppress it, tears still welled up. "You've already started refining the Heavenly Fragrance?"
His expression startled Tang Qiefang. The word "yes" was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say it. She nodded subconsciously.
"Are you... are you..." Tang Congrong took a deep breath before she could continue, a hint of bitterness on her face, "...have you already been poisoned by the Heavenly Fragrance Poison?"
Tang Qiefang was startled and immediately raised her eyebrows in rebuttal, "How could such a thing happen? How could I poison myself—"
Tang Congrong, who was sitting opposite her, suddenly lunged forward. Tang Qiefang thought he had fallen asleep again and reached out to support him. But as soon as she reached out, she realized something was wrong—he had a silver needle between his fingers and pricked Tang Qiefang's lip.
Crimson blood beads spilled out, and one end of the silver needle quickly turned black.
There is nowhere left to hide.
As the head of the Tang Clan, Tang Congrong's face turned ashen upon seeing the broken black needle. "As expected."
Although it's not a poison that will kill off offspring, it can damage a person's bodily functions. If it continues to be refined, Tang Qiefang's bloodline will never be able to continue in the world.
Chapter Thirty-One
How much did Tang Qiefang love children? When he was a child himself, he couldn't resist seeing babies in swaddling clothes.
Every child in the Tang Clan loves him, and every mother loves him.
Ah, that day, he said, "Congrong, hurry up and get married."
"Hmm?"
"Have a daughter and adopt her."
"My daughter is your great-granddaughter, how can I give her to you as an adopted daughter?"
"That doesn't matter, as long as I like it."
His expression was unusually tender when he held the child, but now Tang Congrong sensed a hint of desolation within that tenderness.
He knew better than anyone the consequences of refining the Heavenly Incense.
With each passing thought, Tang Congrong felt a chill creep in, her body trembled, and her voice trembled as she said, "Fool... Why didn't your father refine the Heavenly Fragrance? Why didn't your grandfather refine the Heavenly Fragrance? They didn't try, so why are you trying to refine this harmful thing that harms both yourself and others?!"
Tang Qiefang slowly wiped the blood from his lips, then suddenly chuckled softly, "Who said they didn't refine it? Just think of its terrifying effects; anyone who uses poison would tremble with excitement... Congrong, the power of Heavenly Fragrance is even greater than Flower Rain Needle—I've had many times considered refining it myself..." As he spoke, his blood-red lips parted, revealing a strange, alluring beauty that seemed to devour blood and steal souls. His gaze fell on Tang Congrong's face, and his eyes gradually cleared. He let out a soft sigh, and the smile on his brow returned to its usual radiance, "But I'm different from them. I don't want the hereditary position of Lord of the Pharmacy; I just want to be a normal person, a husband, a father, and for my wife to be a mother."
Tang Congrong was stunned by his words, her eyes wide with shock, "They refined it?"
Yes, yes, as the lord of the Pharmacy, refining Heavenly Incense is his lifelong duty; how could he not do it? But as Luo Xue said, the poisonous gas of Heavenly Incense can damage a person's physiological functions, so wouldn't they be...
“Yes, they all refined it.” Tang Qiefang’s eyes were slightly misty. “The Heavenly Fragrance is too potent; it’s inevitable that it will be contaminated with poisonous gas during the refining process.” “But if your grandfather refined it, how could your father exist? If your father refined it, how could you exist?” Tang Congrong vaguely understood something, but dared not believe it, only thinking the best. “—You’ve already refined the antidote?”
Tang Qiefang leaned back against the carriage wall, her eyes fixed on the curtain, then looking through it into the void. Suddenly she said, "Congrong, I broke the rules of the sect that year on purpose."
That was when Tang Qiefang was fifteen years old. During a careless attempt to concoct medicine, she nearly poisoned dozens of Tang Clan disciples. Injuring fellow disciples meant she should be expelled from the Tang Clan according to family rules. Tang Congrong knelt before her father all night, begging him to show mercy and let Tang Qiefang stay. Before the family head could answer, Tang Qiefang insisted on leaving.
"You're leaving?" Twelve-year-old Tang Congrong's voice was shrill. Her face, pale from kneeling for so long in the cold air, was filled with deep black eyes, dark and despairing. "You're leaving?"
The young Tang Qiefang stood silently in the night, whispering, "I'm not from here, I shouldn't be here—"
A fine needle interrupted him, its silver light grazing his cheek. The usually gentle and polite young master gripped his collar. "I won't let you leave! I'll get Father to let you stay. You only made one mistake; you can correct it. Why do you want to leave? Your uncle only has one son. If you leave, who will be the head of the pharmacy? I won't let you leave!"
Chapter Thirty-Two
"But I don't want to stay here!" Tang Qiefang said angrily, tears welling up in her eyes. "I want to live my own life! You know what? I don't belong here at all. I have my own life to live. I don't want any woman to be like my mother! I like children, and I don't want to be childless in the future—" He suddenly stopped speaking, as if an invisible hand in the air had gripped his throat, and he couldn't utter another word. He turned and left.
There was no sound behind me.
Tang Congrong did not try to stop him.
It's better not to keep him... Let him go freely and cleanly.
Leave here.
Be an ordinary person.
There was not a sound behind him.
Something seemed to have changed in the air. A strange feeling rose in my heart, as if someone had wrapped an invisible thread around it, causing a dull ache in my heart. Involuntarily, I turned around.
That one turn of the head changed her entire life.
Tang Congrong was shedding tears.
So many tears, it seemed like they would never end. They streamed down her cheeks and fell to the ground.
It wasn't crying. There was no twisting or struggling in his features, and his expression remained unchanged; he was simply shedding tears, his dark eyes filled with despair.