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Edited on July 29, 2022.

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The storm finally passed.

But Chu Zhu Yu was not satisfied with her situation and told Xiao Zhi Zhi about it.

"If the situation is stable and all the bandits have been captured, you shouldn't treat me as if I am a criminal, where you lock me up and forbid me to go out."

"This..." Xiao Zhi Zhi hesitated.

"...I love you, but if you don't restrict my freedom, I will love you even more!"

"...." The general closed his eyes and pondered for a long time, until finally, he nod his head.

Chu Zhu Yu smiled victoriously, "Hi hi, I knew you were the best. But... hm, Jue Qing, I still have something to tell you."

"What?"

"I... I..." she hesitated for a while.

She belatedly realized that saying the truth needed tremendous courage.

"Hm?" he calmly waited for her next words.

Chu Zhu Yu closed her eyes, and with a fast beating heart, she said,

"Actually, when I entered your residence, I had an ulterior motive."

This matter would be known sooner or later, and rather than letting him find out through other means, it's better for her to tell him herself today.

"I knew." Xiao Zhi didn't look surprised.

"What?" She blinked her eyes a couple of times, "You knew?"

He nodded.

"How?" she thought that she had perfectly concealed it from him.

"At the time when we went to the temple, I realized that you might know Chu Mu Cai, so I asked someone to check it out for me. It was then that I knew you are Chu Mu Cai's cousin, and that you are the owner of the Yue Xin Tea House's daughter."

Chu Zhu Yu stupidly opened her mouth. What! On that day, he... he actually already knew everything!

"Do you know why I entered your residence as a maid even though my family is actually financially stable?" She asked.

"No." he shook his head.

"...You don't even know why I entered your residence and you still dared to let me stay? Aren't you afraid that I might be an assassin that was tasked to kill you? Or I might be someone who wants revenge?" Chu Zhu Yu nagged him.

In this world, there were so many people who wanted General Xiao's life.

"But you're not one of them."

"...." She was speechless.

"Aren't you curious about why I entered the general's residence?"

"No, I'm not."

With just those three simple words, she felt her body relax. She braced herself so that she could explain every "intention" to him, but his words allowed her to keep silent.

"Are you sure that you love me in spite of this?"

"Of course." He stretched out his arms, pulling her into his chest, "No matter what your purpose is, I don't care. If you need me to accomplish it, I will help you."

His deep voice tickled her ears, her black hair flowed freely because of the wind and conveniently covered her face.

Chu Zhu Yu's face was beet red.

Even though it's been a long time since they became a couple, her face still blushes and her heart still beats faster when he talks to her like that.

"Don't... don't get too close to me!" she couldn't help but protest.

She could only blame his handsome face, because she has no immunity to beautiful things.

"What will you do if I get too close?"

His face moved even closer to her, until his nose tip touched hers.

Chu Zhu Yu felt her blood rush to her head. Her face was very red, and she began to have difficulty breathing.

His shining black eyes, his smooth skin, his straight nose, his pinkish thin lips, they all make her...

Suddenly, her nose started to tingle. She felt something warm drip down her nose, flowing uncontrollably.

Chu Zhu Yu looked at Xiao Zhi Zhi's face and noticed his worried eyes. She wiped her nose, and when she looked at her hand, it was full of warm blood.

How embarrassing, she even got a nosebleed?

"Lean forward and pinch your nose." Xiao Zhi Zhi advised her.

"Oh... alright." Chu Zhu Yu immediately did what he told.

As she was pinching her nose, she tried to defend herself, "People can easily get nosebleeds. My nose bleeding has nothing to do with your handsomeness."

After she spoke, she regretfully bit her tongue, isn't that the same as admitting her guilt?

"I know." He touched her wrist and examined her pulse.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh... it's good then." She spoke guiltily.

Her head starts becoming dizzy, is it because her nose is bleeding? Her eyes are slowly getting heavier.

Her body seemed to lose all energy, she couldn't endure it anymore and closed her eyes.

I really... want to sleep right now...

———

The famous doctor of Cong Zhou was currently sweating bullets because they needed to examine Lady Chu's pulse who had fainted.

The longer her pulse was examined, the uglier the doctor's expression was. More sweat dripped down from the doctor's face.

After the doctor had finished examining her pulse, he kneeled in front of the general and reported in a terrified voice,

"This lowly doctor only knows that Lady Chu had been poisoned, but because of my lack of skill, this lowly doctor cannot recognize its poison type."

Xiao Zhi Zhi's face suddenly turned grim. He walked to the edge of the bed, and looked at the unconscious Chu Zhu Yu.

Her ears and the corners of her eyes were starting to bleed out.

Poison!

When did she even ingest this poison? Inside this residence, every food she ate and every beverage she drank have all been tested beforehand.

Except...

Suddenly, Xiao Zhi Zhi remembered the time when he found Chu Zhu Yu inside a Tea House in Cong Zhou.

"Someone!"

"Yes!" one of the guards replied.

"Immediately send out people to find those who work in the Xing Yuan Tea House, bring them all!"

"Yes." The guard bowed and left.

Xiao Zhi Zhi raised his fingers and placed it below her nose. Even if it's weak, at least she's still breathing.

By doing this, he was ensuring himself that she was still alive.

A while ago, she was still happily joking with him, but now... Her face is very pale, and she is bedridden.

Yesterday, when they returned from the Tea House, he should have checked her condition immediately. He shouldn't have been careless.

"Zhu Yu..." he bent down, his fingers carressed her cheeks, "Trust me, I won't let you wait too long, no matter what happens, you will wake up!"

And to those who poisoned her, he won't let them live!

———

"General, please spare my life!"

"Please, please show mercy!"

Many miserable voices and crying sounds resonated from inside the room. Plenty of torture equipment was dripping with fresh blood.

If it was possible, Uncle Fa wanted to be executed! He wanted to be free from all this pain.

"So, will you confess your crime?"

Xiao Zhi Zhi sat on a large chair. He glared at Uncle Fa with a murderous expression.

"Yes, yes! This lowly one will confess to everything... everything!"

Uncle Fa hurriedly continued, "This lowly one was originally working in Luo Yang City as one of the Tea Masters of the Yue Qin Tea House. It was a good job, however, I... got addicted to gambling. I owed so much money... That day when I was outside of the gambling house, I was physically assulted by loan sharks who wanted me to pay back my loan. As I was getting beaten up, a woman came and helped me pay my debt, allowing me to come to the Cong Zhou Tea House. She said that if I become very famous in Cong Zhou, it would lure my previous boss's daughter, Miss Chu, to come and visit. That woman told me that on the day Miss Chu enters the tea house and orders something, I should mix a small bottle of drug to her tea."

He knew that no explanation can justify what the woman ordered him to do. He understood that mixing an unknown drug to someone's tea is not a good thing.

He felt worried and unsure, but once he thought about his debt being settled, and that he might even receive an extra amount of money, he hardened his heart and gathered the courage to do it.

(E/R: Note to self, don't get blinded by money.)

"Do you have enmity against Zhu Yu?" Xiao Zhi Zhi asked.

"No... I don't."

During the time when he worked at the Yue Qing Tea House, both the father and daughter were kind to him.

"If so, how could you be that cruel to her!" Xiao Zhi Zhi glared at him and shouted.

"This... this lowly one was being threatened, it was all that woman's fault!"

Uncle Fa passed all the blame to the stranger, a woman whose name he didn't even know.

"Which woman? Is she...?"

Xiao Zhi Zhi pointed his finger to a woman who was at the other side of the room. She was covered with blood and was dragged to sit upright.

Uncle Fa glanced at her for a moment and trembled. He murmured, "Her figure... seems familiar. But this lowly one never saw the woman's face because she wore a bamboo hat that hid her features."

"You guys... arrested... arrested the wrong person. I'm innocent." The woman crawled on the ground, she opened her mouth with diffficulty.

"Innocent?" Xiao Zhi Zhi glared at the woman, "If you truly were innocent, why were you anxiously trying to pass the city's borders? When my soldiers asked why you wanted to leave, you ran away. My soldiers chased you for two days until you finally got captured. Tell me, is that the actions of an innocent person?"

"I want...ed to go out of the city, fast. It wasn't against the law..."

"...You were planning to go to Luo Yang." Xiao Zhi Zhi's voice remained in a calm tone and said, "If you really plan on keeping your mouth shut, believe me, I know so many ways that can force those secrets out of you."

The woman's eyes widened in fear. She hesitantly opened her mouth and tried to commit suicide by biting off her tongue, but her actions were already anticipated by the soldiers guarding her.

"Block her mouth." Xiao Zhi Zhi commanded.

"Yes!"

The rails of the prison snapped open, and they blocked the woman's mouth using a thick cloth. She couldn't close her mouth, so she couldn't commit suicide anymore.

"If you still don't want to tell who the mastermind is, then even death will be too good for you."

Xiao Zhi Zhi gently waved his hand inside the torture chamber, signaling his soldiers to start. Outside of the chamber, you could only hear the sound of metal clashing and a screaming, painful sobbing voice.

———

In Cong Zhou, you could see a handful of people riding their horses fast across the plains. They were planning to go to Luo Yang City.

No one knew that the great general of the country, Xiao Zhi Zhi, was among those riders.

He left his soldiers of more than fifty thousand in Cong Zhou, and he only brought Liu Shan, the military officer, and some of elite soldiers as guards, secretly back to the central city.

In his embrace was a person wrapped carefully with a thick and warm blanket made from fur. Because the person was unconscious, the only way you could know that they were uncomfortable was their wrinkled forehead and frowning lips.

Xiao Zhi Zhi lowered his head and looked closely at Chu Zhu Yu, who he was embracing. He carefully shielded her from the wind with his body.

"Zhu Yu, I know this is painful, but please bear with it, alright?"

However, the unconscious Chu Zhu Yu could not respond to him. From her seven apertures, five apertures were already bleeding.

(E/R: The seven apertures of a human head are the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and mouth)

Every drip of blood that bleeds down her face, crushes his heart with pain. He could see her slowly weaken as each moment passes. Her life is like a flickering candle that can vanish at any moment.

Only her weak pulse and soft breath lets him know that she is still alive.

The galloping horses were now very tired and exhausted, the horses' saliva started to foam from their mouths.

"General, the horses might not be able to move any longer." said Liu Shan.

"Let's try to make it till the next border, then we'll change horses." Xiao Zhi replied calmly.

"Yes!"

During the three days and three nights of vigorous riding, they tired so many good horses only for the woman in his embrace.

———

Inside the splendid imperial palace, the Tenth Princess, Dai Rui Qin, was lying on a couch, but she couldn't sleep.

It was because her personal maid who took care of 'that' matter hasn't come back for several days now.

The latest report that was brought by her messenger pigeon wrote that everything was taken care of, and that she was heading back to Luo Yang.

Counting the days, she should have arrived by now, but... she doesn't know what's happening. Dai Rui Qin feels distracted.

Tonight the moon is especially dim, as if it's a signal that something might happen.

"Lai Ren!" she raised her torso off the couch.

"Does the Tenth Princess have any orders?" The maid who guarded her for today's night shift asked.

"Go and light up the lantern."

The maid obeys the order. She took a candle to light up the lantern outside, but she didn't come back for a while.

"Someone! Come, quickly!" she shouted impatiently.

Silent steps moved closer to her, a piece of red candle rolled near her feet.

"Ah!"

Dai Rui Qin was surprised. She raised her head and looked at the unknown person, "You... how did you get in here?"

Xiao Zhi Zhi-- the man she desires and expects to marry.

Before all this, she always expected him to come to her. Everytime she ordered her maid to call him to this splendid palace, she was always rejected by him. But now, he entered here... by himself... willingly.

In that moment, many thoughts filled her mind. Dai Rui Qin tried hard to appear graceful and composed.

The general that should be in Cong Zhou right now was inside her palace in Luo Yang. Does he know...?

Suppressing her panic, she laughed sweetly, and tried to develop a gentle and soft image, "I'm pleased to see General Xiao in my palace today, please enlighten me as to why the general visited me at this late hour?"

"The antidote." Xiao Zhi Zhi stated only two words.

Dai Rui Qin started to panic in her head. Her face stiffened, and with a fake smile, she replied,

"I don't understand, what antidote?"

"Since I could enter your splendid palace without your assistance, naturally I have already investigated and found out about everything." Xiao Zhi Zhi replied coldly.

Her smiling face slowly turned grim, "If I scream out loud, everyone inside the palace will go here and see you. What will they think of General Xiao, a fully grown man, inside my private chamber?"

If this matter blows up, he will never be able to escape the Emperor's palace.

"You won't get that opportunity."

His sharp eyes were filled with the murderous intent to kill. His bloodthirsty look was seen only when he needed to accomplish a mission, no matter what the cost.

Dead men tell no tales.

"Will you... really dare-" she could utter the remaining half of the sentence, she was filled with rage and fear. Will the dignified great general truly commit massacre inside of the imperial palace?

"I can try. Besides, nothing can harm me in here." His cold expression didn't change.

She hated his face. His face that made her develop unrequited feelings for him. That made her taste the greatest frustration and humiliation of her life.

Because of her unrequited love, she wanted to destroy his peaceful life. She wanted to see him go insane!

"Why are you so sure that I have the antidote?"

"The maid that carried the poison has already confessed to everything."

"But she didn't know one thing." Dai Ru Qin suddenly laughed hard.

"That drug, it doesn't have an antidote. HAHAHA--"

The laughing voice suddenly stopped, Xiao Zhi Zhi's fingers grabbed Dai Rui Qin's neck hard,

"What?"

"That drug has no antidote. Even if you search all over the world, that drug doesn't have a cure!"

She succeeded on changing his expression, but it filled her with envy instead. Why? Why is that woman so important to him?

"If it's a poison created by a person, there must be a cure. You must know something about it!"

He tightened his hold on her neck until she gasped for breath and her face turned purple.

"You... ke ke (cough voice), if you strangle me, you will never know anything."

He looked at her with cold anger and loosened his fingers.

Dai Rui Qin fell to the ground. She gasped heavily for air and replied,

"There is certainly a way to detox the drug. However, to do it, someone else has to die!"

"What do you mean?" he narrowed his eyes.

"Do you really love that woman, Xiao Zhi Zhi? Then just trade your life for hers! HAHAHA!"

"..."

"If you truly want to save her life, then the only way you can do it is by having someone with a high skill of cultivation pull all the poison in her bloodstream unto themselves. If the person only transfers half of the poison, then both of them are going to die! There's only a few people with high enough cultivation to do this, and luckily, you're one of them... HOWEVER, the only way you can successfully transfer the poison from her to you... Is to have sexual intercourse with her, HAHAHAHA!!"

Dai Rui Qin laughed like she was insane and looked maliciously at Xiao Zhi Zhi,

"HAHAHA! In the end, even if she lives after this, she will no longer be a virgin, and death awaits you if you choose to save her life. You won't be able to be together with that woman, and because of you, she will spend the rest of her life as a widow!

Does the cure require the death of a person? Xiao Zhi Zhi looked down and contemplated.

"Xiao Zhi Zhi, are you actually going to sacrifice your life for that woman?" Dai Rui Qin asked him in disbelief.

Even a man who fell head over heels with a woman will hesitate when their own life is at stake.

"Chu Zhu Yu is just an ordinary woman. If she dies, there are plenty of women who can replace her."

Xiao Zhi Zhi said nothing. He glaredat Dai Rui Qin and clenched his fists. All of a sudden, he punched the wall next to her. He turned away from her and started walking towards the door.

She was frightened, but couldn't resist asking, "You're going to leave just like this? You won't take my life?"

The moment he knew that she was the person who poisoned Chu Zhu Yu, she already accepted the possibility of death.

"Zhu Yu doesn't want me to kill anyone with imperial blood, so I won't kill you... But I will make sure that you bear the consequences of your actions. I recently heard that the country needs another princess for the He Qin, I believe you are suitable for that role."

(E/R: He Qin: a way for the imperial family to improve relationships with other royals who live at the borders of the land by letting them marry a daughter of the imperial family.)

He Qin?!

Dai Rui Qin suddenly lost all of her energy and sat on the ground. Usually, if a princess gets selected for He Qin and goes to the borders, nine out of ten of them won't survive another week.

———

Xiao Zhi Zhi got outside. Liu Shan, the one who guarded the entrance of the palace, kneeled in front of Xiao Zhi Zhi.

"General, you won't actually use yourself as the antidote to the poison, right?" he heard everything inside the princess's room.

"..."