Chapter 64 - 2#

He was too hot to sleep.

First, this was night. Second, this was the Imperial Palace, located in the north. Finally, this was still the depth of winter.

Only a crazy person would feel an inexplicable dryness and heat at night in the depth of winter in the north.

Jingzhe rolled around on the bed repeatedly, unable to sleep no matter what.

He covered his ears and curled up on the bed.

Even so, it was as if he could still hear Rong Jiu’s icy words by his ear.

It was truly strange; how could that voice, as cold as ice, hide such ferocious passion?

Sentence after sentence, teasing Jingzhe’s heart.

He thought he was a rock and wouldn’t be easily shaken, but in the end, his bottom line was defeated and he easily took the bait.

Jingzhe spat on himself in his heart for being useless.

He learned from the pain and felt that there must be something wrong with the medicine he took recently; otherwise, how could his mind be so easily teased?

He had always been calm before!

Jingzhe climbed up angrily, hugged the quilt, and sat cross-legged on the bed.

Huiping heard the movement and said vaguely, “What happened?”

Jingzhe said calmly, “I ate too much at night and have bloating. It’s nothing, you sleep.”

Huiping turned over and continued to sleep.

This unlucky Jingzhe endured until he felt nothing, only then did he sleep tiredly for a short while.

Such symptoms appeared several times. Jingzhe finally couldn’t stand it anymore. Next time, when he collected medicine from Zong Yuanxin, he couldn’t help but ask this question.

“You mean, you always feel inexplicable dryness and heat?”

Zong Yuanxin stroked his beard and asked strangely.

Jingzhe: “Exactly, this has happened many times, making it difficult to rest well.”

Zong Yuanxin: “Impossible, the medicine is not that strong. What I prescribed are all warming and nourishing formulas.”

After saying this, he gestured for Jingzhe to sit down and took his pulse again.

A moment later, Zong Yuanxin stopped his movements, looked at Jingzhe a bit strangely, and said slowly, “Hmm, I forgot, even if you are a eunuch, you are also a young and vigorous lad.”

Jingzhe: “…Didn’t you say the medicinal effect wasn’t too heavy?”

Zong Yuanxin said righteously, “Indeed it wasn’t too heavy, but you are young after all. This firepower is sufficient. The medicine you eat will naturally react on the body. Usually, if you exert more strength, it will be gone.”

Jingzhe suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

Thinking of Rong Jiu’s body, he asked again, “Then according to Rong Jiu’s situation, how long does he still need to take medicine before he can get better?”

“Count it by years.” Zong Yuanxin said casually, looking at Jingzhe’s worried appearance, and shook his head with a chuckle, “Don’t worry, his life is very tough, he won’t die easily.”

If he were really to die, his life would have been taken away back then.

…

In the silent room, only intense panting remained.

Prince Rui woke up from a dream, sweating profusely. Princess Rui, who fell asleep with him, was also awakened by his movement.

“Your Highness, did you have a nightmare?”

Princess Rui gently stroked Prince Rui’s forehead and said softly, “Why not ask the imperial physician to prescribe some soothing soup?”

Prince Rui had been awakened by nightmares several times recently, and she was afraid that the Prince was being haunted.

Prince Rui shook his head and calmed down.

He ordered someone to bring hot tea and sat at the table wearing only thin inner clothes. The room was very warm, so even if he wore such thin clothes, he shouldn’t feel cold.

It was just that this body was breaking out in cold sweat, wave after wave.

Prince Rui had just had a dream.

He dreamed about being burned to death in his previous life.

That feeling of being burned by fierce fire, Prince Rui remembered clearly even in this life.

He was not that kind of weak and incompetent person who couldn’t bear pain. However, being burned by fierce fire was an unbearable severe pain. Just recalling it would drive people crazy.

Now, Prince Rui had realized that with his “start over”, many things had also changed.

The incident with the Huang family, Emperor Jingyuan dispatching troops, these major events all had changes, let alone various small details.

It seemed that ever since he decided to leave the capital, many things had been affected, almost completely different.

At the same time, there were also many things that hadn’t changed.

For example, he still discovered the iron mine from his previous life, and the smelting and forging proceeded very smoothly. In addition, he had been privately gathering talents, and his reputation was considered quite good.

Talents who were famous in the previous life still defected to his command.

Some things seemed destined to happen.

Being able to live another life, Prince Rui believed he saw many things more thoroughly.

Some things are destined by heaven and cannot be fought for.

That more or less depends on the right time, right place, and right people.

Prince Rui’s feelings towards Emperor Jingyuan were complicated. On one hand, he hated the Emperor’s ascension; on the other hand, he knew that if he ascended the throne and attacked other brothers, he would only be more ferocious than Emperor Jingyuan.

Not to mention the current Emperor, towards other brothers, at most could be considered ignoring them, but didn’t suppress them much.

The late Emperor was promiscuous and unfaithful. After abandoning the first Empress, the children born were not few.

It was just that later Prince Rui’s existence was too dazzling, suppressing others’ restless stirrings.

Later when Emperor Jingyuan first ascended the throne, there were still many people who refused to accept it. If not for these iron-blooded methods, he couldn’t have sat firmly in this position.

He took a sip of hot tea, incidentally suppressing the cold sweat he just broke out. Princess Rui followed, looking at those lamps placed far away, and whispered, “How about extinguishing some more?”

Unknown since when, Prince Rui had this problem of being afraid of fire.

Few people knew about it outside, but Princess Rui, who had been by his side for these few years, could still keenly perceive Prince Rui’s changes.

Prince Rui shook his head and said helplessly, “If people know that a dignified Prince is actually afraid of fire, it will become a joke.”

Princess Rui smiled and said, “What’s wrong with that? The old Duke Dingguo back then was afraid of the dark. But he was still brave and skillful in battle, who dared to say anything about him?”

Prince Rui smiled. He knew clearly in his heart that this was still different.

At the very beginning, he couldn’t even remember what exactly happened. He only remembered being suppressed in the palace by Emperor Jingyuan, burned to death together with numerous imperial relatives.

Later, as he had been back for a longer time, when he recalled those things, it no longer hurt splittingly.

Prince Rui vaguely remembered that the reason he entered the palace was because Helian Rong was seriously ill in bed but had no heir.

If the Emperor passed away with no successor, it would be a huge trouble. If this matter could be settled before Emperor Jingyuan passed away, it could also stabilize the imperial court.

However, Emperor Jingyuan never had this thought.

The Empress Dowager summoned people into the palace, ostensibly to serve the Emperor, but in reality, she wanted Prince Rui to take the opportunity to take over the power of the imperial palace.

As long as he could get the position of the Imperial Palace Commander, or make this person work for them, plus the Empress Dowager’s position and the Huang family’s power, taking the throne would be a breeze.

But, this looked like a sure thing, yet Wei Haidong only listened to Emperor Jingyuan.

It was unknown what Emperor Jingyuan used to win him over. Clearly the Emperor was already in decline, but Wei Haidong still guarded everywhere in the imperial palace, leaving no leeway.

After that, it was that fire.

Prince Rui remembered that it was an ordinary day. Princes and ministers gathered together, all discussing matters concerning succession.

Then they heard footsteps.

Unscrupulously, without any concealment, Wei Haidong suddenly led people to guard everywhere in the imperial palace, locking them in the palace hall, not allowing them to enter or exit.

Wei Haidong was the Emperor’s man. The only possibility for him to do this was that the Emperor, who was too sick to get out of bed, suddenly gave an order.

Helian Rong.

This man, who was breathing in less than breathing out, even if he was the Emperor, was after all a dying person. He didn’t even have a few days of sobriety to live, let alone that he was in a coma for a long period at that time. Many people no longer regarded him as a threat.

…This couldn’t be blamed on many people, who simply didn’t realize that even if he had reached this stage…

But he was Helian Rong after all.

When he set fire to the palace, everyone thought he couldn’t possibly do this, even the princes and ministers who had witnessed many of his crazy actions before.

However, that raging fire swallowed the entire imperial palace. Accompanied by shrill screams, Prince Rui seemed to see those wildly surging black tides dancing in the flames.

They simply couldn’t escape.

All checkpoints were guarded by people, just witnessing them like ants, suffering in this terrible fire scene until finally dying.

That man didn’t leave this fire either.

His laughter was still Prince Rui’s nightmare now.

Whenever thinking of this matter, Prince Rui felt as if flames were licking his body. No wonder he became so afraid of fire after waking up.

…However, one thing had been hidden in Prince Rui’s heart, until not long ago, someone from the capital sent him what he wanted.

A bag of Gu worm corpses.

After experiencing the Gu worm attack, the imperial palace spent a lot of effort to exterminate the Gu worms. Every corner was thoroughly fumigated with a large amount of incense to ensure no loopholes were left. After such tossing about, it was also a great expenditure of effort.

It wasn’t easy to know the detailed ins and outs, but just collecting Gu worm corpses was still simpler. Although this order came a few months late, the people remaining in the capital still collected what Prince Rui wanted for him.

It wasn’t until the moment he saw those terrible Gu worms that Prince Rui had a realization in his heart.

He always thought that the Emperor’s madness before death in the previous life was because he wanted to drag others to die together. Although Prince Rui also saw those black tides before dying, after all, that was a hallucination before death and couldn’t be taken as real.

Until this life, when he truly heard about the Gu worm tide that spread to the entire imperial palace, he suddenly had a guess.

…He remembered that in the previous life, Huang Yijie also entered the palace.

He always thought that such a thing didn’t happen in the previous life, but what if it had already happened?

The fire set by Emperor Jingyuan burned down the entire imperial palace, causing countless casualties among the people inside, but at the same time, it also trapped all the Gu worms under the ashes of death in the imperial palace.

Prince Rui frowned; he didn’t want to praise Emperor Jingyuan.

He died in that fire.

But if his guess was true, it meant that this knife controlled by the Empress Dowager was prone to losing control.

For this, Prince Rui once sent people to investigate Huang Yijie’s family, only to find that shortly after Huang Yijie entered the palace, her grandmother had already died long ago.

The Empress Dowager didn’t lie to her and still kept the lives of some of her family members, but those loathsome worm witches were naturally killed early on.

Thinking of this, Prince Rui couldn’t help sighing.

Mother Empress, oh Mother Empress… sometimes, she was really too ruthless.

Princess Rui pressed his shoulders and said softly, “It’s late, better not think anymore, we…”

Before the Princess finished speaking, strange movements were heard outside.

Soon, someone came to report.

“Your Highness, it’s Young Master Huang, who fell from the top of the wall.”

Prince Rui frowned, Huang Fu…

Ever since his whole family had an accident, and only Huang Fu survived to reach Prince Rui’s fief, he had always been somewhat depressed and unhappy.

Later he said he wanted to learn martial arts and specifically named Ah Xing to be his master. Considering the hardships he suffered along the way, the Prince also agreed.

It was just that this brat learned a little martial arts and caused trouble all day, always thinking of ascending to the sky in one step.

He was after all a bad temper spoiled by his family, and couldn’t persist so easily.

Practicing martial arts is a arduous thing, easy to get injured. He fished for three days and dried nets for two days, simply insufficient to temper his muscles and bones.

Prince Rui and the Princess rushed there together, seeing Ah Xing standing expressionlessly at the foot of the wall.

“Your Highness.”

Seeing Prince Rui coming, he just nodded faintly.

Prince Rui knew this advisor’s temper and didn’t get angry. He just frowned, looking at Huang Fu shouting and yelling on the wall, and said in a deep voice, “Still not coming down?”

“I, I can’t get down.”

Huang Fu didn’t want to admit such a shameful thing, otherwise he wouldn’t have entangled with Ah Xing until now.

But even Prince Rui was alarmed, he dared not hold back anymore.

Prince Rui was amused by anger and raised his hand to summon a guard.

The guard climbed up the wall nimbly and carried Huang Fu down. Huang Fu lowered his head, somewhat afraid to speak.

Prince Rui: “Practicing martial arts is not a day’s work, you cannot be so greedy for advancement.”

Huang Fu: “Yes.”

The attitude was good, only pity it was useless.

Prince Rui winked at the Princess. The Princess stepped forward, spoke gently, and took the young master away.

Prince Rui sighed, reached out to pinch the center of his brows, and then looked at Ah Xing.

“This brat, during this time… has really troubled you.”

Ah Xing: “Young Master Huang is not suitable for practicing martial arts, I can’t teach him.”

Prince Rui thought, how could it be that Ah Xing couldn’t teach him? It was clearly this brat who couldn’t bear hardships, only exerting force with his mouth, and couldn’t do anything else.

“Don’t worry about his matters anymore in the future.” Prince Rui shook his head, “Who can he blame if he can’t stand up on his own? If he wants to find someone to practice martial arts again, I’ll let others teach him.”

Ah Xing is a rare and useful talent. If wasted on Huang Fu, Prince Rui would feel heartache.

He felt pity in his heart. There were so many people in the Huang family, anyone could be saved, why was the survivor Huang Fu?

This kid was used to being pampered, even his bones were soft.

Previously, he had somewhat overestimated him.

Ah Xing was still the cold Ah Xing. Hearing Prince Rui’s words, he just responded faintly and followed Prince Rui’s words, handing over all matters.

In the future, if Huang Fu wanted to find him again, he wouldn’t be able to enter.

Huang Fu was angry and tried every means to block Ah Xing’s way.