The palace beauty walked to the window and silently gazed at the sunlight in the courtyard.
The sunlight fell on her face, but it was unable to bring much warmth. Her beautiful brows and eyes always carried a coldness and haggardness that could not be erased.
The kitchen was very quiet, the scene very strange. It slowly persisted and fermented in the sunlight.
After some time, the medicine was finished. The woman held the pot with both hands and dipped it into the ice water prepared in the basin, waiting for the medicine to cool.
Just like Zhou Tong, the palace beauty was also very skilled in mental techniques. The woman could not see her by the window, most likely because she had been mesmerized by the illusion she had created.
Ultimately, the woman raised her head and glanced at her, proving that all this was not an illusion, but reality.
The palace beauty leaned against the window and lightly waved her hand, indicating that everything was proceeding as usual.
… …
… …
The medicine could not be completely cooled before drinking, as this would more or less lose some of its medicinal strength. The bowl of medicine brought to Zhou Tong was still exuding a thick mist of heat.
Zhou Tong was somewhat intoxicated by the heat brought by the mist. This sort of feeling filled him with vigor, but when he completely drank the medicine in the bowl, he was somewhat dissatisfied, because the medicine had scalded the roof of his mouth and gums. He did not blame the woman, but he was dissatisfied with his own attitude — he had been a little too hasty.
Although he had not been scalded, he still felt somewhat uncomfortable. He used his tongue to lick it.
A slightly sweet taste came from the tip of his tongue, somewhat like the taste of rust.
He knew that this was the taste of blood and couldn't help but crease his brow. He took a mirror from the table and examined it.
He found nothing strange, just that his gums were a little swollen and bleeding.
The taste of blood gradually faded, leaving behind only the bitter taste of the medicine. He took two sugared peanuts from the plate and threw them into his mouth, carefully chewing them.
Ever since he was very young, he had been very afraid of drinking medicine, because medicine was too bitter. Thus, every time he drank medicine, he would prepare a few sweet snacks in advance.
As he chewed on the sugared peanuts, he thought about the matter he had encountered today.
Xue He had spent many years leading troops in the snowy plains of the north, so it was only natural that he could obtain this sort of poison. But just now, in the underground prison, how had he poisoned him?
Did he want to poison him to avenge Xue Xingchuan and make the world feel that this was the cycle of the heavens and retribution?
The problem was that it wasn't that easy to poison himself.
A sneer appeared at the corner of Zhou Tong's mouth, and there was an additional hint of pride in his cold eyes.
The sugar-coated peanuts were delicious, but the only problem was that they stuck to his teeth. He took out a fine silver toothpick and picked his teeth as he continued to think.
There was a high chance that Xue He had already escaped Zhou Prison, but that did not matter. Although the world was vast, there was no place for the Xue clan to hide.
Zhou Tong's gaze passed through the window and landed on the neighboring courtyard. He thought to himself that after the matter was settled, he would capture Xue He as soon as possible and then poison him to death, slowly poison him to death.
He had already thought of which poisons to use to make Xue He die the slowest and most painful death.
A slight cracking sound rang in his mouth, interrupting his rambling and pleasurable thoughts at this time.
One of his teeth was broken at the root, lying quietly in the palm of his hand. The broken stubble was covered in blood and stains, looking very sinister.
Looking at this broken tooth, Zhou Tong's body, which had just warmed up not too long ago, once again turned cold.
After a moment of silence, he picked up the mirror and looked at himself again.
A single glance was enough to shake one's soul.
His gums had already become a purple-black color, and his teeth were extremely loose. It seemed like a light gust of wind would cause them to fall off.
The increasingly clear and unbearable pain coming from the broken tooth caused his body to once more tremble.
He had only wanted to pick the sugar stains between his teeth, but he had ended up prying out a tooth.
The front end of the exquisite silver toothpick had already turned completely black, like charcoal. It was a ghastly sight.
All of this was an illusion, he said to himself.
He was far too experienced in using poison. He was confident that his judgment was absolutely correct. Even if his method of detoxification could not completely purge the poison in his body, it could definitely temporarily suppress it. Then he would have a lot of time to slowly resolve this problem.
But why was it that even though he had clearly drunk the medicine, the poison in his body had not been suppressed, and instead had become even more terrifying, already gnawing at his teeth?
Zhou Tong could not understand and fell silent for a very long time.
Even now, he still did not realize that although there was no problem with the medicine he had used, a problem might have occurred in the process of brewing it.
He had never doubted the woman.
He took out two precious pills, put them into his mouth, and swallowed them, temporarily suppressing the poison that was about to erupt.
He felt a little dizzy and his vision a little blurry.
If his vision had not been blurry, how could he have seen the woman walk to the gate of the small courtyard?
The woman's arm was wrapped in a bundle made of blue floral cloth.
The bundle was very small and simple, unable to hold too many things.
Yes, of course it was. He had bought so many valuable things for her over the years, so how could such a small bundle possibly be able to hold it all?
So she could not be preparing to leave, she could not be preparing to abandon him, it could not be that there was a problem with her, it could not be that she had poisoned him.
Then his vision really had been blurry. This poison was truly too powerful, even causing him to hallucinate.
Zhou Tong said to himself, then stood up from his chair.
There was a distance of about ten zhang between the room and the main gate, and the courtyard between them was filled with sunlight.
He and the woman looked at each other, separated by a patch of sunlight.
The woman's expression was calm, gentle, and peaceful. She bowed slightly, just like she always did when she bid farewell to him, but today, she was the one bidding farewell.
So all of this was not an illusion.
Why? Zhou Tong did not ask, because he clearly knew that there were countless reasons for this, but since he had not realized it before, there was no need to realize it now.
The cruelest thing in the world was that when you did not want to know the answer, someone just had to tell you the answer.
"She does not like you, has never liked you."
The palace beauty walked to the gate and said to him, "She is only afraid of you, so she does not dare to leave."
Why was she not afraid today? It was naturally because he was about to die.
Zhou Tong was not surprised by her appearance.
In truth, he was now completely confused. It was not that his medicine was ineffective, but that someone had added another poison to it.
From the moment he understood this point, he knew that someone had come to this small courtyard, and he even knew who that person was.
The person that understood you the most was naturally not your family, or else Xue Xingchuan would not have died so wretchedly, his corpse almost exposed in the wilderness.
The person that understood you the most was also not necessarily your enemy, because you would always be on guard against your enemy, always make many preparations in advance.
The person that understood you the most was also not necessarily your friend. Growing old together was very beautiful, but the two of you spent too little time together, the distance between the two cities too great. When you met, you would always drink, reminisce about the past, look forward to the future, bitterly curse your former teacher and the current Imperial Court. It was very rare for you to have a chance to discuss any of the finer details.
Thus, the person that understood you the most was often your work partner.
In working day after day for many years, it was very difficult for the two of you to not understand each other. You would drink together many times and talk about many details. Moreover, because of your relationship of hidden and overt competition, the two of you would remember these matters very clearly, preparing to use them at any time in the future. For example, he knew which restaurant you liked to eat the most, you knew which restaurant he liked to eat the most, he knew which leader you hated the most, you knew which channel he liked the most, he knew how many girlfriends you had over the years, you knew how many boats he had stepped on in the past month, and on the morning after Christmas Eve, the two of you might even come out of the same convenience hotel and smile at each other, because it was at this convenience hotel that the company could obtain the most suitable negotiated price.
Logically speaking, Zhou Tong did not have any work partners, because the Department for Purging Officials was a very special yamen. It was directly responsible to the Tianhai Divine Empress and did not need to interact with anyone in the Imperial Court. Cheng Jun, the other Eight Tigers, and the redcoated cavalry were all his subordinates, but there would always be a few rather special existences in the world, like this palace beauty.
The Tianhai Divine Empress relied on Divine Generals like Xue Xingchuan, Tian Chui, and Xu Shiji to control the Great Zhou Army, but her control over the Imperial Court and subsequent rule over the millions and millions of people of the Great Zhou was primarily through two people. One was Zhou Tong, and the other was naturally Mo Yu.
They were the Tianhai Divine Empress's left and right arms in the Imperial Court, privately denounced by many as villains colluding in evil. They had worked together for many years, and although their minds could not be said to be connected, they had a tacit understanding. Whether facing the Tianhai clan or the powerful will of the military, this tacit understanding had always displayed a very positive effect.
Because of this tacit understanding, they had a deep understanding of each other.
Zhou Tong knew of the rebellious heart and unwillingness hidden in the depths of Mo Yu's heart, and he even faintly sensed her thoughts about a certain person. Mo Yu knew that he had very well concealed his fear of the Divine Empress and this small courtyard bathed in sunlight, so she had found this place today and then delivered a fatal blow to him.
… …
… …
Seeing Mo Yu walk in from the door, Zhou Tong quickly calmed down, even faster than he had expected. In the days after the coup of the Mausoleum of Books, he had always had the Department for Purging Officials investigate, or perhaps confirm, her whereabouts in the south. Perhaps for this reason, he had actually long since mentally prepared himself to see her in the capital.
He said to Mo Yu, "I knew that you would definitely return to the capital, but I didn't expect it to be now."
Mo Yu asked, "Why?"
Zhou Tong replied, "Since you know very well that if you return to the capital, you will definitely die."
Mo Yu looked at him and said, "I don't really care about this point, as long as you can definitely die before me."
Zhou Tong did not know that Chen Changsheng had said something very similar not long ago.
He looked at Mo Yu and asked, "You've returned to avenge the Empress?"
"I don't have this ability, and you are not my enemy, because you don't have the right."
In Mo Yu's view, he was just a dog raised by the Empress. "I've come to punish that dog in the Empress's place."
Zhou Tong fell silent, then asked, "How are you prepared to punish this dog?"
Mo Yu replied, "Put it in a pot to stew? I think that's pretty good. "
Zhou Tong looked at her and very seriously said, "You don't have to be that rabbit."
"It's not that I want to cook the dog when the rabbit is dead. It's just that I'm not as experienced in torturing people as you are, so I can only think of cooking you to death."
Mo Yu looked at him and very seriously asked, "Do you have any other good suggestions?"
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
