The Double-Chapter 616 - 180 Ah Zhao

The case involving Princess Yongning and Shen Yurong had come to an end, setting Yanjing City abuzz with gossip. Still, there were those who remained unmoved, continuing their daily affairs as usual.

In the backyard of the Duke Residence, Situ Jiuyue emerged from the Alchemy Room and walked to the neighboring small chamber, pushing the door open to enter.

Inside the room, there was only a bed and a chair. After entering, Situ Jiuyue took a seat on the chair, gazing at the person on the bed.

The person on the bed had been carried back by Zhao Ke a few days earlier, retrieved from the private cell of the Princess’s Mansion. Jih Heng himself had ordered this person to be saved. Of course, Situ Jiuyue’s decision to treat him was not because of Jih Heng’s command, but rather because the person was severely injured. Anyone with capabilities tended to have their quirks, and Situ Jiuyue was no different. She wasn’t a doctor; she was a Poison Beauty, and the more severe the injury, the more she was enticed to provide aid, employing frightening methods of using poison to fight poison that others would shy away from—perhaps she simply wished to see just how much endurance a person had.

When this person had first been brought in, he was covered in bloodstains. The Duke Residence had servants skilled in gardening, with not bad martial arts, who were also very handsome, but none were suitable to assist Situ Jiuyue. There was Hai Tang, who used to help, nimble and smart, but recently preoccupied with the Xue Family’s case and staying at the Ye Family’s place, leaving no one to assist Situ Jiuyue in the Duke Residence. Hence, Situ Jiuyue had to tend to the person all by herself—washing, wiping, undressing, and cleaning the wounds.

Situ Jiuyue didn’t mind this, after all, in the eyes of healers, the world seemed divided only into the sick and the healthy. In her eyes, it was only a matter of who could or couldn’t be saved—and among those who could be saved, some she was willing to treat while others she was not. All other considerations, such as gender differences, were inconsequential to her.

The young man lying on the bed was not asleep; he was looking up at the ceiling as if lost in thought. His body was pinned with Situ Jiuyue’s silver needles, rendering him completely immobile. Situ Jiuyue knew he could hear her, so when she left, she warned him that if he moved, the needles might shift, which could be fatal, and he would have no one else to blame.

In truth, it was her cruel jest—he wouldn’t be in any danger even if he moved. However, when Situ Jiuyue walked in, she knew that throughout the previous night, over several Shichen, he indeed hadn’t moved an inch.

This required immense bravery, for as the needles were set, the medicinal properties gradually volatilized, becoming increasingly painful and itchy over time, nearly unbearable. And yet, this person had endured it. Even upon seeing Situ Jiuyue enter, he managed to greet her with a smile.

Situ Jiuyue was taken aback.

She felt fortunate that Princess Yongning hadn’t treated this man with the same cruelty she had shown Jiang Youyao, such as gouging out his eyes or ruining his face, thus preserving his handsome features. He was very good-looking, different from the servants of the Duke Residence, who had all struggled and fought through seas of blood. Even an ordinary gardener had an indelible silent ferocity in their bones. But this youth was like a piece of clear aquamarine, with innate brightness and a heroic spirit. Even though he had landed in such a plight, looking quite miserable, the smile he showed Situ Jiuyue was as warm as if he had experienced nothing at all.

"What is there to smile about?" But all Situ Jiuyue could do was to say indifferently, "You’ve ended up in quite a sorry state."

If Princess Yongning hated someone, she would throw him into her private cell and torture him mercilessly. Judging by this man’s condition, he must have offended Princess Yongning grievously. Although his face was intact, his entire martial arts prowess was wasted. Situ Jiuyue had examined him and deduced that, although he was likely young, around seventeen or eighteen, his martial arts had probably been quite good. But now his meridians were severed, leaving no chance of resuming martial arts in his lifetime. His legs were the most severely damaged. Situ Jiuyue guessed that heavy objects had crushed his bones below the knees, which were then healed with medicine and broken again repeatedly. In this way, going back and forth several times, it was impossible for his legs to ever stand again. Situ Jiuyue had wracked her brain with all the techniques she knew, but ultimately, she regretfully found that there was no way to change his situation.

From now on, he would be a cripple.

Considering his appearance and his invariably smiling disposition over the past few days, the youth must have been a person of a broad mind with a loose and heroic spirit. But in the future, he would be reduced to spending his days seated in a chair, which was truly a disheartening prospect.

Situ Jiuyue lifted his clothes and began to remove her silver needles one by one. Her movements could not be described as gentle, even a little rough, yet the youth’s face turned red. Situ Jiuyue found this amusing; every time she uncovered the youth’s clothes, he would blush.

He really was a naive person, Situ Jiuyue thought.

"Doc... Doctor..." As she was thinking, the youth suddenly spoke.

Situ Jiuyue was startled, "You can talk?"

He laboriously nodded his head.

Situ Jiuyue had previously discovered that the youth had not been fed Mute Medicine, but it appeared that he had screamed until hoarse while being tortured. She had been treating him with medicine for the past few days and thought it would take a while longer before he could speak. To her surprise, he had managed it today.

His voice was very hoarse and carried a fatigue that made him wince slightly in pain as he spoke, clearly showing that speaking was a struggle—but he tried his best to maintain his earlier smile, saying, "Thank you."

"Don’t thank me," Situ Jiuyue responded, "I can only save your life, nothing more."

When Zhao Ke had brought the youth in, he said it was Jih Heng’s instruction to save him, probably hoping to place the man among the Duke Residence’s guards. However, his legs were ruined and his martial arts were gone; he could not possibly become one of the guards. Moreover, the Duke Residence didn’t provide for the useless, so it was inevitable that the youth would be driven out sooner or later.

Situ Jiuyue was not one to easily sympathize with others, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret thinking that the youth’s smile might disappear once he learned about his fate.

After all, such purity was exceedingly rare.

"My... legs..."

"No hope," said Situ Jiuyue. "I can tell you with certainty that I cannot heal your legs, and there is no one else in the world who can cure them either."

The youth’s eyes dimmed, and Situ Jiuyue could clearly see a glint of tears in them, but he still smiled, laboriously saying to Situ Jiuyue, "It’s okay... Thank you, Doctor..."

"Don’t you feel it’s a pity?" Situ Jiuyue raised an eyebrow, "I thought you would be heartbroken, considering you would have had a bright future if not for this incident."

"To have... life left... is already good."

"Do you have any obsessions, anything you need to accomplish?" asked Situ Jiuyue, "Something for which you need to stay alive to do?"

The youth was startled, his clear eyes gradually becoming profound, shrouded in a mist that Situ Jiuyue could not understand. He did not answer immediately, and just when Situ Jiuyue thought he would not respond, the youth spoke up, saying, "Vengeance..."

An expected answer. In this world, the obsessions that prevent people from welcoming death and insist on living, aside from repaying kindness, is seeking revenge. But those indebted with kindness are always fewer than the heartless, so there are always many more seeking revenge than repaying kindness.

Situ Jiuyue removed the last silver needle and asked, "Princess Yongning?"

Since the youth was imprisoned in the Private Prison by Princess Yongning, his enemy was naturally Princess Yongning herself.

"Not... wrong..."

"Then you have no need to worry," Situ Jiuyue smiled, a smile that made her indifferent face also turn beautiful and animated, she said, "Princess Yongning and Shen Yurong have been thrown into a major prison, and will be executed in a few days. You don’t need to seek revenge; your enemies are going to hell."

The youth was taken aback as if struck by sudden lightning. Dumbstruck for a long while, he then asked, "...How could this happen?" His query was very urgent, as if he desperately needed to understand what exactly was going on.

Situ Jiuyue frowned, she was not used to having such long conversations with others, just like with Wen Renyao, she would drive away someone after hardly speaking three sentences. But speaking so much to a stranger, Situ Jiuyue was really talking too much. She hastily said, "What else could it be? Murder deserves death. If you want to know, ask for yourself when you get better!"

Situ Jiuyue packed up her medicine chest, ready to leave the room. Just as she was about to reach the door, she suddenly remembered something, hesitated for a moment, then turned back to ask, "By the way, what is your name?"

The youth was silent for a moment, then said softly, "My name is... Ah Zhao."

Ah Zhao, Situ Jiuyue repeated the name silently in her mind twice, thinking that the youth had only mentioned his given name and not his family name, likely indicating an extraordinary identity.

But what did she care about these things? After all, he was just a stranger she happened to come across.

...

In the Sky Prison of the Ministry of Punishment, Princess Yongning and Shen Yurong were thrown into jail.

Even the jailers seemed disdainful to give them another glance, with the sounds of wailing and howling all around. The original prisoners, seeing new people coming in, rushed to the iron bars and started shouting wildly. Princess Yongning, caught off guard, was so frightened that she screamed. Her scream seemed to please those people, and various malicious laughter began to rise, one after another, throughout the cell.

Princess Yongning was terribly scared, reminiscing the filthy tales she had heard in the palace about female prisoners who would be humiliated by jailers and other inmates alike, leading lives worse than animals’. She nervously leaned closer to Shen Yurong’s back, attempting to find some comfort in her company.

But Shen Yurong was not in the same cell as her; he was in the adjoining one, with only a lattice separating them. Princess Yongning could only reach through the bars to hold Shen Yurong’s clothes, making sure she would not be separated from him.

Shen Yurong sat motionlessly, allowing Princess Yongning to clutch at his clothing.

Princess Yongning asked, "Mr. Shen, what should we do now?"