11
Inside the room.
The woman took Xiao Yunji’s pulse, her brows drawing together tighter and tighter.
“All his internal organs have been corroded. This isn’t just an infertility drug…”
she murmured, her voice full of doubt.
Suddenly, her gaze fell on the sachet hanging from Xiao Yunji’s waist.
She snatched it up and sniffed it. Her expression changed at once.
“This has been laced with Beauty’s Tears, a vicious drug used specifically to harm women. The more often you have sex, the worse the damage to your body. In the end, you die in bed…”
A chill welled up inside me.
How vicious!
For a woman, this was a horrific humiliation—one she couldn’t escape even in death.
Thinking back on every time I’d made love to Xiao Yunji, I’d always felt dizzy. I’d assumed it was because I was weak.
I never imagined I’d been poisoned.
Xiao Yunji was dumbstruck, too.
He shook his head wildly, denying it, his face full of panic. “No! It wasn’t me! I don’t know anything about this!”
Xiao Yunji might truly not have known.
After all, this sachet was a gift from Grace Turner for my coming-of-age ceremony.
I’d treasured it and kept it with me day and night.
The thought filled me with regret.
If I’d known, I wouldn’t have burned Grace Turner’s body. I should’ve thrown her to the dogs!
“I can cure the poison.”
The woman broke the silence and took an exquisite jade box from her sleeve.
She opened it. Inside was a blood-red Gu worm, curled up in a ball.
Its tiny legs were slick with thick fluid. It looked utterly grotesque.
“This is a Heart-Eating Gu. It’ll consume all the poison in your internal organs…and nibble away at a little of your flesh and blood, too.”
I asked, “How painful is it?”
“Like a thousand knives slicing your flesh and ten thousand worms gnawing at your heart. And…”
She glanced at Xiao Yunji, who was trembling all over.
“When the effects set in, you have to stay conscious the whole time. It’ll go on for an entire month.”
Perfect!
The poison would be cured, and I wouldn’t be the one suffering!
I nearly laughed out loud.
As Xiao Yunji looked on in horror, I grabbed his chin.
I watched the dark-red Gu worm slither down his throat, then quickly crawl through his blood vessels. Only then did I let go, satisfied.
“Ugh—”
The moment Xiao Yunji was free of my grasp, he collapsed to the floor and dry-heaved.
Without hesitation, I struck him hard on the back of the neck.
He passed out again.
Afterward, I took Xiao Yunji to a secluded small courtyard.
I even handpicked several burly older maids to keep watch over him around the clock.
That way, if the Gu acted up, he wouldn’t be able to hurt me.
12
Screams of agony echoed day and night from the courtyard where Xiao Yunji was staying.
By the fifth day, his cries had grown so hoarse they barely sounded human.
I stood in the doorway, watching servants carry medicine in and out nonstop. The fresh blood in the copper basins made my skin crawl.
I entered the room.
The stench of blood mixed with the sharp smell of medicine and hit me in the face.
Xiao Yunji was curled up in a strange position in the corner of the bed.
The bedsheets had been clawed to shreds.
At the sound of footsteps, he suddenly sprang up, but the moment he saw me, he went limp and fell back down.
“Quinn Morgan… Quinn Morgan…”
He crawled toward me, clutching the hem of my robe as he repeatedly knocked his forehead against the bed frame.
He looked just like a dog wagging its tail and begging for its life.
“Switch places with me…I’m begging you…”
I bent down, lifted his chin, and wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth with a silk handkerchief.
“Why have you gotten so thin?”
My fingertips brushed his sunken cheek.
“I clearly have someone make bird’s nest soup for you every day.”
Xiao Yunji suddenly convulsed violently.
“Ah! It hurts…”
The older maids rushed forward at once. With practiced ease, they tied him up on his knees and wedged a wooden gag between his teeth.
I watched his back arch into a terrifying curve.
Blue veins bulged along his neck.
He was like a dying fish thrashing wildly on the bed.
Just as he was about to pass out from the pain, the older maids hurriedly pressed the spot beneath his nose, forcing him awake.
The torment went on and on as a stick of incense slowly burned down.
At last, the convulsions temporarily subsided.
Seeing that, the older maids hurried to untie him.
Xiao Yunji collapsed onto the bed like a puddle of mush.
Two streams of bloody tears ran from his eye sockets. He looked utterly wretched.
“Kill me…please…”
His voice was full of despair.
“Madam, it’s time for your medicine.”
One of the older maids beside me reminded me softly.
I calmly took the bowl of medicine from her.
The dark-brown liquid gave off a bitter smell.
The maid stepped forward and expertly pried Xiao Yunji’s mouth open.
I raised my hand and gently poured the medicine into his mouth.
Once he’d swallowed it, I slowly wiped my hand.
My cold gaze swept over the older maids.
“Remember: don’t let Madam hurt herself. Otherwise, every last one of your families will be buried with you!”
The older maids trembled all over in terror.
Thud!
They all dropped to their knees and bowed their heads repeatedly, not daring to breathe too loudly.
I left the room.
More gut-wrenching screams rang out from inside.
13
As soon as I left the courtyard, I ran into the Xiao family matriarch, hurrying toward me.
Jewels covered her head, clinking against one another.
“Yunji!”
The Xiao matriarch grabbed my sleeve, suspicion in her eyes as she looked toward the courtyard surrounded by guards.
“You have people send nourishing tonics to that woman’s courtyard every day. Why won’t you even let me go in and take a look?”
I hurriedly steadied her and stepped back three paces.
“Mother! She’s come down with a contagious wasting disease! Two maids who cared for her fell ill the day before yesterday.”
At that, the matriarch’s expression changed at once.
She hurried me along until we reached the Buddhist prayer hall in her courtyard. Only then did she stop.
Incense smoke curled through the air.
A cruel glint appeared in her cloudy eyes.
“If that’s the case, why not just let the wretch die?”
I leaned close to her ear and lowered my voice:
“We still haven’t gotten the Shen family’s gold-mine map. Quinn Morgan can’t die yet.”
“I understand!”
She nodded again and again, patting the back of my hand.
But I never expected her idea of “understanding” to be quite so thorough…
Three days later.
Somehow, Xiao Yunji managed to bribe a maid who handled rough chores and delivered meals.
When no one was watching, the maid secretly delivered a bloodstained letter to the matriarch.
But the old madam didn’t even bother to look at it. She frowned and ordered someone to throw it outside, her face twisted with disgust.
Once the blood letter had been tossed aside, I pretended to be curious and bent down to pick it up.
I opened the blood letter, written on a piece of lining cloth.
It gave a detailed account of how we had switched bodies.
To win the old madam’s trust, he even mentioned a secret only Xiao Yunji could know.
For instance, the location of the hidden compartment in the study—the place where the token for contacting the Second Prince was kept.
I couldn’t help laughing out loud.
I’d searched everywhere without finding it, and in the end, he’d walked right into my trap.
“Yunji, what’s wrong?”
The old madam poked her head in. Seeing me grinning with delight, she looked utterly puzzled.
“Mother, you did exactly the right thing!”
I gave her a thumbs-up.
“That vile woman was only trying to infect you with consumption!”
At that, the disgust on her face deepened.
She shook her sleeve as if something filthy had touched it, then snapped angrily:
“I knew it! That wretched woman wanted to take someone with her when she died!”
Then she turned to the matron beside her and ordered:
“Go! Take that maid away and deal with her!”
At noon that day.
The treacherous maid was dragged by several burly servants to Xiao Yunji’s courtyard.
I deliberately had someone carry him out and set him in front of the window.
So he could watch every last thing with his own eyes.
At first, the maid managed to scream a few times.
After twenty strokes, she was dead.
“All of you, take a good look.”
I glanced at the servants standing silently around us.
“This is what happens to anyone who betrays their own side.”
As I turned to leave, I caught a glimpse of Xiao Yunji’s pale face behind the window.
Despair was all that remained in his eyes.
I smiled at him, and he began trembling even harder.
14
The Second Prince’s residence.
I presented the map with both hands, respectfully.
“Your Highness, this is the Shen family’s ancestral map of the gold mine.”
My voice trembled slightly:
“For this, I even… even sacrificed the person closest to me, the one who shared my bed…”
After hearing me out, the Second Prince’s eyes glinted with undisguised greed. He gently ran his fingers over the faded mark on the map.
It was a worn spot I’d deliberately had someone make.
When his gaze landed on the marked location of the gold mine, delight spread across his face.
“Excellent! Excellent!”
His voice rose with excitement:
“Yunji, you’ve lived up to my expectations! Once I report this to Father, I’ll make sure you get what you want!”
With that, he hurriedly started to hand the map to his trusted guard.
I immediately stepped half a pace forward, bowed slightly, and called out:
“Your Highness, please wait!”
The Second Prince’s expression darkened for a moment, but he quickly understood. He waved for the guard to leave.
Once we were alone in the room, I leaned carefully toward his ear and whispered:
“I don’t know who let the news slip, but it seems the Eldest Prince’s people have started watching this place too…”
I deliberately let my words trail off.
“What?”
The Second Prince’s expression instantly turned terrifyingly grim.
I seized the chance to add fuel to the fire.
“I hear the Eldest Prince has secretly dispatched a private force of soldiers and plans to go there in person tomorrow…”
Before I could finish, there was a sharp crack.
The teacup in the Second Prince’s hand had been crushed to pieces.
Tea splashed everywhere.
He held back his anger, then forced a smile at me. “Yunji, you may return for now. I’ll remember what you’ve done.”
I bowed slightly in greeting.
Then I strode out of the Second Prince’s residence.
As soon as I stepped through the residence gates, a gust of cold wind struck my face.
The storm was coming.
You’re all going to die… every last one of you.