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墨書 Inktalez
Perhaps it was due to the overwhelming emotions, combined with my pregnancy, that I fainted while holding that Ancient Medical Book.
When I regained consciousness, I found myself being carried back to my chamber.
The physician stood by my bedside.
"If only Heart's Blood is needed, then why use Your Majesty's Heart's Blood? What is missing from that page?" I reached out and grabbed the physician's clothing, eager to know the answer.
This time, the physician did not insist on keeping it from me.
"It requires the Heart's Blood of a person born under the most yin conditions. Your Majesty was born on a yin year, in a yin month, on a yin day, at a yin hour. Moreover, since childhood, Your Majesty has been consuming poison, leading to a buildup of toxins in your body. His Heart's Blood is the most yin of all, which is why you were able to awaken so quickly."
Heart's Blood.
Taken directly from the chest.
How painful that must be.
My nose tinged with bitterness as I released my grip on the physician's clothing and ordered everyone to leave.
Cai'er dismissed everyone else and carefully squatted by my bedside, holding my hand and advising gently, "Your Majesty has gone through so much trouble to bring the lady back; she must cherish her health."
"How much he must have suffered," I turned to Cai'er, tears slipping from the corners of my eyes.
He had once said he suspected my intentions in saving him were ulterior, yet he still sacrificed his Heart's Blood to bring me back to life.
It was because no one had protected him since he was six years old.
Why did the author of this book portray him as a villain?
What kind of villain is he?
"Your Majesty has a lady now," Cai'er said softly, using a handkerchief to gently wipe away my tears. "Ever since she arrived, it seems like Your Majesty has changed completely."
Yes, I have arrived.
I gathered my spirits and began to ponder over the Ancient Medical Book once more.
There must be other methods I can use.
Before I could fully grasp the contents of the Ancient Medical Book, I received the news of Xiao Zhang's disappearance.
"Your Majesty has an old ailment. During the battle, he was overpowered by a general from the Wu Kingdom and retreated under the protection of the guard. However, he was ambushed by the Qin kingdom army, which had been hiding in the rear, and his whereabouts are still unknown." This news was delivered to me by a Soldier who knelt before me.
He was covered in blood, clearly indicating how difficult it had been for him to bring this message.
The medical book in my hand fell to the ground with a thud.
I had considered countless possibilities, but I never imagined he would go missing.
After instructing someone to take the Soldier to the physician, I began to pack my belongings.
Cai'er followed closely behind me, anxiously pacing back and forth.
"Madam, what are you doing?"
I did not turn to look at her. "I am going to find him. I will definitely find him."
For some reason, I felt an overwhelming urge to go.
There was a sense deep within me that I could not live if I did not go to Xiao Zhang.
Suddenly realizing something, I turned back to her. "Cai'er, will you come with me?"
I knew that this journey would be fraught with danger, and initially, I did not intend to bring Cai'er along.
But aside from the Yue Kingdom Palace, I was unfamiliar with this place and feared that I might perish before even finding Xiao Zhang.
Cai'er was taken aback for a moment, then nodded firmly, "Wherever the lady goes, I will follow."
As I was about to leave the palace, I thought for a moment and decided to bring along the physician who had both elderly and young dependents.
The physician watched as Cai'er called He'er to join us and readily agreed to accompany me.
The soldiers said they had encountered an ambush near Hengshan, so we would head there first.
Thus, a pregnant woman accompanied by two young maidservants and a physician set off on the journey to find my husband.
These were the kinds of plots I had only expected to see in novels, yet here I was living it out.
Unfortunately, I was not the protagonist; when the King of Hell sent me away, he didn’t grant me any special powers.
This journey was destined to be fraught with difficulties.
Not long after leaving the palace, our money was stolen cleanly.
I wondered how a novel would depict this moment; in any case, we returned to the palace to retrieve some funds and chose a different route.
If it weren't for the mountain bandits we later encountered, I might never have known that Xiao Zhang had secretly left his most elite shadow guard for me.
The shadow guard would only appear when I was in danger, silently materializing and just as silently vanishing.
Sitting in a drafty old temple, watching the flames flicker in the wind, I pondered: if Xiao Zhang had taken that shadow guard with him, would he have avoided the ambush? Would he still be missing?
The soldiers mentioned that Xiao Zhang had an old ailment, likely referring to the injury he sustained during the last battle when he had not fully recovered from taking Heart's Blood for me.
For these past few days, I kept wondering if it was because I had crossed over to take that blow for Xiao Zhang that it was fated for him to die for me.
"Your Majesty, good fortune will come to those who deserve it; there is no need for the lady to worry too much," Cai'er always advised me.
But she knew nothing.
She did not understand that everyone was merely a character in a book, that each character had their own fate.
She did not know that Xiao Zhang was destined to die.
But I was not a character in the book.
Since I could save Xiao Zhang once, I could certainly save him countless times more.
After enduring many hardships, we finally arrived in the Hengshan area. Originally, we planned to rest before entering the mountains.
Unexpectedly, we encountered a troop from the Wu Kingdom.
"Three beautiful young ladies! It's been a long time since I've seen such lovely faces," the lewd man at the forefront said, swallowing hard as he looked at us.
It would be a lie to say I wasn't scared, but thinking of the Shadow Guards gave me some comfort.
As the man took a few steps toward us, the Shadow Guards appeared from an unknown direction and positioned themselves in front of us.
The Shadow Guards were elite fighters trained by Xiao Zhang, capable of taking on two opponents without issue.
However, there were many soldiers in the troop, and during the fight, the leader of the Shadow Guards had to turn back and urge us to flee quickly.
We escaped into Hengshan together.
Hengshan was a vast mountain range. People at its foot said that once you entered Hengshan, whether you could survive or not depended entirely on fate.
As I stood in the mountains, unsure of where to go next, I regretted not choosing the humanities back then and learning more geography.
We stumbled forward, feeling our way through the darkness.
It wasn't long before we spotted the massive footprints of a beast on the ground.
When the lion, capable of swallowing three of me whole, opened its gaping maw towards me, I nearly collapsed in fear.
But Xiao Zhang was still waiting for me.
I grabbed Cai'er and He'er and ran, fully aware that we could never outrun the king of the forest.
In the end, we leaped off a cliff.
According to the story, if we survived this fall, it would surely lead to good fortune.
Good fortune meant either finding a reclusive master or discovering an extraordinary treasure.
The novel did not deceive me.
We found Xiao Zhang.
He lay at the mouth of a cave, barely clinging to life.
"Xiao Zhang..." I called out to him, my voice trembling.
It was the first time I had spoken his name; I had thought it would make me laugh.
Instead, I nearly burst into tears.
His eyes were tightly shut, but at the sound of my voice, he slightly furrowed his brow.
Ignoring the pain coursing through my body, I rushed over and held him tightly. The tears I had been holding back flowed like a flood breaking through a dam.
"At least you're alive, at least you're alive."
Xiao Zhang's injuries were so severe that the physician sighed deeply while treating him.
"It’s truly a miracle that Your Majesty has managed to hold on this long." After quickly bandaging Xiao Zhang, the physician let out another heavy sigh.
He turned to look at me and exclaimed, "My lady!"
It was then that I realized my dress was soaked in blood.
So that was why my stomach hurt.
The child was gone.
Before I could wait for Xiao Zhang to wake up, I fainted.
Jumping from such a high cliff, I thought there was no way I would be unscathed.
In a daze, I found myself drifting back to Yama's Hall.
"Why are you back again?" The King of Hell remarked, his eyes twitching slightly.
I surveyed my surroundings; it was indeed the familiar Yama's Hall.
The only difference was that Ox-Head, who always accompanied Horse-Face, was nowhere to be seen.
Horse-Face quickly flipped through the notebook in his hands, finally stopping on one page and letting out a sigh of relief. "It's fine, it's fine. She'll be going back soon."
I didn't need to guess what the notebook contained.
I hurriedly floated over to snatch it from him.
"Show me Xiao Zhang."
Horse-Face dodged my hand and took two steps back. "He's not in this book."
As he spoke, he somehow produced a book and handed it to me.
It was the novel that the King of Hell wanted me to see before I hastily crossed over without reading it.
I flipped to the chapter where I had entered, only to find that the scene where Xiao Zhang was killed by the male lead with a single strike had been marked with a red line.
The following pages detailed the events that had transpired between Xiao Zhang and me during this time.
Until I found Xiao Zhang in the cave, the rest of the pages were blank.
What was going on?
I had briefly skimmed through it before; the entire book was completed.
"It’s because of you. The variables have entered, and everything after is just a variable," Horse-Face said as he leaned closer to look at the book in my hands. "This Xiao Zhang is quite interesting."
The King of Hell cleared his throat above. "I said I would compensate you; I keep my word."
What kind of compensation was this?
"You should leave now," Horse-Face reminded me.
Just before I departed, the King of Hell added, "Next time you come, remember to give a five-star review! I wonder if it will make it in time for the centennial assessment."
I tugged at my lips, about to say something when it felt as if someone had yanked me back by my scalp.
"Your Majesty, you absolutely mustn't!" The physician's voice rang in my ears. "Your current condition cannot handle Heart's Blood!"
"Get lost!" Xiao Zhang said. I haven't heard his voice for a long time. It was so nice. I struggled to wake up, and the first thing I saw was Xiao Zhang holding a small dagger. The doctor must have just been kicked away and was kneeling on the other side. Cai'er and He'er were kneeling beside me and crying. "Xiao Zhang..." I called Xiao Zhang's name directly. Xiao Zhang was stunned for a moment, and the dagger in his hand fell, and he ran to my side: "Ayi..." His voice was hoarse, as if he had used up all his strength to shout this name. "What are you doing with the knife?" I asked knowingly. He held my hand, did not answer my question, and only asked me in a hoarse voice: "Didn't I ask you to wait for me to come back?" If I don't come, you will die. This sentence went around in my mouth but I didn't say it: "I want to see you soon." After so long, I said so many love words to him, only this one sentence is sincere. "Our child is gone." I thought I would say this calmly, after all, this child was an accident. But I still cried when I said this.
Xiao Zhang's eyes were also red around the edges as he held my hand to his lips and said, "Ayi, it's alright, it's alright."
"As long as Ayi is alive, that's all that matters."
As long as we both are alive.
During the days I was unconscious, Xiao Zhang's shadow guards had already come to find us.
Thanks to their timely delivery of the herbs the physician needed, both Xiao Zhang and I managed to avoid death.
I was weak due to a miscarriage, but with proper care, I would recover. Xiao Zhang was different; the physician said he had injured his lungs, and it was a miracle he survived. It was unlikely he would fully recover.
"Not able to recover fully?" I frowned and asked the physician, "In what way?"
The physician hesitated.
He looked at me, then at Xiao Zhang sitting on the stone bed behind me, and cleared his throat. "Madam, which aspect are you inquiring about?"
If I knew what aspects there were, would I need to ask him?
Before I could speak again, Xiao Zhang pulled me down to sit beside him. "Ayi doesn't need to worry; this quack always says frightening things. I'll be better soon."
My eyes brightened. "Really?"
"When have I ever lied to you?" He held my hand and gently squeezed my fingers.
My fingers tingled slightly; I pulled away gently without looking at him. "You said you would definitely come back when you left."
If I hadn't come, he would have died in that cave long ago.
"I will definitely come back; it's Ayi who couldn't wait." He smiled at me.
I...
My face burned, and I found myself unable to say a word.
According to the doctor, his injuries were so severe that if he hadn't been determined to return, he would have succumbed long ago.
He could barely be considered a man of his word.
Fortunately, he was indeed a man of his word.
It took a month for me and Xiao Zhang's group to rest in the cave before we set off back to the palace.
Putting aside Xiao Zhang's identity as a villain, he truly was an impressive king. Despite our long absence from the palace, nothing had gone wrong during that time.
The days that followed were somewhat mundane; he continued to accompany me every day after finishing his state affairs.
He told me that he had sent a peace treaty to Wu Kingdom for repairs, and if they agreed, there should be no wars for the next few decades.
In the novel, he was described as someone who loved war and refused to seek peace. The male lead, as a general of Wu Kingdom, decided to unite with Qin kingdom to kill him for the sake of peace in the Three Kingdoms.
"I lay outside that cave, looking at the crescent moon in the sky, and it was the first time in many years that I felt fear," Xiao Zhang said as he held me close, his fingers entwining a strand of my hair. "I was afraid I would die there; I was afraid I wouldn't return. I was afraid you wouldn't wait for me, and I was also afraid you would wait for me indefinitely."
He buried his head in my neck. "Ayi, I've never been so scared before. When you came looking for me, I was both surprised and angry—angry that you didn't listen and surprised that you had the courage to traverse mountains and waters to find me."
"At that moment, I thought to myself that for your sake, I could never again take my life lightly."
"I once wished for death, but now I'm so afraid of it." His cold lips pressed a kiss against my neck. "Ayi, this is all because you came."
Held tightly in his embrace, I felt unable to move as his words pierced my heart with a subtle pain.
"Xiao Zhang, I'm not actually from here," I said, staring at the dim candlelight outside the tent.
"I know," he said softly. "I've looked into you, but found nothing. Cai'er told me that you are a celestial being who came from the heavens and stayed here for me."
What?
Why is Cai'er everywhere?
I casually asked, "How did Cai'er get into the palace?"
"Isn't she someone close to you?"
I widened my eyes. What do I have around me? I came out of Yama's Hall all alone!
"When you were lying in the Ice Coffin, she came to the palace claiming to be someone who had been taking care of you." Seeing that I didn't respond, Xiao Zhang continued to explain.
Something feels off.
It just doesn't sit right.
The next day, after Xiao Zhang went to the morning court, I sat up in bed.
"Madam, why are you up so early?" Cai'er entered from outside and seemed surprised to see me awake.
I was not just up early; I hadn't slept at all!
"You told me that you've been in the palace for a long time and know it like the back of your hand." I stared at her without blinking.
She seemed to have anticipated my question and showed no signs of panic on her face.
"Since Madam has discovered this, there's nothing left for me to hide."
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