Chapter 67 Part 1

After the Blood Rain Pavilion assassination incident.

Because Xiao Jin’s arm muscles and meridians were severely strained, she temporarily shelved the plan to return to the Capital City and stayed at her mansion in Qingzhou to recuperate.

During this time, Commandery Governor Xu visited the mansion several times to check on her, bringing many medicines and supplements.

Although Xiao Jin was somewhat listless and dispirited due to Qin Xueyi’s death, she still handled the visits properly.

The Crown Prince also sent over quite a few tonic remedies. However, Xiao Jin merely accepted them with thanks and kept up appearances, not actually taking them.

The sunny days of March should have been a season of orioles singing and grass growing.

Xiao Jin sat on the bed, watching Chu Shao stir the brown herbal medicine with a porcelain spoon. Her mind was somewhat in a daze.

These past few days, her mind often wandered while looking at things. She strongly suspected she might not have transmigrated into a book at all, but was sleepwalking. It was just that this dream was far too long, and no matter what, she couldn’t seem to wake up.

Once the brewed medicine was no longer scalding, Chu Shao picked up the spoon, blew on it gently near her lips, and brought it to Xiao Jin’s mouth.

A smile on her face, she said softly, “My Prince, it’s time to drink your medicine.”

The killing power of this sentence was extremely strong.

Xiao Jin instantly snapped back to her senses.

After all, this sentence was practically a carbon copy of “Dear husband, it’s time to take your medicine.”

Only when Xiao Jin raised her head and saw the gentle smile curved on Chu Shao’s lips did she realize she had switched to the wrong channel.

She was not Wu Dalang.

What Chu Shao held was not poison, but Chinese medicine for treating her arm.

Looking at the spoonful of herbal medicine brought to her lips, Xiao Jin felt truly helpless.

She never would have thought that apart from not being able to walk, she would now be reduced to needing someone to feed her medicine.

Miserable. Truly miserable.

That night, in her desperation, Xiao Jin had drawn a five-stone bow far exceeding her own strength and fired three arrows in succession. Her shoulder and arm muscles were unfortunately strained, and she had been unable to move them for the past few days.

Her arms were wrapped in white bandages, with many pungent medicinal herbs bundled inside.

As the saying goes, it takes a hundred days to recover from a bone or tendon injury.

Although Xiao Jin didn’t know how many courses of treatment it would take for a full recovery, she was very clear that she would probably be returning to the giant baby period for this stretch of time.

Her arms were stiff and immobile, her legs couldn’t walk.

Only her eyeballs could still turn, proving her vital signs were good and she was still more or less a living person.

Chu Shao saw Xiao Jin’s tightly furrowed brows and knew her mood was poor. She gently advised, “You should still drink it quickly. Once you drink the medicine, your illness will heal faster. Then this humble wife won’t need to feed you medicine anymore.”

“…”

Listening to Chu Shao’s tone, which was clearly identical to coaxing a child, Xiao Jin fell silent for a long while.

She really wanted to say something in her own defense.

But Chu Shao hadn’t put her coaxing tactics on blatant display, and her smile was simply too beautiful.

So Xiao Jin said, “Alright.”

Then she lowered her eyes and drank that bowl of medicinal brew from Chu Shao’s hand.

Seeing Xiao Jin with her eyes meekly lowered, the curve at the corner of Chu Shao’s lips became increasingly pronounced.

However, just as Xiao Jin slightly parted her lips and touched the cold porcelain spoon, her own hand seemed to momentarily lose its grip on the spoon handle.

Too close.

So close that what Xiao Jin’s lips seemed to bite wasn’t the spoon, but her fingers.

Detecting the slight tremor in Chu Shao’s knuckles, Xiao Jin felt a bit puzzled.

But luckily, Chu Shao quickly recovered. She scooped up another spoonful and in just a few moves, scraped the bowl clean to the bottom.

Everything seemed perfectly normal, and the smile on Chu Shao’s face was utterly natural.

Except for that one ill-timed electronic chime.

[Congratulations, Host. Chu Shao’s Affection +5]

Xiao Jin paused for a moment, finding this inexplicably gained affection score somewhat unexpected.

Looking at the curved smile on Chu Shao’s lips, she felt as if she had inadvertently missed something. She probed, “Is the Princess Consort in a good mood today?”

Chu Shao put the spoon back in the bowl, her face still smiling. But her words had nothing to do with the question: “The weather is very nice today.”

“…”

Xiao Jin raised her head and looked at the raindrops drifting outside. She fell silent once more.

She guessed that Chu Shao must have forgotten to bring her IQ when she went out today.

To put it more deeply, she had essentially lost her mind.

Logically, with Chu Shao having lost her mind right now, Xiao Jin should have taken the opportunity to madly farm affection points.

But because of Qin Xueyi’s death, she still couldn’t really muster much energy. Even smiling was extremely forced, let alone farming affection points.

Xiao Jin looked at the thick, dark-brown medicinal residue at the bottom of the bowl and remembered the other swordsman in black they had captured that day. She said to Chu Shao, “I’ve finished my medicine. Push me to the interrogation chamber.”

Chu Shao looked at Xiao Jin’s arms, wrapped like a mummy: “Are you certain?”

“Certain.”

Xiao Jin said coolly, “Blood Rain Pavilion still owes this Prince a life. So they must pay it back.”

Hearing Xiao Jin’s words, Chu Shao, however, began to quibble. She smiled playfully: “But that day, Blood Rain Pavilion also lost many skilled masters. Calculating this way, perhaps their losses were even greater.”

Xiao Jin met Chu Shao’s gaze: “Blood Rain Pavilion indeed lost personnel, but that is their affair. If they wish to avenge their subordinates, they are naturally welcome to seek me out. I am also waiting for them.”

“There is no inherent distinction between high and low in human life. But to me, losing one person at my side—even if a thousand or a hundred Blood Rain Pavilion members die, it is useless.”

“They can never compare to that little girl. Because I only knew Qin Xueyi; I do not know them.”

Xiao Jin said seriously, “I am not close with them.”

Chu Shao seemed to understand what Xiao Jin wanted to say. So she smiled: “But My Prince, the dead cannot be brought back to life. Even if you find the mastermind, Qin Xueyi won’t return.”

“Indeed, the dead cannot be brought back to life.”

Xiao Jin said coldly, “But that does not mean Blood Rain Pavilion will not pay the price for this.”

“I want to kill them, not to comfort Qin Xueyi’s spirit in heaven, but simply because I find their continued existence very offensive and deeply displeasing.”

“They shouldn’t be alive, so they shall die.”

…

Inside the dark chamber.

Ye Suyu, who had rushed back to Qingzhou from Yan Territory, was furious.

As the overall head of the Garrison Army’s intelligence division, she looked at the swordsman bound to the wooden frame with iron chains, deeply displeased.

Ye Suyu felt that the bottleneck of her entire professional career might just be this man.

Ye Juege stood to the side, explaining for Ye Suyu: “Suyu, according to the intelligence we gathered, he is Shen Lan of the Ninth Branch of the Blood Rain Pavilion.”

“Not only is he one of the top ten masters in Blood Rain Pavilion, but he is also a renowned swordsman of Shen Manor. He won’t confess so easily.”

Ye Suyu ran her hand over the whip. She smiled: “Then beat him until he does confess.”

At this moment, Shen Lan’s face was covered in blood. He had long since been flayed open by Ye Suyu’s steel whip, his entire body devoid of any good flesh.

Even under such cruel torture, he only spat bloody foam onto the ground, letting out one agonized scream after another, but revealing no useful information whatsoever.

When the torture resumed, Shen Lan simply stopped screaming altogether. He laughed hysterically at Ye Suyu.

Ye Suyu shot him a glance: “Laugh. Laugh your damn head off.”

She was somewhat angered.

She simply sneered back at Shen Lan and threatened: “If you dare laugh again, I’ll rip your tongue out.”

Ye Juege felt a bit helpless.

She had always known Ye Suyu’s temper. If this person truly flew into a rage from humiliation and did something extreme, even she wouldn’t be able to stop her.

But she also wouldn’t try to stop her.

After all, Blood Rain Pavilion’s people had not only caused the Prince’s arm injury, but also killed that young lady of the Qin family, making the Prince grieve.

Ye Juege was only responsible for interrogating Shen Lan; that didn’t mean she would show him mercy.

Hearing Shen Lan still laughing, Ye Juege couldn’t help but frown. She said to Ye Suyu, “Suyu, if you want to pull out his tongue, go ahead. Without a tongue, he can still write his confession with his hand.”

Shen Lan’s whole body was already numb from pain. He could only faintly make out the two’s conversation.

A sorrow rose in his heart: “To think Shen has fallen to such a state, defeated at the hands of two women…”

Hearing this, Ye Suyu’s delicate eyebrows arched: “What about women? Although this lady is beautiful and kind-hearted, your tongue? I’ll still pull it out without fail when the time comes.”

Ye Suyu picked up a small knife, raised her hand to pinch Shen Lan’s chin, and pried his mouth open.

A smile on her face, she made a show of pushing the knife toward the inside of his mouth.