Chapter 55: The Sickly Prime Minister Poisoned to Death by Her Beloved

Shi Qingyi opened her eyes and shivered from the cold. Goose-feather snow drifted down from the sky, swirling everywhere. Her eyelashes fluttered a few times, a hint of bewilderment in her gaze.

The System kindly prompted, “Host, do you remember which world this is?”

She was stunned for a moment. Red walls and green tiles surrounded her. Two branches of newly bloomed plum blossoms poked out from inside the wall, weighed down by the snow as if they might snap. She looked down at the bright red robes on her body, and finally, the corners of her mouth twitched wildly.

A name surged into her mind.

—Xiao, Xiao Jinse.

The System was moved to tears. “You really do remember! It’s indeed Chancellor Xiao!”

The corners of Shi Qingyi’s mouth twitched involuntarily again. In her previous missions, she had pursued perfection, but that usually only extended to elevating the villain’s character and blackening their psyche.

Xiao Jinse was the sole exception.

Because she had killed her directly.

The villain of this world was named Xiao Jinse, born into a scholarly family in Jiangnan. She was a once-in-a-generation genius whose talents surpassed all others. Before the age of ten, she had been accepted as a disciple by a great master. At sixteen, she placed first in the imperial exams, securing the top three spots. She became the idol of scholars everywhere.

She emerged into the world during chaotic times. The previous emperor was assassinated, and in the haste, he passed the throne to the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was in poor health and, struck by overwhelming grief at his father’s death, only reigned for half a year before he too passed away, leaving behind an orphaned emperor and widowed empress to guard a vast empire.

Amid this turmoil, the southern barbarians launched a full invasion, while the northern Rongdi also raised their blades during the court’s upheaval. War smoke rose along the borders, with opportunists piling on. With no capable generals in the court and the barbarians on the verge of breaching the capital, Xiao Jinse stepped forward.

How could a scholar without so much as a weapon lead troops into battle? At first, everyone laughed at her. But in just two months, she silenced them all.

In two months, she rallied the army’s morale and recaptured Youzhou in a single battle, blocking the barbarians’ fiercest tribe beyond the pass. Then, leveraging seasonal and terrain advantages, she outmaneuvered the barbarians with clever tactics. In half a year, she turned the tide of a crumbling war; in two years, no one dared invade Great End’s borders.

She truly was a peerless genius. In just four short years, she unified the court’s scattered factions, earning the unwavering loyalty of civil officials and generals alike.

Xiao Jinse was appointed Prime Minister at the age of twenty-one.

A stunning prodigy without equal in the world—a young noble from a great Jiangnan clan, handsome and elegant, with a refined demeanor. Clad in azure robes, she embodied the ideal youthful talent, upright and pure.

Having reached a position countless people could never dream of before even reaching twenty, and with peerless good looks to boot, the year she became Prime Minister, countless noble families sought to ally with her through marriage. She rejected them all without exception.

After years of campaigning, the Little Emperor—who had just ascended the throne as a sniveling child—had grown to thirteen. His mind became more active, and he began scheming to arrange a marriage for the Prime Minister during the Mid-Autumn palace banquet, bestowing upon her a commandery princess.

Xiao Jinse fell silent for a long moment before drawing her accompanying sword—a special privilege granting her permission to carry it into the palace.

The blade gleamed coldly, reflecting the autumn waters. No one in the hall dared stop her. As the Little Emperor nearly burst into frightened tears, she turned the sword on herself. Her three thousand strands of black hair cascaded down like a waterfall.

—The all-powerful Chancellor Xiao was actually a woman.

She knelt with the sword and coldly pleaded guilty. “This minister has deceived the sovereign and committed grave offenses. I submit to Your Majesty’s punishment.”

The terrified Little Emperor, snot and tears streaming down his face, gripped her hand and wailed that his dear subject had done no wrong. She had saved the nation and its people, proving that heroines could outshine men in battle—a source of shame for him. In the end, he timidly pushed away her sword, only daring to dock her pay for three months.

With a young lord and a powerful minister, it was inevitable that subordinates’ ambitions would stir. Unfortunately, the Little Emperor was this world’s protagonist—a male lead who endured humiliation to achieve hegemony. Xiao Jinse was the stumbling block hindering his path to hegemony.

When the male lead couldn’t handle the villain, Shi Qingyi entered the scene. In the Little Emperor’s fourteenth year, he did something major that enraged Xiao Jinse.

Terrified and tearful, he wrote a letter to his only surviving paternal aunt, crying for help: “Aunt, save me! Your nephew is done for!” He sealed it in ambergris and secretly sent it to Shi Qingyi’s fief.

Great End’s sole Eldest Princess had no desire for power. When her brother ascended the throne, she had retreated to her fief. But in the end, for the sake of her family’s three-hundred-year dynasty, she had no choice but to return, pinching her nose.

On her first day back, she was bound to a bed and drugged. When she opened her eyes again, a beauty sat by the bed, wearing only a thin nightgown. The beauty was delicately beautiful, though overly slender, with a touch of illness. Her jade-like fingers undid Shi Qingyi’s clothes.

As she tried to struggle, she heard the beauty chuckle softly in her ear. “What’s this, Your Highness? If you want to save His Majesty, shouldn’t you show a little sincerity?”

Thus, Eldest Princess Shi Qingyi had no choice but to close her eyes in humiliation.

—

In this world, Shi Qingyi was Great End’s Eldest Princess. Her first half-life had been smooth sailing without a single setback. Spoiled by her emperor father and empress mother, and doted on endlessly by her brother, she grew arrogant and unrestrained, never bowing to anyone.

That brazen life came to an abrupt halt at eighteen. Her father was assassinated, her mother fell gravely ill, and her brother, overwhelmed by grief, passed away months later. Her only remaining nephew had to tremblingly don the crown and ascend the throne.

The Little Emperor’s mother was a soft-hearted woman who, after her husband’s death, rarely smiled and washed her face with tears daily. As the Eldest Princess, Shi Qingyi had no choice but to steel herself, stand behind her young nephew, and prop up the entire empire for him.

She even had to debase herself to a treacherous minister for her nephew’s safety.

The lofty Eldest Princess had her powers stripped and was effectively under house arrest in the Prime Minister’s Mansion. Without the Prime Minister’s approval, she couldn’t go anywhere, becoming the Prime Minister’s caged bird.

From this angle, Shi Qingyi seemed utterly pitiful, and Xiao Jinse the guilty one. But if not for her later honeyed words that won Xiao Jinse’s trust—promising a lifetime together as the only two for each other, earning true affection and three years of loving intimacy—followed by secretly poisoning her daily, stealing the tiger tally, and finally poisoning Xiao Jinse to death…

Xiao Jinse later lingered on her sickbed. When her illness worsened, her nephew seized back imperial power, then abruptly turned on her, killing his own aunt.

Yes, the male lead felt his aunt was also a threat to his throne, so he struck first to eliminate her.

The male lead’s script was that of a ruthless emperor of a prosperous era, sparing no one for imperial power. His aunt was merely a tool to be used.

In the original plotline, she poisoned the power-hungry Chancellor Xiao, who dominated the court. Then, she got her just deserts—outsmarted by her own schemes—and was eradicated by her emperor nephew. The nephew claimed the script of a reviver of the dynasty and lived happily ever after with the female lead.

The early plot had gone smoothly. The only mishap was that she hadn’t poisoned Xiao Jinse to death. This villain had an extraordinarily tough fate.

When she died, Xiao Jinse was still alive. After her death, Xiao Jinse lived on for a while longer. In that final period, she killed the emperor, killed the female lead, and dragged everyone down to hell with her.

“…”

So, how exactly had her nephew—that so-called emperor of prosperity—managed to trigger a bad end amid such a favorable situation?

“With the male and female leads dead, the world collapsed, so…” The System weakly twiddled its thumbs, barely daring to peek out.

Shi Qingyi sucked in a cold breath, grinding her teeth. “So, how far has the plot progressed now?”

She vaguely remembered the horrific sight of Xiao Jinse vomiting blood before her death in this world—crimson staining her robes, searing and shocking, stirring a moment of panic in her heart.

It couldn’t be the moment when stealing the tiger tally and the poisoning were exposed, could it? Xiao Jinse had been on the verge of death by then.

“No, this is the spring of the first year she imprisoned you,” the System said reluctantly. “After this, Xiao Jinse’s lungs were already poisoned, and she was preparing to take everyone down with her.”

“But… Host, there’s one thing. Please stay calm and don’t get too worked up when I tell you.”

Shi Qingyi: “…”

Why did she suddenly have a bad feeling?

“Um, well, Chancellor Xiao… Chancellor Xiao has been reborn…”

The early spring air was chilly. The Eldest Princess, who had been leisurely admiring flowers by the railing, suddenly staggered. Her knees buckled slightly, and her slender, pale fingers gripped the railing, tightening inch by inch.

Everyone trembled, not daring to disturb her. Only her two close maids inched closer, worried. “Your Highness, are you alright?”

Internally, Shi Qingyi was thunderstruck; externally, nothing was amiss.

It took her a while to accept reality. Suppressing the wild twitching of her mouth, she whipped around. “Where is Chancellor Xiao?”

The maid behind her was startled into retreating several steps. This Eldest Princess had changed drastically after being imprisoned here by the Chancellor, showing no kindness to her subordinates. Seeing her eerie expression now made their hearts skip.

Hearing the question, the maid’s face darkened strangely. Only after a long pause, under the princess’s impatient gaze, did she whisper, “Your Highness, have you forgotten? Chancellor Xiao has been ill for several days now…”

Ill for several days?

Shi Qingyi’s mind went blank. The System cautiously raised its head again. “Um, Host, it’s the first year of your imprisonment. You’re still resisting fiercely…”

In the first year of Xiao Jinse imprisoning Shi Qingyi, the princess was utterly unwilling deep down. The proud Eldest Princess tried everything—scaling walls, digging tunnels—to escape, but failed every time.

When she fell from the wall, Xiao Jinse would be there with a pot of tea, watching and even offering her a cup before continuing.

What utter humiliation!

In the end, Xiao Jinse insisted on personally applying ointment to her injuries.

…Daily humiliations.

That year, Shi Qingyi tormented Xiao Jinse in return—draining her during bed matters, demanding rare treasures that were impossible to obtain, giving her splitting headaches as a matter of course.

During her years leading troops, Xiao Jinse’s genius had bred endless jealousy, leading to countless assassination attempts. Her health had never been robust afterward.

That spring of the first year, Xiao Jinse fell gravely ill—severely enough that she nearly died several times. On her deathbed, she longed to see Shi Qingyi.

As the standard heartless slag woman who would eventually kill her, Shi Qingyi chose to admire flowers in the back garden instead.

“…”

But Xiao Jinse was simply too tough. Even then, she survived. Once recovered, she opened up new possibilities for the Little Emperor.

The Little Emperor knelt, tears and snot flowing, begging Shi Qingyi—for him, for the empire—to eliminate the traitorous minister.

—Poison Xiao Jinse and increase the dosage.

The origin of it all, the beginning of death.

“Host, I think… even though the villain has blackened, if you go offer some warmth now, there might still be a chance, probably…”

Shi Qingyi: “…”

Like hell I believe you!