Chapter 57: The Sickly Prime Minister Poisoned to Death by Her Beloved

Shi Qingyi held her close as the carriage jolted violently. “Don’t move around. We’ll be there soon…”

Where were they going? Xiao Jinse’s chest ached terribly. Had she prepared for this long ago, just waiting for her to die from illness—

Of course. She had been waiting all along for her to die so she could run away, right?

The patter of rain outside drummed on, and the carriage struggled through the early spring downpour. Xiao Jinse couldn’t hold herself up and slumped into Shi Qingyi’s arms. Whether consciously or not, scalding tears slid down, soaking Shi Qingyi’s shoulder. She couldn’t speak, only wept silently, her tears making Shi Qingyi feel inexplicably guilty.

“We’re almost there. Just hold on a little longer…”

She reached out to wipe the corner of Xiao Jinse’s eye. The gravely ill woman’s body was ice-cold, save for her forehead and head, which burned with a frightening fever.

Those people back at the Prime Minister’s Mansion had probably even prepared the funeral arrangements. Xiao Jinse truly hung by a thread—if she were gone, Shi Qingyi could never hope to live well either.

The System silently comforted her. “Host, don’t worry. The villain’s fate is tough; she won’t die. In another quarter-hour, the medicine will arrive.”

Shi Qingyi closed her eyes and gauged the time, a faint trace of anxiety flickering between her brows.

A quarter-hour later, the carriage finally stopped. A steady rain fell outside. Shi Qingyi shot a glare at the trembling figure beyond the carriage, while Xiao Jinse’s loyal subordinate eyed her warily, not daring to approach without knowing if Xiao Jinse lived or died.

In the end, Xinyi came running over with a mournful face to hold an umbrella for her—not out of care for Shi Qingyi getting wet; she wished this heartless woman would drown in the rain. No, it was all for her own Prime Minister; she couldn’t bear for her lady to get drenched.

Out of pure selfishness, she quietly shifted the umbrella toward Xiao Jinse.

Shi Qingyi saw right through her little scheme. Xiao Jinse was running a high fever and truly shouldn’t get wet, but in those few steps, Shi Qingyi’s own shoulder was thoroughly soaked.

They knocked on the door of the Grass Hut several times before it opened. An elderly man in somewhat tattered clothes, accompanied by a young boy, came to answer. The old man reeked of alcohol, but the boy bounced over politely, as if expecting visitors. He bowed respectfully and gestured. “Please—”

Everyone grew alert at once, convinced Shi Qingyi had plotted this all along.

Shi Qingyi: “…”

This doctor had settled outside the Capital City, and the Xiao Family’s search party wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow. Her foreknowledge did make her look suspicious.

Xinyi watched eagerly and finally followed them inside. The Grass Hut was surrounded by heavy guards, who peered in anxiously from time to time.

With Chancellor Xiao gravely ill and taken hostage, they didn’t dare force their way in. Though the Little Emperor was now little more than a puppet, without Xiao Jinse, it would still be the Emperor and the Eldest Princess holding power.

The doctor’s surname was Yu. The hut was stacked with wine jars but kept impeccably clean. The young boy was sent to tidy a room and quickly prepared a grass bed. Xinyi’s eyes reddened; she didn’t dare speak, staring at Shi Qingyi like a frightened rabbit.

—How could her gravely ill Prime Minister stay here?

Shi Qingyi’s head throbbed under her gaze. She spread her cloak over the bed before laying Xiao Jinse down. At that, Xinyi’s eyes cleared, and she nimbly helped tuck in the edges.

Once she set her down, Shi Qingyi stepped back to let Doctor Yu approach, but a hand suddenly clamped tightly around her wrist.

The woman, still lost in nightmares, murmured in her sleep, brow furrowing as if sensing something. “Don’t… don’t go…”

Shi Qingyi tugged, but the grip held firm. Doctor Yu approached with a needle, and she still wouldn’t let go. He couldn’t help but click his tongue. “Do you still want me to take her pulse or not?”

Shi Qingyi paused, then leaned down to pry Xiao Jinse’s hand free. In that instant of separation, a tear slid down the gaunt face of the gravely ill woman. Shi Qingyi took two steps away but turned back to gently wipe the tear from her eye.

Xiao Jinse leaned toward her again, only settling after Doctor Yu inserted the needle.

She stood at the Grass Hut’s entrance, pondering her situation. Half her shoulder was still wet, the conditions primitive. Any needed herbs would have to come from outside.

But with the forces arrayed out there, she’d be captured the moment she stepped out.

Someone approached quietly from behind. Just as Shi Qingyi thought Xinyi might finally club her unconscious, the girl dropped to one knee instead. After holding back for a long moment, she could only plead, “C-Could you… not leave just yet?”

The rain pattered on; she didn’t dare ask for more.

Shi Qingyi glanced back, her voice blending with the rain, tinged with helplessness. “Who said this Princess is leaving?”

Xinyi looked up in shock and saw the usually willful and erratic Eldest Princess gazing quietly into the distance. Following her line of sight led to her Prime Minister’s position.

No, this gaze felt different from every time before. Xinyi frowned in astonishment, but when she looked again, the Eldest Princess had turned to watch the rain, her face devoid of any other emotion.

“This Princess isn’t leaving. Go tell that brute Jiang Changche to stand down and let the others in.” She sighed at last.

Jiang Changche was Xiao Jinse’s personally promoted loyal subordinate—a boy she’d pulled from a border battlefield corpse pile years ago. Stubborn as an ox, he lived only for her words. His life’s greatest wish was to one day settle the score with Shi Qingyi, the heartless betrayer of his Chancellor.

Plenty in the Prime Minister’s Mansion despised Shi Qingyi, but Xiao Jinse had doted on her like a treasure. Save for her lack of freedom, she would have fetched stars from the sky if asked.

Doctor Yu stayed inside for two hours. When he emerged from the acupuncture session, he wiped cold sweat from his brow. Shi Qingyi waited outside, and the young boy promptly brought warmed wine before silently withdrawing.

“How is she?” The Eldest Princess’s expression remained arrogant, though she slightly raised her eyes, her palm rubbing the warm teacup.

A truly renowned physician feared no one, not even the Eldest Princess of the realm. He sat across from Shi Qingyi, his aged eyes sharp with insight and wisdom. He sighed. “You know how she is, don’t you?”

After hours of needling, his hand trembled slightly as he held the wine pot. Shi Qingyi glanced at him but said nothing.

Of course she knew. Poison—her nephew’s handiwork. But it wasn’t yet time for her to administer it herself. Others were still poisoning Xiao Jinse around her. Once Xiao Jinse purged the Prime Minister’s Mansion after this, Shi Qingyi would be the only one left who could.

“I’ll be blunt. If the poison can be stopped now, she might live a while longer. If it continues…” He glanced at the poised figure across from him. “Even Hua Tuo reborn couldn’t save her beyond two years.”

The Eldest Princess slowly tightened her grip on the rough teacup. After a long pause, as if only then processing it, she replied, “This Princess understands.”

The rundown hut couldn’t fully block the wind, rain, or voices. On the other side of the thin wall, Xiao Jinse desperately suppressed the itch to cough deep in her throat, covering her mouth and nose as she struggled to breathe.

Her other hand unconsciously clenched the cloak beneath her, her eyes a blank void.

—In the end, she still hadn’t said to stop the medicine.

The System grew frantic. “Host, this won’t do! The villain’s still listening. Why not use this chance to profess your loyalty?”

I’m so worried about that blackening value!

“You’re the fool. Saying ‘stop the medicine’ would be admitting I poisoned her.”

Though she later truly refrained from deadly poison, she hadn’t compromised yet. Her nephew was still scheming in the shadows, and right now, she had no intention of killing Xiao Jinse.

Shi Qingyi steeled herself before the weathered door and pushed it open.

The woman inside had just roused groggily and was coughing her lungs out, clutching the bed. Hearing the door, she lifted her head with great effort.

Even pale from illness, her features were elegantly beautiful, exuding a fragile pity that stirred protectiveness. Her lips were like dabbed vermilion, brows like fresh crescent moons. No wonder countless nobles sought marriage when she disguised herself as a man.

Yet this dashing, romantic figure was rotten to the core.

Seeing Shi Qingyi, she seemed to freeze, taking a long moment to react. She stared blankly, nearly tumbling off the half-suspended bed.

Footsteps approached outside. If she didn’t help now, the infamy of shoving a sick woman to the floor would stick to her. Shi Qingyi hurriedly reached out to steady her—and her arm was seized.

Xiao Jinse gripped her arm, coughing until her face twisted, yet she still smiled. “I… thought you’d never… cough cough… come see me of your own accord in this lifetime…”

She coughed so badly she could barely speak. Shi Qingyi patted her back to help her breathe and replied coldly, “That was all your own assumption.”

“Mm,” Xiao Jinse closed her eyes and nodded, forcing herself through the discomfort to respond. “It’s… cough cough… all my fault. Cough cough, I shouldn’t have thought that…”

She humbled herself so low that no one would believe this was the unyielding Chancellor Xiao.

Trembling, Xiao Jinse slid her hand down from the arm to grasp Shi Qingyi’s, only to have it shaken off without mercy. Her expression dimmed, but she merely coughed on in fits and starts, worsening by the moment.

She coughed so violently that her hot breath swept Shi Qingyi’s neck, her whole body shaking. Shi Qingyi eased her back down slightly and frowned. “Why is the coughing so severe?”

Xiao Jinse wouldn’t release her hand and shifted her neck uncomfortably, looking utterly wretched. “Cough cough… my neck hurts…”

Shi Qingyi: “…”

She vaguely recalled maybe—possibly—having once choked her neck.

Suddenly, Shi Qingyi sensed something off. Her brows twitched. “Wasn’t she reborn?”

Xiao Jinse had died from the poison’s outbreak, administered by Shi Qingyi herself. For three years, she’d feigned deep love to trick her into taking it—harmonious and affectionate on the surface. In the end, Shi Qingyi met retribution. Xiao Jinse took the Little Emperor down with her but ultimately perished without a cure.

By rights, reborn, she should hate Shi Qingyi to the bone—for not only deceiving her feelings but outright poisoning her to death.

But now…

Shi Qingyi looked down. The Chancellor who wielded power over the realm clutched her sleeve with feeble breaths, her eyes fixed unwaveringly on her.

Just like in her memories—obsessed and mad.

That gaze burned too brightly, unnerving Shi Qingyi. She reached out to cover her eyes, blocking the startling intensity.

The System hesitated. “This… maybe the small world’s unstable, causing deviations or memory glitches? She might remember anytime?”

Probably?