Chapter 65: The Sickly Prime Minister Poisoned to Death by Her Beloved

The Eldest Princess silently tightened her collar.

She remained still at first, but the moment she moved, Xiao Jinse’s gaze darkened, as if the vibrant sunlight outside the window had dimmed. Shi Qingyi’s mouth twitched. “Where do I need medicine?”

Apart from her leg still twitching and some scrapes, she was fine. If anything, Xiao Jinse looked the worse off.

Xinyi, outside the curtain, felt utterly embarrassed and spoke in the tiniest voice. “It’s for… the Prime Minister.”

A flicker of stunned surprise crossed the Eldest Princess’s face, followed by an inexplicable glee at another’s misfortune. Her slender arm reached past the person still draped over her and snatched the medicine. “For the Prime Minister?”

She had thought to tease Xiao Jinse in return, but Chancellor Xiao merely paused before withdrawing her hand and swiftly undoing her own clothes without the slightest hesitation.

Shi Qingyi: “…”

She instinctively wanted to cover her eyes but forced her hand down upon meeting Xiao Jinse’s icy, deep gaze like a frozen pool.

A miscalculation.

Xinyi had already retreated outside the door, leaving the interior to the Eldest Princess. After the incident where the Eldest Princess had carried the Prime Minister back, she trusted that the princess wouldn’t harm her.

The arrow wound was on her leg, embedded deeply. Xiao Jinse lay sideways on the couch as Shi Qingyi applied the medicine. Unfortunately, after trekking all night, Shi Qingyi’s legs still trembled with every movement even after a full night’s rest.

Xiao Jinse couldn’t bear to watch. She gently took Shi Qingyi’s hand, her voice filled with heartache. “Your Highness, let’s call someone else to apply it. You shouldn’t—”

Her words cut off as she received a glare. The Eldest Princess arched her delicate brows, a hint of dissatisfied ferocity in her cold chuckle. “Who else do you want to call in to see?”

The hand applying the medicine pressed threateningly against the wound.

The arrow had struck above the knee. With her lower garments half-undone for treatment, nothing was truly visible, but a malicious tug upward might change that.

Xiao Jinse hissed in pain and clenched her fingers in disbelief after a stunned moment.

That tone from earlier—it sounded almost like jealousy.

Her Highness was actually jealous over her.

When Xiao Jinse fell silent, the Eldest Princess grew displeased again. She released her hold and spoke. “If you think this princess’s touch hurts too much, I’ll call someone in.”

“It doesn’t hurt!” The Prime Minister lied through her teeth. “Not one bit.”

Later, even as her hands shook, Shi Qingyi applied the medicine with utmost care. Exhausted as she was, she soon felt sleep pulling at her again after rising. Xiao Jinse accompanied her for a midday nap, but less than half a shichen later, someone came to report. Shi Qingyi hesitated, glanced back at her, then limped slowly outside.

The moment she left, Xiao Jinse opened her eyes. She gazed toward the curtain for a while, her gentle look gradually turning icy cold bit by bit until she closed her eyes heavily. When she opened them again, they held that watery tenderness once more.

The shift in her expression left even Xinyi with lingering trepidation. She wanted to say something but held back.

It wasn’t until evening that Shi Qingyi returned, leaning on a crutch. Her leg injury wasn’t severe—it would heal in a few days—but the exhaustion required more rest. Upon returning, she woke the feigning Xiao Jinse and, in a rare good mood, pulled her into an embrace.

Xiao Jinse was pleasantly shocked, only to notice the thick, dark bowl of medicinal soup by the couch.

Her breath hitched for an instant. Shi Qingyi’s hand trembled slightly as she lifted it and scooped a spoonful to her lips.

Xiao Jinse gazed at her with near-desolate eyes, watching for a long while as her hand moved. Finally, she gave a bitter smile. “Your Highness, do you really want me to drink this?”

How could her illness improve without medicine? But seeing such resistance in her eyes made Shi Qingyi recall someone who had once feared medicine to the extreme, always needing preserved plums afterward.

For a fleeting moment, Shi Qingyi’s expression flickered with inexplicable hesitation. Xiao Jinse seemed to glean an answer from it, closing her eyes in despair. Her voice was soft. “If Your Highness wants me to drink, I will…”

After all, it wasn’t the first time.

She still remembered her previous life. The first time Her Highness fed her medicine, it had been with such gentle warmth—the first kind look she’d received from her in the two years of captivity. She had been deathly ill, and yet Her Highness had come to see her, feeding her the medicine herself and coaxing her softly.

It had felt like a dream. Back then, she thought even if it was poison, she would drink it.

She couldn’t disappoint Her Highness. She would give her anything except her departure— even her life, offered with both hands. After drinking, her condition worsened. On a certain winter day, her trusted aides fetched a divine physician, and only then did she learn it was truly poison.

She had considered letting go.

In her final, lamp-wick-burned-out moments, she had obsessively wanted Her Highness to accompany her in death. When Her Highness coaxed her to drink, she inevitably offered some “interest”—sweet words and intimate pleasures. In their most entwined moments, her heart raged with madness, silently asking over and over.

“Will you come with me?”

If you want my life, I’ll give it gladly. But after I die, you must join me—sharing bed in life, burial in death, never parting even as dust after a century. It wouldn’t be so bad.

When her illness peaked, Shi Qingyi often kept vigil. In the dead of night, when she coughed and gasped for air, Her Highness stayed by her side. Finally, too exhausted to stay awake, Shi Qingyi slept. She suppressed her coughs, choking back blood without a sound.

She merely traced Her Highness’s brows and eyes again and again, with infatuation and resentment intertwined.

Should she make her accompany her or not?

In her hysterical madness, she prepared everything for Her Highness’s martyrdom—the feng shui site selected. The only miscalculation was her own heart.

When the moment came to release her, she did.

She placed a memorial tablet of Her Highness in her tomb, thinking a lifetime together was enough. After her death, she would let her go free, leaving at least a lingering thought in her heart.

Xinyi had often fumed indignantly for a long time, but Xiao Jinse merely coughed, her voice low, tolerant, and serene.

Whatever she wanted, she gave. It was merely one life—hardly significant.

Her Highness thought she knew everything, but she did know. She knew it all.

She simply couldn’t bear to disappoint her.

The final surprise was the Emperor’s ruthless betrayal, forcing her to watch Her Highness die before her eyes.

It seemed fate was predestined. In this life, after changing so much, wanting only a distant glimpse, Her Highness still sought her life.

In that instant, she desperately wanted to ask if Shi Qingyi truly hated her that much, but she didn’t dare. As she closed her eyes to drink, Shi Qingyi suddenly snatched the bowl away.

“You think I want to harm you?” Shi Qingyi’s voice was nearly gritted through clenched teeth, as if she wanted to devour Xiao Jinse alive. She seized it and, under Xiao Jinse’s stunned gaze, poured the medicine into her own mouth.

Xiao Jinse started in a daze, but her expression changed drastically upon seeing her drink. Her hands shook as she knocked over the bowl, the motion so forceful it nearly toppled them both.

“Don’t—don’t—you can’t drink it!”

She nearly roared it out, her voice quivering violently, her entire body trembling. Yet her action was too slow; Shi Qingyi had already swallowed two mouthfuls. She lunged to grip Shi Qingyi’s neck, loosening and tightening her hold for fear of hurting her, tears surging forth as her face twisted in frenzy, as if she wanted to claw it out herself.

“Spit it out—spit it out for me! How could you—how could you…”

The usually sharp-tongued woman was too furious to speak clearly.

How could Her Highness drink it? She would rather it be herself than Her Highness.

Shi Qingyi watched her coldly, mockingly so, then opened her mouth before her to prove it was swallowed.

Xiao Jinse’s face turned feral in an instant—the first time in ages she shed her mild, sickly shell. Knowing it was truly down, she calmed instead.

Her voice was ice-cold as she pinned Shi Qingyi to the couch and ordered outward.

“Xinyi, summon the imperial physicians—from the palace and the estate, all of them. Clean up every bit of the dregs on the floor for them to examine. Escort the estate’s poison-expert physicians here to the temporary palace. Deploy troops to surround the place. Investigate everyone Gu Ciyan has contacted recently, especially any doctors and healers!”

Her voice was chilling, though the hand pressing Shi Qingyi trembled. After issuing orders, fearing her discomfort, she leaned down slightly, forehead to forehead, forcing a smile more ugly than tears.

“Your Highness, don’t be afraid… I’m here—I’m here…”

“You’ll live to a hundred, blessed with health and peace…”

I hope you live safely and smoothly your whole life, undisturbed and unconfined by anyone.

Xinyi didn’t dare disobey. She hurriedly mobilized in the dead of night, alarming half the capital. Torches stretched from the palace to the temporary palace outskirts. The Little Emperor rose in his nightclothes, pacing inside the temporary palace as he watched the firelight flicker.

His aunt hadn’t disappointed him—she hadn’t held back. But now that the plan was exposed so quickly, what was he to do?

The medicine was mild, though—unlikely to be detected. His heart mixed joy and worry, leaving him unable to sleep.

Shi Qingyi numbly endured a full night of examinations. The elderly physicians analyzed the dregs layer by layer, took her pulse repeatedly, checked by estate doctors then outside divine healers. Meanwhile, Xiao Jinse, heedless of her wounds, traced Gu Ciyan’s recent contacts and movements meticulously.

The conclusion: It was merely an ordinary tonic.

No poison, no tricks—just a plain supplement.

“…”

Shi Qingyi sneered coldly at her, waiting to see how she’d explain.

She had kindly brought the tonic, a moment of conscience to feed it to her, yet she suspected poison every day.

The System sighed in amazement. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? Now it’s confirmed—the Prime Minister remembers her past life.”

By the time the commotion ended, the moon hung high. The Prime Minister sat beside her, watching quietly— so quietly that Shi Qingyi inexplicably felt uneasy, sensing the madwoman was up to something.

Shi Qingyi grew restless for no reason, then heard the Prime Minister exhale in relief. “Good thing you’re alright.”

As she opened her mouth to speak, the Prime Minister drew closer, gently pressing against her back and closing her eyes wearily.

It took a long while before she spoke. “Let me let you go.”

Shi Qingyi: “…”

She suddenly suspected something was wrong with her ears.

In her previous life, Shi Qingyi had tried escaping countless times—nearly having her legs broken, falling from walls and getting injured, even shamelessly seducing the Prime Minister—but every attempt failed.

The Prime Minister had sworn to share bed and tomb with her, to bury their ashes together, never releasing her lifetime after lifetime.

Now the Prime Minister said, I’ll let you go.

Shi Qingyi: “…”

For some reason, she suddenly felt furious. Xiao Jinse, you fickle woman!