Chapter 178 Ah Zhao
The case of Princess Yongning and Shen Yurong had reached its conclusion. While the people of Yanjing City relished discussing it, there were those who remained unmoved, continuing with their daily lives as usual.
In the backyard of the Duke's residence, within the medicine refinement room, Situ Jiuyue emerged and walked to the adjacent small chamber, pushing the door open to enter.
The room contained only a bed and a chair. After entering, Situ Jiuyue sat on the chair and gazed at the person lying on the bed.
The person on the bed had been carried back by Zhao Ke a few days earlier, said to have been retrieved from the private prison of the princess's estate, someone Ji Heng had personally ordered to be saved. Of course, Situ Jiuyue wasn't saving this person because of Ji Heng's command, but because their injuries were extremely severe. Those with exceptional abilities often had peculiar quirks, and Situ Jiuyue was no exception. She wasn't a physician but a Poisonous Consort—the more severe the injuries, the more intrigued she became to treat them, using her methods of combating poison with poison that would make others recoil in horror. Perhaps she simply wanted to test the limits of human endurance.
When this person had first been brought here, they were covered in blood and filth. The servants in the Duke's residence were skilled at gardening, possessed decent martial arts, and were handsome and bright in appearance, but none were suitable to assist Situ Jiuyue. Recently, Haitang had arrived—diligent and clever—but she was currently occupied with the Xue family case and had moved to the Ye family, leaving no one in the Duke's residence to help Situ Jiuyue. Thus, when this person was delivered, Situ Jiuyue had to handle everything alone: washing, wiping, undressing, and cleaning the wounds.
Situ Jiuyue didn't find this particularly noteworthy. In the eyes of a physician, people of the world were merely divided into the sick and the healthy. In Situ Jiuyue's eyes, they were only the savable and the unsavable—and among the savable, there were those she was willing to save and those she was not. As for other distinctions, such as gender, Situ Jiuyue paid them no mind.
The young man lying on the bed wasn't asleep but was staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. His entire body was covered with Situ Jiuyue's silver needles, rendering him completely immobile. Situ Jiuyue knew he could hear her, and when she left, she had threatened him: if he moved and displaced the needles, he might die on the spot, and then he couldn't blame anyone else.
In truth, this was her malicious teasing—even if he moved, nothing would happen. But when Situ Jiuyue entered, she could tell that throughout the past night, over several hours, he had indeed remained perfectly still.
This required immense courage, as during the acupuncture, the medicinal properties would gradually take effect, becoming increasingly painful and itchy over time, almost unbearable. Yet this person had endured it. Moreover, upon seeing Situ Jiuyue enter, he even smiled at her.
Situ Jiuyue was taken aback.It was quite fortunate that Princess Yongning had not treated this person with the same cruelty she had shown Jiang Youyao—gouging out her eyes or disfiguring her face—so his handsome appearance remained intact. He was exceptionally good-looking, but his handsomeness differed from that of the servants in the Duke's residence. Those in the Duke's household had clawed their way up through bloodshed; even an ordinary-looking gardener carried an indelible, silent ferocity deep within. This young man, however, was like a piece of transparent crystal, radiating an innate brightness and heroic spirit. Even in his current wretched state, his smile to Situ Jiuyue remained as warm as if he had never suffered at all.
"What's there to smile about?" Situ Jiuyue said coldly. "Look at the miserable state you're in."
If Princess Yongning hated someone, she would throw them into her private prison and torture them mercilessly. Judging by this young man's condition, he must have offended her gravely. Though his face was spared, his martial arts had been completely destroyed. Situ Jiuyue had examined him: he was likely no more than seventeen or eighteen, and his martial skills might have been remarkable once, but all his meridians were severed, making it impossible for him to ever practice martial arts again. His legs were the most severely injured; Situ Jiuyue suspected that heavy objects had been used to crush the bones below his knees repeatedly, followed by medicinal treatments to mend them. After several such cycles, his legs would never support him again. Situ Jiuyue racked her brains for every method she knew, only to regretfully conclude that nothing could change his plight.
From now on, he would be a cripple.
Given his appearance and his consistently cheerful demeanor over the past few days, this young man seemed to possess a broad-minded and heroic disposition. Yet, he was doomed to spend the rest of his life confined to a chair—a truly lamentable fate.
Situ Jiuyue lifted his clothes and began removing her silver needles one by one. Her movements were far from gentle, even somewhat rough, yet the young man blushed. Situ Jiuyue found it amusing; every time she uncovered his clothes, he would flush.
He really is an innocent soul, she thought.
"D-Doctor..." the young man suddenly stammered, catching her off guard.
Situ Jiuyue was taken aback. "You can speak?"
He nodded with effort.
Situ Jiuyue had previously determined that he hadn't been given a mute drug but had likely screamed himself hoarse from the pain during torture. Over the past few days, she had been treating him with medicine, expecting it would take longer for him to regain his voice. She hadn't anticipated he'd be able to speak today.
His voice was extremely hoarse and weary, and he winced in pain as he spoke, indicating the effort it cost him. Yet, he struggled to maintain his earlier smile and said, "Thank you."
"Don't thank me," Situ Jiuyue replied. "I can only save your life. Beyond that, there's nothing I can do."
When Zhao Ke had carried the young man here, he mentioned that Ji Heng had ordered his rescue, likely intending to place him among the Duke's residence guards. But with his legs crippled and martial arts gone, he could never serve as a guard. Moreover, the Duke's residence did not keep useless people; sooner or later, this young man would be cast out.Situ Jiuyue was not one to easily sympathize with others. She simply felt that the smile on this young man's face might vanish upon learning the truth, and couldn't help feeling somewhat regretful.
After all, such purity was truly rare.
"My... legs..."
"Incurable." Situ Jiuyue stated: "I can tell you with absolute certainty—I cannot heal your legs, and no one else in this world will ever be able to heal them either."
The young man's eyes dimmed. Situ Jiuyue clearly saw tears glistening in them, yet he still managed a smile, struggling to speak to her: "It's alright... Thank you still, physician..."
"Aren't you disappointed?" Situ Jiuyue raised an eyebrow. "I thought you'd be heartbroken. After all, you seemed destined for great prospects had this not happened."
"Being... alive... is already good enough."
"Is there some obsession driving you to cling to life?" Situ Jiuyue asked. "Something you must stay alive to accomplish?"
The young man froze. His clear eyes gradually deepened, clouded by a mist Situ Jiuyue couldn't decipher. He remained silent for a long while. Just as she thought he wouldn't answer, he spoke: "Re...venge."
An expected response. In this world, whenever there exists some deep obsession that makes one refuse death and cling desperately to life, it's either for repaying kindness or seeking vengeance. But those bound by gratitude are always fewer than those burdened by betrayal, so seekers of vengeance invariably outnumber those repaying favors.
As Situ Jiuyue removed the last silver needle, she asked: "Princess Yongning?"
Since this young man had been imprisoned in the private prison by Princess Yongning, his enemy must naturally be the princess herself.
"Cor...rect..."
"Then you needn't worry." Situ Jiuyue smiled, and this smile transformed her cold features into something delicate and vivid. She said, "Princess Yongning and Shen Yurong have been thrown into the imperial prison. They'll be executed in a few days. Your enemies will descend to hell even without your revenge."
The young man jolted as if struck by lightning. After a long daze, he finally asked: "...How?" His question carried urgent intensity, as if desperately seeking to understand how this could have happened.
Situ Jiuyue frowned. She wasn't accustomed to speaking so much with others—just like with Wenren Yao, she'd chase him away after three sentences. Yet with this unfamiliar youth, she had truly spoken too much. She said hastily: "What else? Repaying life with life. If you want to know, ask yourself when you've recovered!"
Situ Jiuyue packed her medicine chest and prepared to leave the room. Reaching the doorway, she suddenly remembered something. Hesitating briefly, she still turned back to ask: "By the way, what's your name?"
The young man remained silent for a moment before whispering: "My name is... Ah Zhao."
Ah Zhao. Situ Jiuyue silently repeated the name twice in her heart, thinking that the youth had only given his name without revealing his surname—likely indicating an unusual identity.
But why should she care about such things? After all, he was merely a stranger encountered by chance.
...
In the Ministry of Justice's prison, Princess Yongning and Shen Yurong had been thrown into their cells.Even the jailers here seemed unwilling to spare them a second glance, while anguished wails and howls echoed from every direction. Upon seeing newcomers, the original prisoners lunged at the iron bars, letting out bizarre shrieks. Princess Yongning, caught off guard, couldn't suppress a scream. Her cry seemed to delight the onlookers, as the cells erupted in waves of malicious laughter.
Princess Yongning was utterly terrified, recalling the sordid tales she had overheard in the palace—stories of female prisoners being abused by both jailers and fellow inmates, living a life worse than beasts. Anxiously, she edged closer behind Shen Yurong, hoping to find some solace in his presence.
But Shen Yurong was not in the same cell as her; he was confined in the adjacent one, separated by a set of bars. Princess Yongning could only clutch at Shen Yurong's clothing through the grating, desperate to maintain some connection and not be entirely parted from him.
Shen Yurong sat motionless and unresponsive, allowing Princess Yongning to cling to him.
Princess Yongning pleaded, "Shen Lang, what should we do now?"
(End of Chapter)
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