Imperial palace, side garden.
Huang Rang devoted herself to cultivating the Twin Serpent Fruit tree. She had never cultivated this tree outside her dreams. Now within the dream, she naturally had to expend much effort.
Di Yiqiu never came, and even Li Lu and Bai Qingyun didn’t come again. After Huang Rang waited several days, she sent Dai Yue to inquire again. But Dai Yue couldn’t see Di Yiqiu either—he wasn’t at Si Tianjian.
This day, Dai Yue once again came up empty.
Huang Rang finally couldn’t sit still any longer. She walked out of the side garden. The palace maid at the entrance saw her and quickly said, “Miss Ten, the palace is heavily restricted. One cannot walk about freely. Where are you going?”
Huang Rang was also very amiable toward the palace maid. She slipped a piece of silver over with a smile and said, “The Twin Serpent Fruit saplings are nearly complete, but right now there’s something urgently needed. I’d trouble you to take me to find Eunuch Fu.”
If it was to find Eunuch Fu, that was naturally fine.
The palace maid accepted the silver and, finding her agreeable, also said with a beaming smile, “Since it’s urgent, then it certainly can’t be delayed. Miss Ten, please follow me.”
Huang Rang followed her, walking along the small paths lined with palace walls. Palace attendants occasionally passed by, also hurrying along with eyes straight ahead. She didn’t know the layout of this palace and naturally couldn’t distinguish where she had already traveled.
But right now, to learn Di Yiqiu’s whereabouts, she probably could only personally go ask Shi Wenyu. She didn’t want to see Shi Wenyu. To monopolize power, Shi Wenyu could remove his own flesh and blood from the imperial registry one by one. For longevity, he could inject his own flesh and blood with Hui Snake blood.
Such a person—who would want to seek an audience with him?
But Huang Rang had to see him.
Even if she was now as weak and small as an ant, no matter what, she had to try.
After all, outside her dreams, she owed him some debt of gratitude. How could she stand by and watch?
Huang Rang quickened her pace, hurrying forward anxiously.
At this time, at Yuanrong Tower.
Di Yiqiu had finished weaving five hundred pearl strings. In the small prison cell, candlelight flowed and scattered across the coral beads. He stared at these pearl strings, then looked at his own purple-black hands. His fingernails had all turned pitch black, swollen as if about to fester. He said, “Eunuch Lu.”
Outside the door, Eunuch Lu, who was guarding while dozing by candlelight, suddenly jerked awake and said, “Jianzheng?”
Di Yiqiu said, “These clothes are constricting me.”
“Oh… oh.” Eunuch Lu quickly said, “That’s true. The Jianzheng has been severely swollen recently. These clothes must not fit anymore. Take them off first, and this old servant will find you a looser robe.”
That’s what he said, but how could Di Yiqiu’s official robes still come off?
They were stretched tight on his body like another layer of skin.
Eunuch Lu found a black robe and brought it over. Having no other option, he had to find scissors to help him cut it open. With the sound of scissors cutting through fabric, the skin beneath Di Yiqiu’s clothing was also fully revealed. That purple-black skin that seemed soaked in blood—where was there even half a trace of humanity left?
The snake scales curved and wound, hideously shocking to behold.
Di Yiqiu stared at the fine scales covering his entire body, then his gaze was drawn to the scissors. Those scissors were small and not very sharp. But when candlelight fell upon them, the gleaming points scattered finely.
Eunuch Lu bent his head, cutting the robes for him. He suddenly said, “Eunuch Lu, these pearl strings—I trouble you to deliver them to Miss Huang Rang.”
“Huang…” Eunuch Lu couldn’t recall this person for a moment, but quickly came to his senses. He said, “Miss Ten? Very well, Jianzheng, rest ass—”
Before the word “assured” could leave his mouth, Di Yiqiu suddenly delivered a hand chop, knocking him unconscious to the ground. As Eunuch Lu fell, he still gripped those scissors. Di Yiqiu extended his hand and tremblingly grasped the scissors.
He had shackles on both his hands and feet. These shackles were complex—in his current condition, it was simply impossible to open them. But now, he had a pair of scissors.
Days of suffering and mania all erupted at this moment. Must get out, leave this place!
He gripped those scissors, trembling as he worked on the shackles on his wrists. The shackles had nine layers of locks inside, requiring a specially made key to open. Di Yiqiu laboriously took the scissors apart into two pieces, then used one half to grind the other half.
His hands were trembling. His body hurt—he didn’t know where it hurt. He felt himself rotting. But his hands still carved frantically. A voice seemed to sound in his ears, repeating over and over—leave this place.
Such a complex key, yet his grinding and carving took only half a quarter-hour.
His breathing was frantic, his eyes seemingly unable to see clearly. But that crude key still inserted into the keyhole. He gently turned this half scissor, his mind a complete chaos, thinking of nothing.
Yet his hands seemed to have their own thoughts.
With a click, the shackle opened. Di Yiqiu’s breathing gradually grew rapid. He used this half key to open the remaining shackles one by one. Then he suddenly charged out.
On the first floor of Yuanrong Tower, Qiu Shengbai was writing medical records, reviewing today’s medicine usage. Suddenly a black shadow charged up from the tower’s lower level. Qiu Shengbai froze. After a long while, he finally reacted and immediately shouted sternly, “Someone, quickly, someone! Stop him!”
Di Yiqiu couldn’t hear the sounds around him. Blood rushed up, and his mind was in complete chaos. He only knew to run forward but didn’t know where to go.
His official robes had been cut to tatters. His skin was swollen and purple all over, densely covered with snake scales. His hairpin had long been taken away for fear he would harm himself. His hair hung loose, and he hadn’t even put on an outer robe.
He ran barefoot through the palace paths like a wild beast, like a ghost. Just not like a person.
Qiu Shengbai led people chasing behind him, but he was merely a physician—how could he have such strength? He ran too urgently and fell to the ground. He could only shout sternly, “Quickly catch him! When the poison flares up, he must rest quietly. Otherwise, if his blood flows backward and the poison attacks his heart, he will surely go completely mad and die from exhaustion!”
Hearing this, everyone could only chase. But Di Yiqiu at this moment possessed tremendous strength, and the guards didn’t dare hurt him—how could they catch him?
He had completely lost his sense of direction, his mind deranged, only running chaotically through the palace. As palace attendants pursued, he made a leap and jumped over a palace wall.
Below the wall on the small path, Huang Rang was being led by a palace maid toward Eunuch Fu’s residence.
She walked urgently. Without warning, something suddenly jumped down from the wall and charged toward her. Unable to stop in time, it slammed heavily into her.
Huang Rang only felt an enormous force head-on, knocking her off balance so she sat down hard on the ground, seeing stars before her eyes. If she hadn’t practiced martial arts for several years, this blow would have been enough to seriously injure her. She rubbed her chest and said, “What thing—”
Having gotten this far, her vision cleared again.
In that April of the human world, she saw the person who had collided with her also fall to the ground. Though the tattered cloth on his body was filthy beyond measure, if one looked carefully, one could see its original base color.
…It was purple.
He was barefoot with disheveled hair, prostrate on the ground, not getting up. His tangled long hair covered his face. Huang Rang couldn’t see his expression.