As soon as the worm entered the mouth of Empress Wei, it kept crawling in, and by the time Lou Xi let go of it, the worm had vanished.
Empress Wei bent down to reach her throat, trying to vomit out the worm, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't expel it.
"What have you...what have you fed me?"
At this moment, Empress Wei had forgotten how to use the pronoun for herself, and she stared at Lou Xi with a pale face.
Lou Xi played with the bottle in her hand and said one word at a time: "Erosion, heart, poison."
Empress Wei's legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground, her face filled with terror as she looked at her: "Lou Xi, have you gone mad? I am your mother! How dare you give me such a thing to eat!"
"Mother?" Lou Xi coldly laughed, advancing a step and looking down at her from a higher position: "I don't have a mother as evil as yours."
Empress Wei tried to speak, but the words had not left her mouth when her entire face twisted in agony.
Lou Xi watched the scene with great pleasure. Before entering the palace today, she had been thinking that as long as she still had herself as a daughter in her heart, even if she were to say "It's good to be back" or "You've suffered," when she saw her, she would not use the poison on her.
Too bad.
Throughout, she only had Lou Yao as her daughter. Since that was the case, there was no need for her to soften her heart anymore.
"A Xi, it's Mother who's sorry to you. Mother will definitely compensate you in the future. Can you get this worm out for me?" Empress Wei painfully crawled to Lou Xi's feet, grasping her skirt with her hand and looking up at her with a pitiful expression.
It was so painful that she even suspected that she would die in pain in the next second.
She didn't want to die, so she gave up all her dignity and begged Lou Xi to spare her.
Lou Xi looked at her without speaking, and after a long time, she bent down to hold her hand, calling out, "Your Majesty."
When she heard her being called, Empress Wei's face lit up with joy. She thought that Lou Xi was still concerned about the mother-daughter relationship between them. However, Lou Xi's next move made her face turn white all the way down.
Lou Xi gently pulled apart each finger that she had grabbed onto her skirt, smiling with an especially soft warmth while her tone was ice-cold and bone-chilling.
"In the beginning, I had also begged them to spare me, only to be subjected to even more painful torture in return."
"As the saying goes, 'mother and child are connected by heart.' Therefore, Your Majesty, you should also taste the torture I have endured these years. You can rest assured that my child will never let you die like this. After all, living in agony is the most severe form of pain."
After speaking, she didn't look at Empress Wei again, turned around and opened the door to walk out.
Today is a sunny day, truly a fine weather indeed.
When the two people at the door saw her come out, they both subdued the hostility in their bodies.
Chu Ai quickly walked to the side of Lou Xi and took her hand. He then looked provocatively at him.
Lou Zheng didn't take his childlike tactics seriously. He walked to Lou Xi's side and asked with a smile, "Sister, do you want to have the evening meal in the palace?"
Lou Xi gently shook her head and said, "I want to see how the construction of the princess's mansion is going. Oh, by the way, Your Majesty seems to be unwell. You should remember to have a doctor check on her later."
"Good, I will... " Lou Zheng was about to say that he would go with her, but before he could finish, Zhao Xian entered from outside.
"Your Majesty, Minister Pei requests an audience."
Lou Zheng furrowed his brow slightly, but then said, "Okay, sister, be careful on your way."
"Okay." Lou Xi smiled at him and left with Chu Ai and Wanxiang.
Lou Zheng watched her leave, and throughout, he didn't mention Lou Yao at all, as if he had never heard about her being stabbed and suffering a miscarriage.
Only after Lou Xi's figure disappeared did his expression darken, and he turned to Zhao Xian and asked coldly, "I didn't order you to wait outside? How could you let the Empress Mother intrude?"
Zhao Xian's forehead was drenched in sweat, and he dropped to his knees in front of him, saying, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I just led the maid of Princess Dan to find the teacher."
Something flashed through Lou Zheng's mind quickly, and he looked in the direction where Lou Xi had left. His eyes narrowed dangerously, and without saying anything, he turned and entered the Imperial Study.
Zhao Xian watched his back and sighed with relief, ensuring that his life was saved.
As soon as he entered, he saw Empress Wei lying on the ground, rolling around in pain. He had no expression on his face, walked over calmly, and asked quietly: "Mother, do you feel unwell?"
Empress Wei heard his voice as if she had grabbed at a life-saving straw: "Zheng'er, save your mother quickly. Lou Xi that miscreant has poisoned me with an insect toxin. Call the physician immediately."
She had expected him to fly into a rage, but instead, he simply said in a dull voice.
"If it's my sister who has done this to you, then you'll just have to bear it."
Empress Wei stared at him in disbelief: "Your Majesty, I am your biological mother. How can you want to kill me like that as if I were a stranger, like your sister Lou Xi did?"
"You should be grateful that you are my biological mother. If not, I would have executed you on the first day of my ascension to the throne." After speaking, he no longer bothered to care about her. Coldly, he ordered: "Empress Mother is unwell. Send her back to Xincining Palace for rest and no one is allowed to see her without my permission."
Upon hearing that he intended to have her confined, Empress Wei was so enraged that she fainted immediately, and she was quickly carried away by someone.
Lou Zheng stood by the window and unconsciously touched his own lips. His mind was filled with images of Lou Xi's soft, seemingly magical lips.
He seems to have become addicted after just one taste.
Indeed, it's an addiction that knows no satiety.
* * *
Lou Xi encountered a man on the palace path whose appearance did not lose to Chu Ai but was softer than him.
The man bowed respectfully to her, saying, "I, the lowly minister, pay my respects to Princess Chang."
His voice, as well as his appearance, was gentle and soothing, like a gentle breeze.
"Sir, there is no need for such formalities," Lou Xi said with a harmless smile: "This princess still does not know who the sir is..."
Before she could finish her question, Zhao Xian's voice echoed from behind: "Minister Pei, the Emperor requests your presence."
Upon hearing this, Pei Yan again bowed respectfully to Lou Xi and then entered the Imperial Study.
As he passed by her, she caught a whiff of a subtle fragrance on him, which made her look at him several more times and murmur it to herself.
"Minister Pei."
After leaving the palace and getting on the carriage, Lou Xi lay on Chu Ai's leg, playing with his long fingers and indifferently asked: "Wanxiang, the thing I gave you, did you give it to the teacher?"
"Your Highness, the things you gave to Master Chu Ai have been given to the Imperial Advisor," Wanxiang replied truthfully.
"What did he say?" Lou Xi leaned closer to Chu Ai's embrace and continued to ask.
"Your Highness, he said he had made a mistake once and would not make the same mistake again. He asks you to put down the 'sword' and refrain from involving innocent people." Wanxiang's heart nearly jumped to her throat when she said those four words.
"Put down the sword?" Lou Xi couldn't help but laugh out loud, "He truly thinks of himself as a Buddha who saves people. Even at this moment, he's still thinking of making me put down the sword."
She sat up straight, reaching out with her fingers to curl a strand of hair, and a cold smile curved at the corners of her mouth.
"Since our Imperial Advisor prefers to drink the bitter cup of punishment instead of the sweet cup of respect, this princess will send him another gift that is bound to make him 'forever unforgettable'."
