Chapter 3: The Venom Pill’s Poison

Rapidly turning her body around, a pale face greets her eyes. Using the moonlight to take a good look at the person’s face, she secretly screams out “not good” inside, she really has gotten herself into big trouble.

A well-defined face, prominent facial features, with a taller build compared to the typical men, with the addition of his stiff speech, he is clearly a man of a different race, not to mention he’s wearing a prisoner outfit, the prisoner outfit exposes areas that clearly shows evidence of torture, he is clearly a fugitive. Thinking of the great victory of the wars at the borders, and seeing so many soldiers outside the restaurant just now, Gui Wan had already made a rough guess of his identity, he must be the defeated and captured commander of the Nu Tribe, concluding her thoughts, her heart laments, all the unfortunate matters seems to be happening today.

Ye Li almost have no strength to even hold up the dagger, escaping has already exhausted all his strength, but he cannot fall down now, he preserves his willpower as he only needs to change his clothes. Taking advantage of the dark, there is still the slightest trace of chance to escape the Capital, if it gets to daybreak, everything will be over. Just when he had wanted to take a breath, the youth he has held hostage suddenly turns around, causing him to be unable to react in time.

Kill him. He had just switched to this idea, taking a deep breath, but it is at that moment, he sees the youth’s face.

Has the Lunar God heard his prayers, and so appears before him right now? He wonders.

Under the moonlight, half of the youth’s face is in the light, half of it in the dark. The half that is in line with the light, peerlessly beautiful. The half that is hidden in the dark, peerlessly radiant. The appearance of such innocent face, under the moonlight faintly carries a treacherous charm.

Mind falling into a trance, Ye Li couldn’t bring himself to cut down with the dagger. For generations, people of the Nu Tribe has worshipped the Lunar God and this youngster in front of him, has given him too much of a shock. In this perilous moment, he cannot tell if this is a dream or an illusion. Hardening his heart, he raises the dagger to his wrist, cutting at it, a stream of blood immediately flows out, feeling such biting pain, his mind clears up, and he attentively looks to the youth again.

He has often heard that the Celestial Empire (name used to refer to China in ancient times) has men with feminine appearance, never seeing it before, he had never believed this, but now……Ye Li felt somewhat disappointed from the heart, he had even thought that before his death, he had seen the Lunar God.

Neither of them says a word, remaining silent for a while.

Gui Wan’s heart was beating rather fast, regretting her decision to turn around just now. In that moment when she had turned around, she had caught sight of the killing intent in the Nu man’s eyes, right then, her heart had half frozen, her hand already touching the opening of her sleeves, if not for the last resort, she did not want to use this to protect her life. In this moment of hesitation, the man suddenly reveals a look of surprise, wonder, disbelief, his mouth gently reciting the words: “Suo Ge Ta (索格塔)?”

What’s Suo Ge Ta? It’s probably their Nu language. No matter what it means, those words had just saved her own life, also saving the other person’s life, otherwise, it would definitely have been a lose-lose situation. Her thoughts went through twists and turns, thinking of how to get out of this, when she suddenly notices the way the man was looking at her was getting more and more strange, it even carried a look of dreaminess……has he gone out of his mind? She was just thinking whether to take advantage of this and run out, when the man made a move that rendered her immobile, he had actually used the dagger to cut into himself, the cut was rather deep, with blood pouring out from the wound.

Gui Wan immediately understands his intent, his blurred eyes suddenly turns sharp again, glaring into her. Not knowing what he is thinking, Gui Wan dared not to move, afraid that the slightest movement would provoke him to do something even more insane. If he is only cutting into himself then fine, but if by chance the dagger makes a turn, cutting into her body, then that’s not good.

Cold sweat from her back was already oozing out as Gui Wan continues to carry a considerately affectionate smile towards the other person, hoping to reduce the hostility in him.

Ye Li watches him, inside he was rather impressed, right now he already knows that the other person is a ridiculously beautiful young man, but in face of such situation, he did not in fact scream out loud, nor did he panic, and only continues to carry that somewhat of a leisurely smile. In this moment Ye Li did not know whether he should kill him, time is passing, he is also quickly losing strength, killing him now will be of no help, besides……he looks so much like the incarnation of Suo Ge Ta. Whilst agonising over what to do, he notices the youngster is also contemplating, suddenly a thought flashes up in his mind, this youngster, with such appearance, such composedness, is not an average person, perhaps, relying on him, he can save his own life, not to mention, his instincts tells him, this beautiful youngster most definitely isn’t as delicate as he looks.

Right at the moment, with rapid movements, whilst Gui Wan was still unable to completely react, the man had grabbed her by the arm, pinching at her jaw. The very moment she felt the pain, her mouth slightly opens and something is stuffed inside. She had yet to taste what it was, when it had already rolled into her stomach. Heart filled with panic, her instincts tells her, she must immediately spit it out. She reaches out and pushes away the man with her greatest effort. Immediately, she crouches to the side, retching up, not even reflecting over the issue of her pushing the man away.

The man had used up the last of his strength, getting pushed away by Gui Wan, he lies flat on the floor. Seeing Gui Wan’s actions, he coldly speaks: “There’s no use, this is the Nu’s ‘venom pill’, you won’t be able to spit it out.”

Hearing this, Gui Wan’s heart feels stuffy, ‘venom pill’ she’s heard of it before, this is a poison that can only be used by the dignitaries of the Nu Tribe. Turning her head, she coldly eyes the man lying on the floor, pondering over the matter, she figures it all out. Instead of showing anger, she laughs, “You’re already on the road to death, yet you want me to save you.”

Very clever, Ye Li also laughs, “You have no other choice do you?”

Lightly sounding a heng sound, Gui Wan gives up on retching. Standing up, she overlooks Ye Li, speaking with a cold expression: “Within the Capital City I can turn my hand to conspire a cloud, and cover it up with the other hand to block the rain. Are you afraid I cannot find someone who can detoxify the poison?” What a joke, she is the Prime Minister Madam, not to mention that the Prime Minister had promised her, to overturn the Capital, with Lou Che’s power, how hard can it be?

“But even if you overturn the entire Capital City, you still won’t be able to find the antidote,” Seeing the movement of Gui Wan’s lips, he hurriedly speaks before her, “Waiting for you to find the people of the Nu, the poison would already have been activated. Besides, not everyone in the Nu Tribe would use or detoxify the ‘venom pill’.”

Knowing that he is speaking the truth, Gui Wan muses: “How do I know the potential pill you fed me just now, and it’s not like it’s a pill made from the decoction of ten powerful tonics.”

The man is speechless, he suddenly extends his hand, and only by exhausting his strength, does he manage to take out an approximately one inch long silver stick from his waist belt. Placing it into his mouth, he gently blows into it.

When she hears no sound emitting, she was caught in a moment of puzzlement, when a kind of heart-breaking pain spreads from her stomach, painful to the point that Gui Wan had almost lost consciousness. Because her body cannot withstand the pain, she squats down, and the pain reaches her heart. She was unable to utter a single word, her hand clutching at her pained heart, waiting for this bitter pain to pass. After approximately the time taken to drink a full pot of tea, the pain slowly fades. Gui Wan felt as though she went through that for a long time.

Once the pain had completely subsided, she slowly stands up, her heart secretly harbouring anger, she glares towards the Nu man, to find that he’s lying there motionlessly, he can’t be dead right?

Heart in panic, she slightly approaches him, he cannot die.

Looking at him closely, though his breathing is very weak, he has not yet died.

With a heart fuelled with hate, the cogs in her mind turns furiously fast, Gui Wan looks at the Nu man, hesitating to save him. To not save him, she must immediately go back to find her husband, make use of military forces, and figure out a way to find the Nu people to detoxify the poison, this way, there’d be another conflict with the Nu, but the war had only just ended some time ago, thinking back to street scenes of the commoners celebrating the end of the war, Gui Wan’s heart couldn’t bear to do this.

The other way is to save this Nu person, since the person’s life is placed in her own hands anyway, she is not afraid of his regret. Based on her experience of judging people, the words said before he had fainted, is true, but to have her save him, she feels that her self-esteem will be damaged, after all she is being threatened, moreover her body has also received harm.

Thinking over it for a while, Gui Wan hatefully grits her teeth, deciding to save this Nu person.

The equilibrium between the choices is outweighed when, amongst the two choices, the second is seen as relatively easier to do.

However Gui Wan definitely isn’t someone whose kindness is at a laughable level, she has never thought to return good for evil, therefore……she most definitely would give this Nu person a piece of her mind.

Once she’s clearly thought it all through, Gui Wan coldly looks at the unconscious Nu person, speaking with an extremely crisp voice, not only speaking to herself, but also speaking to the unconscious man: “You will regret making me save you. You also would not be leaving the Capital City alive.”

Having said that, she very calmly ponders, how do I save him? With her one person’s strength, she cannot achieve anything, looks like she has no choice but to use her status.

Walking to the end of the alleyway, she looks all around her, not one idler is around. Suddenly her eyes catches sight of a soldier coming from the end of the street, judging by his attire, it is a soldier from the Capital, secretly thinking, there’s hope, she extends her hand to beckon the person over.

That little soldier comes close, wanting to roar out, who gave “him” so much courage, to dare order about soldiers.

A side of a golden pendant sways before him, the character “Lou” [樓] impressively carved on it, the soldier respectfully kneels down.

Gui Wan softly laughs, “You don’t need to be nervous, I have two matters I need you to attend to……”