The Dragon's Flower

XH 141

Liu Chu Chu gave Xin Ren a kind smile as she fixed her jaw by giving her a cup of spring water. "I'm glad you are alright."

Naturally, the Second Prince received the word that Xin Ren had been caught and tortured in the prison. When they heard that she had spilled their plan of killing the Third Prince's favourite maid with the Empress as a scapegoat, they were very angry. But they were not anxious as they could claim the maid was making trouble for them and any interaction they had with Xin Ren before she was hired as the Empress' maid was covered up.

But Xin Ren redeemed herself by keeping her mouth shut after being imprisoned, revealing nothing more. However, the golden couple knew that letting this be would be dangerous and planned to send someone in to silence Xin Ren.

After one month, their man in the palace managed to get close to the target and ready to start the main plan, but Xin Ren surprised them by escaping from the prison and appeared at their residence backdoor, pleading to meet Liu Chu Chu.

"I'm always loyal to you, mistress!" Xin Ren exclaimed with tears leaking down her face. Her voice was rough thanks to a month of screaming when she was suffered torture. "I wanted to kill myself, but they make sure I couldn't! I failed you, mistress!"

Liu Chu Chu patted Xin Ren's shoulder sympathetically. "You did not fail me. Calm down and tell me, how you manage to escape?"

Xin Ren wiped her tears and proceeds to tell them everything. "The Empress had me drink something to speed up my recovery so that she can send me to South Guilin Village! It's truly is wonderful! After drinking it, I healed faster than usual! Here... I took it with me!"

She handed the bamboo tube that she had hidden inside her front robe to Liu Chu Chu with an expression filled with anticipation. Fortunately, the bamboo tube was covered, or else her enthusiastic movement would spill out the content. 

Liu Chu Chu did not take it and shifted her eyes to someone behind her.

A male servant with black cloth wrapped around his eyes took the bamboo tube for Liu Chu Chu's behalf, remove the lid, and held it under his nose to sniff the contents. "There's no poison, but it seems to contain energy that is beneficial for energy-boosting but it will need to be taken in the long term to be effective. I do not know if there are any side effects from drinking it."

Liu Chu Chu held out a hand to take the bamboo tube and dripped some of it onto her palm, subtly letting it flow down onto her wrist where her spatial dimensional bracelet was worn at.

'Fu Chou, can you sense what is this liquid?'

'Like what your little doggy said. I could not sense anything more than that.'

"You said this came from the Third Prince?" Liu Chu Chu asked Xin Ren.

"That is what this servant heard," Xin Ren answered as Long Shan entered the room.

"Chu 'Er, it's getting late. Could this not wait till tomorrow?" Long Shan frowned. His little wife had not slept much lately with her dealing with so many matters for him. He had told her he could handle them, but she stubbornly insisted to help him. Her stubborn desire to help him was so adorable and it warmed his heart, making him unable to refuse her help so he let her be and secretly make sure she did not overwork.

Liu Chu Chu raised her chin at her fiancé. "Then you go and sleep first."

Long Shan ignored her words and stared at the bamboo tube in her hand. "What is this?"

"Xin Ren said this water belongs to the Third Prince and can help in boosting one's strength."

Long Shan stared at the bamboo tube thoughtfully. "I heard that lately, Long Zhu would only drink the tea he brought personally from his residence and refused to drink other teas. He would always look intoxicated while drinking it. Perhaps it's the same tea you are holding onto."

Liu Chu Chu slowly smiled, her eyes glowed in anticipation. "I will try it."

"Wait, it would be better for me to try it," Long Shan injected.

"No, I am the one best suited to try this. I'm immune to most poison and I can analyse this tea after drinking it. Nothing could harm me."

Long Shan reluctantly nodded when Liu Chu Chu looked confident. "Alright. But take out your miracle medicine firs. If anything happens, I can feed you the cure straight away."

He does not know much about his little wife's medicine, but he did not press the issue, knowing that it was her landmine. He has other ways of figuring out her medicine, which would be staying by her side. They were destined to stay together forever so there was plenty of time for him to figure out her secret.

Liu Chu Chu nodded approvingly, took out a large cup of spring water from her space's spring pool, and handed it to the one man she trusted the most in this world.

Giving Long Shan a mock toast, Liu Chu Chu lifted the bamboo tube and drank more than a mouthful of the unknown tea, thinking it would be better to drink more than a tiny sip in order to immediately discover its effect.

Her thinking was good, for the effects did immediately reveal but the result was totally different from what she had expected.

"Argh!!!"

Long Shan watched in horror as his darling screamed in pain as she clutched onto her wrist, right on top of her green jade bracelet that she had never taken off. The pain was too intense that she could not remain standing and fall onto her knees as she continues screaming.

"Quick, hold her down!" Long Shan snapped and the servant with a black cloth over his eyes quickly grabbed Liu Chu Chu's arms to stop her rough thrashing.

A female servant had to hold onto Liu Chu Chu's head so that Long Shan can pour the miracle medicine into her mouth.

"Drink the cure, Chu' Er!" Long Shan urged her to swallow and it was after great difficulty that Liu Chu Chu was finally able to control her throat to swallow the spring water down her throat, eager for the pain to leave.

However, letting Liu Chu Chu drink the spring water was a bad decision. 

"Urk!!!" The choking sounds were extremely frightening as Liu Chu Chu grabbed onto her throat in pain, feeling as if a fire was burning down her throat and heading down to her stomach. She felt helpless and have no extra space in her mind to wonder why her spring water does not work as even more pain continue to assault her like the most hardworking employees aiming to win the 'best employee of the month' award!

Fu Chou, the 'dark beauty' in the spatial dimensional bracelet, could not just sit and let Liu Chu Chu die. After so many years, she finally saw hope to escape from this spatial dimension. She could not just let the only chance for her freedom and revenge to just slip past!

Using her spiritual energy, she slipped them through the connection between the bracelet spatial dimension and Liu Chu Chu, and was shocked to see it was dying out! The bright golden string connecting Liu Chu Chu and the spatial dimension was slowly dimming and Fu Chou could see that Liu Chu Chu's end was turning to the deep black of death.

With no time to examine the cause, she sent her spiritual energy right into Liu Chu Chu's system and forced the tea inside her to vomit back out from her mouth! Fortunately, once the tea was vomited out, Liu Chu Chu's burning pain slowly ebbed, and her struggles lessen as she went unconscious.

Once he confirmed that Liu Chu Chu no longer attacked by the unknown, Long Shan ordered a servant to summon an imperial doctor quickly.

"D-Demon. She's a demon."

The small whisper was especially loud in the currently silent room and the Second Prince whirled to face Xin Ren with anger in his usually apathetic eyes.

But Xin Ren was already half-mad from the one month torture and was able to ignore the impending doom she had invited herself. All she cared was her belief and what she had witnessed.

"That tea saved me. But it harmed her. She is a demoness! The tea cleanses the taint in her soul! She's a demoness!"

A fast and strong swing of a sword across Xin Ren's neck was enough to separate her head from her shoulder and the dark red blood sprayed all over the place.

Long Shan's white robes were stained with blood, including his handsome face filled with cold fury. The sight of him holding onto a bloody sword with such a terrifying gaze resembled a demon in the servants' eyes.

"Throw her out to be eaten by hungry dogs."

"Y-Yes Your Highness!" The servants quickly complied, afraid that they might be killed next if they dare to dilly dally. 

"Where's the doctor!" Long Shan roared angrily as he whirled towards the entrance.

"Imperial Doctor is making his way with the fastest horse we have!"

Long Shan gently picked up Liu Chu Chu and quickly headed to his room, with everyone quickly move aside. After placing her on his bed, he noticed dark burn marks on her neck, forming into a line down her throat. He was unsure where it headed, as her robe had them covered.

"Your Highness, the doctor is here!"

"Get him in!"

Inside the spatial jade, the dark beauty was reeling from the shock and felt a deep sense of regret. She had finally figured out why the bond between the spatial bracelet and Liu Chu Chu had nearly been destroyed.

The tea was the one that destroys their bond!

It might take years for the bond to heal itself, but Fu Chou does not want it to heal now that she knows the truth. She had used most of her spiritual energy to help Liu Chu Chu, much to her regret, and does not have enough energy to help further destroying the bond while it was in a weakened state.

Fu Chou had used some of her spiritual energy to enter Liu Chu Chu's body to check what happened after that and was shocked when she could control Liu Chu Chu's hand to move. Luckily, the small movement was not noticed by anyone.

If the bond was destroyed completely, there might be a chance for her to take over Liu Chu Chu's body, or it might only sever the bond between her and the bracelet.

Regardless, the tea had helped her to discover there would be a way for her to escape from this space. Finally, she can have her revenge and meet her daughter again.

A female's mad laughter echoed around the spatial dimension for a long time and the ripple on the spring pool lasted as long as her laughter.