Meng Ying sneered and said, “You’re so spoony, but you need to see if she wants you to be like this. You should make a good choice, or it will just be a waste of your love. Aren’t you feeling upset about that?” Meng Xuan gobbled all the food and bound up his wound with vulneraries again. The injury on his right arm had recovered a lot, compared with what it looked like two days ago. Zhenqi for protecting the body must have been working on him. The poison in his body would be eliminated naturally if he rested for a couple of more days. He didn’t expect Suxin would be so silly that she even asked Imperial Guards for the antidote. How could he rest assured if anything happened to her? Thinking about it, Meng Xuan suddenly felt flustered as if he had lost something important. What was that?

After dealing with the wound on the arm, he moved to another wound on his chest. Back then, to frighten Xiaoyi and make her feel sorry for him, he stuck a silver hairpin into his chest and gained her care by shedding some blood. Now, the wound became a cinnabar mole. Applying some cool ointment on the mole, he smiled and replied, “I didn’t know if it was right or wrong to give my all to her before. Seeing her treating others well and being cold to me, I did feel it wasn’t worthy and I got flustered. However, after staying with her the whole day the day before yesterday, I realized I’ve lived my life in vain before and gained rebirth at that moment. Xiaoyi will never leave me because I’ve found her weakness. She feels sorry and treats me very well as soon as I get hurt.”

Rummaging through the letters written by Duan Xiaolou, Meng Ying sneered again and said, “Oh? How well does she treat you? Are you sure you’re the first one treated so well by her? Huh, she treats you well as soon as you get hurt? Then, will you hurt yourself frequently for that?” He opened one of the letters and kept shaking his head as he was reading it. He exclaimed, “It’s amazing. Mr. Duan could even write down such words. If I couldn’t recognize his handwriting, I would’ve thought I was blind.” Meng Xuan raised his eyebrow unhappily and asked Meng Ying in a serious tone, “Why do you keep defaming Xiaoyi? She has given me everything and asked me when I would marry her. How could she go for Duan Xiaolou? Tell me. Where did you meet her?”

Meng Ying rummaged through the pile of letters again and picked out one of them. He shook it in front of Meng Xuan and said, “Look at this. You’re not her first man. It was Duan Xiaolou. And Lord Ning was the second one. You are already the third or fourth one but you still regard her as someone very important to yourself. Are you insane? You read all classics when you were just seven and became the most brilliant one among the eleven sons of our father. How could you be so stupid when it came to love? Why are you so obsessed with her?” Meng Xuan took the letter with his face gloomy, but he didn’t read it. He just folded it and put it back into the wooden box with all the letters scattered on the bed. He got out of the bed, put the wooden box back in the secret compartment, and closed it. Then, he turned around and replied, “I don’t care.”

He began to look for clothes everywhere. His robes at the foot of the bed were too wrinkled to be worn. Unconsciously, he slowly opened a small red-lacquered wooden chest nearby. With the scent of sandalwood, it was full of wide robes for men which were neatly folded. He rummaged through them and found there were brocade robes, cotton robes, neat suits, and riding suits. Several of them looked very familiar which seemed to be the kind of long gowns with round collars and straight backs that Duan Xiaolou loved to wear.

After rummaging for a while, he picked out the shortest one, put it on hurriedly, and fixed the hem and the belt. He did it so anxiously that even some of his long hair was caught in the belt. Thus, he had to take it off and tried again. After dressing up, he looked into the mirror. The hem was still a bit long for him and it almost touched the floor. It looked like he was a kid who put on an adult’s clothes secretly… He was sixteen this year and Duan Xiaolou was twenty-seven. He still needed two or three more years to grow to be as tall as Duan Xiaolou… Meng Ying just watched him putting on the clothes silently with some mockery in his eyes.

Meng Xuan felt very uncomfortable because of his gaze, but suddenly, he smelled a soothing delicate fragrance. It was Carefree Fragrance. Meng Xuan felt at ease immediately and stood upright. He looked down at Meng Ying who was fanning himself on the bedside and said, “Meng Ying, I don’t care about what you’ve said at all. From now on, you should stop badmouthing Xiaoyi. I know her things better than anyone. I don’t care if I’m the third or fourth man for her. Those who meet her earlier than I do can’t stay by her side and I won’t make the same mistake. I will hold her tight and never give her any reason to leave me. If you become one of such reasons, I will have to treat you as my foe. Thus, please don’t make things difficult for Xiaoyi anymore or place obstacles in the way.”

Meng Ying didn’t judge him this time. He looked around the room of a lady that has elegant decoration and replied with a smile after a long while, “Fine. I interfered with these matters before just because I was angry. Since you’ve said so, what else could I say? If you are willing to be blindfolded and live like this, I will just pretend to be a blind man. But I will continue dealing with Su Niang’s matter since I’ve started it. You can’t let her down.”

“You can say whatever you like. As long as I feel happy, let me be blind.” Meng Xuan said firmly, “You will feel what I feel when you fall in love with someone one day.”

Meng Ying couldn’t agree with him but just said while touching his beard, “Fine. I know you’re faithful now. Anyway, I won’t be like you. Oh, right. Does He Danggui have a friend named Liao Qing’er? Do you know her? Just go find her and get me some Skin Remover or something like that. I need it to remove the beard and wrinkles. It’s so uncomfortable to wear them all the time.” Meng Xuan put on his boots and bent down to tie them up. He refused without any hesitation, “You can do such a subtle thing yourself. Just tell me when and where you met Xiaoyi last time. I’ll go find her.”

Meng Ying answered slowly, “I told you she was with Duan Xiaolou. You can go check it if you don’t believe me. Mo Cha Mountain Villa in Xue Hua Dian of Ten Mile Slope outside the city, the stronghold of Imperial Guards in Yangzhou City, you know it, don’t you? By the way, she is pregnant. I heard the baby’s father was Lord Ning. You also don’t care about it, right? But according to your arrangement in Su Niang’s case, a baby without the blood of Meng’s Family shouldn’t become part of it. After she gives birth to the baby, she can’t breed it in Meng’s Mansion. I will ask Feng Yang if he wants it. If not, I will send it to a temple.”

While he was saying it slowly, Meng Xuan bent down to tie up the boots and coughed twice slightly. Then, the sound of some liquid dripping down was heard, and suddenly, a pool of blood was seen on the floor. Meng Ying became startled and was in a daze for a moment. After he realized what happened, he rushed to hold up Meng Xuan, but just saw blood dripping from Meng Xuan’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. With his face being pale, Meng Xuan looked entirely different from who he was when he had a ruddy complexion before. His seven orifices of his head were bleeding!

Meng Ying immediately helped him sit on the bedside and asked anxiously, “What’s wrong? Is the antidote fake? Or did you get hurt internally? How about I take you to see a doctor?”

“What’s wrong?” Meng Xuan panted and glared at him. He replied, “I’m just suffering from Qi Deviation because of you! That day Lu Jiangbei hit me at the Danzhong acupoint so that I can’t move freely these days. I failed to release it even until now, but I want to recover more quickly so I’m trying to release the acupoint forcibly. Otherwise, you said those words to make me furious. You’re such a good brother!” Meng Ying had never seen Meng Xuan being so weak. He only knew Meng Xuan had unfathomable kung fu but he had no idea about the exact level. However, what he did know was that if a master like Meng Xuan suffered from Qi Deviation, he would at least have paraplegia! Thinking of it, Meng Ying got panicked and tucked Meng Xuan in bed. He said hurriedly, “You hang on. I’ll bring Fourth Uncle here right away. He will save you. Meng Xuan, please hang on!”

With his eyes closed, Meng Xuan sobbed out to himself, “Xiaoyi got pregnant and the baby’s father was Zhu Quan? Was it why she was in a hurry to marry me? Why didn’t she tell me this?” Meng Ying felt helpless and replied, “How would I know it? I told you she wasn’t a good woman. Can you believe it now?” However, as soon as he finished his words, Meng Xuan tilted his head and spit blood on the pillow. Then, he was unconscious and Meng Ying couldn’t figure out if he was still alive. Meng Ying was frightened and shook him continuously, “Meng Xuan! Meng Xuan! Wake up! You can’t die! How can you die like this? Wake up! I didn’t mean to provoke you! Meng Xuan?” There was no response at all. Meng Ying tried to sense his breath but got nothing so he became utterly flustered, “Doctor! I need a doctor! He Danggui is also a doctor, right? Wait for me. I’ll bring her here.”

Hearing this, Meng Xuan lifted his eyelids and stared ahead. His tears were mixed with the blood from his eyes. He choked with sobs and said, “She cheated me. She wasn’t sincere at all. No wonder she suddenly changed her attitude toward me…” Closing his eyes slowly, he continued in resentment, “Xiaoyi, I will die on your bed. I want you to dream of me every night in the future.” Then, he became unconscious again. Obviously, he was dead.

Meng Ying lay beside the bed and imitated what Meng Xuan had done when he was feeding him Zhenqi. He pressed Meng Xuan’s chest and underbelly clumsily, but after an hour, Meng Xuan still didn’t wake up. He never breathed and his hands got cold as well. Meng Ying collapsed to the ground and cried while shaking his head, “How could it be like this? How could it be? You were a strong man. How could you just die like this?” He asked this repetitively and after a long while, he said, “It’s all He Danggui’s fault! She’s the one who killed you. I will ruin her reputation and kill her!” As soon as he finished his words, Meng Xuan lifted his eyelids again. He shouted in a hoarse voice, “How dare you?” Then, he closed his eyes and became a dead body again.

Meng Ying was scared at first, but he got surprised and happy a moment later. He rushed to hold Meng Xuan and asked nervously, “Meng Xuan, how do you feel? Do you know where Fourth Uncle is? I will send all the men in Qiyanggong Sect to look for him. He will definitely save you.”

Meng Xuan replied in desperateness with his eyes closed, “I’ve only loved one woman all my life, but she hurts me so much. I feel my heart bleeding and don’t want to live in the world anymore. Why do you bother to save me? Don’t do it. I will become a ghost and follow her day and night. She could never get rid of me.” He looked ashen and the seven orifices of his head kept bleeding, but he put on a complacent smile as if he finally defeated the woman once on the board. After smiling like this for a while, the light in his eyes faded and his smile froze.

Meng Ying wailed and said, “Stay with me! How could you just die like this? If you like He Danggui, I’ll help you find her! She has been poisoned by Imperial Guards. I don’t know if she can be saved. Will you just leave her alone and die like this? She got poisoned just because she wanted to find the antidote for you!” Meng Xuan came to life again and stared at Meng Ying with his bleeding eyes. He asked in a hoarse voice again, “Xiaoyi was poisoned? Where is she? How is she now?”