Betrothal Decree

Ji Pingshi howled frantically, "Untie me at once! This poison spreads extremely fast; don't say I didn't warn you when it's too late even for regret!"

Guan Shiyin leaned close to Fang Rulai's ear and murmured, "If I truly die, will you accompany me in death as you claimed you would?"

Ji Pingshi stamped his feet. "Fang Rulai? Guan Shiyin? Li Chengcheng? Everything I am saying is the absolute truth!"

Fang Rulai said expressionlessly, "Death is fine, but the consequences of death are not necessarily the same for everyone."

Guan Shiyin stopped biting at Fang Rulai's collar. What did that mean?

Ji Pingshi struggled forward beneath the netting, only to be yanked back fiercely by the surrounding imperial guards. "You will regret this! You will regret this!"

Fang Rulai's fingers unconsciously clenched Guan Shiyin's robes. "Did I ever tell you how I came to the Yaotian Kingdom?"

Guan Shiyin acutely sensed the distinction between "coming to the Yaotian Kingdom" and "coming to Shengjing," and her previous mention of not being a native of the Yaotian Kingdom flashed through his mind.

"How did you get here?" Guan Shiyin abruptly straightened up, the weakness of his near-fatal poisoning instantly vanishing.

Gasps of astonishment echoed from those around them, loudest of all from Ji Pingshi. "You weren't poisoned? Impossible!"

For the very first time, Fang Rulai spoke of her origins to an outsider, her voice very soft. "In my world, I was..."

Ji Pingshi's voice drowned her out, pitched an octave higher. "The way you looked poisoned inside the hall was definitely not fake! You're tricking me! You must be tricking me right now!"

His voice was too loud, and Fang Rulai's was too soft. Unable to hear her clearly, Guan Shiyin had to lean in close once more, only to catch the trailing end of her sentence.

"...And just like that, the next time I opened my eyes, I was looking at the sky of the Yaotian Kingdom."

Guan Shiyin furrowed his brow. "I didn't catch that. Say it again."

Fang Rulai stared fixedly at him. "You surely don't think this is the sort of memory one recalls with boundless joy every time?"

The subtext was clear: she had no intention of mentioning it a second time.

Ji Pingshi thrashed wildly against the net. "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! If you were unharmed, why bother taking me alive? You would have shot me dead at the very first—"

Before he could finish, Guan Shiyin flicked his leg out with a kick. A small stone was sent flying through the air, aimed straight at Ji Pingshi's mouth.

As if he had just discovered some monumental secret, Ji Pingshi grew arrogant once more. "Look at that! With speed like that, do you still dare claim you weren't poisoned and that your martial arts weren't impaired? I don't even need to dodge in advance; I could wait until it's an inch from my face and still have time to duck."

The stone was mere inches from his face now. Ji Pingshi narrowed his eyes, preparing to jerk his head aside. But even though he intended to dodge and strained his neck with all his might, his head refused to budge.

What was going on? A loud roar echoed in his mind. Why had everything from the neck up suddenly stopped obeying him? He—

He didn't even have time to finish the thought before the stone, now right in front of his face, struck squarely inside his open mouth with tremendous force beneath his wide, unblinking eyes. Broken teeth and a mangled tongue mixed together; before he could spit them out, the stone jammed straight down his throat, choking him. He instantly felt a suffocating restriction of his breath.

At that moment, he no longer cared about using Li Yurou's corpse as a shield. Shaking it off with a toss, he clawed frantically at his own throat. For some unknown reason, his neck muscles lacked all strength; he had to use his hands to force the stone out! Otherwise, he would undoubtedly suffocate on the spot.

Yet no matter how hard he pushed with his hands, the stone refused to budge outward, driving deeper and deeper instead.

Why? What was happening to him? Incapable of producing any sound, his face flushed a deep crimson, Ji Pingshi could only use his eyes to convey his utter bewilderment.

Not a single person paid him any mind.

Satisfied with this belated quiet, Guan Shiyin nodded, not even bothering to glance back at Ji Pingshi.

He cupped Fang Rulai's face in both hands, his gaze dead serious. "Wife, this husband wishes to know the reason. Would you be so kind as to tell me once more?"

Li Chengcheng walked over and clapped a hand onto Guan Shiyin's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

A vein throbbed on Guan Shiyin's temple. Did these people fail to see that he had a matter of the utmost importance awaiting his immediate attention?

Fang Rulai batted Guan Shiyin's hands away. "Alright, we've stalled long enough for his poison to act. Stop putting on an act."

Li Chengcheng was the fastest to catch on. "Ji Pingshi couldn't move his neck because he was poisoned? You poisoned him? When did you administer it? Who did it?"

Guan Shiyin took a step across to block Li Chengcheng's path, unwilling to let anyone steal the spotlight. "I asked first. You answer my question first."

His tone was stern, reflecting his unyielding determination to get an answer.

Ignoring him entirely, Fang Rulai reached out and patted his shoulder as if shooing away a small dog to signal him to move aside. "This time, Banxia deserves all the credit."

Using that very slap from earlier!

Li Chengcheng gasped in amazement. "You knew all along that Guan Shiyin was unharmed, which is why you dared treat Ji Pingshi like that? Do you have the antidote for that poison?"

Guan Shiyin tried once more to step back between Fang Rulai and Li Chengcheng, only to be stopped in his tracks by a warning glare from Fang Rulai.

—End this matter quickly so the two of us can leave the palace and go home sooner!

Impatience flared in the depths of Guan Shiyin's eyes. Was this not yet over? Did even minor cleanup tasks like this require his personal attention?

Surging anger taking over, Guan Shiyin reached out with a strong arm and pulled Fang Rulai straight into his embrace. With a gasp of surprise from her, he scooped her up horizontally and leapt gracefully into the air, vanishing into the sky.

Li Chengcheng stared dumbfounded. "Guan Shiyin!"

Guan Shiyin's parting words drifted back down: "Shi Bilian, you know what to do with the rest, right?"

Shi Bilian? Where was she? When had she even entered the palace? Li Chengcheng swept his gaze around, failing to spot Shi Bilian anywhere. Just as he opened his mouth to call out and ask again, a figure kneeling a few paces to his side bowed low. "This humble commoner, Shi Bilian, greets the Second Prince."

"You are..." Li Chengcheng wore a rare expression of utter astonishment. Such a momentous affair had not even been communicated in advance to certain court officials; what, then, was Guan Shiyin's purpose in arranging for Shi Bilian to enter the palace?

"It is I." Shi Bilian reached up to peel off the mask covering her face, taking the initiative to explain her presence. "On the day Lord Guan and Ji Pingshi fought at Qitian Taoist Temple, this commoner was present. The moment Ji Pingshi spoke, I recognized his identity. He is none other than the father of the current village chief, who has been paralyzed in our Shi Family Village for over a decade."

"So the poison Ji Pingshi spent ten years developing was actually born from his actions while hiding out in Shi Family Village!" Li Chengcheng recalled that the person who had supported Guan Shiyin out earlier was none other than this Shi Bilian disguised as an attendant. "And since you reside in Shi Family Village, it is hardly surprising that you possess the antidote. Am I right?"

"Your Highness is wise."

"It is not my wisdom, but rather my immense fortune to have so many people lending a helping hand!" Li Chengcheng's final syllables fell upon Ji Pingshi's face, which was turning paler and paler from asphyxiation. "Farewell, Ji Pingshi!"

At the end of May, the three-month-long struggle for the imperial succession in the Yaotian Kingdom officially drew to its curtain call.

On the sixth day of June, the Second Prince, Li Chengcheng, formally ascended the throne as the sole imperial heir.

Mu Zhijin declined the opportunity to take up an official post in the capital, volunteering instead to serve as the magistrate of Pingcheng County to take charge of the salt routes along the way.

The new emperor bestowed a marriage decree upon Guan Shiyin, allowing him to wed the Prince of Jing, who had been conferred the title of a prince of a different surname for saving the Second Prince during the succession wars.

---Author's Note---

Hehe, the major events are finally wrapped up. The upcoming chapters will be purely sweet and leisurely ones.

Would you prefer something a bit more intense next? See you on Sunday!