As soon as the words fell, Shadow swooshed to block in front of Chu Ruoyan.
He was well aware of the Hundred Insights Pavilion Master's strength. He appeared dissolute and unrestrained, but was in fact unfathomably deep, especially that gold-threaded folding fan in his hand, which had claimed who knew how many lives!
But the person behind him pulled him aside: "Unnecessary."
Shadow was taken aback, and sure enough, he heard Yun Lang's cold voice: "You dare threaten me?"
Roumin tightened her grip on the hairpin: "Yes! Second Brother, you have been so bewitched by this enchantress that you've lost your senses, even forgotten our great cause! I absolutely cannot watch you continue in this delusion. Today, you must choose between her and me!"
As the words fell, the tip of the hairpin pressed forward.
Instantly, it drew a line of blood.
Yun Lang narrowed his peach-blossom eyes and swept his palm, stirring up a cloud of dust.
Coarse grit and sand blew into her face. Roumin instinctively turned her head aside, but in that instant, the gold-threaded folding fan flew out, accurately knocking the hairpin from her hand.
"Ah!"
Roumin cradled her wrist as she stumbled back. Huarui and Piaoxu hurried forward to support her, only to find a thin red mark on her wrist.
It was a wound from that gold-threaded folding fan!
"Roumin, I've told you before, haven't I? I'll indulge you in whatever you do, except for one thing—you cannot use your own life to threaten me." Yun Lang retracted his fan, speaking slowly. "This time, consider it a lesson. If there is a next time—"
A smile of utter indifference curled at the corner of his lips: "—let us siblings die together then!"
His words left everyone present in shock and horror.
Roumin was even more incredulous: "Y-You... what did you say?" She pointed a trembling finger at Chu Ruoyan. "For an unrelated outsider, you would die with your own blood sister? How can you face our mother? How can you face our eldest brother?!"
She clearly already knew the Yun family's internal affairs, not mentioning the Regent, but only their mother and eldest brother.
These two were precisely Yun Lang's most vulnerable points. Almost instantly, the man's eyes turned violently crimson: "Shut up!!"
"Do you even know, if it weren't for this 'outsider' you speak of coming to find me, you would have already been discovered by the Court of Judicial Review!"
"Do you think what Cao Yang brought out were a bunch of incompetents? That they couldn't tell whether the Xue family was burned to death or murdered before the fire was set? Look at this—"
He viciously threw down an object. Huarui exclaimed: "Isn't that the earring the young lady lost earlier?!"
Roumin subconsciously touched her empty left earlobe, then seemed to understand something: "It was left at the scene?"
The day before the Xue family fire, she had personally visited the place once.
For no other reason than to see the capabilities of the Hundred Insights Pavilion on site, and... to savor the thrill of deciding the life and death of an entire family with a single word.
But upon returning, she found the earring missing. She had guessed then it was left at the scene, but everyone in the Xue family was dead, and with the great fire destroying everything, even if the earring was there, it should have been reduced to ashes...
Yet, who would have thought it remained intact!
"Should it be called fate? The place where you dropped your earring happened to be next to a water vat! The Court of Judicial Review found it during their first search of the residence, but they never made it public. They secretly traced it to the Eight Treasures Studio, then cross-checked it with everyone in the capital who had purchased such an item. Originally, today, they were supposed to come to the Palace of Tranquil Longevity to question you!"
Roumin covered her mouth in disbelief. Yun Lang raised his foot and viciously crushed the earring.
“Roumin, I've told you time and again, don't act recklessly! But you never listened! Think carefully, you are now a noble lady, with the Noble Consort Dowager watching over you from above. What is not good about that?”
"Why must you overreach, chasing that unrealistic dream of restoring the kingdom? Even if you succeed one day, what will you gain? Princess? Do you think Yun Zihao would let you become one?"
Roumin's face changed dramatically.
Yun Zihao, the Prince of Jin's heir.
That is, their cousin.
She could no longer conceal the panic on her face: "You... you know? But how could you know... I never brought anyone from the Hundred Insights Pavilion whenever I met him..."
Yun Lang let out a derisive laugh, but his eyes were filled with sorrowful desolation: "Last night, Yun Zihao sent people to assassinate me. Without your arrangements, how could those dancing girls have gotten so close to me?"
Chu Ruoyan was greatly shocked, never imagining such an inside story from last night!
But Roumin shook her head in agony: "No, no! I didn't! He tricked me... He said he would insert some people to help me take over the Hundred Insights Pavilion... I didn't want to kill you, I didn't..."
Yet Yun Lang looked up at the sky: "Truly not? Yun Zihao must have mentioned to you that if I die, you would become the master of the Hundred Insights Pavilion, and also the only remaining bloodline... the bloodline of the former Regent, what a precious identity. How many people in this world received his favor? Even the Duke of Chu's mansion you stand upon is one of them..."
Chu Ruoyan's heart trembled violently. Did her father also know the Regent?
Roumin bit her lip hard, not making a sound, but her heart was in utter turmoil.
Yes, how could she not have entertained the thought?
When Yun Zihao spoke of it, she instinctively refused, but another voice in her heart said,
Why not?
Yun Lang had no interest in restoring the kingdom anyway, but within the Hundred Insights Pavilion, Hongxiu, Shopkeeper Du, they all wanted revenge, only suppressed by him! And though he is nominally her elder brother, everything he did never helped her, instead helping Chu Ruoyan everywhere!
Some thoughts are like venomous snakes, once they sprout, they spread wildly.
So when Yun Zihao told her about that plan, she agreed as if possessed, thinking in her heart that if successful, Yun Zihao would be the one who killed him, it had nothing to do with her, and she wouldn't have to bear the sin of fratricide...
"Roumin, ah Roumin, you really are... not surprising me in the least." Yun Lang said as he stepped forward, picked up the hairpin, and placed it in her hand. "Come on, you have one last chance. Come, stab here."
He held her hand, aiming the hairpin at his own heart. His low, mellow voice, rich as wine, was full of temptation. "Yes, right here. Stab down, and then no one will ever restrain you again... the Yun Dynasty, the Princess of the Restored Kingdom, you will have everything you want."
"Yun Lang!!"
Chu Ruoyan shouted sharply, but he turned a deaf ear, only staring at Roumin: "What are you waiting for?"
Roumin was distraught, her hand holding the hairpin trembling.
Yes, she wanted to restore the kingdom, she wanted to achieve great things.
But she didn't dare, she didn't have the courage to commit fratricide...
Yet at this very moment, Piaoxu behind her, her eyes turning sinister, gave her a fierce push!
Thud—
The hairpin plunged into flesh. In that same instant, Yun Lang swung his hand, striking Piaoxu dead on the spot.
But this movement still aggravated his wound, and he immediately vomited a mouthful of blood.
The smell of blood assaulted her senses. Roumin screamed in horror: "Ah!! No, it wasn't me! It wasn't me!!"
She ran out as if mad, with Huarui chasing after her.
Chu Ruoyan, also horrified, rushed forward to support Yun Lang: "Are... are you insane?!"
Half the hairpin was buried in his chest, blood flowing incessantly; he was on the verge of death.
Yun Lang used his other hand to seal two acupoints and slumped to the ground, yet he laughed: "Not insane... want to die..."
"Die what die, you!"
Chu Ruoyan looked up and saw the look of utter weariness in his eyes, her heart clenching.
He wasn't lying; he truly did not want to live anymore!
Old Divine Doctor Qin had once said that he was only bound to this world by the Hundred Insights Pavilion. But now he had found his blood sister, only for her to conspire with their cousin to take his life!
Nothing is more sorrowful than a heart that has died. In the end, he could endure no longer.
"Don't speak such nonsense. You will not die... Shadow! Go fetch the old miracle physician, quickly!"
