The Crown Prince, hearing his inner thoughts, did not release his grip. Instead, Yun Kui, under Sheng Yu’s seemingly casual gaze, stiffened subconsciously and slowly withdrew her hand from the prince’s palm.
The Crown Prince glanced at her but did not insist, turning his cold gaze instead to Feng Yu, who knelt on the ground. "General Feng," he sneered, "you’ve hidden your true identity all these years. It must have been exhausting. Now that you’ve been exposed, are you adjusting well?"
Feng Yu clenched his jaw, the muscles at the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. "This humble official does not understand what Your Highness means."
"This secret is known only to heaven and earth—and to His Majesty. I’ve never revealed it to another soul. How could these two have discovered it?"
The Crown Prince let out a light chuckle, but his eyes turned icy in an instant. "The unresolved matters between us from the Battle of Wolf Mountain—it’s time we settled them."
In a low voice, he commanded, "Take him away."
Qin Ge immediately obeyed, stepping forward to bind Feng Yu’s hands and feet. The remaining black-clad men, now leaderless, were swiftly subdued by the Crown Prince’s shadow guards.
Yun Kui kept her eyes downcast, her heart a tangled mess of emotions—years of resentment toward this father, flickers of curiosity and longing, and a nervous apprehension akin to homesickness.
Then, she noticed a dark red stain of blood on Sheng Yu’s arm.
"He’s injured too?"
Only then did she raise her head. Their eyes met, and Sheng Yu seemed on the verge of speaking, but held back. Yun Kui clutched the hem of her robe, her hands and feet restless with unease.
The Crown Prince’s gaze swept over the wound on Sheng Yu’s arm. "Thank you for your assistance today, General Sheng. Since you’re injured, accompany me back to the Eastern Palace for treatment."
"So his surname is Sheng…"
Sheng Yu cupped his hands in salute. "This humble official obeys Your Highness’s command."
Cao Yuanlu hurriedly arranged for a new carriage to be prepared. Noticing the awkward tension between the young lady and the future father-in-law of the nation, he stepped in to mediate. "Your Highness’s headache has flared up—it would be best to return to the palace for treatment as soon as possible. General Sheng is also wounded and shouldn’t endure the jostling of horseback. Why not share the carriage for bandaging and rest?"
Yun Kui’s eyes flickered uncertainly, her fingers tightening around each other.
"If he gets in the carriage, we’ll be face to face… Your Highness, I’m not ready for this…"
She silently pleaded with the Crown Prince in her heart.
Just as the prince was about to respond, Sheng Yu, sensing his daughter’s discomfort, decided that forcing a reunion now would only distress her further. "It’s just a minor injury," he said. "This humble official will ride instead."
"But that’s not ideal. If the wound reopens, it’ll only worsen…"
Frowning, the Crown Prince ordered, "Prepare two carriages."
Cao Yuanlu quickly sent servants to arrange it. Soon, two carriages pulled up. A glimmer of hope flickered in Sheng Yu’s eyes.
"If I could share a carriage with her, I might have a chance to explain the past. Even if she isn’t ready to acknowledge me yet, just speaking with her would be enough. Today is her birthday, after all…"
Meanwhile, Yun Kui grew even more uneasy.
"Does he know I’m the Crown Prince’s bedchamber attendant? If he doesn’t…"
Before she could dwell on it further, the Crown Prince took her hand. "We’ll discuss everything back at the palace."
And so, Sheng Yu could only watch helplessly as the prince led Yun Kui into the carriage.
His mind swirled with unanswered questions. The prince had mentioned that Yun Kui served in the Eastern Palace, but he’d assumed it was as an ordinary palace maid—not that they were this close.
Cao Yuanlu guided Sheng Yu into the second carriage and explained in a hushed tone, "General Sheng, you may not know this, but the young lady possesses a unique fragrance of sunflower blossoms that helps alleviate His Highness’s headaches. That’s why she serves closely in the Palace of Radiant Light."
Sheng Yu’s eyes widened in realization. "I see."
No wonder the prince traveled with her in the same carriage.
Then it struck him—her mother, Qi Ying, had also carried a faint floral scent, though it was mostly masked by the aroma of medicine. Only when standing close could one detect it. Perhaps this was an inherited trait.
He sighed softly. Who would have thought that fate had woven such a connection between Yun Kui and the Crown Prince?
Cao Yuanlu dared not reveal more. Without explicit orders from the prince, it was best to proceed cautiously.
Upon returning to the Eastern Palace, He Bailing was already waiting in the Palace of Radiant Light.
After taking the prince’s pulse, the imperial physician pondered for a moment. "Your Highness, was today’s headache triggered by the incense bath for the Buddha’s birthday?"
Drawing from Emperor Chunming’s inner thoughts, the prince surmised, "My condition isn’t congenital—it’s caused by a gu worm."
The moment these words left his lips, shock rippled through the room.
The practice of gu had been banned for a century, its practitioners subjected to the harshest punishments. Over the decades, no one had dared use such dark and malevolent arts for personal gain. Even Cao Yuanlu and Sheng Yu had only heard rumors, while Yun Kui had never encountered the concept at all.
He Bailing gasped. "How did Your Highness come to this conclusion?"
The prince replied simply, "It was Emperor Chunming and Feng Yu’s conspiracy."
Cao Yuanlu pressed urgently, "Can the military physician devise an antidote?"
He Bailing had studied texts on gu poison in the past. "The fastest method is to force the caster to brew the antidote. If it’s a child gu, destroying the mother gu will neutralize it. Beyond that, there are only unreliable, unorthodox methods. To cure it, we must first identify the specific type of gu worm."
Sheng Yu clenched his fists silently. "Your Highness has suffered from headaches since birth. Does that mean the gu was planted in you as an infant?"
The weight of his words settled heavily over the room. Yun Kui’s eyes reddened instantly.
Gu sorcery was already reviled for its cruelty—but to inflict it on a newborn was beyond monstrous.
The prince’s face was pale, his skull throbbing with a dull pain, a sheen of cold sweat coating his forehead.
Without the ability to read minds, he would have remained ignorant of the truth, doomed to a lifetime of torment. Had he not overheard Emperor Chunming’s thoughts today and stepped onto that altar, the lethal poison in the incense bath would have driven him to madness before the entire court.
He remembered the times he had lost control in the past—even killing someone in his frenzy…
His fingers tightened. He shut his eyes, exhaling deeply.
Feng Yu, imprisoned in the Eastern Palace’s dungeon, knew his fate was sealed. Yet he had never imagined that the secret he’d guarded for twenty years would be uncovered by the Crown Prince and Sheng Yu!
Years ago, he had secretly colluded with the enemy. To avoid suspicion from the Late Emperor, he had taken a grave risk—allowing himself to be struck in the face by a fire arrow from Northern Wei, lying among the corpses to feign death. Everyone believed he had perished at Wolf Mountain.
Even after escaping, his face had been irreparably scarred, forcing him to wear a mask. He had paid such a steep price, concealing his identity for two decades—only for the Crown Prince to expose him in the end.
The emperor would never have betrayed him. His wife had been confined, cut off from the outside world. As for Sheng Yu—he had sent assassins after him relentlessly, keeping him too preoccupied to investigate. Stationed at Pengcheng Garrison, Sheng Yu had never crossed paths with Feng Yu, who had reinvented himself as the commander of the Imperial Guards.
But how had the Crown Prince uncovered the truth? At the time of the Battle of Wolf Mountain, the prince hadn’t even been born.
Footsteps echoed outside the cell. Feng Yu looked up—the Crown Prince and Sheng Yu had arrived.
The Crown Prince cut straight to the point, his cold gaze fixed on the man before him. "Twenty years ago, General Feng, you were already a third-rank official with a bright future ahead. Why betray the Late Emperor and collude with the enemy? Or did Emperor Chunming offer you something so irresistible that you chose to live like a rat in the shadows, a secretive imperial guard who could never show his true face, rather than rise through the ranks and earn titles of nobility?"
Feng Yu had no defense. Since he was still alive and his identity had been exposed, it was clear the Crown Prince had uncovered his past betrayal and feigned death.
"A defeated man has nothing to say," he muttered, the horrifically scarred half of his face hidden in shadow. "But there is one thing I don’t understand. Your Highness has never seen my true face. The entire court believes I died twenty years ago—no one ever suspected my identity. How did you find out?"
The Crown Prince naturally wouldn’t tell him about the little lucky star by his side who could enter dreams.
He also knew that no amount of torture would break a man as enduring as Feng Yu.
However, on his way here, he had overheard Feng Yu’s thoughts mentioning his "wife." It seemed that aside from Emperor Chunming, Feng Yu’s wife was the only one who knew of his deeds all these years—though she had been locked away.
After a brief pause, the Crown Prince chuckled lightly. "Naturally, your wife told me."
Feng Yu shot to his feet, gripping the prison bars so tightly his knuckles turned white. The burned half of his face twitched violently. "She’s in your hands? What have you done to her?"
Even Sheng Yu, standing nearby, looked stunned.
As far as he knew, Feng Yu’s wife had always been frail. Twenty years ago, upon hearing of his death at Wolf Mountain, she had been overcome with grief and quickly succumbed to illness. Could she still be alive?
Of course—if Feng Yu had been living under the identity of Lu Qi, he would have had to hide his wife as well. Otherwise, his true identity would have been exposed.
The Crown Prince played along. "She is currently a guest in my palace. If you wish for her safety, General Feng, you’ll need to cooperate."
Feng Yu roared, "Haven’t you already uncovered everything you wanted to know? Everything back then was my doing alone—she had no part in it! Let her go!"
The Crown Prince smirked. "So, it was also you who poisoned me with the gu?"
Feng Yu’s eyes widened in shock. He hadn’t expected the prince to know even this.
His mind raced chaotically. "Yes… The gu master from back then is long dead. I am the only one in the world who can undo it. If you kill me, the gu worms will remain in your body for the rest of your life, tormenting you until your death! You can’t kill me—"
The Crown Prince scoffed. "If this gu had any effect on me, I should have lost control and gone mad in public at Banruo Temple today. Have you considered why that didn’t happen?"
Feng Yu’s face paled. "You… you neutralized the gu? Impossible! Today, I clearly saw you suffering from a headache—the gu worms must still be inside you!"
The Crown Prince replied, "They are. But there is a woman by my side who can suppress their activity. In the half year she has been with me, my headaches have never once recurred. Even today, despite your heavy dose of incense poison, its effect on me was negligible."
Feng Yu had no choice but to believe him. Otherwise, how could the Crown Prince have remained so composed at Banruo Temple?
His grip on the prison bars tightened, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
Sheng Yu, hearing this, glanced at the Crown Prince. The woman he spoke of—was it his daughter?
Feng Yu muttered, "No… no… As long as the gu worms live, they can always revive. Unless they are utterly destroyed—"
The Crown Prince looked at him with amusement. "Didn’t you know? If suppressed long enough, gu worms lose their vitality and eventually dissolve within the body over time."
Feng Yu’s eyes widened. "Impossible!"
His murky, frantic gaze darted about, his disfigured face twisting grotesquely.
No… The gu master said this gu has no cure. It is indestructible. Unless the host kills it at its most active moment within the body, it will remain trapped inside for life, tormenting them until death…
Now that he has that woman by his side, the gu worms can’t activate. They’ll stay dormant in his skull forever. But if he’s ever provoked again, they’ll still drive him to madness, agony, and death!
The Crown Prince heard every word of his inner turmoil. His earlier statement had been nothing but a bluff—and it had successfully extracted the true method of destroying the gu.
With a light laugh, he said to the prisoner, "I still have matters to discuss with your wife, General Feng. Reflect carefully on your choices."
With that, he turned and left, ignoring Feng Yu’s desperate pounding on the prison door behind him. "She knows nothing! And only I can cure your gu poison! Release her, and I swear I’ll undo it for Your Highness!"
Once outside the interrogation chamber, the Crown Prince summoned Qin Ge. "Feng Yu’s wife is still alive. Find her immediately."
Qin Ge clasped his hands and obeyed without hesitation.
The Crown Prince then relayed the gu poison’s eradication method to He Bailing.
His gaze shifted to Yun Kui beside him. "For now, you cannot stay by my side."
Yun Kui understood. Remaining in the Eastern Palace, she could temporarily suppress the gu worms but not eliminate them entirely. The Crown Prince needed to provoke the gu into activation so he could destroy it completely.
But this method would subject him to unbearable pain. He would have to maintain just enough clarity at the brink of losing control to strike swiftly and exterminate the gu—otherwise, he risked spiraling into irreversible madness, his body tearing itself apart…
Her heart clenched with worry. "I… I still want to stay with you," she said, her voice trembling. "What if I don’t enter Chengguang Hall?"
At that moment, Sheng Yu suddenly spoke up. "Why not come stay at my residence for a few days? Once His Highness eradicates the gu poison, we can… reassess the situation then?"
Every pair of eyes in the room turned toward him.
