Xu Fu was so angered that he fainted, and his condition was critical. Although Huo Qiyuan and the others had warned him, they still underestimated the impact of the event.
Seeing the elderly man, who was already in his seventies, lying in bed, Su Muqing was truly worried that he wouldn't pull through. Mrs. Zhou stayed by Xu Fu's bedside, refusing to rest no matter how much Huo Qiyuan persuaded her.
Mrs. Zhou was also an unfortunate woman. She had been married once when she was young, but her husband died very early, and she couldn't raise the child she had.
She and Xu Fu had known each other for nearly thirty years, and their mutual understanding was evident to everyone around them.
Xu Fu came from a poor family in his childhood. Under someone's persuasion, he had undergone castration without fully understanding the implications. When he became an incomplete man, he couldn't enter the palace to serve due to a lack of funds to grease the wheels. Fortunately, he later followed Huo Sijun by chance.
Even after becoming the personal attendant to the King of a different surname, he was no longer considered a man. Even though Mrs. Zhou didn't care and simply wanted them to be companions for each other, Xu Fu remained deeply insecure, feeling he was unworthy of such a good woman as Mrs. Zhou. Thus, they never crossed that line, wasting thirty years of good times in a daze.
Su Muqing hung the IV drip for Xu Fu and then went out to find Huo Qiyuan. She left Mrs. Zhou to care for him in the room, allowing them some time together.
"How is Uncle Xu doing?" Huo Qiyuan looked at the moon in the sky, his heart also unable to find peace.
"His condition has stabilized for now, but he should not be subjected to any more shocks," Su Muqing patted his back, wanting to say something comforting, but in the end, she couldn't.
His own cousin had caused the tragic death of his parents, the annihilation of his clan, and even poisoned him on the battlefield out of jealousy, subjecting him to so much inhuman torment. It was Huo Qiyuan's strong will that saw him through; any other person would have likely collapsed under the weight of even one of these misfortunes.
"He won't be subjected to any more shocks. After all, the end of Father's life was the hardest hurdle for Uncle Xu. Now that he knows the truth, nothing else should be able to stimulate him!" Huo Qiyuan blinked, forcing back the moisture in his eyes.
He was in a difficult position now. He was determined to kill Huo Qixiao. No matter how many grievances, excuses, or justifications he had, they could not be conditions for sparing his life. The ancestral instruction of the Huo family, never to kill each other, had been thoroughly trampled into the mud by Huo Qixiao. Poisoning his own grandmother, hiring assassins to kill his adoptive mother, causing the death of his cousin out of a desire to be the sole male heir of the Huo family. Out of jealousy and greed, colluding and framing his own uncle, leading to the ruin of their entire family! Huo Qiyuan's fists clenched with a cracking sound. If Huo Qixiao hadn't confessed himself, they might never have known many of these things, let alone imagined he could be such a cruel person!
Su Muqing rubbed her arms, sensing the oppressive aura emanating from him. Huo Qiyuan's constitution was already special; even on such an unusually hot day, standing beside him felt like being in an air-conditioned room. If his mood worsened or his aura became any more subdued, others would feel a chill. Su Muqing was indeed feeling a bit cold now.
"Brother Huo, I want to talk to you about the incident in Chehe City."
"What is it?"
"Actually... forget it, there's nothing to talk about. How about I accompany you to the capital? Bring Huo Qixiao along, and we'll go directly to Emperor Rui!"
"But... I want to return gloriously! I want Emperor Rui to write a decree of self-condemnation with his own blood and announce it to the world. I want everyone to know that Emperor Rui, out of fear of my father, fabricated charges to wrong him! My father was a hero of the Great Yu Dynasty; he did not deserve such an end!" Huo Qiyuan said this while looking at Su Muqing for a long time. His gaze held a hint of unfamiliarity and a faint coldness. He had always thought Su Muqing supported him, that avenging his father and his wrongly deceased family was something he had to do to live well in the future!
Su Muqing, however, felt this was a choice that any intelligent person would make. Regardless, Huo Qiyuan's ultimate goal was simply to have the Great Yu Emperor admit his past mistakes, to let the common people know that their War God Prince was not a traitor. Since that was the case, they could find a more convenient and faster method, without the burden of dragging the army along. Especially after the incident in Chehe City, Emperor Rui was cornered and desperate. What if they attacked a city in the future, and Emperor Rui destroyed that city? How many people would die in the end for the sake of a war? Su Muqing dared not imagine.
"If we infiltrate the capital and let Emperor Rui know the truth of everything, he can still write a decree of self-condemnation and announce it to the world, and your parents can still be avenged. At that time..."
"How can that be the same? Emperor Rui cares most about his throne! Didn't he rush to eliminate our family not long after his ascension because he was afraid my father would usurp his position? I not only want him to write a decree of self-condemnation admitting his mistakes but I also want to personally pull him down from that lofty pedestal and then stomp him into the mud, ensuring he can never rise from that abysmal mire for the rest of his life! Only then... can I bring solace to the souls of my parents and the over one hundred innocent lives of the princely estate!" Huo Qiyuan seemed genuinely angry, his voice involuntarily rising. Su Muqing looked at the somewhat distorted expression on his face and found the person before her very strange, as he had never spoken to her with such an attitude or tone.
"What about the innocent civilians who died in the bombing in Chehe City? And when you march your army to the capital, will Emperor Rui once again order cities to be destroyed? How many more people will die next time? Are they all deserved to be discarded pawns in the conflict between you two? Aren't their lives also lives? Brother Huo, you weren't like this before..."
Su Muqing calmly posed many questions to Huo Qiyuan. Honestly, she felt a degree of disappointment towards this strange and obsessive Huo Qiyuan. Clearly, both methods could achieve the same result, but Huo Qiyuan stubbornly remained trapped in his own thoughts.
"I was already turned into this kind of person by them! Why should I care about their lives or deaths? Those people so easily believed my father was a traitor, even cursing him behind his back and pointing fingers at him. From that moment on, I swore I would never care about their lives or deaths again! Because I know there will be no good outcome, and those people don't deserve it, nor are they worth me doing this for them..."
Su Muqing fell silent. If you haven't experienced someone else's suffering, don't preach kindness to them. Perhaps for Huo Qiyuan, the way he presented himself to Emperor Rui was indeed very important!