Fan Xian reacted quickly enough, rushing over like a shadow and knocking Princess Li Yunrui to the ground. His fingers moved like the wind, and in a flash, he used his *zhenqi* to forcibly seal several major meridians around her wound. However, he still noticed... a faint black aura had slowly enveloped her bright and beautiful face.

The black dagger had been lodged in Li Yunrui's abdomen for a while. It had simply been concealed by her wide sleeves, and Fan Xian hadn't seen it. What shocked him even more was that after stabbing herself, the Princess was still able to speak so freely to him, without revealing a trace of pain, successfully deceiving his eyes.

Because of this time, the poison had already spread throughout her body with the blood, entered her heart, and faintly surfaced on her face. Even if Fei Jie were to appear in Kyoto at this moment, he would not be able to save her life.

Fan Xian lowered his head, looking somewhat helplessly at the dagger in her abdomen. Looking at the hilt of the dagger, a chill ran through his heart, because it looked familiar. But this was not the time to worry about such things. He supported the Princess's shoulders with one hand and pressed down on her soft abdomen with the other. The supreme *Tianyi Dao* mental cultivation technique he inherited from Northern Qi was poured into her body without any hesitation.

After a long while, the Princess, who had been silent and without any sign of pain, finally frowned, glanced at him with a reproachful look, and said, "I just wanted to savor the taste of pain and death. Why did you have to disturb me?"

Throughout her life, she had always been high above, as the royal family's little princess, cherished by her parents and older brothers. Who would dare to cause her pain? Especially physical pain. Aside from the Empress Dowager's four slaps and the Emperor's rage on the stormy night, Li Yunrui had truly never known the taste of bone-deep pain in her life.

Her words were indeed somewhat mad, but Fan Xian had no leisure to argue with her. He silently poured in his *zhenqi*, forcibly driving the poison in her body towards one place. Gradually, the faint black color on Li Yunrui's face became denser and denser, but it gathered towards her temples. The skin on the rest of her face returned to its usual brightness.

Fan Xian grunted, striking her soft abdomen with his right palm. Li Yunrui's crimson lips parted slightly. Immediately afterward, his left hand darted into his bosom like lightning, taking out a pill and stuffing it into her mouth.

He was very familiar with the poison on this dagger, because he had made it himself. So the pill immediately took effect. However, Li Yunrui had concealed the wound for too long, and the poison had already entered her heart and could not be forced out.

Sweat poured from Fan Xian's forehead. He couldn't help but think of the movies and novels he had seen in his previous life, those scenes that chilled him to the bone. He gripped her shoulders tightly with his left hand, hoarsely shouting, "Where are Wan'er? Where's Da Bao?"

In those stories, the male protagonist often, after achieving final victory, painfully discovered that the enemy, even until death, refused to tell him where his captured relatives were hidden, whether they were dead or alive, using this to torment the male protagonist for the rest of his life.

Those somber, dim movie reels and the separations on the fluorescent screen made Fan Xian afraid. His voice trembled, completely forgetting how he should react, angrily and helplessly yelling at her.

…

…

Li Yunrui glanced at him mockingly. Her brow twitched again slightly. It seemed that the poison on the dagger had fully spread throughout her body, and that sharp pain was finally clearly beginning to invade her nerves.

She looked down at the black dagger lodged in her abdomen and said softly, "Don't always use your petty cleverness and tricks. Those are what people with no ambition use."

Fan Xian felt a chill run through his body. He knew what the Princess meant by those words. The reason this black dagger looked so familiar to him was because it was originally made by his own hand, exactly the same as the dagger that Fei Jie had given him in his youth, and the poison smeared on it was exactly the same.

In the world today, there were three of these daggers. Fan Xian had one hidden in his boot, the Third Prince Li Chengping had one hidden in his boot, and another… was hidden in Lin Da Bao's boot. Among the people Fan Xian cared about, only the young Li Chengping and the simple-minded Da Bao lacked the ability to protect themselves. So he had carefully given them these two daggers, waiting for the final moment to give the enemy the most unexpected blow.

In the palace, Li Chengping had used this black dagger to save his life. But Da Bao's black dagger was in the Princess's hand, in the Princess's abdomen.

"You thought I would use Da Bao to threaten you. When Da Bao was by my side, you suddenly gave the command, and he pulled out the dagger to stab me…" Li Yunrui coughed, coughing up a trace of blood, and looked at Fan Xian with a mocking expression. "Of course, no one would seriously search a fat idiot, no one would guard against him."

Li Yunrui's eyes gradually glazed over as she slowly said, "You've been with Lin Da Bao all these years, just for that moment? You told him that Lin Gong was killed by me, so he hates the person named Li Yunrui. And no one in the world dares to call my full name in front of that idiot, except you…"

She looked at Fan Xian, as if looking at an idiot: "Too many petty tricks, thinking too complicated, not generous at all."

Fan Xian felt a chill run through his body. He hadn't expected that his final move was so ridiculous in the other party's eyes, so easily seen through. He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart, and begged softly, "Tell me, where are they?"

Li Yunrui didn't look at him. Her body was gradually growing cold, and her shoulders instinctively shrunk. She said, "I'm about to die. What's the point of leaving Wan'er alone in the world to be bullied by men?"

"She's my wife. I'll protect her."

Li Yunrui's eyes looked at a certain spot to the side, and she said in a trembling voice, "I originally wanted to kill your concubine, but I failed. But you will have many women in the future. Why should I let Wan'er continue to suffer?"

She turned her head and quietly looked into Fan Xian's eyes. She said, "Don't worry, I won't use her life to threaten you into becoming a celibate monk…"

Fan Xian's heart stirred slightly. He stared blankly at the beautiful face in front of him. At this time, the poison had all concentrated on both sides of her temples, turning into several strands of cyan along with her blood vessels, like two blue flowers on her temples, possessing a captivating beauty.

Li Yunrui looked at him mockingly, slowly raising her right hand and pulling Fan Xian over. She leaned weakly on his shoulder, her face against his face, her body against his body, appearing extremely intimate. In this ambiguous posture, she whispered in his ear, "Why did the Qin family rebel? Go ask Ping Ping. I can only guess."

An unparalleled beauty, even at the moment of death, still breathed out orchid-like air. The slightly warm breath sprayed on Fan Xian's ear, feeling exceptionally charming. Fan Xian, of course, had no such thoughts. His eyes looked at the blue flower at her temple, and as he listened to the voice gradually coming from his ear, the gaze in his eyes became more and more solemn, more and more shocked, more and more painful.

Li Yunrui chuckled softly in his ear and said, "Although I'm dead, I can leave the Emperor with the most powerful enemy. I suppose Qing, without me, won't be too boring."

Fan Xian's mouth was dry, and he couldn't speak for a long time. He just lowered his head somewhat dejectedly. Although silent, he still showed strong hesitation and bewilderment.

"This is your mother's former courtyard. I originally wanted to burn it down, but I thought I should leave it to you. This place is very beautiful. Most importantly, I think you need this place to figure things out."

"You won't disappoint me." Li Yunrui gave her good son-in-law one last glance, and said with a slight sneer, "Even using a fool like Da Bao. In this world, there are only two people so shameless and hypocritical, one is His Majesty, and the other is you. So... I have high hopes for you."

Fan Xian's entire body was stiff at this moment. He didn't hear the last words at all, but immediately afterward, a strange sound came from behind him, causing his heart to tremble. He turned around and looked, only to see that the flower tree behind the broken zither had been moved, revealing a small pit below.

In the pit were Wan'er and Da Bao, tightly bound and with cloths stuffed in their mouths, unable to speak at all. Wan'er's eyes were slightly red, and she looked at Fan Xian with worried eyes, extremely anxious. When she found that Fan Xian was not injured, two lines of clear tears flowed down. But Da Bao's eyes were originally blank, but after seeing Fan Xian, they were filled with a simple smile.

Immediately afterward, Wan'er discovered her mother in Fan Xian's arms and also discovered her mother's strange condition. Her eyes were instantly filled with horror.

At this time, Fan Xian had already pushed the Princess in his arms away and rushed to the tree. He picked up Wan'er and Da Bao, and with a flick of his finger, he cut the ropes on their bodies.

Having just escaped disaster, Wan'er didn't have time to take out the cloth in her mouth. She rushed past Fan Xian and threw herself at the Princess's side, kneeling beside her and crying.

Fan Xian sighed inwardly, preparing to go over, but found that his clothes were being pulled. He turned around and saw that Da Bao was smiling foolishly, pulling him, as if he never wanted to let go again. Fan Xian's sense of guilt grew greatly, and then a faint sadness arose.

Li Yunrui was pushed to the ground by Fan Xian. The poison had long entered her heart. The two traces woven by the poison on her temples appeared even more intensely blue, contrasting with her delicate and fair skin, like beautiful blue flowers on fragile porcelain.

Only these blue flowers... were all poison, just like her. Even after death, she would let the world, because of her few words, cause more people to die.

Wan'er held her mother's hand with one hand and took out the cloth stuffed in her mouth with the other, bursting into tears with a wail. Although this mother and daughter were too different from the mothers and daughters of the world, and their feelings were not very close, after all, blood was thicker than water. At the last moment, Li Yunrui did not choose to use Wan'er's life to threaten Fan Xian, and Wan'er, seeing her dying mother, couldn't help but feel sorrow from the bottom of her heart, and couldn't stop the mournful pain.

Li Yunrui's cold right hand tightly held her daughter's hand, and she gave a difficult smile. She raised her hand for the last time and smoothed her temple, as if she wanted to maintain the most beautiful image when leaving this world.

Her fingertips brushed over the desolate and gorgeous blue flower, setting off the mocking smile on her lips.

It was unclear who she was laughing at. Perhaps she was laughing at the fact that Fan Xian had just been holding her in his arms, and as soon as he saw Wan'er, he coldly pushed her to the grass. Or perhaps she was thinking of the stormy night in the palace, that timid but sentimental nephew, or perhaps she was thinking of stories from her childhood many years ago.

Then she smiled contemptuously and said the last three words in this world.

"Men, ah…"

…

…

Looking at the Princess's gradually freezing body on the grass, Fan Xian's heart also gradually turned cold. He knew that the most powerful and sinister enemy in his life, up until now, had finally ended her life, which was difficult to judge. To be precise, from the matter of ambushing Dadong Mountain to the final rebellion in Kyoto, and then to the dagger in the Taiping courtyard, Li Yunrui only died by his hands, her heart had already died long ago.

This was a very wonderful woman, a very powerful woman. If Fan Xian didn't have that black box, he would have probably died at Yan Xiaoyi's hands long ago, and the entire situation in Kyoto would have fallen into the Princess's control long ago.

But she was, after all, a woman, not the most powerful person in the world. Compared with that unfathomable Emperor, who was unknown how he survived from Dadong Mountain, the Princess had a most fatal flaw, or rather, she had one more weakness than the Emperor—the word "emotion."

Perhaps this emotion was somewhat absurd, somewhat awkward, but it was still emotion. "What is love in the world that it should be answered only with self-sacrifice?" Yuan Haowen must not have thought, when he wrote these two lines, that there were so many people in the world who were using practice to enrich the meaning of these two lines.

The world is full of infatuated sons and daughters, and the Princess was undoubtedly also a fool. But did she really lose? In the eyes of Fan Xian, who was feeling cold all over at this moment, it wasn't so. The things she wanted to do in this life had basically been accomplished, and in the end, the words she whispered in Fan Xian's ear, although she didn't make anything clear, had already planted a poisonous flower in Fan Xian's heart.

Just like the poisonous blue flower that appeared on her temple at the last moment of her life.

Wan'er was crying incessantly on the Princess's body. Lin Da Bao was behind Fan Xian, pulling on his clothes, looking at this scene with some nervousness and confusion, thinking that Princess Mama was sleeping, so why was sister crying?

The Princess's face was still so beautiful, with long eyelashes and blue temple flowers, just like a sleeping beauty, waiting for someone to wake her up with a kiss.

Fan Xian looked at this scene, his heart was full of confusion. Subconsciously, he uttered a somewhat unfamiliar phrase from his lips: "je suis comme je suis..."

This was a poem by a 14th-century Frenchman. He remembered some fragments when he watched a movie in his previous life. At this moment, those words reappeared in his mind, exceptionally clear.

"I am as I am.

I am like this.

I was born this way.

When I want to laugh, I laugh.

I love those who love me, shouldn't that be my fault?

Every time I love someone, every time I will love them.

I am as I am.

I am like this.

I was born charming, and that can't be changed.

I please those who make me happy, what can you do about it?

I fell in love with someone, someone fell in love with me.

Just like children in love.

…"

————————————————————

Kyoto fell into the greatest chaos. Although the Ye family and the Imperial Guards had turned the Qin family into remnants of an army, drove them out of Kyoto, and controlled the nine city gates, the situation in Kyoto was even more chaotic than before. Previously, when the two armies were facing off, the people of Kyoto were cowering in their homes, under their beds, not daring to make the slightest sound. But now that the situation had initially separated, the frightened citizens finally mustered the courage to rush towards the city gates in a panic.

The people of Kyoto often had poor relatives in the countryside outside the city. At such a dangerous moment, they naturally wanted to find ways to escape to take refuge. Otherwise, who knew if those soldiers who were fighting so enthusiastically would loot Kyoto after the victory was decided.

Their worries were not without reason. At least in Kyoto at the moment, some straggling remnants and some subordinates with lax military discipline, while chasing each other, also began to rob and steal along the way. The streets and alleys were in chaos, and the screams of women were often heard. Occasionally, flames soared into the sky.

The Qing army had always had strict military discipline. The chaos that appeared today was partly due to the inevitable adverse consequences of war, and partly because this battle was an internal rebellion. Whether it was the Ye family, the Qin family, or the soldiers of the Garrison Division, they all had a more or less unclear sense of disillusionment in their hearts. The darkest parts of human hearts began to rise up.

Gong Dian did not lead troops out of the city to pursue. He immediately began to rectify the order of the entire Kyoto. However, Kyoto was too large, and it was impossible to control it completely in a short time. But the people of Kyoto could not wait for General Gong's rectification actions. They deeply knew the danger caused by the remnants of the army after the war. They rushed to the city gate where Gong Dian was personally stationed, risking their lives. The scene was extremely chaotic.

And the silent Fan Xian, under the reception of a small team of Dingzhou soldiers and the surveillance agency's secret agents who came to meet him, returned to Kyoto through another city gate, returning to his long-separated home.

He was not in a hurry to return to the palace, not in a hurry to see Ye Zhong, but went directly back to the Fan residence. He didn't even have time to comfort Wan'er. He only briefly asked about the situation of his father and Prince Jing, and then pulled Teng Zijing aside, whispering a few cautious instructions.

Since the Fan residence was surrounded, Teng Zijing had picked up a wooden stick, organized the guards and servants of the house, and welcomed one imperial decree and harassment after another. Fortunately, Fan Jian himself was not in the residence, so the Fan residence did not experience a major attack. And those remnant soldiers and vagrants were simply not the opponents of the Fan residence's servants.

Fan Jian was always very good at training soldiers.

Teng Zijing listened to the young master's orders, his face became solemn, and he nodded heavily. He did not ask the reason, nor did he dare to bring too many conspicuous Fan residence servants, and rushed towards Twenty-Eight Mile Slope.

…

…

(Recommend a都市novel that is being strongly promoted, 邪商, , the book number is 103729, please support everyone.

Also: The monthly votes are up, thank you very much. Of course, I like the monthly votes very much, and I will continue to work hard to canvass votes, but please don't deliberately spend more money to accumulate monthly votes, I am already very grateful. The Princess finally died completely in this chapter. The last poem is just a fragment, one hundred and fifty words, which was provided by book friend Wang Xi around November last year. I put it in the outline for more than half a year, and I can finally use it today. I feel a little something in my heart. After all, I am a little reluctant to say goodbye to the characters in the book who have used my heart, and she... is just the first one.)