Spoiled and mad critic of powerful ministers

Looking across the entire Great Sheng Dynasty, besides Shen Qiongju, only Du Hengniang dared to speak to the Regent in such a manner.

Pei Zhihui didn't take her overstepping her bounds to heart. He stood aside, looking at the vibrant atmosphere in the room, a faint gentleness even appearing in his eyes.

Tiger, waddling along with his penguin-like gait, walked to the soft couch. He was too short to reach the cradle, so he stood on tiptoe, his chubby hands gripping the edge of the cradle tightly as he tried to peek inside.

"Sister... sister..." Ah Hu mumbled incoherently, spitting out bubbles as he looked on with great curiosity at the little red creature.

Nian'an heard the noise, turned around, and the two little ones stared at each other.

Nian'an reached out and grabbed the pom-pom on Ah Hu's tiger-head hat.

Ah Hu wasn't annoyed at all; instead, he just grinned foolishly.

The atmosphere inside was incredibly warm and cozy. Shen Qiongju looked at the two children, and a smile unconsciously crept onto her lips.

Just then, something unexpected happened.

Pei Zhihui was standing beside the soft couch. Without warning, the scenery before his eyes began to distort. Large patches of black spots robbed him of his vision, and a sharp buzzing sound filled his ears, drowning out the laughter and noise inside the room.

It felt as if his internal organs were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, brutally strangled. Having suppressed his injuries throughout the journey, the moment he let his guard down, he was met with a devastating counterattack.

He swayed violently. His knees buckled, and he almost collapsed to his knees.

Reason was teetering on the brink of collapse. Only one thought remained in his mind: he couldn't collapse on his wife and daughters, he couldn't frighten them.

Pei Zhihui bit his tongue, using the slight sting to steady himself. He took half a step back, increasing the distance between himself and the soft couch.

"Zhihui?" Shen Qiongju sensed something was wrong and turned to look at him.

Before he could finish speaking, Pei Zhihui could no longer suppress the surge of blood in his throat.

With a loud "whoosh," a mouthful of black blood gushed from his mouth, splattering onto the smooth blue brick floor—a horrifying sight.

His tall body collapsed like a dried-out log, crashing heavily to the ground with a dull thud. He lost consciousness completely.

"Pei Zhihui!" Du Hengniang screamed, her face turning pale with fright. She grabbed Ah Hu from the ground and hugged him, covering his eyes.

Shen Qiongju's mind went blank. The rattle drum slipped from her hands and hit the footstool. She lunged forward, knelt on the ground, and hugged Pei Zhihui's upper body into her arms.

"Pei Zhihui! Pei Zhihui, wake up!" Her voice cracked, filled with undisguised panic.

The man in her arms had his eyes closed and his face was ashen. His breathing was so faint it was almost imperceptible. His expensive python robe was stained with the black blood he had vomited.

Shen Qiongju trembled all over. She thought she was rational and indifferent enough. But when she saw him fall, she realized that she had long been bound to this obsessive madman.

"Imperial physician! Go and fetch the imperial physician!" Shen Qiongju screamed hysterically at the door. "Pei An! Bring me all the imperial physicians in the capital!"

Outside the gate, Pei An stumbled and scrambled into the courtyard, his piercing cries tearing through the night sky above the Pei residence. The snowstorm in the capital seemed to have intensified once more.

The snowstorm in Beijing seems to have intensified again.

The entire Pei residence was in complete chaos.

The footsteps of maids and servants echoed haphazardly along the covered walkway, mingled with suppressed sobs. The threshold of the main courtyard was practically worn down by the constant comings and goings of the imperial physicians.

Shen Qiongju knelt by the bed, clutching a soaked handkerchief tightly in her hand, her eyes fixed on the pale-faced man on the bed.

Du Hengniang, carrying the frightened A'hu, directed the servants to take Nian'an, who was in the cradle, to the side courtyard. The child was too young to see such things.

The room was filled with an overwhelming, pungent smell of blood and medicine.

The head of the Imperial Medical Academy, an old man with a white beard, tremblingly withdrew his hand from taking the pulse. The seven or eight imperial physicians behind him all lowered their heads, not daring to breathe loudly.

"How is it?" Shen Qiongju asked, her voice dry as if it had been sanded.

The abbot knelt on the ground with a thud, his forehead pressed against the cold blue bricks.

"Please forgive me, Madam." The old magistrate's voice trembled like a leaf falling in the autumn wind. "The Grand Secretary... the Grand Secretary, he..."

"Speak," Shen Qiongju uttered only one word.

"The Grand Secretary suffered multiple injuries in his early years, which weakened his constitution. These past few years, he has exhausted himself, depleting his energy and vitality to the point that he is... is at his last gasp." The old abbot closed his eyes, going all out. "During that trip to Xishan, he was poisoned by a rare toxin. Although he managed to force out most of it with his internal energy, the remaining poison has already invaded his internal organs. In addition, last night... last night he forced his energy and vitality to mobilize troops... Now... now he is on the verge of death."

The oil has run out and the lamp is extinguished.

The four words, like four red-hot iron nails, were driven hard into Shen Qiongju's ears.

She didn't cry, not even shed a single tear.

She just stared at the old doctor and asked, slowly and deliberately, "How much longer can you live?"

This question is too direct and too cruel.

The old warden trembled and kowtowed repeatedly: "If I have the best medicine to recuperate and no longer exhaust my mind, I will live for at most three years, at least... at least one year. If I exhaust my mind again, I'm afraid... I'm afraid I won't even live for a year."

Less than a year.

Shen Qiongju smiled.

She slowly stood up and walked to the group of kneeling imperial physicians.

"Heal him." She looked down at them, her tone chillingly calm. "Use every method you can, use every rare medicinal herb in the storeroom. Let him live. From today onward, for every day he lives, I will reward him with one tael of gold. If he dies..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but everyone understood.

The imperial physicians scrambled out to write prescriptions, leaving only Shen Qiongju and Du Hengniang in the large inner room.

Du Hengniang stepped forward and supported Shen Qiongju's swaying body. "Qiongju, don't scare me."

Shen Qiongju grabbed her arm with his other hand, his grip so tight it felt like he was going to crush her bones.

"Hengniang." Shen Qiongju's gaze pierced through the window and fell upon the old plum tree in the courtyard, broken by the weight of the snow. "He can't die."

Over the years, her feelings for him had become as solid as a rock, and she truly could not accept his departure.

"Go." Shen Qiongju pushed Du Hengniang away, her voice regaining its usual calmness, even carrying a hint of ruthlessness that wasn't hers. "Summon Pei An. Now, immediately."

Pei An arrived quickly.

He knelt outside the door, not coming in. This man, who had remained unmoved even amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, now had bloodshot eyes, like a trapped wild beast.

"Madam."

Shen Qiongju's voice was as cold as ice, coming from behind the curtain.

"The entire Pei residence is to be sealed off immediately. All servants are allowed to enter but not leave. To the outside world, simply say that the Grand Secretary has caught a cold and is staying home to receive guests."

"Yes."

"Draft a list." Shen Qiongju paused. "I need to see the complete files before dawn on all the high-ranking officials of the second rank and above in the court, all the powerful families and clans in the capital, their backgrounds, factions, and their involvement in the Prince Shou case."

If Pei Zhihui's illness is revealed, his political enemies, who have been suppressed by him, will surely retaliate.

Pei An, standing outside the door, suddenly looked up.

He peered through the gap in the curtain at the slender figure standing in the dim light.

At that moment, he seemed to see the shadow of Pei Zhihui, who overturned the imperial desk in the Hall of Mental Cultivation and ordered the massacre of the city at Zhengyang Gate.

"Yes." Pei An kowtowed heavily and left to receive the order.

Late at night.

The maids brewed the medicine and brought it in.

Shen Qiongju dismissed everyone.

She carried the bowl of black, inky-black medicine to the bedside, where Pei Zhihui remained unconscious.

She scooped up a spoonful of medicine and brought it to his chapped lips, but the medicine dripped down his chin, making it impossible to feed him.

Shen Qiongju tried several times, but failed each time.

She looked at his bloodless face and remained silent for a moment.

Then, she made a decision that even she found absurd.

She picked up the bowl of medicine and took a big gulp herself.

The bitter medicine spread in my mouth.

She leaned down, pinched open Pei Zhihui's chin, and pressed her lips to his.

Cold and dry.

She pried open his teeth and slowly passed the medicine down his throat.

Outside the window, the wind and snow started again.

Inside the room, only the two of them breathed in sync, and the bowl of life-sustaining soup gradually dwindled to almost empty.

That night, Shen Qiongju fed him a whole bowl of medicine in this way.

She didn't know what she was thinking.

Perhaps the memory of him forcibly administering drugs in the water dungeon in her past life was too vivid, causing her to subconsciously choose this most direct and effective method.

Or perhaps, she simply wanted him to live.

For Nian'an's sake, and for her own.

Its daybreak.

After the snow, the sun shone through the carved window frames, casting dappled shadows on the blue brick floor.

Shen Qiongju did not sleep all night.

She leaned against the headboard, clutching a thick scroll of documents that Pei An had presented overnight. The scroll was filled with densely packed, tiny characters detailing the intricate power structure of the capital.

On the bed, Pei Zhihui's breathing seemed to have stabilized a little. The imperial physicians had used potent medicines to forcefully keep him alive. But his face was still frighteningly pale, like a jade statue that might shatter at any moment.

Shen Qiongju shifted her gaze from the archives to his face.

"Qiongju." Du Hengniang carried in a bowl of ginseng chicken soup, tiptoeing in. "You haven't slept all night, have something to warm yourself up."

Shen Qiongju took the soup bowl, but did not drink it.

She looked at the oil floating in the bowl and asked softly, "How's Ah Hu?"

"He's asleep in the side courtyard, and his wet nurse is watching over him, so don't worry," Du Hengniang said in a low voice. "Although Ah Hu was frightened last night, he's much better this morning. But the boy is brave; he even went to see Nian An this morning."

Shen Qiongju nodded and placed the soup bowl aside.

"Hengniang, have the accounts of the thirteen merchants been reconciled?"

Du Hengniang was taken aback, not expecting her to ask about business matters at this time.

"Everything is clear. This time, in order to target Prince Shou, we almost emptied our cash reserves. However, we also took the opportunity to acquire more than 30 shops and eight money shops owned by Prince Shou in Jiangnan. As long as we spend some time revitalizing them, we won't lose out on this deal."

"Not enough." Shen Qiongju picked up the file and pointed to one of the names, "Minister of Personnel, Wang Jianzhi. This man is a pawn that Prince Shou planted in the court. He is usually very cautious. When Prince Shou fell from power, he was the first to submit a memorial to impeach him, thus clearing himself of all wrongdoing."

Du Hengniang leaned over for a look: "These two-faced old foxes are the most troublesome."

"He has a good-for-nothing son named Wang Siyuan, who is obsessed with antiques and calligraphy and has racked up a huge debt in Liulichang." Shen Qiongju tapped the three characters "Wang Siyuan" with her fingertip. "Go and investigate, buy all his IOUs. I need to know exactly how much of the Ministry of Personnel's public funds he embezzled to cover his own debts."

Du Hengniang felt a chill run down her spine.

This is an attempt to find fault with someone and undermine their foundation.

"And there's more." Shen Qiongju turned to the next page, "Li Yuanzhao, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. He is the leader of the Qingliu faction and has a reputation for integrity. However, his hometown is in Jiangnan, and his clan members, relying on his name, have seized no less than three thousand acres of fertile land there. Send people to Jiangnan to find all the farmers whose land has been seized and submit their petitions to the prefectural government in the capital."

"Madam, doing this will offend all these people to death," Du Hengniang said with some worry. "The Grand Secretary is now..."

"If he's lying down, I have to stand up." Shen Qiongju interrupted her, her eyes revealing a resolute determination hardened by ice. "He killed all the jackals on the road, but countless venomous snakes are still hiding in the bushes. I can't wait for them to crawl out and bite people; I have to pull out their fangs one by one first."

She was no longer the Shen Qiongju who only wanted to run a tavern in Liangzhou Prefecture and live a peaceful life.

Pei Zhihui used his own life to push her to the forefront of this power struggle. She had nowhere to retreat.

Du Hengniang looked at her as if she were meeting her best friend for the first time.

"I understand." Du Hengniang nodded emphatically. "I'll take care of it right away."

After Du Hengniang left, Shen Qiongju sat back down.

She picked up the bowl of ginseng chicken soup, which was already half-cold, and sipped it slowly.

She needs strength.

We need strength to face the impending sword fight.

Just then, Pei Zhihui on the bed let out a very soft groan.

Shen Qiongju abruptly put down the soup bowl and rushed to the bedside.

"Pei Zhihui?"

His long eyelashes fluttered a few times, and he slowly opened his eyes.

The unfocused pupils slowly focused after seeing the person in front of them clearly.

"Qiongju..." His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, like smoke blown away by the wind.

"I'm here." Shen Qiongju grasped his cold hand.

"water……"

Shen Qiongju quickly got up, poured a glass of warm water, and fed him little by little with a spoon.

After drinking half a glass of water, Pei Zhihui's complexion seemed to improve.

He turned his head and his gaze fell on the stack of files on the bedside table.

"What are you looking at?"

"Let's see what your empire looks like." Shen Qiongju handed the documents to him. "Let's see how many people still want a piece of the pie after you fall."

A very faint smile appeared on Pei Zhihui's lips.

The smile was faint, yet it conveyed a sense of understanding and...gratification.

"Wang Jianzhi... is a clever man, but he has a foolish son. Start with his son, and you'll be sure to catch him." He took a breath and continued, "Li Yuanzhao... is a fame-seeker. Damaging his reputation is worse than killing him. You did... very well."

Shen Qiongju's heart skipped a beat.

He heard everything.

He was actually awake while she was talking to Du Hengniang.

"you……"

"I'm afraid that if I fall asleep, I'll never wake up again." Pei Zhihui looked at her, his peach blossom eyes, which had once stirred up countless storms of bloodshed, were now filled with only deep weariness and longing. "Qiongju, help me up."

Shen Qiongju hesitated for a moment, but still placed two thick, soft pillows behind him, allowing him to lean against the headboard.

"Pei An," Pei Zhihui called out towards the door.