Dance Of The Dragons
Chapter 260 : Restitution (10)

Xie Jianyu’s mind went numb when he heard the word. Someone might just pour a pail of ice water above his head, and it would not feel any different.

Qingyun sprang to her feet and started pulling Mingyu off their master.

"Mingyu, what are you saying?? It is a concoction to promote Master’s health! The recipe came from the physicians directly!!!"

"NO!!!"

Mingyu stubbornly refused to let go of Xie Jianyu.

"Master, please listen to me! Do not drink any of it!" She begged under tears.

Xie Jianyu sucked in a deep breath as his one maid clawed into his arms while crying her eyes out, while the other was busy peeling the first maid off him.

"Qingyun, lock the door," Xie Jianyu said once he regained his composure. Mingyu and Qingyun were his responsibilities. If Mingyu was suffering from a Nightmare Curse, then Xie Jianyu would be the one to cure her.

"At... At once, Master!"

Qingyun bolted toward the door and locked it.

Xie Jianyu wrenched Mingyu’s fingers off his body, during which Mingyu kept crying as if she were possessed.

"Master! No, Master!!!"

"I am here!" Xie Jianyu said with a stern voice. "I am not going anywhere!"

It took the combined efforts of both Xie Jianyu and Qingyun and Xie Jianyu’s repeated reassurance to make Mingyu sit obediently in front of the table.

All three of them had to catch their breaths afterward.

"You should drink something," Xie Jianyu told Mingyu. "Did you rush here as soon as you woke up?"

Mingyu shook her head. The young woman’s buggy eyes darted left and right, like a frightened animal searching for an escape route.

"I don’t need to drink. I don’t want to drink."

Nevertheless, Xie Jianyu motioned for Qingyun to pour Mingyu a cup of tea. Mingyu shook her head fervently.

"No, no, don’t."

She grabbed the ends of the dining table sheet, threatening to throw the entire breakfast spread to the ground.

"Mingyu, this is the Early Dew Under The Moonlight!" Qingyun held the teapot’s lid open for Mingyu. Mingyu should recognize the smell. It was Xie Jianyu’s favorite tea.

The tea leaves hailed from Fuxi Palace’s own tea farms. Xie Jianyu’s two personal maids were in charge of picking the tea leaves, cleaning, and drying them for Xie Jianyu’s personal use.

They often served the tea to Xie Jianyu’s guests as well.

"I brewed the tea personally this morning," Qingyun claimed. "Mingyu, there is no abortifacient inside. Don’t you trust me?"

Mingyu shook from head to toe.

Xie Jianyu gently extricated Mingyu’s hands from the tablecloth.

He nodded toward Qingyun.

"Pour it."

Qingyun slowly poured a cup for Mingyu, while the latter watched her every movement with wary eyes.

"Drink, and then speak."

Mingyu held onto the teacup with trembling hands. As soon as the first drop moistened her parched throat, her hesitation evaporated into thin air. She greedily drank the entire cup and emptied it with one gulp.

After she finished the cup, her frantic mood returned.

"Master, please," she begged. "Don’t take any abortifacient..."

Xie Jianyu heaved a sigh.

"Mingyu, speak clearly. What abortifacient? What exactly happened to you at Shuiran Palace?"

Mingyu flinched when she heard the two words, "Shuiran Palace". She shivered like a prisoner on an execution row. But, those two words also forced her to remember what happened.

Slowly, Mingyu pieced together her memories.

Her gaze was blank as she spoke about her terrifying experience at the lions’ enclosure.

"Master was feverish," she began. "So I went to collect medicine from His... His Highness at Shuiran Palace."

"My brother," Xie Jianyu pointed out, just to make sure. An uneasy feeling spread in his heart when the word "abortifacient" was put together with his brother. Xie Jianshen never hid the fact that he kept abortifacients around, and Xie Jianyu never asked why.

"Y-yes. And then..."

Mingyu swallowed hard. She avoided Xie Jianyu’s eyes when she proceeded to speak about the petrifying conspiracy.

"I... I overheard P-Prince Zhang Fengxi and His Highness talking about the abortifacient."

Xie Jianyu squinted at Mingyu, disbelief reflected in his eyes.

...

His brother and his husband.

And an abortifacient.

Xie Jianyu’s chest tightened into a knot, his heart pounding in his ribcage like a trapped animal.

Qingyun stared at Mingyu as if the latter had the word "lunatic" stamped across her forehead, but she did not dare to interrupt.

"Continue," Xie Jianyu said, although he would rather not hear anymore.

"H-His Highness said that the... The medicine will let the baby slip out of Your Majesty gently. And and that Your Majesty will not feel pain at all."

"Enough."

Xie Jianyu pressed a hand against his eyes. He could not afford to hear more of the atrocities.

"But, Your Majesty!!!"

"Mingyu, I don’t want to hear it," Xie Jianyu decided. "You must have misheard their conversation."

They could not possibly.

Not his brother and his husband too.

It was too much.

"Your Majesty, please!!!"

Mingyu grabbed Xie Jianyu’s hand and pressed it against her forehead.

"Please see to yourself whether I spoke the truth or not! I am willing to be punished for my mistakes!"

"Mingyu..."

Xie Jianyu clenched his teeth.

Both of them closed their eyes, and then a warm bluish light exited Xie Jianyu’s palm and entered Mingyu’s head.

Their connection as master and servant allowed Xie Jianyu to relive Mingyu’s memories.

He walked the corridor that Mingyu walked when she headed toward Xie Jianshen’s private residence.

"This medicine is made from a special plant that not many know about. It will allow the fetus to slip out of its mother’s womb gently. Little Yu will not feel any pain."

"The earlier, the better,"

Xie Jianshen’s words entered Xie Jianyu’s ears like a poisonous stream, causing the fine hairs on his arms and neck to rise.

And then there was Zhang Fengxi’s bellow when he discovered Mingyu outside of the door.

There was no mistake.

Mingyu might lie, but her memories could not.

What followed was Mingyu’s horrendous escape out of Shuiran Palace. The hand that pressed against Mingyu’s forehead trembled violently when he, in Mingyu’s body, crawled a seemingly endless distance to an exit, only to land in the middle of a group of fierce lions.

"Ugh...!"

A sudden pain ripped through Xie Jianyu’s body, causing him to fall to his knees.

"YOUR MAJESTY!!!" Both maids screamed in unison.

Soon afterward, he felt bile rising in his throat. The thick and sour taste in his mouth made him gag.

Xie Jianyu doubled up on the floor and coughed.

The little breakfast that he ate prior to Mingyu’s sudden appearance shot up his throat and spilled all over the floor.

The maids’ panicked screams were heard as they pulled at Xie Jianyu’s arms and shoulders with all their might.

As his consciousness slowly dwindled, Xie Jianyu wondered what was worse -- being betrayed by two people who he loved the most in the entire world, or being ripped apart by a horde of angry lions?