Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 1298 - 52: Deadly Poison in the Wine

Chapter 1298: Chapter 52: Deadly Poison in the Wine

The ball was reaching its climax, especially after the arrival of the king!

The prince, after dancing with the daughters of several ministers, walked over to a table in the corner, picked up a cup of wine, and while resting, his gaze fell upon the throne.

The robust king was laughing heartily, flirting with a group of women around him, his carefree nature on full display.

One of the noblewomen poked the king in the waist and pointed to the prince.

"Ladies and gentlemen, silence, let’s toast to the birthday of our Prince!" the king looked at his son, nodded with a smile, and then stood up, loudly celebrating.

The guests raised their glasses, offering their sincerest respects to the prince, while the girls looked at him with longing eyes, hoping to be chosen as his wife.

"The prince is the star of today’s banquet, ladies, please do your best to capture his heart!" the king sat back on the throne. Although he said this, his royal status was too dignified, many ministers and noblewomen still hovered around him, and even some of the younger girls, all wearing smiles, looking for opportunities to start a conversation.

"Sorry, I’m tired!" the prince refused the invitations of the girls, fingering the ring on his middle finger, his eyes brimming with hesitation.

"The king’s body is so strong, he could rule for another ten years at least!"

"At the very least, I reckon twenty years would be no problem." Guests chatted, with envy for the king evident in their words.

The prince’s lips twitched slightly, and finally, he made up his mind, beginning to look for his prey for the night.

The queen stood among a group of noblewomen, adoringly watching her son, then hearing the king’s words, she saw him surrounded by women flirting, and her expression suddenly darkened.

The noblewomen, knowing the queen’s temperament, quickly found excuses to leave, fearing they’d be caught in the crossfire.

At first, the girls were nervous and shy, but after the first one approached the prince and invited him to dance, they became agitated, ready to make a move, but upon seeing her rejection, they suddenly stopped in their tracks. Of course, there were some confident and cheerful girls who thought they were irresistibly charming and approached the prince, but unfortunately, without exception, they were turned down.

"What are you waiting for? Go on already!" Teng Yuangxiang pushed Cinderella, and had they not been in the living room, she would have used some tricks to undermine the competition.

Cinderella fidgeted and finally made her way to the prince, and after a few seconds of hesitation, she remembered to curtsy.

"It’s that wench!" the stepsister saw Cinderella, immediately clinging to her mother’s arm and swearing angrily, "Starve her, when we get home, we must starve her to death!"

"Starving her is too kind. Sell her to a brothel!" The younger sister stared at the prince, cursing non-stop, praying for him to turn away the ugly woman.

Many women harbored the same thoughts, but the prince suddenly fell silent, and this behavior made them tense.

"Yes, it’s her!" The prince’s smile blossomed, instantly captivating a group of lovestruck girls, even Cinderella’s cheeks turned red with unease.

"May I have the honor of dancing with you?" the prince touched the ring, then extended his right hand.

"All is well!" Teng Yuangxiang breathed a sigh of relief, picked up a goblet of red wine, took a sip, and glared fiercely at the stepmother trio with almost man-eating gazes.

"Fairy tales do not deceive us; we must not take them lightly." Dantai was watching the lobby, sizing up each person, "Maybe someone will kill the prince. I think that’s the only reason Cinderella would turn evil."

The dancers cleared away, leaving a huge empty space, and in that moment, the prince and Cinderella became the center of the ball.

The queen, watching the two embracing, felt the veins on the back of her hand holding the goblet bulge, then looked at the king and found his gaze fixed on Cinderella like a greedy jackal, feeling a deep disgust rising in her heart.

"You forced my hand!" the queen, while everyone’s attention was drawn away, aimed the ring on her index finger at the cup and with a firm squeeze, a drop of green liquid fell in, quickly blending in with the wine.

"Please give us some privacy, thank you!" the prince said with a smile, diverting everyone’s attention from them. He picked up a goblet of red wine and handed it to Cinderella.

The two made casual conversation in a harmonious atmosphere, igniting envy in many women.

"Go toast to my father; you are the fiancée I have chosen!" Seeing Cinderella, struck by surprise and slightly off-kilter, the prince called over a maid, reached for the wine, and no one noticed as his hand passed over the rim of the goblet, a wisp of transparent smoke slipped into the red wine.

Watching Cinderella approach the king, and thinking about what was to come, Prince His Highness grew frightened, his fingers trembled, suddenly at a loss. He didn’t call out to the girl but hurried to the toilet.

The guests thought the prince was shy, unaware he had just delivered poisoned wine.

"You forced my hand; I don’t want to wait any longer. I want to be the king of this country, not a powerless prince!" The prince, hiding in the room, smashed the wall fiercely, and as he vented, he calmed down, knowing his father would drink from that cup, for Cinderella was exactly the type of delicate woman the king fancied. The lustful nature of him would undoubtedly not refuse, he might even take the lead, stealing her chastity.

"Give me the wine!" The sister, already mad with jealousy, blocked Cinderella and demanded the goblet.

Before Cinderella could speak, the stepmother pinched her fiercely on the face. The sister snatched away the goblet. Years of oppression instilled such fear in Cinderella that she dared not resist.

Just as Gu Xueqi was about to intervene, the Queen arrived, preventing her from taking action.

"What are you doing?" The Queen stopped the party of four and glanced at the goblet in the sister’s hand, then handed over her own, "Would you toast the King with a cup dusted with dirt?"

Confronted by the authoritative and stern Queen, the sister was at a loss and let her switch the goblets.

"Hmph, I see the girl chosen by the Prince is nothing special after all!" The Queen left with a cold snort in her heart. In a few minutes, the King would die from cardiac arrest, and these four women would be named as spies for regicide and beheaded to serve as an example.

Cinderella wanted to complain to the Queen, but was completely ignored, which made her sister smug and eager to approach the King.

"Stop!" Teng Yuangxiang took control of the sister and snatched back the goblet, then gave it to Cinderella, "Go quickly!"

Everything was back on track, and Jing Lan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where have you been?" Upon seeing her son, the Queen rushed over and asked with concern, "Why do you look so pale?"

"It’s nothing!" The Prince watched as His Majesty the King accepted the red wine from Cinderella and touched her head with a smile. Annoyed beyond measure and anxious about the impending patricide, he grabbed his mother’s goblet from beside the table and drank uncaringly.

At the same time, Tang Zheng and Lu Fan had found nothing in the Prince’s room and had sneaked into the Queen’s chamber. After much effort, they found a diary hidden in a pillow.

"Can it be? The Queen harbours romantic feelings for her own son?" Lu Fan flipped through the diary, deducing the sentiment between the lines.

"It’s not love; it’s an obsessive doting," Tang Zheng shook his head. Understanding the handwriting, he had an epiphany, "She intends to kill the Queen. Given her psychology, her possessiveness could never tolerate Cinderella!"

"It gets worse. The Queen wants to kill the King," Lu Fan saw the latest entry. To have her son ascend the throne sooner, coupled with the unbearable torment from the perverted King, the Queen had decided to kill him and then live a happy life alone with her son.

Tang Zheng had already dashed out of the room, heading towards the lobby.

"Don’t hurry, your wish will soon come true!" The Queen watched lovingly as her son gulped down the red wine, handing him a handkerchief.

The Prince was startled and turned to his mother. On the throne, the King who had swallowed the red wine turned black in the face and bled from every orifice, collapsing to the ground. But before he could rejoice, he felt a severe pain in his stomach as if a rapidly spinning blade had been thrust inside.

The Prince fell to the ground, making a garbled cry, unable to utter a word.

"What’s wrong with you?" The Queen was dumbfounded, "Someone call a doctor!"

The lobby was in disarray. After the King was poisoned, Cinderella was knocked down by a guard bought by the Queen who drew his sword to silence her.

"Save them!" Mu Nianqi pulled out her longbow, swiftly drawing the string. Her arrows shot like meteors, exploding the soldiers’ heads.

Brain pulp and blood scattered across the throne.

"Kill the Queen, she’s the key!" Lu Fan burst in, and before he could finish shouting, he saw the chaotic lobby where guests were trying to flee, only to be pushed back by soldiers.

"No." Watching her son die in her arms, the Queen went mad. She glowered at Cinderella, "Kill them all!"

The soldiers roared and pounced on the guests like a pack of wolves, turning them into pincushions with spears.

"Kill Cinderella!" Tang Zheng bellowed. Since the mission was a failure, the only option left before being totally corrupted was to kill her.

Dantai unleashed a mental impact, and Pang Meiqin drew her Ripper. She leapt forward but was a split-second too late.

Beneath Cinderella’s feet, the crystal shoes shone with a blue glow, and the Rose Crystal Wall sprung up, blocking bullets and arrows aimed at her.

Her pure white evening gown was tainted like black ink by the darkness, and in an instant, it was ink-colored. Her black hair danced without wind, her face contorting in agony.

Having lost the warmth of family and the sweetness of love, Cinderella saw no further reason to live. Descending into darkness, she pulled a thin sword from thin air with her right hand and conjured a ball of flame in her left, revealing a firearm.

"Die!" Cinderella aimed at her stepmother and fired, blowing her head into fragments.

"Don’t kill me, I’m your sister!" Her sister pleaded in terror, but Cinderella was expressionless. The thin sword pierced through her mouth, stirring her tongue into mush before cleaving her head open. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote and cast monthly votes at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)