Chapter 576
The black blood sprayed onto the purple grapes and dripped down, wetting the ground lit by the lanterns . The Second Prince had his head lowered, and mouth half opened . The bottom half of his jaw was covered in blood . Both his eyes were lowered . Without looking at Fan Xian, he raised his hand to stop his thought of walking over .
"The moment you walked in the manor, I took the medicine . " The Second Prince crouched on the chair, his head hung low . Faintly, he said, "I know you are Fei Jie's student, but the poison has already entered my heart . You won't be able to save me . I also don't want you to save me . You have to know that although you are powerful, you can't stop my dying . "
As long as someone had the desire to die, nothing would save their lives . Fan Xian understood this and calmly watched . His mind was a complete blank . He didn't have a single thought . He was not just going to stand by and watch . Not because he had a glimmer of brotherly affection or the Second Prince, rather, he couldn't let him die in front of him .
"There is no need to worry . I have already written a suicide note . The Palace will not blame you . No one will think you killed me . " With his head down, the Second Prince rummaged in his clothes with his bloodstained hand and pulled out a letter . He gently placed it on the table .
Before his death, who would have thought that he had even considered Fan Xian's worries? Fan Xian's heart felt slightly icy . He knew that the Second Prince was as Ling'er said . He was ruthless to himself to some level and had severed any hope at life .
The Second Prince glanced at Fan Xian with an envious gaze and spat out another mouthful of black blood . He used his sleeve to wipe carelessly at his lips and two slender fingers to carefully break off the grapes that had been stained by poisonous blood . He left behind a small portion before bringing it to his mouth again .
The sweet and juicy grapes were chewed to pieces in his mouth . With a pfft sound, the Second Prince spat out a grapeseed on to the ground, still carrying black blood .
Finishing the grapes, he wiped his hands clean on his clothes and sighed . Looking at the silent and barely moving Fan Xian, he faintly said, "I don't want to continue living as a joke . "
Fan Xian nodded, showing he understood his thinking .
"Actually, you are also a joke . " Gradually, an ashen color rose to the Second Prince's face . His gaze was somewhat muddled and scattered . Remembering something, he said, "There are many people who want to kill you in Jingdou . Yes, the first to take action was me, but do you think that Chengqian has much kindness for you? The Qin family didn't kill you in the valley, so he bounced around in anger all night in the Eastern Palace . But, why?"
He stared into Fan Xian's eyes . "Why is your attitude toward Chengqian completely different to yours toward me?"
Fan Xian also didn't understand this . The Second Prince was about to die, so his words were direct, piercing directly into his heart . Why had he always shown the Crown Prince tolerance and gentleness while he always harassed the Second Prince at all cost?
The Second Prince's eyes drooped without strength . His voice was very low, "You don't like me . From the very beginning, you didn't like me . Of course, I also don't like you . We are too similar . However, I never had luck as good as yours . No one would allow another one of them to exist in this world . They would all unconsciously try to get rid of the other . "
His gaze was cold and helpless . "If you were Sir Jai from the Songguo Manor, then I would be Zhen Baoyue from Jinling, never having many opportunities to appear in the books . But, I am the real one . I am the real one!"
As the Second Prince spoke, he coughed up more blood . The blood smeared all over the front of his robes .
Fan Xian looked at this scene in front of him . His body was frozen, unable to make any reaction . The Second Prince raised his head for the last time and stared at Fan Xian's face . With some difficulty, he said, "I have always thought that Chengqian was the most cowardly of us brothers . It was not until I am about to die that I realized it is me who is the most cowardly . I would rather die and pettily leave behind Ling'er and my mother than have the courage to face…"
"After I die, help me look after Ling'er… As for my mother, the best for her is probably to be banished to the Cold Palace . I must trouble you to take care of her . "
The Second Prince's chest rose powerfully as if something was going to burst out . Staring into Fan Xian's eyes, he barely managed to finish speaking . Without giving Fan Xian any chance to speak, he opened his mouth, and a huge puddle of black blood gushed out . He breathed no more afterward .
After he died, the Second Prince remained crouching on the chair with his left hand on his knee and an ashen color on his face . A moment later, his body fell off the chair with a crash . However, his eyes refused to close, staring widely .
Fan Xian looked at the Second Prince's body with a wooden face . He suddenly wondered why an evening at the beginning of autumn was so cold?
He shivered with cold . His emotions were complicated . He had no idea what he should feel faced with this body . Perhaps the silence right now was the best? The Second Prince, this true prince, had died . How could the fake soul in his flesh to continue on?
The color on his face became uglier and uglier . It was not because the Second Prince had committed suicide in front of him or the heart-piercing things he had said his death . Instead, it was his last request for him to look after Ling'er and Lady Shu .
He didn't even give me a chance to refuse, Fan Xian thought to himself . His expression was desolate like when the Eldest Princess had died . The Crown Prince knew that he had to die and had entrusted the rebel soldiers and those officials to him . Why? Do you not know that I am your irreconcilable enemy? Were your deaths not caused by me? Why are you all throwing so many burdens to me before you die? Do you want to crush me? Are you all betting that I will help you? All of you dead people! You can die, but you want me, a living person, to live unhappily?
He lowered his head, absolutely stupefied, as his body trembled slightly . Then, he walked to the Second Prince's body, glanced at it, and picked up the thin suicide note on the table . Putting into his clothes, he walked out of the sinister room .
Walking to the bedroom in the back garden of the manor, Ye Ling'er sat stupefied, like him, under the cold light, knowing absolutely nothing about what had happened in the garden . Fan Xian sighed in his heart and walked up behind her, chopping down with his palm, he knocked her out without giving her any chance to react .
If he didn't knock her out, once she learned about the Second Prince's suicide through poison, she would probably follow him . Fan Xian could only use a rather direct method to stall the matter .
…
…
Gong Dian came forward . Fan Xian bent his head down to think for a while . He handed the suicide note to him and, at the same time, handed him Ye Ling'er, who was on his shoulder . He then said something in a low voice . Gong Dian was shocked as he accepted the fainted Ye Ling'er . Once he heard about the Second Prince's death, he furrowed his brows even deeper .
"The Second Prince wrote a suicide note so the Emperor will not blame us . " Fan Xian sighed immediately . "Before wangfei wakes up, bind her hands and feet and then tell her this news . If she won't eat, force feed her rice porridge . No matter what, make her drink it!"
These last two sentences were said coldly between gritted teeth . Gong Dian thought that it could only be done this way . He didn't notice Duke of Danbo's loss of self-control . After thinking for a moment, he said helplessly, "But the young mistress's temper is like fire . We can't bind her for her entire life . "
Fire is not scary . It comes quickly and leaves quickly . At least it wasn't as piercing as the chunks of ice he and the Second Prince were, Fan Xian thought to himself . Lowering his voice, he said, "After a few days, when things have calmed slightly, I will come again to console her . "
…
…
After dealing with the matters at the prince's manor, the night in Jingdou had gradually receded, and it was already early in the morning . In the distance in the east, there was a faint smudge of white showing above the horizon . Fan Xian could not go rest . He had too many things he needed to do . After detouring back to the Fan manor, he went directly to the Royal Palace .
Although Minister Fan had said the matter should be handled by the Ministry of Rites and Taichang Temple, Fan Xian could not forget his position as regent and pretend it had never happened . Furthermore, he was still the vice minister of Taichang Temple . Minister Ren Shao'an had gone with the Emperor to Dong Mountain for the worship . No one knew if he would come back alive .
He stood shoulder to shoulder with the Great Prince and looked at the three coffins in front of them . The two brothers remained silent .
One day ago, the two of them had stood on the Palace walls worried about the safety of the Palace and territory of the Qing Kingdom . No one would have thought that by now victory and defeat would have been determined . The people writing the history of the world had already changed their names . No one also would have thought that the black coffins beneath Fan Xian's foot during the crisis of the Royal Palace would already hold the bodies of the defeated .
The Eldest Princess and Second Prince were lying peacefully in their coffins . There was still one empty coffin . No one knew who would lie in it .
"This doesn't follow the rites . " The Great Prince's expression was heavy . The space between his brows was refusing to show sorrow . The Eldest Princess's death was understandable and acceptable, but the brotherly affection between the Second Prince and him was not fake . Although the brothers had been drifting apart these two years, seeing the scene in front of him and thinking of the person in the coffin, the Great Prince still felt a great pain in his heart .
Fan Xian nodded tiredly and said, "The officials of the Ministry of Rites had all been scared away . As long as the Emperor doesn't return to the capital, the Six Ministries cannot pull themselves together . There are also very few people in Taichang Temple . This is just a temporary arrangement . After all, the face of the royal family has to be looked after . We can't just let them sit in the manors . "
The Great Prince sighed and didn't say anything more . Turning around, he walked toward the interior of the Royal Palace . Compared with the group of imperial soldiers escorting the coffins at his side, his retreating figure appeared particularly bleak .
Fan Xian watched him quietly and shook his head . He knew that the Great Prince was almost at his breaking point with the repeated pressure, as well as the news of death gradually trickling in . Thinking of this, only now did Fan Xian feel the waves of exhaustion coming from the depths of his body . He could barely keep his eyelids up . Furrowing his brows, he slapped his face and said to the subordinate at his side, "Back to the manor . "
He had returned to the manor four times in one night, but there had not been a moment of peace . Fan Xian calculated closely . From the preparation of breaking into the Royal Palace, it had already been two days and two nights since he had slept . His injuries had reappeared . The medicinal effects of the ephedra pill had died completely . He didn't eat anymore . The physical and mental energy of his body had reached its limits .
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