Priceless: A widow with a baby asks the prince to marry again

The genius doctor Zhu Hengzhen was taking the pulse of the suddenly awakened Last Crown Prince when he saw two people burst into the tent. Prince Duan Chu Shiyu, in particular, looked furious, and he couldn't help but feel suspicious. He paused and cast a questioning look at Liu Rusi, who had just been carefully put down by Prince Duan.

As soon as Liu Rusi stood firm, she spoke, a gentle smile on her face and a friendly tone, as if what she was about to discuss was a good thing. "Teacher Zhu, His Royal Highness Prince Duan and I have an important secret to discuss privately with His Royal Highness Seriguleng. Could you please go and rest for a while with my master, Li Chunfu?"

Zhu Hengzhen was speechless for a moment. It was the emperor's strict order that the last prince should live to recognize his ancestors.

These days he really stayed by Prince Duan's side all the time, not even daring to neglect his meals... His worried eyes once again swept over Prince Duan's rage that had not dissipated, and he was unable to make a decision.

"Teacher Zhu, don't worry. We know what's important and what's not." Liu Rusi added at the right time. She turned her head to look at Chu Shiyu, her eyes seemed to be seeking confirmation, and asked softly: Right?

Chu Shiyu suppressed his boiling anger and said in a cold voice: "Get out first! I will bear all the consequences!"

Zhu Hengzhen weighed the pros and cons before finally settling on Liu Rusi. This female doctor had lofty ambitions and would not sit idly by and allow anything detrimental to the greater good to occur. Even if the Emperor hadn't explicitly stated this, Zhu Hengzhen was convinced that His Majesty had far-reaching plans for the last crown prince. He finally sighed and withdrew with his attendants from the tent.

The curtains fell, isolating the outside world.

Chu Shiyu could no longer hold back. He rushed to the bedside and asked Sergu in a cold and stern voice, "It's you, isn't it?! It's you! You deliberately arranged for Qin Lie to appear at that time and place? Just when Liu Rusi was about to be sold by her gambling father?!"

Seriguleng's eyes were a little dazed, as if he were lost in distant memories. His dry lips moved slightly, and his tone was unusually calm: "The Taoist priest was just... reminding the child not to forget to visit and sweep the graves of his relatives during the Qingming Festival next year..."

Liu Rusi, who was watching calmly at the side, couldn't help but relax her expression slightly, and a faint smile passed across her lips - this was indeed what Qin Lie would do.

She still remembered that day, when she rushed into the rugged mountain road and bumped into Qin Lie, who had just come down from the Qin Family Tomb halfway up the mountain, carrying his bag and preparing to join the army...

Chu Shiyu paused slightly at the experienced answer, but immediately caught the fleeting smile on Liu Rusi's face! His anger erupted again, and he roared, "So you let him show up like this and take away the destined marriage between me and Liu Rusi?!"

Before he finished speaking, he leaned over in anger and was about to grab the skinny figure on the couch!

Liu Rusi was prepared. She took a step forward, stretched out her hand accurately, and put her hand into his outstretched palm!

Chu Shiyu was caught off guard and grabbed the soft hand, his movements stopping abruptly... The anger that was ready to burst out seemed to be suddenly cut off, and he froze in place for a moment.

Seriguleng seemed to have finally come back to his senses at this moment, his eyes fixed on the furious face of Prince Duan, and he turned a blind eye to the imminent danger before him.

He looked at Chu Shiyu with his astonishingly penetrating eyes, and said in a voice as soft as a sigh, "If I could trade a few years with Liu Cui for the rest of my life with Liu Rusi... what would you choose?"

The big hand tightly grasped Liu Rusi's hand, slowly withdrew it from in front of the old Taoist priest and let it hang down. Chu Shiyu subconsciously looked at the person next to him.

Liu Rusi's eyes suddenly showed enlightenment, as if she had instantly understood something!

Then, Chu Shiyu also grasped that frightening possibility! A strong sense of unwillingness and absurdity surged in his heart, and he asked with lingering anger: "Why did I choose this way?!"

"If everyone can recall memories that do not belong to this life, wouldn't that be a mess?" It was Liu Rusi who answered on his behalf, her tone calm but profound.

She pondered this question for a long, long time. Ever since she woke up in Liu Cui's body, endless doubts had plagued her. Leaving that world... she had no attachments... Why did she wake up in this strange world?

Now, after all she has gone through, the answer is about to come out. It is probably no coincidence that she can remember her past life...

"I am Liu Rusi because of you, right?"

Liu Rusi stared at the old Taoist priest. The old man was reminiscing in a trance but did not answer... After a few breaths, she also understood the reason why the old Taoist priest could not say it.

Then, a hint of self-pride flashed in Liu Rusi's eyes, and she asked as if to confirm, "If I were Liu Rusi, I wouldn't follow the path of the Golden Wind and Jade Dew Pavilion, right?"

The old Taoist priest still did not answer, but showed a helpless smile of being seen through on his face, silently confirming her guess.

Chu Shiyu's heart was shaken! Although his mind was full of confusion, he also understood the key point!

He couldn't help but think of the scenes before his two dreams of the "other world"... He dreamed that before Qin Lie resigned himself to his fate, he had personally ripped the widow's braid from Liu Rusi's hair, thrown it into the incense burner and burned it, and then fell asleep in anger...

And this time, he slept with Liu Rusi...

Chu Shiyu subconsciously looked at Liu Rusi's hair which was tied in a simple bun. Last night, he fell asleep while smelling the faint fragrance of her hair.

So...recalling past lives requires some kind of medium? Is Liu Rusi's hair...that medium? Then why does her hair become that medium?!

The anger in Ruifeng's eyes disappeared for the most part, replaced by surprise and curiosity.

He looked at the still calm old Taoist priest—yes, this old Taoist priest must have used some unfathomable means to allow the dying Liu Cui to obtain Liu Rusi's memories from her previous life. As long as... Qin Lie appeared when she needed him most and took the predetermined path...

A few days ago, when King Kang criticized his "bad deeds" in his childhood, Liu Rusi had said: "When people are in trouble, they will desperately look for a way out... And when they are on the verge of despair, if there is a way out that seems to lead to a solution, they probably don't care about it too much, nor do they care about whether it is right or wrong, whether it is a smooth road or an abyss, and they just plunge into it..."

If Qin Lie hadn't been there, Liu Rusi wouldn't have accepted the caged life she'd endured in the Golden Wind and Jade Dew Pavilion. With her inherent stubbornness and determination, she would have explored every possible path...

It is even possible that she will embark on a more thorny road with more twists and turns, and unpredictable life and death.

As for Liu Cui, whom he has never met before, and Liu Rusi, whom he deeply loves in both past and present lives, how should he choose?

"So... I have to thank you..."

Chu Shiyu's voice turned cold, but with a lingering sense of fatigue. He had already decided to end this meaningless pursuit of accountability. The past could not be retrieved. Even if he killed the old Taoist, he could not bring back the lost years.

However, an elusive expression emerged on Serjigu's cold and withered face, like a stone dropped into a calm lake. He spoke softly, stirring up the waves again: "No need to thank me, I have already received the reward I wanted."

Chu Shiyu's pupils suddenly contracted! A question that he hadn't had time to think about suddenly popped into his mind!

The resentment, anger, and roar that had been suppressed before all burst out in the face of this silent and huge humiliation!

"Qin Hao?!!!"

His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was distorted by extreme anger. "The reward you want is Qin Hao?!!!"

The hand that was tightly gripping Liu Rusi still didn't loosen, but the right hand that was injured only yesterday and could see the bone, had already grabbed the old Taoist's collar fiercely, almost lifting his skinny body off the bed!

Liu Rusi was unable to react and froze in her attempt to pry the hand open... Qin Hao...

"Qin Hao was supposed to be my child?!!"

Chu Shiyu looked like a madman, and his roar tore through the air!

In this life, even before he fell in love with Liu Rusi, he already had feelings for Qin Hao! This was an important part of his initial envy and jealousy of Qin Lie!

It turned out to be no accident! It was a blood bond that originated from the depths of fate and was meant to belong to him!

He once thought that his irresistible closeness to Qin Hao was due to the influence of Qin Lie's "feelings"! He even deliberately distanced himself from and rejected Qin Hao for this!

The new understanding, like a poisoned knife, pierced into the deepest part of his heart, stirring up the immense hatred of being fooled!

"What do you mean by 'should have'?!"

The old Taoist priest's face, which was always calm, suddenly became gloomy at this moment. His clear eyes looked coldly at the furious Chu Shiyu in front of him, and seemed to be looking through him at another person.

"As for 'should have'!"

At this moment, this old man, who was almost exhausted and dying, suddenly burst out with an awe-inspiring, emperor-like pressure that he had never displayed before! His aura was even stronger than that of the furious Chu Shiyu!

"This world should not belong to Chu! This dynasty should not be called Xia!"

The old man's skinny chest heaved violently, his voice like thunder, carrying with it a pent-up blood, tears, and unwillingness! The blood oozing from his mouth didn't diminish his power in the slightest!

"You, the Chu family! You've taken away ten years of my dynasty's prosperity! You've slaughtered tens of thousands of my relatives!"

The old man's eyes burned with the flames of his country's destruction and his family's ruin. Every word he said was soaked with deep hatred. "I just want a smart child from you, the Chu family's thief who stole the country, for a poor family that should not have existed!"

Seriguleng's accusations, each word pierced with blood, were like a bloody punishment from heaven, covering Chu Shiyu's head, which was burning with anger, causing him unspeakable pain.

This isn't about Chu Shiyu taking his wife and children away...

Seriguleng was seeking revenge on the entire Chu family, but it was on him...

There was a raging fire burning in those extremely clear eyes, not just burning towards him, but burning through him towards the founding emperor Chu Yuan, and towards the entire Chu family of Daxia!

"Why?"

These three words stagnated in his throat. Chu Shiyu knew that the ghost of the previous dynasty was just waiting for a sound—

"Why?"

There was a dead silence for a few moments, so heavy that it almost froze the air.

The only sounds left in the tent were Serriguleng's hoarse breathing caused by extreme anger and weakness, and the strong, rusty smell of blood.

At this moment, Chu Shiyu clearly felt that the soft hand he held tightly in his palm was struggling to break free! At the same time, another slightly cool hand was prying open the fingers of his right hand that was grabbing the old Taoist's clothes!

He subconsciously lowered his eyes, meeting Liu Rusi's, which were now as deep and bottomless as a cold pond. There was no anger or accusation in them, only an almost cold calm and an unquestionable determination to let go.

He seemed to be burned by that look, or perhaps the fierce struggle between the national hatred and family feuds churning in his mind and his own destiny had exhausted his energy.

Chu Shiyu's right hand, whose knuckles had turned white from exerting so much force and even caused fresh blood to seep from yesterday's wound, actually loosened its grip.

Only the left hand that was tightly holding hers was left, but it was still like a shackle, refusing to loosen even a little!

"I don't care about your past, or a past that didn't even happen." Liu Rusi's voice was extremely cold.

Her free hand did not try to pry open the iron palm that was restraining her, but instead she carefully smoothed out the collar of the old Taoist priest's clothes, which were soaked in the blood of the two men and looked particularly bright, as if she was sorting out a fragile relic.

There is a sense of ritual that is almost compassionate in the movements.

After doing all this, she placed her fingers on Seriguleng's wrist, which was as cold as a dead branch, and felt the pulse that was as weak as a candle in the wind.

The voice was not loud, but resolute: "I only know that Qin Hao is my child! And he is not the carrier of any of you. I will do everything I can to protect his freedom."

After taking the pulse, she stared solemnly at the old Taoist priest and said coldly, "You should know what I'm doing. Your life and death are at stake. Did you spend so much effort to 'take' a child just for revenge? What about the existence of this child itself?"

The old man, who had just been full of vigor and denouncing the Chu family for stealing the country and slaughtering the entire clan, now slowly lowered his heavy eyelids under Liu Rusi's soul-searching questioning. An indescribable complex of emotions surged on his withered face.

In this rewriting of fate, only the woman before him made him feel guilty. He knew Qin Lie's life span, but he brought the person named "Liu Rusi" into this world, letting her experience the extreme pain of losing her love and shoulder the heavy responsibility of raising Qin Hao alone...

He coughed softly, each cough shattering his decaying body. Blood once again flowed from the corner of his mouth. His voice was as weak as a sigh, filled with endless fatigue and a trace of unextinguished persistence: "I know... I... just..."

"That's good." Liu Rusi uttered three words softly without asking any further questions.

Liu Rusi knew that Serji Guleng cared, and she just wanted to confirm whether he was lost as he approached the end of his life.

If Seriguleng was only concerned about continuing the bloodline, the Qin family still had Qin Tao and Qin Zhen, as could be seen from the fortune-telling for each person that day at the Imperial Hospital. It was clear that Seriguleng did not mind that they had mixed Chu family blood, and he also showed care for them.

If it was just revenge, Qin Tao, Qin Zhen, or their father, Qin Shuangyu, who commanded a hundred thousand soldiers, would be the ones who were closer to the goal of revenge...

Seriguleng had left Baitian Temple two years ago, during the time of Qin Lie's death... After Qin Hao was born, even though he knew Qin Lie's death was inevitable, the old man still struggled...

He placed emotions beyond blood ties on every child of the Qin family. Liu Rusi even felt that she was inferior to him in love with such a broad and deep love.

An old man who has experienced the vicissitudes of life finally chooses to vent his anger and settle half a lifetime of grudges in this way.

Liu Rusi could understand some of his complicated mood.

As long as... as long as this huge blood feud, this heavy dynastic feud, will not turn into a physical shackle and fall upon her child Qin Hao again.