I Died the Day His Love Value Maxed Out

Chapter 136: Chapter 136: The Princess Consort’s Life Will Not Be in Danger

Beside them, Liu Rong, unable to contain his anger, kicked Liu Yue in the stomach and snarled, ”Did you think you could escape death just by hiding your wife and child? In this entire world, who can protect someone the Prince wants dead?”

At the mention of his wife and child, Liu Yue’s expression faltered, but he remained silent.

From the look of it, he seemed to genuinely believe that his new master could protect his family from Xie Jinbai.

Liu Rong was stunned.

As was Xie Jinbai.

’I’m not an arrogant man, but throughout all of Great Yue, who could possibly protect someone I’m determined to kill?’

’Even if I had to dig to the ends of the earth, I could find them.’

’Who could have given Liu Yue such confidence?’

After a moment of contemplation, Xie Jinbai’s gaze narrowed. ”Are you one of the Empress’s people?”

Liu Yue remained silent, his breath coming in ragged gasps. His internal organs were injured, and blood trickled continuously from the corner of his mouth.

”When did you go over to her side?”

Xie Jinbai’s face darkened. ”Or have you been her man from the very beginning?”

Liu Yue, Liu Rong, and the others had all been chosen for him by his father, the Emperor, and had been by his side since childhood.

Before he learned the Empress was not his birth mother, Xie Jinbai had never been on guard against her.

’If the Empress had wanted to meddle and plant one of her own people by my side, it would have been far too easy.’

’So Liu Yue’s master was always the Empress.’

”What a loyal servant,”

Xie Jinbai sneered, his thoughts clearing. ”What did she give you that made you willing to betray me—to gamble away your own life and the lives of your wife and family?”

’Was it the assassins who kept appearing on our journey?’

’Or that rabble from the Qiang Clan?’

’Or were you gambling on taking my life with a single strike from behind, while I was seriously injured and unsuspecting of a trusted confidant?’

’But even if he had succeeded in killing me, what good end could Liu Yue expect as an assassin?’

’The Emperor may be gravely ill, but he’s still breathing. To dare assassinate a current Prince in broad daylight is suicide.’

’Unless...’

Xie Jinbai’s eyes narrowed. ”What is the Empress using to control you? Poison? Or your wife and child...”

He ruled out the latter possibility before he even finished speaking.

’Liu Yue isn’t even thirty. He could always have another wife and child; they aren’t more precious than his own life.’

’He would never gamble with his own life just because his family is in the Empress’s hands.’

’In that case... he must be controlled by poison.’

’By obeying the Empress, he might have a chance to survive. If he dares to disobey, he will surely die.’

’That’s the only thing that would drive him to betray me, his apparent ’master.’’

With this realization, Xie Jinbai spun around. ”Go get the army physician.”

Liu Yue wasn’t just anyone. After more than a decade of serving him, Xie Jinbai had to understand the real reason for his betrayal.

Liu Rong bowed in acknowledgment. Just as he was about to leave, Liu Yue, who had been silent the entire time, finally spoke.

”There is no need to trouble the army physician. Your Highness is correct, I have indeed been poisoned,”

He had been brutally interrogated, and bloody foam bubbled from his lips as he spoke, but with his training as a military general, his voice remained steady.

”Ever since I came to your side at the age of ten, I have been under the effects of Seven-Star Powder. The antidote is in the hands of the Empress. I must take one pill every month without fail, or I will die a gruesome death, my guts rupturing and blood pouring from my seven orifices.”

”I always thought the Empress was your birth mother, and that the Seven-Star Powder was her way of ensuring the loyalty of those around you. I never dreamed that you would one day turn against each other...”

Liu Yue gave a bitter smile. ”In those ten-odd years, it never occurred to me that I would one day become a traitor.”

Their bond as master and servant had not been a lie.

Xie Jinbai’s eyes narrowed.

Three years ago, he had promoted Liu Yue from a mere personal guard to Deputy Commander of the Yulin Guards.

Once he held military authority, he was no longer by Xie Jinbai’s side day and night.

It was in that same year that Xie Jinbai discovered the Empress was not his birth mother.

Since Liu Yue was no longer his personal guard, he naturally wouldn’t have known.

He had no opportunity to report back to the Empress, either.

Later on, Cui Lingyao fell into the water, and his relationship with the Empress shattered.

He gave the Empress a taste of her own medicine, poisoning her in return.

For all of these matters, he had plenty of other trusted people, so none of it was handled by Liu Yue.

It was a strange twist of fate.

The mole the Empress had planted over a decade ago was only being exposed now, three years later.

”You betrayed our master for a mere antidote?” Liu Rong was still seething. ”If you had just confessed, it never would have come to this!”

They had grown up together, as close as brothers.

He could never have imagined that the person closest to them was the mole.

And he hated to see Liu Yue meet such a fate.

’If he had just confessed,’ Liu Rong thought, ’given the Prince’s temperament, even if he couldn’t tolerate a traitor, he at least wouldn’t have slaughtered his entire family.’

Liu Yue shook his head. ”I didn’t dare to take that gamble.”

In these past three years, Xie Jinbai had become far, far too ruthless.

He was a dead man either way; all he wanted was a path to survival for his family.

Rather than confess and pray that a bloodthirsty man would spare his family, he chose the path he believed was safer.

A brief silence fell over the Hall of Punishments.

Xie Jinbai’s heart began to pound. For a moment, he didn’t dare to think too deeply about what could possibly give Liu Yue the confidence—the certainty—that he would spare his family, even after this betrayal.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck his mind.

’Cui Lingyao!’

The name that flashed through his mind drained all the color from Xie Jinbai’s face.

He shot to his feet and viciously seized Liu Yue by the throat. ”What did you do?”

’What other moves has he made?!’

The sound of raindrops began to patter against the window.

As if on cue, a torrential downpour began, water streaming from the roof tiles onto the ground below.

The last bit of strength holding Liu Yue together seemed to snap. He coughed up another mouthful of dark blood, but still managed to reassure his master, who looked ready to collapse. ”Rest assured, Your Highness. The Princess Consort’s life is not in danger.”

He didn’t call her Miss Pei, but referred to her directly as the Princess Consort.

This made it clear that he knew Cui Lingyao had been reborn in the body of Pei Shuyao.

And so, Liu Yue, having witnessed Xie Jinbai’s three years of madness firsthand, was certain that this knowledge was the Empress’s greatest trump card.

Compared to the flimsy bond between master and servant, he was pinning his hopes on Cui Lingyao’s safety, believing it would force Xie Jinbai to hold back.

Liu Yue slowly closed his eyes, his only hope that his family would be spared.

’In this life, my very identity was a mistake from the start.’

’The moment the Empress and the Prince became enemies, my death was sealed.’

”Guards!” Xie Jinbai roared. ”Get the army physician! I want him kept alive!”

’You think you can just die? It’s not that simple.’

He spun around to leave, but his body staggered violently.

”Your Highness!” Liu Rong cried, rushing to support him, only to find his master’s arms trembling.

”Liu Yue said Miss Pei’s life isn’t in danger, you must—”

Xie Jinbai shoved him away, roughly wiped his face, and charged into the curtain of rain.

Within Pingzhou City, a storm was brewing.

...

「Meanwhile.」

Cui Lingyao sat in a sedan chair. A violent storm raged outside, and the unsteady bearers jostled her from side to side.

Rain kept spattering in through the side window.

Peeking through the curtain, she saw they were about to cross a stone bridge. An old temple, a perfect place to shelter from the rain, was just a short distance away, but chaos suddenly erupted outside.

Someone shouted, ”It’s the Qiang Clan bandits!”