Flower Stealing Master

Chapter 726: The Fake Antidote

Hearing Song Qingshu mention her husband, Huang Rong felt a pang of guilt. Now that she had obtained the antidote, she hadn’t even thought of saving Brother Jing first!

Suppressing her chaotic emotions, Huang Rong nodded and quickly entered the room with the porcelain bottle in hand. Guo Jing was sitting cross-legged on the bed, seemingly trying to circulate his True Qi. However, the large beads of sweat dripping from his face indicated that his condition was far from good.

“Rong’er, is that you?” Under normal circumstances, with Guo Jing’s level of martial arts, he could easily recognize his wife’s footsteps. However, with his dantian completely devoid of internal energy and his eyesight gone, he could only tell that the person entering had light and graceful steps, likely a woman.

“Brother Jing, we found the antidote!” Seeing her husband’s miserable state, Huang Rong’s nose tingled, and she hurried forward to support him.

Song Qingshu leaned against the doorway, not stepping inside to disturb them. Strangely enough, despite his strong possessiveness toward women, watching Huang Rong and Guo Jing interact intimately did not make him feel uncomfortable at all. After thinking it over, he could only explain it as: ‘Huang Rong was originally Guo Jing’s wife, after all.’

‘I must be quite the pervert,’ Song Qingshu chuckled to himself mockingly. He was, after all, not the type to kill husbands to take their wives like Yun Zhonghe. While he enjoyed the feeling of possessing Huang Rong, he did not want to ruin her marriage. Firstly, he had to consider his grand ambitions and maintain his reputation. Secondly, it simply wasn’t in his nature.

While he was lost in thought, Huang Rong had already explained the process of obtaining the antidote. 

Guo Jing listened with admiration and said, “Young Hero Song is truly full of brilliant ideas. To think of such a clever method!”

Song Qingshu smiled faintly. “You’re too kind, Great Hero Guo. You should take the antidote as soon as possible. Madame Guo was extremely worried about you on the way here.”

Huang Rong glanced at him in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to say such kind words about her in front of Brother Jing.
Guo Jing was also deeply moved. He grabbed his wife’s hand. “Rong’er, you’ve really had a hard time.”

Huang Rong, however, shrank back like a startled rabbit. She instinctively withdrew her hand before realizing her reaction was inappropriate. ‘Why am I avoiding my husband’s touch?’ She unconsciously turned to glance at Song Qingshu and saw him watching her with great interest. A wave of panic surged in her heart, and she hurriedly averted her gaze.

Guo Jing’s hand grasped empty air, leaving him feeling a deep sense of loss. “Rong’er, you…”

Huang Rong blushed and whispered an excuse. “Young Hero Song is still here watching. Aren’t you embarrassed, Brother Jing?”

Guo Jing chuckled awkwardly. So that was it—his wife was just too shy.

To cover her embarrassment, Huang Rong quickly took out the porcelain bottle and poured out a pill. A refreshing medicinal fragrance spread through the room, instantly revealing that this was no ordinary remedy.

Examining the pill closely, Huang Rong nodded to herself. There was nothing wrong with it. Coming from a family with a rich medical background, her father, Huang Yaoshi, was a genius at refining medicine. Even though she had only learned a fraction of his skills, determining whether an antidote was poisoned was still within her abilities.

She knew that Western Poison Ouyang Feng was a cunning man and had not trusted him completely. Only now, after confirming that the antidote was not poisonous, did she feel relieved.

Guo Jing swallowed the pill, and Song Qingshu helped him circulate his Qi to disperse the medicinal effects. Watching as her husband’s pale face gradually regained color, Huang Rong finally let out a smile.

However, before her smile could last, Guo Jing’s face turned increasingly red. Suddenly, he coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of black, poisonous blood!

Song Qingshu, who had been assisting him in dispersing the poison, was startled. He could feel the energy within Guo Jing’s body becoming chaotic, and the poison that had been previously suppressed was now surging up again. ᚱ₳𝐍ȫВʧ

“Brother Jing, what’s wrong?!” Huang Rong cried out in alarm. She reached out to touch her husband, only to find that his skin was burning hot. Guo Jing opened his eyes and looked at her, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something. But before he could speak, he collapsed onto the bed, completely still.

“Brother Jing!” At that moment, Huang Rong felt as if her heart had shattered. She suddenly turned to glare at Song Qingshu. “You! Song! You’re truly ruthless!”

Song Qingshu frowned. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” Huang Rong let out a cold laugh. “You orchestrated this entire act just so you could kill Brother Jing without lifting a finger! Now, you can openly claim me as your own! I was truly blind to have ever believed you genuinely wanted to save him.”

Song Qingshu looked at her calmly and said in a deep voice, “You’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment. I’ll pretend I never heard those words.”

Huang Rong shook her head, as if she hadn’t heard him at all. Her vacant eyes filled with despair as she murmured, “You already got what you wanted. I even agreed to be your secret lover… so why… why did you still have to kill Brother Jing…?”

Seeing her grief-stricken expression and the hatred in her eyes, Song Qingshu felt both amused and annoyed. “Hey, we may have gotten close, but if you keep slandering me like this, I might really sue you for defamation. Who said I wanted to kill Great Hero Guo? And besides, he’s not dead yet. What are you crying about?”

Huang Rong had no reaction to his previous words, but when she heard the last sentence, her dull eyes suddenly lit up. She turned to look at the bed in surprise. “Brother Jing isn’t dead?”

Song Qingshu snorted. “Not yet. But if you keep distracting me, he ‘will’ be dead soon. In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, you’ll get your wish and become a widow.”

Only then did Huang Rong realize that Song Qingshu’s palm had been pressed against her husband’s back the whole time. His sleeve billowed despite the still air, clearly a sign that he was exerting his full strength to channel his True Qi. She hurriedly checked Guo Jing’s pulse and found that, while weak, there was still a resilient thread of life remaining!

Only now did she understand—Song Qingshu had been using his True Qi to sustain her husband’s life. Watching him, usually so composed and elegant, now sweating profusely with veins bulging all over his body, her emotions became incredibly complex.

No one knew how long had passed when Guo Jing suddenly coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of black blood. Within the blood, half a dissolved pill was visible. 

Song Qingshu finally sighed in relief. “It’s out. Now, give me that bottle of antidote!”

Huang Rong poured out another pill, frowning in confusion. “But I already checked it… there’s no poison.” This was why she had suspected Song Qingshu earlier. Since the antidote had no issues, the only possible explanation was that Song Qingshu, while channeling energy behind Guo Jing, had secretly harmed him in a way that could later be blamed on Ouyang Feng.

Song Qingshu picked up a small fragment of the pill with his fingers and tasted it. After closing his eyes in thought for a moment, he said, “The antidote itself ‘is’ non-toxic. Wanyan Liang isn’t an idiot. He knew Ouyang Feng would test it first—if it were poisoned, he’d never be able to establish himself in Jin.”

Huang Rong’s mind was in complete turmoil. 

‘If even he is certain that the antidote has no poison, then… the only suspect left is him?’ But then why did he spend so much energy keeping Brother Jing alive? Could it be… he just wanted to put on a show to move me…?’

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