Chapter 1206: Worse Than a Beast

She was indeed tired.

But she genuinely couldn’t fall asleep.

Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see and feel was him.

His voice and smile, the last words he said to her in the cave, and that moment when he pushed her out with all his strength.

Whenever she thought of these, she wanted to cry.

"Zhao Junyao!"

"Tell me, you won’t die!"

"I don’t believe that was you!"

"That wasn’t you, right?"

So what if she saw the body? It was in such a state, maybe it wasn’t him?

Maybe Zhao Junqi had randomly found someone to replace him?

Who knows, considering how cunning father and son are.

At this point, Xia Ruqing still held a sliver of hope in her heart.

As she indulged in wild thoughts for a while,

she suddenly thought of something and with difficulty reached inside her clothes with her hands.

Disregarding chastity and shame, she clumsily fumbled inside with her bandaged hands.

After a moment, her eyes lit up.

’Found it!’

It was the three packs of medicine she’d previously asked someone to buy.

One pack was the Bewitching Drug, which could knock someone out for three days and nights.

Another pack caused temporary impotence in men, ensuring she wouldn’t have to worry about being violated.

The last pack was poison, for when there was no other option but death.

Xia Ruqing smiled contentedly as she held the three packs of powder.

’Fortunately, you’re all here!’

’With you, I’m not afraid of anything. At worst, there’s death, isn’t there?’

’Though it’s often said that a good death is better than a bad life, sometimes dying cleanly is more important than living.’

For the first time, Xia Ruqing was impressed by her own wisdom and foresight.

She originally bought them just in case, who would have thought she’d actually get the chance to use them?

What a twist of fate!!

She closed her eyes and breathed a big sigh of relief.

Perhaps her body was too weak and exhausted, she eventually couldn’t hold on and fell asleep.

As instructed by Zhao Junqi.

No maid came in to disturb her sleep.

So when Xia Ruqing woke up groggily again, it was already pitch dark.

There was a lamp lit in the room, but the maids were nowhere to be seen.

Only Zhao Junqi was sitting by the bed, staring at her with an indescribable gaze.

For some reason, Xia Ruqing felt a wave of disgust in her heart.

Not wanting to look at him or respond, she turned her head coldly to the other side.

Zhao Junqi didn’t mind and just smiled.

"Qingqing!"

"The wounds on your hands have reopened. I had someone bandage you up again!"

"Be good and don’t move around, otherwise it might leave you with lasting problems!"

Xia Ruqing chuckled coldly but said nothing.

Her heart had only one thought: The fox comes to greet the hen at New Year, with no good intentions.

Seeing that she said nothing, Zhao Junqi continued.

"Don’t worry, when I become Emperor, you’ll still be the Empress!"

"Even if I have a harem of beauties in the future, you’ll always be the most important one, no one will surpass you!"

"Isn’t that good?"

Xia Ruqing was so angry she could spit blood, turning her head to fiercely spit at him.

"I scoff!"

"Don’t get cocky, he won’t die!"

Zhao Junqi was taken aback for a moment, but wasn’t angry, only bewildered.

"You..."

"Don’t talk nonsense, you’ve even seen the body!"

"Rest assured, after all, he’s my first cousin, I will give him a proper burial!"

"If worst comes to worst..."

Zhao Junqi said with some difficulty.

"You can mourn him for a few days too, after all... you were once husband and wife!"

"Though I will do better than him in the future, I don’t want you to think I’m bullying others!"

"Qingqing, I am genuinely sincere with you!"

"What do you have to lose?!"

Xia Ruqing shook with anger at his smug demeanor, unwilling to engage with him.

But there was one thing she had to clarify, thinking for a moment, she asked.

"There’s something I can’t understand!"

"What?" Zhao Junqi appeared eager to please.

"Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you!"

"Those gunpowder on the mountain, where did you get them from?" Xia Ruqing asked directly.

Even though this was a completely fictitious dynasty, the structure of the Celestial Empire hadn’t changed.

Logically, gunpowder should have been invented by the Celestial Empire first, then gradually spread abroad.

But now... she hadn’t heard of it existing among the populace.

So those gunpowder shouldn’t exist!

However, Zhao Junqi raised an eyebrow at her words.

"Such things are not rare, why worry about getting them?"

Xia Ruqing frowned in confusion.

"Not rare?"

Zhao Junqi nodded smilingly.

"There have long been hunters using pellets to hunt, but those primitive ammunitions couldn’t be so powerful!"

"What I used naturally came from overseas!"

"Which country?" Xia Ruqing pressed further.

Though she hadn’t studied much, her grasp of history was weak, failing to learn much of even China’s history, let alone ancient gunpowder history.

Therefore she wouldn’t understand too much about these, but she still wanted to know the result.

Zhao Junqi didn’t hide from her, directly saying,

"Portland Country!"

Xia Ruqing was stunned.

She knew, she knew it wasn’t so simple.

At first, cement was invented in Portland Country, indicating that country valued such things highly.

Gunpowder, cement, and the like.

Xia Ruqing looked a bit dazed, internally lamenting:

Sure enough, it’s different from ancient times, the world’s direction and structure are just too strange!

Regardless, what’s most important is the matter at hand.

Xia Ruqing stared at Zhao Junqi with her sharpest gaze.

"You collaborated with them?"

Zhao Junqi continued smugly.

"Exactly!"

"They claim to seek protection, but they still want money in the end!"

"They created these things just to get a large sum of silver!"

"So I directly promised them, as long as they help me become Emperor, there’s as much silver as they want!"

"I could even marry the king’s daughter from Portland myself!"

Xia Ruqing was utterly astounded.

Up to this point, what else was unclear to her?

Back then those women wanted to marry Zhao Junyao, but were ruthlessly rejected by him.

The king of Portland, originally aiming to reap benefits from the Great Chu Dynasty, had his plans thoroughly ruined by Zhao Junyao.

Ultimately, not a single bit of silver was gained, and they were directly sent back.

Portland being furious was only natural.

But Zhao Junqi...

Xia Ruqing gazed deeply at him.

Her whole body ran cold, and her heart filled with a profound chill.

Zhao Junqi was terrifying.

This person’s ambition was vast, his heart harder than a stone, completely unscrupulous in achieving his goals.

First, he collaborated with Southern Ocean’s various countries in Guangnan, committing treason.

Then, again with Portland, he joined hands to murder his cousin.

Most terrifying of all, he disregarded ethics to covet his cousin’s wife.

In the feudal, strictly hierarchical and rigorously educated ancient times, this was simply absurd to the extreme.

Xia Ruqing gritted her teeth.

’There truly were beasts in human attire in this world!’

’No, he’s even worse than a beast!’