Chapter 70.3 My Hatred

Su Su gritted her teeth and wielded the Soul Extinguishing Tear. Tantai Jin was hugging her firmly in his arms, and suddenly, three golden nails appeared behind him and nailed into his heart.

Tantai Jin lowered his head in a daze, and saw the young girl’s emotionless eyes.

His face was deathly pale, blood flowing down from the corner of his mouth. After a long while, he let go of her, “Why?”

Su Su’s bright and clear pupils looked at him, “I came here to kill you from the start.”

“Kill me?” He repeated in a low voice, “That can’t be, didn’t you want…… to be my……”

Another three Soul Extinguishing Nails once again entered his heart, interrupting what he was about to say.

His face was as pale as paper. He suddenly raised his head and looked at her with an icy-cold gaze.

Darkness spread through his eyes.

“You’ve been lying to me, you never liked me, you’re just like them, you just want me dead!”

Feeling like something was wrong, Su Su wanted to quickly nail the last three Soul Extinguishing Nails into his heart.

His lips suddenly curled up strangely.

The sixth month’s night breeze became icy-cold in an instant, brushing through Su Su’s hair.

Where his heart was, a blue scale suddenly glowed.

Curved Jade gasped, “Ye Bing Shang gave him the heart protecting scale!”

The last three nails hit the heart protecting scale, and shattered into powder.

The youth’s face was as pale as a corpse, he raised his hand and Su Su was thrown backwards.

She was already an arrow at the end of its flight ¹ 强弩之末 (qiángnǔzhīmò) – an idiom; fig. spent force from overusing the World Toppling Flower, and she spit out a mouthful of blood after taking the hit from the heart protecting scale.

A sword was held against her neck.

Su Su’s heart sank like a stone, and her mind and body were both cold. Three Soul Extinguishing Nails…… shattered.

Her mission had failed.

However, what was even more terrifying than this was the youth squatting down to look at her, blood continuing to flow from the corner of his mouth, “Do you think I’m very stupid, and very laughable?”

Su Su coughed violently.

He choked her, and said in a strange voice, as if both crying and laughing, “Since you don’t cherish my affection, then try my hatred.”

Su Su couldn’t even say a word, the heart protecting scale flashed, and she fainted.

*****

“Today is the fifteenth.”

Someone said in her ear.

Fifteenth? For the moment, she didn’t react to what the phrase meant. Her mind was muddled, and even though it was a summer night, the chill in the air still made her shiver.

Fifteenth! Su Su abruptly opened her eyes.

In the cold dungeon, she was lying on a crude stone bed, surrounded by darkness, so dark that she couldn’t even see her hand out in front of her ² 伸手不见五指 (shēnshǒu bùjiàn wǔzhǐ) – an idiom; pitch-dark .

At the other end of the stone bed, a dark figure sat quietly.

Su Su discovered that her wrists and ankles were completely bound and restricted by weak water.

In the dark night, icy-cold eyes mockingly watched her struggle.

Su Su’s heart collapsed.

“Scared, are you?” He laughed softly and spoke like a madman, “ A few days ago, I was in this mood of yours all day and all night.”

“A person in darkness will always hope that there’ll be light tomorrow. But look, no one in this world will save me, just like now…… no one will save you.”

Su Su subconsciously went to find the Gu worm on her, and she hoarsely muttered, “The Gu worm is gone……”

Her reaction caused Tantai Jin to coldly laugh once again.

The Gu worm was lost in the chaotic arrows of the Hidden Dragon Guards, and it just happened to be the fifteenth, when the Spring Knot Silkworm in her body would act up.

“Perhaps, you’ve laughed at me many times behind my back. Look at that fool called Tantai Jin. You’ve beaten him, scolded him, humiliated him, but he still couldn’t bear to kill you. He even thought of making you the empress, and growing old and dying together like normal people.”

“He was so hopelessly stupid, that even knowing that you left him again, he still chose to go find you. Because he was actually afraid that you would really be killed by that beast, the Eighth Prince.”

“But the arrows of the Hidden Dragon Guards, and the six nails inside his heart, showed him that he was really cheap ³ 贱 (jiàn) – despicable; worthless . Did you hesitate even a little when you tried to kill me?”

His tone was laced with desperation and craziness, but it sounded like a murmur in the dim secret chamber, and it could even be described as calm ⁴ 心平气和 (xīnpíng-qìhé) – tranquil and even-tempered (idiom); calmly and without stress .

There was an unspeakable fear in Su Su’s heart. Her body was hot, and she was short of breath.

Calculating the time, the Spring Knot Silkworm had been in her body for a year and a half. Far from the faint effect of the first or second time, without the Gu worm, her body had reached the point where she would die if it wasn’t detoxified.

Clenching her lapel, she struggled in her heart.

She wanted to stay away from him, but the poison’s effect on her body was gradually burning away her sanity.

“Don’t worry, I know you don’t care to be my empress. I won’t be so stupid anymore. Disdain being a concubine?”

“You can’t even be a concubine.”

“Just die here.” He murmured, like a devil whispering, “It’s a pity that I didn’t die as you wished, now your hell is coming.”

The stone bed under her was as hard as ice, but Su Su didn’t feel any better.

Curved Jade didn’t react, and it was pitch-dark. She felt extremely unwell, and her fingers tightly gripped the stone bed underneath her, like a dying fish, but she never once stretched out her hand to him.

The dim light in Tantai Jin’s eyes gradually turned into piercing indifference. He got up and left.

Su Su fell on the stone bed. She gasped in pain, there was a blood mist in front of her, and she couldn’t even see the secret chamber clearly.

Her blood quickly flowed out, oozing from her mouth and nose.

She spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling her life slowly disappearing.

So cold……

Just as her breath was getting weaker, the vanishing footsteps briskly reappeared. Someone held her hand, and whether with more ruthlessness or anger, he raged with murderous intent and crushed her finger bones ⁵ Biological term/anatomy: phalanx .

Tantai Jin suddenly jerked her upper body up and pressed her against the icy-cold secret chamber.

“Instead of letting you die like this, it’s better for me to finish you off myself!”

She was in such pain that Su Su sobered up. N-no, I can’t die.

She thought to herself, I can’t…… just die like this, I must live no matter what.

Trembling, she held the hand of the person who had come, tightly clasping his ten fingers, her nails almost digging into the back of Tantai Jin’s hands.

“Save me……”

The young girl trembled in his arms, his fingers bled from the scratches from her nails, and there were even a few gashes on his skin.

He was silent for a long while, then closed his eyes and laughed out loud, “You too……”

The young girl trembled and hugged his neck.

The dim light of the night shattered before her eyes, and Su Su gasped for air.

Her fingers hurt, everything hurt. The fear of failing the mission and the pain from the Spring Knot Silkworm made her tremble like a little beast ⁶ Not a profanity like how Tantai Jin scolded the Eighth Prince .

Tantai Jin’s fingers ran through her hair. She was like a climbing vine, absorbing nourishment to try and survive from his body.

*****

It was almost dawn.

When Su Su came to her senses, the man beside her was softly laughing, it was uncertain if he was mocking her or laughing at himself. Then, he stopped laughing and softly hummed a song he’d heard in Xia Empire as a child.

It was a song used for amusement by the palace servants on countless lonely nights. In those terrifying and lonely nights, he couldn’t learn anything but these filthy things.

Now, he sang to her.

He held her hand, kissed her lips, and easily pressed on her aching finger bones.

“Does it hurt? It can’t be compared with the pain in my heart.”

How I wished to kill her, but I actually chose to let her live.

In the darkness, blood seeped from the corner of Tantai Jin’s mouth. He was heartily laughing as he continued to hum.

At some point, his fingers had clasped hers, and he tightly held her without any room for resistance.

In the boundless darkness, he was icy-cold and merciless.

“Can you feel it?” He touched the already cold tears in her hair and carelessly wiped them away.

My hatred.

Edited by: Gaze

Translator’s Note: There you go, a longggg chapter. Phew… we are now getting nearer to the most anticipated scene of all… few chaps away from it huhu ps: Please prepare your heart (maybe some tissues too) for the upcoming chapters ⊙﹏⊙∥