Chapter 88: Chapter 88: "But Ming Lingyi Is Already Dead.

Ming Lingyi froze when she heard him.

Had it been like a moment ago, she could have fought back against Li Yun.

But he just had to say something like that, and for a moment, she was at a loss for how to respond.

Ming Lingyi fell silent, making the room seem even quieter.

Li Yun finally released his grip after a moment. His presence in the room made the already small, cramped bedroom feel even more suffocating.

Ming Lingyi sighed. From where she sat, she had a clear view of the red handprint from the slap she’d given Li Yun.

It was, she had to admit, quite distinct.

Li Yun’s skin was naturally fair. Even when it had been tanned to a wheat color during his past military campaigns, a winter spent indoors had restored it.

Ming Lingyi hadn’t held back at all, and now, under the candlelight, the five-fingered mark was starkly visible on his cheek.

"I can let tonight’s events go. Just leave now." Li Yun’s words had stirred a flicker of emotion in Ming Lingyi, but nothing more.

She wasn’t going to have a change of heart over a few words from him.

Li Yun said, "Come back to the palace with me now."

"Impossible."

Li Yun asked, "You want to stay out here, but what about me?"

Hearing this, Ming Lingyi laughed. "You are the lord of the realm. What can’t you have? Why must you insist on having me, a person who is already dead and gone?"

Li Yun’s expression turned grim. The one memory he never wanted to revisit was that New Year’s Eve five years ago. When he had rushed back to Kunning Palace, he was met with the sight of her lying in bed, never to wake again.

That suffocating feeling... experiencing it once had been enough to nearly kill him.

"I only have you," Li Yun said, each word deliberate. "It has always been only you. Even when Xue Yi was in the imperial harem, the man at her side wasn’t me. It was one of my Hidden Guards, a master of disguise. I only have you."

He had wanted to tell her all this from the very first moment he saw her again.

But that time, her words had provoked him so badly that his qi surged and his old wounds flared up. Worried he would frighten her, he had been forced to make a hasty departure.

Only now did he have the chance to explain.

Hearing this, Ming Lingyi wasn’t particularly surprised.

If she hadn’t understood five years ago, she certainly did after Xiao Chun told her how Xue Yi’s father’s head had ended up mounted on the gates of Shangjing City. It was clear then that Li Yun’s attitude toward Xue Yi had been deeply suspect.

But even with that realization, she had no desire to uncover the full truth behind Xue Yi’s supposed favor in the imperial harem.

In fact, it was this very point that made her even more determined not to go back.

Li Yun’s desire for control was too strong. He was accustomed to making every decision himself, expecting her to simply comply.

It was just like the matter of Chen Fei—he refused to speak of it, so she would never know the truth.

’But why should I always be the one to comply? Because I didn’t know the "truth," my mind would run wild with speculation every day.’

’My affection for him was so great that it easily plunged me into a state of emotional turmoil and self-doubt.’

’This love for Li Yun was a crushing weight, so heavy that I lost the will to live. In the end, when all my hopes were dashed, all I wanted was to be free, to disappear forever from that cage of suspicion and self-loathing.’

’Having been granted this new life, there was no way I would ever return to the cage that had once imprisoned me.’

"So?" Ming Lingyi asked after a moment of silence, looking up at him.

Li Yun’s brows knitted together tightly. ’His Yuan Niang doesn’t want to come back to me... Isn’t it because of the misunderstanding about Xue Yi?’

As if sensing his confusion, Ming Lingyi spoke, enunciating each word clearly. "I am not going back because I am Ming Yao now, not the Ming Lingyi who was always waiting for you to look back at her. Ming Lingyi is dead. She died five years ago, on a stormy, snow-filled night, waiting for you to turn around, waiting for an explanation."

Since it never came five years ago, any explanation now was far too late. She didn’t want to hear it, nor did she see any point.

Ming Lingyi had already composed herself after her earlier outburst. By the time she finished speaking, she was perfectly calm.

Li Yun stared at the woman sitting across from him, searching her eyes for something, anything, different.

He wanted to find some sign of guilt, some proof that she didn’t mean what she was saying. Instead, her placid calm was what sent his own qi and blood into turmoil.

Self-recrimination, frustration, regret—a torrent of emotions crashed over him, so intense he felt the urge to double over in pain.

But Li Yun refused to bow his head, refused to show weakness.

At the very least, he knew he couldn’t appear weak in front of Ming Lingyi.

The hand resting on the table, Li Yun had clenched into a tight fist.

Veins stood out starkly on the back of his hand.

He gritted his teeth, his eyes turning scarlet.

"But I was always..." Li Yun felt a metallic tang rise in his throat. He forced it down, speaking in a low voice that sounded deceptively normal.

Ming Lingyi replied, "But Ming Lingyi is already dead."

When Li Yun stumbled out of Ming Lingyi’s small courtyard, Xiao Chun and Shi Mingyue were still fast asleep.

His guards, silent as wraiths, followed him quietly from the Ming Family’s courtyard.

The moment they were outside the courtyard, Li Yun’s body suddenly gave way. If not for a quick-witted guard catching him, he would have collapsed to the ground.

「Deep in the night, the Imperial Hospital was ablaze with lights, a hive of frantic activity.」

The Emperor was unconscious—a crisis of magnitude enough to shake the Imperial Hospital to its very foundations.

Figures moved like shadows through Taiji Palace. Inside, everyone was silent. Even the Imperial Physicians, wishing to confer after taking the Emperor’s pulse, did so in hushed whispers.

All attention was fixed on the young Emperor lying on the dragon throne bed.

The guards dared not reveal Li Yun’s whereabouts. No one had expected him to suddenly collapse.

After a consultation with the other imperial physicians, Doctor Sui spoke in a low voice, "His Majesty is suffering from overwhelming grief, which has injured his heart. Such a sudden, great sorrow has thrown his qi and blood into disarray. The bluish tinge of his lips is a sign of a weakened life-force. While he did cough up blood, that was likely the body’s attempt to expel the affliction. However, the wounds on His Majesty’s chest... they require a long period of quiet recuperation..."

Liu Ye broke out in a cold sweat as he listened. The only masters in the palace now were the Emperor and the Crown Prince.

The Empress Dowager had passed away years ago. With the Emperor in this state, he’d had no choice but to summon the Crown Prince from the Eastern Palace.

Looking at the young Crown Prince now, his small face cold and stern, Liu Ye saw a shadow of the Emperor’s own authority.

Li Yan had never imagined that his Imperial Father—a man who seemed like an unmovable mountain, who could never be defeated—could be lying on the bed, unconscious, his breath as faint as a silk thread.

His youthful face was taut with tension. "Doctor Sui, is there any way to wake my Imperial Father? And what did you mean about the wounds on his chest?"