Transmigrated Female Official

212 Prepare for the worst

Under Longkui's secret instructions, Chu Qingluo and Shaoyao were taken to the Heavenly Prison and imprisoned separately, one in the east and the other in the west.

Peony cried and struggled for a while, but once you get here, unless you get special treatment, the jailers don't care who you were before. In their eyes, most prisoners are the same, with no future.

Lacking the privileges of royalty, both women were dressed in prison clothes. The cramped cell contained neither a wooden bed nor a dining table, only a pile of straw; sitting on it, they could feel the biting cold emanating from the floor. In the perpetually dark corner, dampness and mold had caused a foul odor.

Chu Qingluo huddled in a relatively dry corner, her arms wrapped around her knees, her chin resting on her arms, her dark eyes fixed on a woman in the opposite cell…

The woman lay motionless on the ground, her disheveled hair obscured from her face. Her withered knuckles and filthy prison clothes suggested she had been imprisoned there for a very long time.

I happened to see a mouse pass by. It wasn't afraid at all. Instead, it slowly strolled around, sniffing here and there with its long nose. But there was no food here, so in the end, it could only leave with a look of disgust.

When the jailer secured the gate with a padlock, surprisingly, Chu Qingluo felt no panic or fear. If this was finally fate's way of dealing with her, perhaps… it was a kind of liberation?

……

It was already dark, but the prison cell remained quiet. There were no guards patrolling, and no dinner was served.

The night was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face; there was no light.

Chu Qingluo slowly closed her eyes, truly hoping that when she woke up, she could return to her own world...

"Qingluo—"

She vaguely heard a commotion and heard someone shaking her arm. Chu Qingluo frowned and opened her eyes.

The torches in the corridor had been lit at some point, suddenly making the prison bright. Ji Qiran sat beside her, the soft torchlight illuminating his sharply defined features. A wooden bed and a small wooden table had been added nearby, on which a sumptuous meal was laid out.

It was as if, in a hazy moment, she had returned from hell to the human world.

"I'm sorry I'm late! I heard about your accident as soon as I got back to the palace, and I was so worried!" Ji Qiran said anxiously, stroking her cheek with his large hand. After examining her carefully, he asked, "Did His Majesty give you any trouble?"

Chu Qinglu shook her head and said, "No." Before the truth is found out, the Empress probably won't make things difficult for her, but with such a good opportunity, Long Kui and the Eighth Princess certainly won't be polite to her.

Ji Qiran helped her up and said, "Eat something first. Those damned jailers have some nerve to neglect you like that. I'll skin them alive later!"

"It's all because someone ordered it." Chu Qingluo stared at the food on the table without touching her chopsticks, and asked instead, "Shaoyao was also locked up here. How is she?"

"She's in the cell on the other side. I just had someone send her food and bedding, so don't worry."

"...Ziyan got into trouble because of me. I don't want Shaoyao to be dragged into this for no reason. Can you help her?" Chu Qingluo asked.

"Eat something first, then tell me what happened, and I'll see if I can find a solution." Ji Qiran had just returned to the palace when he heard that Lord Ziyan had died in Guangrentang and that Chu Qingluo had been imprisoned. As for the other details, he didn't know them yet.

Chu Qingluo first drank a few sips of water, then stuffed half a steamed bun into her mouth, and then told him the whole story, including the conversation between the Eighth Princess and Long Kui that Ziyan had overheard.

"Gongsun is missing, and Ziyan is gone too... I really don't want to see anyone else suffer because of me." Chu Qinglu looked at him and pleaded, "Longkui will definitely not go easy on you this time. You should quickly find a way to rescue Shaoyao first."

"This..." Ji Qiran seemed somewhat troubled. "There was arsenic in the tea, and it was Shaoyao who delivered it, so she is also a suspect. Even if Lord Ziyan didn't drink the tea, the statements of the two suspects will not be accepted. Therefore, it will be difficult to get her out before the truth is revealed."

"The truth?" Chu Qingluo revealed a cold smile and said, "Do you think Longkui will bring the truth to light?"

“She will definitely try her best to stop us, but we won’t let her succeed.” Ji Qiran said to her with a determined look in his eyes, “I will definitely rescue you.”

"..." Chu Qingluo looked at him, a slight smile playing on her lips. She felt utterly exhausted. Even if she managed to escape this predicament, the struggles would inevitably continue. She wondered when it would all end, when peace would finally return.

If she were to unfortunately fall from grace, she only hoped that she wouldn't be a burden to Shaoyao and her family.

"There are too many unsatisfactory things in the world, let's prepare for the worst first." Chu Qingluo paused before saying, "I don't know how Longkui will deal with me... If we really come to a dead end, even if I have to confess, I will protect Shaoyao."

Ji Qiran pursed his thin lips, his obsidian-like eyes fixed on her, somewhat angry. But seeing her like this, he felt more heartache than anything else.

"Why are you saying such discouraging things? Do you want Ziyan to have sacrificed himself in vain?" he asked.

“I told you, this is just preparing for the worst.” She avoided his gaze. As long as the struggle continues, more people will continue to sacrifice themselves.

"You're lying." Ji Qiran believed he understood Chu Qingluo quite well now. She was always optimistic and decisive, and her words just now clearly showed that she had given up the struggle.

“No one can win every time.” Chu Qingluo frowned and said, “What’s the point of winning the world when you’ve lost everything you care about most?”

Ji Qiran felt a sharp pain in his heart when he saw her despairing expression!

"You... really don't care about me at all?"

If she had lived to avenge Gongsun Yu, that would have been understandable, and he would have protected her with all his might and waited for her. But after Ji Qili's death, how he wished she could live for herself again, how he wished he could also have the chance... to live for her.

But at that moment, besides feeling utterly desolate, he could see nothing else in her eyes.

Ji Qiran's question sent a jolt through Chu Qingluo's heart. To say she didn't care about him at all would be a lie. But faced with power and struggle, she felt as insignificant as a speck of dust, her life as fragile as grass. What could she possibly do?

Faced with Chu Qingluo's silence, Ji Qiran stood up, walked straight to the door, and said to her with his back turned, "Chu Qingluo, whom I, Ji Qiran, adore, is a person who never gives up! I guess Gongsun Yu... is the same." After saying that, he walked out of the cell door, added, "I will not give up!" and then left.

~~~Divider Line~~~

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