Shock!Straight Man Long Aotian Secretly Hides The Villain’S Skirt Chapter 22

“Xie Rong, before Liu Zhanyi died, he told me that you are the true South Xinjiang Saint,” Jin Jiuzhou said. “He left South Xinjiang two years ago just to make you happy. He said you were always unhappy in South Xinjiang, usually because of your mother.”

Xie Rong looked strange.

He was unhappy in South Xinjiang because the main storyline was still far from starting, he was bored, and he wanted to torment the protagonist.

As for Liu Zhanyi, a character outside the plot, he naturally couldn’t be bothered to pay attention.

“Miedie Valley has been repaired. Go back and take a look.”

“What’s there to see?” Xie Rong curved his eyes, his lips lifting maliciously. “Are you nostalgic for that place?”

These men were truly perverse; they were still hung up on a place where they suffered.

Jin Jiuzhou fell silent.

“Wait until you recover,” Lu Yi stepped forward, tightly grasping Xie Rong’s hand. “Xie Rong, nothing is more important than your health.”

Xie Rong shook off his hand. “My illness can’t be cured. I don’t want to treat it anymore.”

Knowing it was the System, why would he drink that terribly bitter medicine? Wouldn’t that just be torturing himself?

Xie Rong was utterly exasperated and drove both anxious men out.

Initially, Lu Yi thought he was just throwing a tantrum again, but Xie Rong not only refused the medicine, he stopped eating altogether.

Xie Rong genuinely wanted to die. In just one short day, his vision began to fail.

He got up in the middle of the night. Although the room was filled with lit candles, he fumbled in the dark, stumbling and falling to the ground, just to go look at the nest of snake Gu he was raising in the cellar.

Lu Yi silently carried him back to the couch, closing his eyes in pain.

[Protagonist Pain Value +5]

“I’m about to die, and you’re so sad?” Xie Rong was very curious. “Why?”

“Xie Rong,” Lu Yi held him, his voice trembling and hoarse. “I love you. Do you truly not know?”

“I know,” Xie Rong’s voice was very soft, showing no trace of sadness, even a hint of excitement. “But what is ‘love’? Isn’t it enough if you understand it yourself? Why should I understand it? If I understood it, wouldn’t I suffer just like you?”

Lu Yi looked at him and gave a bitter smile. “Yes, it’s enough if I understand it myself.”

It was enough if he suffered alone.

“If liking me makes you this miserable, then can you be just a little bit more miserable?” Xie Rong glanced at the Pain Value on the System panel. “I still need a little bit more.”

“…”

Lu Yi seemed to smile slightly. “Alright.”

[Congratulations, Host! Protagonist Pain Value is full. You will immediately leave this world when the countdown ends.]

“Why are you so obedient?” Xie Rong stroked his head. “Then help me do one more thing, alright?”

Two days later, an inconspicuous carriage stopped at the South Gate of the Imperial Palace.

Inside the carriage, Xie Rong was wrapped in a cloak, only revealing a pair of overly pale arms tightly clutching a large clay jar, refusing to let go.

The jar contained the snake babies he had raised in Bishan Village over the past six months. Even Lu Yi wasn’t allowed to touch them.

“Are we there?” Xie Rong cocked one ear.

“Mhm,” Lu Yi picked him up and jumped off the carriage.

The Imperial Palace was now completely under the Emperor’s control. Assuming Lu Yi’s return was to continue serving, people were immediately dispatched to receive him.

Lu Yi refused. If Xie Rong hadn’t insisted on coming to the palace, he would have preferred to stay in Bishan Village forever.

It was late at night, and all the palace lights were extinguished.

The Cining Palace, once highly favored, was now desolate. Even though the mistress inside shrieked and cursed with her face covered, the guards outside remained cold and indifferent.

A tall figure in a cloak stopped in front of the Cining Palace. The guards glanced at the feather token on his waist and silently opened the door for him.

Everyone in the palace knew that the newly reinstated Commander brought back a young man. If anyone dared to look twice, the usually straightforward Commander would warn and severely punish the peeping man with his fists, like a male lion guarding its mate, completely disregarding palace rules.

Xie Rong’s steps were weak. Hugging the large clay jar, he slowly stepped over the threshold.

The palace doors closed again. He slowly curled his lips, quickened his pace, and finally saw the Empress Dowager by the bed.

The Empress Dowager’s white hair was messy, and no palace servants had tidied it for her. Hearing the footsteps, she didn’t lift her head and angrily scolded, “Which palace slave is so ignorant of the rules!”

Who knew that in the next instant, she would be fiercely choked by a pair of soft, delicate hands.

The person was clearly determined to take her life!

“Didn’t you want to find the South Xinjiang Saint? Now I’ve come to find you, why aren’t you happy?” Xie Rong spoke softly.

The Empress Dowager’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth, letting out a strained cry.

“Old hag, go be buried with my snake babies,” Under the cloak, Xie Rong’s cheeks were flushed with excitement, and his fingers tightened further. “Dare to touch my children? Strangling you is letting you off easy!”

The Empress Dowager’s eyes rolled up, and the strength of her struggle gradually weakened, until she finally lost all signs of life.

To have listened to governance behind the curtain for ten years, only to die at the hands of a young man who didn’t even have a name in Upper Cloud Capital, was truly lamentable.

Xie Rong pushed her away, knelt on the ground, and covered his stomach, laughing. His laughter grew louder and louder, gradually becoming uncontrollable.

[Host, please note, the countdown has ten minutes remaining.]

Xie Rong stopped laughing, expressionlessly knocking over the candlestick by the bed. Tongues of fire frantically licked every corner of the Cining Palace.

[Host, what are you doing?] The System was confused.

“Can’t I decide how I die?” The fire was about to reach him, but Xie Rong pleasantly curved his eyes, lowering his head to rub his cheek against the clay jar in his arms.

His snake Gu, his medicine slaves—they would all die with him!

“Xie Rong!” The man had just finished dealing with the Emperor in the Imperial Study and rushed back to find Xie Rong, only to see the Cining Palace engulfed in flames. Ignoring the attempts of the fire-fighting guards outside to stop him, he plunged into the fire and picked up Xie Rong.

Unexpectedly, Xie Rong experienced a brief surge of strength, clinging desperately to a nearby pillar, refusing to leave.

“I set the fire myself,” Xie Rong gave him a malicious smirk, coughing constantly from the thick smoke. “I’ll tell you the truth: the Gu poison on those fools in Upper Cloud Capital was never truly cured. When I die, I’ll drag them down with me.”

“All of you will die with me,” Xie Rong was breathless but still smiling brightly.

He quietly waited for the man’s anger, waited for the man to tear off his mask, waited for the man to condemn his malice.

[Host, please note, the departure countdown has ten seconds remaining.]

[Ten, nine, eight…]

Lu Yi still showed no trace of anger. He simply held him and murmured, “I’ll accompany you. Is that alright?”

[Seven, six, five…]

Xie Rong closed his eyes, leaning against Lu Yi. His pupils gradually dilated, his eyelids deep red like blood. He desperately clutched Lu Yi’s lapel, laughing foolishly, “I want all of you… to die with me… Why… Why should it only be me…”

[Four, three…]

Lu Yi closed his eyes and said hoarsely, “Actually, I always wanted to ask you: the hatred in your eyes when you look at me, is it directed at me, or through me, at someone else?”

“If it’s someone else, did he treat you very badly?”

“If it’s me, if my pain, my life, can make you not suffer…”

In this life and the next, for all eternity, he would gladly endure it.

[…Two, one.]

[Warning! Warning! Protagonist death detected. World is about to collapse.]

[Successfully departed from the world.]

[Soul fragment capture successful.]