Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Huo Zheng, You’re Crazy

Huo Zheng led the Shadow Guards to drag the river for a full day and night. He did not sleep, and the storm never paused.

Jiang He saw with his own eyes that the prince coughed up blood. Afraid something would happen to him, he begged again and again for him to return to Nanzhou City, but Huo Zheng refused.

He insisted on staying on the boat. He had to see Chun Zhi pulled from the water with his own eyes.

But by the next night, the Shadow Guards still had not found a trace of Chun Zhi.

After nonstop dragging, the Shadow Guards were worn out. Everyone knew that if someone had not been saved after so long, they were almost surely gone, yet no one dared tell Huo Zheng that Chun Zhi must already be dead.

Jiang He did not even dare try to persuade him again.

Hearing the news, Lu Jing Yun rushed over through the rain, ran up to Huo Zheng, punched him, and shouted in anger: “Why did you keep forcing Chun Zhi? She was about to leave. Why wouldn’t you let her go?”

Huo Zheng did not hit back. He looked at Lu Jing Yun with a numb face.

Seeing this, Jiang He hurried over, held Lu Jing Yun down, and said: “Lord Lu, do not be rude in front of the prince.”

After throwing that punch, fear crept up on Lu Jing Yun.

No matter what Huo Zheng had done, he was still the noble Prince Chang’an.

And Lu Jing Yun was only a minor official under Prince Chang’an.

When Lu Jing Yun learned that Huo Zheng had chased Chun Zhi with men, and that she chose to jump into the river rather than go back, fury filled him. He clenched his fists and roared: “Do you know how much Chun Zhi values life? She only wanted to live well. Why did you drive her to a dead end, why?!”

Every sentence from Lu Jing Yun was like a sharp blade, stabbing again and again into Huo Zheng’s heart.

Huo Zheng had never imagined that, rather than go back with him, Chun Zhi would jump into the river.

When Lu Jing Yun failed her, she did not seek death.

When she realized she had been deceived, she still did not think of death.

Chun Zhi’s nature was tough. No matter what she faced, she met it head-on. But this time, Huo Zheng only wanted her to go back with him; why would she rather jump into the river than go with him?

He remembered the look she gave him before she leaped.

It was so final.

The last thing she said to him was: “Huo Zheng, we will never meet again.”

Agony pressed on his chest. A metallic taste rose in his throat, and he almost spat blood again.

He could not understand.

Why did Chun Zhi have to leave him?

He knew that once Chun Zhi made up her mind, she never looked back.

It had been so when she left Lu Jing Yun.

Even more so when she left him.

Chun Zhi would not forgive those who failed her or deceived her.

She looked gentle and easy to talk to, but she truly lived by this: lose her once, and you lose her forever.

Lu Jing Yun struggled free of Jiang He’s grip, stood in the pounding rain, and shouted at Huo Zheng: “What did you do to Chun Zhi? What did you say to her?”

Huo Zheng still said nothing.

Afraid Lu Jing Yun’s rage would agitate the prince, Jiang He chopped the back of Lu Jing Yun’s neck, knocked him out, handed him to a Shadow Guard, then opened an oil-paper umbrella to shield the prince from the wind and rain.

Worried, Jiang He advised: “Prince, you have been investigating Prince Ning for so long. Now is the key moment to close the net. Please do not put private feelings over duty and delay great matters.”

One subordinate after another arrived and pleaded.

But Huo Zheng could hear nothing.

All his life, he had been told what he should and should not do, to abandon anyone but himself.

He was not even allowed to show his own joy or anger.

He thought his life would always be like that.

Until he met Chun Zhi.

She was someone who could be happy easily; even small things could make her happy for a long time.

Yet that easy-to-please Chun Zhi was forced by him to a dead end.

He stared at the vast river. Wind raised waves, and he did not know where he could find her.

The storm was so fierce, and the water so cold.

[Chun Zhi must be so scared.]

He walked step by step to the bow, ready to dive in again to search for Chun Zhi.

Seeing this, his men held him back with all their strength and cried: “Your Highness must not. Your Highness, please do not!”

They blocked him with their lives.

They had even called out the Nanzhou Navy to search for Chun Zhi.

Huo Yu also received the news and came with men. Seeing Huo Zheng in such a wrecked, lost state, he still said: “Seventh Brother, didn’t you say she was a country girl, just a plaything? So why, after losing a plaything, are you making such a huge fuss?”

Huo Zheng’s face turned to ice. He grabbed Huo Yu by the throat and said: “This is all because of you.”

If Huo Yu had not suddenly gone to find Chun Zhi, he and Chun Zhi would not have ended like this.

“Huo Zheng, are you crazy?!” Huo Yu gasped.

Caught off guard by the chokehold, he could not breathe. His face turned purple fast, and he could hardly speak.

The men from Prince Ning’s Residence were terrified. Two of them rushed forward, crying: “Prince Chang’an, let go of the heir apparent!”

“The heir apparent came to help you find her, Prince Chang’an!”

“This prince does not need his help,” Huo Zheng said, squeezing harder, about to snap Huo Yu’s neck.

“Prince, spare him, please, Prince,” Jiang He begged as he grabbed for his arm.

The Heir Apparent of Prince Ning deserved to die, but not here, and not by the prince’s hand.

Almost losing control, Huo Zheng struck Huo Yu with one palm, leaving him half-dead, and had the Shadow Guards tie him up.

“Prince Chang’an, what are you doing?” someone cried.

“He is your cousin!”

“Someone, hurry back and report to the prince. Prince Chang’an has gone mad. He is going to kill our heir apparent!”

Terrified, Huo Yu’s retainer shouted orders, and the boats behind them started to turn back toward Prince Ning’s Residence to report to Prince Ning.

Huo Zheng gave a low command: “No one leaves.”

At his order, the Nanzhou Navy detained everyone from Prince Ning’s Residence.

Wind and rain beat the river. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, the sky bright one moment and dark the next.

A flash lit half of Huo Zheng’s face.

It made him look like a demon from hell.

He could not find Chun Zhi.

Then he would wipe out Prince Ning’s Residence first.

He swallowed the taste of blood in his throat, left the Shadow Guards to keep searching along the river, and led the Nanzhou Navy to storm Prince Ning’s Residence. Using the rain-soaked night, he bathed that residence in blood.

Out of his mind, he personally cut off Prince Ning’s head.

Prince Ning had tried to talk about uncle and nephew, saying that even if he were guilty, he should be taken back to the Capital for trial, and that it was not Huo Zheng’s place to judge him.

Huo Zheng would not listen. With sword in hand, he killed without mercy.

They arrested everyone in Prince Ning’s Residence, and anyone who resisted or tried to flee was executed on the spot.

On that night of gale and rain, blood ran like a river through the whole of Prince Ning’s Residence.

From then on, whenever people in Nanzhou mentioned Prince Chang’an, they shivered.

After this, Huo Zheng fell seriously ill. Even so, he led the men to drag the river for a full month, but they still found no trace of Chun Zhi.

It was as if she had vanished from the human world, with no sign of life and no body in death.