Fu Zhiyu hadn't reacted yet. The alarm had messed up his brain, as if it was stuffed with a ball of paste. As soon as the Lord God finished speaking, before he could respond, he felt a huge suction force behind him, sucking him in.
His eyes went dark and he lost consciousness instantly.
"Wake up, wake up! Your Highness is awake!"
When Fu Zhiyu regained consciousness again, he felt his whole body was limp and he had no strength at all. He felt hot and cold, sticky and very uncomfortable. Not only that, he could hear a woman's voice and faint sobbing sounds in his ears.
All this made him feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable. His mind couldn't wrap around it all at once. At that moment, he couldn't figure out who he was.
His eyes remained half-open and he couldn't see clearly. Everything in front of him was dark and blurry.
"Xiaobao?" He felt a woman crying and touching his face with trembling hands, "Are you...really awake? Look at your mother..."
All other senses were vague, only those hands were clear. Fu Zhiyu seemed to be pulled out of the illusion of nothingness by these hands, and his eyes finally lit up.
"You are... Mother?" He opened his throat with difficulty and uttered a few words, "I..."
Before he could finish, the woman saw that he had really woken up, and she burst into tears excitedly, burying her head in his shoulder, and her tears instantly wet his clothes.
"It's okay, it's okay," Fu Zhiyu stretched out his hand, coughed twice, and finally found his voice. He slowly stroked his mother's hair and whispered, "... I'm back."
Afterwards, another imperial physician came up in time, felt Fu Zhiyu's pulse, turned around and bowed his head and said respectfully: "Congratulations, Madam Yun, the Ninth Prince is blessed by heaven and has survived. He is now fine. However, the weather has been cold recently, so he still needs long-term care to avoid the root of the disease.
Wait for me to write a prescription and take the medicine on time."
When Concubine Yun heard this, she was overjoyed. She rewarded the imperial physician, touched Fu Zhiyu's face, and shed tears out of heartache.
"My son has become so thin," she cried, "I should not have stayed in Longquan Temple if I had known. You said you were praying for blessings, but it actually harmed my son."
Fu Zhiyu's throat was still uncomfortable after he spoke a few words. Even after drinking some water, it still hurt when he opened his mouth. He stopped talking and just held his mother's hand tightly, unwilling to let go.
His mind gradually became clear, and he remembered what was happening.
That winter, according to etiquette, a royal sacrifice had to be held to pray for good weather and prosperity for the country. Longquan Temple on the outskirts of the capital was the founding ancestral temple and the site of the traditional grand sacrifice. The royal family has always attached great importance to it. The emperor, empress, and concubines above the rank of noble concubine were all present, as were many important ministers and several princes including Fu Zhiyu.
The grand ceremony went smoothly and ended three days ago.
But the empress dowager had always liked Buddhist holy places and wanted to discuss Buddhist principles with the abbot, so she stayed here for a few more days. Several concubines in the palace also stayed, including Concubine Yun.
She stayed not to accompany the empress dowager, but because she heard that the amulet in Longquan Temple was very effective, so she wanted to ask for one for Fu Zhiyu. The amulet was indeed returned, but that night before leaving the temple, Fu Zhiyu fell into an icy lake not far from Longquan Temple. Although he was rescued later, he sank in the lake for a while and had already fainted when the imperial physician arrived.
He kept having a fever after that. Several prescriptions were prescribed but to little avail. We thought he might not survive. But we didn’t know what the fate of the ninth prince was. It was also possible that the amulet from the founding ancestral temple of Longquan Temple was really effective. People couldn’t bear to see the royal bloodline die here, so he finally survived.
Fu Zhiyu went to the frozen lake out of his own interest. Although the lake in the palace also freezes in winter, it is not as thick as in the temple, and people can stand on it without any problem. The temple is also very boring. Fu Zhiyu has been here for more than ten days, and the frozen lake is the only place he finds interesting.
After chanting sutras with his mother every day, he would secretly go there. There was a group of young monks who had just entered the temple and secretly made ice skates. They were happily skating there in the night. Fu Zhiyu didn't know how to skate, but he was only sixteen years old and still had a young heart. He felt that the scene was lively and happy.
But he didn't expect that as soon as he stepped onto the ice that day, the ice suddenly broke and he fell down.
Then... Xie Ke appeared.
But why didn't the original plot line in the book follow this time? Where did Miss Xue go this time
Fu Zhiyu had some doubts. He happened to be sent back by the Lord God at this point in the plot. If he had come earlier, he would not have gone to the ice lake even with a knife on his neck.
Not to mention that he almost lost his life, he snatched Miss Xue's plot line there and also met Xie Ke. He was really unlucky.
Fu Zhiyu still remembers the last words the Lord God said to him, but he doesn't know the details. The Lord God obviously didn't have time to finish speaking.
But no matter what, at this point in time, he still has room for redemption, Fu Zhiyu thought silently while lying on the bed, no matter what Xie Ke wanted to do this time, the farther away from him the better, anyway, he was just a cannon fodder who only lived one fifth of the book, as long as the protagonist was not biased, it would not affect the stability of the world.
As a stubborn bug in the system, Fu Zhiyu remained mentally stable and even in a good mood.
He thought that his mother was not important in the plot, and she was not given much attention, and it did not affect the main plot, so it should be possible to change her. If he had to do it again, he would never let her die so early in such an aggrieved way.
Fu Zhiyu planned this, but he had just woken up and his body was not well yet. In the end, he could not overcome the groggy head. He tilted his head and fell asleep again.
In order not to disturb his rest, Concubine Yun also went out and watched the small kitchen boil medicine. Fu Zhiyu only left two guards standing outside the door, and a palace maid waiting with her head down not far away, ready for the master to call at any time.
Fu Zhiyu was not fit to go back to the palace due to his health problems, and after he woke up, the empress dowager also said that Longquan Temple had the Buddha's blessing, and the Ninth Prince's miraculous recovery was irrefutable proof, so he should stay here and recuperate until he recovered before going back, so he lived in the north wing.
Although Longquan Temple is a national temple and is heavily guarded, it cannot be compared with the heavily guarded imperial palace. If someone wants to get in, it is not difficult.
Late at night, the palace maid who was on guard in the room was also feeling drowsy. For some reason, she felt so sleepy that she couldn't even open her eyes tonight. She quietly leaned her head against the wall, thinking she would just take a nap for a while, but as soon as she closed her eyes, she quickly fell asleep, as if she had been drugged.
Fu Zhiyu had also fallen into a very deep sleep at this time, so what he could never see was that at this moment, a cloud covered the moon, and while it was dark, a person climbed in from the window at a very fast speed, and the patrolling guards didn't notice it at all.
Fu Zhiyu only felt that his dream was very uneasy. In the dream, there was a huge snake that tightly wrapped around him from head to toe, making it difficult for him to breathe. He had to open his mouth wide and breathe deeply.
But this snake was so annoying that it would not even let go of his only breathing passage. It stretched out its tongue and licked his lips bit by bit, its fangs rubbing against his lips repeatedly, making Fu Zhiyu feel suffocated.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." He heard the snake refusing to let him go and apologizing in human language.
If you feel sorry, just let me go! Fu Zhiyu couldn't break free from the snake's restraints at all, and he was so pitiful in his dream that he couldn't even speak.
"I realized it too late... I waited for a long time, did a lot... I just wanted a chance." The snake completely ignored his struggles and locked him tighter, as if to rub Fu Zhiyu into its own bones and blood. It then whispered in Fu Zhiyu's ear, "As long as you come back... Finally everything can start over. We, start over."