Chapter 12 Cut across the Throat
That perfect doll soon became a pile of rotten flesh. The smell of blood mixed with the thick stench of corpse fluid and turned my stomach.
"Ah, sorry. I broke you." He stopped and apologized to the doll. "Do not worry. I will fix you."
He turned his head. Those glossy black pupils stared straight at me.
Cold prickled along my arms.
I forced myself to stay calm, but my voice still shook. "Your Majesty. You have only just taken the throne. The court is not steady. The outer court, the inner palace, and the Duke of Zhenguo's manor can all be used by you."
He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, as if thinking. After a while, he smiled and spoke.
The shape of his mouth was familiar. It was the same as what I had seen last time in the study, right before I died.
"Alike. Far too alike." With the bloody knife in his hand, he gestured at me through the air.
"The first time I saw you, I felt you were like her, especially the eyes. Pity your throat was ruined then. I always wanted to hear your voice."
"How good. Your voice is like hers too. It was not in vain that I brought the divine doctor out."
So from the very start, I had saved the wrong person.
"But your eyes, your throat." He smiled and closed in step by step. "They can surely make the most perfect doll."
I gripped the knife behind my back and got ready to fight to the death.
Our builds were too far apart. I had only one chance. I had to pick the moment.
He came closer and closer. I aimed at the most vulnerable place, the neck, and drove in with all my strength.
Clang.
The knife fell from my hand to the ground.
I looked down. Blood spread from a cut on my belly.
Xiao Yan moved so fast I could not see it at all.
He leaned down and whispered at my ear, "On my body, old and new, there are seventy-nine wounds."
"But the assassin behind every wound died at my hand."
"A Yue, you are not exactly hateful. But you are too much like her."
"Even the stupidity of struggling, refusing to give up, and thinking you could wound me is so much like her."
I clutched my belly and collapsed. Blood choked my mouth and nose until I could not speak.
Xiao Yan crouched. He seemed to savor the miserable state I was in.
"If you were as obedient as Lan Zhi, perhaps I would still spare your life."
I spat a mouthful of blood onto his face.
Obedient, my ass.
His smile dropped at once. He pulled out the knife stuck in my belly.
The cold blade slowly cut my flesh open, then stabbed into my eye socket and stirred.
I clenched my teeth and made no sound. At the extreme of pain, I even went numb.
......
Perhaps he had finally tired of playing. He cut my throat open with one slash.