Chapter 465: Chapter 449: Eye Injury
"Familiar?" Xie Jue asked, his hand lifting Fang Chuning’s chin, gently brushing against it. The touch was ambiguous, teasing. The long night and the howling wind and snow masked the sound of each other’s heartbeats. "Do you miss it?"
Fang Chuning: "..."
He suddenly grabbed Xie Jue’s wrist with one hand, clutching it so tightly it seemed as if he would crush the bones. The veins bulged on his neck, evident even to Xie Jue despite his restraint.
His breathing became slow and heavy, each breath like that of a drowning man.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about!" He forcefully pushed Xie Jue’s hand away, firm in his action, yet he avoided looking into his eyes. Turning his body to the side, he opened the window, letting a gust of cold wind rush in, extinguishing the oil lamp. The room instantly fell into darkness. The wintry wind and snow overwhelmed the searing heat and stickiness inside the room—the emotions, the heartbeat, all of it gradually wrapped by the cold, slowly dissipating.
Xie Jue gave a cold laugh, rubbing his wrist where bruises were beginning to form, and said nothing more.
He decisively got off the heated couch and called for the attendant to prepare dinner.
Fang Chuning, still on the heated couch, was trying to calm his erratic heartbeat when suddenly there was a loud crash, followed by the sound of something falling. Alarmed, Fang Chuning turned his head and asked, "Ting Feng?"
Immediately afterward came the shattering sound of plates and cups hitting the ground. With the oil lamp extinguished, the room was dark, illuminated only faintly by the snow-covered courtyard outside. Fang Chuning could barely make out Xie Jue supporting himself on the table, slightly hunched over. A pang of pain struck his heart, and he quickly got out of bed, disregarding his bare feet on the icy floor. He ran over to support Xie Jue, asking, "What’s wrong with you?"
"My eyes..."
His eyes burned and stung!
"Someone, fetch the doctor!" Fang Chuning shouted sharply, scooping Xie Jue up in his arms and carrying him back to the heated couch. He quickly lit an oil lamp, then lit three more around them until the area surrounding the couch was flooded with light.
Xie Jue, having caught his breath, still felt his eyes were fatigued and stinging. Since waking up that morning, he had noticed some discomfort and had already applied the prescribed ointment. However, the medicine Zhang Lingzheng had left him was becoming less and less effective. He could distinctly feel the medicine no longer alleviating his condition.
After Fang Chuning lit the lamps, he waved his hand in front of Xie Jue in panic, only to find that there was no reaction in Xie Jue’s eyes. "Stop waving," Xie Jue said indifferently. "I can barely make out a blurry shadow."
Fang Chuning exploded in an instant. "Have you ever taken my words to heart at all? You know better than anyone what this poison is like! When we entered Xiyanshan, I warned you to be cautious—they would poison you! You swore you had an antidote! You lied to me and said there was an antidote! Is this what you meant by an antidote?! I trusted you completely, and yet look at the result! This isn’t some ordinary wound—this is your sight, your eyes! Without your eyes, you’ll be blind! You’ll never see the scenery in the plum garden again, never witness the world’s smoke and fire, never see..."
"Anning..." Xie Jue interrupted, grabbing Fang Chuning’s arm to stop his outburst. He could feel the tension in his body, the raging inferno inside him. "I’m sorry. I was wrong."
"You..."
Still fuming, Fang Chuning spun around and kicked the small stool beside the heated couch with all his might. The stool flew across the room, nearly hitting Xie Xun, who entered with the doctor in tow.
Xie Xun’s sharp reflexes saved him as he sidestepped the stool, which instead crashed into a chair in the living quarters, splintering into fragments.
The doctor jumped back, startled. Xie Xun, observing the chaos, roared angrily, "What are you doing? Trying to tear the place apart?"
Fang Chuning took a deep breath, forcing himself to rein in his temper. Xie Xun, having caught on to the situation, knew it must be his elder brother’s eye condition acting up again. He strode in briskly, shoving Fang Chuning aside to allow the doctor to examine Xie Jue.
This doctor was one Fengyu had specifically sought out to treat Xie Jue’s eyes.
Ever since Xie Jue started experiencing night blindness, Xie Xun had been on edge, fearing his brother’s eyesight might not recover.
With the commotion in the Second Young Master’s courtyard, Fengyu also heard the news. By the time she arrived, the doctor was already performing acupuncture on Xie Jue. Fang Chuning and Xie Xun sat side by side under the corridor, their hair dusted white by the wind and snow. They resembled two defeated beasts.
A sense of foreboding gripped Fengyu as she asked, "Zhixu, what happened to Second Brother?"
Xie Xun responded miserably, "Second Brother’s eyes have gone blind again."
In recent years, Xie Jue’s eyes had been in a constant cycle of relapse and partial recovery. The lingering poison remained unresolved. While Dugu Jing’s antidote had healed Xie Xun’s leg, it had only partial efficacy on Xie Jue’s poison, despite them sharing the same origin. The formulas were slightly different—the antidote lacked several herbs unique to Beiman.
Thus, Xie Jue’s residual poison lingered, and from the moment he was poisoned in Xiyanshan to when he obtained the antidote, too much time had been wasted. After detoxification, Xie Jue had rushed back to Ningzhou overnight to mobilize troops, then hurried back again, leaving no time to recover.
The urgency of the situation, the mounting pressure, the constant fear—all compounded by relentless nightmares—had made it impossible for his eyes to heal.
Xie Xun had sought out countless renowned doctors, yet none could offer a cure. Only acupuncture could temporarily alleviate the symptoms.
"This poison came from Beiman. Have you sent someone to ask Dugu Jing for another antidote?" Fang Chuning asked.
"We have, but that antidote is no longer effective. The remaining poison has reached Second Brother’s heart meridian; it cannot be completely eradicated. The only way is to rely on his body to slowly purge it, which will take a long time. In the meantime, his episodes will continue." Xie Xun snapped irritably. "And every time he relapses, it’s because of stress or a bad mood. This time, it must be you! If you hadn’t come, he wouldn’t have gone blind!"
Fang Chuning thought back to their argument just before Xie Jue’s vision failed, and pain pierced his heart like a dagger.
A bad mood?
Fengyu couldn’t help but interject, "Zhixu, say one fewer word. If you keep this up, Second Brother’s mood will only worsen."
Inside the room, the doctor continued to administer acupuncture to Xie Jue, whose forehead was now covered with a fine layer of sweat. In a soft voice, Xie Jue asked, "How many more years can my eyes hold out?"
The doctor sighed. "At most two or three years. At least one year, or a few months. Second Young Master, you must take care—avoid overexertion and emotional turmoil. None of this will help your eyes."
"Only one or two years left..." Xie Jue sighed deeply. "Don’t tell the Prince the truth about this."
"Second Young Master..." The doctor hesitated. With Xie Jue’s frequent episodes, it wouldn’t be easy to keep the truth from the Prince.
"I know what I’m doing."
"Second Young Master, your best option now is to put aside your duties and find a warm, peaceful place to recuperate. Perhaps then, your vision might last a few more years."
"One year, two years... five years—what difference does it make? I’ll go blind eventually." Xie Jue’s tone was resolute. "Before I lose my sight completely, I must see Yuwen Jing dead!"