THE SECOND EXILE 3

Li Jinglong pushed Zhu Su harshly into the dungeon, then locked the cell door.

"Where are my wife and son?!" Just now Zhu Su thought they would stay together in one cell. It was out of his expectation they were now being separated.

Li Jinglong replied icily, "Their cells are at your left and right." After that, he left the dungeon.

"Ruina... Ruina! Can you hear me?!" Zhu Su asked loudly.

A vague voice came into his ears, from his left side. "Yes... Your Highness..."

Zhu Su took a relief breath. After all, Li Jinglong did not lie to him. He asked again, "How are you right now? Do you still feel unwell?"

"Yes... Your Highness..." Feng Ruina moaned. "But... please don't worry about me! I'm just not getting enough rest! Now we have arrived... I can have rest, and will recover soon..."

"Fine... alright... I won't disturb you anymore... have a rest, then..."

"Fu Wang, I am on your right side," Zhu Youdun's voice echoed on his ears.

"Yes, Youdun. I can hear you. Are you alright?"

"I'm okay, Fu Wang. Nothing to worry about me."

Finally, as now they could talk freely, they immediately took this opportunity to pour out all troubles in their mind.

"Fu Wang... what will happen to us after this?" Zhu Youdun asked in fear.

"I don't know..." Zhu Su was leaning against the wall. "If only I know..."

"Will Yunwen kill us? Can it be?"

"It can be..."

"If he really kills us, I swear, I will make him repay his actions in the next life!"

Zhu Su himself, now no longer had any energy to curse. He was fatigued, both physically and mentally. His throat could not make any oath anymore. He had lost interest at everything. No intention to do everything, no more.

If he was indeed destined to die at this moment, then, he was ready to die.

***

Inside this dark, dimly-lit dungeon, he could not notice whether it was day or night right now. This prison was absolutely cramped that he could not move his body freely. Zhu Su's sitting position had unquestionably never changed. He always sat curled up, his arms folded over his bent knees and his head sank into the folds of his hands all the time. The attitude of someone who had been totally depressed.

It was obvious that this dungeon would be his only one place to spend the rest of his life. He would unquestionably die here. The jailers were actually looking after a pile of dead corpses by giving them the unpalatable food and drinking water in very few amount. He would surely die soon. He just did not know exactly when the day of his death came.

Only one thing was truly stifling his mind; his wife and son would also die together with him. Because of him.

"Ruina? How are you today? Are you okay?"

"I... am fine, Your Highness..."

That was the kind of conversation they talked all the time from wall to wall. Zhu Su asked how Feng Ruina was, and Feng Ruina would answer with voice getting weaker from time to time. Zhu Su kept trying to talk to his wife, because he was somehow afraid that if he had no talk with her for a while, his wife would leave him eternally. He had been consistently whispered with an eerie premonition saying that the Wang Fei's death would come before long.

"Ruina... Why do you want to follow us, and sacrifice yourself?..." On a chill and damp day, Zhu Su asked.

"Because I don't want to lose you for the second time..." Feng Ruina answered.

"But you will sacrifice yourself!"

"I know, Your Highness. That is indeed my responsibility as a wife for my husband..."

"You don't need to take any kind of responsibility for me. In fact, I am the one who has failed to carry out my responsibility. I... have made my family mired in misery... I... I can't even be compared to a poor farmer!"

"Please don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. It is the fate that has treated us so cruelly."

"No. It is true. I often thought, if you have married First Brother, you would have been the Empress Dowager, and would not have suffered like this. You marry me, then it becomes my fault."

"But really, I never want to be Empress Dowager... For me, as long as I can live happily with my family, it's more than enough... And, I feel very happy because of marrying you. Because, your love for me is the most beautiful thing I ever have in my life."