Ninth In the World

When Di Jiu asked her about her condition, Shen Ziyu immediately realized that he must have forgotten about this as well. Di Jiu had actually known about her condition and had tried to find the Red Xue Flower for her.

“I have a condition called Heart Apnea…” she explained, “My heart could stop functioning at any moment. Sometimes the illness’ duration is short, but occasionally my heart stops working for a very long time. If my heart stops for too long, it will be too late for anyone to revive me.”

What Shen Ziyu said was sufficient for Di Jiu to understand what her condition was. This illness had been called the Life-Leaking Disease back in the Yalun Continent.

Di Jiu had been a medical master in the Ji Nation, so he naturally knew what a scary disease this was.

The Life-Leaking Disease was also known as the Life-Deprivation Disease. Its symptoms were not limited to the heart, though. Shen Ziyu’s symptom was just one of many. People who suffered from that disease could not live beyond the mathematical pattern of four-nine, which basically meant that they reached 36 years of age.

In the Ji Nation, the people who had that disease left their lives up to the heavens. Being able to live till 36 was a blessing considering that their lives could be taken from them at any time. This disease was incurable by western medicine.

There was no such thing as western medicine in the Ji Nation though, as the technology there was way more advanced. There were many methods to treat the disease, but the Life-Leaking Disease could only be treated with natural herbs. The Red Xue Flower was indeed one of the herbs that could be used to treat it.

However, the Red Xue Flower was not sold in the market, so it was practically a priceless herb.

Di Jiu did not understand how he had known about this herb in his previous life. Only doctors in the Ji Nation knew about it.

When she noticed that Di Jiu had grown quiet, Shen Ziyu searched for a bank card in her bag and handed it to him. “There is some money inside the card. The password is one-one-one-one. You should leave Luo Jin first.”

“Thank you.” Di Jiu accepted the card without modesty.

He had already decided to leave the Red Xue Flower for Shen Ziyu. Even though he did not know how much there was in that card, he was sure that the amount was definitely not enough to pay for the Red Xue Flower. Not even 100 cards could have paid for it.

Shen Ziyu seemed a little taken aback that Di Jiu had accepted the card so readily. She had been ready to try her best to persuade him to accept it, but he had surprisingly taken it without hesitation.

Maybe she had been wrong about the reason he had initiated the divorce…

Her thoughts returned to the day Di Zimo had suggested getting a divorce. It had been the day when the DNA results had come out, revealing that he was not Di Wencheng’s real son. It had been the day when he had lost his right to inherit the assets of the Di Clan.

Everybody knew that the reason she had married him had been to save her family from a financial crisis. However, she had already accepted her fate and decided that she would never marry anyone else.

Shen Ziyu knew that Di Zimo liked her, so when Di Zimo had been disowned by the Di Clan, she had told him that she would not give up on him. She was a sick woman after all.

Her condition was a terminal illness on Earth.

Suffering from a terminal disease at such a young age made Shen Ziyu naturally feel resentful. No renowned hospital in the world could treat her illness, so as a last resort, she had sought help from Monk Red Dust, who was situated at Wang Chuan Temple. Rumor had it that this monk was so skilled that he had even managed to treat the head of a top-notch Italian from the Emmoco Clan.

This information was only available to members of large family clans. Plus, Monk Red Dust spent most of his days traveling around the world, so even if one stayed in Wang Chuan Temple for many years, they might still not get to see him.

However, Lady Luck was on her side that day, as she managed to meet Monk Red Dust.

To this day, she still remembered how the monk had diagnosed her disease with just one look and told her that the Red Xue Flower was the only way to treat it.

What was the Red Xue Flower? Shen Ziyu had never heard of it before.

When she had asked the monk where she could find the flower, the monk had closed his eyes for a solid 10 minutes before he had opened them again and told her, “There are probably no more Red Xue Flowers on Earth.”

Shen Ziyu did not remember leaving Wang Chuan Temple that day. When Di Zimo had discovered that he was the adopted son, she had not wanted him to endure any more stress, so she had honestly told him that she did not like him. As long as they did not live together as husband and wife, she had no intention of divorcing him.

In addition, she also told Di Zimo that she suffered from a terminal illness that only the Red Xue Flower, which had gone extinct, could save her from. The flower no longer existed on Earth, so she would not live much longer. The Shen family had had an ulterior motive for marrying her off to the Di family.

In other words, everybody had used her. Thus, Di Zimo did not have to feel depressed over losing his rights to his inheritance.

Even though she had said this, Di Zimo had still insisted on getting a divorce.

She had been very touched by his insistence, because she was sure he cared very much about her. When he had found out that he was not the heir and she did not reciprocate his feelings, he had decided to sacrifice himself so she could be happy and free.

Shen Ziyu knew that, even if she got a divorce from Di Zimo, her family would still force her to marry his brother, Di Ziheng. However, she was still moved by Di Zimo’s affection for her.

As soon as they had gotten a divorce, Di Zimo had immediately disappeared.

Now that he had come back and accepted her card without any hesitation, she was reminded of a joke he had cracked when they had proceeded with the divorce. “If you divorce me, your family will give me a big sum of money. Now that I am no longer the heir of the Di family, this sum of money will be very useful to me.”

Based on her understanding of Di Zimo, he would never have divorced her for the money. He would only have done so in order to make her suffer less and let her off the hook.

From the looks of it, however, she might have been wrong. Di Zimo could have been telling the truth all along.

Their wedding had been just a formality, so it was entirely possible that, when he had found out that he was no longer the rightful heir, Di Zimo had wanted to divorce her in order to get some money. That would definitely have been the right move for him.

Shen Ziyu did not doubt that the Shen family would have given him the money and allowed him to divorce their daughter. Shen Ziyu still had some standing in the family, so it was just a question of whether she was willing to sacrifice herself or not.

Shen Ziyu felt a choking feeling in her heart. Even though she did not like Di Zimo, she was not repelled by the fact that he liked her. Now that she had found out that he actually did not like her either, but had married her for other reasons, she could not help but feel disappointed.

“I think you should leave first. I shall not…” Shen Ziyu recovered her composure, but before she was able to finish her sentence, she felt her world turn black and passed out.

Di Jiu, who had been taking out the wooden box when he saw her fall over, immediately rushed over to her side to support her.

Her soft, gentle scent drifted into his nose. Because of their close proximity, he could see how flawless both her face and body were. It was no wonder that he had been willing to sacrifice himself for her in his previous life. This woman was indeed a true beauty.

However, no matter how smitten he had been with her, this was all in the past.

Di Jiu, who realized that she had relapsed, did not try to wake her up. Instead, he opened the wooden box, lifted her clothes, and placed the Red Xue Flower on the middle of her back. Then, he pressed the flower against her back with one hand, while his other hand pressed repeatedly on her acupuncture point.

The Red Xue Flower could not be used directly on the surface of the skin. It had to be injected into the bloodstream through a golden needle.

Di Jiu was almost the equivalent of a medical master, so even though he did not have a golden needle, he could still let the Red Xue Flower penetrate her skin by pressing her acupuncture point repeatedly.

In a mere 10 minutes, the flower against her back started to wilt and turn gray. Even though she did not wake up, Shen Ziyu’s pale face started to turn rosy pink.

Di Jiu threw the wilted flower onto the floor, helped her get dressed and then laid her back down on the bed.

By using the flower he had collected in his previous life to save Shen Ziyu, he had put an end to their story. After he left the room, the two of them would no longer be related anymore.