Performing acupuncture once every five days was no great hardship for Ling Xiao.
Even if he came to Huichun Hall every single day, he had all the time in the world.
The real problem was that Imperial Physician Wei had no such time!
The Emperor grew older with each passing day, his health declining bit by bit, and he could not be without an imperial physician at his side.
In order to be close at hand to attend to the Emperor, Imperial Physician Wei resided within the palace as a matter of course. His permission to leave the palace on the first and fifteenth of each month had been granted by special imperial decree. Should the Emperor fall unwell at any time, Imperial Physician Wei was duty-bound to place the Emperor’s health above all else, leaving him no leisure to exit the palace.
In that case, acupuncture once every five days was simply out of the question!
Ling Jingshu knitted her brows slightly and glanced at Imperial Physician Wei, who was dressed in a robe of bamboo-green cloth. For some reason, a thought entirely unrelated to the present matter flashed through her mind — she herself was also wearing a bamboo-green skirt today…
Ling Jingshu pushed that idle and ridiculous detail to the back of her mind, composed herself, and asked, “Imperial Physician Wei, your usual duties keep you within the palace, leaving you no opportunity to come out. Acupuncture once every five days would, I fear, be very difficult to arrange.”
Imperial Physician Wei gave a slight nod.
Ling Jingshu thought for a moment, then arrived at a solution: “There are several attending physicians at Huichun Hall. Would it perhaps do to ask one of the more skilled among them to administer the acupuncture in your stead?”
“Absolutely not!” Imperial Physician Wei refused without a moment’s hesitation. “Every practitioner’s needling technique and force of application is different — a deviation of a hair’s breadth leads to an error of a thousand miles. Moreover, my skill in acupuncture is unrivalled in the world; no one alive can surpass it. No one can substitute for me in administering the needles.”
A tone of absolute matter-of-factness.
Ling Xiao: “…”
Ling Jingshu: “…”
Very well. The man was a divine physician whose name shook the capital, who had cured countless ailments deemed beyond hope, and who enjoyed extraordinary favour even from the Emperor himself. He had every right to say such a thing.
Ling Jingshu cleared her throat and asked, “Then what is to be done? No one can substitute for you, yet you cannot possibly come to Huichun Hall once every five days.”
“Then once every half month will have to do,” Ling Xiao interjected. “At worst, the treatment simply proceeds more slowly. Even if it takes a year and a half, I can wait.”
Imperial Physician Wei frowned and said, “This is not merely a question of faster or slower treatment. The longer the interval, the more the effectiveness of treatment is diminished. With needling once every five days, the stagnant blood blocking the brain is gradually drawn out and dispersed — results would show within three months. But if the interval is stretched to once every half month, that thirty-percent chance of recovery would dwindle to less than twenty.”
Ling Xiao was left speechless.
Ling Jingshu, listening with growing agitation, could not help her tone from turning urgent: “Then what in the world are we to do?”
She only lamented that she had no right to enter and exit the imperial palace. For A’Xiao’s sake, she would have gone willingly even as a palace maid.
Imperial Physician Wei seemed to see through Ling Jingshu’s thoughts. A rare touch of amusement surfaced in his warm, gentle eyes: “Forget any notions of entering the palace. After his great illness several years ago, the Emperor long since distanced himself from the rear palace. He has not selected new palace maidens for years now. And even if he were to do so, Young Master Ling’s condition cannot wait that long.”
Ling Jingshu: “…”
She listened with a feeling halfway between tears and laughter, and instinctively defended herself: “I never had any intention of entering the palace.”
Born with beauty enough to overturn a city, yet still in the full bloom of youth — it would truly be a waste to send her into the palace to serve an Emperor nearing sixty years of age.
This thought flickered through Imperial Physician Wei’s mind in passing, but he did not speak it aloud. Such things were all well and good to think; to say them would be outright treasonous.
“As it happens, I do have one solution.”
Those few short words sent the previously at-a-loss Ling Jingshu and her brother both into a surge of excitement. They spoke in unison: “What solution?”
Imperial Physician Wei offered a faint smile. “His Highness the Crown Prince is convalescing at the Crown Prince’s Residence in the Eastern Palace. Every five days, I make a visit there to take his pulse for his regular health check. You two siblings may go to the Crown Prince’s Residence and wait. Once I have finished attending to His Highness the Crown Prince, I can administer acupuncture for Young Master Ling at the same time.”
Each acupuncture session would take no more than a quarter of an hour — it would not delay his return to the palace.
That was actually quite a good idea.
Gaining entry to the Crown Prince’s Residence would be considerably easier than entering the imperial palace.
The problem was — what standing did the two of them have to frequently enter and exit the Crown Prince’s Residence?
Ling Jingshu felt no shame in it and stated the concern plainly: “What Imperial Physician Wei proposes is truly an excellent idea. However, we siblings have never met His Highness the Crown Prince, and we have no dealings with the Crown Prince’s Residence whatsoever…”
No dealings whatsoever?
Imperial Physician Wei raised an eyebrow, his lips curling in an expression that was neither quite a smile nor quite not one, his demeanour distinctly cryptic: “Miss Ling came to Huichun Hall with a name card from His Highness the Crown Grandson. How could you have no dealings with the Crown Prince’s Residence?”
Ling Jingshu: “…”
A moment of fleeting awkwardness passed in an instant.
Ling Jingshu answered with perfect composure: “Imperial Physician Wei misunderstands. On the road to the capital, my brother and I were set upon by bandits and rescued by His Highness the Crown Grandson. That is the extent of our acquaintance — a chance encounter of a few meetings. We had no prior dealings, and we siblings are of ordinary station and have no standing to associate with His Highness the Crown Grandson. That name card was obtained by my sister-in-law on A’Xiao’s behalf.”
She paused, then added: “My sister-in-law is of the Jiang family, and is related to His Highness the Crown Grandson by marriage.”
What an effort to cover one’s tracks while only making them more conspicuous!
Imperial Physician Wei tugged at the corner of his lips and gave Ling Jingshu a long, meaningful look: “If that is the case, then ask your sister-in-law to go to the Crown Prince’s Residence and make the appeal. It is a trivial matter — merely borrowing a guest room there. His Highness the Crown Grandson is hardly going to refuse such an inconsequential request.”
Those warm, tranquil eyes sharpened in an instant.
As though they had pierced through every hidden thought in her heart.
For someone to rise so high within the palace and bask so deeply in the Emperor’s favour, relying solely on an elder sister serving as a consort and extraordinary medical skill was obviously not enough. This Imperial Physician Wei was, indeed, nowhere near as harmless as his appearance suggested.
A chill shot through Ling Jingshu’s heart. She inwardly raised her guard, while answering aloud: “I thank Imperial Physician Wei for the guidance. I shall go to my sister-in-law after this and only hope that His Highness the Crown Grandson will consent.”
Imperial Physician Wei smiled. “His Highness the Crown Grandson is kind-hearted and benevolent. Such a small request — I imagine he would not refuse.”
She did not know whether she was overthinking things, but she had the persistent feeling that when Imperial Physician Wei said the words “kind-hearted and benevolent,” there was a faint, subtle undercurrent of mockery to them.
Thinking further on it: Wei Jieyu had been saved by Empress Xu, and had later entered the palace as one of Empress Xu’s maids. She was subsequently favoured by the Emperor and came to enjoy imperial grace. Wei Jieyu was Empress Xu’s person; Imperial Physician Wei was Wei Jieyu’s younger brother, which made him, in a sense, one of Empress Xu’s faction. He and the Crown Grandson were thus tacitly on opposing sides.
That his relationship with the Crown Grandson was not a harmonious one was entirely to be expected.
With thoughts flashing in rapid succession, Ling Jingshu had already worked out the subtleties of it all.
Yet Imperial Physician Wei had already shifted his gaze away from her, and instructed the medicine boy standing nearby: “Tian Dong, bring me my golden needles.”
He was going to administer acupuncture for Ling Xiao.
Ling Jingshu immediately reined in every other thought and fixed her entire attention on Ling Xiao.