After Imperial Physician Chen tremblingly finished taking Ye Qi’s pulse on the bed, he stood up and bowed toward Shen Yao, who was seated in a chair, saying: “Your Majesty, although Marquis He’s heart meridian injury is not light, fortunately, Prime Minister Fu used cold ice Qi to help slow it down, preventing the internal wound from continuing to rupture and spread. At present, his life is no longer in danger. With another half month of recuperation, it should gradually heal… However…”
Shen Yao asked: “However what?”
“However, Marquis He’s chronic condition of stagnant meridians… cannot be treated with ordinary medicine and stone. Combined with the triggering effect of this heart meridian injury, I fear… he has at most only two or three months left to live…”
Shen Yao glanced at Fu Yangui standing to the side, then looked back at the imperial physician: “Are you certain? Last year at this time, you also said Marquis He wouldn’t live past half a year…”
Imperial Physician Chen wiped away sweat, saying: “Your Majesty, this old subject speaks only in terms of ordinary medical methods. As for Marquis He having other fortunes and obtaining true Qi to balance his meridians, that is naturally a heaven-bestowed blessing…”
Shen Yao raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying, if someone could infuse him with true Qi again, his life could be extended once more?”
Imperial Physician Chen frowned and made a sound of consideration: “It might have been possible before, but now Marquis He’s body is permeated everywhere with cold ice Qi, which cannot be completely dispersed without a period of time. If we rashly infuse other true Qi during this interval, several completely different types of true Qi clashing together could very easily cause his body to explode and result in death.”
Hearing this, Fu Yangui raised his sleeve and said to Shen Yao: “This subject did not know Marquis He’s condition was so perilous. In the urgency of the moment, fearing only for the severity of the Marquis’s heart meridian injury, I used my Cold Ice Finger to seal his acupoints…”
“Prime Minister Fu acted with good intentions, naturally Zhen trusts you.” Shen Yao waved his hand dismissively, stood up and walked to the bedside. Looking at Ye Qi’s sickly appearance, he shook his head slightly. “Just who dealt such a heavy blow to Marquis He?”
Fu Yangui replied: “When this subject arrived at Anxi Town, Marquis He was already injured and unconscious. As to who injured him, I do not yet know…”
“What about Jing Changting?” Shen Yao asked. “Didn’t you also bring her back?”
“Miss Jing was also injured and currently finds movement inconvenient, so she is recuperating at this subject’s residence. I have already confirmed that when Marquis He was injured, she was not by his side, so she does not know the specific circumstances.” Fu Yangui spoke with underlying meaning: “Next, the Jing family’s funeral arrangements will also need her to handle… Does Your Majesty wish to summon her into the palace?”
Shen Yao thought for a moment, then said deliberately: “Let her first finish what she needs to do… Imperial Physician Chen, no matter what method you use, you must make Marquis He wake up. He knows his own body best—if he can awaken, perhaps there will be another way.”
Imperial Physician Chen quickly bowed: “This subject obeys the decree.”
Fu Yanyang crouched behind a palace wall, watching as Shen Yao and Fu Yangui stepped out one after the other from a remote palace gate, followed by several people from the Imperial Medical Bureau. The entire traveling palace had guards stationed front, back, left and right—many of them first-rate experts recruited from the martial arts world. These people were well-trained and formed defensive teams like a great net, surrounding this small side palace into a jar trap.
“No wonder they suddenly gave me leave… It seems Master Marquis is being held inside…”
Fu Yanyang patiently waited against the wall corner for a while. After seeing Shen Yao walk away, his footsteps slid and he disappeared into the vast night.
Imperial Physician Chen walked toward the Imperial Medical Bureau with two young disciples. Just as they turned a corner, they saw a servant of the Palace Attendants standing at the intersection ahead. Imperial Physician Chen rubbed his eyes and recognized the person: “Second Young Master Fu?”
Fu Yanyang walked forward with a beaming smile. “During duty hours, Imperial Physician Chen should call me Attendant Fu instead.”
Imperial Physician Chen said: “I wonder why Second Young… Attendant Fu has come to the Imperial Medical Bureau at this hour—are you here to see a doctor?”
“Why else would I come except on my brother’s errand?” Fu Yanyang approached familiarly and pulled Imperial Physician Chen aside, asking quietly: “My brother wants to hear the truth—how is the young marquis’s condition… really?”
Just past the Hour of the Rat, a carriage stopped outside the palace gates with several accompanying guards beside it.
Someone walked slowly to the carriage and said in a low voice: “Prime Minister Fu?”
Fu Yangui lifted the carriage curtain, his unfathomable eyes flashing slightly. “How did it go?”
“Just as Prime Minister Fu predicted, the second young master indeed went to the Imperial Medical Bureau.” The one answering was none other than Imperial Physician Chen. “This old subject also followed Prime Minister Fu’s instructions and told the second young master that Marquis He’s heart meridian injury is not serious, but the danger lies in his chronic condition. Unless an immortal descends from heaven to administer true Qi, he likely won’t survive this month…”
Fu Yangui nodded slightly. Imperial Physician Chen looked at him somewhat awkwardly and asked: “I see the second young master is quite concerned about Marquis He. I wonder why Prime Minister Fu…”
Seeing the Prime Minister shoot him a cold glance, Imperial Physician Chen immediately fell silent. Fu Yangui lowered the carriage curtain. “Imperial Physician Chen need only devote himself wholeheartedly to treating Marquis He. As for other matters, it’s better to inquire less.”
At the same time, on the other side outside the He residence, Changling dressed in night clothes leaped over the wall with a single bound, extremely nimbly brushing past the guard teams within the residence and heading straight for the rear courtyard chambers… which was where the residence’s stewards usually lived.
Unexpectedly, after wandering around in a circle, not only was the young marquis’s room empty, even Seventh Uncle and the others were nowhere to be seen.
She mentally calculated the days and thought: That’s right, Seventh Uncle and Physician Ji went to Beiming Peak to find the Separation Withering Grass. The round trip alone would take more than half a month, not to mention luring out the ice snakes also requires patient waiting.
Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. After thinking back briefly, she remembered Ye Qi had once mentioned that the He residence’s second-in-command was his eldest cousin He Song. With a shift in thought, she decided to find this person to see if there was any possibility of help.
Although she had been to the He residence a few times before, at most she had only gone to Ye Qi’s room to soak in the hot spring or listened to them strategize and plan in his study. She had never toured the other courtyards.
Finding He Song actually took quite some effort.
At this hour, everyone in the residence was deep in slumber, and He Song was no exception. He was sleeping soundly on the bed with his delicate wife in his arms when suddenly he heard a “ding” sound. A dagger stabbed into the bed board with a crack, scaring him so badly he rolled and crawled away, howling “There’s an assassin!”
Changling, crouching on the opposite roof eave, twitched at the corner of her mouth and watched helplessly as Second Steward He summoned all the guards in the residence—she had no choice but to temporarily leave the residence. After all, she and Ye Qi’s timid-as-a-mouse cousin had never formally met face to face. If his brain wasn’t working properly and he really treated her as an assassin, that scene would be quite spectacular.
After leaving the He residence, Changling felt somewhat lost for a moment, not knowing whether He Song could see the note tied to the dagger. Thinking of his cowardly appearance just now, she felt that even if he saw it, he probably wouldn’t have the ability to rescue Ye Qi from the palace.
“Since it’s a pit dug by someone surnamed Fu,” she thought, “I still need to work on him.”
After returning to the Fu residence, Changling silently climbed into the separate courtyard, changed out of her night clothes, and planned to thoroughly explore the Prime Minister’s residence once more by night while Fu Yangui had not yet returned.
Just then, someone knocked lightly twice at the door. “Master, are you asleep?”
Hearing this, Changling immediately opened the door, looked outside to confirm that only Fu Yanyang was there, let him into the room, closed the door and asked: “Did you see the young marquis?”
Fu Yanyang, still sweating from his journey, waved his hand. “He’s under house arrest in a side palace at Honghua Palace. The security is tight—I couldn’t get in.”
“Honghua Palace?”
“It’s a cold palace, though there aren’t any consorts there. Even so, it’s still in the inner palace territory, where male officials cannot enter at will…” Fu Yanyang caught his breath, placed his hands on his hips and said: “When I went, I happened to run into His Majesty and my brother coming out with the imperial physicians. I had a flash of inspiration and secretly went to ask that imperial physician… That Imperial Physician Chen is the head of the Imperial Medical Bureau, highly skilled in medicine. He used to often come treat my illnesses, and our family has a close relationship with him…”
Changling patiently listened to him ramble without finding the point, then immediately reached out to interrupt: “And then?”
“He said the young marquis suffered a heart meridian injury, which isn’t actually fatal—at most he’ll be unconscious more than awake, but with slow recuperation it can always improve… The problem now is still his chronic meridian condition. The medical officials at the Imperial Medical Bureau have no solution, and the divine physicians of the martial arts world have no solution either.” After finishing, Fu Yanyang looked nervously at Changling. “Oh right, Imperial Physician Chen said that unless an immortal descends from heaven to administer true Qi to the young marquis, or he takes an immortal elixir, otherwise… he might not even make it through this month…”
Changling’s heart turned cold—that palm strike her aunt delivered that day did indeed injure his heart meridian. These words should not be false.
She had thought the Ten Thousand Flowers Treasure Mirror could provide at least some relief for Ye Qi’s illness, never expecting… his situation had reached such a critical edge.
Fu Yanyang saw her expression darken completely and said weakly: “Master… you, don’t be too sad. The young marquis’s illness… we all know about it in our hearts. This now… isn’t really unexpected.”
Changling’s thoughts raced to the ninth heaven, not really listening to his words of comfort. She only said: “If he’s this seriously ill, why would Sh… His Majesty keep him under house arrest instead of letting him return to the He residence?”
“Well… I can’t really say. Maybe His Majesty has the thought of keeping him close for observation?” Fu Yanyang said: “Actually, my elder brother doesn’t seem to have any intention of harming the young marquis. I’m not saying he doesn’t have that heart—I just think he probably feels there’s no need anymore…”
Changling thought to herself: He doesn’t need to act personally—just keeping Ye Qi confined in the palace, he could drag him to death.
No wonder he could put on such a magnanimous and helpful front, saying something about letting them be together after the Martial Arts Conference—at this rate, before that time comes, the young marquis would already ascend to the western heaven on his own.
Changling paced back and forth twice and asked: “Do you have a way to sneak me into the palace?”
Fu Yanyang made a sound of surprise. “The imperial palace isn’t that easy to sneak into… I don’t know disguise techniques either, otherwise if I changed you into me, maybe you could sneak in… But even if you got in, mixing into Honghua Palace wouldn’t be easy either…”
Changling asked: “If I can sneak into the palace myself, afterward, could you pretend to be an assassin and help me draw away the guards at Honghua Palace?”
Fu Yanyang pointed at his own nose with a look of horror: “Me, a Palace Attendant responsible for catching assassins, you want me to… pretend to be an assassin?”
Changling looked at him expressionlessly. “Willing or unwilling?”
Fu Yanyang was intimidated by this gaze slightly tinged with killing intent and swallowed. “Willing.”
Entering the imperial palace was not a difficult matter.
Especially since Fu Yangui currently needed something from her—she still had to play the role of a filial daughter, return to the Jing residence to handle funeral arrangements, and distribute all of the Jing family’s resources as they wished. If she deliberately refused to cooperate in the intermediate steps, it would give Prime Minister Fu plenty of headaches.
On the third day of returning to the Jing residence to handle funeral matters, after repeatedly causing disturbances, Fu Yangui finally had no choice but to invite Changling alone to a room and ask: “Fu has already unsealed all of the young marquis’s acupoints and had imperial physicians do their utmost to treat him. Why are you still…”
Changling said matter-of-factly: “Everything is what Prime Minister Fu says. Whether the young marquis is dead or alive, without seeing it with my own eyes, how can I trust that you haven’t deceived me?”
“Even now, if I want to see the young marquis alone, I need His Majesty’s approval,” Fu Yangui said. “It’s not something you can see just because you want to.”
“This situation was created by Prime Minister Fu—I can’t manage all that.” Changling said with certainty: “As long as I don’t see the young marquis, I’ll treat him as dead. Today the Jing clan came to discuss matters—I’ll stir up complete chaos and tell them the true cause of Jing Wuwei’s death.”
Fu Yangui helplessly rubbed his brow and agreed: “Fine, I will arrange this matter. However, when the time comes, you may only be able to look at him from afar and cannot see him alone. Can you accept this condition?”
“Yes.”