Chapter 114 Xingxiangzi (V)
The rumble of carriages and horses rolled through the mud.
The cold wind blew in through the window from time to time. Ni Su tucked her light hair behind her ears. A light mist lingered around her and gradually condensed into the shape of a person.
Ni Su looked at his hands on his knees for a moment, then reached out to hold them. Perhaps because her palms were warm, Xu Hexue came to his senses and raised his eyes.
Ni Su moved closer to him, and under the noise of the carriage, she leaned closer to him and said in a low voice: "The emperor doesn't seem to want to blame him."
Soon after Prince Jia entered the palace, the imperial guards on both sides of the road withdrew. Ni Su pretended to have forgotten something important in the Imperial Medical Bureau and told the eunuch driving the carriage that he would go back to get it.
When she returned to the Imperial Medical Bureau, she happened to meet several doctors who were hurrying out. She casually asked the staff in the main hall and found out that those doctors were going to Chongming Palace to treat the injuries of His Royal Highness Prince Jia.
"you……"
Ni Su was about to say something else, but she suddenly paused and lowered her eyes.
A bright red drop of blood hung at the bottom of his wrist.
In the Imperial Medical Bureau, she was busy trying to find out the news about Prince Jia, and she didn't even bother to see if there was mist following her sleeves. "Where have you been?"
"Political Affairs Hall."
Although Xu Hexue could not gather in the imperial city, he could hear and see. "I heard someone mention Jiang Xianming, saying that he also met the emperor last night. Although I don't know what he said to the emperor, as soon as he left, the emperor approved Huang Zongyu's memorial and sent more imperial guards to protect Yonggeng."
"What do you think he said?"
"Yao County."
Xu Hexue said two short words, and Ni Su immediately reacted, "That makes sense."
Ni Su and Zhou Ting had said something about "working on both ends". The reason why the Imperial Concubine and the Duke of Lu fell out was not only because she and Xu Hexue used the two incidents of the silver needle and Doctor Wang to alienate them, but also because Zhou Ting deliberately ordered someone to reveal the fact that the Duke's Mansion was transporting medicinal materials to Yao County.
Once the imperial concubine became suspicious, she fell into Zhou Ting's trap. No matter how her people investigated, it was all under Zhou Ting's nose, and what they finally found out were all what Zhou Ting wanted her to know.
The imperial concubine could not whisper this matter to the emperor, because she was a woman and could not discuss state affairs, not to mention that this was just hearsay and there was no evidence.
But there is one person who legitimately has the power to "report things based on hearsay without any evidence."
That was the Chief Censor Jiang Xianming.
Behind Zhou Ting is the prime minister of the time, Meng Yunxian. Meng Yunxian revealed the matter to Jiang Xianming. According to Jiang Xianming's personality, he might not tell the emperor everything. After all, the Duke of Lu is a clan relative. He might first find out whether the medicines sent to Rongjiang Prefecture by the Duke's Mansion are medicinal materials. If not, then whether those things have been delivered to Yao County.
Jiang Xianming was neither a member of the New Party nor the Old Party. Everyone knew that he was a lone minister who was sent to that position by the government himself.
For the sake of the country and people of Da Qi, he would definitely make the same choice as Huang Zongyu - to save Prince Jia.
Jiang Xianming only needed to casually mention in front of the emperor a descendant of Taizu, a county magistrate named Zhao, who was likely to be forgotten by the emperor.
This is equivalent to reminding the emperor that if the imperial concubine gives birth to a daughter, will the country be handed over to Taizu's lineage?
After all, Prince Jia is from the lineage of Emperor Taizong, and he is a closer blood relative to the imperial family.
The emperor did not pardon the death penalty for disobeying the emperor's order because of his adopted son's filial piety, but rather, he was more willing to let Prince Jia continue to stay in Yunjing than to let the bloodline of Taizu in Yao County.
"Last night, I heard him ask us to stop," Ni Su wiped his hands with a handkerchief. "Even though you haven't seen each other for many years and your voices and appearances have changed, I think he did that because he thought the person who saved him last night looked like you."
The bright red blood was stained on the embroidered handkerchief, and tiny specks of dust were flickering.
Ni Su raised her head, "I think he has never forgotten you."
The eunuch driving the carriage outside seemed to hear a few vague whispers. He tilted his head. The bamboo curtain was not easily blown up by the wind. He asked uncertainly: "Young lady, what are you talking about?"
"I said it's really cold today."
Ni Su looked outside the bamboo curtain and saw the figure of the young eunuch.
The pervasive snow almost stung the eunuch's cheeks, and he sighed, "Yes, this winter is really hard to get through. God is so cruel..."
The Nanjiao Villa was built during the reign of Taizu. During the reign of Taizong, it was used to house Taizu's concubines. It has gone through several emperors, and now there is no noble lady left in the villa. It has not been renovated many times. The once elegant and romantic garden is now overgrown with weeds, and it is even more desolate in winter with heavy snow.
Ni Su handed over the sign and was led into the villa. Li Xizhen lived in the southwest corner. The house was equally cold from the inside to the outside, and there was obviously no charcoal basin inside.
Li Xizhen was lying on the couch, coughing from time to time.
"Madam Li, the person from the palace who is going to diagnose you is here." The palace servant in the villa spoke coldly, without any respect on his face. After he finished speaking, he didn't wait for the person behind the curtain to respond, and went out on his own.
Li Xizhen turned her head and looked outside the gauze curtain. "Is it a young lady?"
She coughed until her voice became hoarse.
"Princess..." Ni Su just spoke, but she noticed that the maid was staring at her outside the door, so she changed her words, "Madam Li, my name is Ni Su, and because the emperor allowed me to work in the Imperial Medical Bureau, I have the opportunity to come and diagnose you."
"Ni Su..."
Li Xizhen rubbed the name, "I know you, you are the young lady who came back from Yongzhou."
"yes."
Ni Su responded, opened the curtain and walked in. She looked up and saw that the woman on the couch was only covered with a thin quilt. "Why are they..."
Li Xizhen stretched out her hand from under the quilt, her pale lips curved, "I am just a commoner now, this is already good enough."
Ni Su pursed her lips, not knowing what to say for a moment. She walked forward, placed the pulse pillow under Li Xizhen's wrist, and took her pulse.
"It's not easy for a woman to practice medicine, right?"
Li Xizhen looked at her.
“It’s not easy, but there is still a way out.”
Ni Su said.
Li Xizhen smiled and said, "It can be seen that you are an extraordinary young lady."
"Your kidneys are weak, your qi and blood are insufficient, and now you have caught a cold," Ni Su released her wrist, put away the pulse pillow, and searched for writing materials in the medicine box, "but don't worry, I promised His Royal Highness Prince Jia that I would take good care of you."
There were palace servants outside, so Ni Su lowered her voice.
When Li Xizhen first heard her mention Prince Jia, she was startled at first, then she looked at the young woman in front of her in astonishment, "You..."
"His Royal Highness Prince Jia is back."
Ni Su raised her head.
"He disobeyed?"
Li Xizhen immediately started coughing violently. She struggled to sit up. Ni Su immediately put down the things in her hands, sat on the edge of the bed and helped her up, and shouted to the door: "Go and boil some hot water!"
There was no movement outside the door, so Ni Su had no choice but to lift the curtain and go out. The palace maid was in the corridor, motionless. Ni Su knew the fickleness of human nature in this world, so she took some money from her sleeve and stuffed it into the palace maid's hand, "Please go and boil some hot water for Li Shuren."
When the maid saw the money, her expression began to smile a little. Without saying anything, she turned around and went to the end of the corridor.
Ni Su returned to the house and wrapped Li Xizhen in a quilt. "His Royal Highness Prince Jia walked into the city from the Imperial Street to the Imperial City, bowed three times and kowtowed nine times. As soon as he entered the palace, he was summoned by the emperor. Not only did the emperor not blame him, he also summoned the chief physician of the Imperial Medical Bureau to treat his injuries."
Ni Su also repeated to her the words he had heard with his own ears: "Your Majesty is benevolent and virtuous, and even the ghosts and gods admire you. The sins of all the people are all mine. I beg God to transfer the disaster to me."
Li Xizhen calmed down, his chest heaving, and his eyes became moist almost immediately.
Ni Su was stunned and wanted to use her handkerchief to wipe her tears, but when she took it out and saw the blood on the handkerchief, she immediately put it back into her arms.
Li Xizhen suddenly lowered her head, and a few strands of her long hair fell to her shoulders. She covered her face with her hands. Ni Su was about to comfort her, but she saw her raise her head suddenly. Although her eyelids were red, she was smiling.
Laughing happily.
"Thank you, Miss Ni."
Li Xizhen looked at her and said, "This news is more important than anything else."
Before leaving the villa, Ni Su gave some money to the palace maid who was taking care of Li Xizhen, and asked her to prepare another thick quilt for him and add some charcoal fire in the house.
"The princess is such a quiet and elegant woman."
Ni Su held Xu Hexue's hand and walked along the Yong'an Lake. "I suddenly remembered that you once told me that your old friend once made a kite to please Qingmei. That Qingmei was her."
The two characters "Zi Ling" embroidered on the dark black cloak were also done by Princess Jia.
"They knew each other as children and knew each other when they were young. Yonggeng and she had a lot in common."
Li Xizhen looked sick and untidy, so Xu Hexue did not follow Ni Su in.
In fact, Xu Hexue had not met Li Xizhen many times when he was young, but he knew that after Prince Jia entered the palace, he had been exchanging letters with Li Xizhen. Those letters were almost the only support for Prince Jia in the palace.
"Yong Geng has always been taciturn in the palace. She only talks more to me when she receives her letters," Xu Hexue recalled something and expressed his feelings, "Although, I don't want to hear about the trivial matters between the two of them."
But Zhao Yonggeng always had to read it to him.
"My teacher is also his teacher,"
Xu Hexue stopped suddenly, "Ah Xi, I think he has remembered the teacher's last words in his heart, but I am afraid that he will do this."
He knew that Meng Yunxian was pushing Zhao Yonggeng on a difficult road.
The princes of the Great Qi Dynasty were not allowed to attend court meetings to discuss state affairs. Even if they were princes, they had no real power. From the year Zhao Yonggeng was crowned king, although he had never been to court, he had always been caught up in the vortex of politics.
As a close friend, Xu Hexue admired Yonggeng's courage in returning to Beijing against the imperial order, but at the same time, he also knew that Yonggeng would be involved in an intractable dead end because of this action.
But now the situation is so precarious, who can escape unscathed?
Ni Su looked up at him, her hood falling to her shoulders, and she suddenly said, "Xu Ziling, look at yourself."
The man in front of her had bloodstains on his collar. Cold, crystal-clear snowflakes fell on his thick black hair and brushed across his cold eyebrows, neither disappearing nor melting.
Such a face, with fine bones, but so pale that it was almost bloodless.
"You respect your teacher and care about your best friends. Even if you die, you have defended the Yongzhou territory for the Great Qi and saved soldiers and civilians. You are willing to be a human being." She held his hand and raised it, her sleeves slipped back, revealing a bloody scratch on her cold white wrist bone. "Why can't a human being be a human being for you?"
"We who are still alive want to do this for you, too."
Xu Hexue said nothing.
He just looked at the woman in front of him. She said these words with a smile. He couldn't help but stretched out his fingers and touched her eyelids.
She blinked.
The wind was howling and the fog was thick.
Xu Hexue put her hood back on her head and said, "Axi, let me carry you home."
"My legs and feet are not injured, why are you carrying me?"
Ni Su laughed.
Xu Hexue turned around and squatted in front of her, his clothes brushing against the snow on the ground that had not been swept clean. He lowered his eyes and whispered, "Your shoes and socks are wet, I know."
…
Chongming Palace.
Prince Jia was leaning back on the couch, the food on the table untouched. His feet and knees were wrapped in fine cloth, his face was pale and gaunt, his hair was not tied up, a few strands of light hair brushed his cheeks.
He doesn't eat and doesn't talk.
The eunuchs and palace maids in the palace stood quietly by.
The imperial concubine was helped into the palace by her maids, and she saw this scene. There was no warmth in the palace, so she frowned and said, "How come you servants don't know how to add fuel to His Highness's heart? If His Highness's condition gets worse, how can you resist?"
The palace maids and eunuchs all lowered their heads.
"go."
The imperial concubine raised her chin towards the palace maid beside her.
The palace maid immediately understood and took all the palace servants out. For a moment, only the imperial concubine and Prince Jia were left in the palace.
"My lady."
Prince Jia had some reaction, "It's freezing cold, you shouldn't have come."
"I should come," the imperial concubine curved her lips and took a sip of the hot tea in front of her, "I heard that Your Highness has thought it through and is willing to marry my niece?"
"yes."
Prince Jia lowered his eyes, "In this situation, I should have figured it out long ago."
This was very pleasing to the ears, and the imperial concubine nodded gently, "Your Highness, if you had thought this way earlier, you wouldn't have angered the emperor. This is actually a good thing. My niece is a very outstanding beauty. When she comes to the capital, you will see her and know her goodness."
Prince Jia's lips were cracked and white, and blood oozed out when he moved a little. "I know exactly what the queen is thinking."
He suddenly raised his head and stared at the imperial concubine with a pair of bloodshot eyes, "But what about those people who made the queen and I unhappy?"
The imperial concubine knew exactly who those people were.
She looked at Prince Jia with some surprise. For some reason, she always felt that this person was a little different.
But she chuckled, "They are really going too far. Your Highness, what do you think we should do?"
Prince Jia lifted the quilt and walked to the front of the imperial concubine step by step, ignoring the wound on his feet. There were bloodstains on the ground, but he seemed to be unaware of it and bowed:
"Zhao Yi, I am willing to go with the Queen."
