Chapter 3: Risking Death and Surviving 4. Seeking Medical Treatment
The early summer wind blew into the spacious carriage, carrying with it the unique astringent scent of green grass .
The wind was warm, the carriage was rocking slightly, Liu Xiu was lying quietly in the carriage with his eyes closed, his head resting on my legs. I was afraid that he would catch a cold, so I reached out to the curtain, wanting to lower it, but it was always a little short.
After recuperating for more than half a month, the palace summoned doctors countless times, but they could only temporarily control the condition with a large amount of medicine. Liu Xiu was tortured by the disease and his face was haggard, and his eye sockets were bruised. After all, the queen and the prince's party had some weight in the court. Under their influence, the travel plan was interrupted for a time. The speechless emperor was manipulated like a puppet, and was fed endless soups and medicines all day long. Those days were worse than death.
This dragged on for more than 20 days, and most of the court officials seemed to have given up hope. Some of them even secretly thought of establishing a new ruler. For a time, the power of Guo's relatives increased greatly. However, at this critical moment, the emperor, who had been speechless for a long time, suddenly regained his ability to speak. Although his speech was not very clear, he spoke clearly and was not confused when explaining things.
After making simple arrangements for the affairs of state in Kyoto, the seriously ill Emperor Jianwu resolutely ordered a southern tour. This time, no matter how hard the relatives and the Queen's party tried to stop him, it was of no avail.
I leaned back, stretched my arms as far as I could, and used my fingers to lift the curtain, but failed after several attempts.
"Let...me...go..."
I turned around in surprise and saw Liu Xiu looking at me with his eyes open, smiling.
"Awake?" I smiled shyly, like a young girl whose thoughts were accidentally discovered by someone, and stammered, "I was afraid you would catch a cold."
He narrowed his eyes and smiled, saying in a hoarse voice: "Help me... up."
I held his neck with one hand and his waist with the other, and helped him up. Just as I felt my legs go numb, I heard a "vomit" sound beside me. Liu Xiu, who had just sat up, leaned to the other side and vomited. The car was suddenly filled with a sour and smelly smell.
"Xiu'er..." I pulled his shoulders over. He was vomiting heartily. Perhaps the filth that had not been vomited out blocked his trachea. His face turned blue immediately. He was breathing like a bellows, coughing and vomiting. He looked very embarrassed. I felt so distressed that my eyes turned red. I followed his breathing and kept patting his back. "Are you dizzy? Are you dizzy? Just hold on for another day. Tomorrow...tomorrow we will be in Yanshi..."
Liu Xiu didn't answer me, but his face became more and more ugly, and he made a heavy gasping sound in his throat. Seeing that he couldn't catch his breath, he was about to faint. I didn't have time to think about it, I quickly pinched his cheeks, exhaled all the turbid air in my chest, and then sucked it into his mouth.
After a while, I tilted my head to one side and spat out the phlegm. At this time, Dai Ang and Shanan, who were waiting outside the car, heard the noise and slowed down the car. They were just looking in and were stunned when they saw this scene.
"Bring me some water." I spat twice and helped Liu Xiu, who had regained his independent breathing, to lean against the cushion. Afraid that he would feel nauseous and vomit again, I carefully tilted his head slightly to one side to prevent him from choking while vomiting.
Liu Xiu didn't say anything, his eyelids drooped listlessly, and it was unknown whether he had woken up or not.
"My dear, water..." Dai Ang called softly.
Without even looking at him, I took the wooden bowl from his hand and put it to Liu Xiu's lips: "Drink some water to moisten your throat." I shouted a few times but no one answered. The sweat on my forehead slid down my cheeks into my neck. Liu Xiu's face was pale and his lips were dry and cracked. He vomited a lot just now. I was afraid that the hot weather would cause him to be dehydrated, so I thought about it, put the wooden bowl in my mouth, held the water, rinsed my mouth, and then spit it out. I used the whole bowl of water to rinse my mouth. After that, I saw Shannan holding the kettle stupidly without any reaction, so I took the pottery pot from her hand and drank directly from the kettle. When I took the second sip, I didn't swallow it, but turned sideways and leaned over Liu Xiu and fed him mouth to mouth.
After feeding her three or four mouthfuls, she suddenly heard sobbing outside the carriage. It turned out that the carriage had stopped but the curtains were not closed. A palace maid outside the carriage saw it and couldn't help covering her face and crying.
Shanan usually has a cold face, but at this moment she couldn't help but be moved, and her eyes turned slightly red.
I had no time to care about their emotions. I helped Liu Xiu move to the clean side and said, "Clean up the car."
"promise."
I jumped off the car and asked the eunuchs to climb on board and serve me.
Standing in the field and looking around, this place is not far from Luoyang. We have been rushing for two days, but we have not walked many miles. Liu Xiu's condition has been recurring, and the imperial physician who came with him has no other use except decocting, boiling and warming medicine.
"How far is it to Yanshi?"
"Run faster, it will take an hour. If we walk and stop, we will have to stay overnight, and we will arrive tomorrow."
The sun has already set, and it won't be long before it sinks below the horizon. By then, the road will certainly be difficult to travel on at night.
There was no wind, and I stood in the wilderness, but I felt like I was in a sealed jar, feeling suffocated and unable to breathe. "How are the arrangements going in Yanshi?"
"The person your Excellency wanted has already arrived in Yanshi at noon, but..." Shanan showed a trace of difficulty, "The old man has a very stubborn temper. When we went to invite him, we had some arguments with him. He was unwilling to come... Your Excellency has issued a death order for this matter. The shadow soldiers in Hebei dare not neglect it, so they had no choice but to tie him up and bring him here."
I said "hmm" lightly. Shanan spoke very cautiously, probably thinking that I would get angry after hearing her, but she didn't expect my reaction to be so calm. She couldn't help but glance at me in surprise.
I looked back and saw that they had arranged the convoy, so I said simply, "Hurry up and get going! In an hour... I want to see that person!"
After saying this, he walked straight towards the carriage without paying attention to Sanan's expression.
The interior of the car had been replaced with new ones, but the sour smell from vomiting just now had not yet dissipated. An incense burner was placed in the corner of the car, and curls of green smoke with a sweet fragrance were wafting away.
I frowned, thinking that the aroma might make Liu Xiu sensitive and uncomfortable, so I picked up the incense burner and threw it outside the car with great displeasure. With a bang, I don't know if it scared the people outside the car. Just when I felt unhappy, a familiar chuckle sounded beside me: "Still... so irritable."
I was startled by the sound and turned my head to ask in surprise, "Did I wake you up?"
Liu Xiu was lying in the car, his head resting on a wooden lacquer pillow, his face turned to me, with a tired smile on his face: "I didn't sleep... I was awake all the time..."
I leaned over, pushed his messy hair aside, and combed it carefully: "I asked them to speed up. I'm worried that you won't be able to handle the running. It's better to..."
He raised his right hand and held my hand, squeezing it hard: "Wake up... look after you... stay with you... for a while..."
I held his face, feeling sad: "Then just bear with it."
"Um."
As he was talking, the carriage accelerated and swayed from side to side. Even the expensive and best-made imperial chariot could not completely avoid shock. The shaking of the speeding vehicle was enough to make a healthy person dizzy, let alone a critically ill patient like Liu Xiu who was dying.
I held him tightly in my arms. He didn't say a word, not even a slight groan, as if he had been shocked unconscious.
"I won't let you die..." I murmured in a trance.
"Well, I... am not dead." The disordered breath and the sound of holding back the exhalation, his weak voice was like a star rising in the dark night, giving me hope to continue to survive, and supporting my already fragile heart with great strength, "Not - dead -"
On the second day of April, the imperial carriage stayed overnight in Yanshi.
The lights on the corridors of the building became dim in the night wind, and the shadows of the tree branches were cast on the tightly closed doors, swaying with ferocious and ferocious looks, which was so depressing that it made people feel suffocated.
I ordered someone to unlock the door and pushed it open. I saw that the room was bleak, with only a bed, a desk, and a few mats. The desk was placed directly on the bed. An old man with a long beard, hunched over, was leaning over the desk and writing with his eyes squinting. He wrote very slowly, hesitated, and made many mistakes. He would scrape off the wrong words with a knife and rewrite them from time to time.
When the door opened, he just glanced at the door subconsciously in the candlelight, but did not pay attention to my appearance. He turned his head and continued to ponder how to start writing.
Sixteen years had passed, and I had never expected that he would still be alive. The moment I saw him, it seemed that many dusty past events were involuntarily reopened. At that moment, I stood at the door, feeling timid and not daring to approach and disturb him.
Shanan walked over to me and tried to greet me, but I grabbed her arm. Finally, I took a deep breath, dragged my heavy feet forward, walked to the bed, and knelt down.
"Oh?" The old man on the bed leaned forward to look at him, "Who is this? Why are you giving me such a great gift? I can't accept it..."
"I am Yin Lihua, and I beg Mr. Cheng to forgive me for my disrespect and impoliteness!"
The old man on the bed did not express his opinion immediately. I knelt on the ground, my forehead touching the cold ground, and I felt the pain in my heart stirring over and over again.
"So it is... Please get up, sir, and don't torture me." He got down from the bed slowly, and I picked up the straw sandals beside me and respectfully put them on his feet.
He hurriedly retracted his feet and exclaimed: "What are you doing?"
I didn't allow him to back down, and stubbornly put on his shoes for him, saying, "Let's not talk about anything else. You are an old friend of mine, and you are my elder, so this is the way it should be."
He stomped his feet on the ground, sighed repeatedly, "I didn't expect that after more than ten years of not seeing you, you still remember us old friends in your high position. Well, well... please stand up."
I refused to get up and continued to kneel down and beg, "Please, Mr. Cheng, save my husband's life! I am willing to sacrifice my life for yours!"
Cheng Yu trembled as he helped me up. I refused to do it. He was old and frail, so he couldn't persuade me. He could only pant and say, "I am old. I am afraid that I am willing but not strong enough."
My heart ached. Under the candlelight, this old man, who was over 70 years old, had wrinkles all over his face, cloudy eyes, and even his voice was obviously weak. The little hope that had just risen in my heart shattered with a crack, and I could only say with tears in my eyes, "Sir, you have a magical skill, please give it a try."
At this point, let's try our best! If anything happens to Liu Xiu, there is no way I can survive alone.
"Alas." He sighed deeply, "As Zi Ling said, he ran away so fast, leaving me behind... Well, never mind, since I'm here, I'll make the best of it. I'll just give it a try, just give it a try..."
I kowtowed heavily and then stood up with tears in my eyes. He looked at me with a smile and his face became kind.
I knew that forcibly abducting him to Yanshi was inappropriate, and I blushed with shame. He looked at me carefully, and suddenly sighed: "I didn't expect... Oh, no more, no more, please take me to see His Majesty."
I hurriedly supported his arm and helped him out. Seeing Cheng Yu take out a wooden crutches from the bed and walk three steps with them, I suddenly felt disappointed.
