The next day.

As soon as the morning court session ended, Cheng Liang was ordered to rush to the Imperial Hospital.

At this moment, Zhang Zhiyuan was inspecting various affairs within the courtyard.

Seeing a woman selecting herbs, he instructed her, "These herbs are the main ingredients for making pills. You must choose fresh, dry herbs that are free from pests. You must not be careless."

The medicine girl nodded respectfully and replied, "Yes, sir, I understand."

Then, he instructed the other relevant people: "Grind the selected herbs into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. Mix the ground herbs evenly and add other medicinal materials strictly according to the prescription ratio."

Upon arriving at the pill-making area, Zhang Zhiyuan saw a female medicine practitioner about to pour a pot of water directly into the pill-making area.

He quickly stepped forward to stop her and personally taught her: "The preparation process cannot be done carelessly by adding water or honey all at once. Instead, you must gradually add the mixed herbs with an appropriate amount of water or honey while stirring, until it becomes a paste, like this."

Then, he deftly rolled up his sleeves and personally demonstrated how to knead the prepared medicine paste into small, evenly sized balls by hand.

While demonstrating the entire process, he carefully instructed: "Place the kneaded pills in a well-ventilated area to dry, making sure they are completely dry. Finally, put the dried pills into a sealed jar and store them in a cool, dry place."

Finally, he added, "Pills have advantages such as good taste, easy portability, and convenient use. However, when making them, we must master the selection of medicinal materials, the proportion of the prescription, the pill-making techniques, and the methods of preservation. These magical herbs are a gift from nature, and we must never waste them."

Just then, one of the group of medicine girls said, "When it comes to making pills, Dingxiang is the best among us. There is absolutely no one who can surpass her."

Immediately afterwards, someone asked, "By the way, Your Excellency, why haven't we seen the Great Medicine Maiden lately? Where did she go?"

Zhang Zhiyuan's expression suddenly darkened. After a pause, he replied, "The recent torrential rains caused flooding in some suburban areas, leaving many people homeless. There are also suspected outbreaks of disease. Therefore, this court has sent her out to help."

Fearing that the crowd would continue to ask questions, Zhang Zhiyuan sternly reprimanded them, saying, "Since you all know that you are not as skilled as others, why don't you practice properly? Do you want me to send you all to such places for training as well?"

Sure enough, as soon as these words were spoken, everyone became worried about themselves and hurriedly continued what they were doing: "No, no, we'll practice hard, we'll definitely practice hard, we'll start practicing right away!"

And all of this was witnessed by Cheng Liangju, who was standing at the door.

Zhang Zhiyuan glanced up and saw him, paused for a moment, then hurriedly ran over to greet him with a smile: "General Cheng, what brings you here today?"

Cheng Liang had come looking for Dingxiang, but she was clearly not there. A thought struck him, and he asked, "Is Yi Shangkun on duty today? His Highness sent me to ask him personally about some matters concerning the Princess Consort..."

Zhang Zhiyuan stroked his beard and said, "Pharmacist Yi is on night duty. If the general needs to find him urgently, he will probably have to go to the Yi residence in the west of the city..."

Cheng Liang then said, "It's not a very urgent matter. Since he's not on duty, then let's just forget about it."

Zhang Zhiyuan remained polite and said, "Since the general is here, please come in and have some tea?"

Cheng Liang glanced at him disdainfully, said, "This general has other matters to attend to, no need to go!", and then turned and left.

Watching Cheng Liang's departing figure, Zhang Zhiyuan murmured to himself, "Princess Qin clearly took the ashes of the Second Prince of Beilie to the grasslands, so why did Yi Shangkun say that she was already dead?"

Clearly, Zhang Zhiyuan was finding it increasingly difficult to understand all of this.

But right now, he knows he has something more important to do.

Thinking of this, he hurriedly went out and headed towards a particularly remote and desolate courtyard in the deep palace.

In a dark and damp corner of that deep palace.

Unlock and push open the door.

Suddenly, a gust of cold wind swept by, making one feel a chill run down their spine.

What came into view was a courtyard full of withered branches and fallen leaves, and tattered window paper.

The place was deathly silent, devoid of any life, as if not even birds had ever stayed there.

In the center of the courtyard, there is a stagnant pool of water.

A few dead fish carcasses floated on the water's surface, emitting a foul stench in the sweltering summer heat because no one had tended to them.

Zhang Zhiyuan had to cover his mouth and nose before entering the house.

After searching for a long time, they finally found a woman huddled in a corner of the house, looking listless and even on the verge of death, by the faint, dim light.

So he quickened his pace and came to her, calling out to her again and again.

"clove"

"clove"

How are you feeling today?

Upon hearing the sound, the woman slowly woke up after a long while and crawled towards Zhang Zhiyuan's feet.

With the last bit of strength he had left, he tightly hugged Zhang Zhiyuan's ankle.

Pale-faced and extremely weak, he repeatedly begged for help.

"Your Majesty the Judge..."

"Your Majesty the Judge..."

"You've arrived."

"You've finally arrived!"

"Please..."

"Help me..."

"Save me, Your Honor."

“They have people coming every day to force-feed me medication.”

"I just can't take it anymore."

"I feel so bad."

"I feel so bad."

"Whenever it flares up, it feels like countless ants are gnawing at my body."

"It really hurts."

Hearing Dingxiang's words and seeing the once vibrant woman now forced to be poisoned by Emperor Jing, Zhang Zhiyuan clenched his fists in anger.

"The Emperor is cruel and heartless, not even sparing a mere medicine girl. He dared not allow anyone to leave obvious marks on her body, fearing that one day, when Yi Shangyun returned and discovered that he had broken his promise, he would poison her. Long-term ingestion of this poison will damage the functions of various organs in the body, eventually leading to death. It is truly outrageous!"

I may be angry, but that's all.

In the end, he could only reluctantly take a cloth bag out of his sleeve, open it, and place it on the table beside him.

Then squat down and help Dingxiang sit up.

He then picked up one of the silver needles and said to her helplessly, "I'm sorry, I can't bring you any medicine from the Imperial Hospital that can detoxify you. I can only give you acupuncture once a day, but that will only slightly alleviate your pain. I'm afraid this is not a long-term solution."

Zhang Zhiyuan wanted to encourage Dingxiang's will to live, so he said hopefully, "Six months, you just need to endure for another six months. The Princess Consort will return. At that time, the Emperor will surely keep his promise to her and release you."

Dingxiang, however, disagreed: "No, Dingxiang's life is as insignificant as an ant on the ground. If I die, I die. What's the pity? But I absolutely cannot implicate Your Highness. If the only way for me to live is to restrict Your Highness's freedom, then I would rather die now."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Zhiyuan exclaimed in surprise, “You must not think like that. The Princess Consort is always a woman of her word and a woman of deep affection. If she says she will come back, she will definitely come back. All the suffering you have endured today is because of her. If one day she really comes back, but you are no longer here, how sad and remorseful she would be. Have you forgotten the death of Tuoba Hong?”

Upon hearing this, Dingxiang silently shed tears of sorrow.

Zhang Zhiyuan continued to encourage and comfort her: "The Princess Consort is an extraordinary woman! She can accomplish anything she sets her mind to. You have worked with her day and night, so you should understand this better than anyone else. Therefore, you must be even more determined and have faith in her. You must never choose the same path as Tuoba Hong, disappointing the Princess Consort and causing pain to your loved ones and joy to your enemies!"

Remembering Yi Shangyun's parting words, Zhang Zhiyuan decided that this time, he would live up to her trust and protect Dingxiang, preventing her from repeating the mistakes of Tuoba Hong.

Leaving the Imperial Medical Academy.

Cheng Liang pondered to himself, "Although the recent torrential rains did cause flooding in several suburban areas, it wasn't enough to warrant the deployment of the Imperial Hospital. What is Zhang Zhiyuan hiding? And where is Ding Xiang?"

Immediately afterwards, Cheng Liang, lost in thought, went to a pavilion near the prison.

Soon, a man dressed as a palace jailer, looking around cautiously, hurried toward the pavilion.

Upon seeing Cheng Liang, he bowed and greeted him, saying, "Your subordinate greets the General!"

As soon as Cheng Liang raised his hand, the jailer straightened up and asked, "I wonder why the general has summoned me here?"

Cheng Liang asked, "I'm asking you, a while ago, wasn't a prisoner brought into the imperial prison from outside the palace?"

Emperor Jing was cruel and tyrannical. Every now and then, he would bring back people who opposed him or were detrimental to him from outside the palace and torture them.

When Cheng Liang asked this question, the jailer really didn't know how to answer, so he recalled and said, "Were they captured from outside the palace?"

Cheng Liang reminded him again: "That man was later sent to Changning Palace..."

In this way, the jailer finally locked onto the target and suddenly realized, "So that's the person the general is talking about! That person has really suffered a lot in prison. Since entering the prison, he has been tortured every hour for several days in a row, but he has never uttered a sound. He is a real man!"

Cheng Liang asked, "Do you know who he is? And why he was arrested?"

The jailer recalled for a moment and said, "I only heard that he seemed to be from the former Northern Lie Kingdom, but I have no idea what his name was."

"Bei Lie?"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Liang pondered for a while and soon seemed to have several options in mind.

Then he asked the jailer, "Do you still remember what that person looked like?"