Chapter 37

When Cui Hu came back, he saw Prince Shou standing at the door with a lonely and dejected look. He was about to ask what had happened, but he saw a river of blood flowing out from the open door behind him.

It meandered its way to the door, then was stopped by the threshold, becoming a pool of dusty water that brightly illuminated the world.

"Your Highness?"

Prince Shou, who was called, was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses and waved to him.

"... bury him properly! He had a miserable life."

After saying this, he walked out of the courtyard in a trance. Cui Hu pushed open the door and saw the man lying on the firewood pile with his eyes closed. He showed no fear at all, but was sleeping peacefully. He even held the dagger that did not belong to him in his hand for a long time and was unwilling to let go.

The horse plague case in the capital came to an end, but the horse plague in Liangzhou did not subside. After this horse plague crisis, the ministers in the court who opposed allocating money to Shu Hu became angry again, and one after another strongly urged in the court to transfer the money to Liangzhou for disaster relief.

Even if His Majesty is on the side of the alien race, it is not appropriate to be paranoid when seeing this scene. Marquis Qingyuan was originally implicated in Luo Feng's affairs, so it is not appropriate for him to say anything at this moment, so the matter remains deadlocked.

People in the city had already begun to die from horse plague, and the Liangzhou horse plague had spread beyond the region, beginning to spread to other counties. Minister Yue and his men repeatedly petitioned the emperor, urging him to revoke his order and retain the money to send to the local authorities. Finally, on the Double Ninth Festival, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, the emperor, overcome with burdens, agreed to allocate three million taels of silver to local disaster relief.

This farce finally came to an end when more than 3,000 people in the local area contracted the disease and died, and 16 people in the capital died tragically before they could receive treatment. His Majesty ordered the Minister of Revenue Yue Zhizheng to be the pacification envoy and the Imperial Physician Teng Yan to go to Liangzhou to provide disaster relief, and issued an edict that no one could return to the capital unless the condition improved.

Although the matter was resolved, the scene of all the officials in the court making a joint appeal made His Majesty furious, and he ordered that from that moment on no one should mention the matter of the three million taels again.

Cui Hu mentioned this matter to Prince Shou after leaving the court and said, "Your Majesty's anger is actually a good thing for us. I'm afraid the Crown Prince won't dare to mention the matter of rushing to help Shu Hu again during this period."

Prince Shou also nodded.

"It's quite a coincidence that the epidemic broke out just before the money was sent away. If Lord Teng could develop a prescription to treat the epidemic at this time, it would really be twice the result with half the effort."

Cui Hu was a little worried when he heard this. "I don't know how long the prescription left by Lord Teng will last. He said that with him gone, the capital will rely entirely on the other academicians of the Imperial Hospital. His daughter has been studying in seclusion at home. He said that if we are worried, we can go to his house and ask Teng Xiji."

Prince Shou knew that he said this because he was worried about Yue Qingning. After all, she was the girl he loved dearly. Even with the prescription left by Lord Teng, he still felt uneasy.

"Just go and ask! Minister Yue passed away without even returning home to see how his family was doing. Since you're still in the capital, you should naturally take extra care of him. If nothing happens, that's great. If there is anything, you can notify Minister Yue as soon as possible."

This was exactly what His Royal Highness Prince Shou said. Cui Hu was so anxious that he didn't even have time to go home and change his clothes, and hurried to Lord Teng's house.

On the way, he met his younger brother Cui Jingye who had just come out of the west gate of Xuanzheng, so he went with him.

Unexpectedly, when the two arrived at Teng Mansion, they found that both the main gate and the small gate were closed, and it didn't look like there was anyone there. It was only when Cui Jing climbed up the wall without paying attention that he saw Teng Xieji sitting in the yard.

"Hey! Miss Teng, what's wrong with you? Who locked you up?"

When he heard someone shouting, Teng Xieji thought he was hallucinating. It took him a long time to find the man riding on the wall.

"You...why are you here?"

Seeing that no one was watching outside the yard, he flew into the yard.

"Did you know that Lord Teng and Minister Yue were ordered to go to Liangzhou today?"

Seeing her nod in a trance, Cui Jing asked again.

"Lord Teng said that you're probably the only one in the capital who can come up with a cure for the epidemic, so he wanted us to ask about your progress."

Upon hearing this, she seemed to be stunned for a moment, and then showed a panicked expression that was neither funny nor sad. She even took two steps back and almost tripped to the ground. Cui Jing rushed forward and supported her.

"It's okay even if you haven't figured it out. After all, such a big thing doesn't depend solely on you. There's no need to blame yourself so much!"

It turned out that he didn't know yet, and the epidemic outside the door had not been resolved yet. Teng Xieji squatted on the ground, covering her face, wishing that the truth would disappear from her mind. How come she was the only one who knew the truth among so many people?

Cui Jing didn't understand what was going on and thought she was blaming herself for her incompetence, so he squatted down with her. He raised his hand and was about to pat her, but he was afraid of scaring the beauty, so his hand hung in the air.

"It's not your fault, how can you be so ashamed of yourself?"

She listened to what he said and suddenly interrupted him without any reason.

"Prince Shou asked you to come, right?"

It was indeed Prince Shou who asked his brother to come. Cui Jing nodded slowly, but the girl, who was usually calm and composed, cried even harder when she heard this, and even beat her knees, wishing she could tear herself apart.

Cui Jing quickly stopped her and grabbed her wrist to prevent her from moving.

"You don't have..."

"It's out! The prescription is out."

His eyes widened upon hearing this, and he lifted the man up from the ground. "You said you already have a prescription. Have you figured out how to cure the epidemic?"

Faced with his excited expression of unexpected joy, Teng Xieji showed no expression. He was cold as if he had known this would happen. He brought him into the house and handed him the prescription he had written down.

Cui Jing held the precious prescription in his hand, but unconsciously looked around the other person's study. The room was almost everywhere with papers with prescriptions written on them, and they covered the floor in a full layer. He compared it with the one in his hand and found that they were exactly the same, even the usage and dosage were the same, as if she had prepared it long ago and was waiting for someone to come in and take the prescription out.

“You’re here…”

She didn't want him to say anything more, so she pulled him out of the room.

"I've already written down the instructions and dosage, but I need to remind you one more time: take it cold. If necessary, you can coat it with water-ground cinnabar and realgar. Dissolve each pill in spring water."

After saying that, she went back to the room alone. Cui Jing didn't even have time to thank her. He could only watch the door close tightly. The face of the person on the other end didn't look like the relief of someone who had worked day and night to finally come up with a good solution.

He jumped out in the same way and told his brother about this matter, but Cui Hu was now thinking about his future sister-in-law and did not listen to his words at all. He took the medicine and hurried to Yue Mansion.

At this moment, Yue Qingning was still confused, but suddenly he heard someone tearing off the seal on the door and rushing in.

She felt vaguely uneasy and uncertain, and had just walked out of the house.

She saw the Third Young Master Cui, whom she had not seen for seven days, standing in the yard, his eagle eyes anxiously scanning the surroundings for her.

He promised to pick her up in seven days, and he actually did it!

Yue Qingning's heart was churning and almost stopped for a moment. He never expected that there really was a gentleman in this world who really valued his words and took every word seriously.

"Who are you? How dare you break into the Yue family and even break the seal of the palace? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Aunt Cheng didn't know who the visitor was, and she led a group of servants to surround him, but he didn't care about the people in front of him at all. In a blink of an eye, he saw the girl he was thinking about standing behind them.

She just happened to be standing there, standing not far from him, as softly and gracefully as in his dream, as if there had never been such an epidemic, and as if they had never been separated.

He smiled and felt something warm on his face and in his eyes, but he no longer cared about it and just walked towards her in a daze.

"Stop! The Yue family won't tolerate your rash behavior."

Yue Qingning saw his face clearly and also revealed a very complicated expression, and asked those who were trying to stop him to stop.

"You guys go down! This... is my future husband."

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, especially the servants who were trying to stop the future son-in-law. They looked at each other, not knowing what to do. It was Cui Hu who pushed them away and gave them a way out.

"Qingning, I'm here to fulfill my promise!"

Yue Qingning looked up at him and smiled, stretching out his hands to catch the man's arms.

The whole yard was silent, no one dared to say a word, and all that could be heard was the sound of people gasping for breath.

Just when Que Ming walked out, she saw Cui Hu rushing over and holding her in his arms.

He looked at the two intertwined figures from afar, unable to utter a word. He even forgot to look away and just stared blankly at Cui Hu holding her in his arms like a treasure.

And the young lady who once thought she was in love with him was now looking at the young general who was holding her in his arms with a smile on her face.

What a perfect match between a talented man and a beautiful woman!

Zhong, who came out later, was behind Que Ming and saw him staring at the two of them in disbelief.

She walked up and patted Queming's shoulder to wake him up from his daze.

"That's Cui Hu, the third son of Duke Cui of the Protectorate. I heard that you and Qingning have met him a while ago!"

"Yes..." Que Ming didn't even know how he answered. He just felt like a layer of ice had formed from top to bottom and from inside to outside, freezing him to the spot. He couldn't even speak because of the choking.

Mrs. Zhong didn't notice anything wrong with him and just thought he was too shocked. After all, she was also shocked and couldn't believe it when she first heard it.

"The descendants of the Cui family have made outstanding contributions, and Prince Shou and the eldest princess have already acted as matchmakers. Our Qingning will soon be married to the Duke of Huguo's mansion!"

These words were like a bolt from the blue, destroying him completely. It took Que Ming a long time to find his voice.

"Miss...Miss once said she was afraid of that guy, so why did she get engaged so hastily?"

"This marriage isn't something we can decide! Alas! With Prince Shou and the Princess in front of us, what else can we say? If we dare to reject the marriage proposal from the Duke of the Protectorate, people will think our Yue family is just putting on airs, daring to reject even the Duke of the Protectorate. Then, not even a single family will dare to propose marriage to us in the future."

Que Ming shouted anxiously, "You can't ask the young lady to marry someone she hates!"

Zhong had never heard Que Ming so anxious before, and she looked at him in confusion.

"She never said she hated it. Did she tell you she hated Major General Cui?"

“…”

He lowered his head almost to the ground, but he couldn't tell what she was thinking. It was just his feeling, he just knew it!

Mrs. Zhong saw Que Ming hunched over without saying a word, and she seemed to have vaguely sensed something, but she knew her daughter's temper better. She was stubborn, and if she didn't want to, even the king couldn't force her. Since she agreed this time, it must have been the result of her careful consideration.

"Que Ming, this is Qingning's own decision. Don't you know her personality? It's her own decision and no one else can interfere."

The man with his head hanging on the ground stood so stiffly, and suddenly he felt a loud crash, and his chest shattered all over the ground.