Chapter 102 The Princess of the Past has become so pitiful.

Yu Qing followed the palace maid's instructions as if sleepwalking and sent Xie Jing to the bed in the palace.

She was completely oblivious to her surroundings. When she came to her senses, Xie Jing was lying in front of her, and her hands were still shaking slightly.

The scene just now lingers in my mind.

She was also at a loss, not knowing whether Xie Jing had been injured before she arrived at the palace. She reached out and gently felt around his body, but found no obvious marks.

Yu Qing wiped the blood from Xie Jing's lips, then held his wrist and covered his chest.

My mind is so confused that I can't even feel the pulse. As long as the pulse is still beating, it's fine.

Xie Jing regained consciousness briefly, vaguely remembering that he vomited a large mouthful of bloody stuff and was quite frightened.

He murmured, "I'm really going to die this time."

Yu Qing said: "No."

As soon as the words left her mouth, her throat choked, and she couldn't continue. Yu Qing rested her forehead against his, feeling his breath brush against her cheek, which only made her feel a little more at ease.

What if Xie Jing really...what should I do?

I never really spent time with him. So many days and nights, and they were all wasted.

If time could go back, when she met Xie Jing again, she would recognize him and ask him kindly, "Your Highness, how did you become like this? Your Highness, would you like to come with me?"

Xie Jing vaguely sensed this sadness and thought, if he was really dead, it would be better not to let her see it.

So he whispered, "You should go. You don't have to stay with me all the time."

Yu Qing thought, I will never leave you.

Xie Jing closed his eyes tiredly and fell silent. The few words he said just now were like a last hurrah. Yu Qing's hand was still pressed tightly against his chest, feeling his heartbeat, afraid that he would not be able to wait for the next time.

·

The imperial physician had been absent the entire time the emperor was injured, but this time he arrived remarkably quickly. The doctor on duty today hurried in, carrying medicine boxes, with the head of the hospital at the front: "Sir, you..."

Yu Qing looked at him for a moment before realizing that he had to let go of Xie Jing's hand.

But she didn't leave either, and remained by the couch.

The head doctor frowned and thought silently while taking the patient's pulse, then turned to whisper and discuss with other imperial physicians. The next one came over and touched Xie Jing's wrist, his expression also slightly surprised. Yu Qing was in a state of confusion.

Xie Tingzhao had just hurriedly settled the affairs in the palace and rushed over.

As soon as he arrived, the palace maids and imperial physicians inside and outside the palace all knelt and bowed. Xie Tingzhao waved his sleeves and said, "No need to be polite. How is King Jing?"

In the inner room, Xie Jing was seen unconscious, and Yu Qing, who was guarding his bed, had a tense expression on her face.

"..." The head of the academy said cautiously, "Your Highness's heart pulse seems to be more stable, not as intermittent and weak as before..."

Yu Qing raised his eyes.

"I have already sent for Wu Teng," Xie Tingzhao said, "the doctor who followed him."

The emperor had just died and the coronation ceremony had not yet taken place, but Xie Tingzhao still called himself the prince.

Yu Qing remembered that not long ago, after the group entered the city, she took Xie Jing to the palace first, and her subordinates sent the Jing Wang's attendants to the palace for resettlement, including a doctor. The Jing Wang Palace was very close to the palace, and they could reach it in a short time.

Xie Tingzhao said, "I just went to check on him. What he vomited out... seemed to be insect corpses. Perhaps he's not seriously injured."

Yu Qing was startled: "Insect corpse?"

Xie Tingzhao was also shocked just now and immediately summoned all the imperial doctors. Now he found that the imperial doctors seemed to be of no use, so he asked them to go to the side hall to study the prescription first.

The imperial doctors came inexplicably and left inexplicably. In the end, no outsiders were left in the inner room. Xie Tingzhao sighed, "He's had a poisonous insect planted in his body."

Yu Qing said: "...it really is a Gu."

Xie Tingzhao asked in surprise: "You know?"

"I heard a little bit of news not long ago. I heard that his symptoms are somewhat similar. I have already sent a letter to the south to find a wizard to come to the capital," Yu Qing said. "...Your Highness, did you know about this a long time ago?"

Xie Tingzhao said: "Back then, this king found a way to plant it for him."

Yu Qing frowned.

"This thing is prevalent in southern Xinjiang. I only saw it in Nanzhao," Xie Tingzhao said. "Every tribe has different sacrificial customs. One of them is that each generation selects young boys and girls to serve as messengers of the gods. The boys cannot have male characteristics, otherwise they are considered unclean and unable to serve the gods. Therefore, they use a kind of poisonous insect to suppress their body growth, making them indistinguishable between male and female, and slender and weak. This is the one they used on him."

Yu Qing immediately understood.

But she was still a little bit unbelievable and looked down at Xie Jing's pale face again.

Xie Tingzhao said calmly, "...by then he was over ten years old and starting to grow taller. I hired a Gu Master and a witch doctor to carefully cultivate him and try to remove the poison, but there were still some effects that couldn't be eliminated."

"This kind of Gu attaches itself to the bones and meridians throughout the body. Every two or three months, medication must be used to suppress its activity. Otherwise, if left unchecked, it will devour the body. Every time I take medication, the Gu is suppressed, and it will inevitably become restless and attack the body. Then it will gradually become quiet. Whenever this happens, I will become seriously ill."

Yu Qing felt terrified after hearing this and couldn't even imagine what that felt like.

I should have thought of it earlier. How could it be so easy for Xie Jing to disguise himself as a woman in the past?

Xie Jing certainly didn't know any bone-shrinking techniques, and there were no magic pills in the world. Making it impossible for anyone to detect anything would definitely cost a lot.

The princess's claim of illness and inability to leave the house was not false. She was enduring these injuries.

Thinking of Qingjia on the sickbed during those times, she felt a pang of sadness and found it hard to accept. She couldn't help but whisper, "Poison is a sinister thing after all. He has been using it for so many years? If something goes wrong, who can save him? The harm will definitely be great. He is still weaker than ordinary people..."

Xie Tingzhao kept saying that he didn't want Xie Jing to take any risks, but he had already made him take such a big risk!

I have no idea how much damage it will cause. Will it even affect my lifespan?

Xie Tingzhao was silent for a long time and also looked down at Xie Jing.

"That's right... but I really have no other choice," he said slowly, "I'm not a good brother."

"...So all these years, I've been thinking about coming back as soon as possible. The sooner I can come, the less suffering he'll have to endure."

Yu Qing originally had many questions to ask, but looking at the gray hair on Xie Tingzhao's temples, he finally fell silent.

If there really is a way, who would be willing to use such means?

Xie Tingzhao was only a young man when he was convicted, but a decade later he was completely different. He looked like a man in his thirties, but now his black hair had faded.

Even though it's not easy for everyone, she still feels that Xie Jing is too innocent and too pitiful. He didn't do anything wrong, so why did he have to go through all this?

The witch doctor Wu Teng finally arrived at the palace.

Unlike ordinary doctors, he did not perform the usual observation, smelling, asking and palpation. Instead, he brought several bottles and jars close to Xie Jing, observing and fiddling with them. He then took blood from his hand and dripped it into the porcelain bottles.

Yu Qing frowned as she watched him, wanting to ask him to be quieter, but she didn't want to disturb him. The witch doctor had brought a lot of odds and ends, so Yu Qing had to make some room for him and waited with Xie Tingzhao on a chair nearby.

Seeing that Xie Tingzhao had no intention of leaving, she asked again, "How many poisonous insects were planted in the past? If it weren't for this accident, would the insect corpses he just vomited have remained on his body?"

Xie Tingzhao said, "It should have been removed before, but I don't know why it still remains... I don't know either. Last time I heard him say that he often had palpitations and coughed up blood, and the imperial physician couldn't diagnose it, so I considered this as the cause."

Yu Qing thought to himself, no wonder he didn’t want to tell me at that time, it seems he was feeling guilty.

Although she didn't say anything, the accusatory look in her eyes was real, and Xie Tingzhao coughed.

"...At first I didn't expect there would be so many twists and turns," he said, trying to explain, "From the beginning I just wanted to raise her as a girl for a few years."

More than 20 years ago, the Empress colluded with the former Imperial Astronomical Observatory Master and, under the pretext of astronomical phenomena, claimed that the prince who had spoken that year had a special fate and was burdened with disaster.

Before Xie Jing was born, the child born to another palace concubine - the "Ninth Prince" whom Xie Jing replaced - was sent to the National Temple by order of the emperor while still in swaddling clothes.

The emperor believed in the fate and decided that if the child stayed in the palace, he would bring disaster, and that only by placing him in a Buddhist temple could he gain blessings.

The child suffered greatly in the temple and was on the verge of death. The emperor, following the empress's advice, sent him to the deep mountains of Jiangnan. Sure enough, he died shortly after arriving there. His mother also committed suicide out of depression.

At the time, Rong Fei was pregnant, and the family was in turmoil. Xie Tingzhao, still young, had repeatedly encountered danger. The thought of her soon-to-be-born child filled Rong Fei with dread, so mother and son agreed that if the birth turned out to be a prince, the matter must be concealed and he must not be sent out of the palace.

They let the wet nurse bring their own baby girl to live in the palace in advance. After the child was born, they saw that it was a prince, so they immediately hid him in a secret compartment and replaced him with the baby girl, thus concealing the truth.

As soon as Xie Jing was born, he was left alone in the secret compartment. He didn't even cry much. It was almost two hours later that he was taken out.

In the first few months, the nurse treated Xie Jing as a princess, and Xiao Xie Jing was treated as a nurse's child. They tried to keep it a low profile and no one knew about it. Fearing that she would be exposed, Concubine Rong found it difficult to look after him.

I have lacked the embrace and companionship of my loved ones since I was a child, and it seems that these things can never be compensated.

Xie Jing is naturally more indecisive and sensitive than others.

Even after being exchanged back, Xie Jing, who was only a few months old, showed surprising precocity. He rarely cried and was timid, as if he could sense the emotions of the adults. The palace people who took care of him were particularly worry-free. Rong Fei always sighed when she held this beautiful "little princess" in her arms.

When he was four or five years old, Xie Tingzhao had actually thought of using the life story of the prematurely deceased "Ninth Prince" to switch the identity, making the "Princess" die young while bringing the "Ninth Prince" back to life. However, after many twists and turns, the idea was ultimately delayed. Xie Jing was too young, and they were afraid that he would not be able to keep the secret.

As a result, just a few years later, Xie Tingzhao was convicted and the entire family of Rong Fei's mother was raided, making it impossible to change the position.

Xie Tingzhao was a criminal who had been exiled to Nanzhao and nearly killed. He then did hard labor for several years and was assassinated. He was only able to survive thanks to his good fortune. Initially, he had no time to care about the capital.

At that time, Concubine Rong was almost crazy. She cried every day in the palace, couldn't sleep at night, and attempted suicide several times but failed.

The emperor said that she could not raise the princess in this condition, so Xie Jing had no choice but to let the queen take her away.

"Thinking about it now, I'm lucky I didn't change it then, otherwise it would have been even harder for me. Even as a princess I suffered so much bullying, if I were a prince I probably wouldn't be alive today."

Yu Qing listened as calmly as possible, and had to take a deep breath several times to keep his composure.

Knowing that Xie Jing's life was not in danger for the time being, he felt better for a moment, but now his heart was torn apart and he was so sad that he was speechless for a long time.

The witch doctor finally finished his work and came to report.

"There shouldn't be any remaining Gu insects this time," Wu Teng said. "There's still something strange in the blood, but it's much lighter than before. It's just a little bit of residual poison. I'll check again in a few days, and it will probably be gone."

Xie Tingzhao frowned again and asked, "...He stayed in Jiangnan for so long before, and they said he was safe and sound. Why is he still here now?"

Wu Teng said: "This... is indeed a wrong judgment."

Xie Tingzhao looked at him coldly. Wu Teng complained bitterly and began to explain.

"...The poison used to kill Gu was extremely potent. Your Highness was too weak at the time, so we didn't dare use a large dose. We could only slowly remove it," Wu Teng said helplessly. "Then, Your Highness accidentally let him see a mirror. He was desperate every day... and he refused to eat... It took two or three months before we finally stopped taking the medicine. Perhaps it was too long, and a small amount of Gu worms had infiltrated the heart, lungs, and gone dormant, so we couldn't completely eliminate them."

"Then, there were no more attacks for over a year, so I just ignored it. Perhaps it was due to some stimulation during this period, and the emotional ups and downs of the mind, that awakened the poison. A few days ago, I was giving His Highness medicine, and it was almost forced out, but today something unexpected happened... So..."

In just a few words, Yu Qing understood one thing.

When Xie Jing disappeared, he was not enjoying himself somewhere else. He had been recuperating from illness for more than a year out of the past two years.

The witch doctor took his leave, and the imperial physician returned to examine him. He confirmed that Xie Jing was not seriously injured and would be prescribed a warming and nourishing prescription. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully, not unconscious, and would probably wake up in a few hours.

Yu Qing thought about it and asked Xie Tingzhao for mercy to let her stay in the palace tonight.

She doesn't want to leave at all now.

When Xie Jing opens his eyes, there must be someone by his side.

Xie Tingzhao had a lot of things to do in the coming days. He had been busy most of the night since the emperor died tonight, and now he felt a little relieved and prepared to leave. He paused for a moment near the door, then turned back and warned, "...Don't mention the Gu worm matter to him again."

Yu Qing: "...Why, he never knew about it himself?"

Xie Tingzhao: "He always thought it was just an ordinary medicine."

Yu Qing was speechless for a moment.

Xie Jing had been bewitched for ten years without even knowing it. I really don't know what Xie Tingzhao was thinking.

Xie Tingzhao said seriously, "He's afraid of snakes and insects. If he really knew he had a poisonous insect in his body, he wouldn't know what would happen. He would scare himself to death, thinking about it every day. In fact, his two maids also know, and we all kept it a secret. When the witch doctor removed the poison from him, he always gave him medicine and made him sleep first, and never let him see it himself. We've finally come this far, don't let it slip."

Yu Qing: “…”

She felt complicated for a moment, but she had to admit that Xie Tingzhao's approach made some sense.

The princess is already in such a pitiful state, she shouldn't be frightened any further.

Who knew that at this moment, a faint voice came from the couch: "...Hmm?"

Yu Qing: “…”

Xie Tingzhao: “…”

Xie Jing vaguely heard the two whispering and subconsciously asked, "...Gu, what kind of Gu?"

The two of them were shocked at the same time and walked a few steps to the bed. Xie Jing was half awake. He opened his eyes and saw the two of them standing very close to him. He was startled.

Yu Qing said: "Are you still feeling uncomfortable? Why did you wake up?"

Xie Tingzhao: "Sleep a little longer."

Xie Jing said, "I want to drink some water."

Xie Tingzhao hurriedly went to fetch water himself, without even asking the eunuch to pour it. Yu Qing carefully helped him up, fed him two sips, and then stared at him anxiously.

Xie Jing paused, then suddenly asked, "...I seem to have heard you mention a Gu worm? What is that?"

Yu Qing quickly put him down and pressed him onto the bed. She and Xie Tingzhao were both in a panic, covering him with the quilt and untangling his hair. They kept trying to persuade him, "It's nothing. I heard it wrong."

"Go to sleep."

"You're too tired."

"That must have been a nightmare."

Xie Jing was confused and didn't understand what was going on. He closed his eyes in a daze after being comforted, but he was still very confused. He subconsciously pondered those vague words... and pieced together something with his newly awakened brain.

The two of them saw that he seemed to be asleep. Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, Xie Jing suddenly opened his eyes and sat up.

"...insect?" He trembled, "I have a worm in my body? Was that a worm I just vomited?"

Yu Qing thought, this is awful.

Xie Jing looked at their faces in panic, and instantly understood everything... The next moment, he collapsed.