23 Chapter Twenty-Three
◎Those dark eyes held a swirling, oppressive fog, ready to devour you at any moment.
Chapter Twenty-Three
This physician was invited from the Regent's Palace, so his medical skills are naturally excellent.
As soon as he said this, the room fell into a deathly silence. Xie Wu quickly lowered his head and bit his sob, then looked at Liu Qingqing with his red eyes, the complexity of which Liu Qingqing could not understand.
Although she couldn't understand it, she suddenly came to her senses, took two steps forward, and called out to the old man, "May I have a word with you aside?"
The old man looked at the quiet and gentle woman in the inner quarters with surprise, even as she walked to the side.
Liu Qingqing handed the old man the purse, which was almost sweating from her grip, and asked, "Doctor, do you think these pills will be of any use?"
The old man carefully poured the pill out of his purse, brought it to his nose and smelled it carefully. He first looked at Liu Qingqing with surprise, then quickly composed himself, lowered his eyes, and smelled it carefully again. He only said, "Thank you for your good fortune, Lord Xie. You have the help of a celestial being."
Upon hearing this, tears welled up in Liu Qingqing's eyes: "You mean, this can be used?"
The old man bowed to Liu Qingqing again, saying, "This pill is only half a pill for Lord Xie. It may cause a fever for two days, but it will not endanger your life."
He whispered, "Please keep the remaining half of the pill safe, and never let anyone know about it."
After saying that, he went to talk to Xie Wu: "Come with me to boil some medicine, and find Lord Xie a breathable garment."
This naturally led Xie Wu and the others away. As the old man turned around, he gave Liu Qingqing a meaningful look, which Liu Qingqing understood.
After they left, he quickly broke the pill in half and tried to feed it to Xie Lang. But even though Xie Lang was unconscious, he was very cautious and kept his mouth tightly closed, so he couldn't get the pill in.
Liu Qingqing had no choice but to put the pill into the teacup to dissolve it. Afraid that he would not cooperate, she bent down first. Seeing the loose strands of hair, she quickly found a strip of cloth to tie them up. Without saying a word, she kissed his cold lips.
She learned this from a storybook; the hero had also been injured and fainted, and the flower girl had given him medicine in this way.
"Xie Lang, my husband, open your lips."
Whether he truly heard her voice, sensed her anxiety, or found her soft tongue too bothersome, he eventually opened his lips.
Liu Qingqing's face lit up with joy. Ignoring everything else, she quickly drank the medicine in one gulp, then bent down, pinched his chin, and slowly fed it to him. Afraid he wouldn't cooperate, she used the tip of her tongue to hook his tongue. He opened his mouth to swallow, and their tongues rubbed together. By the time he finished the medicine, Liu Qingqing's clothes were soaked with sweat.
Fearing their return, she hurriedly went to the inner room to change her clothes.
Sure enough, a moment later the old man returned with Xie Wu and the others. When the old man looked over, Liu Qingqing nodded to him, and the old man nodded imperceptibly in return. Then he removed Xie Lang's clothes and carefully wiped all the wounds with the boiled medicinal juice.
The old man had originally intended for Xie Lang to change into a breathable, thin shirt, but since the medicine had been used, it might cause him to sweat and heat up even faster. So he changed his mind. "Apply this wound-healing ointment every two hours. If he has a fever, wipe his body with clean water. It's almost summer, and the room isn't cool, so I won't dress Lord Xie. Nothing is better for the wound than letting him air out like this. Be careful and don't be careless."
“I understand,” Liu Qingqing replied earnestly.
Just then, Xie Lang opened his eyes. As if he hadn't seen anyone else, he followed the sound and his eyes moved with difficulty to see her. He slowly reached out his hand to her. Liu Qingqing quickly grasped his good fingers and leaned down to ask him anxiously how he was. But she saw Xie Lang's fingertips brush against her clothes and heard him say in a breathy voice, "Put on another layer of clothing. Don't catch a cold."
After saying that, she fainted again.
Liu Qingqing, who had been trying to suppress her tears, could no longer hold them back. She still held his fingers and remained bent over, her tears falling silently. But afraid of getting them on his wounds, she quickly wiped them away with her sleeve.
"If he doesn't wake up in the next few days, just feed him some rice porridge. If you need anything, come find me anytime."
The old man had no choice but to pretend he didn't know and continue giving instructions to Xie Wu, then hurriedly left as if he had something important to do.
When Liu Qingqing heard that the old man was leaving, she quickly suppressed her tears, but by the time she looked up, he was already far away. She stared blankly in the direction the old man had gone, but her hand still did not let go of Xie Lang.
With a thud, Liu Qingqing looked over and saw that Xie Wu had knelt down again. This time, unlike last time, he kowtowed with extra force. When Liu Qingqing helped Xie Wu up, she found that he had already cried his way up to his face.
"Madam Xie saved you, sir. From now on, my life belongs to you and Madam Xie! If you tell me to go east, I will never go west!"
The situation took an unexpected turn. Liu Qingqing waved her hand and said, "What would I do with your life? I don't understand what's going on outside. I suppose the master has made arrangements. Go and get busy. If there's anything urgent here, I'll have Xie Liu call you."
Xie Wu readily agreed, and at this moment, his gaze toward Liu Qingqing was even more different, filled with a clear, fiery light.
With Xie Lang's life safe and sound, the Marquis's residence finally settled down. Meanwhile, the divine physician also rushed back to the Regent's Palace.
Regent Li Jin was not in his residence during the day, but a slender figure appeared as soon as he passed the screen wall. The divine physician was taken aback when he saw her and quickly bowed, saying, "The weather is bad today, why is the princess coming out?"
This divine physician was specially invited from the Valley of Healing by the Regent for the Queen Consort. More than ten years have passed since then. In exchange, the Regent has protected hundreds of people in the Valley of Healing during this chaotic world.
More than ten years ago, when the divine physician first arrived at the Regent's Palace, the princess was suffering from a strange poison and was barely clinging to life. If he had arrived half a day later, even a celestial being could not have saved her.
Although the poison was barely neutralized, the princess's body had been tainted by the toxins for several years, which had damaged its foundation. She was not seriously ill, only occasionally feeling weak and lacking exposure to wind and sun.
The renowned physician was genuinely worried about the princess, not only because he was a doctor, but also because she was a rare and kind person. During the previous plague outbreak, if it weren't for the princess's remedy, the entire city would have been burned down.
The princess was gentle and kind. Sensing the physician's concern, she said softly, "Thank you for your trouble."
He then asked, "Is it alright to go to the Marquis's residence on this trip?"
The divine physician glanced at her, noticing the tension in the princess's eyes, and then lowered his gaze to answer, "Lord Xie's external injuries are not serious, but it was truly dangerous because he was soaked in sewage for a day."
Upon hearing this, the princess involuntarily clenched her sleeves. The divine physician noticed this out of the corner of his eye, his eyes flickering.
"It was supposed to be a difficult ordeal to get through, but unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better. Madam Xie actually had the Yanluo Pill, which could bring the dead back to life, and that's how Lord Xie's life was saved."
The princess was stunned, and murmured softly, "Qing'er took out the Yanluo Pill?"
The renowned doctor paused, then immediately fell silent and did not answer further.
The princess stood up and paced anxiously back and forth, "How could this be? Xie Lang clearly had one."
The physician hung his head, his back already drenched in sweat, pretending not to hear him, as if he were a dead object. But the princess wouldn't let him off the hook, continuing to press, "Was that Yanluo Pill placed in a brocade Suzhou embroidery pouch?"
The miracle doctor had no choice but to nod, even though he was reluctant.
Upon hearing this, the princess slumped into the rose chair, lost in thought for a long while, before finally saying, as if all her strength had been drained, "Next time you go to the Marquis's residence to take Lord Xie's pulse, please also examine his wife's health."
The divine physician accepted the order and left. As he walked into the courtyard, a gust of wind chilled him to the bone.
He had inadvertently stumbled upon the noblewoman's secrets; no wonder the princess's pulse when she was pregnant with Lin'er showed signs of having given birth. But... who in the capital didn't know that Madam Ying of the Liu family had passed away more than ten years ago!
The current mistress of the Liu family is Madam Ying's younger sister, which was once considered a beautiful story.
No wonder Lord Liu hasn't been promoted in over ten years, and although his official position remains unchanged, the things he's in charge of are becoming increasingly numerous...
Cold sweat ran down his back, and the doctor shuddered, quickly hobbling his legs back to his own courtyard.
The divine physician left, but the princess sat there lost in thought for a long time without moving. After a while, she covered her face and sobbed softly, her thin shoulders trembling slightly, like a lonely butterfly dying at the end of summer.
A moment later, a boy fell from the roof. Hearing his mother's cries, he rushed over, knelt down in front of her, and asked someone to bring him a handkerchief. He wiped his mother's face and whispered, "Mother, don't cry, or your eyes will hurt again, and Father will be angry."
"My father dotes on my mother, and if he gets angry, he might take it out on his son."
The handsome young man's tantrum finally stopped the princess from crying. He quickly said, "Mother, I went to see my sister. She is very beautiful and looks a lot like you. She also seems to have a good relationship with Lord Xie."
With deep affection, she gently rested her head on her mother's knees, saying, "Now that I'm all grown up, I know that you care about my sister, and I will definitely treat her well."
The princess, her eyes red and swollen, forced back tears as she stroked her son's head and said "good" three times in a row.
The princess cried for a while and then suffered from a terrible headache, so bad that she couldn't open her eyes. The young man helped his mother back to her room to rest, and then summoned the servants together. Unlike his obedient demeanor in front of the princess just now, he was now cold-faced and had a commanding presence, just like his brave and skilled father. "No one is allowed to tell Father about what happened today. If I find out who has let slip anything, don't blame me for being ruthless."
As evening fell, the Regent, exhausted, returned to his residence before dinner. Upon entering the main courtyard, he glanced at the servants working and frowned before quickly going into his room.
He saw his queen lying there, her small body hidden in the brocade quilt, looking like a snow rabbit from afar. He walked over and brushed aside her hair. The candle in the room was not lit. He wanted to see her clearly, so he lowered his head. But as he got closer, the frail queen suddenly got up and slapped him hard across the face.
The crisp sound echoed almost throughout the entire courtyard, and even the sound of the servants sweeping the yard disappeared.
The regent turned his head to the side and remained motionless for a long time, and the huge main room fell into a deathly silence.
On the other side, everyone in Jialan Garden was filled with anxiety. Because Xie Lang had secretly left the capital on official business and was injured, he could not make a fuss and even had to keep it from the people in the mansion. At this time, only the people in Jialan Garden knew that their master seemed to be injured or drunk and had been carried back to the mansion.
Even the three of them, including Granny Li, only knew that the master was probably injured and had been locked out by the madam; they knew nothing else. They were only focused on boiling water and preventing the servants from leaving the hospital.
Just as the divine physician had said, Xie Lang developed a fever as soon as night fell. The moment he was adding hot water, the fever suddenly became unbearable. Liu Qingqing disregarded everything else, finding the thin clothes and trousers cumbersome. When it came to his underpants, he hesitated only briefly before making a firm decision and stripping him naked.
Without relying on others, Liu Qingqing worked through the night. Whenever he felt his body temperature rise, he would call someone to bring water, wipe his body with it, and cover him with a quilt after the water had dried. These days, even a cold can be fatal.
When she was really tired, she would lie down by the bed and doze off for a while, holding his hand tightly, afraid of missing him.
The temperature dropped in the middle of the night, and Liu Qingqing woke up shivering from the cold. Seeing that there was still some space next to him, she lay down on her side.
She kept thinking about him and would suddenly wake up to touch him. Fortunately, it wasn't hot anymore after 3 a.m., and Liu Qingqing finally felt half relieved. She covered herself with her outer garment and then fell asleep, but she remembered that he was injured and kept curled up on her side, not daring to move too much.
She didn't know how much time had passed when she suddenly felt a burning sensation in her hand. Startled awake, she sat up and her outer garment slipped off her body. She hurriedly tried to switch hands to check his temperature, but when she looked down and saw what she was holding in her hand, she froze in shock.
how……
How could this be...?
She was clearly hooking her finger around his.
Seemingly surprised or perhaps overwhelmed with emotion, she gasped and instinctively looked at his face, only to be met with his deep, dark eyes.
Xie Lang had woken up at some point and was quietly watching her.
His dark eyes, however, were like a swirling fog, ready to devour someone at any moment.
[Author's Note]
Meibao: Sorry, it was a slip of the hand.
Next chapter preview: She remembered the divine doctor's instructions to regularly check the tightness of the muscles around the knife scar.
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