Chapter 42 Liang Xi Goes to Buy Sweet Candy for the Princess
Thick clouds hung heavy, and even in the dim light of dawn, the sky remained as dark as night. After the rain stopped, the air was briefly crisp and then became heavy again.
Qingge recruited doctors from the common people like conscripting laborers, bringing anyone he saw to his residence.
A group of old men, carrying medicine boxes and shivering from the cold, stood in the courtyard.
Where did he find so many old-fashioned dishes?
Rong Jun couldn't bear to look at it anymore, but he couldn't say it directly: the people he found were obviously of poor quality, one worse than the next, and not even as good as the ones from yesterday.
He was so worried he kept pulling his hair out.
When he served by the Crown Prince's side, he was always straightforward and direct, never mincing words or embellishments, whether it was handling official business or conveying imperial edicts.
He had never truly mastered the art of tactful communication.
But right now he's staying at someone's house, and that person just saved his life, so he's being incredibly kind and is going around looking for a doctor.
He didn't know how to get rid of the people.
Although Qingge was big and rough, he was actually quite meticulous.
"Lord Rong, are none of these acceptable?"
Rong Jun was pleased.
He's quite a smart man. Come to think of it, if he were brainless, why would His Highness the Crown Prince have made him the garrison commander of this city?
"Then, shall I go out and catch something else?"
"..." Rong Jun said, "No need for now."
"My lord, my lord."
The voice came from the group of doctors.
Qingge asked, "What are you doing?"
An elderly man in his fifties, wearing a gray cloth shirt, emerged from the crowd, raising his hand slightly. "Sir," he said, "this young lady's illness is truly bizarre, beyond the reach of our medical skills. Why not go to Yongdu to find a renowned doctor?"
fart!
Didn't they escape from Yongdu?
There's no need to treat him after sending him back; it's better to slit his throat and die a quicker death.
"Huh? How did you know that girl's illness was so strange?"
Qingge immediately became alert.
When he yelled at people yesterday, he personally instructed them not to utter a single word outside the mansion, no matter what they saw.
He thought about it carefully and realized that he had confessed to everything and hadn't missed anyone.
This explanation is not the same as that explanation; it can also be called a "threat."
The man in the gray cloth shirt said, "My lord already arrested me once yesterday."
Rong Jun: "..."
Qingge: "..."
"Is your mouth covered in dung? You came by yesterday but didn't say anything."
Qingge was busy trying to save face for himself.
“I told you, but you told me not to shout.”
"Well, I'm so sorry."
Qingge was dark-skinned. When he embarrassed himself in front of the adults from Yongdu, his face turned dark red, like a ripe plum.
"Go, all of you! Here's some reward money. Keep your mouths shut when you're out of here."
The senior doctors bowed in thanks and took their leave.
The gray cloth shirt was still standing there.
Qingge: Why aren't you leaving yet?
The man in the gray cloth shirt said, "Sir, if you find Yongdu too far, perhaps you could try your luck at Jiuhua Manor in Liangxi City next door. The manor owner, surnamed Ye, is fond of studying all sorts of strange illnesses; perhaps he can find the cause of this young lady's ailment. However..."
The old doctor spoke slowly.
Qingge has such a fiery temper.
"Are you eating arsenic with rice? You only said half of what you meant."
The man in the gray cloth shirt bowed slightly and said, "But the manor owner and his wife have a rule: they don't treat officials."
The girl is unlikely to become an official.
"Even officials' wives are not allowed."
Upon hearing this, Qingge came to know.
He seemed to have heard about this matter when he took office in Yongjia City.
A plague once struck Liangxi City, and it was the owners of Jiuhua Mountain Villa who saved lives and brought the epidemic under control. However, they were bound by a rule that they would not treat government officials, so officials' families had to dress in tattered clothes and disguise themselves as ordinary people when they sought medical help.
Jiuhua Mountain Villa... What was the villa owner's surname again?
Yes, his surname is Ye.
The man in the gray cloth shirt continued, "Jiuhua Manor hasn't always had this rule. It started a few years ago after the great fire at Jiuhua Manor, when the old master Ye was burned alive. After the eldest daughter of the Ye family found a husband surnamed Pei, the manor changed its name, and that's when this rule came about."
"However..."
Having said too much, the man in the gray cloth shirt took a breath and glanced timidly at Qingge.
Fortunately, the dark-faced man didn't seem inclined to scold him.
"The Ye couple are soft-hearted. If you go there, don't reveal your identity. Just say you're a girl from a merchant family. That might work."
The man in the gray cloth shirt wasn't confused. With soldiers guarding the courtyard and officials searching the entire city for someone to treat his illness, that girl must be no ordinary person.
Having lived to such an old age, he had come to understand things clearly. Although he knew this girl was no ordinary person, he didn't ask too many questions, guess too much, or say anything more.
"It's a pity, but more than twenty years ago, there was a Lingxiao Manor in Liangxi City, which was also a family of doctors. But they offended some enemy and were wiped out one rainy night. Hey, the head of that family was also surnamed Pei."
The man in the gray shirt was particularly talkative, and wanted to tell Rong Jun and Qing Ge some more strange things that these two "young people" didn't know.
Qingge said impatiently, "Stop making a fuss. Take more of the reward money and hurry up and leave."
Hearing noises inside, Yuanrong and Daiqing pushed open the door and went in, carrying their toiletries.
Xie Wenjun walked over to the dressing table, and the two of them stepped back simultaneously.
He took half a step back and then stopped.
They looked at each other in bewilderment, then knelt down together.
Xie Wenjun could probably understand why Yuan Rong and Dai Qing were so afraid of her, so she did not blame them.
Chen Liangyu expressed her understanding and defended the two women, saying, "They are not as lucky as I am."
"You might as well say they're not as good as you." Xie Wenjun rubbed the back of her neck with her palm. "You're really ruthless."
At the last moment before she reached out to kill Chen Liangyu, she recognized the face in front of her.
At that time, she only knew that the face was familiar, but she still didn't recognize it.
Then, the man casually stepped back, and she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck.
He was knocked unconscious.
Rong Jun greeted them from outside the house.
Xie Wenjun quickly washed up, dressed neatly, and went out.
The courtyard wasn't large, so they overheard what was being said outside.
“Let’s go to Liangxi,” Chen Liangyu said.
The official gazettes of various prefectures and counties still lacked news of the Crown Prince's death. Xie Yu was dead, and the situation in Yongdu was now unclear; she had lost contact with Yongdu a few days ago. Attempts to contact the Northern Border also yielded no response.
She squeezed the iron letterbox that Uncle Yan had given her.
In Liangxi City, there is a post station for flying flies.
Liangxi City and Yongjia City are not far apart, but because Liangxi City is surrounded by mountains and the city is built on the mountainside, it takes a detour around half of the mountain to get there from Yongjia City.
We walked and asked questions along the way, and only arrived at Liangxi City when the sun was high in the sky.
The city market was extremely lively, with stalls selling goods everywhere.
It was noon, and the shop assistants from each store stood on the street, enthusiastically soliciting customers.
The city is built against the mountain, and the city's residents have a custom of worshipping the mountain god.
A group of beggars lived in the mountain god temple in the city. Not long ago, all of these beggars died tragically in front of the mountain god statue. The townspeople all said that last year's offerings were not plentiful, which displeased the mountain god and caused her to send down punishment.
Therefore, this year's sacrificial ceremony was exceptionally grand.
After the sacrificial ceremony, every household should put up a picture of the mountain god and offer incense every day.
The group changed into merchant's clothes, and Rong Jun and his Eastern Palace Guards also changed into plain clothes. They did not accompany them, but instead hid in the crowd to escort them.
Following the map, Chen Liangyu found a blacksmith shop. The shirtless blacksmith immediately recognized her by the letter tube in her hand engraved with flying gadfly arrows.
Xie Wenjun's carriage was parked at another intersection, with Rong Jun standing guard beside it.
After leaving the blacksmith shop, she headed towards the carriage.
The ironware shop faces the street, and diagonally opposite is a candy shop.
The aroma was irresistible, like freshly baked candy. The shop was packed with people eager to buy.
Xie Wenjun only took a couple of small bites of breakfast, saying that it tasted bland.
Chen Liangyu leaned into the shop and joined the queue.
She soon realized that the group had no intention of queuing and was not orderly.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
She immediately joined the crowd.
Despite numerous difficulties, they managed to squeeze in a little, only to be pushed back out.
After squeezing through the crowd for a while, people were still on the outer perimeter.
She steadied herself, rolled up her sleeves, pushed and shoved left and right, grabbed with her hands and blocked with her elbows, and nimbly squeezed through a gap, finally reaching the front row.
But the shopkeeper was so busy that she seemed not to notice her.
She observed how the people around her made their purchases.
You need to shout.
So she joined the others in yelling at the boss.
"I want one too! I want one too!"
I took the palm-sized oil paper package from the shopkeeper, weighed it in my hand, and it was still a little hot.
Chen Liangyu presented it like a treasure, lifting the carriage curtain and holding it out to Xie Wenjun.
"There's a long line at this candy shop, so it must taste good. Your Highness should try it."
Yuanrong took it, stretched out the oil paper wrapping the candy, and held it in her palm.
She leaned closer to sniff, and a sweet aroma filled her nostrils. Xie Wenjun finally agreed to eat.
Once the taste buds are awakened, the stomach starts rumbling.
"Jiuhua Mountain Villa is still some distance away, let's rest for a while."
The restaurant is not far ahead.
Chen Liangyu tied his horse to a stake on the side. Just as he stepped one foot into the threshold of the restaurant, a female thief in black, her face veiled and half her face covered by her hair, cut the rope tying the horse, leaped onto the horse, and was about to ride away.
Chen Liangyu intercepted the woman and her horse, and with a flick of his sword, he knocked her off her horse, saying, "You've stolen from the wrong person."
Before the female thief had even landed steadily, she struck again with a palm strike at lightning speed, which Chen Liangyu dodged.
Chen Liangyu did not want to get entangled with him for too long, so he immediately drew his sword.
The sword flashed and swirled, exuding a sharp killing intent. The female thief's few punches and kicks were no match for Chen Liangyu's single move. Her black veil was torn off, her black hair billowing up to reveal half of her face, which was hideous and ugly, as if it had been burned by a fire.
Rong Jun was about to make a move, but seeing that it was just a petty thief, he didn't go forward to fight, but instead moved closer to Xie Wenjun.
The female thief snatched the black veil from Chen Liangyu's hand, hurriedly covering her face with it, her eyes darting around in the corner of her eye.
Chen Liangyu said, "I'll have another chance to spar with you. Farewell."
Her current attire does indeed resemble that of a江湖客 (jianghu kè kè, a person from the martial arts world), so she speaks in a jianghu accent.
Xie Wenjun's face grew paler and paler.
Chen Liangyu re-tied the reins to the horse post in front of the restaurant, just as Xie Wenjun's body went limp and she leaned back like an autumn leaf.
Chen Liangyu caught her with quick reflexes.
Xie Wenjun curled up in Chen Liangyu's arms, trembling, her face contorted in pain.
Chen Liangyu's throat tightened, and she swallowed hard. She placed her palm on Xie Wenjun's thin back and used her internal energy to regulate her breathing.
“Rong Jun,” Chen Liangyu said.
"Your humble servant is here."
"Ride to Jiuhua Manor immediately and see if we can invite the manor lord over." Chen Liangyu said, "If we can't invite him, knock him out and bring him over. I will apologize. Waiter, get a private room."
Rong Jun responded and rode away with two men.
Suddenly, a black figure blocked his way, and a hand reached out.
Chen Liangyu instinctively tried to block, but the other hand didn't dodge. He used one hand to fight back for two moves, and when he looked up, he saw that it was the female thief from before.
The female thief slapped Chen Liangyu's hand away and placed her hand on Xie Wenjun's pulse, saying as she felt it, "Strange, she doesn't look that old, but she's so old."
Chen Liangyu was still adjusting Xie Wenjun's breathing when he heard this, and he wished he could slap this rude female thief to death.
"This is useless; it's like drinking poison to quench your thirst," the female thief said. "What are you going to Jiuhua Manor for?"
"Seeking medical treatment."
“A force has been forcibly injected into her body, and it doesn’t look like any legitimate martial arts technique. She has poor physique and can’t control it, which is why she’s like this. If you force more internal energy into her, she will surely die.”
The female thief took out a jade-green gourd-shaped ceramic bottle from her bosom, poured out a pill, and was about to feed it to Xie Wenjun.
Chen Liangyu grabbed her hand: "What is that?"
The female thief slapped Chen Liangyu's hand away again: "Save her life. She wouldn't live much longer anyway, and I'd rather feed her a poison than waste my poison."
poison?
After the old doctor in the gray cloth shirt left, Chen Liangyu wanted to ask some questions, but Qingge invited him back. He said, "Liangxi City once had two major medical estates. The Pei family of Lingxiao Manor was skilled in treating internal and external injuries. The head of the manor liked to collect rare medicines from all over the world and study various difficult and complicated diseases. The Ye family of Jiuhua Manor was skilled in making poisons. The old head of the manor firmly believed that poisons could both harm and save people, and advocated using poison to fight poison. After Lingxiao Manor was gone, only the Ye family of Jiuhua Manor remained. Speaking of which, in the years since the old head of the Ye family died, the Ye family has rarely used poisons in medicine."
Seeing that she didn't recognize the value of the pills, the female thief put them back in the gourd-shaped porcelain bottle and turned to leave.
“Miss Ye,” Chen Liangyu suddenly spoke.
The female thief didn't react at all, and without even pausing her steps, she disappeared around the corner in an instant.
Perhaps I'm overthinking it.
Author's note: Thank you for reading this far!
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