Chapter 53 Only a few past acquaintances
When Bai Xiuming brought Achan back to the Lotus Garden, the elders of the people who had gone hunting finally realized that they were missing and came one after another to see the Princess.
After hearing Chen Hui's words, the Princess had no good impression of the younger generation of these families. They had brought this upon themselves, but she couldn't say what she was thinking, so she asked the nanny to settle them in a hall.
Those who brought their younger relatives to the Lotus Garden were all ladies from various families. As soon as the Princess entered the hall, several noble ladies immediately came forward with red eyes to greet her.
The most agitated among them was the Duchess of Liguo, who grabbed Princess Funing's sleeve and asked, choking back tears, "Princess, has something really happened to my son?"
When she married the Duke of Li, he already had two legitimate sons, and the Duke's mansion had also established an heir.
Over the years, she only had one son, Zhang Xuyao, whom she cherished like a precious jewel. She thought that even if her son was not good enough for anything, his older brother could still provide him with food. But who would have thought that she would encounter such a disaster in the blink of an eye.
"Your Highness, I heard that the officials of the Mingjing Division have already gone to the mountains to rescue people. Is that true?" Madam Yao, the wife of General Anxi, also asked. She resented her cousin's son for corrupting her son, but she couldn't say it out loud. She could only hope that her son could escape this calamity.
"Ladies, please calm down." The maidservant serving Princess Fu Ning stepped forward and pushed the group aside.
Princess Fu Ning didn't seem to mind their lapse in composure. After sitting down, she said to them, "I have already had someone report this matter to the authorities. They will send people out of the city to investigate overnight. I have also had my guards search for the person along the way. Please rest assured, ladies."
Since the princess had said so, there was nothing they could do even if they were worried. Upon receiving the news, they had already sent out the guards they had brought, and now they could only sit here and wait.
Not long after, a guard outside brought in a message.
The old woman whispered in the princess's ear, "Princess, Lord Bai has returned."
The princess's face lit up with a hint of joy. As soon as she stood up, the ladies who had been watching her also stood up.
The princess ignored them and, supported by her nanny, went to Bai Xiuming's courtyard. The guards outside the courtyard quickly bowed to her, saying, "Greetings, Princess."
"Has Bai Xiuming brought the person back?" the princess asked.
The two guards looked at each other, hesitated for a moment, and then one of them said, "Lord Bai only brought back one person."
Princess Fu Ning was taken aback: "Why is there only one person?"
She thought that since Bai Xiuming was willing to go up the mountain to rescue people, he should be able to find at least a few. How come he only brought back one? Could it be that only one of them was alive?
She felt a pang of unease. Behind her, Lady Ningyuan collapsed to the ground, wailing, "My son..."
The guard who had spoken quickly added, "The person Lord Bai brought back is a young lady."
The wailing stopped abruptly; not receiving news of their son was now considered good news for them.
Princess Fu Ning said to the guards at the gate, "Make way, I'll go in and take a look."
"Yes." The guard opened the door, and the princess walked into the courtyard. The ladies behind her quickly followed. Even if there was no news of their son for the time being, Lord Bai should have made some progress, and they needed to ask him.
The group had just stepped outside and hadn't even had a chance to knock when Bai Xiuming pushed the door open and came out.
Princess Fu Ning looked at her cousin by the light of the lanterns under the eaves. He wasn't wearing this when he left the Lotus Garden. Why did he change his clothes after going out for a while? Could he have been injured?
"Are you injured?" The eldest princess asked Bai Xiuming with concern.
"No," Bai Xiuming replied succinctly. He had only gotten some blood on him when he killed the tiger demon. "Did the princess need something from me?"
"I heard you rescued someone. Is there really a demon in those mountains?"
"Yes, it's been eliminated."
Princess Fu Ning breathed a sigh of relief, but the expressions of the ladies behind her did not ease. Madam Yao asked anxiously, "Lord Bai, have you seen any trace of my son in the mountains?"
No.
"Lord Bai, would it be convenient for the girl you rescued to come out and meet us? We only want to ask her a few questions," said the Duchess of Liguo.
They all felt that if there were evil spirits in the mountains, and that woman had been captured, their son would likely also be captured, perhaps because that woman knew where their son was.
However, Bai Xiuming showed no respect to them, coldly replying, "It's inconvenient."
After saying that, he turned to Princess Funing and said, "Please send a maid to take care of me, and also ask a royal physician to come with me."
Princess Fu Ning was surprised. Was it because of the girl he had brought back? Could her cousin be so thoughtful?
She turned to look at the old woman beside her, who immediately understood and hurried off to find the maid and the imperial physician.
The ladies were not happy when Bai Xiuming rejected them without any mercy. Xue Shi, in particular, who was mixed in with the crowd, felt even more resentful towards Bai Xiuming.
If he could save Ji Chan, why couldn't he save her son as well?
She glanced at the anxious ladies and decided to tell them what had happened in the courtyard. Bai Xiuming had abandoned the sons and grandsons of the noble families to save Ji Chan, who was of no importance. How could he not have had selfish motives?
She refused to believe that Bai Xiuming was not afraid of offending the Marquis of Jinyang's mansion, or many other noble families.
Even if the emperor favors him, he will likely not have a good ending if he is impeached by various factions!
Seeing that Bai Xiuming did not intend to let anyone see the girl inside, the eldest princess spoke up and persuaded the ladies behind her to leave. They dared not disrespect the princess and had no choice but to reluctantly retreat. However, the eldest princess Fu Ning herself stayed behind.
A short while later, the old woman arrived with a royal physician and a maid.
Bai Xiuming led the imperial physician and maid into the room, and the princess followed quietly in. As soon as she entered the inner room, she saw a girl sleeping on her cousin's bed.
The imperial physician stepped forward to take Achan's pulse, but Achan remained unconscious and did not wake up.
After taking her pulse, the imperial physician left the bedroom and went to the outer room before saying to Bai Xiuming, "This young lady is too weak. Perhaps she caught a chill from the mountain wind today. But don't worry, sir, it's not serious. She may develop a high fever tonight, but with careful care, there's no need for medication for now."
Bai Xiuming nodded slightly: "She often has a persistent high fever, so please ask the imperial physician to stay here tonight."
"Yes." Although the imperial physician felt that this minor ailment did not require him to keep watch overnight, he couldn't afford to offend this person.
Princess Fu Ning paid no attention to these things, but looked at her cousin in surprise. He even knew that the other person often had a high fever? What exactly is the relationship between these two?
The princess's attendant arranged for the imperial physician to stay in a side room, and the maidservants dutifully fetched water to avoid needing it at night.
Only Princess Fu Ning and Bai Xiuming remained in the outer room before she tentatively asked, "Is that girl inside your sweetheart?"
"no."
"Really?" Princess Fu Ning didn't believe it.
"We had some past acquaintance, and since she wasn't feeling well, I just lent a hand." For him, rescuing her was just a small favor; the tiger demon wasn't even a warm-up.
"I've never seen you so enthusiastic before."
Bai Xiuming raised an eyebrow: "Perhaps it's because everyone else finds it disagreeable."
“It’s not easy to make you like my appearance,” Princess Fu Ning said with a smile.
Is it not difficult? Bai Xiuming thought about it and realized it wasn't that hard.
Ji Chan was full of ulterior motives in front of him, yet he could still find her pleasing to the eye. Others, however, could not meet his standards, and they only had themselves to blame.
After settling Achan in, Bai Xiuming left the room. He stood by the pond for a short while before a group of Mingjing Guards poured into the lotus garden.
"My lord, we are late." Feng Yang and Jiang Kai said in unison. After receiving the news, the two left the city as quickly as possible, not daring to delay for even a moment.
Bai Xiuming didn't say much to them, only telling the two, "There's another tiger demon in the back mountain of Huangxi Village."
Jiang Kai was taken aback for a moment, then his expression changed, and he immediately knelt down to admit his mistake: "It was my dereliction of duty, please punish me, sir."
Bai Xiuming did not reprimand him, but only said, "Go back and accept your punishment."
"Yes." Jiang Kai breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he wasn't dismissed.
He had come to investigate the tiger demon case before and captured a second-realm tiger demon to take back. Who would have thought that there was more than one tiger demon in the mountains?
"My lord, what happened to the mountain demon?" Feng Yang asked tentatively. Since his master knew about the tiger demon's existence, he figured the tiger demon was doomed.
"The monster is dead. Take some men to collect its body."
"Your subordinate obeys."
"Sir, what about me?" Jiang Kai asked.
“That tiger demon has captured several people and taken them up the mountain. You take men to search the mountain and find them, dead or alive.”
Feng Yang quickly left with the Mingjing Guards, while Jiang Kai first went to see the ladies of those families and confirmed the missing persons with them before leaving Heyuan.
After arranging things properly, Bai Xiuming returned to his room. He gave his bed to Achan and could only rest on the couch in the outer room.
In the middle of the night, the maid who had been assigned to take care of Achan hurriedly went to find the imperial physician, and Achan indeed began to have a fever.
The imperial physician administered acupuncture to her and then instructed the maid to use a towel soaked in well water to lower her fever. After nearly an hour of this, they finally managed to bring her temperature down.
Bai Xiuming had been woken up long ago; he kept his eyes open but did not go inside.
He didn't close his eyes again until the imperial physician whispered, "It's alright," and left with his medicine box.
Achan, who was asleep, was unaware that she was sick. Perhaps because she had mentioned Qingyu Mountain to the tiger demon during the day, she returned to Qingyu Mountain in her dream.
In her dream, she overheard her grandmother talking to the clan elders.
The elder said to her grandmother, "Although Achan's bloodline is not pure, she was born with eight tails. Why not nurture her properly?"
Grandmother replied coldly, "She has nothing to do with Qingyu Mountain. I only took her in because her father was my first son."
"Then...aren't their sisters' names recorded in the clan?"
"I don't remember."
It seems that Achan was secretly sad for a long time back then. Even now, in her dreams, she still feels very sad when she dreams of such a scene again.
She grew up in Qingyu Mountain, but that was not her home, and her grandmother did not acknowledge her as a member of the same clan.
Her father didn't want her, her grandmother didn't want her, and her younger sister had disappeared...
Achan, still asleep, began to sob softly, and Bai Xiuming resignedly opened his eyes again.
The maidservant serving inside also heard the crying. She tried to comfort her gently, but it was no use. She was about to wake Achan up when she pushed her twice. Just then, the door opened and Bai Xiuming appeared in the doorway with a sullen face.
The maid was startled and quickly turned around to bow: "Did we wake the master?"
Bai Xiuming ignored the maid. When he walked to the bedside, Achan had already opened her eyes groggily.
"Lord Bai," she murmured softly, reaching out to grab his sleeve.
Seeing Bai Xiuming seemed to put her at ease, and she closed her eyes again.
Seeing the tear stains still on her face, Bai Xiuming reached out his hand, but withdrew it before his fingertips even touched her face.
He turned to the maid and said, "Wipe her clean."
The maid dared not say anything more, and immediately washed a clean handkerchief with warm water and wiped Achan's face.
After wiping her face clean, Achan rubbed her face with her sleeve, turned over, and tucked the wide sleeve under her body.
Without the disturbance of dreams, Achan slept very well in the second half of the night.
She slept soundly until dawn. When she woke up, she stretched and felt refreshed.
But recalling last night, she vaguely remembered that she seemed to have had several chaotic dreams, and she even dreamed of Bai Xiuming.
He sat on the edge of the bed with his back to her, as if she could see his back every time she opened her eyes.
Achan shook her head, thinking that this part might be something she had imagined. Who would dream about someone else's back?
When the maid saw that she was awake, she immediately brought her new clothes, shoes and socks, and brought hot water to help her wash up. She did not notice the strange look in the maid's eyes.
The maid couldn't help but glance at Achan a few more times. Last night, that Lord Bai sat by this young lady's bedside for more than an hour, causing her, who was left in the room, to wait anxiously with her eyes open for more than an hour as well.
Fortunately, the girl managed to loosen the man's sleeve in the end, otherwise she probably wouldn't have been able to close her eyes all night.
After washing up, Achan learned from her maid that she was now in the Lotus Garden, in the courtyard where Bai Xiuming lived. She changed into new clothes and planned to go to Bai Xiuming to ask about the whereabouts of Huiniang and Lin Sui.
The maid said he had stayed in the outer room last night, but when Achan went to the outer room, she found that he was no longer there.
As she walked to the door, intending to look for Bai Xiuming, she heard a series of wails coming from outside.
As soon as the door was pushed open, Achan could see the scene in the courtyard.
The courtyard was quite crowded with people, men and women, some standing and some lying down. Bai Xiuming stood in the center of the courtyard, with Feng Yang and Jiang Kai standing on his left and right sides behind him.
Four people and a corpse were laid side by side on the ground in front of him, seemingly having been brought here not long ago. Several elegantly dressed noblewomen stood nearby, who appeared to be relatives of these people.
Several imperial physicians were busily treating the four screaming survivors. Judging from their expressions, the situation did not seem too good.
The most seriously injured was Lin Heng, who was placed on the far left wooden board. He had multiple fractures in both legs and was screaming in pain.
Madam Yao grabbed a royal physician's sleeve and asked, "Doctor, can my son's injury be healed? Will his leg be alright?"
The imperial physician didn't want to say anything offensive, but the leg bone was broken like this, and there was no chance it would heal.
He could only tell the truth: "Madam General, your son's leg injury is too serious. Even if it heals, he will never be able to stand up again."
Upon hearing this, Yao fell backward, but her maidservant caught her quickly.
At this moment, Lin Heng was still crying and shouting, "It was that bitch Lin Sui! Mother, Lin Sui broke my leg! I'm going to kill her! I must kill her!"
Seeing her son's frantic state, Madam Yao gripped the maid's hand tightly and demanded sharply, "Where is Lin Sui?"
The maid looked up at the tightly closed side room and whispered, "The young lady is in the side room. I heard that her younger brother hasn't woken up yet, and she's keeping watch over him."
"Go, bring her out here."
The maid was somewhat troubled. She glanced at Bai Xiuming standing in the courtyard and the fierce-looking Mingjing Guards guarding the side room, and couldn't help but advise, "Madam, let's take care of the Second Young Master for now."
Madam Yao slapped the maid across the face and stormed into the side room, but was stopped by two knives at the door.
"Step back!"
Yao took a step back, then stepped forward again: "I want to see Lin Sui. I am her mother. Let her out."
The two guards from the Mingjing Division stood outside expressionlessly, unmoved.
Perhaps knowing her son was ruined, Madam Yao finally abandoned her facade of a noblewoman and began cursing outside the side room: "Lin Sui, you jinx, get out here! You've harmed me since I was a child, and now you've harmed your own brother! How can you still have the face to live in this world! Why don't you just die!"
Yao was still shouting and cursing at the door, while on the other side, next to the corpse covered with a white sheet, Xue was lying on the side, crying so hard that she almost fainted.
Achan stood at the door, looking at Xue Shi, who was slumped on the ground, crying uncontrollably.
She thought that humans are indeed complex beings. Once they lose someone they like, they will be in unbearable pain, but once they get rid of someone they don't like, they will be overjoyed.
Compared to seeing Xue Shi smiling smugly, I definitely prefer to see her cry.
Madam Xue hadn't noticed Achan yet. She couldn't understand why everyone else had survived while her son had died. He was so young, with such a bright future ahead of him!
She pulled back the white cloth covering Xue Zhao, glanced at his corpse, and immediately fainted.
Xue Zhao's death was gruesome; his body looked as if it had been crushed by something, with his chest and lower body flattened.
The other ladies screamed and looked away after seeing the corpse, and some even went to the side and retched.
They stopped demanding an explanation for Bai Xiuming's death. With the contrast, they actually felt that it was a miracle that their son had survived.
They waited all night before finally receiving the news that their son had been rescued.
They should have been happy, but before that, Madam Xue told them that Bai Xiuming could have saved their son, but he deliberately only brought back that one woman. He was disregarding human life and didn't take any of their families seriously.
They were already dissatisfied, and when they learned that their son had been seriously injured, they all came to demand an explanation from him.
When they arrived, they discovered that although their son's injuries were severe, they weren't beyond recovery. At least compared to Lin Heng, who was crippled in both legs, and Xue Zhao, who died tragically, he was doing much better. At this point, they no longer had the intention to pursue the matter further.
After the imperial physician finished bandaging the three people whose injuries were not serious, several ladies who were waiting nearby stepped forward and asked, "Lord Bai, may we take them back to our own courtyards for treatment?"
"Can."
Bai Xiuming agreed, and they immediately summoned guards to carry their respective children away.
Soon, only the corpses of Lin Heng and Xue Zhao, screaming in agony, remained in the courtyard.
Outside the side room, amidst Yao's relentless cursing, the door finally opened, and Lin Sui, still bearing many scratches and abrasions, walked out.
Upon seeing her, Yao didn't say a word but slapped her across the face. Lin Sui didn't dodge; the slap was extremely hard, and her face was turned to the side.
Still not satisfied, Yao scratched at her face with her sharp nails, but was firmly grabbed by a hand that reached out from the side.
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