Chapter 128 Artificial Respiration
Hearing that Lu Jinlan was leaving the palace, the palace servants were extremely busy. They came in groups to request an audience with the Emperor, all wanting to go with her.
Looking at the men kneeling on the ground, Lu Jinlan said speechlessly, "I went out to take care of important business, not to go on a romantic date. What's the point of bringing you all along?"
Yu Mian said, "Of course we know that His Majesty is going out to take care of important business, but even if it is important business, there should be a man by his side to serve him. He can keep you company on the road, keep you company, talk to you, serve you tea and water, and prevent His Majesty from being lonely on the journey."
Qi Lang said, "I think so too. Back when Your Majesty was handling a case in Beizhou, I was by your side. Didn't that not interfere with your important business? When you're busy, you don't do anything. These trivial matters like washing clothes and cooking need a meticulous man to take care of them for you."
Xiao Heng stood up anxiously, "If we're talking about washing and cleaning, I'm the one who should do it. Back when His Majesty was in the Prison Dragon Pass, I was the one who stayed by His Majesty's side the whole time."
Yu Mian chuckled, "If we're talking about the past, I was the first one to serve the Emperor. Back then, the Emperor was still studying and didn't even know you."
Xiao Heng said angrily, "So you want to follow the first-come, first-served rule now? Then let's just have the Imperial Consort go alone. We'll all wait in the palace, and nobody will go."
Song Lincheng smiled as he stood beside Lu Jinlan, "I never said I was going. You can fight over it, but don't drag me into it. Since His Majesty has left the capital, I will stay here to protect him."
Lu Jinlan grasped his hand, "You are the most sensible one, never causing me any worry."
Lu Jinlan then looked at the other consorts, "Those of you with children, stop arguing. While I'm educating the princess in the palace, even if I need to take someone out, it will be someone without children. So the child won't miss their father. I'll take them..."
Lu Jinlan's gaze swept across the crowd. "Consort Xu is gentle and serves me attentively. She will accompany me out of the palace this time to serve me."
Those lower-ranking concubines watched as the Emperor's secondary consort and two imperial concubines engaged in a heated debate, vying for the chance to accompany him outside the palace. They had all assumed they had no chance and were just there to join in the fun. Unexpectedly, the Emperor rejected all the higher-ranking concubines and chose a regular companion instead.
Xu Runnian felt as if he had won the lottery and happily kowtowed to express his gratitude, saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty. Your servant will go back to prepare immediately."
Lu Jinlan waved his hand, "This matter is settled. Don't bother me anymore. Go back now."
The group reluctantly took their leave, but Chi Cheng, clutching his bundle, refused to go, his eyes brimming with tears.
Lu Jinlan sighed, "What's wrong?"
Chi Cheng said aggrievedly, "It's nothing, I just miss home. I miss my mother, my brother, and my sister. I won't disturb Your Majesty's rest any longer, so I'll take my leave."
Chi Cheng wiped away his tears and silently got up and left.
Lu Jinlan stared blankly at his retreating figure. Song Lincheng sighed, "He's quite pitiful. Hearing that you were leaving the palace, he excitedly packed his bags, thinking he could go with you."
Chi Cheng returned to his palace, listless and unwilling to speak.
He dismissed all the palace servants, placed the poisonous scorpion he kept in a sand tray, and, with a straw stick in hand, idly teased the scorpion.
Suddenly, a weight settled on his shoulder. Chi Cheng turned around, both delighted and surprised. "When did His Majesty send someone from outside? Why wasn't he informed?"
Lu Jinlan said, "I told them not to announce it, but seeing that you were engrossed in playing, I didn't want to disturb you."
Chi Cheng lowered his head and tossed the grass stick in his hand aside. "There's nothing fun about it, and I'm not really into it. I just didn't know what to do, so I played with it for a while."
Lu Jinlan opened the cage in his hand. "I brought Nianli to you. Didn't you used to love playing with them? Seeing you like this just now reminded me of your brother. When I first met him, he was also accompanied by poisonous creatures."
Chi Cheng pursed her lips, feeling a pang of sadness. "If my brother were here, the Emperor would surely be with him. I envy my brother so much. Even though he is thousands of miles away, he knows that the Emperor is thinking of him and remembering him."
"Although I have been in the palace for some time, this is the first time the Emperor has come to visit me. I know that the Emperor likes my brother and not me."
Seeing his eyes welling up with tears, Lu Jinlan couldn't bear it and said, "It's not that I don't like you, it's just that you were still a child when I first met you. I always felt like you were my younger brother, which is why I hesitated..."
Lu Jinlan didn't continue, but Chi Cheng said urgently, "But I'm not a child anymore, I've grown up."
As Chi Cheng spoke, he suddenly knelt down, looked up at her with a pair of moving, tearful eyes, and pleaded softly, "Your Majesty, please take me and let me become a real man."
"It's alright if you treat me like an older brother. I'm willing to stay by your side in your place. Your Majesty, I beg you..."
Lu Jinlan looked at the face that resembled Chi Li's and nodded slightly.
Chi Cheng mustered his courage and unbuckled Lu Jinlan's belt. Lu Jinlan suddenly grabbed his hand and leaned down to kiss him.
A man who has never been intimate with a woman for the first time is always awkward yet passionate, with a mix of nervousness and eagerness.
It was rare that he was so intelligent and eager to learn. He got better and better at it the more he did it, and the more fun he found it. He would have sex with someone several times a night.
The next morning, Lu Jinlan woke up refreshed and invigorated. Chi Cheng came over with a smile to help her wash her face, rinse her mouth, change her clothes, and put on her boots.
Lu Jinlan glanced at the bundle on the table. "Since you miss home, come with me out of the palace. Yaozhou isn't far from Fancheng, so you can go home and visit."
Chi Cheng was overjoyed. Without saying a word, he grabbed his bundle and followed Lu Jinlan out the door.
Looking at the procession of up to three carriages, Xiang Ruzhen couldn't help but pull Lu Jinlan and Yan Wuxin aside and complain in a low voice.
"Why did you bring men along? It's so inconvenient on the road. When I travel out of the capital on business, I always keep things simple. I have repeatedly ordered that there should be no extravagance or waste, and that there should be no welcoming or seeing off along the way. Local officials are not allowed to accompany me, and there is no need for officials from the prefecture or state to accompany me. There should be no loud gongs and drums, and even less should the roads be closed and the people disturbed."
"You've got some nerve, sending three carriages full of men dressed as family members and servants. And we're all unfamiliar faces; how could this not attract attention?"
Lu Jinlan said helplessly, "They insist on coming along to serve us. If I don't stop them, they will all come. I only brought two easy-going people with me. We'll leave them behind when we get close and let them settle in at the palace."
Yan Wuxin said, "It's the same here. Huai Xing insists on not trusting me and follows me wherever I go. Fortunately, he's alone, so it's not a big deal if he follows me. Let him come along."
Xiang Ruzhen sighed, "Then let's leave it at that."
In those years, Lu Jinlan spent some time building carriages to keep his activities a secret. It wasn't for nothing; although the power problem hadn't been solved yet, the carriages were already fitted with rubber tires and were very stable.
With Xu Runnian and Chi Cheng by his side, Lu Jinlan lay in the car with two women on either side of him. Along the way, someone served him tea and water, and someone massaged his legs and shoulders. It was indeed relaxing and comfortable.
When they were almost at Yaozhou, Lu Jinlan instructed the two of them to take their guards and servants to the local government office and discreetly settle into the imperial palace.
Remembering the day Chi Cheng cried and said he missed home, Lu Jinlan said to him, "There's nothing to do here. You can take a few guards with you from Yezhou to Fancheng and go home for a while. I'll send someone to pick you up when you leave."
Chi Cheng laughed and said, "I don't miss home anymore. I'll wait for Your Majesty to come and join us at the palace."
Lu Jinlan smiled and let him be.
Separated from the main force, the three of them, on three horses, traveled lightly, galloping and urging their horses on, feeling incredibly exhilarated.
Yan Wuxin said, "We haven't been out together for a long time. Since we're traveling incognito this time, we need a false identity to cover our tracks if anyone asks. Should we say we're merchants selling goods or tourists?"
Lu Jinlan laughed and said, "I think we should pretend to be chivalrous wanderers, the sworn sisters of the Peach Garden Oath. She's Xiang Da, I'm Lu Er, and you're Yan San. We'll accompany each other through the mortal world, laughing and roaming freely. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"
Xiang Ruzhen smiled slightly, "That's excellent. Let's hurry and arrive in Yaozhou tonight. Let's see what trouble this place is in and whether we need to lend a helping hand."
As luck would have it, the three of them could have entered Yaozhou before the city gate, but it just happened to rain.
It got dark again, so the three of them had to slow down.
As they passed a stone bridge, they heard someone calling for help from below, and the three of them immediately dismounted.
Lu Jinlan looked closely and saw a young man in his early twenties struggling to hook his legs onto a bridge pillar, while tightly gripping a boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old.
Due to the torrential rain, a flash flood rose under the bridge, and the water level had reached the necks of the two people. If they lost their strength even slightly, they could be swept away by the flood at any time.
Xiang Ruzhen quickly shouted, "Hold on! We're coming right away!"
Before he could finish speaking, a huge wave crashed over him, and the boy was instantly swept away by the current.
The woman shouted anxiously, "Junior brother, be careful!"
Lu Jinlan had no time to think. Relying on his exceptional skills, he grabbed a withered vine by the bridge and leaped into the water.
She swam a few strokes with the current and finally grabbed the boy's arm, feeling a pull on her hand. Looking back, she saw Xiang Ruzhen holding onto a withered vine, pulling the two of them against the current towards the shore.
Yan Wuxin had already rescued the woman and brought her to the left bank, while Lu Jinlan dragged the unconscious boy to the bluestone on the right bank and breathed a sigh of relief.
The woman, thinking her junior brother was dead, knelt on the ground and wailed, "Junior brother, you died so tragically! How can I face Master?"
Seeing the young man's handsome face turn deathly pale, Lu Jinlan guessed that he had temporarily gone into shock due to choking on water, so she kindly performed artificial respiration on him.
She had barely touched his lips to give him two breaths when the young man's senior sister on the opposite bank cried out in alarm, "What are you doing? Let go of my junior brother! He's gone, won't you let him rest in peace?"
Yan Wuxin frowned and tugged at her, "Why are you making such a fuss? We're saving someone."
As they were talking, the man woke up, coughed up water, his face turned red, and looked at Lu Jinlan, panting heavily.
The situation became somewhat awkward for a moment, but fortunately the rain started to pour down even harder.
Xiang Ruzhen hurriedly said, "The city gates are closed now. Let's find a cave to take shelter from the rain and spend the night. We can talk inside."
A campfire was lit in the cave, and the three of them and the senior sister made a wooden frame to hang their soaked clothes to dry.
Since men and women should not touch each other, the young man could only stand alone in the corner, pitifully hugging himself and guarding the small fire in front of him.
The senior sister looked at their bundles, cupped her hands and said, "Thank you for saving us, my three benefactors. We encountered a rainstorm on the road, and our horses went berserk and threw us off the bridge. All the money and belongings we were carrying were washed away by the flood."
"If it weren't for the help of our three benefactors, we would probably have lost our lives here. We will repay this life-saving grace with generous gifts when we get home. Please tell us your names."
Lu Jinlan had prepared her answer, and said with a smile, "We travel the world, and it's nothing special to help those in need when we see injustice."
“My name is Lu Er, this is Hero Xiang, and that is Hero Yan. There’s no need for repayment. I think your junior brother is quite pitiful, he doesn’t have any clothes to change into. I have some dry clothes here, let him take them.”
Upon hearing this, the junior brother looked over timidly. The senior sister hesitated for a moment, then said, "No need to trouble you, Second Master Lu. Please ask Master Xiang to lend you an outer robe instead."
She probably saw that Xiang Ruzhen was upright and honest, with eyes that never strayed, and seemed like a trustworthy and virtuous gentleman.
Xiang Ruzhen said helplessly, "Unfortunately, all our bundles are wet. Apart from Jin... apart from Lu Erxia, we don't have any dry clothes."
Lu Jinlan's bundle was specially wrapped in oiled paper by Xu Runnian to protect it from rain. The other two, however, didn't have that luxury.
The senior sister had no choice but to take Lu Jinlan's outer robe and give it to her junior brother.
Turning back, she hooked her arm around Lu Jinlan's shoulder and said in a low voice, "Second Master Lu, although you saved our lives, let's keep things separate. Don't you dare try anything with my junior brother."
Lu Jinlan sneered, "You're overthinking it. I already have so many men in my family that I can't even count them all. I have no interest in competing with you for your junior brother."
The senior sister was taken aback and hurriedly denied it, saying, "You...you don't talk nonsense. Anyway...anyway, my junior brother already has someone he likes, so don't worry about him. It's no use worrying about him."
Lu Jinlan smiled at her naive expression. "His sweetheart isn't you, is she?"
"Hmm." The senior sister responded subconsciously, then retorted, "That's not you. What are you so smug about? My junior brother's sweetheart is amazing. If I told you, she'd scare you to death."
Lu Jinlan immediately became curious, "Who is it? Tell me and see if I'll be scared to death."
The senior sister looked around and whispered in her ear, "My junior brother's sweetheart is the current emperor."
Lu Jinlan's eyes widened instantly. "Who?"
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