Huan'er, the girl in yellow, gracefully departed.
The old woman suddenly dropped her kind expression and looked at the woman, who had already been dressed in dry, coarse clothes by Huan'er and was now wrapped tightly in five or six thick quilts, sleeping unconscious like a round, large rice dumpling.
With the veil removed from the woman's face, the bloody tumor was clearly visible on what should have been a delicate and pretty face. In the dim candlelight of the night, it was truly a shocking sight.
Nevertheless, the extraordinary temperament between his brows has remained unchanged, as if it has never been worn away by the years.
The old woman slowly walked over, sat down beside the woman, and examined her carefully for a long time before gently reaching out to smooth a few stray strands of hair from her forehead.
The woman in front of her at this moment was someone she had never actually met before.
It was a long time ago, she had only caught a glimpse of it in a portrait, but that one glance was enough to make everyone who saw the portrait never forget it for the rest of their lives.
The woman before us now looks exactly like the one in the portrait from years ago, appearing to be only seventeen or eighteen years old. How could this be? What on earth is going on?
She clearly remembered that back then, as the late emperor's concubine, she was deeply favored by the emperor.
But for some reason, one day, almost overnight, the late emperor obtained a portrait of a woman from somewhere. The woman in the portrait was truly "with hands like tender shoots, skin like solidified cream, a neck like a cicada's, teeth like melon seeds, a beautiful forehead and eyebrows, a charming smile, and beautiful eyes."
To say that she is like a celestial maiden descended to earth, or a holy maiden of the mortal world who does not concern herself with worldly affairs, would not be an exaggeration at all.
Clearly, the woman in this portrait would be so beautiful that even the most beautiful woman in the palace would be ashamed of herself, let alone a man!
Thus, the late emperor, who was already in his forties, seemed to be possessed. Suddenly, he completely disregarded the strong opposition and obstruction of several important ministers in the court and insisted on taking the young and beautiful face in the painting as his imperial concubine.
If it were an ordinary woman, no one would have tried so hard to stop her, but this woman was destined from birth to bear an extraordinary and great responsibility.
But to everyone's surprise, the woman met with misfortune on the way to the palace and fell off a cliff to her death.
As expected, just as the advice of those important ministers had predicted, without the woman's presence, a series of calamities began to wreak havoc throughout the Western Qin Kingdom.
Not long after the woman's death, a large area in eastern Western Qin was suddenly hit by torrential rains for several days, with rainfall levels rarely seen in previous years. This resulted in a severe flooding disaster, inundating countless fields and villages. For a very long time afterward, the people there went without water. Beyond that, the massive floodwaters, having swept through the region, created a scene resembling a massive devastation, leaving corpses everywhere and triggering an even more dangerous plague. That year, Western Qin suffered devastating losses; countless people died in the eastern region, and the state of Western Qin emptied almost half its treasury for disaster relief and reconstruction.
A few years later, many areas in the south were again swept by floods. Continuous torrential rains lasted for more than half a month, and all the low-lying areas in the south were flooded without exception. Farmland was destroyed, corpses were everywhere, and various plagues were rampant.
Eight years ago, in the Northwest region, a long drought finally gave way to rain, and the drought had barely subsided when an unprecedented locust plague struck. It was harvest season, and swarms of locusts descended, darkening the sky and mercilessly devouring the crops of the farmers. That year, the entire northwestern region of Western Qin, the largest agricultural area of the Western Qin Kingdom, suffered near-total crop failure, with corpses littering the fields.
Meanwhile, in the northern region, a massive fire, known as the "Golden Forest," the largest forest in the Western Qin Kingdom, raged less than two years prior. Terrifyingly dubbed the "Wrath of Heaven," it claimed countless lives and caused devastating losses to the Western Qin people surrounding the forest, severely damaging the kingdom's forest resources and wealth. Fueled by tornadoes, the fire whipped flames from the ground to the treetops, reaching heights of tens of meters. Its unstoppable force forced firefighting teams to retreat. People could only helplessly watch as the fire, burning for three days and three nights, reduced the Western Qin Kingdom's largest forest to ashes. This disaster shocked the entire Lingkong Continent.
...
All of this, all this seemingly endless disaster, is it divine wrath or human resentment? Who can say for sure...?
The ups and downs of the past seem to still be vivid in the minds of every citizen of Western Qin, leaving a lasting impression.
However, all of this is far from over. Rumor has it that the Western Qin Kingdom is cursed with a calamity that will repeat itself endlessly, never to be destroyed.
It was only after witnessing these successive calamities in the years that the late emperor realized the unforgivable and heinous crimes he had committed, and he ultimately died in melancholy.
Recalling everything she had experienced in the past, the old woman slowly closed her eyes, her lips twitching slightly, and tears welled up in her eyes and quietly slid down her face.
These tears contain hurt, pain, sorrow, and joy...
After a long silence, she suddenly opened her eyes, looking at the woman's face on the bed with a mixture of excitement and relief, and said, "Thank goodness, thank goodness! Now, Western Qin is finally saved. I never thought you would be alive! You're still alive! Not only are you alive, but your face is still as ethereal, youthful, and beautiful as ever, with skin as smooth as if it could be broken with a touch... Could this be the secret of the legendary vampire saintess who has been sworn to protect the true emperor of Western Qin for generations...?"
Suddenly, as she spoke with delight, her gaze fell upon the blood-red birthmark on the woman's face. Her smile abruptly vanished, and she frowned in confusion, muttering to herself, "But... how did this blood-red birthmark appear on her face? What happened?" She still clearly remembered that the woman in the portrait had a face as beautiful as a peach blossom, without the slightest flaw.
As the old woman watched, she pondered to herself, and then reached out from under the covers to take the woman's hand in her own. She gently peeled away the coarse cloth covering it and opened her eyes wide again to examine more closely the seven-colored gold and jade bracelet on the woman's wrist.
After a long while, she murmured in puzzlement, "This bracelet is indeed exactly the same as the one in the portrait!"
In the end, she was still completely baffled. She looked at the bracelet, then at the person in front of her, going back and forth in this way, lost in thought for a long time.
Suddenly, she looked up sharply at the woman, her eyes widening as if she had remembered something.
She quickly got up and picked up the dim oil lamp from the bedside table.
He then shone the light on the woman's body and began to reach out and peel away the layers of cotton blankets that were used to make her sweat.
Then, she slowly untied the woman's sash and carefully searched her bare, fair, delicate, and smooth body.
After a while of busy work, she sat down beside him with a look of utter disappointment and bewilderment, muttering to herself, "Strange, how could it not be there? Impossible, I couldn't have misremembered. Such a peerless beauty, ethereal and otherworldly, like a fairy, is extremely rare in this world. And the woman before me, her appearance, the unique aura between her brows, and this seemingly mysterious and strange bracelet, are all exactly the same as in the portrait..."
Just as the old woman was puzzled and hesitant, Huan'er walked in with a bowl of still steaming ephedra soup, her face beaming with joy. From afar, she asked, "Madam, what are you looking for?"
Hearing this, the old woman quickly came to her senses and put down the small oil lamp in her hand, saying, "Oh, I just wanted to check if she had any other injuries. If so, I can treat them all at once so that a minor ailment doesn't turn into a serious illness."
Huan'er suddenly realized, "Huan'er knows! This is what the old lady always told me about, 'A thousand-mile dike can be breached by an ant hole.' It means that even a very long dike can be destroyed by the gnawing of tiny ants. It refers to how people often neglect small things, which can lead to big disasters or serious losses. In the context of doctors and patients, it means that even a very small illness, if not detected and treated in time, can completely destroy a person's health, right?"
As Huan'er spoke earnestly, she sat down next to the woman and began scooping up the medicinal soup from the bowl, slowly feeding it to her spoonful by spoonful.
Seeing the old woman sitting silently to one side, looking utterly dejected, Huan'er comforted her, "Don't worry, Madam. When I washed and changed this young lady's clothes during the day, I examined her very carefully and thoroughly. Apart from the wound on her head from the bump, her whole body is smooth and clean, without even a small scar, let alone any other injuries."
Upon hearing this, the old woman came to her senses and said, "During the day, you really didn't find any other scars on this woman's body?"
Huan'er nodded earnestly, but a strange feeling welled up in her heart because of the old woman's surprise, but this feeling was only fleeting.
Finally, Huan'er continued feeding the woman her medicine, saying with great relief, "Luckily, she can still drink the medicine, otherwise it would have been even worse. Today, thanks to the old lady's wisdom, that greedy Wang Er didn't bury the girl alive. Otherwise, it would have been a terrible sin for Wang Er. The old lady has done Wang Er a great service; she truly is a 'living Bodhisattva'!"
Hearing Huan'er's words, the old woman, still deeply immersed in her own speculations and doubts, said mysteriously, "I am not some 'living bodhisattva,' but... this girl was destined to live?"
Upon hearing this, Huan'er seemed to suddenly recall what the old woman had said to Wang Er during the day, and asked, "By the way, were all those things the old lady said to Wang Er about some noble person during the day true?"
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