Upon entering the city, Su Rong and Fen Ling did not even have time to change their clothes, they hurried directly to the Duke Residence.
At the Duke Residence at this time, even the Imperial Doctor Xu, resorting to crude methods and operating personally, and the old Duke assisting him, kept busy for a few hours, yet they could not reduce Zhou Gu’s fever.
The weather-beaten face of the old Duke had turned white. Unable to bear it, he stepped out of the room and asked the Crown Princess Sheng An, "Hasn’t Miss Su arrived yet?"
The Crown Princess Sheng An shook her head.
Crown Prince Yan Huisheng didn’t leave either. He had been waiting outside the door. He glanced at the hourglass and asked, "Great Aunt, when was someone sent to the Great Buddha Temple?"
"Not long before you arrived."
Yan Huisheng calculated the time and his eyebrows slightly furrowed, "There must have been some troubles on the road, which caused her delay."
He thought of something and immediately shouted outside, "Someone, take my personal token and go to the Great Buddha Temple to pick up..."
Before he finished his sentence, a series of footsteps outside interrupted him. The housekeeper, weeping with joy, said, "She’s here, she’s here. Lady Su Qi is here."
Yan Huisheng stopped speaking.
The Crown Princess Sheng An sprang to her feet and dashed out of the room.
The whole group stepped outside the door and indeed, Su Rong and Fen Ling were being led in. They moved towards Zhou Gu’s Frost Forest Courtyard. Su Rong was covered in bloodstains, even her face had blood smudged on it. Fen Ling was in the same condition, although his clothes were dark, it wasn’t hard to see the places where his clothes were cut by a blade.
Upon seeing this, Crown Princess Sheng An stopped in her tracks, "Su Rong, what happened to you...you...?"
"Duke, Crown Princess, I’m fine, it’s someone else’s blood." Su Rong’s voice was calm, bringing with her a chill, "Has Zhou Gu’s fever subsided?"
The Crown Princess Sheng An composed herself and shook her head, "He is still burning up. Even though the Imperial Doctor Xu has tried crude methods like ice compress and alcohol rubs, nothing has worked."
Su Rong nodded, "Let me have a look."
The Crown Princess Sheng An nodded quickly, her eyes red as she said: "We’re all counting on you now."
As Su Rong stepped inside, she saw Yan Huisheng and hesitated for a moment, "Crown Prince?"
Yan Huisheng just hummed in acknowledgment, speaking gently, "Go quickly and check on Zhou Gu, the patient is our first priority."
Su Rong nodded in agreement.
The Duchess herself drew back the door curtain, Su Rong walked directly inside the room, followed by Fen Ling who also had medical skills.
At this point, even Imperial Doctor Xu was clueless, drenched in sweat from head to toe. Seeing Su Rong covered in blood, he was shocked and hastily moved out of the way.
Zhou Gu was lying on the bed, unconscious, his entire body burning red, his face distorted by the high fever.
Su Rong placed her hand on his forehead; it felt as hot as a branding iron. She then took his pulse. After a moment, she took out a bottle of medicine from her pocket, poured out two pills, and put them into Zhou Gui’s mouth.
Zhou Gu clenched his teeth tight; the pills could not be forced in.
Su Rong was not polite either. She directly pried open his lower jaw, using her wrist strength. Unable to resist, Zhou Gui opened his mouth, and she forced the pills in.
Fen Ling watched Su Rong’s rough movements, feeling embarrassed.
After feeding the two pills to Zhou Gu, Su Rong turned to Imperial Doctor Xu, "Could you show me the prescription you have written?"
Imperial Doctor Xu agreed quickly and immediately handed her the two prescriptions.
After looking over them briefly, Su Rong stood and thought for a moment. She walked to the table, picked up a brush, and scribbled a prescription. She wrote fast, in a daunting, bold style. When she finished, she handed it directly to Fen Ling, "Go with the housekeeper to prepare the medicine."
The reason she asked Fen Ling to do this was mainly because she was afraid others would not recognize her handwriting.
Fen Ling took the prescription and immediately left with the housekeeper.
In less than an hour, Su Rong had already given Zhou Gu his medicine and written another prescription. Her actions were so quick and decisive that even Imperial Doctor Xu was unable to see what medicine she had given or what prescription she had written.
Imperial Doctor Xu was very curious, but at this time, he did not dare to ask.
The old Duke, the Crown Princess Sheng An, and Crown Prince Yan Huisheng, and the others did not ask either. They assumed that Su Rong had made the decision.
The Duchess wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with a kerchief and said to Su Rong, "I’ve had water prepared for you in the adjacent room. You can freshen up."
Just by looking at Su Rong, one could guess how difficult her journey here had been.
Su Rong shook her head, "No hurry, let’s wait until Zhou Gu’s fever is reduced."
The Duchess could only nod in agreement.
Yan Huisheng asked gently, "Did you encounter any trouble on the road?"
Su Rong nodded, "We were attacked by four groups of men, they were utterly ruthless."
Yan Huisheng asked gravely, "Are the assassins from Nanchu or Daliang?"
"Probably both." Su Rong said, "I didn’t have time to care. Anyone who stood in my way was killed anyways, and their corpses were left unattended."
She was in a hurry to reach the Capital City. No one had more urgency than Zhou Gu here. She didn’t leave any secret guards to handle it. She needed people to protect her all the way to the Capital City. The more guards, the more protection, the faster the action.
Yan Huisheng nodded and ordered, "Bring them in."
Someone entered the room, "Your Highness."
Yan Huisheng instructed, "Take my token and lead some men out of the city. There are four batches of corpses along the way from the Capital City to the Buddha Temple. After examining the bodies, bring them back to the Capital City and take them to the morgue."
He wanted to show his dear father, the Emperor, how the Capital City had turned into a sieve.
The man left immediately. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
The eldest Grand Princess Sheng An reached out and grabbed Su Rong’s hand, her eyes filled with tears, "Child, you have truly suffered. If it wasn’t for the danger Zhou Gu is in, I would not have forced you to rush back to the capital overnight and face so many assassins. I was too hasty and didn’t think about it, otherwise, I should have sent more people to receive you."
Su Rong shook her head, "You are too kind, it is only natural for you to seek me out given Zhou Gu’s danger and my knowledge of medicine. I am always under protection by secret guards, so unless armies are used against me, I’m not scared. On my way to the capital, I was mostly worried that someone would muster troops to stop me."
Grand Princess Sheng An immediately shook her head, "This will never happen. The Duke Residence would never allow anyone to get the idea of deploying troops, even if it’s the Emperor’s Jinglu Troops."
This has been the confidence of the Duke Residence for many years, and, of course, what the Emperor is wary of.
Yan Huisheng also said, "If turmoil arises within the army, that would be problematic. But you can rest assured on this matter. At least in the Capital City, no one dares to deploy troops privately."
Su Rong smiled, "That’s what I thought."
But she was indeed a little worried at that time, after all, the Capital City was just too chaotic.
The current Emperor, who had been suppressing the Crown Prince and fearful of the Duke Residence for many years, thought he controlled everything. The more forcefully he balanced power, the less he knew of the undercurrents beneath him, loose and sandlike.
The Duchess personally poured Su Rong a glass of water and handed it to her, "Moisten your throat."
Su Rong reached out and took it, "Thank you, Auntie."
Grand Princess Sheng An asked, "Are you hungry? Shall I have some pastry brought to you?"
Su Rong shook her head, "I’m not hungry, you don’t have to bother."
At that moment, Zhou Gu abruptly mumbled something in his sleep, and the room immediately quieted down.
Su Rong turned her head to look at Zhou Gu, seeing his mouth moving, she couldn’t guess what he was saying. She assumed he was asking for water, so she brought the glass of water closer to hear him. Instead of asking for water, he was muttering her name. Su Rong suddenly stiffened.
Everyone in the room had already been listening to this for half the night and now they were all looking at Su Rong, all somewaht silent.
Especially the Imperial Doctor, he’d heard enough. Initially, he couldn’t understand what Zhou Gu was mumbling, but when he began using traditional methods to cool him down, he finally figured it out. The whole person was shocked, wondering why, given Zhou Gu was fond of Lady Su Qi, would he agree to call off their engagement. Surely, this young man really knew how to torture himself.
Yan Huisheng was also in a grim mood. He had been inside the room while waiting for Zhou Gu’s fever to break, and naturally, he heard everything. While Su Rong was an extremely decisive person who had straightforwardly called off her marriage with Zhou Gu, instantly accepted Ye Guixue’s military talisman as a proposal without any hesitation, and agreed to marry Ye Guixue, Zhou Gu clearly couldn’t let go of her. She had been given this knowledge, and from her stiff posture and expression, she wasn’t totally indifferent, was she?
Who said she was heartless and mindless? Her feelings towards Zhou Gu, they couldn’t simply be dismissed by claiming she was heartless and mindless.
Su Rong only stiffened momentarily, then she naturally brought the glass of water she hadn’t drunk from to Zhou Gu’s lips, "Zhou Gu, have some water."
Zhou Gu’s mumbling suddenly stopped.
Su Rong brought the water to his lips, used a handkerchief to catch the excess, and tilted it to his mouth. This time, Zhou Gu did open his mouth and swallow.
Su Rong let out a breath of relief. He was still conscious, he hadn’t lost his mind, he could still be saved.
After feeding Zhou Gu some water, she withdrew her hand and put the glass of water on the table. She obviously couldn’t drink it after Zhou Gu.
The Duchess immediately poured a new glass of water and handed it to her, "You can drink this."
Su Rong took it and slowly brought it to her lips. Only then did she clarify, "I have just given him two pills of Guiben Huanyuan Dan. It will guard his life from danger. Later, we’ll see if my prescription works. If not, I will use acupuncture on him. That will surely reduce his fever. You all shouldn’t worry."
Upon hearing this, Grand Princess Sheng An’s heart immediately relaxed. She knew about the Guiben Huanyuan Dan. It was extremely rare to obtain, the palace had only one pill in their possession, in the Emperor’s hands. It was a rarely-found medicine. If Su Rong was out of methods, she was planning to go to the palace to beg the Emperor for it. She had not expected that Su Rong had just taken out two pills.
If it were up to her, one pill of this medicine would be enough to safeguard Zhou Gu’s life. Su Rong was really generous.
Everyone waited patiently for quite some time. Fen Ling and the housekeeper came in with a bowl of medicine. Su Rong sat unmoved and said to Fen Ling, "You feed it to him."
Fen Ling nodded. He wasn’t able to feed Zhou Gu the medicine as roughly as Su Rong had fed him. But it appeared that Zhou Gu had regained a bit of consciousness after Su Rong gave him water. When the medicine was brought to his mouth, he cooperated and opened it. Even though it was difficult for him to swallow, he still managed to drink the entire bowl of medicine smoothly without a problem.
The Duchess wiped the corner of Zhou Gu’s mouth where some of the medicine had spilt, and had someone take away the empty bowl.
Everyone waited again for quite some time. The Imperial Doctor was surprised and said, "Lady Su Qi’s prescription is working, the fever is breaking!"
Su Rong also let out a sigh of relief. If this prescription didn’t work and Zhou Gu’s fever still didn’t break, she would have had no choice but to use acupuncture on him. But that required him to be undressed. Unless it was absolutely necessary, she had hoped that the medicine would work.
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