Chapter 1059: Prisoners have their own way of living
He raised his face, his amber pupils reflecting the stunned look of the woman: "The history books say that Emperor Wu of Han killed Gouyi, and Emperor Wu of Wei imprisoned Queen Bian, but my aunt promised her to live a life of seclusion and meditation. This is the best solution."
The copper bell under the eaves startled the jackdaws. Jiang Xue looked at her nephew's thin but straight back, her palms still warm.
The scene of fighting my way through the blood while holding the crying baby flashed before my eyes. I was suddenly glad that the bowl of soothing soup mixed with cinnabar did not completely chill the child's innocent heart.
Jiang Xue touched the boy's head with her fingertips and said softly, "You should understand that placing your mother in the villa is out of helplessness."
She looked at the newly blooming hibiscus flowers in the imperial garden, and the hem of her golden skirt trembled slightly in the wind.
"My cousin said that the bowl of almond soup three years ago..."
Jiang Heng picked up the jade paperweight on the stone table. The cold touch reminded him of the bitter taste of medicine that lingered on his tongue when he was poisoned and unconscious.
The young emperor's voice was calm beyond his years: "My mother is jealous and short-sighted. She has neither the talent to govern the country nor the tolerance to tolerate others. If she stays in the court, she will only cause trouble."
"Xiao Zhan actually told all these court secrets?"
The eldest princess clutched the silver lines on her sleeves in astonishment. She always remembered the little child who curled up behind the gate of Fengyi Palace and eavesdropped on government affairs when she first took control of the military power.
Jiang Heng suddenly smiled, revealing his two fangs:
"My aunt always protected me like a canary, but the copper leak in the Royal Palace has dripped thousands of times. I am no longer a little prince who needs someone to cover my eyes."
He pointed to the palace maids who were pruning branches in the distance: "It's like they always think that walls have no ears, but they don't know that the chiwen on the pillars are listening for me."
Noticing the redness at the corners of his aunt's eyes, the young man hurriedly grabbed her hanging shawl.
Jiang Xue held the pair of still tender hands, and when their fingers overlapped, the gilded armor left a faint red mark on the other's palm.
"I'm afraid the ministers are going to use the Queen Mother to cause trouble."
Jiang Heng suddenly changed the subject, his eyes sweeping across the faintly visible red eaves outside the palace wall: "The other day, when the Grand Tutor was giving a lesson, he specifically talked about the story of Duke Zheng of the previous dynasty defeating Duke Duan."
Jiang Xue chuckled when she heard this, and the pearl on the nine-tailed phoenix hairpin in her hair swayed slightly with her movements: "In this case, let the Ministry of Rites draft an imperial edict to welcome the phoenix back to the palace tomorrow."
She took out the military token from her sleeve and placed it on the stone table. The black iron token reflected the boy's clear pupils: "But this forbidden palace with nine gates..."
"Don't worry, aunt."
Jiang Heng pushed the token back and traced the seal engraved with "As if I were here in person" with his fingertips. "The new eunuch who holds the seal of the Imperial Household Department is a mute slave that my cousin brought back from the northern border."
As dusk deepened, the aunt and niece leaned on the railing of the observatory.
Jiang Xue looked at the lights that were lit up in the imperial city, and suddenly remembered the night when the previous emperor passed away ten years ago. It was also in such a dark night that the six-year-old Jiang Heng grabbed the corner of her clothes and said, "Don't be afraid, auntie. Heng'er will always be with you."
"That's it."
As soon as Jiang Xue stepped out of the imperial study, her personal maid Fu Dong came running over, holding up her skirt and saying, "Your Highness, Imperial Doctor Jiang had an argument with someone in the Imperial Hospital!"
"Can he still cause trouble in the medicine storehouse?"
Jiang Xue stopped adjusting the jade pendant around her waist.
Fu Dong leaned closer and whispered, "He said he had taken a fancy to the Snow Soul Ginseng that was used exclusively by Master Yun, and he insisted that the dean find him another one."
Jiang Xue leaned on the redwood pillar and laughed angrily: "I just praised him for his prudent behavior the other day, but now his true colors have been revealed?"
Although Xiao Zhan disliked Yun Zhen at first, he never withheld the medicinal materials needed for the medicinal bath - after all, if that man stopped taking the medicinal bath, he would be unable to move within three days.
"Go and bring the man."
She suddenly smelled the faint scent of pine and ink on Fu Dong's body: "Did you steal his calming incense again?"
Fu Dong's ears instantly turned red: "I will go and catch him right away!"
There were sounds of a dispute coming from the east wing of the Imperial Hospital. When Fu Dong rushed in, he saw Jiang Xiaoan rummaging through the medicine cabinet while stepping on the crossbeam.
"Come down!"
She picked up a broom and knocked on the cabinet leg: "How dare you touch the herbs that Master Yun uses for his medicinal bath?"
"Miss Fudong, calm down!"
The imperial physician in blue clothes fell to the ground in a panic, and a few pieces of ginseng fell out of his sleeves:
"Have you forgotten that I fell asleep while drying herbs last month and a wild cat took away the whole fern? You have this problem of being unable to move your legs when you see good herbs..."
"Stop talking nonsense! His Highness wants to see you."
When passing through the Nine-Curved Corridor, Jiang Xiaoan suddenly grabbed Fu Dong's apricot-colored shawl and said, "Sister, if His Highness gets angry later, can you help me say something soft?"
Fu Dong threw away his scarf and glared at him: "Do you think everyone will spoil you like the Prime Minister?"
In the main hall, Jiang Xue was reading a medical book. When she saw them coming in, she said, "I have added ten stalks of Snow Po Ginseng to the list of medicinal herbs that the Nanzhao envoys will pay tribute to next month."
Jiang Xiaoan's eyes suddenly lit up, but the princess changed the subject: "Now follow me to apologize to Yun Zhen."
"Now?"
The imperial physician took a half step back and said, "I just stole his medicinal materials..."
"I want you to apologize in person."
Jiang Xue closed the book and stood up: "If he refuses to forgive, then those ten ginsengs will be..."
Before he finished speaking, Jiang Xiaoan had already rushed to the door and opened the curtain: "Your Highness, please!"
"He is trapped in the palace all day, how can he know what is happening in the outside world?"
Jiang Xue tapped the table with her fingertips: "Doctor Jiang, you have to go for this pulse diagnosis today."
"What pulse does that zombie need to diagnose?"
Before Jiang Xue could respond, Fu Dong suddenly slammed the sword on his waist heavily on the table: "Just follow the master's orders, there is no room for you to bargain."
Jiang Xiaoan shrank his neck, but a secret joy arose in his heart.
He found that he particularly enjoyed Fu Dong's cold and stern attitude, and secretly sighed that perhaps he really had a masochistic habit as rumored in the market.
Jiang Xue lowered her eyes and stared at the ripples in the tea soup. The layers of mist on Yun Zhen's body were an uncontrollable variable.
Although he has decided to go to the Western Regions to find out the truth after the political situation is stabilized, he still needs to proceed step by step.
The pulse was of a living dead the previous two times I took it, there is no guarantee that there won't be any changes today.
She gently stroked the dark lines on her cuffs, then suddenly stood up and brushed off the wrinkles on her sleeves - it was time to go and find out what was going on.
When Jiang Xue's skirt swept over the threshold, Yun Zhen was re-trimming the plum branches in the snow-green porcelain vase.
The cold iron scissors made a neat arc at the fingertips: "When did the east wind in the nine-story palace learn to knock on people's doors?"
"When will I have to consider the mood of the sky when I act?"
Jiang Xue walked straight past him and sat down, her moon-white cloud brocade shawl passing over the incense burner in front of the table, stirring a wisp of agarwood.
Yun Zhen picked up the celadon pot and poured half a cup: "My humble abode only has newly melted plum blossom snow water, I can lend a little of its cool fragrance to entertain guests."
In the steaming mist, his pale knuckles showed blue veins like jade carvings.
Jiang Xue pursed her lips and took a sip, the bitter tea soup wrapped in the scent of frost and snow spread on the tip of her tongue.
"It is said that long-term illness makes one a doctor. Your skills in conditioning the body are more sophisticated than those of the imperial physician."
"Prisoners have their own way of living."
Yun Zhen lifted his sleeves lightly, revealing the faint silver veins flowing on his wrists: "The sandstorms in the western border and the plum blossoms and snow in the central plains are, after all, cages of heaven and earth.
Rather than being a sober trapped beast, it is better to be an idle person pretending to be asleep - do you agree, Princess?"
As the jade cup was tapped gently, the shadow of the plum blossom outside the window suddenly shook violently.
Jiang Xue paused for a moment and caught a glimpse of the silver lines on Yun Zhen's wrist glowing with the vibration of the plum branch.
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