Chapter 256 How should I reward her?
"Your Majesty, it's not fifty thousand taels." The divine physician, Que, gave a dry laugh. "That..."
Emperor Jing frowned: "How much is that? Five hundred thousand taels? That's not much. But do you have that many silver notes on you?"
Upon hearing this, Doctor Que and Sanqi fell even more silent. Almost instinctively, they both shook their heads.
Emperor Jing looked at them, his expression growing increasingly strange: "Could it be that five million taels is indeed a lot?"
"No, no, Your Majesty, you're overthinking it. Physician Jiang didn't ask for that much. She only asked for five hundred taels."
Upon hearing the words "five hundred taels," Physician Que felt a pang of guilt. He hadn't noticed it before the Emperor mentioned it, but now it seemed he had indeed given too little.
A hint of confusion flickered in Emperor Jing's deep eyes: "Five hundred taels of gold? She only asked for that little?"
You see, the foreign land had previously presented him with a pillow as tribute, which he found quite good and rewarded with a thousand taels of gold. Now, Physician Jiang had saved his life, yet he had only accepted such a small amount of money. The Emperor felt uneasy about this. His brows furrowed tightly, and he looked at Physician Jiang with some displeasure.
Upon hearing the words "five hundred taels of gold," the physician's smile froze on his face, and he stammered, "Your Majesty, it's not five hundred taels of gold, it's...it's...it's five hundred taels of silver!"
He finally said it, and seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
"Five hundred taels of silver?" Emperor Jing looked over with a hint of doubt and confusion in his voice: "You mean, you only gave five hundred taels of silver?"
Emperor Jing even felt that these words together had a somewhat absurd feel to them.
What does five hundred taels of silver mean?
It's not even as valuable as the container he used to hold silver charcoal in the winter.
The divine physician Que had accompanied the emperor for many years, so how could he not know what Emperor Jing was thinking?
He swallowed hard and immediately distanced himself, saying, "No, no, Your Majesty, we didn't bring up this money. It was Physician Jiang who suggested it. Sanqi, you can be my witness."
Doctor Que was now covered in cold sweat. He hadn't yet told the Emperor that the five hundred taels of silver wasn't just his consultation fee, but also included the money he had earned from secretly learning the techniques.
Sanqi nodded quickly upon hearing this: "Yes, Your Majesty, this is what Physician Jiang asked for. He said the consultation fee is five hundred taels of silver."
After thinking for a moment, he immediately took out several porcelain bottles from his pocket: "This is the oral medicine that Physician Jiang gave you for daily use, and this is the wound medicine that Physician Jiang gave you for daily application of to wounds. There is also a bottle of wound powder. One of these two bottles is for our self-defense poison, and the other is for our self-defense antidote. Uh, Physician Jiang left so much medicine, but only accepted one hundred taels of silver, saying that it was for Commander Liu's antidote."
Emperor Jing glanced at the pile of bottles and jars, quickly grasping the key point: "Commander Liu, the antidote? Liu Man, you've been poisoned?"
Commander Liu knew there was such a thing, and now that he was facing the same fate, he had no choice but to grit his teeth, step forward, kneel down, and admit his mistake: "Your Majesty, I have offended Physician Jiang. I am guilty."
Wang Yong saw this and knelt down as well: "Your humble servant is also guilty." In truth, he was partly responsible for the previous disrespect towards Physician Jiang.
Emperor Jing squinted at him and said, "Explain yourselves clearly."
The two of them, bracing themselves, recounted to the Emperor in detail how they managed to keep Doctor Jiang from leaving, how they were poisoned by Doctor Jiang, and how Sanqi spent money to buy the antidote.
After hearing this, Emperor Jing's expression grew even more peculiar: "You mean that after Physician Jiang stayed up all night to pull me back from the brink of death, not only did you not treat her well, but you also forced her to stay. And then, you, the commander of the Imperial Guards, couldn't even keep her and were poisoned by her?"
The more Emperor Jing spoke, the more absurd it seemed: "In the end, it was Physician Jiang who didn't hold it against you, gave you the antidote, and then left with only six hundred taels of silver?"
The more you think about it, the more absurd it seems. In the end, even Emperor Jing was so angry that he laughed.
"Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Your humble servant knows his mistake."
The crowd knelt down in front like dumplings being dropped into a pot, not daring to utter a word.
"You are all trusted people by my side, how could you act so absurdly!"
Lord Wang, observing the situation, cautiously replied, "Your Majesty, this commoner woman saw your imperial body. Furthermore, we are currently in a perilous situation, and we were hoping to wait until you awoke before making a decision. We wanted to keep Physician Jiang here, but who knew that Physician Jiang..."
"Shut up! How dare you spout such nonsense!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down! You have just recovered. Physician Jiang's prescription says that you must not get angry, but calm your mind and body." Physician Que immediately advised kindly, and handed over Jiang Nuanzhi's prescription again.
Eunuch Li immediately tried to appease the Emperor: "Yes, yes, Your Majesty, we are a few fools. You may punish us however you wish, but please don't upset yourself. We are not far from where Physician Jiang lives. If you wish to reward us, I will personally make the trip."
Emperor Jing took two deep breaths and silently calmed himself down.
Emperor Jing glanced at the group of self-righteous fools around him, and was too lazy to bother with them. He closed his eyes for a while before calming his thoughts.
To others, this Physician Jiang might just be a young woman, but to Emperor Jing, she was almost the last straw he could grasp. And this straw, in a gentle and calm manner, pulled him out of the mire.
They can hardly understand what people who are constantly fighting against the King of Hell are thinking.
Emperor Jing simply waved his hand and said, "That's enough. There are other things to do now. We can bestow the rewards later. But first, draft an imperial edict to send over, lest Physician Jiang think that I am an ungrateful person."
"Your Majesty, what are you going to reward Physician Jiang with?" Eunuch Li couldn't help but ask.
"I'll need to inform you first of how I intend to reward Physician Jiang."
Eunuch Li immediately slapped his own mouth and laughed, "Your Majesty, this servant is foolish. We are now in a remote and desolate place, and we lack many things. We should prepare generous gifts in advance, lest we embarrass Your Majesty."
Emperor Jing frowned, pondered for a while, and then said, "To save my life, she has ultimately tarnished her reputation. In that case, let's welcome her into the harem and bestow upon her the title of Consort. What do you all think?"
These words immediately caused an uproar among those around them.
Lord Wang was so frightened that his beard trembled three times. He immediately crawled forward on his knees and pleaded, "Your Majesty! This is absolutely impossible! The position of Empress is currently vacant, and the high-ranking concubines have already fallen from grace. There are only two Consorts holding the rank of Consort: Consort Shu and Consort De. Moreover, both of their maternal families are prominent clans. Consort De's grandfather was even a veteran of three reigns. How can Physician Jiang possibly be qualified?"
(End of this chapter)
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