Chapter 38
Wen Weili had long known that Li Zhigu was an excellent doctor, but she had never expected it to be so miraculous. The day after acupuncture, Duanmu Huaixin opened his eyes.
It was an ordinary night. Wen Weili was giving acupuncture to Duanmu Huaixin. Several silver needles made Duanmu Huaixin look like a sapling emerging from a meadow. It looked particularly interesting, and Wen Weili couldn't help laughing.
At this moment, Duanmu Huaixin's fingers trembled slightly twice, and he slowly tore open his eyelids a crack, and a slight breath sound came out of his throat, "...ah uh..."
Wen Weili only had time to sigh at Li Zhigu's extraordinary medical skills, and hurriedly picked up the honey water beside her, "Come and have some water."
"．．．．．．." Duanmu Huaixin didn't say anything. He just looked at Wen Weili silently without saying a word.
Wen Weili didn't say anything either. She opened her eyes slightly and looked at Duanmu Huaixin, who was different from before, more intently. She had some thoughts in her mind and was just waiting for Duanmu Huaixin to react first.
Duanmu Huaixin shrank into the quilt nervously like a frightened child. No, he was actually a big kid - if you judge by his age. Wen Weili was very patient and still handed the cup of honey water to Duanmu Huaixin.
Duanmu Huaixin gently sniffed the honey water in front of him. This was honey water made from the finest Jade Peak nectar. Even if he didn't drink it, he could tell from the smell that it was not an ordinary product.
But Duanmu Huaixin was only slightly tempted, but still wary of Wen Weili's actions. He licked his lips and swallowed with his dry throat, attracted by the taste of honey water and wanted to drink it.
"Are you scared?" Wen Weili smiled, but she didn't expect Duanmu Huaixin to become more nervous. His fingers tightly grasped the quilt and his whole body was tense. Wen Weili had no doubt that if necessary, Duanmu Huaixin would overturn the quilt and run away.
However, Wen Weili thought her smile wasn't particularly frightening, so Duanmu Huaixin's continued alertness was quite intriguing. She simply stood up, placed the honey water back on the tray beside her, and walked out.
The moment Wen Weili opened the door and walked out, she saw Duanmu Huaixin impatiently pick up the honey water and drink it. Ha, he couldn't help it after all. Wen Weili thought, she waited outside for a while, and when she felt it was about time, she pushed the door open again.
Duanmu Huaixin, who had drunk a whole cup of honey water, was not so alert when he saw Wen Weili again. He just kept hiding behind the quilt, as if he would not get hurt that way.
Wen Weili saw Duanmu Huaixin as a bird avoiding its natural enemy, as if all the hairs on its body had exploded, and it angrily warned people, "Don't come over, I'm very fierce." But in fact, as long as people took another step forward, the bird would panic and flee away in such a bluff.
Although she wanted to laugh, Wen Weili tried her best to hold it back. Laughing out loud might make Duanmu Huaixin even more nervous. For the sake of the friendly conversation that followed, Wen Weili suppressed her smile and asked him in a serious tone, "Do you remember anything?"
Duanmu Huaixin's throat, moistened by the honey, was able to speak normally again, but he still hesitated for a moment before cautiously asking the woman in front of him, "Who am I? Where am I? What should I do?"
"Ha." Wen Weili finally couldn't help laughing out loud. She listened to Duanmu Huaixin's three questions, and then saw that Duanmu Huaixin became more alert because of her laughter, so she had to answer Duanmu Huaixin's questions seriously first.
"Since you asked these three questions, can I assume that you don't remember anything?" Wen Weili confirmed with Duanmu Huaixin.
Duanmu Huaixin didn't understand what was going on, but he was completely clueless, so he just nodded.
"Okay," Wen Weili put on a slightly sad expression and said slowly, "Your name is Wen Huaixin, and you are—my son."
“!!!” Duanmu Huaixin was frightened. He hesitated, tentatively, and called out in a whisper as light as a mosquito, “Mother—Mother?”
"Hey, dear son, you don't have to call me empress, just call me mother," Wen Weili said with a smile in her eyes, looking at Duanmu Huaixin with 'loving' eyes.
"But, but..." Duanmu Huaixin felt that something was wrong. It seemed that, vaguely, he seemed to have never called her "mother". Could it be that this woman was lying to him?
Wen Weili noticed Duanmu Huaixin's hesitation and asked him if he had any questions. Hearing Duanmu Huaixin's question, she sighed and told Duanmu Huaixin the story of "a female merchant who was forced to marry a wealthy businessman from another place, but the businessman died unexpectedly, and the woman had to take back the businessman's son and property."
"So, I am not your biological son, and my mother died early and my father was only greedy for beauty, which led to me not having maternal love for many years." Duanmu Huaixin suddenly realized. No wonder he felt unfamiliar with the word "mother" and even had no impression of his father.
"Yes," Wen Weili smiled amiably, "Although I didn't marry your father voluntarily, I am still your elder after all. I can't just ignore you, so I took you back home."
But Duanmu Huaixin still couldn't figure it out, "Then why do I have no memory?"
Hearing this, Wen Weili glanced at Duanmu Huaixin with resentment. Duanmu Huaixin inexplicably felt his heart beat faster. "It's because you've been sickly since childhood. Even with constant medication and careful care, you still often fall ill. This time, I brought you back, and within two days, you caught a cold. I thought you'd get better with care, but it got worse and worse, and finally you fell into a coma."
"Alas," Wen Weili sighed heavily, looking at Duanmu Huaixin with a loving gaze, "The doctors said you couldn't be saved, but I didn't expect you to wake up. As for your memory, you're lucky to be alive. Why force it?"
Duanmu Huaixin thought it made a lot of sense and nodded.
"It's just that," Wen Weili's words made Duanmu Huaixin's heart rise again, "You still need to take good care of your body. I can't take care of you in the past, but we can't just sit there and eat up all the money at home."
Duanmu Huaixin fell silent. He felt that his stepmother must be trying to get rid of him. After all, he was just a sickly young master who had no relatives or friends with her. The little mother-son relationship they had was forced by his father. It was good enough that she didn't resent him. Why did she have to keep supporting him?
Seeing Duanmu Huaixin lowering his head in frustration, Wen Weili knew that teasing should not be overdone, so she coughed twice and said, "How about this, I'll find a job later and we can find a good family."
"Find a good family?" Duanmu Huaixin thought he had misheard.
"That's right," Wen Weili said solemnly, "The only solution now is to find a wealthy family so I can find a job."
"Do business? You can continue to be a traveling merchant!" Duanmu Huai said anxiously. He really didn't want to see Wen Weili go to someone else's house. An idea suddenly popped up in his almost blank memory, "How about opening a shop? For example, a food shop?"
Wen Weili shook her head and told Duanmu Huaixin how unreliable this idea was. "First of all, opening a food shop in the imperial city must have someone behind it, and we don't have that ability yet. Secondly, even if we opened a food shop, how could we afford to support you, Master Huaixin?"
Duanmu Huaixin blushed at Wen Weili's teasing words "Young Master Huaixin". He wanted to say that he could help, but when he thought about it carefully, he was powerless and what kind of help could he provide. He could only respond in a low voice and temporarily agreed with Wen Weili's idea.
After tricking Duanmu Huaixin into falling asleep, Wen Weili smiled and left the room, signaling to the hidden guards around her to be on guard. When she reached the study, yes, Wen Weili had chosen a room as a study specifically for handling affairs, and placed a lot of paper and pens in it so that she could analyze the situation.
The team leader in charge of communication among the secret guards presented the news to Wen Weili. As expected, Li Zhigu's unusual behavior a few days ago had attracted the attention of someone in the Wen Mansion. Wen Weili and Wen's father knew very well that there was a traitor in the Wen Mansion. They repeatedly asked Li Zhigu to come, and they also intended to clean up the Wen Mansion.
Regardless of who the traitor in the Wen Mansion was, the Crown Prince would inevitably receive news that Prince Huai was suspected to be in the Imperial City. Honestly, the Crown Prince had mobilized a large force to search for Prince Huai's whereabouts, but to no avail, and inevitably suspected that Duanmu Huaixin hadn't escaped, and subsequently dispatched additional personnel to the Imperial City. Even Wen Weili's fake identity wouldn't withstand the Crown Prince Regent's interrogation.
After all, the Crown Prince and they all knew that Duanmu Huaixin would never retreat. As the main supporter of Prince Huai, the Wen Mansion would inevitably be liquidated when the Crown Prince ascended the throne. Even if Duanmu Huaixin fled to another country to live in poverty or started another rebellion, the Crown Prince had already grasped power and would have the opportunity to find Duanmu Huaixin and eliminate him.
Therefore, Wen Weili had made preparations in advance. She had written countless backup plans in her small notebook. Moreover, with the accurate information provided by the secret guards, she was even more certain that the prince would soon search the imperial city. Therefore, the idea of opening a food shop that she had previously come up with out of selfish motives seemed unimportant.
But the Wen Mansion was under strict guard and she could not hide. The outside, including the city gates, was still under strict martial law. She had to find a place to continue hiding before the prince found out, or in other words, a way to fight back. If she continued hiding, she would only wait for death.
Originally, if Duanmu Huaixin was still unconscious before the searching officers and soldiers arrived, Wen Weili planned to use the script of 'selling oneself to bury one's father' to sneak into the home of a wealthy young man, and then Duanmu Huaixin would be disguised as a corpse and sent out of the city, where he would be picked up by the secret guards and taken away to be cured.
However, considering various situations, Wen Weili also made the best plan, that is, Duanmu Huaixin woke up, his martial arts were restored, and he could sneak into the palace to find out the truth.
But no matter whether Li Zhigu's method worked or Duanmu Huaixin had a strong will and body, Duanmu Huaixin has woken up now, but has no memory and cannot even feel his own skills, so this is actually neither good nor bad news.
There is no need to wait for Duanmu Huaixin to wake up at an unknown time, but it is also impossible to use Duanmu Huaixin's own advantages to make plans. He also has to disguise himself for him to avoid being discovered to be abnormal.
Speaking of disguise, Wen Weili was not worried that Duanmu Huaixin would feel something was wrong. Since waking up, Duanmu Huaixin went out for a walk, and when he came back, he took the initiative to ask for a few more layers of disguise.
Because Duanmu Huaixin was young and looked weak after lying in bed for many days, and when he was dressed in lively clothes like a child, others felt that Sister Wen's deeds were even more real. Wasn't he the son of the wealthy businessman who was frail, sickly, and mentally ill as rumored?
After the matter about Sister Wen had calmed down a bit, the appearance of Duanmu Huaixin sparked a heated discussion among the people again. They spread the story from mouth to mouth, and some even came to see it in person, in order to warn their daughters at home to behave themselves, otherwise Sister Wen would be a lesson for them.
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