The peach tree is young and thriving, its flowers are bright and beautiful
The candlelight cast flickering light and shadows in the study, and Mo Yu's figure appeared quietly like a ghost.
Wen Ciyuan put down the file in his hand, looked up and asked, "How is the investigation going?"
Mo Yu knelt on one knee and said in a low voice: "Everything has been investigated. The so-called antidote comes from a new doctor in the Imperial Hospital."
"Newcomer?" Wen Ciyuan tapped the table with his knuckles. "How can a doctor who just joined the Imperial Hospital have such ability?"
"According to him, his ancestors had encountered a similar epidemic and it was purely coincidental."
"coincide?"
Wen Ciyuan sneered, slamming his teacup down on the table. "The epidemic has been going on for three months and no one has been able to solve it. And yet, at this critical moment, a secret ancestral recipe pops up?"
"What about Prince Yong? What has he done?"
"He's been supervising the production of medicines at the Imperial Hospital all day, but..." Mo Yu lowered his voice, "My subordinates have discovered that his trusted aides sneak into the ruins of Li's Pharmacy every night at midnight. Their whereabouts are mysterious. I wanted to investigate secretly, but the security inside is very strict."
Wen Ciyuan's knuckles suddenly turned white, the celadon teacup cracked into fine lines, and water stains spread on the table. He suddenly remembered Murong Mo who happened to appear in the ruins of the pharmacy that day.
It seems that this "plague" is closely related to Prince Yong.
"Don't alert the enemy for now. Go check where this medicine shop came from."
After Mo Yu received the order and retreated into the shadows, Wen Ciyuan stared at the broken porcelain pieces in his palm in a trance. When he crushed the teacup just now, the uncontrolled force made his heart palpitate. This was the third time in half a month that he had inexplicably exerted too much force. Was it an accident?
Ruan Yunsheng came over with a lantern in hand. Seeing porcelain shavings on his fingertips, he quickly took his hand and examined it again and again: "Are you hurt?"
Wen Ciyuan held her hand in his, and a reassuring warmth came from the place where their palms touched: "It's okay."
"You said the antidote is real?"
Ruan Yunsheng had obviously heard the conversation just now and expressed his doubts. No matter from which angle you look at it, this antidote revealed a hint of weirdness.
Coincidences are usually man-made.
"Now the whole city knows that this antidote is the work of Prince Yong. If there really is a problem, he cannot escape the blame. Murong Mo should not take a bottle of fake medicine like this."
I hope so. Ruan Yunsheng looked towards the wing room. The anxious silhouette of Shen Yunzhou pacing back and forth could be seen on the window paper. Gu Nanzhi had been unconscious for the past few days. Black lines had spread all over his body, and his breathing had become increasingly slow. I'm afraid...
Suddenly, Qi Xiuming's heart-wrenching cry came from the west wing: "Nanzhi! Wake up!"
The two rushed into the room and saw that Gu Nanzhi's body was covered with black lines like spider webs and she was twitching all over. Shen Yunzhou was inserting a silver needle into her Baihui acupoint.
Suddenly, Qi Xiuming's heart-wrenching cry came from the west wing: "Nanzhi! Wake up!"
The two rushed into the room and saw that Gu Nanzhi's body was covered with black lines like spider webs and she was twitching all over. Shen Yunzhou was inserting a silver needle into her Baihui acupoint.
Suddenly, Qi Xiuming's heart-wrenching cry came from the west wing: "Nanzhi! Wake up!"
The two rushed into the room and saw that Gu Nanzhi's body was covered with black lines like spider webs and she was twitching all over. Shen Yunzhou was inserting a silver needle into her Baihui acupoint.
Suddenly, Qi Xiuming's heart-wrenching cry came from the west wing: "Nanzhi! Wake up!"
Qi Xiuming's heart-wrenching cry pierced the night sky. When Wen Ciyuan and Ruan Yunsheng rushed into the room, they saw Gu Nanzhi twitching violently on the bed, with spider-web-like black lines wriggling wildly under her skin, as if a living thing was trying to break out of her body.
Sweat was beading on Shen Yunzhou's forehead as the silver needle pierced her Baihui acupoint steadily and quickly, with each needle trembling slightly.
Qi Xiuming gripped the bedpost tightly, his nails digging into the wood. He watched as dark blood flowed from Gu Nanzhi's pale lips, and a surge of panic washed over him like a tide, drowning his breath.
After a long rescue, Gu Nanzhi finally collapsed, but his breath was as weak as a candle in the wind.
Qi Xiuming asked in a hoarse voice, "How's the antidote search going?"
Shen Yunzhou took out the porcelain bottle from the bottom of the medicine box and said solemnly, "It's real."
"Give me!"
Qi Xiuming reached out to grab it, but Shen Yunzhou grabbed his wrist instead. "This medicine is indeed useful, but I can't identify the last ingredient. Think again."
When Shen Yunzhou gently placed the medicine bottle in Qi Xiuming's palm, the cold touch of the porcelain bottle made him shiver.
Qi Xiuming looked down at the brown pills rolling in the bottle, then looked at Gu Nanzhi who was barely breathing on the couch. The black line on her neck had spread to her entire body, and she was only one step away from the monster.
To use it or not to use it?
The thought gnawed at his sanity like a poisonous snake.
He remembered that three months ago, this girl had stood with her hands on her hips, calling him a playboy and a loser, with a scorching light dancing in her almond-shaped eyes. But now, her life was slipping away like sand through her fingers.
Shen Yunzhou's warning echoed in his ears. In fact, he understood that the antidote came too coincidentally and too suddenly. It was like a cage carefully designed for them, waiting for them to get in.
But the imperial physician's helplessness and his lover's life at stake forced him to make this life-threatening decision.
"Nanzhi..."
He knelt in front of the couch, and stroked her cold cheek with his fingertips. "If this is poison, I will accompany you on the road to the underworld."
The moment the pill slid into Gu Nanzhi's throat, Qi Xiuming tightly grasped her gradually warming hand. Under everyone's breathless gaze, the spider-web-like black lines slowly dissipated like the tide, and the pale cheeks revealed a long-lost color.
Shen Yunzhou placed three fingers on her wrist and suddenly breathed a sigh of relief: "The pulse is stable... It's done!"
Gu Nanzhi floated in the darkness for a long time. In a trance, a pair of warm hands lifted her up from the abyss and brought her into the world. She struggled to open her heavy eyelids, and the candlelight made her tears seep out.
In the hazy light and shadow, Qi Xiuming's red eyes, Ruan Yunsheng's tearful smile, and Shen Yunzhou's tired but relieved face gradually emerged.
"haven't seen you for a long time……"
Gu Nanzhi's hoarse voice was like a spring breeze melting the ice, and the stagnant air in the room suddenly flowed. Ruan Yunsheng smiled and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes. Qi Xiuming quietly loosened his clenched fists, and even Shen Yunzhou rarely showed a relaxed smile.
But at this warm moment, no one noticed——
On the wooden shelf in the corner of the pharmacy, the celadon bottle containing the Wan Gu King suddenly shook violently.
“Bang!”
The porcelain vase rolled off the edge of the shelf and shattered on the blue brick floor. A pitch-black poisonous insect slowly crawled out from the fragments, and the golden pattern on its head glowed faintly in the candlelight.
It wiggled its tentacles and crawled towards the brown antidote on the table...
The spring breeze in the northern border finally blew away the haze of the "plague".
Next to the collapsed courtyard wall, people carried newly cut wood to repair their houses. Smoke rose again from the steamed cake shop on the corner of the street. The golden cakes were specially dotted with cinnabar red dots, which were an auspicious sign to ward off evil and bring good fortune.
The sky over the peach forest in the south of the city was already filled with crimson clouds. Wen Ciyuan held Ruan Yunsheng's hand as they walked along a path covered in fallen petals. The startled birds on the branches shook off a burst of fragrant snow.
Wen Ciyuan's fingertips brushed the peach petals in Ruan Yunsheng's hair and accidentally brushed her red earlobe. They both trembled slightly at the same time. His broad palm firmly supported her waist and hugged her deeper into his arms.
"When the world is at peace," Ruan Yunsheng buried his face in the patterned collar of his shirt. "How about we find a place like this in the peach forest and build a wooden house, where we can just listen to the wind and birdsong every day?"
Wen Ciyuan's chest vibrated as he chuckled softly, "It's a bit lonely just the two of us."
He bent down and inhaled the fragrance of her hair. "Madam, why don't you give birth to a few children for me? I can teach them to fly kites in spring and tell them strange stories around the fire on snowy nights."
Ruan Yunsheng raised his head and gently poked his rolling Adam's apple with his fingertips: "That depends on the Prime Minister..."
She tiptoed close to his ear and asked, "Will your body be able to withstand it in the future?"
A gust of wind suddenly blew up a red rain all over the sky.
Wen Ciyuan took off his dark outer robe and wrapped it around her, chuckling softly amidst the swirling rain of flowers: "Madam, you have a point."
He suddenly picked her up and walked towards the wooden house deep in the peach forest. "Instead of waiting, why not act now? I've even thought of a name for the child."
On the west side of the peach forest, Qi Xiuming was crouching and hiding behind a tree with his neck stretched out. Gu Nanzhi was leaning against the peach tree with her arms folded, staring at his raised butt speechlessly.
"Those two have been hiding behind the rockery for half an incense stick. What are they doing?" Qi Xiuming muttered, and was suddenly pulled back by Gu Nanzhi by the ear.
"Is it really that good?" Gu Nanzhi raised an eyebrow. "The Prime Minister and his wife's bedroom affairs have been turned into a troupe by Master Qi?"
Qi Xiuming's ears flushed red: "I, I wasn't looking at them, I was looking at the peach blossoms."
He humbly pointed to the peach blossoms beside him to cover up his obscene behavior: "Look at that flower, isn't it beautiful?"
He looked calm and composed on the surface, but in fact he was wailing in his heart, it's over! His dear wife wouldn't think he was a pervert, God knows, he just wanted to learn some love experience from these two people, so that he could use it on Gu Nanzhi, but he didn't expect these two people to be so bold, in broad daylight, in plain sight, to do such a shameless thing!
In a panic, he caught a glimpse of Gu Nanzhi's lips, which were red from the peach blossoms, and suddenly remembered the sentence in the book, "The red lips are slightly parted, so it is better to kiss them slowly." Instantly, his face turned red from his ears to his neck.
He stole a glance at her pale pink lips, then looked away instantly as if they were burned. In fact... he also wanted to kiss his wife.
Gu Nanzhi watched his expression change, and suddenly revealed a shy look. How could she not know what he was thinking? She suddenly pinched his chin and forced him to look up.
Under his horrified gaze, she plucked a peach blossom and stuffed it into his mouth: "Learn how to give flowers first, idiot."
The peach petals picked by Gu Nanzhi were stained with morning dew and gently brushed across Qi Xiuming's lips. The boy froze all over, and his lips, touched by her fingertips, felt a slight burning sensation.
He was so panicked that he took two steps back, but stepped on a pebble by the stream and fell into the shallows with a "splash".
The splashes of water startled a few dragonflies. Gu Nanzhi smiled and held the peach branch, her black hair swaying in the spring breeze.
She watched the young man climb out of the stream like a drowned rat. His wet brocade robe stuck to his slender waist, but his eyes were surprisingly bright.
"Gu Nanzhi!"
Qi Xiuming sloppily wiped the water droplets from his face, his voice trembling, "Let's get married! We'll use ninety-nine carts of peach blossoms to pave the wedding road, and let all the peach blossoms in the city... no, all the peach blossoms in the northern border bloom for us!"
The spring breeze blew peach petals across the ends of their hair. His heart was beating wildly. In a trance, he saw Gu Nanzhi's eyelashes trembling slightly, like ripples on the water caused by butterfly wings.
A kiss with the fragrance of peach blossoms fell on the corner of his lips.
"I'll wait for you." She chuckled, her breath brushing against his wet eyelashes.
Qi Xiuming suffocated instantly, his entire body frozen in place as if struck by lightning, until Gu Nanzhi poked him in the chest playfully, "Master Qi, are you planning on suffocating yourself and becoming a widower?"
Qi Xiuming suddenly came back to his senses, and wrapped his wet arms around Gu Nanzhi's waist and pulled her into his arms. Stream water dripped from their intertwined sleeves, leaving dark water marks on the bluestone.
He awkwardly held her lower lip in his mouth, tasting the sweetness of peach petals on his tongue, but his teeth chattered slightly with nervousness.
Gu Nanzhi tilted her head back to accept this moist kiss, her fingertips unconsciously clutching his wet collar.
Under the peach tree on the opposite bank, Wen Ciyuan's palm covered Ruan Yunsheng's eyes in time. It was obvious that they had discovered the two people a long time ago. Everything before was just a show to cooperate with Qi Xiuming. Of course, there was also Wen Ciyuan's inner thoughts of wanting to kiss his wife.
"Don't look at anything indecent."
He spoke seriously, but he could see clearly through his fingers that the silly boy didn't even know how to breathe. Halfway through the kiss, his ears turned red from holding his breath, and he had to rely on Gu Nanzhi to pat his back to relieve his breath.
Ruan Yunsheng chuckled under his palm: "The Prime Minister was on par with him back then."
Wen Ciyuan's ears felt slightly hot, and he lowered his head to bite the tip of her ear: "How can I be as stupid as him."
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