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Li Yang did indeed obediently 'get out'.
However, when the doctor came to take her pulse, she took advantage of Yuan Chongjing's inattention and secretly slipped inside again.
Yuan Chongjing's health is recovering very well; his fever is only temporary, and he will return to normal after a day or two of rest. However, this amnesia is posing a great challenge to Dr. Tao, who is treating him.
Li Yang led him out of the room. Inside, Yuan Chongjing had taken his medicine and was asleep. Li Yang asked, "Dr. Tao, is there really no cure for Brother Jing's illness?"
Doctor Tao shook his head: "Forgive my lack of knowledge, but I really have no idea how to treat the Second Young Master's amnesia."
"What can we do? Doctor Tao, as you know, Brother Jing is still holding an official position in the Censorate. If he can't be cured, his career will be over."
Dr. Tao was also very sorry. His clinic was very close to the Yuan family's, and he had been responsible for treating the Yuan family members for many years. It was no exaggeration to say that he had watched Yuan Chongjing grow up. Dr. Tao pondered for a long time about his plight but could not find a proper treatment.
He thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "Second Young Madam, don't worry. Judging by the time, Ghost Hand should be returning to the capital in the next few days. You can ask him to come and treat the Second Young Master."
"Ghost hands?"
"Yes. He's a legendary doctor, said to be able to bring the dead back to life and heal the wounded. No one knows his name or background because he snatches people from the jaws of death. Everyone respectfully calls him 'Ghost Hand.' But there's one thing: he has a very strange temper. He never cares about money when treating patients, only whether it pleases him. If the Second Young Madam wants to hire him, she'll probably have to go through a lot of trouble."
Li Yang made a mental note of this: "No matter how difficult it is, I have to give it a try."
Doctor Tao gave some more instructions about the miraculous doctor's magic touch before instructing his apprentice to carry his medicine box and leave.
After seeing him off, Li Yang spoke with Madam Yuan to reassure her before returning to the courtyard. Inside the room, Bei Hai was still on guard. Seeing that Yuan Chongjing was fast asleep, Li Yang said to Bei Hai, "Come out, let's talk."
Bei Hai was already prepared and followed her out of the room.
The matter at hand was very important. After confirming that no one else was around in the courtyard, Li Yang asked directly, "Are you one of the Crown Prince's men?"
In the spring of the twenty-sixth year of the Qingyuan era, the current emperor received a report that the crown prince had colluded with court officials to contact foreign powers and secretly assembled an army, intending to rebel. With witnesses and physical evidence, the emperor was furious. Considering the bond between father and son, and with the pleas of the empress dowager, he stripped the crown prince of his title, demoted him to the Prince of Yu, and exiled him to the extremely desolate and bitterly cold Yuzhou.
On their way to Yuzhou, the Prince of Yu and his entourage encountered a natural disaster, resulting in heavy losses with many killed or injured. The Prince of Yu was also seriously injured and remains in a coma in Yuzhou to this day.
Now, in the thirty-first year of the Qingyuan era, five years have passed since that incident. As the princes of the court have grown up, the people of the capital seem to have slowly forgotten about the deposed crown prince, Prince Yu, who is still half-dead in Yuzhou.
Previously, Yuan Chongjing only allowed Li Yang to stay in the backyard to take care of Xiao Taozi and did not discuss matters of the court with her. However, the two had spent five years together, and Li Yang had guessed some of what Yuan Chongjing was planning to do.
Upon hearing this, Bei Hai was greatly alarmed, and his sharp eyes immediately pierced Li Yang.
Li Yang was not afraid at all: "I don't care what Brother Jing did in the past. He has amnesia now and can't help you anymore. I hope you won't say anything carelessly in front of him."
She said this with certainty.
Before Yuan Chongjing's accident, it seems he was secretly investigating something. His injury this time likely stemmed from discovering something, leading to his preemptive strike to silence him. He's been seriously ill and unconscious for so long, escaping death countless times, and Beihai has always meticulously protected him. It seems Beihai hasn't found that thing yet.
She didn't have to wait long before Bei Hai told the truth: "The Second Young Master has recently been helping His Highness the Crown Prince investigate the matter of being falsely accused of treason years ago, and he had already made progress. But now, the Second Young Master is seriously injured, and the evidence has disappeared."
If this evidence is found, His Highness the Crown Prince might be able to turn things around.
It is indeed a very important thing.
Li Yang asked, "Can you find out if it was hidden by Brother Jing, or if it was stolen by the other party?"
"According to intelligence, they are also looking for this thing." Meeting Li Yang's gaze, Bei Hai assured her, "As long as the Second Young Mistress can find it and hand it over to me, I can guarantee that the Second Young Master will have a safe life."
Li Yang smiled slightly, her gaze devoid of any warmth: "In what capacity do you intend to repay me? Although I am a woman, I have heard of the saying 'the rabbit is killed after the hunt'. I don't want to end up with my head separated from my body after the deed is done."
She leaned forward slightly, staring into his eyes: "I need a guarantee from His Highness the Crown Prince."
It is His Highness the Crown Prince, not the paralyzed and comatose Prince of Yuzhou.
Bei Hai hesitated for a moment: "I will contact His Highness."
"Then I'll wait for your good news." Li Yang withdrew her gaze, smoothed the hem of her skirt, and stood up. "It's getting late, you should go back and rest. I'll take care of Brother Jing."
Beihai responded and turned to leave the courtyard.
The autumn night wind was cool, and Li Yang pulled her sleeves tighter, looking up at the bright moon in the sky.
The moonlight was like a veil, hazy and holy, just like her and Yuan Chongjing's future, full of mystery and unknown.
***
Li Yang deliberately spread the news, and in less than a day, the news that he was seriously injured, had escaped death but lost his memory spread throughout the streets and alleys of the capital.
As dusk approached, Li Yang was urging Yuan Chongjing to take his medicine. Little Peach waved her chubby arms beside him, cheering him on: "Daddy, drink it all in one go and it won't be bitter! Daddy, drink your medicine obediently, and Little Peach will give you some delicious candy~"
A bell was tied to her wrist, jingling whenever she moved. Combined with her childish voice, it made Yuan Chongjing tilt his head back and drink the medicine in the bowl in one gulp.
"Daddy is so amazing!" Little Peach exclaimed, leaning over the bedside and taking a piece from her little brocade pouch, holding it to his mouth. "Daddy, eat it quickly!"
Yuan Chongjing ate the candy and said with a smile, "Thank you, Little Peach~"
He didn't remember Xiao Taozi's identity, nor did he have any deep feelings for her. But a pretty, delicate, and sensible little girl would easily win the favor of adults. In addition, Yuan Chongjing also had a younger sister in his memory, so he decided to treat Xiao Taozi as his sister until he remembered her.
Li Yang patted her head: "Alright, little peach, Daddy has taken his medicine and needs to sleep. Shall we go out first?"
The memory of Yuan Chongjing's half-month coma left a deep impression on Xiao Taozi. Hearing this, Xiao Taozi shook her head, clinging to Yuan Chongjing's arm and refusing to let go, her big eyes blinking as tears welled up: "No, no~ Mother, let's not go, okay? What if Father doesn't wake up again? No, no, Xiao Taozi and Mother won't go!"
Li Yang bent down and hugged Xiao Taozi, coaxing, "Daddy's been awake all day and is a little tired. He wants to sleep now. Mommy promises you, Xiao Taozi, that as soon as Daddy wakes up, you can come and see him, okay?"
Little Peach pouted and sobbed twice, then asked tentatively, "Daddy, do you really want to sleep?"
Yuan Chongjing was willing to do anything to annoy Li Yang! He raised the corners of his lips and squeezed Xiao Taozi's chubby little hand: "Daddy isn't sleepy and doesn't want to sleep. Daddy wants to talk to Xiao Taozi."
Upon hearing this, Little Peach blinked her big eyes and looked at Li Yang accusingly: "Mother! You lied to Little Peach again!"
"You bastard! You even used your own four-year-old daughter!" Li Yang glared at him hatefully: "...Fine, fine, I won't interfere with your father-daughter bonding anymore. I'm leaving, I'm going to sleep, okay?"
Little Peach loves her father and her mother. Now that her father has finally woken up, she doesn't want to be separated from her parents. Hearing that Li Yang is leaving, she rushes to persuade her, "Mother~"
Before he could finish speaking, Bei Hai came in from the outer room: "Second Young Master, the Third Prince, the Fifth Prince, and the Eighth Prince have come to see you with Young Master Song, Young Master Zhang, and Young Master Xu."
Apart from the three princes, the rest of these people were all Yuan Chongjing's good friends from the academy.
Li Yang raised an eyebrow and said with sincere admiration, "Brother Jing, you're really shameless to have alarmed the three princes in the palace."
Yuan Chongjing was certain that she was cursing him to avenge what had just happened. But now that he needed her help, Yuan Chongjing gritted his teeth secretly, pretending not to notice the sarcasm in her words: "Can I see her?"
He was completely unaware of what had happened in the court over the past five years. These men who had come were all shrewd and calculating; it would be disastrous if he revealed anything.
"Why aren't they here?" Li Yang said, "Now everyone in Kyoto knows you've lost your memory. They're just here to verify it. When they come, just talk less and listen to them. Remember, try your best... no, absolutely do not ask any questions, understand?"
Sooner or later he would have to go out and meet people, so Yuan Chongjing nodded: "Okay."
Since they were all men, Li Yang didn't want to bring Xiao Taozi to see them, so he carried her to the study.
She didn't know what they would talk about, but if they reminisced about their time at the academy, they would inevitably tease each other about how Yuan Chongjing and she were mortal enemies back then. If someone swayed her with a few words and Yuan Chongjing began to doubt the authenticity of the marriage, she would need to produce even stronger evidence.
Li Yang rummaged through the study for a long time, and after hearing from Bei Hai that the group of people had left, she voluntarily returned to her room.
Yuan Chongjing was still sitting leaning against the bed frame, his face, which had finally regained its rosy glow, now pale and lifeless. Li Yang walked over and sat down beside the bed. "Brother Jing, what's wrong? What did they say?"
"It's nothing," Yuan Chongjing said listlessly, too exhausted to correct her form of address.
Judging from his expression, he was clearly hiding something. He didn't say anything, and Li Yang didn't expose him either. Instead, she took out the wooden box in her hand: "I was tidying up the study just now and I saw this. Would you like to take a look?"
"What?"
Li Yang took out two envelopes, opened them, and took out the letters: "These are letters we wrote to our parents when we were in Chenzhou. After we settled in the capital, I got them back from my mother. Here, this is a stack of things my mother wrote down that we should pay attention to when we had Xiao Taozi, because she was worried that we wouldn't be able to take care of her."
The letter was old and yellowed, and the writing on it had become blurred, but Yuan Chongjing read it very carefully.
"After we got married, we went to Chenzhou?"
Hearing his question, Li Yang thought to herself, "Sure enough, those people must have said something in secret." She said, "Yes, we stayed in Chenzhou for four years. We only came back in early summer last year."
"Why go to Chenzhou?" Yuan Chongjing asked.
Leaving aside the harsh environment of Chenzhou and the distinct temperatures of summer and winter, Chenzhou is only three or four hundred miles away from Kyoto, and it takes more than half a month to get there.
“At that time, you had just entered officialdom, and we didn’t have any connections to make. Plus, you were still young and wanted to gain some experience, so we went to Chenzhou.”
Yuan Chongjing leaned back on the pillow and sighed softly, "Put these away, I trust you."
Li Yang accepted the letter as instructed. Seeing his somewhat vacant expression, she asked carefully, "Did they say something? If there's anything you want to know, you can ask me."
Yuan Chongjing shook his head, his tone tinged with melancholy: "I'm just feeling a bit sentimental. Five years have passed, and everyone has changed so much. Especially the Third Prince. He used to be so impulsive, but now he's become so cautious."
When you talk to him, he has a whole repertoire of words.
“Third Prince?” Li Yang recalled the scene he had witnessed in the shadows when Bei Hai saw them off earlier: “The Third Prince’s ‘caution’ is only on the surface. I think what’s even more impressive is the seemingly honest and kind Fifth Prince beside him.”
It looks as docile as a sheep, but in reality it is a wolf in sheep's clothing, which bites off a piece of flesh when people are not paying attention.
This piqued Yuan Chongjing's interest. Although their conversation was about confirming whether they had lost their memory, he was actually observing them secretly. Regarding the Fifth Prince, Li Yang's words were exactly what he had thought.
"You have a good eye."
Li Yang immediately became smug, glanced at him sideways, and gave him a charming look: "That's right, if I didn't have good taste, how could I have fallen for you back then?"
Yuan Chongjing's mood, which had just recovered, immediately plummeted after her retort: "Can't you say anything nice? You're still the same as before, always saying something annoying!"
Li Yang disagreed with him and retorted directly, "How can this not be considered a compliment? Do you expect me to say that you're not a good person, that you're a scoundrel, that I've suffered terribly since marrying you, and that I regret it to the core?"
"...You should leave. If you stay any longer, I might lose my temper and take action."
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