Chapter 232 The beam blocked the way
His voice was filled with anger, and a barely perceptible lingering fear: "The Cold Palace has been in disrepair for years, this corridor should have collapsed long ago, do you really not value your own life?"
Ye Wanning lowered her head after being yelled at, her fingers gripping the hem of her clothes tightly: "I... I want to find out the clues myself, I don't want to trouble you."
"Trouble?" Pei Zhi stepped forward, shielding her behind him, so close that she could hardly breathe.
The scent of rain mixed with sandalwood lingered around his nose as he spoke in a heavy tone: "If something happens to you, that would be the biggest problem!"
Though his words were harsh, the worry in his eyes was unmistakable. Ye Wanning looked up at him and noticed a speck of wood still stuck to his forehead, and her heart suddenly warmed.
She whispered, "I'm fine, I'm just stuck, the beam is blocking my way."
Pei Zhi didn't blame her anymore. He looked around the palace by the moonlight, his brows furrowing even more: "It's leaking. The floor is all wet. Only that couch is still usable."
He pointed to a wooden couch in the corner, covered with a felt mat, which was fairly dry. Ye Wanning followed him over, and shivered as soon as she sat down—the nights in the Cold Palace were truly too cold.
Seeing this, Pei Zhi tore off his outer robe without saying a word and wrapped it around her. The robe, carrying his warmth and the scent of pine smoke, completely enveloped her icy shoulders.
Ye Wanning's ears burned slightly. Just as she was about to thank him, the rain outside suddenly intensified. Large raindrops pounded against the broken roof, making a pattering sound.
The leaking rain quickly formed small puddles on the ground.
The wooden couch was small, and the two could only sit very close together. Ye Wanning tried to move to the side to create some distance, but the couch was so small that she almost fell off with every movement.
Pei Zhi reached out and pressed on her waist, then immediately withdrew his hand, saying in a low, indistinct voice, "Don't move, it'll be more troublesome if you fall."
The moment his fingertips touched her waist, an electric sensation instantly coursed through his body. Ye Wanning froze on the spot, instinctively slowing her breathing.
Only the sound of rain and the two people's breathing remained in the main hall, and an unsettling ambiguity filled the air.
After a long while, Pei Zhi suddenly spoke, his voice much lower than usual, with a barely perceptible hoarseness: "You don't think I've never been wronged, do you?"
Ye Wanning was startled and turned to look at him. Moonlight leaked through the hole in the roof and shone directly on his face, clearly showing his tightly clenched lips and the melancholy in his eyes.
“When I was six years old, my mother was still alive. My father took me to a banquet at the imperial palace. The then Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince opposed my father’s new policies and secretly framed me, saying that I had stolen the military tally from the Imperial Study.”
Pei Zhi spoke slowly, his tone as calm as if he were talking about someone else: "He personally stuffed the military tally into my arms. There are witnesses and physical evidence. My father arrested me and was going to throw me into the Imperial Clan Court."
His Adam's apple bobbed, and he continued, "My mother pleaded for me, kneeling outside the palace for three days and three nights until her legs were worn out, before my father finally gave me the chance to investigate."
"In the end, the truth came out, but my mother's leg never got better. Later, my mother passed away, and the concubines of the Duke of Ningguo's mansion fought each other for the family property."
“Someone put poison in my soup, trying to embarrass me during the autumn hunt. I was on the verge of death.” He smiled bitterly. “That’s when I understood that in this deep palace, no one can protect you for life. Some things you can only rely on yourself.”
Ye Wanning felt a pang of pain in her heart. She knew that Pei Zhi had achieved fame at a young age and held a high position of power, but she had never known that so many grievances and schemes were hidden behind his glamorous facade.
Looking into Pei Zhi's forlorn eyes, Ye Wanning, as if possessed, reached out and gently grasped his wrist. His hand was cold, and his knuckles had calluses from old wounds.
Her voice trembled: "From now on, I won't let you shoulder this alone anymore. I'll be by your side."
Pei Zhi turned around abruptly to look at her, his eyes stinging with tears. Her fingers were warm, and the grip on his wrist was light, yet it felt like a warm current flowing from his fingertips into his heart, filling his chest.
Pei Zhi grabbed her hand with his backhand, his fingertips gently rubbing along the back of her hand, gradually increasing the pressure as if he wanted to embed her into his bones.
It was still raining outside, and the light that filtered in fell directly on their clasped hands. The air was thick with an ambiguous atmosphere, heavy and sticky like damp cotton wool.
Ye Wanning could feel the warmth of his palm, hear his increasingly heavy breathing, and even see the frequency of his eyelashes trembling, so fast it felt like they were about to shatter her chest.
But she didn't look up, and Pei Zhi didn't bend down. There were many rules in the palace, and the two of them were of different statuses. What separated them was never just this leaky palace.
After an unknown amount of time, the shouts of the guards came from outside. Pei Zhi released his grip, his voice regaining its usual calm and even tone: "The guards have come to pick us up. Let's go outside first."
Ye Wanning nodded, her legs went weak when she stood up, and she almost fell. Pei Zhi quickly caught her waist and didn't let go this time, only adding lightly, "Next time, no matter where you go, you have to tell me."
Only three days after the terrifying night in the cold palace, turmoil broke out in the imperial court.
Zhou Xian, the newly appointed head of the Imperial Medical Academy, is Consort An's maternal uncle. He climbed the ranks through connections and has always been jealous of Ye Wanning's praise from the Empress Dowager and the people for her work "The Secret of the Green Bag".
That morning at court, he knelt down in the Golden Palace, holding a stack of documents: "Your Majesty! I have something to report!"
Zhou Xian's soft voice sounded particularly jarring in the hall: "There is a real flaw in the chapter on 'Differentiation of Wind-Cold Syndromes' in Ye Wanning's 'Qingnang Miyao'!"
“Recently, three people in this city have taken medicine according to the prescriptions in the medical classics, but their conditions have not improved; on the contrary, they have worsened and are now bedridden!” he said, holding the file above his head.
The hall erupted in chaos. The "Secret Essentials of the Green Bag" had saved countless lives since its publication, and now the claim of a flaw was met with disbelief.
"Judge Zhou, is this really true?" someone asked tentatively.
“Absolutely true! Your Majesty has had the physicians of the Imperial Medical Academy examine the medical records of those three individuals, and it turns out that the medical texts misdiagnosed their symptoms, leading to inappropriate medications!”
Zhou Xian seized the opportunity to elevate the case file: "Your Majesty, please issue a ban on these books immediately to prevent further harm to the people!"
"Yes, Your Majesty! Judge Zhou is absolutely right! The medical classic is the foundation for healing and saving lives, how can it be wrong?" Several pedantic old ministers chimed in, "Ye Wanning is just a woman, I'm afraid she is not up to the task of guarding the medical classic!"
Ye Wanning stepped forward, took the medical record without changing her expression, glanced at it twice, and then sneered: "Judge Zhou, did you forge this medical record yourself?"
Zhou Xian's expression changed: "You're talking nonsense! This was signed by the patient himself, how could it be a forgery?"
"So what if you signed it yourself?" Ye Wanning threw the medical record on the ground, her voice loud. "The medical record says the first patient's pulse is floating and tight, indicating wind-cold affecting the exterior, but it also notes symptoms such as coughing up yellow phlegm and dry mouth and tongue."
"Judge Zhou, you've practiced medicine for many years, don't you know that a floating and tight pulse is accompanied by thin and clear phlegm, while yellow phlegm and dry mouth indicate a heat syndrome? How dare you show such contradictory medical records to embarrass yourself?"
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