Chapter 17 Marry Him
The guards around King Linhuai were indeed swift and decisive. In less than half an hour, Doctor Liao, who was still sleeping soundly, was awakened by the sound of knocking on the door. After hearing Qiandeng say that the wife of Qi was injured, she quickly carried her medicine box and rushed down the mountain stream.
Everything down below had already been arranged. Kang Shu, who had been knocked unconscious in the bushes by the chopping block, had now been rescued. The two guards, who were on the verge of dying from their injuries, were also carried onto the sedan chair.
In the darkest hour before dawn, King Linhuai escorted the group back to Zhuangzi.
Uncle Fu was still guarding the pavilion, and the prince, worried about Lady Qi's safety, also sent several guards to guard outside the pavilion.
Seeing Prince Linhuai arrive in person, the Crown Prince, who had been sitting quietly in the main hall, was so excited that he stood up and hurried to greet him. His voice choked with sobs, and he said, "Prince Linhuai, now that you are here, I am not afraid of anything!"
Prince Linhuai strode forward and led his troops in saluting him. The soldiers behind him immediately shouted, "Greetings to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
Qiandeng didn't care about all these formalities. She was extremely anxious and pulled Doctor Liao straight up to the pavilion and into the inner hall, asking her to take her mother's pulse.
Cui Fufeng was also carried to the outer hall of the water pavilion and placed on a couch. He would wait until Doctor Liao finished examining the lady before he could start treatment.
Lady Qi was still asleep within her bed curtains. Perhaps because breathing caused too much pain in her wound, her bed was in disarray, with blood stains on her blankets and pillow.
Aunt Liao hurried forward and took the woman's pulse, which was already as thin as a thread. She said solemnly, "Please, my lady, unbutton the lady's clothes so I can see the wound."
Qiandeng undressed his mother with trembling hands, revealing the severed arrow shaft underneath.
I saw layer upon layer of bloodstains on the green collar of the clothes. The dried blood had already coagulated, and new blood was still oozing out intermittently, staining the quilt into a shocking appearance.
When Aunt Liao saw this and measured the depth of the arrow shaft, her expression suddenly turned extremely grim: "County Lady, the Madam's heart pulse is severed. There is actually no need for you to risk looking for me."
Qiandeng's face turned pale. She stared at her mother, then suddenly looked up at Doctor Liao: "But...but Uncle Fu said that although my mother's lungs were injured, as long as it can be properly treated, there is still hope..."
"What's the point of his rudimentary medical skills?" Doctor Liao shook her head and covered the quilt again. Seeing the deathly look on Madam's face, she said sadly, "I'll give Madam an acupuncture and see if I can wake her up temporarily."
Qiandeng knew what she meant. It was to let her mother have a last moment of consciousness and leave her last words.
Seeing her take out the silver needle and first pierce the Yintang and then the Baihui, Qiandeng couldn't help but raise his hands to cover his face in despair, tears streaming down his face.
Hearing her burst into tears, all noise outside stopped. Only the prince pushed open the door and hurried in to ask, "Lingling, how is the lady?"
When he saw the silver needle piercing into the brain, he was also shocked. He hurried to the bedside and said in a tight voice: "This...what is this?"
In the darkest moment before dawn, a solitary lamp illuminated the cold inner room. Mrs. Qi's body twitched slightly, and her eyes finally opened a little.
In the dim light, her eyes were dazed as she stared at Qian Deng, whose face was covered in tears, for a long time before she could barely recognize her. Her lips moved as she murmured hoarsely, "Deng Deng..."
Qiandeng held her mother's hand tightly and cried, "I'm here... I'm here."
The mother's throat moved rapidly, but she couldn't utter a single word.
The prince beside him took a step forward, but when he saw that his wife was covered in blood and unconscious, he stopped and just stood by in silence.
Fearing that this fleeting opportunity would slip away, Doctor Liao raised her voice and asked, "Madam, do you have anything else to tell the county lady or anyone else?"
The mother's hands were convulsively grasping Qiandeng, and she pointed at the cabinet next to her with her last bit of strength, making a hoarse sound.
Her dying voice was low and hoarse, like the sound of dead leaves rubbing against the autumn wind, but Qian Deng still vaguely understood what she said -
"Letter...that letter..."
Qiandeng hesitated for a moment, and her mother used all her strength to push her over, and the wound on her chest began to bleed again.
She immediately stood up, walked to the cabinet, opened the door according to her mother's instructions, and pulled out the drawer inside.
Losing control, she moved too quickly, and the drawer was pulled out, and it fell over with a loud crash, and everything inside it fell to the ground.
She knelt down, opened the upside-down drawer, and rummaged through the clutter inside, searching for the letter.
But, no.
There were only scattered purses, sachets, jade pendants, silver boxes and other items inside.
No letters, no paper, not even a sheet of paper.
She looked up at her mother blankly, and her mother's expression was even more shocked than hers. Her already dim eyes stared straight at the things on the ground. After a long time, she gasped violently and looked up at the people in the room with difficulty. Her gaze shifted from Qiandeng's face to the prince, to Doctor Liao, and then to the outside.
In the dim light of dawn, Cui Fufeng, Prince Linhuai, and her remaining nine candidates for fiancé were all in the outer hall or in front of the courtyard, each staring at the Lady of Qi who was on the verge of death and had a last glimmer of life.
In the darkness, Lady Qi could not see their faces clearly, but she knew that each of them was a man of outstanding appearance and the best man in Chang'an City.
A faint smile suddenly appeared at the corner of her mouth. Using up her last bit of strength, she raised her trembling, blood-stained hand and pointed at the group of people in front of her.
"Deng Deng, you must marry him... and then take him home!"
Qiandeng's body was cold and stiff. She hugged her mother's exhausted body, held up her drooping hands, and looked in the direction of her finger with a dazed and sad look.
However, outside the open door, there were eleven figures in the dim light, some far and some near, and she had no idea who her mother was referring to.
She was grief-stricken and dazed, her voice hoarse: "Who... Mother, who is the he you are talking about?"
But my mother had already breathed her last.
Her hands dropped down, and her body fell into Qiandeng's arms, no longer able to breathe.
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