Boldly take medicine
"I'm afraid my body might offend His Highness. How about... asking a trusted maid to examine my body?"
Xiao Lin watched Su Manyan's eyes darting around, spouting one plan after another, and couldn't help but feel suspicious: "Are you so anxious to prove you're a eunuch? I actually think something's amiss."
"Your Highness, you are joking. Since I am serving you, my identity must be verified. Moreover, pretending to be a girl and sneaking into the eunuchs is deceiving the emperor and deserves death." Su Manyan touched the tip of his nose and whispered in defense: "I value my life and dare not do anything rash that will cost me my life."
Seeing her shrinking her neck and acting like a coward, Xiao Lin's anger subsided. The other person's insistent argument made him feel a little uneasy. Could he have been wrong? Or was there something else going on?
Meng Lang's provocation just now made him blush and he retreated instead.
"Forget it. I bet a little eunuch like you wouldn't dare to act rashly." He waved his hand. "I won't delve into this matter today, but from now on, please don't strip off your clothes in front of outsiders."
Su Manyan quickly nodded in agreement.
Xiao Lin ignored him and returned his thoughts to the military book, but the gaze of the man next to him was too intense, so he finally put down his brush and glared at him irritably.
Why don’t you leave yet?
Su Manyan was still staring at him in a daze. When she met his peach blossom eyes that were imposing without anger, a flattering smile piled up on her face like petals. She leaned forward and said, "Your Highness, are you tired? I'll give you a shoulder massage."
The slender palm climbed up to the shoulder, and the scallion-white fingertips secretly exerted force. Feeling the other party's subconscious resistance, Su Manyan firmly held his body and comforted him: "Your Highness, let this servant loosen you up."
"625! Please help me check the male protagonist's body to see if there are any harmful substances in his body, or if there are any diseases he suffered from in his early years." As soon as Su Manyan's hands touched Xiao Lin, he frantically bombarded Mr. System with brain waves.
Su Manyan knew some Chinese medicine, and when she first met Xiao Lin, she noticed that despite his size and build, he had a pale complexion. Combined with her years of reading novels, she knew that male protagonists were often frail.
"Received, host. Let 625 take a look." The reliable system responded immediately. "Host, you guessed it right! However, the male protagonist is not just sick, but poisoned, and it's a chronic poison. This poison won't take effect immediately, but over time, it will cause irreversible damage to the body."
The poisoning...was it done by someone on the Crown Prince's side? Is the poison Aning gave me related to this?
Su Manyan was lost in thought and stopped moving his hands.
"Is this how you serve people? Why don't you continue?" A cold voice brought her back to reality.
Su Manyan lowered his head. The man in front of him had high brow bones and upturned eyes. He had the comfortable posture of a handsome young man, but also had the right amount of dignity of a dragon, like a wonderful fusion of freedom and authority.
Whether driven by lust or out of humanitarianism, Su Manyan couldn't accept the fate of her target facing destruction, let alone an untimely death from poisoning. In a fit of rage, she immediately called up the "Hemostatic Pill" on the dashboard. With the system's assistance, she pulled out the oil-paper-wrapped pill and stuffed it into Xiao Lin's mouth.
"Your Highness, this is the Huo Luo Dan I brought back from my hometown. It's specially used to treat muscle and bone discomfort. Would you like to try it?"
After Xiao Lin scolded him, he realized that the eunuch was not being clever, unlike usual. Just as he looked up to see what tricks he was playing, he was suddenly stuffed with a small round ball.
"Ahem, ahem... How dare you!" Xiao Lin endured the discomfort and acquiesced to Su Manyan's massage, wanting to find out what this mysterious person was up to. But he never imagined she would be so audacious as to plot against him directly.
The strange thing was that the medicine seemed to have life and slid straight down his throat, and he couldn't cough it out no matter how hard he tried.
Xiao Lin grabbed Su Manyan's arm and pinned her to the ground. "You bold slave! How dare you plot against me? I spared your life because you once saved me, yet you've been courting death time and again. Tell me! What drug did you give me?"
"It hurts! It hurts! Get up quickly! You're hurting me!" The intense pain made Su Manyan's eyes go black, and the only thing left was the instinct to shout for help.
She begged frantically, "Your Highness, please spare me. That's a precious elixir. Not only can it stop the bleeding immediately, it can also soothe various minor injuries and pains in the body. Believe me, by tomorrow at the latest, you'll definitely feel much better. Please, please, let go!"
These words not only failed to reduce Xiao Lin's anger, but made him increase his strength.
Su Man's hands were captured and she was miserably pressed to the ground. The pain of her arms being torn apart made her furious. "Even if you are the Seventh Prince, you can't be so unreasonable! I saved you out of kindness. I went through so much trouble to get this elixir, and I gave it all to you. Not only did you not thank me, but you actually attacked me!"
Xiao Lin's peach blossom eyes were burning with anger. Hearing Su Manyan's unreasonable words, he laughed in anger: "Ha! You dare to quibble when you are about to die? You, a treacherous villain, dare to play tricks in front of me. Is it because I have been in the deep palace for too long that you have forgotten who is the master?"
Xiao Lin roughly picked up Su Manyan and pushed him towards the door, then ordered the servants who had arrived: "Lock up this eunuch and I will personally interrogate him. Remember, don't alert the enemy."
Damn Xiao Lin, this princess shouldn't have felt bad for you! It's true that feeling bad for a man brings bad luck for the rest of your life. Su Manyan was furious when she was taken away.
Xiao Lin was suddenly the only one left in the large room. The quiet environment allowed him to more clearly perceive the changes in his body. He immediately sat down, holding his breath and concentrating, circulating his internal energy.
After taking the pill, Xiao Lin felt a surge of heat in his chest, his internal energy surging through his veins. It wasn't that he felt unwell, just strange. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and the strangeness came from the fact that most of the pain in his body had suddenly disappeared. This healing was too fast, and his body hadn't felt pain for too long.
He couldn't adapt for a while.
Could it be... that she really wanted to treat me?
Xiao Lin couldn't help but murmur in his heart.
"Your Highness, are you alright?" Si Ji heard about the commotion in the South Wing and saw Su Manyan being led away by servants on his way here. He rushed into the house and asked worriedly, "Is there something wrong with that eunuch?"
Xiao Lin suppressed his confusion and recounted what had just happened, lost in memory. "Ever since the year before last, when pale blue-black lines first appeared on my body, my internal energy has been suppressed. Later, the lines recurred time and time again, and old illnesses accumulated in my early years also erupted, but I never found a solution. Imprisoned in this cold palace, with the Southern Emperor constantly exerting pressure, my health deteriorated. I thought it would continue to deteriorate..."
Si Ji was surprised: "Your Highness, are you saying that the medicine that eunuch gave you is really a panacea? But why did he do this?"
Xiao Lin frowned and shook his head slightly. He couldn't figure it out either.
"Let's not talk about this for now. Let's call the imperial physician to take a look first. What if that eunuch is up to something?" Si Ji was still worried, so he called the imperial physician to take a closer look.
The elderly eunuch felt Xiao Lin's pulse while stroking his beard. After a long moment of contemplation, his small eyes suddenly widened with joy. "Your Highness, is this a miracle? You've suddenly gotten much better in one day!"
It seems to be true, she didn't lie.
Xiao Lin's fingertips caressed the area of his throat where the pill had just rolled over him. The imperial physician's words, "miracle," still echoed in his ears. He lowered his eyes to the military book spread out on the desk. The dense annotations on it suddenly became blurred.
The young eunuch was incredibly bold, but his actions were strange in every way.
First, she requested a physical examination, a cover-up that only served to exacerbate her guilt. Then, she massaged my shoulders with a delicate strength unbefitting of an eunuch. Now, she's even offering a elixir that can cure chronic poison. If she's a spy, why would she risk saving me? But if she's truly harmless, why is she hiding it?
The simmering anger at being ambushed had long since been dissipated by the gradually relaxing tendons within his body, leaving behind a complex melancholy. His previous outburst of anger had clearly been misplaced. The pill dissolved as it entered his throat; it was definitely not an ordinary substance. Anyone who could produce such a thing was definitely not ordinary.
What's more important is that those old illnesses have plagued him for many years, and even the Imperial Hospital is helpless. This little eunuch can provide relief with just one pill. If we can find out where this pill comes from, or let her stay by his side, it may be possible to completely detoxify him.
Xiao Lin paused his fingertips on the page, his eyes darkening. This person's unknown identity posed both a threat and an opportunity. A hasty move would be too risky. Better to wait and see until the truth is fully understood.
Elsewhere, Su Manyan was being held captive, for real this time. No one responded, no matter how she called out or knocked on the door. The room itself was terrifying to look at. The floor and walls were gray, stained with black blood. There wasn't even a haystack in the cramped room. It was probably a place specifically used to hold criminals.
Su Manyan was exhausted from the torture and no longer sought sympathy from the guards outside. He simply sat down on the ground, cursing inwardly: "625, you see, this is how treacherous people are. Kindness is taken for granted. How can I change him? I don't want to save him anymore."
Su Manyan felt angry and aggrieved at the same time. She rolled up her sleeves and saw purple marks on her fair and tender arms. It hurt so much when she touched them with her fingers.
Humph! Violent maniac!
"Host, calm down. Don't you want a chance to be reborn? The hero is naturally suspicious and cautious. If you were suddenly stuffed with a pill, wouldn't you also be afraid that he would poison you?"
Su Manyan stood up in anger, grabbed the small ball floating in the air with both hands, and shook it vigorously to punish it for its "rebellion": "Why are you still speaking for him? I didn't just pity him and gave him the medicine without thinking. I was being kind."
"Host, I was wrong. Stop shaking..." the system wailed.
625, died.
After fooling around for a while, Su Manyan calmed down and thought about the poisoning. She finally got some information from 625 after much persuasion, and it turned out that this was where Xiao Lin was poisoned.
So when Xiao Lin and Si Ji came in, they saw Su Manyan looking mad: curled up in a corner, hair disheveled, talking to himself. He was even mumbling something, so focused that he didn't even notice them coming in.
"You..." Xiao Lin wanted to call her, but when he opened his mouth he realized that he didn't even know the eunuch's name.
Su Manyan only realized the two extra people in the room after being reminded by 625. She quickly stood up and straightened her appearance. She twisted her fingers, her heart pounding. Could the system have heard her just now?
Little did she know that in Xiao Lin's opinion, her frightened look meant that she was still feeling aggrieved about what happened before.
Xiao Lin approached slowly, deliberately slowing down his tone, but still speaking with the dignity of a prince: "What's your name?"
Su Manyan raised her head suddenly and saw that his face was calm, which was more pleasing to the eye than his furious look just now. However, she still stiffened her neck and snorted, "Ayan."
"Ayan." Xiao Lin repeated these two words, his eyes falling on the purple bruise on her arm. He was too hasty just now.
He nodded slightly, his tone lacking much emotion, yet his tone was more deliberately gentle than usual: "Just now, I, the King, was reckless."
Su Manyan was stunned. He didn't expect him to say that.
Xiao Lin, however, had already averted his gaze, gazing at the dusty corner of the room, as if stating a mundane matter. "Your elixir is indeed miraculous. This king... is grateful for your kindness." He paused, and as he turned his head, a subtle scrutiny flashed across his eyes. "However, since you serve me, you should at least understand the rules. What happened today will not happen again."
These words sounded like a reprimand, but he did not mention the word "plot" again. Instead, he implicitly acknowledged her identity as "an official by his side."
Su Manyan was a soft-hearted person. No matter how angry he was before, all his anger disappeared after hearing what Xiao Lin said.
She wasn't angry at all.
Instead, she felt like crying.
Su Manyan rubbed his sour nose and replied in a muffled voice, "Okay, I'm not angry anymore."
"Whatever compensation you require, I will do my best to satisfy you."
Su Manyan immediately stopped feeling sad and said a lot of things.
Xiao Lin listened to these trivial requests, which turned out to be simpler than he had expected. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, as if he was amused, but also relieved. "Okay."
Su Manyan thought it was a happy ending after all the hard work, and agreed happily, but she didn't notice the deep inquiry in Xiao Lin's peach blossom eyes when he turned around.
Si Ji followed Xiao Lin and whispered, "Your Highness, do you really want to keep her by your side?"
Xiao Lin did not stop and lowered his voice: "A rabbit that jumped into the net on its own initiative, we have to see what claws it has hidden." The remaining drug effect in his body was still slowly dissipating. He touched his chest, which had not felt so relaxed for a long time.
No matter whether A Yan is an enemy or a friend, keeping him will always be useful.
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