Chapter 31: Dead Trees Resurface, People's Hearts Turn
The frost on the tiles reflected Zhao Wenxuan's face, which was as pale as paper.
He climbed down from the roof almost using both his hands and feet. His movements were clumsy and he had completely lost his usual calmness and composure.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he felt a sense of collapse. He staggered and held onto the pillar, barely able to keep his balance.
The cold wind blew in the early morning, but he didn't feel the slightest bit of coolness, because a chill coming from the depths of his soul had already frozen him completely.
He did not even glance at Jingsiyuan again, as if some ferocious beast was lurking there. He just lowered his head and walked quickly towards his own Wenxinzhai with unsteady steps.
The personal bodyguard came forward and was about to say hello, but was silenced by the unprecedented fear and confusion in Zhao Wenxuan's eyes.
"No one is allowed to approach the study. Anyone who violates this rule will be beheaded."
He squeezed out this icy command from between his teeth, and then with a "bang", he locked himself heavily in the Wenxinzhai, isolating himself from the whole world.
In the Jingsi Courtyard, Ling Zixia slowly lowered her sleeves to cover the wound that had already completed its mission for her.
She turned and walked into the house, took out a small white jade porcelain bottle, poured out some fragrant green ointment, and applied it to the burned area slowly.
The cool touch instantly soothed the burning pain. With the help of the ointment, the ability of the golden finger was quietly activated, catalyzing the medicinal properties to the extreme and accelerating the healing of the wound.
The entire prime minister's residence fell into an eerie silence in the early morning because of the closed door of Wenxinzhai and the silence of Jingsiyuan.
However, at noon, this tranquility was completely broken by a burst of hurried footsteps coming from afar.
"Oh no! Madam, oh no!"
An old gardener who was in charge of taking care of the courtyard outside the Prime Minister's study rushed into Li Ruolan's yard, crawling and tumbling, his face full of dejection.
Li Ruolan was holding a bowl of bird's nest soup. When she heard the mournful howling, her eyebrows raised and she put the bowl of soup heavily on the table in displeasure.
"Why are you crying so late in the morning? How disgraceful!"
The old gardener fell to his knees with a thud, his voice trembling, "Madam, it's... it's the Prime Minister's 'Canglong Tanhai' tree... it's almost dead!"
Li Ruolan's hand holding the spoon suddenly froze, and half of the blood color on her face faded in an instant.
"What did you say?"
"Cang Long Exploring the Sea" is a thousand-year-old iron tree presented by envoys from the Western Regions ten years ago. It was personally bestowed by the late emperor to Prime Minister Zhao Wuji, symbolizing the stability and longevity of the Zhao family's power.
Zhao Wuji loved this tree like a treasure and would personally watch over and prune it every day. Its status in the mansion was even higher than that of some of his less favored children.
Li Ruolan did not dare to delay and immediately took a large number of servants and hurried to the front yard of the Prime Minister's study.
The iron tree bonsai, which usually looks vigorous and green with branches twisted like a dragon, now seems to have been drained of all its vitality.
Most of the needles have turned yellow and curled, without any luster, and even the bark of several main trunks has shriveled and wrinkled appearance, and a smell of decay and decline is overwhelming.
"How could this happen? He was fine yesterday evening!" Li Ruolan's voice was sharp and panicked.
Several of the most famous gardeners in the capital had already been invited over. They surrounded the iron tree with worried faces, checking the soil and examining the roots, but they could not find any reason.
"Madam, the tree's roots are intact, the soil is normal, and there's no sign of insect infestation. This... this withering is truly bizarre. I... I've never heard of it before!"
An old gardener with white hair replied with a trembling hand and cold sweat on his forehead.
Li Ruolan's heart sank little by little. She knew that if her husband Zhao Wuji returned home and saw this scene, he would be furious.
Just when she was extremely anxious and at a loss, her trusted maid Huamei leaned close to her ear and reminded her in a voice that only the two of them could hear.
"Madam, have you forgotten...isn't there a 'god-man' in our house?"
Li Ruolan's body shook violently, and Ling Zixia's always calm face flashed through her mind.
It's her.
The daughter of a guilty minister who could transform poisonous herbs into elixirs and summon rain from heaven to cure the queen's chronic illness.
An extremely humiliating and tempting thought was growing wildly in Li Ruolan's heart.
Go and beg her?
Go and ask for help from that bitch whose flesh you wish you could eat and whose skin you want to sleep on?
As soon as this thought arose, it was ruthlessly suppressed by her strong self-esteem.
But when her eyes fell on the dying "Canglong Tanhai" again, her fear of her husband's anger finally overwhelmed her ridiculous pride.
A quarter of an hour later, Jingsiyuan welcomed its most unexpected visitor.
Li Ruolan stood at the gate of the courtyard, looking at the woman in plain clothes who was sitting leisurely on a stone bench, flipping through an old medical book in the breeze, her eyes extremely complicated.
She took a deep breath and tried to make her voice sound steady, although the slightly trembling ending still revealed her inner struggle.
"Ling, the Prime Minister's 'Blue Dragon Exploring the Sea'...is ill. You...come with me to take a look."
Hearing the voice, Ling Zixia slowly raised her head and calmly met Li Ruolan's eyes that were full of awkwardness and unwillingness.
She showed no surprise or flattery, but just gently closed the book, stood up, and bowed softly.
"Yes, mother."
To Li Ruolan, the gentle word "mother" sounded more irritating than any mockery.
The front yard of the Prime Minister's study had already been surrounded by servants in three layers inside and outside. Everyone stretched their necks, waiting for the miracle or joke that was about to happen.
When Li Ruolan appeared in front of everyone with the thin Ling Zixia, the scene suddenly fell into an eerie silence.
Everyone's eyes were focused on this new, mysterious concubine.
Ling Zixia seemed oblivious to the gazes around her. She walked straight to the dying iron tree, squatted down, and began to observe it carefully.
Her movements were slow and gentle, as if she was treating a dying patient.
She first stretched out her fingers, gently picked up a handful of soil in the pot, and sniffed it at the tip of her nose.
Then, she slowly stroked the withered needles and shriveled bark with her fingertips, her eyes slightly closed, as if she was feeling something with her heart.
Time passed minute by minute, and the air around seemed to freeze.
Li Ruolan's palms were sweating from nervousness.
After a long time, Ling Zixia slowly stood up and turned to Li Ruolan, her voice still soft and calm.
"Mother, this tree is not sick, nor is it poisoned."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this.
An old gardener couldn't help but step forward, bowed, and asked, "Madam..., this tree has lost its vitality. If it's not disease or poison, what's the reason?"
Ling Zixia glanced at everyone and said calmly, "It's just it itself that doesn't want to live anymore."
When these words were spoken, everyone in the room was shocked.
"Ridiculous! Plants are heartless creatures, how can they have thoughts of life and death!" The old gardener was so angry that he blew his beard and glared.
Li Ruolan's face also became extremely ugly. She felt that Ling Zixia was deliberately teasing her.
"Ling Zixia, if you don't have any other options, then don't spread rumors here to confuse the public!"
Facing doubts and scolding, Ling Zixia's face still had that submissive look.
She did not argue, but whispered, "Please, mother, give me a bowl of clear water and a piece of pine needle from the green pine trees in the garden."
Although she was full of doubts, Li Ruolan was now in a difficult situation and could only wave her hand, signaling her servants to do as they were told.
Soon, a white porcelain bowl filled with clear water and a piece of emerald green pine needles were brought to Ling Zixia.
Under the gazes of hundreds of people, Ling Zixia stretched out two slender jade fingers and pinched the small pine needle.
Her fingertips were so white that they were almost transparent, forming a sharp contrast with the emerald green of the pine needles.
She slowly dipped the pine needles into the clear water, her fingertips barely touching the surface of the water in the bowl.
No one noticed that at the moment her fingertips touched the water, an invisible force, which only she could perceive, flowed out of her body silently and instantly merged into the bowl of clear water.
The water in the bowl is still ordinary clear water, and the pine needles are still the same pine needles.
After she finished this simple action, she took out the pine needles and said to the maid beside her, "Pour this bowl of water slowly along the roots of the tree."
The maid looked at Li Ruolan hesitantly, and seeing her nod with a dark face, she carefully picked up the bowl of water and, according to Ling Zixia's instructions, poured the seemingly ordinary water into the roots of "Canglong Tanhai" without spilling a drop.
A bowl of water quickly seeped into the soil and disappeared.
The iron tree still looked lifeless, without any change.
"Mystique!" The old gardener snorted disdainfully.
The servants around also began to whisper, and their eyes were full of disappointment and mockery when they looked at Ling Zixia.
Li Ruolan's face was so gloomy that it seemed like water was about to drip out of it. She felt her face being pressed to the ground and rubbed hard by this bitch.
Just when she was about to explode and send Ling Zixia back to confinement, a sharp-eyed servant suddenly let out an unbelievable cry of surprise.
"Look! Look at that leaf!"
Upon hearing the sound, everyone immediately fixed their eyes on the branches of the iron tree.
I saw that at the top of the highest branch, a needle that had turned yellow and almost burnt black, had a faint but extremely clear green color at the tip.
That touch of green was like a drop of ink dropped into clear water. It was very light at first, but then it began to spread rapidly along the leaf veins towards the leaf roots at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The withered yellow is being dispelled and the burnt black is fading away.
But in just a dozen or so breaths, the needle leaf miraculously came back to life and regained its full, vibrant green color.
The whole place was dead silent. Everyone held their breath and even forgot to move their eyes.
This is just the beginning.
As if receiving some kind of instructions, the second leaf, the third leaf, the tenth leaf... more and more dead leaves began to perform this miracle of reversing life and death.
The green spread quickly across the entire iron tree like a spark that set the field ablaze.
The dry and wrinkled barks began to become plump and smooth again at an incredible speed, regaining their former bronze luster.
An even more shocking scene happened.
On a side branch that seemed to be completely necrotic, a tiny, almost imperceptible bulge actually pushed open the cracked skin, and a tender green new bud slowly and firmly emerged.
“Alive… Really alive!”
"Oh my God! It's a miracle! This is definitely a miracle!"
The crowd erupted in thunderous exclamations and gasps. The servants and gardeners' gazes towards Ling Zixia had completely changed from initial suspicion and ridicule to fanatical awe and worship.
They seemed to be looking up at a goddess walking on earth.
Li Ruolan stood there in a daze, her mouth open, but no sound came out. The horror and disbelief on her face made her well-maintained face begin to distort.
At the center of this clamor and shock, a steady and majestic voice, like a huge rock thrown into a lake, instantly suppressed all the noise.
"Everyone, step back."
The crowd automatically made way for a path, and Prime Minister Zhao Wuji, dressed in crimson court robes, had stood there at some point. Behind him, followed Zhao Wenxuan, who had a pale face and a dazed look.
Zhao Wuji ignored everyone. His eyes were as sharp as an eagle. He looked over everyone's heads and locked them on the woman in plain clothes who was still standing quietly beside the iron tree, as if she had done something insignificant.
His eyes were as deep as the sea, filled with surging scrutiny, fear, and a hint of fear that he himself had not even noticed.
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