Are you already married?
The last sentence was almost shouted out, so loudly that it seemed as if dust was falling from the roof beams.
Outside the door, Changfeng's voice, which had been trying to dissuade Zhixin, vanished instantly, clearly also intimidated by the terrifying rage.
Gu Jinghong felt a sharp pain in her wrist, her face was pale, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead. But she endured it, her clear eyes still like bottomless pools of ice, bearing his thunderous rage, cold, yet unusually calm.
Instead of trying to break free from those iron grips, she used all her strength to lean forward slightly, closing the distance between herself and the handsome face that was twisted with rage.
Gu Jinghong tilted her head slightly, looking directly into the raging, almost all-consuming anger in his eyes, and into the elusive, almost broken obsession deep within that anger. Her voice remained calm, yet carried a strange penetrating power.
“Your Highness, what Jinghong said is also true. I have amnesia. Who I was before I was ten years old, where I came from, what I experienced... My mind is a blank. This blank has nothing to do with the ‘A-Ning’ in Your Highness’s heart.”
Her tone carried a touch of desolate helplessness and an almost tragic frankness: "I want to know more than anyone else who I really am. Whether Your Highness believes it or not, the truth is the truth, and it cannot be changed in the slightest."
Xiao Chengyan stared intently at her.
Gu Jinghong felt completely at ease. It seemed to be the first time she had confided her secrets to someone who seemed to have nothing to do with her. Yet, this inexplicable "entrustment" gave Gu Jinghong a sense of exhilaration.
She gave a pale smile—Xiao Chengyan, who was furious at the moment, probably didn't know that telling him about this was another way of breaking the ice and building trust.
Anger burned in Xiao Chengyan's heart, and the pain of being deceived gnawed at him.
A deeper, indelible exploration of the enigmatic woman before him, and a damned attraction, entwined his reason like vines, almost suffocating him.
After a long time, so long that Gu Jinghong almost thought he was going to crush his bones, the raging sea of anger in Xiao Chengyan's eyes was barely suppressed by an extremely cold willpower.
He suddenly released his grip, and Gu Jinghong staggered before regaining her balance. A shocking deep purple bruise was clearly visible on her fair wrist.
Xiao Chengyan's gaze swept over the bruise, his eyes darkening almost imperceptibly before being covered by an even deeper chill. He took a step back, creating distance: "Gu Jinghong, you said you have no knowledge of the subject... I'll give you a chance."
He took two more steps closer: "Would you be willing... to prove your innocence?"
Gu Jinghong raised her head, her eyes and brows shining brightly. "Good!"
After thinking for a moment, she lowered her voice and said, "Your Highness, perhaps one day you will find that for some things, hitting rock bottom may just be the beginning."
Xiao Chengyan looked at Gu Jinghong thoughtfully, and finally his dry, hoarse voice rang out: "Okay!"
He turned abruptly and shouted sharply at the closed door, "Changfeng!"
Changfeng pushed open the door and entered: "Your subordinate is here!"
Xiao Chengyan's gaze remained fixed on Gu Jinghong's calm face as he said, word by word, "Go and 'invite' the head of the Imperial Hospital, Tan, to come here. Now, let him take Gu Jinghong's pulse. I want an answer."
"Head Physician Tan?!" Changfeng exclaimed, his eyes filled with disbelief. The Prince actually used that Yama, who only cared about medicine and had no regard for family?! This... this was practically an ultimatum.
He subconsciously looked at Gu Jinghong, only to see that she was still holding out her hand, her face calm and composed, as if she were the one who had been called out.
"...Yes, Your subordinate obeys." Changfeng suppressed the turmoil in his heart, clasped his hands in acceptance of the order, took a deep look at the two people facing each other in the room, and quickly turned and left, his footsteps hurried and heavy.
The door closed again, shutting out the sound of Changfeng's footsteps and all the sounds of the outside world.
Gu Jinghong slowly withdrew her hand. She didn't look at Xiao Chengyan, whose face was so gloomy it could drip water, but turned around and walked to the pot of orchids again, picked up the small shovel, and slowly and methodically dug.
...
A moment later, footsteps sounded outside the door. The footsteps were unhurried, carrying a detached calmness that contrasted sharply with Changfeng's deliberately suppressed breathing.
The door was pushed open. Changfeng stepped aside to let an old man in.
The visitor was none other than Tan Xuan, the head of the Imperial Medical Academy.
His hair and beard were slightly white, but he combed them meticulously. His face was thin and gaunt, with deep wrinkles like knife cuts, but his eyes were unusually bright and sharp, as if they could pierce through the skin and see directly into the lesion. He wore a faded dark blue imperial physician's robe, and carried an old medicine box worn smooth and shiny on his arm.
The moment Tan Xuan stepped across the threshold and his gaze swept over her, a faint sense of unease swept through Gu Jinghong's heart without warning—this face, these sharp eyes that seemed to see through everything…why did they feel so inexplicably familiar?
A blurry figure flashed through her mind—Xuan Ru, the freak from Yaoshi Valley who always cursed "quack doctors harm people" while simultaneously pulling people back from the brink of death with miraculous healing, and who never forgot to extort a consultation fee from them.
When Xuanru looks at people, especially those patients she considers "mentally ill," she reveals this penetrating, scrutinizing, and probing gaze.
Tan Xuan seemed completely oblivious to the suffocating murderous aura in the room. His gaze instantly and precisely landed on Gu Jinghong, filled with the intense interest of a pure physician in a difficult case.
He even ignored Xiao Chengyan's gloomy face and walked straight to Gu Jinghong, his voice calm: "Is the young lady the one who needs her pulse taken?"
“Exactly.” Gu Jinghong nodded slightly, and proactively extended her wrist, placing it on the pulse pillow. “Thank you for your trouble, Head Physician Tan.”
Tan Xuan's thin but steady fingers gently touched Gu Jinghong's wrist. He closed his eyes slightly, his expression focused.
Time flowed by in silence.
Gu Jinghong's mind had not yet completely calmed down. While Tan Xuan was taking her pulse, out of professional instinct, she subconsciously examined the features of the head of the hospital.
It must be said that although Dean Tan is old, his nose is still straight, his eyes are large and symmetrical, and his facial features have lost some of the ruggedness that a man should have, but are just right in terms of gentleness, and seem to be quite similar to Xuan Ru.
Xiao Chengyan's gaze was initially fixed on Tan Xuan's face, observing the changes in his expression. But when he turned around, he found Gu Jinghong looking at Dean Tan so intently and carefully, without any intention of stopping. Suddenly, he subconsciously let out a soft hum, his jawline tightening even more.
Finally, Tan Xuan slowly opened his eyes. He did not immediately withdraw his hand, but instead used his sharp gaze to carefully examine Gu Jinghong's face and eyes as if dissecting her, even moving closer to observe the reaction of her pupils and the subtle veins on her forehead.
After a moment, he withdrew his hand completely and asked gently, "Does the young lady feel any discomfort?"
Everyone was waiting for Gu Jinghong's answer. Xiao Chengyan even had a fleeting, vague thought in his mind—what should he do if she suddenly became unwell?
...Perhaps, if we don't take the pulse, then we shouldn't take it at all.
Gu Jinghong blinked her big eyes twice, and a sense of familiarity suddenly amplified in her heart, seizing her attention. As if possessed, she asked, "Director Tan... is he married?"
A thunderclap out of nowhere!
Xiao Chengyan, Changfeng, Qingwu... everyone was completely baffled by the question Gu Jinghong asked Tan Xuan.
"Gu Jinghong!" Xiao Chengyan's voice was not loud, but his eyes were full of warning as he stared at Gu Jinghong. "Academician Tan is the head of the Imperial Medical Academy of this dynasty. How dare you be so presumptuous?"
—This woman…is she still concerned about the imperial physician’s private affairs even on the verge of death? Tan Xuan is old enough to be her father; her mind is probably not just suffering from amnesia!
Tan Xuan's eyes flickered almost imperceptibly before he answered truthfully, "...I am not yet married. Miss Gu, have you been feeling unwell, such as occasional dizziness, nausea, or vivid dreams?"
Gu Jinghong finally came to her senses, her face showing some embarrassment: "What Dean Tan said still existed a few years ago, but it has gotten better in recent years..."
Tan Xuan nodded and turned to Xiao Chengyan. Without bowing, he stated in a flat and straightforward tone, as if stating a natural phenomenon: "Your Highness."
Xiao Chengyan's heart leaped into his throat.
"This woman's pulse is thin and weak, especially at the left cun and guan positions, which is a clear indication of damage to the heart and disorder of the spirit. The meridians around her naohu and fengfu acupoints are sluggish and blocked like silt, clearly indicating that there are deep-seated injuries from years of accumulation that are obstructing the flow of qi and blood to the sensory orifices. Such damage cannot be caused by ordinary falls or falls; it must have been caused by a severe injury in childhood that damaged the marrow."
He paused, then glanced at Gu Jinghong again, his gaze filled with the pure interest of a healer.
"Based on her pulse, the stagnation in her meridians, and the symptoms of 'memory obliteration before the age of ten,' the three are perfectly consistent. I can assert that what this woman said is true. She did suffer a head injury in her childhood, which damaged her very foundation, causing all her memories before the injury to be completely obliterated. This is a sequela of brain damage and shock to the brain, which cannot be cured by ordinary medicine, nor can it be faked by human effort."
boom--!
Tan Xuan's words, especially the last sentence "It is not something that can be faked by human effort," fell like the heaviest gavel.
Xiao Chengyan's tall body swayed almost imperceptibly. He looked abruptly at Gu Jinghong, his eyes filled with near-blank shock.
Gu Jinghong slowly withdrew his hand and slightly curtsied to Tan Xuan: "Thank you, Dean Tan, for clearing up my doubts."
Then, she raised her eyes and looked at Xiao Chengyan, whose face was slightly pale and whose eyes were changing. Her voice was soft and clear: "Your Highness, Elder Tan's words are the ironclad rules of medicine and the sound of metal and stone."
Xiao Chengyan looked down at Gu Jinghong's smug dancing on the edge of the cliff—humph, the ironclad rules of medicine, the unyielding truth.
Gu Jinghong frowned slightly, wondering if she was being too sensitive, but she felt that Xiao Chengyan was still unhappy.
But only for a moment, and she returned to her victorious demeanor: "Now, are you... willing to believe that there is truly nothing inside 'Jinghong's' broken body?"
“Or…” She tilted her head slightly, a cold, sharp glint flashing in her eyes, “Does Your Highness still believe that even this ‘Marrow Sea Shock’… was a performance I put on for you at the risk of my life?”
Inside Chen'an Residence, the air was deathly still, like an ice cellar.
Tan Xuan seemed not to have heard Gu Jinghong's last barbed words, and continued packing his medicine box, muttering to himself, "Marrow sea tremor... memory loss... rare... should be recorded in the medical record..."
Xiao Chengyan stared intently at Gu Jinghong.
Tan Xuan's testimony was like an insurmountable chasm, and Gu Jinghong's calmness and cold mockery at this moment were like rubbing salt into the ruins of his collapsing beliefs.
The truth seems to be far more elusive than he imagined.
For the first time, he felt that he had lost all control over this seemingly fragile woman, this "mystery" he had brought back to the palace. An unprecedented sense of loss of control and a chilling exhaustion swept over him.
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