Shiyi stopped in his tracks, slowly turned around to look at Mu Jin, and remained silent for a moment. After a while, he concealed the indescribable sadness in his heart, forced a smile, and said to Mu Jin.
"Could you give me a little more time? I~"
"good!"
Before Eleven could finish speaking, Mu Jin smiled and replied with a "okay".
Mu Jin didn't want to pressure Shiyi. She knew that Shiyi must have encountered something unspeakable, which was why he couldn't tell her.
On New Year's Eve, snowflakes fluttered and the wind was biting cold. The streets of the capital were almost deserted, and not a single firecracker could be heard, unlike the usual sounds of firecrackers set off by every household.
It was only from the red couplets pasted on the doors of every household and the red lanterns hanging that one knew that today was New Year's Eve, a time for family reunion.
In stark contrast to the scene inside the capital, outside the city, there were people from the capital who had gone out to make a living and were returning to the capital for the festival, as well as refugees suffering from hunger and cold and infected with the plague. Many of these refugees even collapsed in the snow, their fates unknown.
Inside the Green Bamboo Courtyard, Eleven and Qing'er watched as Mu Jin frowned as she looked at Su Yi's letter.
Qing'er asked, "Miss, did King Yi say something?"
Mu Jin handed the letter she had finished reading to Qing'er. Qing'er quickly read the letter and was surprised, then became angry.
"The people of the Nangong Shenzong sect actually want one million taels of silver before they'll hand over the prescription. Isn't that profiting from the nation's misfortune?"
Mu Jin scoffed: "Yes, let's not even talk about whether Su Yi has that kind of money. Even if he does, it would take time to gather such a large sum of money. Besides, he's not the emperor, so he shouldn't have to pay for it."
Yes, not to mention Su Yi, even with the severe depletion of the national treasury due to the war between the imperial court and the Northern Qi Kingdom in recent years, the silver for disaster relief was still collected from the people and officials. Even the imperial court would find it difficult to come up with one million taels of silver.
Hearing what Mu Jin and her servant said, Eleven clenched his fists, lowered his head, and stood silently to the side.
When he heard that Nangong Ce, now representing the Nangong Shenzong, had actually made such a shameless demand, he felt as if his chest was filled with rage, as if it were about to explode.
"On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, today is New Year's Eve. When you went out just now, did you see the imperial court sending food and clothing to the people outside the city who were unable to enter the capital?"
Upon hearing Mu Jin's question, Eleven shook his head.
"When I crossed the city wall, I found that more than two thousand people were stranded outside the capital. In addition, more than one hundred people had died, and more than one thousand people had contracted high fever. Some people in the city were also showing signs of illness. Now everyone inside and outside the capital was in danger, and the streets were deserted."
Hearing Eleven's description, Mu Jin frowned even more deeply. If the court couldn't even appease the people, how could her father and brothers, who were far away on the border protecting their home and country, remain unaffected? After thinking for a moment, she turned to look at Eleven.
"Could I take a look at the prescription you bought that day?"
He nodded eleven times and asked Qing'er to bring him paper and pen to write it down.
The label listed a few simple medicinal herbs, including forsythia, honeysuckle, ephedra, and gypsum. These herbs are used to clear heat and detoxify, and to relieve lung heat.
Mu Jin nodded, added ginseng, aconite, and cornus officinalis to it, and then looked at Eleven.
"Come with me to see Su Yi."
Outside the walls of the Prince Yi's mansion, Mu Jin rolled her eyes as she looked at the wall, which was twice her height. Who would dare to sneak into a place like the Prince Yi's mansion? Was it really necessary to build it so high?
When Mu Jin was learning martial arts from Eleven, she was still lacking in lightness skills. She needed Eleven's help to jump over such a high wall.
Eleven gently supported Mu Jin's waist and lightly leaped into the Yi King's mansion. But before they could even stand still, two swords were placed against their necks, startling them both.
"How dare you! Who goes there and dares to trespass into the Prince Yi's residence?" the guard who held a sword to their necks shouted.
Mu Jin tried to push away the sword pressed against her neck, then smiled awkwardly and said to the guard, "Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding! I'm friends with King Yi. We need to speak with him. Please inform him."
Climbing over the wall to find Su Yi was a last resort to avoid suspicion, but Mu Jin didn't expect that the security in Su Yi's mansion was so formidable.
The two guards would release him after a few words from Mu Jin. The guard who had his sword to Mu Jin's neck shouted again, "Confess honestly, or I'll cut you down on the spot!"
Mu Jin, with a bitter face, was about to say a few more words to the guard when she saw two men walking past in front of the corridor. One of them was Ling Feng, Su Yi's personal guard. She was overjoyed and shouted in the direction Ling Feng had gone.
"Guard Ling~"
Hearing someone calling, Ling Feng and Ling Yu turned around and were surprised to see that Eleven and Mu Jin, who was dressed as a man, were being held at sword length by two guards.
Realizing what had happened, Ling Feng and Ling Yu quickly told the two guards to put down their swords and stepped forward to bow to Mu Jin.
"Yun... no, Young Master Mu, have you come to see my lord about something?"
Mu Jin smiled awkwardly: "Yes, yes, I have urgent business with Prince Yi, please inform him."
Ling Feng nodded: "Young Master Mu, please follow me."
Mu Jin smiled and said "thank you" to Ling Feng, then let Ling Feng and Ling Yu lead the way.
Looking at Ling Yu in front of her, who seemed familiar, Mu Jin asked, "This guard looks familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"
Ling Yu paused. He had seen Mu Jin in Meilin last time, but it was snowing heavily then. He was driving the car and had his face and mouth covered with thick cloth to avoid inhaling the ice crystals. Mu Jin didn't recognize him as the Mu Jin who had brought Mu Yan to the valley to find him.
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