RMACAUH Chapter 24

In an instant, the ice and snow melted away, and his eyes and brows were tinged with a hint of…

Feng Chao came back to his senses, his tone light and weak: “Imperial Grandmother, there’s no need to worry, it’s just an old ailment.”

The Empress Dowager dismissed the personal maidservants, and only the two of them were left in the room. Only then did she disapprovingly whisper, “Take the palace token tonight and leave the palace. There are many eyes and ears in the palace. If someone accidentally sees something amiss, I won’t be able to protect you.”

“Thank you, Imperial Grandmother, for your kindness. This grandson will leave now.”

Feng Chao took the Empress Dowager’s tally and left the palace through the south gate by carriage that night, rushing to a private residence in the suburbs of the capital.

He left in a hurry tonight, and the old nanny guarding the house didn’t have time to prepare warm stoves and charcoal. The clean floor reflected the flickering candlelight, so cold that you couldn’t feel a trace of vitality.

Feng Chao looked extremely weak, and could only be supported by the grand eunuch Linhuai beside him, walking unsteadily and laboriously to the bed.

Linhuai’s eyes turned red with anxiety: “Your Highness, are you feeling very uncomfortable now?”

Feng Chao’s lips were pale, and he was trembling all over because he was enduring the severe pain of meridian cramps and the needle-like sensation radiating from the bones. Cold sweat poured down like rain, and he looked as if he had been fished out of the water, almost unable to speak.

“Your Highness!” Linhuai wanted to step forward to check on him, but he didn’t dare to touch him.

At this time, Feng Chao was in extreme pain. Whenever this happened, he would try his best to resist being touched, as each touch would intensify the pain, almost causing him to faint.

“Go,” Feng Chao’s weak breath was almost squeezed out of his chest. Linhuai had to lean in to listen.

“Go, bring, bring the one named Chu here…”

“I’ve already sent someone to invite him, Your Highness, please hold on a little longer.”

“You, guard outside, don’t let them in! I want to be alone, stay here.”

“Yes.” Linhuai knew his temperament well after serving him for so many years. Before leaving, he lowered the bed curtains for him, and tiptoed out of the bedroom.

Feng Chao was proud and had a strong sense of self-esteem. He hated others seeing his weak and helpless appearance the most. If he wasn’t in extreme pain, he would never seek medical attention.

In the long and agonizing wait, Feng Chao fainted several times. The periods of unconsciousness were extremely short. He died in pain, then woke up in pain again, a fate worse than death.

In order to suppress the groans of pain, he desperately bit the pillow, clenching his teeth so hard that there was blood on the pillow.

It hurts so much!

If he had known it would be so painful, if he had known…

Would he have embarked on this path?

At this moment, his firm beliefs were crumbling inch by inch due to the torment of the illness. Tears of regret and helplessness silently wet his pale cheeks, and only his trembling body betrayed his pretended strength at this moment.

Chu Lingqiao’s good dream was disturbed again. Looking at the men in black standing in front of his bed, who were about to blindfold him and tie him up, he suddenly sat up and raised his hand to refuse: “Brother, please stand still. I’m familiar with this, I can do it myself.”

Saying that, he put on a thick hooded cloak, put on cotton boots, and drew the black cloth hanging on the head of the bed, neatly tying it over his eyes, “Alright, there’s heavy wind and snow at night, walk slowly.”

These men in black couldn’t slow down at all. Chu Lingqiao only felt the wind and snow cutting his face like a knife. He originally thought it would be warmer indoors, but he didn’t expect it to be like an ice cellar.

The person behind the bed curtains was motionless, no different from a dead person.

Chu Lingqiao frowned slightly: “Why don’t you give your master two pots of charcoal fire? It’s so cold…”

Linhuai shook his head: “Our master doesn’t allow anyone in. Isn’t that why you’re here? Please quickly check on our master, what exactly is wrong?”

Chu Lingqiao put down the medicine chest and rubbed his frozen hands, “Go get two pots of charcoal fire. If your master asks, just say I wanted them.”

“They’re already burning, I’ll have someone move them into the room right away.”

After Linhuai went out, Chu Lingqiao stepped forward and lifted the bed curtains to take a look at the person on the bed, maintaining the curled-up posture of when he was unconscious, with no color on his face.

Chu Lingqiao took his pulse, and it was even weaker than it had been two years ago. His entire body condition was extremely poor, and his vitality was severely damaged. No matter how he recuperated, he would not be able to recover.

Chu Lingqiao sighed with pity. He didn’t know which noble family’s young man it was, to abuse himself like this, taking forbidden drugs before his gender was revealed, and living as a young lord until now.

“Does your family have a throne to inherit? Is it worth you suffering these years of inhuman pain?”

At this time, Linhuai asked a maidservant to bring two pots of charcoal fire. Chu Lingqiao took out a silver needle cloth bag from the medicine chest, and instructed, “Bring two basins of water, one of hot water, one of boiling water.”

Linhuai had been preparing them, so they were brought over quickly.

“There’s no need to leave anyone in the room, just leave two maidservants outside to keep watch.” Chu Lingqiao instructed, throwing the silver needles into the boiling water to fumigate.

Linhuai dismissed the old nanny and maidservants in the room, and called a clever maidservant to keep watch with him.

Chu Lingqiao wrung out a handkerchief, turned his body over, and wiped the tears and blood from his face, revealing a jade-like face, as pure as the white snow on the branches in December.

Throwing the dirty handkerchief into a copper basin, Chu Lingqiao took out a small porcelain bottle from his sleeve, poured out a heart-protecting pill and put it in his mouth.

Soon after, Feng Chao woke up. It had been two years since they last met, and although they had only met twice, he didn’t feel like a stranger.

He was the only person in this world who had seen him in such a disheveled state.

“How do you feel?”

“Not very good…” Although the pain in his body had subsided for a while, the great loss of vitality made him unable to withstand the second round of pain.

“Two years ago, I advised you to stop taking forbidden drugs, but you not only didn’t listen, but you intensified it. Since you don’t listen to medical advice, why bother looking for me again? Anyway, your lifespan is only ten years, and even immortals can’t save you.”

“Ten years is enough.”

Chu Lingqiao shook his head and got up to pick up the silver needles, “I don’t understand, why bother!”

Feng Chao closed his eyes weakly and remained silent.

Chu Lingqiao took the silver needles and sat back down by the bed, and said in a deep voice: “Take off your upper garment and lie on your stomach.”

Feng Chao didn’t feel awkward at all, calmly took off all of his upper garment, and then lay on the bed.

Chu Lingqiao began to insert silver needles into his acupoints to expel the toxins from his body. His needling technique was not gentle, and each insertion caused Feng Chao a sharp pain.

Seeing him bury his face in the pillow in discomfort and breathe softly, Chu Lingqiao then slowed down a little, and snorted coldly: “A total of one hundred and eight needles, it’s still early!”

After the needling is done, I don’t know if I can go back to sleep for a while.

Alas, what kind of fate is this? It’s better to stay away from this place of trouble in the capital, and find a place in the countryside to be at ease.

Feng Chao could feel his impatience and felt a little uncomfortable. His ridiculous self-esteem made him have some evil thoughts at this time.

It’s not like he didn’t give him enough reward, why should there be so much contempt in his words?

“Doctor Chu, how about we chat?”

“It’s better not to chat as much as possible?” It affects his attention. If he accidentally inserts the wrong needle due to distraction and kills this noble young man, he will have to pay with his life.

“Doctor Chu, are you married?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you have someone you admire?”

“Not yet.”

“What kind of person do you like?”

“Never thought about it.”

“Think about it now?”

“Can’t think of anything.” Chu Lingqiao used a little more force with one needle, and secretly took a breath, “Don’t talk, concentrate.”

Feng Chao laughed: “Can’t you concentrate if I talk to you?”

Chu Lingqiao thought to himself: “Which doctor likes to chatter with patients while treating them? If you talk too much, I’ll just kill you with a needle, and that’ll be the end of it!”

“Do you dislike me? Why don’t you pay attention to me?”

“You are just one of my patients, I neither like nor dislike you.”

“Doctor Chu, I haven’t been promised to anyone yet, I’m still chaste, but my body has been seen by you twice.”

“Is that so? Then that’s good, I’m also chaste, neither of us has suffered a loss, it’s even. You don’t need to feel burdened, if you don’t say it, I won’t say it, no one will know, unless you like to tell others.”

“Hahaha… you are really interesting!” Feng Chao laughed and shook his shoulders, and that white jade-like skin swayed wantonly in the light of the candle.

“I see you’re not in pain anymore, are you making fun of me here?” Chu Lingqiao was brought here on a snowy night in the middle of the night, and he was already in a bad mood, and now he was even more resentful to the extreme.

Feng Chao turned his face to look at him, with a smile on the corner of his mouth. In an instant, the ice and snow melted away, and his eyes and brows were tinged with tenderness and the colors of spring, his appearance was somewhat delicate. He was born extremely well, and every frown and smile was like a banished immortal in a painting.

Chu Lingqiao suddenly turned his face away uncomfortably, pretending to take a needle, but his movements stalled for a moment before returning to normal, and he silently continued to needle him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Chu Lingqiao frowned tightly, a little annoyed.

“I’m thinking, since you’re not married and I’m not betrothed, and you’ve seen my body, why don’t we just make do with it?”

Chu Lingqiao sneered: “My consultation fee is really not cheap, but it’s not worth your young master compensating with his body.”

Feng Chao laughed again. If he had known he was so interesting, he should have teased him two years ago!

“Alas, I only hate that Chu Lang is a block of wood.” Feng Chao’s voice was full of emotion, as if this affection was not fake.

“Don’t try to make fun of me again, otherwise I’ll really leave, and you deserve to die in pain!”

“How many young men and women must be heartbroken by Chu Lang’s lack of understanding of love?”

“They act on their emotions, form their karma, what does it have to do with me?”

“These words are a bit heartless.”

“The word ‘love’ is just the delusion of the world, all of them are seeking something. Since they are seeking something, people will be weak. Loving to death, in the end, they only love the desires in their own hearts. There is not so much love in this world, and there is not so much affection. People mistake their desires and unattainable things for those loves, extremely boring, extremely pathetic.”

“Is that so?” Feng Chao smiled lightly, turned his face away and stopped looking at him, and had no intention of teasing him anymore.

After that, there was a long silence, with only a slight rustling sound. The sky outside the window was gray and white, and it would soon be dawn.

Chu Lingqiao hadn’t given anyone one hundred and eight needles for a long time, and he was exhausted. At this time, the dense silver needles on Feng Chao’s back gradually turned black.

Because the pain in his body dissipated, Feng Chao finally gained a moment of peace and fell into a deep sleep.

Chu Lingqiao leaned against the bed and guarded him until dawn, then methodically pulled out the black silver needles, covered him with the quilt, and packed up his medicine chest and walked out of the bedroom.

Seeing him push the door open, Linhuai, who was dozing off, woke up suddenly, “Doctor Chu, how is it?”

“It’s fine for now, but in the future, the poison will break out more and more frequently. The poison of the forbidden drug damages the internal organs. Take good care of him.”

Linhuai went to get the consultation fee, and then asked someone to blindfold him again, and took him back to Huichuntang by carriage.

New red lanterns were hung everywhere in the palace, preparing for the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet, which can be described as a grand affair.

At noon, Feng Yue came out of the Wenyuan Pavilion and went to Fengxia Palace for lunch. He heard Empress Chen say, “Today, your second brother has already set off from the manor to return to the palace.”

“So fast?”

Empress Chen looked at her son’s careless appearance, without a trace of joy, and asked him, “What exactly is the conflict between you and your second brother?”

“Mother…”

“Hmm?”

“Why do you believe him so much?”

Empress Chen was stunned for a moment before sighing softly, “That winter hunting day when you were eight years old, you ran into the depths of the forest and got lost. Your second brother protected you with his life, and carried you in the forest for a whole night. You cried and said that you would be good to your brother for the rest of your life, have you forgotten?”

“Just because of this?”

“Isn’t this enough?”

“Mother…” Feng Yue suddenly felt that his mother had an inappropriate naivety. As the daughter of a general and the empress of a country, she would actually believe a grievance left behind by a concubine.

“Yue’er, what exactly is wrong with you?”

“Mother, why did Father insist on raising Second Brother under your name back then? Turning a child born of a concubine into a legitimate child, it’s not good for me or the Chen family at all.”

---