Chapter 63: New

“He contracted it when he was young…”

Shuang An advised Zhao Rongzhang to go rest first. Seven or eight doctors were already gathered around, working to save him. Sitting outside and waiting idly served no purpose. Moreover, she had fled all night without sleep, which was too damaging to her health.

Zhao Rongzhang understood the reasoning, but she simply couldn’t close her eyes. Since her mind was still clear, she pulled Shuang An aside to a corner without eavesdroppers and asked her how she had ended up here.

“It was Su Tan who safely delivered the secret map of Haishan Pass from the Princess to me, bypassing all the layers of scrutiny. Once I got the map, I sent the crucial hints back to Hongfu Prefecture, allowing our people behind us to pass through Haishan Pass before Prince Su’s men. When Prince Su saw that we were actually three to five days ahead of them and showed no signs of exhaustion, he naturally understood. Realizing he couldn’t afford to offend the Princess, Prince Su immediately sent people to escort me into the city. However, before he could act, Su Tan had already brought us into Jiangnan Prefecture and then led us all the way here.”

So, when Su Tan intercepted that letter back then, it was also to help her?

Zhao Rongzhang found Su Tan to speak with her alone.

Su Tan sat cross-legged, fingering her prayer beads. Faced with the Princess’s question, she remained very calm: “I must admit to the Princess that before witnessing your determination and capabilities, I had no confidence in joining your camp. Everything I have fought for, including Lingxiao, and everything Su Xianghe has fought for, has come with great difficulty. If it cannot be entrusted to a wise and virtuous ruler, I would rather hold my ground and not take the risk.”

Zhao Rongzhang listened in silence, then nodded in agreement. This was also the reason she had initially chosen to give up on going up the mountain. Su Tan was different from Su Shuang’an. Perhaps because of her connection with Ming Luo, Su Shuang’an had an unquestioning trust in her. Not long after Zhao Rongzhang entered Hongfu Prefecture, Su Shuang’an had actively sought her out, helping and assisting her without regard for the consequences. Su Tan was more composed, more mature, with her own rules and standards. If she couldn’t see Zhao Rongzhang’s worth and potential, she wouldn’t offer her full assistance.

And Zhao Rongzhang, who had almost nothing, needed exactly that—her everything.

She had gambled correctly.

The doctors worked from dawn until late into another night. Zhao Rongzhang was forcing down her dinner without tasting it when a younger doctor came out, wiping his sweat as he reported to her: “We’ve managed to keep a breath in him! But the injuries are truly severe, with evil toxins invading internally. The high fever still hasn’t broken; it’s been a full day and night… Even if we’re fortunate enough for the fever to subside later, I fear there may be damage to his mind or five senses. The crucial moment is tonight.”

Zhao Rongzhang’s heart was tossed and turned by his words, but by the end, it settled into a strange calm.

“Do your best,” she said, rising to personally present the silver she had prepared long ago to the doctor. She then signaled for Shuang An to take the doctors to rest.

Once all the doctors had left, Zhao Rongzhang pushed the door open and entered. Most of the long needles had been removed from Guan Xuan’s body. His wounds were bandaged, his clothes neatly arranged, his face and hair clean. He didn’t look like he was feverish; it seemed as if he were simply asleep. Old Doctor Wu was still sitting by his side, fiddling with something in his medicine chest.

Zhao Rongzhang asked him, “Will he wake up?”

“Didn’t Doctor Wang already make that clear to you, my lady?”

Zhao Rongzhang pressed her lips together. “If there’s truly no hope left, why are you still sitting here?”

“I am studying his blood,” Old Doctor Wu stroked his beard. “With so many severe injuries, if it were anyone else, even a body of steel would have bled to death long ago. But the Young Master’s blood coagulates far faster than that of ordinary people. It seems, it seems…”

“Then does that mean his chances of waking up are high?” Zhao Rongzhang immediately pressed.

“That’s hard to say. I only suspect his blood has been tempered by medicinal stones or toxic substances, which is why it possesses such formidable self-healing abilities. When I examined his pulse before, I actually didn’t notice…”

Zhao Rongzhang, agitated, cut him off: “Alright, go rest, at your age. If there are any changes, someone will call for you.”

Old Man Wu left, and the others were also dismissed outside the door. Inside the room, only she and the motionless him remained. Zhao Rongzhang sat down in the spot Old Man Wu had just occupied, propped her chin on her hand, and silently watched him.

Looking so peaceful, anyone who didn’t know would think he was sleeping soundly. Zhao Rongzhang felt a pang in her heart and reached out to touch his face. Soft, feverish—once her hand made contact, she couldn’t pull away. She realized she truly couldn’t bear to lose him.

After gazing at his eyes, nose, and lips one by one, Zhao Rongzhang looked toward his chest. His chest rose and fell gently, like a lake stirred by the wind. Zhao Rongzhang stared at this slow, rhythmic movement until she gradually grew drowsy. She pulled one of his arms into her embrace, held it close, and, still watching his chest, found a more comfortable position to sleep.

She woke after a short while, her eyes wide awake and unable to close again. He hadn’t moved, and outside the window, the sky remained pitch black.

She stood up, feeling foolish for staying here like this. Yet, this wasn’t the only foolish thing she had done. First, she had rushed into the city to save him, then ridden alone through the night on horseback to bring him to Liangxi County… Any one of these actions, if told to her past self, would have made that version of her laugh herself to death.

She felt both annoyed and anxious. If she couldn’t bear to lose him, and he dared to die, she would cry out of anger. Zhao Rongzhang was already so angry she felt like crying.

She had done everything she could, fought for everything possible! But dawn was approaching.

Emotions surged unreasonably. Zhao Rongzhang held her breath, pacing back and forth by his bedside, trying to use rapid breathing to suppress the waves of sorrow welling up in her chest. Unable to hold it back any longer, she suddenly stopped and glared angrily at the still-quiet young man on the bed, wanting to scold him.

But as soon as she opened her mouth, her tone shifted, sounding almost tearful. Zhao Rongzhang grew even more annoyed, closed her mouth, and gathered herself to speak again. Just then, she suddenly saw his head move slightly. Her heart leaped, and she rushed closer for a better look. His expression was indeed struggling faintly.

Joy instantly washed away her earlier anger. Zhao Rongzhang tugged at his hand: “Guan Xuan!”

She immediately thought of what she would say when he woke up. She had to let him know that she had gone to rescue him the moment she received the news, that she had indeed saved him, and that she had successfully brought him here! She was proud of this—she was a capable person and had been very good to him.

But he only nuzzled the pillow lightly, seemingly without any strength, unable to wake. Zhao Rongzhang suddenly felt sorry for him, guessing he might be feeling cold due to the high fever. She leaned down, embracing him: “Alright, wake up now.”

The boy, as if suddenly obtaining something he had longed for, reacted much more intensely, pressing close to her, burying his face in the crook of her neck to sniff and nuzzle. Zhao Rongzhang found him annoying. Did he even know how ridiculous he looked? He wasn’t actually a cat, yet he could act so coquettish, so clingy.

Zhao Rongzhang kissed his earlobe and patted him gently. “Wake up soon. When you wake up, you can take your medicine. I’m powerful again now, I have all kinds of medicine. You’ll get better soon.”

Once he recovered, he could stay by her side every moment, “chattering” and “talking” to her. She could promise him now that he wouldn’t have to hide in the shadows anymore. He could become her favorite… perhaps, possibly… her only male consort. By her side, he could do whatever he wanted. She would indulge him, dote on him, just as Emperor Father indulged and doted on Mother Consort.

Making such a promise filled Zhao Rongzhang with pride, but also a strange, awkward shyness. Shy because she had never liked a man the way Emperor Father liked a woman, and among the women she knew, few genuinely liked a man so sincerely.

Frowning and blushing, she finished speaking and waited for his reaction. He continued to nuzzle, his hands gripping her shoulders, seeking a hug with dependence. She glanced up at his face and was startled.

His eyes were open, but they lacked any spark.

“Hey!” Zhao Rongzhang waved a hand in front of his eyes and spoke toward his ear. “I’m talking to you. How dare you ignore me?”

He truly ignored her. Aside from still holding her and pressing close, it was as if he couldn’t hear or see.

Zhao Rongzhang already had a suspicion, and half the blood in her body ran cold.

Was this what they meant—even if he was fortunate enough for the fever to break, his mind or five senses might be damaged?

The doctors were summoned into the bamboo hut once more, each taking turns to examine the boy’s pulse. Faced with the Princess’s icy gaze, most of them shook their heads. In the end, only Old Doctor Wu remained.

Zhao Rongzhang sat in the main seat, looking toward the window where light was beginning to seep through.

Old Doctor Wu stroked his beard again. He sighed. “Already mute, now blind and deaf—he’s already a useless person. Does Your Highness still intend to keep him…”

“Treat him.”

“But with such a severe condition, even if we exhaust all the physicians in the world, it would be difficult to restore him to his former state. Your Highness should not waste your efforts. He himself may not be able to accept such a fate…”

“Treat him! Why do you have so much nonsense to say? What does it have to do with you? Calling him a useless person over and over—he can eat and drink, how is he useless?! I am the Princess of a nation, and in the future, I will become Emperor. Raising a hundred, even ten thousand people like him would be no problem. Raising him for a lifetime is even easier!”

Zhao Rongzhang picked up her teacup, wanting to hurl it at him, but restrained herself again and again, gulping the tea down instead. She still needed to stay calm.

Just as she was struggling to control her anger and emotions, Old Man Wu across from her leisurely twirled his beard and grinned mischievously. “These young doctors truly lack skill. Compared to my son, they all fall short. In my humble opinion, this so-called deafness and blindness are nothing more than the accumulation of toxic influences temporarily clouding the clear orifices. Yet one after another, they’ve all been fooled by the false signs in this Young Master’s pulse. It’s all temporary. As long as the right method is used, I estimate that in as little as three months, or at most half a year, his eyes and ears will recover to normal. Not only that—”

The Old Ginseng Spirit deliberately kept her in suspense, squinting with a smile. “The muteness he’s had since childhood will also be completely cured.”

“…You’re lying.”

“How would I dare lie before Her Highness the Princess?” Old Man Wu bowed toward her, sticking his rear out.

Zhao Rongzhang widened her eyes, staring at him intently. Old Man Wu, hearing no response from her for a long while, felt as if needles were pricking his back. He stole a glance upward. Out of the corner of his eye, the girl’s face was expressionless, her gaze icy. Old Doctor Wu belatedly realized that this joke might have gone a bit too far…

His eyes darted toward Shuang An for help, but Shuang An didn’t dare look up either.

He quickly racked his brain for excuses, trying to calm the princess’s anger. Just as the atmosphere grew tense, he suddenly heard the young girl burst into loud sobs—Zhao Rongzhang grabbed a teacup and hurled it fiercely at the Old Ginseng Spirit’s feet. Between hiccupping cries, she shouted, “You… you’re the worst!!!”