“Her body wouldn’t be in such a condition if she had grown up in the Western Region, and I will be taking her back. If you truly want her, you will have to marry her again; this time, with her status of an imperial princess. She can then marry into Beimin.”
“She can’t travel in her current condition. I’ll personally take her to the Western Region when she gets better.”
Du Ling stared at Pei Qianhao for a while before continuing, “I want you to promise that my sister will be the only woman in your life. I’m not about to let her go through more suffering. Otherwise, even considering the relationship between our two nations, the Western Region…”
Pei Qianhao cut him off before he could finish. “No need to worry.”
Those words were spoken with such finality that Du Ling did not pursue the matter any further.
A sudden thud in the room made the both of them dash back in. Pei Qianhao rushed forward to help Su Xi-er up. “Why did you have to get up?”
Su Xi-er wanted to speak, but her voice was stuck in her throat, and no sound came out.
Pei Qianhao patted her gently on the back. “Let’s talk when you’ve recovered. The fire was unexpected, but I’ll be sure to get to the bottom of this.”
She then took his hand and traced two words on his palm.
Chao Mu.
“I’ll go take a look later.” Pei Qianhao brushed her hair aside as he spoke.
In the meantime, Chu Xian seemed to be losing his mind as he hugged Chao Mu’s body. It was difficult to get ice now, and it would be three days before the next shipment arrived.
I can wait three days, but Chao Mu can’t. Half of all her hair has already fallen off by now.
“Don’t be angry, Chao Mu. I’ll put on some rouge for you.” Chu Xian reached out his hand, but the exorbitant rouge that he had always used had been destroyed in the fire. Ordinary products weren’t able to hide the signs of death on her body.
Chu Xian’s temper boiled over as he slammed his fist on the desk. However, the sight of more of Chao Mu’s hair falling out from the impact had him immediately cease his tantrum.
Almost all of the imperial physicians were gathered as they knelt before the emperor. Apart from using ice to preserve the body, they did not know what to do. We are physicians who treat the living, not the dead! None of us know how to preserve a body!
However, none of them dared utter a single word in front of their emperor.
One of the guards entered with a message. “Your Majesty, here’s a letter from a carrier pigeon which landed on one of the tree branches right outside the hall.”
Chu Xian opened it to see the familiar insignia that Shi Mo used on the bottom right. Shi Mo has ice! And he can send it to the palace within an hour!
Shi Mo said he only had a single condition, but neglected to mention what that condition was.
Chu Xian frowned at this. If he agreed, he just had to send the Imperial Army Commander to meet Shi Mo. Otherwise, he could simply ignore the note.
Chu Xian bit his lip as he watched Chao Mu’s body rot by the second, finally giving instructions to the Imperial Army Commander, “Go retrieve the ice at the Northeastern Gate and send it to my repose palace.”
All of the imperial physicians were stunned at the sudden turn of events. Does His Majesty plan to rebuild the ice chamber right in his own repose palace? Why can’t he let a dead woman go!
All Chu Xian could think about now was how to get the ice as quickly as possible, unable to realise that Shi Mo had no reason to be in possession of such a large quantity of ice at this juncture. The ice was harvested from mountains that were quite a distance from Dongling, and there was no way for Shi Mo to have any unless he had prepared it in advance.
