A child? Leng Changxi’s heart trembled violently. Even when his three thousand people were besieged by thirty thousand people at the Yueya Mountain of East Qin, his heart had never been so excited. A child, he and Nuan finally had a child.
For the first time, Leng Changxi’s voice started to tremble. He asked Leng Shuang, “Do you still remember the detailed location of your detention?” Although he knew that with Sima Ray’s caution and meticulousness, he would change the place of detaining Qin Yunuan after Leng Shuang escaped, he would not give up even if there was only one clue.
“I did. And I made marks on the way, I…” Leng Shuang was sweating profusely as she spoke and fainted before she could finish.
Leng Wu didn’t dare to stall any moments. Carrying Leng Shuang, he headed towards the Imperial Hospital.
Royal Palace was under siege. Many of the eunuchs and servant ladies would rather bet on that one out of ten thousand chances to run out, but they all died at the palace gate without exception. Nobody even succeeded in stepping on Que’er Street. Therefore, the population in this palace is already very sparse. Leng Wu ran all the way with Leng Shuang on his back, but he didn’t see one person until he was in front of the hospital.
In the night when Sima Ray attacked, Zhang Ruting was on duty with another middle-aged imperial doctor named Ren. He was therefore unable to escape. However, the Royal City was in great chaos. Being left in the palace could be a blessing as well as a curse.
There were four coal stoves burning outside the resting house of the Imperial Hospital, and four pots of Chinese medicine were boiling on them. Leng Wu twitched his nose as if smelling something strange in the fragrance of the medicine. He slowed down and put Leng Shuang leaning against the corner then entered the resting house tentatively.
“Dr. Zhang?” Leng Wu listened to all directions and turned his head. Then he saw a shocking scene.
Zhang Ruting, who was always elegant and only held medical books in both hands, was now holding a small scalpel for anatomical research. Blood was dripping down the scalpel, and the one lying at Zhang Ruting’s feet was not anyone but Zhang Ruting’s colleague, the Imperial Doctor Ren.
Seeing Leng Wu coming in, Zhang Ruting was shocked, and his eyes were suddenly full of panic. Leng Wu had rich experience and could judge by a rough glance that a fight happened just now. The medical books and herbs were scattered on the ground. Zhang Ruting and the Imperial Doctor Ren had bloodstains on both of their body, most of which belonged to Imperial Doctor Ren. Half of Zhang Ruting’s sleeve had been torn apart during the fight, and his slender arms were still trembling in the early summer wind.
“He tried to kill me.” Zhang Ruting explained to Leng Wu, his voice trembling and his mind in a trance, “I didn’t have other option but to kill him. I didn’t know why he wanted me dead. I really didn’t. It wasn’t on purpose.”
Leng Wu approached him slowly. Being engaged in hot battles for too long made him hard to believe the statement of only one of the parties. “Relax, I will deal with it.”
Stepping close with a vigilant and scrutinizing mood, Leng Wu found five poisonous needles on Ren Qianguang’s body, all of them were poisoned. Looking at the traces of those needles, he realized that Ren Qianguang had already used three of them. There was already a hole on Zhang Ruting’s arm.
“You are poisoned. Look after yourself first.” Leng Wu said and raised his eyes. Looking up, he saw a medicine box that was thrown in the corner.
“Did this belong to Imperial Doctor Ren?”
Zhang Ruting nodded faintly. His complexion started to turn pale.
Leng Wu opened the tightly locked medicine box with the blood-stained scalpel and checked the contents. It turned out as he expected. A hard object was wrapped in a piece of inconspicuous light white silk. Inside it was an exquisitely crafted ruby and gold hair accessory. Twenty-eight small gems were embedded in the pure gold, as well as a red jewel of the size of a fingernail. The pigeon blood texture showed its invaluable price.
Leng Wu remembered that it was the gift from North Di after the peace conference. The emperor praised and admired it before finally giving it to Imperial Concubine Rong.
Ren Qianguang was on Imperial Concubine Rong’s side.
Leng Wu habitually checked Ren Qianguang’s palms and arms, “This person had Out-Fight skills, and he was on Imperial Concubine Rong’s side. It seemed that Dr. Zhang, you have been taking the trouble to help those concubines and important officials in the palace recently. The medical treatment had caused Concubine Rong’s dissatisfaction. She was determined to get rid of you.”
“I…” Zhang Ruting was terrified. He was just a scholar, and the only thing he read and practiced was medicine skills. He knew none of those things.
“After all, you used to work for Imperial Concubine Yun, Dr. Zhang. It makes sense for her not to keep you alive.” Leng Wu stripped Zhang Ruting naked with a few words. Zhang Ruting was a little surprised, but still he cupped his hand and asked, “Please save my life, Mr. Leng.”
Leng Wu looked at the unconscious Leng Shuang outside the window. He made up his mind and said, “You’d better save my sister first, and I will bring you back to the general. It depends on your own destiny whether he would take you in or not.”
The moon was slanting west. Qin Yunuan was sitting alone in a daze in front of the candlestick, knowing nothing about the thrilling and wonderful scene happened outside Rosefinch Gate in the evening. Sima Ray found a new maid and a doctor for her, saying that it was for the sake of her body. In fact, he tried to keep her in custody. After Leng Shuang, Xi’er and Ting Xue escaped, Sima Ray promptly moved Qin Yunuan to another place. She was blindfolded by black cloth along the way. The carriage driver also followed Sima Ray’s orders and kept detouring, but Qin Yunuan could still figure out that the carriage was heading west.
The cage moved from underground to above the ground, but the doors and windows were tightly sealed. Only the maid and the doctor could be seen in and out.
Qin Yunuan counted the time. Lu Wuyi should have sent the Commander’s Seal to East Street, and Xi’er and Ting Xue should also have settled down at Yuanyang’s. Since the death of Old Madam, her maids were either assigned to other yards and continued as the leading maid, or received severance pay and went home to get married. Only Yuanyang refused the money and used her years of savings to buy a small yard near Leng’s ancestral hall to take care of Old Madam from time to time and to burn some paper money for the old lady. It could be seen that Yuanyang was a very loyal and very thoughtful person.
A loyal servant was the most reliable person when it came to a crucial situation.
“Infanta Ping, Prince Ray wanted to ask if you are hungry. He bought back some midnight snack.” The maid Ning’er shouted at the entrance. Sima Ray’s servants were not as ordinary as she thought. She could see shrewdness in Ning’er’s eyes.
“Tell him I’m asleep.” Qin Yunuan tilted her head to blow out the candle. The door was suddenly opened. Sima Ray appeared wearily. A gloomy cloud appeared on his knitted brows. When Leng Changxi quickly took the head of Chu Tang, he had been watching the battle on the chariot. Leng Changxi, he didn’t expect Leng Changxi to behave unhurriedly under siege for a long time. Leng Changxi even dared to provoke him. Well, let him see who would laugh to the end.
“You are obviously not asleep, why do you have to say that?” Sima Ray turned around and closed the door. He put the one-foot-square wooden box in his hand on the pear wood table. If Qin Yunuan had seen it clearly, there were more than a dozen soldiers ready to go in the yard.
“Wasn’t that obvious?” Qin Yunuan smiled gently, “I don’t want to see you.”
“It’s okay,” Sima Ray approached slowly, the candlelight made his face even more gloomy, “I want to see you. Didn’t you find it? Anyway, I never care about how you think of me. You could think of me as a disgusting creature. You could refuse to see me, or even let me know that you already have that baby Leng in your stomach. As long as I still have desires for you and want you, I will keep you alive. You don’t need to thank me. Just remember me forever.”
Qin Yunuan glanced at Sima Ray incredulously, “Prince Ray. I couldn’t figure out who gave you so much confidence to say this.”
“Who do you think?” Sima Ray suddenly stepped forward and pinched Qin Yunuan’s chin with his right hand. The force of his fingertips seemed to crush her. “Qin Yunuan, don’t force me. Why are Leng Changxi and you so similar? You halt the troops and wait normally, but when you move you kill as if the world was falling apart.”
Sima Ray opened the wooden box at hand as he squinted his eyes and looked at Qin Yunuan fiercely. He took out a tightly wrapped ball-shaped thing inside. A stinking smell came out. Qin Yunuan had some pregnancy reactions, and her stomach felt even more uncomfortable at the smell.
Sima Ray shook off the black cloth outside the ball neatly, exposing the head of a man with a miserable face. His eyes were wide open, and his neck had a clean incision. It was obvious that the person who took his head was fast.
“Leng Changxi did this,” said Sima Ray, who was pulling the braid of the head and enjoying the vomiting pain of Qin Yunuan. “He killed my best general in one stroke. He was very fierce. I admit it, but I will be more ruthless than him, and do you know why? Yeah? Do you know why?”
“Because you don’t have borderlines.” Qin Yunuan answered firmly, “You are a man with no heart and human kindness. Sima Ray, you are miserable, a truly miserable man.”
“Hahaha,” Sima Ray raised his head and laughed, throwing the head of his most trusted general in the corner. He pinched Qin Yunuan’s white neck with his bloodied palms, “No, because I have a final trick. Do you know that the Imperial Concubine Rong, who is the most favorite of the emperor, is my person? I had slept her countless times before she lay under the emperor’s crotch. And I still have you. As long as you are in my hand, Leng Changxi wouldn’t dare to move me. Not to mention that you have a child now, he will definitely search for you like crazy. When the time comes, he would step into my jar and couldn’t escape even if he wanted to.”
“Sima Ray, I thought that you were domineering, perverted, but I didn’t expect that you need women to this extent.”
Sima Ray smiled evilly and was about to say something. Qin Yunuan changed her tone suddenly and said with a very strange voice, “However, why are you so sure that the Imperial Concubine Rong, your insider at the palace, had sent you all the true messages?”
Sima Ray shivered and said with vigilance, “What do you mean? Imperial Concubine Yang couldn’t fool me. She had poison in her body. Without my antidote, she wouldn’t survive for three months.”
Qin Yunuan tilted her head and gave him a smile, “I never said that. Prince Ray, think of it thoroughly. It might be that she was already killed. The person that has been giving you the messages is a substitute.”
Someone reported outside the door at the moment.
“Prince Ray, news came from the palace.”
