by Qing Lu

Translated by Grenn

Chapter 22 – The strange illness (1)

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“What?” Xue Xianxin stared blankly. Then, she cast sidelong glances at Zhuo Qing, but she didn’t want to be bothered with Zhuo Qing. Without refrain herself from shouting,  she said, “Where did that insane woman come from, to have such impertinence in the Chancellor’s residence. Someone grabs that woman for me and sends her away.”

“Stop.” Lou Xiwu pointed at Zhuo Qing and hooted, “She is elder brother’s woman. Who dares to grab her and sends her away?!” Although she disliked this ugly woman, however, compared to her, Xue Xianxin was more hateful. Today, she just happen to be under the same flag as her!

The servants looked at each other in dismay, as for Zhuo Qing, her head was filled with gloom. It was the first time, people kept calling her such-and-such woman. This way of addressing her is @@￥@￥…

In order to dull the sharp spirit of the Second Madam, Zhuo Qing conveniently let her entered in the house as she wished. She lightly coughed and said with a smile, “I’m called… Qing Feng, the woman that the Emperor bestowed to Lou Xiyan. A person, who is only a concubine and not the first wife like this Madam, saying that she is the mistress of the house… Let me say that at present, the position of mistress of the Chancellor’s manor has already been switch.”

‘She is the beauty that was bestowed?!’ Xue Xianxin snorted disdainfully and coldly smile, “A bunch of nonsense! There is no way an ugly woman like you can be the beauty the Emperor bestowed to Xiyan.”

The words made Zhuo Qing pursed her brows in an affected manner. She pretended to be frightened and shouted, “You doubted Qiong Yue’s Emperor’s insight?”

“I, I… I’m doubting you!” ‘In the end, who is that wretched woman?’

Zhuo Qing nodded her head with clear understanding. On her face there was an innocent pondering expression as she threw the problem to Jing Sa. “Jing Sa, for this issue, it’s better for you to confirm instead of me.”

This time, Jing Sa was cooperating as he replied in his cold voice, “Second Madam, she is indeed Lady Qing Feng who the Emperor bestowed to Master.”

Xue Xianxin had a somewhat panicking expression as she absolutely didn’t expect this woman to unexpectedly be the beauty from Hao Yue bestowed to Xiyan. Anyway, regardless of her appearance, in view of her temper that wasn’t docile and easy to be taken advantages of, she shouldn’t allow her to be arrogant. Xue Xianxin waved her hand in the manner of a noble person disregarding a commoner and said, “Good then. Since you are the tribute, I will not make things difficult for you. Anyway, I’m Xiyan’s mother, the wife of the General of the West garrison. With me here, it’s still not your turn to be the mistress. All right, all right, return to your courtyard and stay there.”

Was that second wife giving her a way out of this situation? Zhuo Qing found it funny. If it wasn’t in order to enter and see what Lou Xiyan was plotting, why would she jumped out and contradicted Xue Xianxin? She really was very hungry, and unexpectedly, she was wasting her time with Xue Xianxin’s nonsense. Zhuo Qing replied without showing any mercy, “Second Madam, was it? If I don’t remember wrongly, this is the Chancellor’s residence, not the General’s residence. Since this is the Chancellor’s mansion, it’s only natural for the Chancellor’s woman to be the mistress. Since you are his mother, it’s better if you calm yourself and enjoy your later years.”

“You, you, you…” She was unexpectedly cursed to an early death by her!

Xue Xianxin’s complexion was flushed with anger and her words were unintelligible. Zhuo Qing slowly drawn out a smile and, as she clicked her tongue, she said, “You are already old and need to be careful with your health! I’m going in to watch on Xiyan, you better go back and rest.”

As she finished talking, she moved forward without turning back. Xue Xianxin’s anger quickly deflated, and Lou Xiwu didn’t allow herself to burst into a hearty laugh as she ran after Zhuo Qing who was not far away from the house.

Glaring towards the back of Zhuo Qing’s carefree white figure, Xue Xianxin’s look was filled with resentment, her hands were clench tightly into a fist to the point her nails were digging into her flesh. ‘You are very good Qing Feng! In the end, who will die first, let wait and see!’

Zhuo Qing hardly cared about the glare full of rancors darting behind her as she kept walking until she was beside the doors. She was going to watch what kind of farce it would be. She softly said to the old imperial physician standing rigidly beside her, “Imperial Physician, I’m only going to stay in the outside hall and see if he’s alright. I will not disturb his medical treatment.”

Finally, Yang Mu recovered his spirit and promptly nodded his head and replied, “Good, good.” Although this woman’s complexion still had a distinct style as if made by heaven, just a moment ago, her words were sharp and eloquent. At present, her words were sensitives and she was fair and reasonable. It could be seen that this lady wasn’t from an average family! Yang Mu had seen many woman fighting and scheming inside the Palace, he had thoroughly understood long ago how to conduct himself and to handle matters to a certain degree in order to have an escape road.

The doors slowly opened, Zhuo Qing took the initiative to walked inside. Directly facing the doors, there were chairs to receive visitors, on the walls, hanged several scrolls of calligraphy and paintings. It was very simple. There was an enormous screen that separated the room on one side, even though it was hazy, it could clearly be seen that compare to the outside hall, the inside was much more spacious, but the decoration could not be made out of.

The imperial physician and his assistant walked further in, whereas Zhuo Qing and Lou Xiwu could only wait outside.

In reality, standing on the other side of the screen, it wasn’t possible to clearly see the situation under the candle light, only Mo Bai’s tall figure could be seen standing guard next to the bed. The old imperial physician sat in front of the bed and took Lou Xiyan’s pulse. If she listened carefully, there was a profound whistling noise similar to the symptom of an onset of asthma. However without seeing the patient, she couldn’t conclude the diagnosis.

As she foolishly stood behind the screen, feeling very bored, she turned towards Lou Xiwu, who was intently staring towards the inside of the house without blinking, and asked, “Does he frequently fall ill?”

Since Zhuo Qing helped her out just a moment ago to vent her resentment, Lou Xiwu’s impression of Zhuo Qing was slightly better. Her eyes didn’t stop looking towards her brother’s room, but she still replied in a low voice, “It usually happens during spring. We’re usually very careful and, once he fall ill, it will look like he’s unable to breath, just like this.”

“Since how long?”

Lou Xiwu appeared to be somewhat fidgety when it was mention. “He had that ailment since childhood and it was controllable for many years, but never actually disappear.”

‘Since childhood? Then, it shouldn’t be a very big problem for him to pretend. However, the characteristic of asthma shouldn’t be a seasonal trigger.’  As she inwardly reckoned about her knowledge on asthma, suddenly, from inside, both of them heard voices and several rushed gasps of breath which continued until it became burst of wheezing.

“Master!!” Along with Mo Bai’s low voice full of worry, the anxious Lou Xiwu was unable to stay still and directly dashed inside. As for Zhuo Qing, she hesitated a moment before following after Lou Xiwu.

The room was completely well lit by the candle light. There was an unimaginably large bed. On there, lay Lou Xiyan, covered in a thick quilt made of feathers and silk that was white in color. The quilt made Lou Xiyan’s complexion appeared paler. His breathing was abnormally rushed. The irascible breathing was also short. One of his hand was grasping in a tight fist the clothes in front of his chest, his forehead and cheeks were full of sweats since earlier, and his black hair was loose. Every breath he took, his body was subjected to violent movements that he couldn’t control. ‘This… shouldn’t be an act, and an act couldn’t appear like this.’

“Elder br…” Lou Xiwu sobbed, unable to finish her words. Seeing Lou Xiyan like this, and remembering about the him who was in his prime and high-spirited during the day, somehow, Zhuo Qing couldn’t get used to it, even more so for Lou Xiwu.

Yang Mu used one of his hand to restrain Lou Xiyan while shouting in a loud voice, “Hurry! Bring me my needles.”

“Yes!” His assistant turned around all flustered, trying to find it. Eventually, he found it and gave the box of silver needles to Yang Mu.

Yang Mu took his needles, however he didn’t know how he will insert them since Lou Xiyan was violently moving around every time he breathed. His whole body was in movement, how will he be able to insert the needles?! If he inserted into the wrong acupuncture, his life, he might not be able to keep it.

Yang Mu hesitated since he didn’t know if it will do any good. Meanwhile, Zhuo Qing helplessly shook her head. Everyone became shock as Zhuo Qing raised her foot, and climbed directly on the bed…

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