Pang Shao manipulated the Emperor to say these words, but presumably, he
was also fighting with him.
In this case, the situation was much more complicated. If he retreated at this
juncture, he might harm more than his own interests.
But…
Firstly, he was in the dark and had no clue about what was going on in the
court. He didn't even know who was under his command. Even if he took
over the job, he was afraid there would be trouble.
Secondly, the question before him was making him choose between a rock
and a hard place. Either give up this hard-earned benefit of Jingwang,
offending all his fellow officials, or bring Huo Wujiu into the palace for
some humiliation, offending Huo Wujiu.
Jiang Suizhou sighed.
This was simply grilling him. But in contrast, his life was more important.
On top of the throne, the Hou Zhu was still urging him strangely, "Fifth
Brother, why aren't you saying anything? The beauty or the cushy job, you
have to choose one."
Jiang Suizhou raised his eyes, and this time, the revulsion and anger on his
face was no longer faked.
"As Brother Emperor said, I shouldn't overstep my bounds," Jiang Suizhou
opened his mouth and replied unhurriedly.
He saw the emperor smile all the more smug.
——
The sky brightened, and the trees outside the window swayed about. The
sun shone brightly through the thin green branches, spreading mottled
shadows onto the smooth dark floor tiles.
Dust particles danced silently in the air, making the rays show a bit of yarn-
like essence.
It was a dazzling tranquility.
In the mansion, Doctor Zhou was paralyzed on his knees with his back
straight and a thin layer of cold sweat dripped down onto his forehead.
He was wide-eyed, and his neck was stiff, not daring to move.
Against the pulsating veins in his neck was a sharp, blood-stained wooden
chip.
The blood was not his, but he could feel how sharp the piece of wood was.
It was capable of cutting his throat and killing him instantly.
"Madam…General! General! What exactly do you want to ask? Just ask!"
He trembled and shivered.
A low voice rang out above his head.
That was Huo Wujiu in his wheelchair. He sat there, bent over and with one
arm lazily resting on his knee. His other hand was holding the blood-stained
wooden chip.
He held it firmly against Doctor Zhou's throat.
"What did he send you here for?" he asked. He tilted his head, eyes
downcast and looking down condescendingly at the man kneeling before
him.
Doctor Zhou shivered and told the truth, "I'm here to treat your injuries on
the order of Qianshan-gonggong!"
Huo Wujiu said coldly, "Tell the truth."
Doctor Zhou was on the verge of tears. "I am telling the truth!"
Huo Wujiu coldly looked him up and down for a moment.
He didn't appear to be lying, but that didn't rule out the possibility of him
pretending either.
Just now, as soon as this person came and said he was the doctor of the
mansion, Huo Wujiu had a conjecture deep inside.
The Emperor of Jing was a fool, but Jingwang was not. Jiang Shunheng
caught him and only wanted to torture for fun, but Jingwang didn't have
this only purpose.
He hadn't made a move, but he certainly had plans. Jingwang might want to
get something from him, maybe the Liang army intelligence, or he might
try to use him to fight against Jiang Shunheng.
Although his performance yesterday was inconsistent with the rumors,
rumors were not groundless.
Therefore, if Jingwang wanted to relax his vigilance and control him, the
best way was to prescribe medicine to him with the help of doctors.
Huo Wujiu looked at the mansion doctor who was shaking like a sieve, his
gaze cold and unmoved.
"Then open your mouth," he ordered indifferently.
The manor doctor trembled and obeyed.
The next moment, a pill suddenly fell into his mouth, and before he could
react, his jaw was tightly pinched and jerked upward.
The pill fell into his belly.
The doctor's pupils trembled, and immediately, he felt a sharp burning pain
that rose up from his stomach.
In front of him, the handsome, god-like General slowly and methodically
withdrew the wooden chip and sat up with his knees propped up.
The bottomless abyss that were his eyes were calm and waveless, akin to
the impermanence of hell that tortured lives.
He leaned on the backrest of his wheelchair.
It was clear that he was sitting in a very simple wooden chair, but his
bearing was like sitting on the tiger skin in the Prince's tent.
He lowered his eyes, looked at Doctor Zhou, and said, "This medicine can
corrode the five organs in less than a moment. While I still have the
antidote in my hand, tell me. What exactly did they want you to do when
they sent you here?"
Doctor Zhou cried bitterly, "I'm really not lying to you!" The burning pain
in his abdomen had already made him tremble with fear. He was so anxious
and scared that he woefully fished over the medical kit he had thrown aside
and shivered as he turned it over to Huo Wujiu.
"I really have orders to treat your injuries! These are all wound medicines.
If you don't believe me, I can use any of them on myself to prove it to
you!"
While speaking, he hurriedly poured out the stuff in the medical kit and was
about to open them one by one for Huo Wujiu to see.
Huo Wujiu sized him up quietly.
This time, he believed that this man was telling the truth.
He was actually sent to treat his wounds?
For some reason, Jiang Suizhou's appearance under the red candles last
night flashed before his eyes.
There was no doubt that he was like a rabbit who was scared of his own
ears atop his head, yet he had to pretend to be vicious.
…Besides, he probably didn't have the guts to even drug him.
Huo Wujiu quietly looked at the mansion doctor who was on the ground. A
moment later, he took out a vial from his sleeves and threw a dark brown
pill at him.
"One lasts for three months. Don't say a word about today's affairs. Come
back to me for the medicine after three months," Huo Wujiu said.
Doctor Zhou quickly picked up the pill and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Since you're here to treat my injuries, then get up and take a look."
Huo Wujiu said indifferently and glanced down at the small medicine vial
in his hand.
He only had a total of two medicines on him. When he was imprisoned, the
soldier who escorted him was Lou Yue, an old friend of his father, so he
stealthily stuffed it in Huo Wujiu belongings during the search, leaving him
something to save himself with.
One of them could quickly stop bleeding when seriously injured, but after
swallowing it, it would cause severe pain in the five organs. However, the
pain would disappear after only a moment. The other was to boost qi and
enrich blood. It was most useful when trekking long distances in the snow.
He glanced at the mansion doctor who wiped his tears and stumbled up
from the ground, withdrew his gaze and quietly put the vial back in his
sleeves.
Perhaps before today, Doctor Zhou's understanding of the word
"desperado" was only in the literal sense.
But today, he finally understood profoundly what "desperado" meant.
The man on the bed was clearly wounded all over. He was half dead, and
his pulse was weak, yet he was still able to ignore it. Huo Wujiu calmly
allowed him to remove his rotting flesh and sprinkle a powder on him, and
had time to remind him not to try to play tricks and to resist stealing the
antidote from him in advance.
The Doctor did not dare to tremble as he administered the medicine to him.
When he removed his upper robe, the whiplash marks on his tightly
muscular body crashed into his eyes. He was tortured so heavily that his
flesh was torn to shreds, with new injuries overlapping old ones. Perhaps
because the torture devices were dipped in salt water, those wounds almost
had no scabs and had the tendency to fester.
After over a month of imprisonment, it was obvious from the sight of his
body that a day must have crawled by like a year.
If these injuries were on someone else, even if they weren't in immense
pain, they must have long been immobilized. Yet just by looking at his face,
this man would appear uninjured if he had a robe on.
In all of Doctor Zhou's years of medical practice, he had never seen such a
ruthless man.
It was said that people who were cruel to themselves would never be soft on
others. Therefore, the doctor did not doubt the authenticity of his poisoning and had to resign himself to his fate. From now on, in all likelihood, he
would have to follow Huo Wujiu' orders.
The process of applying medicine was quite tedious. Only when Huo
Wujiu's upper body was almost wrapped in gauze did it come to an end.
"Your injuries are too severe, and you have already lost qi and blood.
Afterward, while your wounds heal, you might develop inflammation or
fever, which can be life-threatening in serious cases. I will prescribe a few
oral medicines for you. You–"
Huo Wujiu, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke and
interrupted him.
"Take a look at my legs," he ordered.
Manor Doctor Zhou froze at the interruption before realizing what he was
talking about.
However, before he could react, Huo Wujiu had quietly leaned down,
tugging his robe up with one hand and pulling his trouser legs up with the
other.
It was a pair of long, straight legs that looked full of strength.
However, under the scars and blood stains, the horrific wounds on them
were bone deep and vividly clear.
Those were wounds that cut through flesh and blood and severed the
meridians.
Doctor Zhou only took a glance, and then averted his eyes in panic—— His
medical skills might be good, but he wasn't a peerless genius doctor. With
just one look, he knew that there was no cure or remedy for such an injury.
He looked towards Huo Wujiu, just to see those deep black eyes quietly
looking at the wound that exposed his bloody flesh.
Huo Wujiu was so calm that he scared Doctor Zhou.
"Can I still stand up?" He heard Huo Wujiu ask.
Doctor Zhou trembled and deliberated for a moment before carefully
replying, "I'd better bandage your legs as well. If the wounds fester, they'll
be difficult to deal with."
He carefully avoided Huo Wujiu's question, which was another way of
telling him that it was hopeless.
Huo Wujiu fell silent.
After a moment, he grunted, let go of the fabric clutched in his hand, sat up,
and leaned back into the backrest of his wheelchair.
Huo Wujiu was extremely quiet.
Doctor Zhou did not dare to look at Huo Wujiu's face again, but as he
bowed forward to apply medicine to the latter's leg, Doctor Zhou saw his
hand resting on his knee.
The veins in the back of his hand bulged, and his five fingers were
tightened, clenching the old wounds on his hand.
——
After Jiang Suizhou uttered those words, he distinctly felt the Hou Zhu's
satisfaction.
Or rather, what the Hou Zhu was satisfied with wasn't the words he uttered,
but the displeasure that showed on Jiang Suizhou's face when he replied.
His Majesty seemed to be particularly malicious toward Jiang Suizhou, and
liked to base his pleasure on the latter's pain.
With Jiang Suizhou's agreement, the matter naturally came to an end. His
Majesty seemed to no longer be interested in the court. Several officials
presented memorials, but he listened to them with a lack of interest, then
waved his hand and said to let the Grand Minister of the Masses decide.
The courtroom seemingly turned into Pang Shao's turf.
Hence, the morning court session did not last long and ended with a yawn
of His Majesty.
Jiang Suizhou followed the officials out of the Guangyuan Hall and pursed
his lips.
He really didn't expect that the purpose of the Hou Zhu's trip to the court
was to taunt and jeer at him.
But so far, the Hou Zhu hated Huo Wujiu and, at the same time, didn't treat
Jiang Suizhou any better. Currently, Jiang Suizhou and Huo Wujiu were
tethered to a rope, so it could count as saving trouble by letting the Hou Zhu
vent his anger.
Jiang Suizhou cast his eyes down and descended the stairs step by step.
He initially thought he would breathe his last breath, but to his surprise, he
was able to walk arduously up till now.
Just then, someone passed by him.
"I'm really bitterly disappointed with Your Highness's move!" The voice
was old and gloomy.
Jiang Suizhou raised his eyes, and saw an old minister with white hair two
or three feet away, walking toward him .
As soon as he turned around, Jiang Suizhou froze.
…He's practically identical to the portraits in history materials!
This man was, without a doubt, the only remaining good minister at the end
of the Jing Dynasty, the Minister of Ceremonies, Qi Min.
This man served as a minister for three generations of the Jing Dynasty. He
was honest and upright. He held to his principles and never yielded to pressure. He was a rare courtier who dared to stand up to Pang Shao in
court in the late Jing Dynasty.