Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 408: The Old Dandy
Two days later.

The emperor's condition was sometimes better and sometimes worse. Sometimes he woke up with a clear mind, but sometimes he felt dizzy and didn't recognize anyone around him.

Zhang Luan used the medicine on Zhu Jianshen several times in succession, and it almost worked every time, making people inside and outside the palace and even the government and the public believe that he was a miracle doctor.

Because he had been in the palace for too long, Zhang Luan had no chance to leave. So when Zhu Jianshen woke up that day, while the emperor was still clear-headed, Zhang Luan hesitantly asked, "Your Majesty, I have been in the palace for five...five or six days, and I have never left the palace."

Zhu Jianshen was very weak at this time, and his mind was not very clear. He asked casually: "Do you want to go back?"

Zhang Luan said respectfully: "It is like this, Your Majesty, I have several places outside the palace where I can make medicine for you. I want to go back and take a look. I haven't given Your Majesty some medicine in the past few days. If I don't make up for it, I'm afraid..."

"Go."

Zhu Jianshen seemed to use the last bit of his clarity of mind to grant Zhang Luan the power to leave the palace.

When Wei Tai heard this, he felt a little relieved.

Only when this old guy leaves, I will be the one in charge of the Qianqing Palace!

Otherwise, if he were here, the emperor would only listen to him, the empress dowager would listen to him, and even the prince would treat him with respect as a national figure. Who would take me, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, seriously?
Then there is Li Zisheng. That bastard treats Zhang Luan as his most sincere ally. The two of them would get together for private chats whenever they had the chance. Most of the time, he didn't even treat me as his own.

……

……

Then Zhu Jianshen fell asleep again.

Zhang Luan came out of the inner hall of the Qianqing Palace and was about to inform Li Zisheng that he was going to leave the palace.

Unexpectedly, Wei Tai came over first and said, "Zhang... Zhang Taichang, at this critical moment, you want to leave the palace... Isn't that... irresponsible?"

Li Zisheng heard the noise and came over and asked, "Why are you here? Are you going to leave the palace?"

Now in front of Wei Tai, he was too lazy to pretend.

He was shoulder to shoulder and face to face with Zhang Luan, addressing him as intimately as possible, and never avoided private chats, not considering himself an outsider at all.

Zhang Luan said, "I have been sweating a lot since entering the palace. My body has become smelly... Can you tell me if I can't go out for a while? If I continue like this, it will be too unsightly."

"It's not like the palace is..."

Li Zisheng originally wanted to say, you can take a bath and change clothes in the palace, or find a place to have a good rest. It’s not impossible. Why do you have to leave the palace?
But on second thought, not to mention Zhang Luan, I myself have been acting a bit inappropriately in the palace these days.

They are all clean people. Logically speaking, people these days have very poor hygiene conditions and are not so particular about it. But the problem is that their status is high now, and the weather in the palace has been quite hot these days, especially in the inner hall of the Qianqing Palace. They are like a stuffy person, sweating profusely every time they go in and out.

It would be strange if the conditions could get better.

Wei Tai said, "Zhang Taichang, please don't stay out of the palace for too long. It's best to just tidy up and come back... Is one hour enough?"

Li Zisheng frowned and said, "Still calling him Zhang Taichang? Shouldn't he be called Zhang Shilang? Being out of the palace for an hour... is indeed a bit... long."

Obviously Li Zisheng did not intend to let Zhang Luan stay outside the palace for a long time.

Zhang Luan smiled bitterly and said, "You two, it takes me more than half an hour to go out of the palace and back. After you let me out... can you give me some private time?"

"Then... two hours!"

Wei Tai made the final decision and said, "After nightfall, we will arrange for someone to keep the door open for you. If you don't let us know in advance, it will be difficult to get into the palace."

As they were talking, the eunuch Chen Gui from the Imperial Household Department and the eunuch Luo Xiang from the Imperial Stables, who had heard the news, came over.

After they learned that Zhang Luan was going to leave the palace, they all felt that this was the most important event at the moment.

It seems that the imperial palace at this moment cannot do without Zhang Luan.

"I... two hours... will it be possible..."

Zhang Luan was somewhat reluctant.

His original intention was to wait until daybreak before returning.

I go home and you’re not even allowed to stay overnight?

Being a doctor is really hard work.

Luo Xiang said, "Everyone, how about this? I will personally escort Mr. Zhang out of the palace, using the best and fastest carriages on the way back and forth, and escort him in the most perfect way... From the Qianqing Palace to Donghua Gate, and from Donghua Gate to Dong'an Gate, we will all ride on horseback, and vice versa. Everyone, take a look..."

Li Zisheng asked doubtfully, "I wonder if His Majesty would allow... to make this arrangement."

Luo Xiang said helplessly: "Master Li, what time is it now? Master Zhang leaving the palace, that is a big deal. In this way, it can probably guarantee a round trip in two hours."

Wei Tai nodded and said, "Then it's settled. Prepare a horse for Minister Zhang and make sure he's safe!"

At this time, someone from the Imperial Hospital who was about to change shift to the night shift came over from the other side and saw the constant hustle and bustle here, and thought something big had happened.

When they learned that it was the Emperor's order that Zhang Luan, the chief imperial physician of the Ming Dynasty, was allowed to leave the palace and take a two-hour vacation, they couldn't help but smile bitterly.

They can enter and leave the palace freely, and even take turns, mainly because no one takes them seriously. But once Zhang Luan is about to leave the palace, everyone in the palace becomes extremely nervous. This also goes to show that if the emperor is to be treated now, Zhang Luan must be left behind.

……

……

Zhang Luan quickly "escaped" from the palace.

He was afraid that Queen Mother Zhou would find out that he had left the palace and force him back, because he couldn't imagine how angry his aunt would be. But now he had no idea what he was going to do in the palace, and he didn't trust others to ask his son about it. After all, when conveying information, it often needs to be communicated in the most covert way.

Once more people know about it, the news will easily leak out and those secrets can no longer be told.

So Zhang Luan felt that he had to ask his son in person what task he had been assigned.

Escorted by Luo Xiang, he rode out of the palace on horseback.

It felt like we were speeding along the way.

There was actually a day when he would ride a horse in the palace... Although it was not a power granted to him by the emperor, almost everyone around the emperor knew that he had to ride a horse, otherwise he would not make it in time. This meant that no one would care about this matter at all.

If you have the ability, don’t let me treat my illness. You can even throw me into prison and see who will be more anxious in the end.

After leaving the palace, Zhang Luan took a carriage and, escorted by hundreds of factory guards, quickly arrived at his new house in the south of the city. After knocking on the door, it took a long time for someone to come and open the door, but only Zhang Yanling was standing inside the door.

Zhang Heling waited here for two days but was so bored that he never came back.

"Dad? Why are you back?"

Zhang Yanling was puzzled when he saw his old father. But when he saw a group of escorting people behind him, he roughly realized that Zhang Luan was "returning home in glory."

Luo Xiang urged, "Master Zhang, please take it easy. How about two hours from now? It will take a long time to get back to the palace. This is the greatest concession I can make."

"it is good."

Zhang Luan immediately walked in, turned around to close the gate, and dragged Zhang Yanling to the main hall.

After making sure that no one was eavesdropping, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Hurry up and have someone boil some water. I want to take a hot bath. These past few days... I've been sweating like crazy, and every day has been a living hell. Today I was finally allowed to go home, and I fought for two hours. There are so many people watching me. My son, do you know that your father has been living a miserable life these past few days?"

Zhang Yanling asked, "Is it good?"

"what!?"

Zhang Luan asked in surprise, "What did you say?"

"I'm asking you, have your experiences over the past few days satisfied your vanity and made you enjoy an unprecedented sense of accomplishment? Do you have a feeling that you are the only one in the world, or even second to none?" Zhang Yanling asked.

"This one……"

Zhang Luan scratched his head and said with a guilty smile, "To be honest, it is a little bit true."

Zhang Yanling asked, "How do you feel?"

"Not very good, sometimes it can satisfy my vanity, but son, that's treating the emperor, I'm really afraid that if something goes wrong, our whole family will suffer."

Zhang Luan immediately put the blame on him.

Zhang Yanling rolled his eyes at his old father and said, "Let's talk seriously... Do you think this kind of words can deceive your son?"

Zhang Luan was stunned for a moment and asked, "Maybe I can't fool you, but...even the boss won't fall for it, right?"

Zhang Yanling didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Since you know that neither of your sons will buy into this, why are you still talking about it?"

"Bah, you kid!"

Zhang Luan said unhappily, "I wanted to scold you, but you suddenly gave me a prescription, which really made the emperor's head better. Do you know how many people criticized me for this? Even the queen mother gave me a cold look...

"Some people even questioned why I had such a good prescription and didn't share it with them earlier. I tried to persuade them by explaining that the prescription had side effects and could only be used at certain times... Do you think it was easy for me to convince them?"

Zhang Yanling said with disdain: "The prescription is in your hands, and you are the only one who has this ability. What can you do? Others don't believe it. If they think they can do it, let them take over... Next time someone finds fault with you, just fight back."

"The Queen Mother is finding fault with me, can I blame her? You are such a stick, you blame everyone you see... Oh, where are the people? Someone come! Boil some water!"

Zhang Luan shouted a few times, but no one responded.

Finally, he simply ran to the door of the room and called the maid in the backyard to come over. He only came back after everyone went to the kitchen to prepare.

……

……

"My son, tell me, what should your father do now? Let me tell you first, the time I have back this time is extremely limited, and I don't have much time to talk to you in detail. You decide... leave the rest to me... and you can go back!"

Zhang Luan had an attitude of, "Just explain everything clearly to me and let me face it."

But before facing it in the end, as a father, I still want to... relax a little.

Zhang Yanling had long known that his father was a playboy at heart, but he was old and his family was poor in his early years, so he was not qualified to live a life of luxury.

But now he has the opportunity to revive his family business. Even though he has been released from the palace and his time is extremely limited, he wants to take some time out from his busy schedule to do something he wants to do and loves to do.

Can't stop it!
It's a bit of an exaggeration to say that rotten mud cannot be propped up against a wall... It's just rotten mud, why force it?
He knew very well what kind of person Zhang Luan was in history.

He is just an ordinary relative by marriage. He is a rare enlightened father in this era for listening to his son. What else can be done?
"do nothing!"

Zhang Yanling suggested, "You have helped the prince so many times, and you have laid all the necessary groundwork. Next, just wait for the big event to happen.

"I calculated it and it will probably only take a few days. No matter how we extend His Majesty's life, there is a limit. Once the time is up, no matter how much we do, it will be useless."

(End of this chapter)