Ask the Nine Ministers

Chapter 233 The Wolf Trap
The earth's energy seeped out from the cracks in the bluestone slabs, mixed with a musty smell, which made Xue Sui cough and his breathing sound like sandpaper being rubbed.

The jailer raised the oil lamp in his hand, casting a pale light across her face, revealing a sickly flush on her cheeks.

"How is it? What symptoms can be diagnosed?"

Wang Bo'an stroked his beard and pondered for a moment before taking out a small enamel box from his medicine chest.

"This is the Jade Dew Pill, a secret recipe from the Imperial Medical Academy. It's excellent for moisturizing the lungs and relieving coughs. Take it with warm water, and once the medicinal properties enter your throat, it will suppress this cough..."

As he spoke, his eyes swept over the jailer, who immediately brought over warm water; the rim of the earthenware bowl still had unwashed tea stains on it.

Xue Sui frowned, then suddenly chuckled.

"Doctor, do you know that I also know a little about medicine and poisons? This pill is unusually sticky and has a bitter almond smell. Could it be poisonous?"

The old doctor's hand trembled, and the pill he had been holding between his fingers rolled into the pile of straw...

Taking advantage of the moment, Xue Sui bent down and picked up the pill, putting it into his palm.

"That was just a casual joke, doctor, there's no need to be nervous..."

After saying that, he took the tea from the jailer, tilted his head back, and swallowed it down...

Wang Bo'an's back slumped visibly, and a look of relief appeared on his face...

"I'll prescribe another medicine for my wife. With a few days of rest, she'll surely recover..."

Xue Sui smiled slightly, leaned back against the cold, damp stone wall, and said softly, "It is my good fortune to receive such care from the doctor, a prisoner of this status."
-
The next day, before dawn, Xiao Zhao woke up groggily from the haystack and touched Xue Sui beside her; his hand was burning hot.

Startled, she immediately sat up and took a closer look. She saw that the flush on Xue Sui's face had spread from his neck to his ears, as if he had been burned. His prison clothes were also soaked with cold sweat, as if water could be wrung out with a gentle twist.

"Girl, your forehead is burning hot! Your cold is getting worse."

Xiao Zhao's eyes reddened with anxiety, and her voice was trembling with tears.

"Don't be afraid..." Xue Sui slightly opened his eyes, his chapped lips parting slightly, "You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub..."

Xiao Zhao held Xue Sui's burning hot hand tightly, and her tears fell even more heavily, like beads from a broken string.

"Miss, my heart aches... I want to kill someone..."

Xue Sui: "..."

For three days in a row, Xue Sui's condition not only did not improve at all, but became more and more serious.

She was so weak that she didn't even have the strength to speak. She could only lie on the haystack and occasionally let out a few weak coughs.

The jailer, upon hearing this, felt a sudden unease.

If something were to happen to Consort Xue in the dungeon, and the Prince were to blame him, he would be in deep trouble.

Therefore, he dared not delay for a moment and ran all the way to report to Li Huan.

When Li Huan learned of the news, he was still reviewing the case files submitted by the Jingzhao Prefecture. He didn't say much, but simply ordered someone to summon Chen Henian, the skilled physician from the Prince Duan's residence, to the Ministry of Justice prison for a consultation.

However, when Chen Henian came out of the Ministry of Justice prison carrying his medicine box, Li Huan was already standing under the sycamore tree beside the path in front of the prison.

Seeing the prince's gloomy face, Physician Chen quickened his pace and approached, his forehead soaked with cold sweat.

"I have met His Highness."

Li Huan's face showed no emotion, but his eyes were so cold they seemed to freeze people.

"How is the illness...?"

Physician Chen said, "Your Highness, the concubine's pulse... is floating, large, and empty, like snow covering charcoal fire, indicating external cold and internal burning... This is a sign of the struggle between the body's vital energy and pathogenic factors after wind-cold has entered the body..."

"How could a common cold linger so long without healing?" Li Huan's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, his voice hoarse and unlike his own.

Physician Chen cupped his hands in greeting and lowered his head even further: "This illness is complex and difficult to treat, requiring both internal and external treatment, proceeding step by step... However, Consort Xue was injured before, and her constitution was already weak. In addition, the cold and dampness in prison has allowed the evil qi to penetrate into her marrow, which is really not conducive to the generation of her vital energy..."

His words abruptly stopped, and his Adam's apple bobbed laboriously.

"I heard that the Prince once summoned Physician Wang Bo'an from the former Imperial Hospital to administer medicine to his concubine..."

Li Huan gazed at the swaying shadows of the paulownia trees, his fingers suddenly clenching tightly.

"Is there anything wrong with Dr. Wang's prescription?"

Physician Chen hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, "This humble servant didn't see anything wrong, but..."

He gave an awkward laugh and didn't continue.

Li Huan, however, keenly sensed the unspoken meaning in his words.

In his memory, he had seen the Imperial Physician Wang when he entered the palace as a child. At that time, he and his mother were kneeling outside Zhaoyang Palace to pay their respects when the Imperial Physician Wang came out of the palace, carrying a medicine box in his hands. The clinking of the medicine bottles inside was particularly clear in the quiet palace corridors...

Not long after, the lady of Zhaoyang Palace passed away...

So the rhythmic clatter of the medicine bottles that day gave him nightmares for several nights in a row...

When he grew up, he happened to browse through old palace archives and learned that the imperial physician was skilled at preparing folk remedies and rare medicines. After the current emperor ascended the throne, his health deteriorated and he retired to his hometown.

He had some doubts about the Empress Dowager's true intentions in summoning Wang Bo'an at this time...

Could it be that the Empress Dowager wanted Xue Sui dead, but wanted him to personally hand her the poisoned wine?

If Xue Sui were to die, the turmoil could indeed be temporarily quelled.

Withered leaves rustled down onto his shoulders, appearing like frost against his mourning clothes. "Use the best medicine and take good care of her. Report back immediately if anything goes wrong..."

Li Huan narrowed his eyes slightly and then looked at Aji.

Aji quickly took off the money pouch from his waist and stuffed it into Doctor Chen's hand.

Physician Chen was flattered and overwhelmed. "Your Highness is too kind. I am paid by the Prince's court, so I should share Your Highness's burdens and do my best to treat the concubine..."

Li Huan: "If your condition does not improve within ten days, you shall go to the Punishment Department to accept your punishment."

After saying that, he turned around and caught a glimpse of a dark cloud looming over the Ministry of Justice prison, making it hard for people to breathe.

He suddenly recalled the day they played chess, and how Xue Sui calmly and smilingly placed his pieces.

Only now did I realize that this game of chess was no longer just a contest between the Crown Prince's Palace and the Prince Duan's Mansion.

From the night of the sudden death of the imperial concubine, the original balance of the court was broken, and the whole situation fell into a greater chaos and vortex, drawing more people into it...

In his heart, he didn't want Xue Sui to die.

But when he recalled the mocking glint in her eyes when she revealed her virginity mark in court, he felt a tangled mess in his chest, a suffocating tightness...
-
After the second watch of the night, the lights were still on in the Wang family's medicine shop deep in Fushou Lane.

After Wang Bo'an retired to his hometown, his son opened a medicine shop in the capital, thus carrying on his mantle...

The old man sat in front of the pine wood medicine cabinet, putting the dried perilla leaves into a ceramic jar.

The lanterns under the eaves swayed in the night wind, casting dappled shadows on his aged face.

"Father, it's time to rest." His son, Wang Qingyu, entered carrying a bamboo tray filled with medicine. Seeing him still fiddling with the herbs on the table, he couldn't help but advise him:
“At your age, it’s already hard enough for you to go to the dungeon to treat people. Don’t worry about things at the medicine shop. If you don’t take care of your health, what will happen if you collapse from exhaustion? From now on, you don’t need to go for these things yourself anymore. Let your son do it.”

He was also somewhat puzzled by his father's sudden decision to leave his family behind and go to Beijing for medical treatment.

Wang Bo'an didn't look up, his fingers slowly twirling perilla leaves, making a soft crunching sound.

"As I get older, I just want to do more things, which can be considered as accumulating some good karma for my descendants."

Wang Qingyu sighed, "My eldest son and second son are still in Xingzhou. Father, you should go back and take care of them as soon as possible. Without you, they'll be mischievous all day long, and if they make some shady friends, their studies will probably fall apart..."

After saying that, he turned around and looked at the medical record on the wooden table, thus missing the fleeting panic in Wang Bo'an's eyes...

On the table was the prescription Wang Bo'an had written for Xue Sui that day; the handwriting was illegible...

Wang Qingyu leaned closer to examine it for a moment, then heard the medicine boy report from outside.

"Master, a servant from Changfeng Escort Agency has come to collect the calming soup."

As soon as Wang Qingyu responded, Wang Bo'an stopped.

"You all go down first. I'll take care of things..."

"Squeak-"

The wooden door was flung open by the cold wind.

Wang Qingyu stepped out and saw a man in a blue robe standing in front of the door, the black jade at his waist gleaming coldly in the snow.

Behind him stood two servants dressed in ordinary cloth shirts, their backs straight. Although they deliberately concealed their imposing manner, it was clear that they had received specialized training and were skilled martial artists who had practiced for many years.

Wang Qingyu glanced nervously at his father and closed the door.

As soon as his son left, Wang Bo'an's straight back hunched over instantly, like a puppet controlled by invisible threads. His knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the blue bricks.

"What is Physician Wang afraid of?" Li Zhao's boots crunched over the scattered herbs on the ground. He picked up the medical record on the table and sat down casually.

"Your handwriting is quite good, but I wonder about the prescription?"

Wang Bo'an pressed his forehead to the ground, trembling all over. "Your Highness, please have mercy and spare my two grandsons and this old man of mine..."

Li Zhao curled his lips into a cold smile, "Those wronged souls who died in the palace twenty years ago also had families, and Imperial Physician Wang didn't spare them either..."

The temperature inside the medicine hut plummeted. Wang Bo'an stared at the dark embroidery on the cuffs of the medicine hut, recalling that Lantern Festival night, a snowy day like this, when Consort Zhaoyuan died before his eyes with wide-open eyes...

He suddenly raised his hand, grabbed his gray hair, and tears streamed down his face.

"Your Highness, please have mercy! This old minister has prescribed medicine for Lady Xue as instructed."

"I'm not here to dredge up old grievances," Li Zhao interrupted him, his nonchalant tone concealing a murderous intent. "I'm just here to see if you're willing to be the executioner of the Crown Prince, or the gravedigger of the Wang family?"

Wang Bo'an was covered in cold sweat, which almost soaked through his inner garment.

On one side was Li Zhao's coercion and enticement.

On one hand, the Empress Dowager was exerting pressure covertly.

If he could, he would rather commit suicide to atone for his sins, exchanging his own life for the safety of his entire family...

But now, there's no turning back...

"Your Highness, this old minister... this old minister was also forced into this situation back then..."

"Helpless?" Li Zhao suddenly sneered, picked up the prescription Wang Bo'an had given to Xue Sui, and stuffed it into his sleeve. "Three days later, I want to see traces of snow-white on Consort Xue's pulse record."

He left the small courtyard of the medicine hut with a smile.

The loneliness in his eyes sent chills down the spines of Guan Ya and Yuan Cang, who were traveling with him.