Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

231. A Life-saving Pill

Translator: Bryan

Eyes red, Ashina Yi suddenly burst out laughing. His laughter made the physicians’ flesh creep. The guards waiting quietly outside mistakenly believed that the physicians in the room angered Ashina Yi again, and all of were so terrified that they hardly dared to breathe. They hadn’t heard such horrifying laughter for a long time. They could only hope that the punishment would be less severe this time.

The physician also gave a shudder. He was just about to lift his head to sneak a glance at Ashina Yi’s face when the latter grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the floor. “You have a way. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!” Having realized that he was overreacting, Ashina Yi made an effort to compose himself.

“Say it out and I’ll grant you amnesty, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded too.” Ashina Yi was now behaving normally, except for his firm grip. The physician, knowing that his conjecture was right, felt a sense of relief. “Your Highness, this method can only keep the poison from spreading. It’s not a cure.”

As he said this, he took out a small white pill from his medicine chest and handed it to Ashina Yi. “I have only three such pills. These pills are very difficult to make. It requires a lot of medicinal materials and time. If you want to manufacture this kind of pills in large quantities, I’m afraid it’ll cost you dearly.”

The physician was quite right about it. The reason why he had only made three pills was because he had wanted to make provisions for his wife and children. Serving a prince was a dangerous job. He had just meant it as a contingency plan.

Naturally, Ashina Yi couldn’t be bothered to figure out what the physician was thinking. He promptly snatched the pill and held it to Du Chuxuan’s mouth. But due to the high fever, Du Chuxuan’s lips were compressed tightly together. It was impossible to even feed him any water, let alone a pill the size of a finger pulp.

Having noticed what was going on, the physician was just about to offer the prince a piece of advice when he saw the prince do something so embarrassing that everybody present felt an urge to gouge out their own eyes. Ashina Yi, standing still, put the pill into his own mouth, then lowered his head to gently press his lips onto Du Chuxuan’s. He personally sent the pill into Du Chuxuan’s mouth with his tongue.

The others instantly lowered their heads, pretending not to have seen it. If any of them breathed a word of this to any outsiders, none of them would be able to make it out of this tent alive. Predictably, a few moments’ later, Ashina Yi straightened himself. “About what happened in this tent, you know what to do.”

Their heads down, all the physicians nodded vigorously. “Your Highness may rest assured that we won’t say anything.” Ashina Yi’s eyes raked their faces before he instructed, “Starting from today, all of you are to focus on making this kind of pills. You’ll be rewarded with 10,000 taels of gold for every pill you make.”

This was definitely a tempting reward. A consummate physician might well be able to make one or even two pills in a day if he exerted himself, which meant that he could make a great sum of money on a daily basis. The physicians present were so rapturous that they were no longer interested in the identity of the patient lying in bed.

After chucking out all the physicians, Ashina Yi turned around to look at Du Chuxuan who was lying in bed. Gazing at his closed eyes, Ashina Yi resignedly sighed, “I do want you to stay by my side, by not in this way. Don’t worry. I’ll never stop seeking a cure, as long as there’s still hope.”

“If it’s incurable…” Ashina Yi thought to himself. “I promise I’ll keep you out of harm’s way for the rest of my life.” No matter the danger was from him or Yuxing Tianrui.

Meanwhile, Yuxing Tianrui’s men were doing their job with high efficiency. They were all soldiers well seasoned in war. They quickly transferred the clothes back to the city safely. Yuxing Tianrui grabbed the last one and demanded, “Where’s my military counselor? Why is he not back?”

The soldier was stunned for a moment. He looked back at the firelight piercing through the night sky from the Turkish encampment and then said tentatively, “The counselor told us to leave first. He and Luo Er would hold back the enemies for us. He had your fiat in his hand, so we had to obey. But judging from the time of our departure, they should be on their way back now.”

After hearing the reply, Yuxing Tianrui felt a sense of foreboding, but he couldn’t say anything. Fingers stiff, he let go of the soldier and turned around to look in the direction of Turk. His eyes darting between the two places. He was eager to see Du Chuxuan cockily show up with a smug smile and tell him, “See? I told you it’s a piece of cake.”

“If you don’t come back today, I’ll lock you up in a house when you return,” Yuxing Tianrui murmured. Ada looked at Yuxing Tianrui who had said those words without warning, alarmed. Having perceived the brooding air emanating from Yuxing Tianrui, Ada came to realize that this time Yuxing Tianrui was really angry.

In the past, when angry, Yuxing Tianrui would only show a hint of it on his face. Ada had been serving the crown prince for a long time, but this was his first time seeing Yuxing Tianrui acting like this. Ada looked in the direction of the opposite encampment, praying that Du Chuxuan would return as soon as possible, for if he didn’t, the crown prince would definitely lose his marbles.

All the supplies transferred into the city, the soldiers at the gate decided to close the gate. Yuxing Tianrui bawled, “This is outrageous! The military counselor hasn’t come back yet! How dare you close the gate?!”

The soldiers exchanged awkward glances. Though the counselor was still not back, this was wartime. There was no telling if the Turkish soldiers would counterattack after such a hostile operation. If they left the city gate open, it would be tantamount to giving up a line of defense.

The deputy commander on the left also furrowed his brow. He was just about to step forward to talk the prince out of it when Ada next to them said, “The counselor was the one who got these winter clothes for you. Do you want to remove the millstones and kill the donkey?”

Yuxing Tianrui frowned slightly. Obviously, he was dissatisfied with Ada comparing Du Chuxuan to a donkey, but he couldn’t be bothered to reproach him for such a trivial matter in these circumstances. Eyes glittering with anxiety, he stared in the direction of the enemy’s encampment and whipped out the spear on the side. “I’m going to defend the wall personally. If anybody wants to get through, they’ll have to step over my dead body!”

After hearing Yuxing Tianrui’s words, all others didn’t dare utter another word. The deputy commander was somewhat anxious. Defending the city was indeed an important task, but Yuxing Tianrui was the foundation of Shenglan. If he came to any harm, everybody present would be deemed sinners by the people of Shenglan.

“Your Highness, please let us handle this. It’s a cold night. It’d be best if you go back and get some rest.”