Volume 1 Chapter 17

  The maid who followed was startled by Jing Wangfei's severe tone and hastily bowed her head, saying "I'll go invite the doctors from the mansion right away." She turned to leave, but was stopped by Baili Rongyin.

  "He gently comforted the quiet Wang Fei, 'Mother, I'm fine, don't worry. The imperial physician has already examined me and prescribed a remedy, and now they're all out getting the medicine. I just didn't want too many people around, so I had everyone leave.'"

  The Queen heard the words and slowly calmed down, grasping Baili Rongyin's hand and saying "How do you feel now? Is there still anywhere uncomfortable?" She had only just entered the palace for a few hours and was chatting with her own sister.

  Suddenly, she received a report from the Wang Fu that Jin'er had fainted. Frightened, she almost lost her soul and hurriedly left the palace to rush back.

  "Baili Rongjin shook her head slightly, 'I just fainted for a moment, and after lying down to rest, I quickly recovered. It seems that these past few days have been too exhausting. There's no serious illness, Mother shouldn't be too worried.'"

  After listening to her son's persuasion and seeing that he was indeed fine, Queen Jeong's heart, which had been hanging in suspense since receiving the news, finally fell.

  She let out a sigh of relief and said, "Then don't bother to deal with those documents anymore. I'll go talk to your aunt and have her mention it to the Emperor, so they won't give you any more documents to handle in the future."

  She has been in poor health since she was born, and no matter how much medicine she takes, it doesn't seem to get better. Whenever her son gets a headache or fever, her heart is worried sick. She's deeply afraid that something bad will happen to her son.

  "Mother, you're not unaware that the Empress Dowager has never gotten along with my uncle and has been trying every means to seize power. If I were to feign illness at this time, I fear the Empress Dowager would inevitably take advantage of the opportunity."

  The Empress Dowager was not the Emperor's birth mother, and the two had been at odds for a long time. Although it was not apparent on the surface, in reality this had long been an unspoken understanding among those in power.

  The Empress Dowager relied on her illustrious maternal family, the Liu clan, and joined forces with her brother Liu Zhipeng to try to strip the Emperor of his power.

  The Liu family has been rooted in Kyoto for many years, with great power and complex relationships. The imperial court is also filled with their eyes and ears, making it difficult for the emperor to move freely.

  In order to prevent the Liu family from interfering with politics, power was transferred. The emperor had long wanted to get rid of the Liu family, and since his accession, he had been openly and secretly struggling with the empress dowager, taking advantage of many opportunities to cut off a lot of power from the Liu family.

  After several rounds of imperial examinations, he cleaned up many of his opponents' claws on the court and now the emperor has successfully replaced most important officials with his own people, no longer being passive everywhere.

  The Liu clan was no longer as prosperous as it used to be, but a dead camel is bigger than a horse, and the emperor was also constrained by the character "filial piety". Therefore, the matter of getting rid of Empress Dowager's party could only be planned slowly.

  Baili Yongjin deeply gained the emperor's trust, and his ability to handle matters was extremely strong. Although he had no official position, in the imperial court, he was a nameless but powerful figure. The emperor often directly bypassed 'certain' officials and handed over some important affairs to him for handling, thereby undermining the power of the Liu clan.

  The Empress Dowager had long regarded him as a thorn in her eye and a stab to the flesh. Today's incident of his illness must not be known to the Empress Dowager, otherwise she would take advantage of his poor health and inability to handle official duties as an excuse to let the Emperor hand over power to the Liu family members who were serving in the imperial court.

  The quiet queen had a mind to say a few more words, but she couldn't open her mouth. Although she didn't understand court politics, she also knew that the empress dowager had always been at odds with the emperor. Jin'er was extremely intelligent since childhood and now deeply gained the emperor's appreciation and trust, often letting him handle some important matters. If Jin'er resigned due to illness, the happiest person would probably be the empress dowager.

  Seeing Jing Wangfei's worried face, Baili Rongjin comforted her, "Mother, don't worry, at most I'll promise you that from now on, I'll only spend 3 hours a day handling official documents. That way, there will be enough time to rest."

  The queen's expression finally relaxed as she hastily asked, "Is what you said true? Don't deceive me."

  Her son often has to deal with official documents until late at night. She doesn't know how many times she's told him, but he still does the same thing. He won't rest until he finishes dealing with the documents, and it's rare for him to be willing to relax and reduce the time spent reading them.

  "Really, I'm not deceiving you. At most, it's just three hours." Ba Li Rong Jin's tone was extremely affirmative.

  The King's consort was just about to speak when the door opened again, and in walked the King himself, dressed in elegant brocade robes, his eyes betraying a hint of anxiety beneath his calm demeanor.

  The queen consort turned around to see her husband, and hastily got up to greet him. "Your Majesty, you're back." Although she had entered the palace with the king this morning, he had gone to the imperial study to discuss matters with the emperor. She had gone to her sister, the empress's chambers. After hearing about Jin'er's incident, she had rushed out of the palace in such a hurry that she even forgot to send someone to inform the king.

  The King nodded and naturally put his arm around Queen Jing, who was leaning against the bed, and walked over to Baili Yongzheng. "I received a message from the Empress's messenger and hurried back. How is Rong'er doing? What did the imperial physicians say?"

  He was discussing matters with the Emperor when halfway through, the Empress suddenly sent someone to deliver a message, and only then did he learn that Jin'er had fallen ill and fainted. Upon receiving the news, he hastily bid farewell to the Emperor and rode his horse back to the Wang Manor at top speed.

  The queen said, "Ji'er said that he might have fainted from exhaustion and didn't think it was a big deal. The imperial doctors have prescribed medicine and gone to prepare it."

  Looking at his weak son, King Jing secretly felt heartache: His Jin'er was indeed a stunning talent, but he had suffered from illness and pain since childhood, drinking more medicine than eating rice. He sought out famous doctors everywhere to treat his illness, but still couldn't make him better.

  The King slightly calmed his mind and said, "The Empress has just bestowed a lot of precious medicinal materials. Let the kitchen staff stew that 500-year-old ginseng to help Jin'er recover her body. There's nothing urgent in the imperial court these days, so you can stay in the mansion and rest well, don't bother with those trivial matters."

  The last sentence was directly addressed to Baili Yongjun, who nodded silently in response.

  Knowing that King Jing is also extremely concerned about his son's body, and thinking along the same lines as her, Queen Jing naturally smiled and readily agreed.

  "Father, Mother, I'm tired and want to rest for a while."

  The queen hastily nodded "Then you rest well, I'll go instruct the kitchen to stew a good ginseng soup for you, and you can drink it when you wake up."

  "Good." Ba Li Rong Jin nodded slightly.

  Although King Jing didn't say a word, he instructed the maid before leaving: "Take good care of the young master."

  After King Jing and Queen Jing left, the large house became quiet again.

  After a while, Qingyu came back from outside with a bowl of black medicine in her hand. She walked up to Baili Rongyin and said, "Young Master, this is the new prescription made by the imperial physician, freshly brewed. Would you like to drink it while it's still hot?"

  Baili Rongjin raised her eyes and looked at the bowl of medicine, saying softly "Take it away and pour it out."

  No matter how much he drank, his body didn't show any improvement at all.

  Qingyu was dazed for a moment, then suddenly came to. The medicine prescribed by the imperial physicians had been somewhat effective at first, but as time went on, it gradually lost its effect. Now, when it came to the prince's illness, it was completely useless. Since the medicine was ineffective, why bother continuing to take it?

  He had no choice but to go out and pour away the medicine. When he came back, however, he found the young master holding several sheets of thin paper, staring at them intently.

  Qing Yu walked closer and took a look, only to realize that this wasn't written by the young lady who knew medicine in 'Zui Xiang Lou', was it? She had only heard her say that these were several medicinal dishes used to help the young master recover his health.

  At that time, he was a bit confused, after all, 'Yaoshan' this time he had heard of it for the first time.

  It's just that thinking about Miss's medical skills seems to be quite superb, maybe trying it out isn't impossible after all.

  Qing Yu's spirit lifted instantly, and he tried opening his mouth to say, "Young Master, would you like to try these few dishes of medicine?"

  Baili Rongjin was quietly looking at the few medicinal dishes written by Xia Tingcong, with detailed cooking steps on it. The paper had a faint scent of ink, and the words were beautiful cursive script.

  Suddenly hearing Qingyu's question, Baili Rongjin thought of Xia Tingcong's naturally calm expression, as if he had only gotten a common cold.

  Her slender fingers gently stroked the paper for a long time before she handed the prescription to Qingyu and instructed, "Let the kitchen staff make these dishes every day and send them over."

  Qing Yu nodded and put away several papers close to his body, then asked, "Young Master, should this matter be reported to the King and Queen?"

  Baili Rongjin shook her head slightly, "It's not possible, this matter can't be known to others. Even the medicine prescribed by the imperial physician must be instructed to the kitchen to continue brewing as usual, and then find a place to dispose of it after it's brought back. If this medicinal dish is really effective, once people know about it, I'm afraid some people in the mansion will not be able to sit still."

  Digression

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