Chapter 66: Anxious, the critical moment
Why wasn’t Han Yunxi starting treatment even after getting the Life Blood Pill? Everyone was astonished, but Han Yunxi started to explain.
“I’m too exhausted. Let’s start in the afternoon to avoid making any mistakes.”
She’d been rushing about for her entire trip and was now tired out. These people were anxious, but not her. She had to look after her own body. As a doctor, taking responsibility for herself was being responsible to the patient. Although the Life Blood Pill was at hand, although it was just a small surgery to expel the poison, it was still making an incision. If she wasn’t careful during the process, then it’d be hard to predict the consequences. Hearing her words, Emperor Tianhui’s eyes flashed with displeasure, but the dreaded ‘avoid making any mistakes’ kept his mouth shut as he nodded to agree.
Han Yunxi slept all morning in a wing of the Eastern Palace. Besides Long Feiye, no one else left. They were all nervous but had no choice but to wait for her all morning. In the afternoon, she woke up and ate a few snacks before returning to the courtyard. Gu Beiyue had already finished all preparations and was waiting for her. Han Yunxi was surprised to see no sign of Long Feiye around, but she had no time to dwell on the details.
“Han Yunxi, are you alert now?” Emperor Tianhui asked loftily.
“To reply your majesty, Yunxi’s recovered quite a bit,” Han Yunxi bent slightly, replying with honest words.
“Then that’s good. You should know that if there’s any mistake…” Emperor Tianhui didn’t finish his words, but it was a stronger warning because of it.
“Yunxi understands,” Han Yunxi kept her head bowed, eyes lowered. She was very calm. Since Emperor Tianhui had said things this way, she naturally had requirements of her own. “Your majesty, when chenqie is performing the treatment, I don’t want anyone else there except Imperial Physician Gu.”
These words made the empress ill at ease. She spoke up coldly, “Han Yunxi, what kind of attitude is this?”
At one side, the waiting Han Congan immediately called her into question. “Qin Wangfei, could it be that your treatment has some unseen plot, and that’s why you want to clear the scene? Or maybe you’re afraid that the crown prince has an infant in his stomach and you’re worried others will see?”
Han Yunxi shot him a cold glare and mocked, “How about you treat him, Divine Doctor Han?”
“You!” Han Congan had no answer, but spun to face Emperor Tianhui. “Your majesty, as this subject sees it, there’s definitely something fishy!”
Gu Beiyue was accustomed to Han Yunxi’s habits and readied himself to explain, but she sincerely petitioned Emperor Tianhui instead. “Your majesty, this treatment takes a lot of concentration. With you here, there’s a lot of pressure on Yunxi and I can’t concentrate. To minimize putting the patient at risk, and for the crown prince’s own safety, I’d like to ask the emperor to please understand. As for Divine Doctor Han’s suspicions, Yunxi said long before: when the poison in the crown prince’s stomach has dissolved, he can examine a sample himself.”
When Han Yunxi fell into character, it revealed her respectable, professional side. Though her voice wasn’t very loud, it gave people an unmistakable sense of authority. She didn’t wait for Emperor Tianhui to reply before adding, “Besides that, Yunxi has another requirement. While Yunxi is doing the treatment, I hope the surroundings can be kept safe and quiet, besides exceptions and mandatory disturbances.”
All the people present were part of the empire’s noblest, but right now the doctor took precedence! Although Han Yunxi’s attitude made Emperor Tianhui very uncomfortable, things had already arrived at this critical juncture so he could only agree. Leaving aside the matter of who was responsible, he really didn’t want to see any mistakes happen. After the treatment was over, he’d immediately send people to check the scene so there was no way Han Yunxi could trick them.
“All right, Zhen agrees. Hopefully, you will not disappoint Zhen, go on in,” Emperor Tianhui said coldly. Since he accepted the terms, Han Congan could say nothing more. He gave Han Yunxi a resentful glare and expectantly waited to check the treatment once it was over.
“Many thanks to your majesty’s allowances. Yunxi won’t disappoint you,” Han Yunxi was still fairly confident. After taking care of the blood loss problem, this treatment was much easier. She straightened up and prepared to go in with Gu Beiyue when the empress caught up with them, tugging at her hand.
“Yunxi, I’ll leave Tianmo with you.”
Han Yunxi was about to speak when the empress lowered her voice with a cold warning.
“Han Yunxi, you better make sure that Tianmo’s safe and sound. Otherwise, I definitely won’t let you off!” her lips quirked into an arrogant smile. “Of course, if you cure Tianmo, neither I nor the empress dowager will treat you injustly.”
Han Yunxi had a cold smile in her heart. All this fuss was caused by the empress herself. It was a rare thing for them to treat her fairly, so she’d be more thankful if they didn’t cause her any more trouble. She didn’t reply, but gave the empress a keen look before pushing aside her hands without a sign. Instantly, she entered the bedroom and shut the doors. Seeing this, the empress grew so angry that her face turned dark. What a good Han Yunxi. If you weren’t the Duke of Qin’s official wife, I could kill you with a pinch of my fingers. You better be this self-assured the next time you come out, or else I’ll give you a good show!
When the doors shut, neither the empress dowager nor empress left, but stood carefully by the door to eavesdrop, hoping to overhear something. The empress’s indignation piled atop indignations, but she was still more worried than anything else. The emperor didn’t go far, but sat down in the courtyard. When he saw the empress dowager and empress looking so sneaky without a hint of decorum, he could help but feel irritated.
“Imperial Mother[1], come sit,” he said mildly,
Only then did the empress dowager come over, eyes filled with worry. “Aye…my heart keeps jumping up and down, I’m restless!”
The empress was about to echo her sentiments, but spotted the emperor’s impatience and gave up the idea. She kept the empress dowager company by sitting next to her. Those who waited felt time was long even if it was one more second. Yet inside the room, the bustling Han Yunxi had long lost track of time. She’d already done various necessary examinations on Long Tianmo to verify that she could use anesthetic medicine immediately after cutting him open. He had to be fully unconscious because 1) taking the medicine would make him feel very uncomfortable, and 2) Long Tianmo might not be able to endure it when she used a knife on him. Of course, the most important thing was that she didn’t want Long Tianmo to see too much.
Her detoxification system had a new type of anesthetic that was very easy to use. Before long, Long Tianmo had thoroughly passed out. Gu Beiyue had just started boiling the medicine, a big pack of poisonous herbs cooked into a small bowl of liquid. It really was poisonous, with a very strange flavor. Even Gu Beiyue, who had grown up around piles of medicine since childhood, couldn’t stand it. Luckily, Long Tianmo had fainted away, or else it’d been a hassle to get him to drink the medicine. After it finished boiling, Gu Beiyue took charge of feeding Long Tianmo himself.
Han Yunxi walked to the medicine pot and was about to get rid of the decoction dregs when she halted in place, hesitating. The smell of these toxic dregs were stronger than she imagined! No matter if she hid it in her medicine pouch or Gu Beiyue’s traveling case, it’d still be possible to sniff it out. It’d be hard to explain things if it was discovered.
What to do?
Han Yunxi glanced back at Gu Beiyue, who was completely focused on Long Tianmo, as a complicated look flickered past her eyes. She shifted her position so that her back was to him, blocking his line of sight. Unknown to Han Yunxi, there was a pair of icy eyes staring at her from the ceiling. Long Feiye could tell instantly that Han Yunxi was acting peculiar. He immediately suspected that there was something wrong inside the medicine pot, but he wasn’t knowledgeable enough to tell what.
Could it be that Han Yunxi was hiding something from Gu Beiyue?
At this moment, Han Yunxi grabbed the dregs out with her hands as if to sniff them. However, while Long Feiye was distracted, the dregs in her hands vanished into thin air. Long Feiye abruptly knitted his brows before shifting over a roof tile to look more clearly. He only saw that the dregs in the pot were long gone, while Han Yunxi turned to open Gu Beiyue’s medicine chest to retrieve bag of medicine.
Where did it go?
Did he see wrongly, or did it really disappear into thin air? He thought it over multiple times, but couldn’t figure it out.
—
Hiding the dregs of the poison in her detox system dimension was the safest place. There was no way to smell it from there. Han Yunxi darted a glance at Gu Beiyue, seeing that he was still feeding Long Tianmo the poison. She expelled a breath and felt much more relaxed, before taking out the pre-prepared ingredients she’d stored in his chest. This mix was exactly the combination she’d haphazardly written up in her prescription. She dumped the entire thing into the medicine pot before filling it halfway with water and boiling it anew. After she finished expelling the poison, this medicine should boil into dregs as well. At that time, she’d have nothing to fear when Emperor Tianhui and Han Congan came for their inspections.
After the entire bowl of poison was ingested, Han Yunxi’s gaze turned solemn. Though she was about to perform a very simple surgery, there was still risk involved. The next step was the most crucial, dangerous one. When the poison entered the stomach, it’d start to dissolve Long Tianmo’s fetus in fetu–or what Han Yunxi preferred to call a ‘thing,’ because it was only something that had life but no human form. Thinking this way reduced her sense of committing a crime against a life.
Han Yunxi calmly lifted Long Tianmo’s robes to expose his swollen stomach. Though Gu Beiyue knew she was a doctor right now, he was still tongue-tied seeing such nimble movements. Again, he admired this woman for not being affectedly bashful like other females. Her behavior was reckless, but her heart was very magnanimous. When she did things, it was clear-cut, decisive, and bold.
“Imperial Physician Gu, before I make the cut you can’t speak to me. No matter what happens, you mustn’t disturb me!” Han Yunxi’s tone was very serious.
It took some time for the poison to dissolve inside, but this period of time determined when Han Yunxi should cut. If she was too early, she’d have no way to dissolve all of the fetus in fetu. Too late, and the poison might pose a risk to his internal organs and create new complications or aftereffects.
Han Yunxi wouldn’t allow any of that, nor could she afford to let it happen. Those three people waiting outside the door weren’t meant to be provoked and there was a Han Congan waiting to seize on her mistakes. This step had to succeed! There was no allowance for failure!
Although Gu Beiyue didn’t understand the profound and subtle details, he knew this step was critical. Otherwise, Han Yunxi wouldn’t have raised her second requirement for Emperor Tianhui back then for peace and quiet.
“All right, don’t be too nervous,” Gu Beiyue said, before turning to walk far away to minimize distractions.
Han Yunxi’s line of sight rested on Long Tianmo’s swollen stomach, her gaze solemn and focus. She immediately activate the detox system’s deep-level scanners to observe the poison in Long Tianmo’s stomach and tracked its displacement throughout the body. Judging by the toxicity of the poison, she could measure the degree of corrosion against the thing inside. Right now, Han Yunxi was completely concentrated, her entire being emanating a severity that brooked no disturbances that kept people away.
Although the detox system’s deep-level scanners could compute things accurately, she still needed to consciously work with the system. Her focus needed to be 100 percent; otherwise, the scanners would generate errors that would affect the timing for her incision.
Gu Beiyue looked at her breathtaking form from a distance. He liked this woman most of all when she was concentrating. And yet, right at this moment…
-o-
[1] imperial mother (母后) – muhou, the variation on mufei; in this case, the mother is an official consort/empress rather than a concubine.