The Eighth Year of Shenchu
The Journey Home (Part 3)
As the caravan turned onto another road, the tensed state of the surrounding guards finally eased. Lingbi half-opened the carriage curtain, tilted her head, and called to Zhen Wenjun:
“Wenjun, you just learned to ride a horse, don’t ride for too long. Don’t complain about sore waist and legs tomorrow!”
Zhen Wenjun gritted her teeth and suppressed the resentment in her heart, turned around calmly, and said to Lingbi: “Let me ride a little longer. If I get tired, I’ll naturally return to the carriage. We still have a full ten days to reach the next post station. Although the carriage is comfortable, it’s really stuffy. When I went to pick those wandering flowers this morning, I noticed the spring scenery in the mountains was enchanting. If it weren’t for your frail health, sister, I would really want to take you along to see the beautiful early spring landscape spread all over the mountains.”
A light laughter came from inside the carriage: “Sister, just consider yourself my eyes and see it for me.”
Zhen Wenjun bent down with a sweet smile and peeked into the carriage: “I’m not tired, but after running all the way, my stomach is a bit hungry. Sister, could you give me a piece of milk cake?”*
Wei Tingxu leaned against the soft couch, holding a piece of milk cake that had already been bitten. She squinted at Zhen Wenjun, smiled gently, and stuffed the milk cake into her mouth: “Little sister, you are not only a mischievous monkey but also a glutton.”
Zhen Wenjun mumbled with her mouth full, “Thank you, sister.”
Xiaohua’s eyes drifted over to Wei Tingxu’s profile. Wei Tingxu nonchalantly picked up another piece of milk cake and savored it carefully.
The milk cake in her mouth was rich with a fragrant milky aroma, sweet and soft, but in her heart, Zhen Wenjun could only taste bitterness as she thought of her mother imprisoned. After swallowing the milk cake, the sweet smile she had forced on her face disappeared, and she sat on the horse filled with worry.
Yan Ye, however, was true to his word. Perhaps they had guessed early on that if she didn’t see her mother, she would never believe their one-sided story, so they had arranged for her mother to wait here in advance. But it was only a brief glance, and under Wei Tingxu’s watchful eye, it was clear that they would never give her a chance to speak or communicate with her mother.
Zhen Wenjun tightened the reins and stopped, recalling the ambiguous coughing sound from Master Xu earlier.
Yan Ye’s antics almost made her forget about Master Xu.
Thinking carefully, if she were Xie Fuchen, she wouldn’t trust a spy who suddenly appeared from elsewhere either. Yan Ye’s words, every single one, emphasized how much Xie Fuchen and the Qingliu faction valued her. But who could guarantee that the Dongchun Xie family wouldn’t plant someone else to gather intelligence? After all, even Xie Taihang found a way to get close to Wei Tingxu; would Xie Fuchen be less capable? It’s just that her face naturally had the advantage of quickly approaching Wei Tingxu, while others would need to expend much more effort to get close.
Could Master Xu be one of Xie Fuchen’s people?
Now, Master Xu’s disciple Zhong Ji is following Wei Tingxu under the pretext of treating Xiaohua’s poison. This way, she serves as a visible informant, while another hidden one exists. Besides ensuring that all information is accurately conveyed back to the Xie family, they can also monitor this newly acquired pawn (herself) for any signs of betrayal. If there’s any hint of disloyalty, they would discard the pawn immediately.
Zhen Wenjun turned her head to look back at the road they had come from; she needed to investigate Master Xu and his disciple.
The convoy traveled for a day and a night, and it wasn’t until dawn the next day that they set up camp in a hidden forest to rest and recuperate.
Every day, Xiaohua had to undergo an hour of treatment from Zhong Ji. The initial days of fasting and abstaining from water were over, and they had entered the next stage. Zhong Ji prepared a medicinal bath barrel for her. After acupuncture, she needed to soak in this medicinal barrel for an hour before proceeding to the next step of the treatment.
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Xiaohua was unwilling to leave Wei Tingxu’s side for even a moment, let alone for an entire hour. Even in the wilderness, no matter how tightly guarded, it was easy to encounter ambushes. She couldn’t afford to be careless. Moreover, she had followed Wei Tingxu since childhood and, except for the time she was unconscious for half a month due to the poison of the Ghost Dove, she had never been apart from Wei Tingxu.
No matter what Zhong Ji said, it couldn’t outweigh a single word from Wei Tingxu.
“Don’t worry about your poison treatment; Lingbi and Wenjun will stay with me.”
Reluctantly and feeling downhearted, Xiaohua went for her poison treatment. During her absence, Zhen Wenjun would take Xiaohua’s place and guard Wei Tingxu alongside Lingbi.
Zhen Wenjun wasn’t as worried as Xiaohua. Xie Fuchen’s plan to ambush indicated that he didn’t intend to take Wei Tingxu’s life anytime soon. Unlike Xie Taihang, Xie Fuchen needed intelligence and crucial information that could eradicate the Wei family and even the whole lineage of the Eldest Princess. Forcing an assassination attempt like Xie Taihang did was truly foolish.
Xiaohua carried her change of clothes to the eastern hillside as instructed by Zhong Ji. There was a secluded spot surrounded by scattered rocks, and Zhong Ji had already placed the medicinal bath barrel there, waiting for her to arrive.
In the early morning, the mountain was shrouded in mist, occasionally punctuated by the chirping of insects and birds. A small, scrawny, and ugly gray bird, hungry, landed on Xiaohua’s shoulder. When Xiaohua tried to shoo it away, it hopped a few times and then landed back, continuing to perch.
Xiaohua looked at it, and its round black eyes looked back at her.
“Are you hungry?”
Of course, the little gray bird couldn’t answer her.
She casually picked up a stone and dug into the frozen hard ground. After a while, she dug out a fat earthworm and fed it to the little gray bird.
The little gray bird grabbed the earthworm and quickly flew away. Xiaohua watched its clumsy back and chuckled foolishly.
After finding the bath barrel, Xiaohua took off her clothes and sat inside.
The medicinal bath submerged her from the neck down. The brown medicinal liquid had a noticeable bitter taste, but it was not unbearable. She reached down to the bottom of the barrel and scooped up a handful, finding not only some medicinal residue but also two strange cloth bags. Xiaohua tore the cloth bags open, releasing some softened aromatic herbs like ambergris, Schizonepeta, and magnolia flower.
“Just as I thought, you don’t trust me at all,” Zhong Ji said, sitting in a tree with a scroll in her hand, leaning against the trunk. One leg was stretched out on a branch while the other dangled. Her gaze never left the scroll. “Not trusting a doctor can easily lead to death.”
Xiaohua threw the cloth bags aside. “Do you have a fetish for spying on ugly women naked?”
“No,” Zhong Ji replied. “To me, my patients are not people; they are merely objects made up of bones and muscles. Beauty or ugliness is just a superficial layer, far less fascinating than the paths of the world’s rare poisons flowing through the meridians and blood.”
Xiaohua took a deep breath and slid her body down, submerging her face into the medicinal liquid.
“Soak for at least one hour. If you’re not in a hurry, Miss Xiaohua, it would be best to soak for an hour and a half. After the medicinal bath, I need to extract the poison, which will take about half an hour. A soft bed has been prepared in the cowhide tent. Come find me there once you’ve soaked long enough.”
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Seeing that Xiaohua was still submerged in the medicinal bath, paying no heed, Zhong Ji put away her scroll, jumped down from the tree, and left.
After soaking for a full hour, Xiaohua, with a sullen face, dressed herself and went to the tent where Zhong Ji and her master were staying. Zhong Ji, having prepared everything leisurely, was wearing a pair of large cowhide gloves. Beside the soft bed, two large basins of charcoal were burning, filling the area with heat.
Zhong Ji raised her hands and motioned for Xiaohua to go to the bed: “Take off your clothes and lie on your side here.”
Xiaohua didn’t hesitate. She pulled off her belt, letting her robe fall to the ground, exposing her robust body, deformed by numerous poisonous tumors, without any concealment in front of Zhong Ji. Her eyes were sharp like an eagle’s, closely watching Zhong Ji’s expression.
Zhong Ji remained more composed than Xiaohua. With her hands covered in cowhide gloves, she pressed on several acupoints on Xiaohua’s body and, after a series of questions, had Xiaohua lie flat on the bed. Skillfully, she pulled out a silver dagger embedded in the charcoal basin, wiped it with a white cloth soaked in alcohol, and made an incision three fingers below Xiaohua’s breast, cutting open a purplish-red poisonous tumor. Before the blood and poison could flow out, Zhong Ji adeptly applied a poison-extracting plaster to the wound. She then placed a thick piece of cowhide in her palm and used it to handle the earthen jar inverted over the fire basin, preventing burns. The unshielded part of the earthen jar rolled over the plaster, and Xiaohua smelled the mixed scent of the medicinal plaster and the unique fungal odor of the earthen jar. Initially, she felt some chest tightness, and the wound seemed to burn like a flame on her body. Soon, the dam of accumulated pressure broke, and the incision turned into a volcano emitting poisonous gases, expelling the toxins from her body.
The entire process was completed in one smooth motion. Zhong Ji hardly blinked as she cut open the eleven most mature poisonous tumors on Xiaohua’s front and back, holding Xiaohua’s wrist to ensure her pulse remained steady. Zhong Ji’s forehead was covered in sweat. She tested the temperature with her hand on the plaster, then looked up at Xiaohua, who showed no change in expression, as if the eleven cuts had been made on someone else.
Only after the poison had turned the plaster dark purple did Zhong Ji slowly peel it off, applying a cooling, fragrant ointment to the wounds and bandaging them with gauze. Once everything was done, Zhong Ji removed her gloves, took a few gulps from a water-filled ceramic jug, and felt quite refreshed.
“After each poison extraction, you need to rest for ten days before applying the medicine again. I use aggressive treatments, especially since your poison has accumulated over many years and cannot be resolved with ordinary remedies. The medicine I use on you is more than double what others would need. The poison extraction process is relatively easy, but in the following three days, the wound will be extremely painful and itchy, and the tumors will feel like boiling water bubbles floating across your body. You must not scratch or break them; otherwise, the poison will flow back into the wound. Not only will today’s treatment be wasted, but it could also lead to your immediate death. Do you understand?”
Xiaohua barely audibly responded with a “hmm,” quickly dressed herself, and hurriedly went back to find Wei Tingxu. Zhong Ji watched her hurriedly departing figure—someone in this world who is more important than her own life. This person also has something on her mind.
When Zhong Ji returned to find Master Xu, she saw him sitting on a cloth, happily eating cakes and drinking soup. Looking down, there was even rice wine and lamb. Such good treatment was the first in many days.
“Come, come, Zhong Ji, Lady Wenjun has brought us some delicious food and drink. Come and have a taste.”
“Zhen Wenjun? Why is she suddenly being so attentive?”
Master Xu, his face flushed from the hot wine, replied, “It’s all thanks to you! If three years ago I hadn’t had a sudden whim to save you from the bear’s claws, we wouldn’t be enjoying this fine wine and meat today! The person you are to save is a close confidante of Lady Wei. Lady Wenjun said that if you can remove the poison of the Ghost Dove from Xiaohua, there will be a cart of wine, meat, gold, and silver waiting for us! You must do your best and not disappoint this feast and fine wine.”
It turns out it was for Xiaohua. Zhong Ji sat down and casually tore off a piece of lamb, putting it into her mouth—even if Zhen Wenjun hadn’t said anything, she would still do her best to treat her. After all, if she couldn’t successfully treat her, Lady Wei would gouge out her eyes and chop off her hands.
Zhen Wenjun returned from Master Xu’s place, feeling quite disappointed.
No matter how she tried to pry information, Master Xu remained evasive. If this was the other spy arranged by Xie Fuchen, there would be no need to play dumb with her. It was highly likely that she had found the wrong person.
Could it be that she was overthinking? Was she the only spy by Wei Tingxu’s side? If so, her progress was smooth and she could defect at any time without anyone reporting her. Could it be that Xie Fuchen was just another fool?
Zhen Wenjun shook her head. She had now gained preliminary trust and must not take risks. After all, she was from the Xie family of Suichuan. Xie Fuchen might want to observe her for a few days before allowing Master Xu to recognize her.
Whipping her horse, she returned to Wei Tingxu’s carriage and saw that Xiaohua had come back. Xiaohua was just mounting the stirrup to help Wei Tingxu down from the carriage. However, having just been bled and feeling utterly weak, Xiaohua couldn’t hold her steady and lost her footing, causing Wei Tingxu to almost fall from the horse. Lingbi was ten steps away, tidying up dried meat, and the other servants and guards were also not nearby. Amidst the cries of alarm from the crowd, Wei Tingxu was about to hit the ground when Zhen Wenjun, quick-eyed and fast-acting, leapt forward and caught her firmly.
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Zhen Wenjun charged so forcefully that she nearly slid across the ground, and rather than catching Wei Tingxu, it was more accurate to say she became a cushion for her.
“Sister, are you alright?”
Fortunately, Wei Tingxu was light and slender; if it had been Xiaohua’s build, she would have undoubtedly crushed and reopened all her wounds.
Wei Tingxu glanced at the person beneath her, trying to present a reassuring smile, but as soon as the smile began to form, her brow furrowed, and she broke into a cold sweat, holding her lower back.
“Lady!” Xiaohua quickly jumped down from the carriage, nearly stumbling, and hurriedly kneeled beside Wei Tingxu, kowtowing and saying, “This servant deserves to die a thousand times for frightening you. Please, Lady, punish me!”
Wei Tingxu said, “It was unintentional on your part; there’s no need to speak of punishment.”
Xiaohua stepped forward to try to lift her again, but Zhen Wenjun intercepted her with an outstretched arm, her face full of anger: “You are still poisoned and weak. What if you drop her again? During this period, I will take care of her.” Without waiting for Xiaohua to protest, she securely lifted Wei Tingxu in her arms and softly said to the person in her embrace:
“Sister, I know a little about treating injuries from falls. Let me take you to the carriage and have a look at your back injury.”