Li Taoqi shuddered all over and his heart sank. He turned his head in surprise to look at the woman who was still chattering beside him.
The Crown Princess was completely unaware and just kept grabbing Li Zhuoqi's sleeve, half excited and half nervous, her heart pounding in her chest, making her tongue unresponsive and her words incoherent: "Your Highness, this is an opportunity, an opportunity... With a little arrangement, we can get rid of him, and Bi'er will... You have to think about Bi'er, that's our child, we only have this one son..."
As she spoke, she tightened her grip, deforming the dark pattern on Li Taoqi's sleeve, and pulling the dragon pattern in the clouds into a twisted earthworm. But she was still unconscious, and her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the fabric. It was clearly a pair of slender hands that had never touched the water of spring. As she tightened her grip, the joints turned a cold white, and she became a skeleton that crawled out of the grave in the legend.
These hands were not normal, and the Crown Princess herself was not normal either. She kept saying those few words over and over again. Her eyelashes fluttered, her eyes flickered, and the expression on her face changed rapidly, one moment happy, the next distressed, as if she would cry with a smile at any time.
She has been like this since she came back from the hunting grounds in Mount Li. She said she was not crazy. The imperial physician could not find any clues. He just said she was frightened and prescribed a few doses of tranquilizing medicine. She drank the medicine, but she did not get better. Judging from her appearance, she was having another attack. She did not even know what she was saying.
Li Taoqi was annoyed at first, but he endured it after a while. After all, she was his first wife, and she was a patient. He smiled bitterly, held the Crown Princess' wrist, and used a little force to move her hand away.
"Your Highness... Your Highness!" How could the Crown Princess let him have his wish? She tried to grab him with her other hand, "Your Highness, are you going to let this opportunity go, or are you unwilling to do so? If you are unwilling to do so... then I will make the arrangements! For Bi'er, for Bi'er..."
"Don't go crazy. In this situation, even birds and beasts will be frightened by the death of Mao Lin. Are you only thinking about getting rid of Ah Shen? What hatred do you have between him and you?" Li Taoqi felt weak. He knew that the Crown Princess would not listen at this moment, but he still spoke, as if he had found an outlet to vent his anger. "Shu'er has a lung disease again. She coughs all day and all night. Have you gone to see her?"
"Shu'er..." Hearing her daughter's nickname, the Crown Princess was slightly stunned, which gave Li Zhuoqi time to escape. When she found out that the man was leaving, she became excited again, "Then your Highness doesn't care about Bi'er? Bi'er is also your Highness's child... Bi'er..."
She wanted to rush over, but Li Taoqi had already called in the palace maids. Several palace maids from Lizheng Palace were specially transferred to the palace. They were quite tall and strong, and three or five of them worked together to hold the Crown Princess firmly, half dragging and half carrying her to the inner palace.
"Go get the imperial physician to take a closer look. Take good care of the Crown Princess and don't let her go out." As he said this, Li Taoqi felt desolate. This was so familiar. Li Chengjin used this reason to imprison his own son, and he used this reason to imprison his first wife.
But he still had to finish what he was saying, "Don't see Shu'er and Bi'er either. If they ask, just tell them that their mother is tired and can't accompany them for the time being."
The palace servants waiting at the door all responded, and one of the young eunuchs was particularly clever. He didn't even say goodbye, but ran to the Imperial Medical Office. Li Taoqi slowed down, raised his legs and walked out. Before leaving, he looked back for some unknown reason.
The Crown Princess had been brought to the screen that separated the inside and outside. The sturdy palace servants held her down tightly. In contrast, she looked even thinner and weaker. Her thin arms and legs were waving wildly, barely able to hold up her skirt and the gold bracelets on her arms. Tears had already flowed down her plain and pretty face, ruining her delicate makeup. Her lips opened and closed, calling out either "Your Highness" or "Bi'er".
Li Taoqi closed his eyes and didn't even hear the young eunuch beside him calling him.
"… Your Highness? Your Highness?" The eunuch felt that something was wrong with the prince, so he called out to him a few more times, "What are your plans for the future?"
"... Ah, let's go see Shu'er." Li Zhuoqi came back to his senses and said softly, "And then see Bi'er."
He did not wait for the young eunuch to respond, nor did he ask anyone to accompany him. He turned around and walked straight to the side hall. He was all alone, and his back looked a bit desolate.
Ever since the Crown Princess married into the Eastern Palace, the Eastern Palace has never been peaceful. The Crown Princess was jealous and violent, and finally gave birth to a son and a daughter, but both were born weak, and the little princess was born with lung disease. Now the Crown Princess is unconscious from time to time, and the Crown Prince is exhausted by the heavy burden. No one in the family of four is well off.
The young eunuch thought to himself what was going on and followed closely behind. When he lowered his head, he couldn't help but let out a small sigh.
**
In the East Palace, the Crown Prince was tortured to the point of becoming increasingly thinner, with several clumps of hair falling out. On the contrary, Li Qishen was very happy in the Prince's Mansion. He did not look like he was under house arrest at all. He played with cats and raised fish, and even asked the deputy captain who was guarding the Prince's Mansion to run all over the East Market to find a suitable cage for his cat. He was free and easy, and those who didn't know him would think that he was born to hate going out.
During the ten days of house arrest, Li Qishen even skipped the morning practice of shooting. He slept until the 9th hour every day, then got up reluctantly to wash up. In the afternoon, he ordered people to bring out the low couch, and slept lazily in the spring breeze of March, not caring that the wind was mixed with the bloody smell from Luoyang in the east. Coal Ball also liked to bask in the sun, so he jumped onto the couch and huddled up to Li Qishen like a cat, purring in his throat and wagging his long tail.
Suddenly, there was a light pat on his shoulder. Li Qishen thought it was Coal Ball that had just woken up and was making a fuss, so he didn't bother to pay attention to it.
After a moment, there was another one.
"Stop making trouble." Li Qishen didn't open his eyes, and his voice was obviously filled with sleepiness, mumbling, "If you make trouble again, I'll stew you."
Then he heard a sigh, a little low, and then the human language that Coal Ball obviously couldn't speak: "Is there a pot in your house that can hold me?"
The voice sounded familiar, Li Qishen shuddered, and quickly turned over and sat up. He had untied his hair tie, and his long hair was like flowing clouds. He had slept for half the afternoon, and the hair on the side of his ears was messy. There were a few pillow marks on his face, but the sleepiness between his eyebrows was swept away, and his pupils were as cold as if a heavy snow had just fallen, as cold as if ice flowers were frozen.
But what he said was teasing, and his tone was light: "If you want, I'll send someone to cast one."
"I'm afraid a lot of good iron will be wasted." Huo Jun said expressionlessly, "Forget it, why not make swords and spears and send them to Luoyang."
"It would be much more interesting if you could laugh when you tell a joke." Li Qishen quickly gathered up his long hair and tied the hair tie around his wrist twice, "How is Luoyang?"
"Nothing. The rebels have not yet shown any signs of attacking the city. They are still in a stalemate. General Lu insisted on not taking the initiative to go out of the city to fight. His Majesty was furious a few days ago and then issued an order to order the remaining Tiance Army in Luoyang to retreat to Chang'an." The Jinwu Guards who were supervising Li Qishen did not dare to enter and had always been guarding outside. The courtyard was empty. Huo Jun did not hide it. "I heard that it was Xiangjin An who said that His Majesty took a risky move to let General Lu know who holds the military power and force him to leave the city."
"A guy who only tries to please others is worthy of being called a prime minister?" Li Qishen had always disliked An Guangxing. When he was mean, he was really mean. He was too lazy to waste words on him and asked Huo Jun directly, "What about you? How did you get in?"
"I heard that the prince had hysteria and the Imperial Medical Bureau was unable to treat him. I went to Qingyan specifically to invite a famous doctor to treat the prince." Huo Jun still had no expression on his face when he lied. His handsome face seemed like cast iron. He turned his head and looked at the two people a little further away. "Please."
The two people over there understood, nodded slightly, and walked towards the low couch. They both wore a large cloak with a hood over their clothes. The hood was also large and turned up, covering the bridge of their noses, and the remaining half of their faces were also hidden in the shadows. From a distance, it looked like two cloaks were floating over.
Li Qishen raised his eyebrows: "Is this the ghost invited from Qingyan?"
"Of course not." The man who was closer raised his hand, flipped up his hood, and smoothed his long hair. The handsome man smiled at Li Qishen, his eyebrows and eyes were gentle, making people feel like they were bathed in spring breeze. His voice was also very gentle, and he spoke softly to Li Qishen. It was obvious that he was used to coaxing a child. "Pei Wen. Le Yan once learned how to identify medicinal herbs from my master, so he is half a fellow disciple."
"I see." Since he was acquainted with Cui Shi and was brought in by Huo Jun, Li Qishen was not on guard and raised his hand, "Mr. Pei, do you want to take my pulse first?"
"Does the Prince need it?" Pei Wen smiled slightly.
Li Qishen also smiled: "What do you think, Mr. Pei?"
"That's not necessary. I'm sure there are many doctors here to take your pulse. I don't dare to be arrogant and compare myself with the Imperial Medical Bureau." Pei Wen took out a folded prescription from his sleeve. "But I still brought the prescription here. Please take a look, Prince."
Li Qishen was happy to cooperate. He took the prescription and unfolded it. The neat and beautiful handwriting on the Huanhua paper did not write about precious medicinal materials, but several dietary prescriptions that could be eaten or not, using common nourishing ingredients such as red dates and walnuts. He folded the Huanhua paper as it was: "Mr. Pei was kind and did not prescribe any troublesome medicinal materials, otherwise we would have to trouble the people guarding outside again."
Pei Wen did not respond to his words, but just smiled again: "In addition, Pei also brought a medicine for the prince."
"oh?"
"It's not the right medicine, but it can relieve the worry." Pei Wen took a step back and said to the people around him, "Go ahead."
The man nodded, then took another step forward and stood right in front of Li Qishen. When he raised his hand, his cloak and sleeves slid down together, revealing his slender wrist. His skin was fair, and a gold bracelet dangled on his wrist.
The hood was opened, and the girl's beautiful face came into Li Qishen's eyes. She shook her head slightly to pull out the hair stuck in the gap of the cloak. When she looked at him, her expression was gentle, and a faint smile unconsciously appeared between her eyebrows: "Can't I come?"
"… No." Li Qishen was stunned and sat up straight. "Why are you following them?"
The author has something to say: Changsheng: This medicine cannot be taken, a bad review!!!
Let me tell you a secret, Dr. Pei's hair is a wig (nonsense)