Could this be a side effect of practicing martial arts?
Shang Qinghua nodded.
Mo Yi leaned in and whispered sothing into his ear before departing.
Shang Qinghua felt faintly unsteady as he continued to watch the figure darting about in the garden.
"Don’t you think he’s tired at all? He’s been like this ever since lunch."
Gongsun Xing pondered for a long while before answering. "It shouldn’t be anything serious. Most likely he just slept too well last night. Keep a closer eye on him. I’ll head back first, if I stay any longer, I might not be able to leave at all."
With that, he hurried off.
Night fell once more.
This ti, Yin Su ca inside the room and took a seat.
Sui He had prepared a generous spread of snacks for her.
She appeared quite at ease, nibbling on food and sipping tea as she waited for Yue Mingxuan.
Red gauze curtains, white robes.
Today, only Yue Mingxuan sat at a distance.
As for Gongsun Xing... he was probably still asleep.
Yue Mingxuan’s breathing was light tonight, but it was there.
It was not as though it had vanished.
Shang Qinghua had barely slept during the day and was now reclining on a soft couch, eyes half-closed as he rested.
After sitting quietly for a while, Yin Su tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling.
"Prince Shang," she said calmly, "it’s really not that serious. Could you perhaps ask your brothers on the roof to go back and rest? Their breathing is so chaotic I can hardly hear Yue Mingxuan’s at all."
A young girl, calling him "Yue Mingxuan" so familiarly, even adopting the tone of an elder lecturing him Shang Qinghua found it rather amusing the more he thought about it.
Gongsun Xing had not co tonight.
Shang Qinghua had worried soone might try to disturb Yue Mingxuan.
After all, Yue Mingxuan had an unfortunate talent for being kidnapped.
Shang Qinghua was almost afraid of it himself by now.
So he had summoned more than twenty guards.
In hindsight, it did seem excessive.
The atmosphere had beco cluttered and tense.
"Have them all withdraw," Shang Qinghua ordered at last. "I’ll remain here tonight. That will be enough."
"Yes."
Mo Yi let out a sharp whistle and one by one the n stationed on the rooftop withdrew.
Yin Su smiled as she looked at Shang Qinghua. "Prince Shang, you worry too much. With Yue Mingxuan’s foundation, even if he progresses quickly, it will still take at least a year. Generally speaking, the chances of him suffering internal energy deviation are quite small. And in my opinion, Consort Wan’s deviation back then was very likely because no one was guarding her while she practiced. Soone may have barged in and interrupted her."
According to the information gathered by his subordinates, this Consort Wan had been one of the emperor’s favored concubines.
She had been in the palace less than five years before her death.
Yet in under five years, she had risen to the rank of Noble Consort, no small feat for a woman in the inner court.
As for why she had died so young, no one seed to know.
"From what I’ve learned," Shang Qinghua said slowly, "no one understands why Consort Wan’s body did not decay. All the n who carried her coffin were dismissed from the palace afterward. We managed to track down one of them. He said that when they lifted the coffin, it felt unusually light, but nothing else seed strange. Only... he vaguely rembered a faint fragrance drifting from within. It left a deep impression on him."
A fragrance...
Yin Su paused slightly at that, but she did not comnt further.
The night passed uneventfully.
Yue Mingxuan showed no abnormalities.
Yin Su and Shang Qinghua both dozed at his side.
Just like the first night, he never woke, he simply drifted straight into sleep.
Yin Su patted Shang Qinghua on the shoulder. "I’ll leave him to you."
With a yawn, she turned around and went out, supposedly to return to her room.
Yet after stepping outside, she did not head back.
She stood at the entrance of Qingyun Pavilion for a long while. Then, with a light movent, she vaulted onto the rooftop and, under the cover of night, swiftly left the imperial palace.
Everything had seed fine at first.
But in the middle of the night, Yue Mingxuan suddenly developed a raging fever.
The heat ca on violently and without warning.
Shang Qinghua imdiately lost his composure.
By coincidence, Rong Qinglei had just reached the doorway when he heard the commotion.
Without hesitation, he kicked the door open and strode inside.
Shang Qinghua stood beside the bed, clearly flustered.
Sui He hurried back and forth, pressing cold compresses against Yue Mingxuan’s forehead.
It took quite so ti before Gongsun Xing arrived, he had only just fallen asleep himself.
Fortunately, Wang Jian had not been awakened, or his foul temper upon rising would surely have erupted again.
Gongsun Xing inserted several acupuncture needles into key points before writing out a prescription.
He instructed Sui He to fetch the herbs imdiately and personally supervise the decoction.
Rong Qinglei who is still uneasy remained behind to keep watch.
Shang Qinghua and Gongsun Xing exchanged a glance.
They had originally intended to keep everything from him.
But Yue Mingxuan truly regarded Rong Qinglei as a friend and .ost likely, he would not have wanted to hide it from him either.
And so, they recounted the entire matter from beginning to end.
"Consort Wan..." Rong Qinglei murmured the na under his breath.
Perhaps he had been ill for too many years.
Matters concerning concubines who had died young in the palace were things he was not particularly familiar with.
But by rights, anyone who had reached the rank of Noble Consort should have been recorded in the palace archives.
How could there be no trace to be found?
"You haven’t heard of her either?" Shang Qinghua asked. "She entered the palace and within just five years rose to the position of Noble Consort. She must have been extrely favored and very likely exclusively favored. In your mory, is there really no such concubine who enjoyed sole favor?"
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