Bai Qingyan lowered her eyes to glance at the blood and stains on her body, which was quite alarming, and said, "This is all other people’s blood. The injuries I have are minor, Doctor Hong, you needn’t worry."
Doctor Hong took Bai Qingyan’s pulse. Since Bai Qingyan was a woman, it was inconvenient for him to apply dicine to her external wounds. So he asked Yingshuang to assist Bai Qingyan into the inner room for dication and bandaging. While he was sitting under the lamp writing prescriptions, Xiao Rongyan arrived.
Upon arriving at Shequ, Bai Qingyan had matters of Zhou to arrange. Given his identity as the Regent Prince of the Yan Kingdom, it would indeed be inappropriate for Xiao Rongyan to stay by Bai Qingyan’s side and listen to her arrangents regarding military deploynts of Zhou. Besides, Xiao Rongyan also had his matters to arrange.
Currently, in the Yan Kingdom, the vassal kings were uniting in rebellion, and all the forces Xiao Rongyan could mobilize were in Zhou, making the situation extrely tricky.
He sent soone to deliver a ssage to Zhou for Wang Hanbing, asking him to pacify the Yan Kingdom’s forces and avoid engaging the Zhou soldiers within Zhou’s territory, leading to unnecessary sacrifices due to conflicts between Zhou and Yan.
He also dispatched soone to send a ssage to Ah Li, telling him... that clan relatives could not be trusted. He should mobilize available forces to guard the Imperial City, preventing the Yan Kingdom’s vassal kings from using the pretext of waging war with Zhou to protect the Emperor, and thus entering the Yan capital. The vassal kings might use the Emperor to command the vassals.
Although... Xiao Rongyan was unwilling to involve the Empress Dowager, fearing it would be too cruel for a child like Ah Li, now was not the ti for softness. He inford Ah Li that if he discovered any contact between the clan relatives and the Empress Dowager, it was likely that the Empress Dowager would side with the clan relatives to snatch power from Ah Li.
If Murong Li couldn’t be ruthless enough to remove the Empress Dowager, or if it was already too late and soone ca to rescue him... he should follow that person. Xiao Rongyan told Murong Li that it might be the wealthy rchant Cui Fengnian from Zhou. If he wasn’t mistaken, this rchant was Bai Qingyan’s third sister, Bai Jintong.
Upon Xiao Rongyan’s arrival, seeing Doctor Hong present, he respectfully greeted him, acknowledging him as a senior of the Bai family: "Doctor Hong!"
Doctor Hong knew Xiao Rongyan’s identity and also knew that it was Xiao Rongyan who had rescued Bai Qingyan this ti...
Rumors had spread throughout the Zhou military, claiming that this Regent Prince of the Yan Kingdom had captured the family mbers of the Yan Kingdom’s vassal kings, beheading several to rescue the Emperor from the hands of the Yan Kingdom’s Xiping army.
The army was already speculating about the actions of this Regent Prince from the Yan Kingdom. They wondered if he rescued the Emperor because he favored their Emperor or if he acted to avoid offending Zhou and disrupting the balance between the nations.
Naturally, seeing their Emperor being carried back by the Regent Prince of the Yan Kingdom led them to believe the likelihood of him favoring their Emperor was greater.
On his way here, Doctor Hong overheard several centurions speculating whether their Emperor might overlook this incident with the Yan Kingdom due to the Regent Prince’s rescue.
Although the soldiers were grateful to the Regent Prince of the Yan Kingdom for rescuing their Emperor, it was, after all, the King of Xiping of the Yan Kingdom who ambushed their Zhou Emperor. According to the returning Anping Army brothers, that King of Xiping was determined to kill their Emperor on the mountain. Despite the Regent Prince’s kindness in saving their Emperor, the Zhou soldiers still wished for revenge.
Ambushing their Emperor was an extraordinary humiliation for the Zhou soldiers! Was this an insult, thinking the Zhou army dared not engage them?
They feared their Emperor might be too grateful for the Regent Prince’s life-saving act to seek revenge!
Soldiers gathered together, planning that if the generals summoned by the Emperor returned and said he wasn’t planning revenge, they would collectively kneel and plead for war.
Doctor Hong looked at Xiao Rongyan and stood up to greet him. Unsure whether to address him as Regent Prince or the distinguished son-in-law, he said, "Yingshuang is applying dicine for the young lady. Perhaps... I might check the Prince’s pulse?"
"This ti, Rongyan didn’t engage in battle or suffer injuries, so there’s no need to trouble Doctor Hong," Xiao Rongyan replied.
"Rongyan, sit for a mont, it won’t take long..."
Bai Qingyan’s voice ca from behind the lowered curtain. Xiao Rongyan responded and sat nearby while Doctor Hong had already stood up to take his leave, personally going to prepare dicine for Bai Qingyan.
Yingshuang applied dicine and bandaged Bai Qingyan, also helping her change clothes. Rembering how much blood the young lady had lost, she took out all the hidden treats she had been keeping from Doctor Hong, filling Bai Qingyan’s arms with them: "The young lady should recuperate well!"
Bai Qingyan was amused by Yingshuang’s actions, wanting to refuse. But seeing the girl’s red eyes, she smiled and accepted, "Alright... thank you, Yingshuang."
"Tomorrow, I’ll bring more for you! Eat more, young lady!" Yingshuang earnestly advised.
Bai Qingyan nodded, "Noted, go on."
Yingshuang ca out, hooking up the drawn curtain with a gilded bronze hook, and gave a hard stare at the masked Xiao Rongyan, knowing he was from Yan, then turned and left with the dicine box on her back.
Wei Zhong, seeing this, apologized to Xiao Rongyan and went out with Yue Shi, closing the door. The two stood vigil outside like door guardians.
Through the landscape screen, Xiao Rongyan saw Bai Qingyan sitting on the edge of the bed wiping her face with a hot cloth. His fists clenched at his sides, he walked around the screen into the inner room, gently taking the cloth Bai Qingyan was about to put in the hot water basin, wringing it out, then tenderly wiped the abrasions on her face.
Xiao Rongyan still felt frightened. Had he been any later, and if the Xiping army had fully charged, even if Bai Qingyan was battle-skilled, her being outnumbered ant the chances would have been slim.
Bai Qingyan looked at the warm-toned mask on Xiao Rongyan’s face, illuminated by candlelight, and lifted it off him. His thin lips tightly pressed caught her eye. She said, "Thanks to your tily arrival, A Rong."
"This was my oversight..." Xiao Rongyan placed the cloth into the copper basin and sat beside Bai Qingyan, stepping on the footrest and carefully brushing aside the wound on her arm, bringing her into his embrace.
"Little Ali has a big heart, but I’m afraid I owe him this ti! The Yan Kingdom... cannot be unified without force, I’m sure you understand," Bai Qingyan looked up at Xiao Rongyan, "I initially planned to say you were the late royal husband of Zhou and impersonated the Yan Regent Prince Xiao Rongyan for the sake of Zhou. But I feared you would be blad."
Xiao Rongyan bowed his head, playing with Bai Qingyan’s slightly trembling fingers, kissing them: "The Empress Dowager Yan brought forth letters from and my brother, I’m already bearing a bad na, I don’t mind."
He lifted his eyes to Bai Qingyan, smiling, "Ever since returning to Yan, I learned of a rchant nad Cui Fengnian in the Yan capital. I suspected this person might not be simple but didn’t expect this Cui Fengnian to be the third lady of the Bai family..."
Bai Qingyan, when instructing the hidden guards to send orders back to the Yan capital, hadn’t avoided Xiao Rongyan. So it wasn’t surprising that Xiao Rongyan guessed Jintong’s identity.
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