Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Lu Huaizhi was caught up in the young physician's joy at escaping death.

He was on duty today and had to get back to the garrison, so the meal and drinks would have to wait for another day.

But he didn't spoil the mood. They got on the carriage together to take Shen Lian home and let his family know he was safe.

As Lu Huaizhi's carriage moved, the driver of Prince Qi's carriage, hidden in the shadows nearby, also pulled on the reins and asked in a low voice, "Your Highness, shall we intercept Lord Shen's carriage?"

There was silence from inside the carriage. Only after Shen Lian's carriage had moved off a ways did Prince Qi's voice come: "Back to the residence."

Xie Yuan was curious to see just how far this young imperial physician would go with "pick whoever you want" when it came to other brothers.

But it was already dark, and he was too far away to get a clear look at this "Brother Lu's" face, and he wasn't sure if the other guy would recognize his carriage. So he didn't follow.

He didn't want the young physician to find out he was Prince Qi.

It wasn't like when he'd first started messing with the young physician for fun.

Whenever he dealt with people as Prince Qi, Xie Yuan was always second-guessing their motives.

It had become second nature—he couldn't help but be suspicious.

He also worried that once the young physician knew who he was, he wouldn't be so carefree and silly anymore.

Then it wouldn't be fun anymore.

But at the same time, Xie Yuan wanted the young physician to truly value him from the bottom of his heart.

Without the Prince Qi identity, that was hard to pull off.

It was like back before he'd made a name for himself in battle—he was always the prince his father and even the eunuchs overlooked.

After he became the "Tengri Heavenly Blade," being seen had become so normal he took it for granted.

But Xie Yuan didn't feel a shred of satisfaction.

Underneath the mask of the War God of Great Wei, the Fourth Prince—the one his brothers mocked and his father couldn't be bothered with—still felt invisible deep down, in his occasional nightmares.

On the way back, the more Xie Yuan replayed it all, the angrier he got.

When he'd paid that "ransom money" for the smallpox thing, the young physician hadn't been half as moved as he was just now, clinging to his arm and hopping around.

Back at the residence, Xie Yuan was still in a foul mood.

It was a feeling he hadn't had in a long time—that floaty sensation of disappearing when nobody noticed him.

Even some menial grunt at a garrison post would get a "pick whoever you want" from the young physician, unlike him—a sorry excuse for a prince who'd grown up eating "whatever the other consorts didn't want" with his mother.

The next morning, Xie Yuan went to the palace to pay his respects to his mother.

No matter when, no matter who he'd become, his mother was always happy to see him.

Even so, Mu Rongyao's attention span for her son never lasted long.

After casually asking what Xie Yuan had been up to lately, she launched into the latest harem gossip.

"This is clearly a slap in the face to the Empress."

Mu Rongyao watched her son finish the pastries, then nudged the lotus seed soup toward him, signaling for him to drink it, and continued, "You'd think His Majesty had already handed the Phoenix Seal over to Consort De. I don't know how a woman like her raised Prince Duan to be so level-headed. By the way, Prince Duan put in a memorial a few days ago—he spent the last few months quietly re-registering all the hidden and runaway households up in Lingbei. That's why your father gave Consort De a reward."

After a moment of silence, Xie Yuan knocked back the lotus seed soup in one go, set the bowl down, and changed the subject: "For next month's hunt, Father's agreed to let you come along. I asked him to let me be your personal guard. Didn't you want to visit Cien Pond?"

Mu Rongyao let out a small sigh, clearly disappointed: "At a time like this, why go bothering your father with stuff like that?"

Xie Yuan lowered his head, was quiet for a moment, then came up with something his mother would want to hear: "I also have a memorial to share Father's burdens. The revised trade laws Prince Duan put forward got shot down by Father again—in the end, they're all just sneaky ways to beg Chu State for favors. I want to set up a new bureau under the Ministry of Works, throw serious money at it, and start by poaching the people who worked on that water mill in Chu State. Within two years at most, as long as our own grain prices come down, why should we give a damn about Chu's goodwill?"

Mu Rongyao asked, curious: "What did your father say?"

Xie Yuan: "I haven't submitted it yet."

Mu Rongyao: "What are you waiting for? Your eldest and second brothers are dying to score points every single day."

Xie Yuan: "If I bring this up myself, Father might think I'm trying to build a power base among Chu people. I've already sent people to quietly get in touch with ministers who can submit it for me."

Mu Rongyao was taken aback: "Let someone else submit it? Then what's in it for you?"

His mother's words shut him up.

Xie Yuan lowered his head, rubbed his face, and let out a bitter laugh: "Isn't this Great Wei the Xie family's Great Wei? Doesn't that count for something with me?"

Mu Rongyao sighed in frustration: "That still requires your father to first acknowledge you as a Xie."

"Does that need acknowledging?" Xie Yuan looked at his mother: "Is my parentage really that murky? Does Mother have some world-shaking secret she's kept from Father?"

"Oh, you!" Mu Rongyao was startled and instinctively turned to check if the doors and windows of the warm room were shut.

She turned back and reached for her son's ear, but he caught her wrist. Mu Rongyao shot him a warning look, and only when he obediently let go did she manage to grab his ear, scolding him in a low voice: "A grown man, and you still run your mouth like that! How can you joke about such things? You're the War God of Great Wei now—you need to watch what you say and do, got it?"

Xie Yuan didn't answer, eyes downcast, like a cub caught in a tigress's jaws, looking half-dead as she yanked his ear and shook him back and forth.

That "running your mouth" comment stung a little.

Back when his mother had fallen out of favor over the Chu-Wei falling-out, it was him who racked his brain for nonsense to make her laugh again.

Back then, his mother called him her clever little rascal. Now that he had a sliver of a chance in the succession fight, his love of joking had become a liability.

Mu Rongyao warned him seriously: "If bringing in Chu people would make your father suspicious of you, then don't submit that memorial, and don't have anyone else submit it either. We barely scraped together that merit on the frontier—we can't give your father any reason to remember where we came from."

-

Dehui Medical Hall was still open for business as usual.

But it had been days since Manager Liang Xixian and the boss, Zhou Fuqing, had shown up.

The shop's workers were visibly slacking off more than usual.

Word on the street was that Dehui Medical Hall had tried to get its hands on a life-saving formula but ran into a wall. Some even guessed Manager Liang had been beaten to death, and Master Zhou was barely hanging on.

In reality, Zhou Fuqing was so furious he was barely hanging on.

The Lord Prefect, who took his tribute money every year, wouldn't lift a finger for him—instead, he sent people to warn him to "never mess with Shen Lian again," without saying why.

All those protection fees he'd paid out every holiday had gone straight to the dogs.

Of course, Zhou Fuqing wasn't completely clueless.

By now, he was fully convinced that the little bastard Shen Lian had some seriously heavy backing.

It might even be on the same level as Eunuch Li.

Since he couldn't lay a hand on them, he could just outlast them.

He'd already tipped off the Imperial Guards, so the purchasing department wouldn't be ordering Shen Lian's "miracle cure," and regular folks couldn't afford it anyway.

A formula he wouldn't sell even for five hundred taels—let it rot in that little punk's hands.

He'd offered them a chance and they'd thrown it back in his face—let's see if they ever get another shot at striking it rich.

-

For several days in a row, no one came looking for trouble.

The Shen family finally started to let their guard down.

Old Man Shen kept pushing Shen Lian to bring nice gifts and go to Prince Xi's mansion to thank him properly.

But Shen Lian insisted on waiting until Prince Xi summoned him to thank him face-to-face, rather than making the prince carve out time to entertain him.

Classic socially inept behavior.

Even his gratitude had to wait for a convenient opening from his Sugar Daddy.

And figuring out what counted as a "good gift" was a real headache.

First off, this was a life-saving debt.

Second, Prince Xi was probably the last person to lack expensive stuff.

So what the hell could he give to show his gratitude?

He really wanted to go ask Dian Xia what Prince Xi liked.

Dian Xia was so sharp at reading court politics; he'd definitely know the best way to handle this gratitude thing.

But even Dian Xia hadn't dropped by these past few days, like he'd completely forgotten about him.

After Shen Lian had accidentally stood him up that time, Dian Xia had sent a note every other day to make sure he didn't forget again.

Shen Lian tossed and turned in bed, then rolled over, opened the nightstand drawer, shoved the condoms aside, and pulled out those letters, flipping through them without any real purpose—

"You actually dared to stand up Princess Consort of Xi's pigeon. Lord Shen, are you planning to take sides with..."

"Only in times of trouble do true feelings show. Dian Xia doesn't hold it against Lord Shen for being briefly dazzled by money. Maybe when the princess consort's eunuchs come to clean out that little courtyard, Lord Shen will finally see who's really worth his attention."

Shen Lian burst out laughing again before he could stop himself.

"So annoying..." He shoved the letters back in the drawer, not wanting to relive the Young Male Concubine's smug "read receipts."

But the sudden radio silence was making him uneasy.

There was so much he wanted to ask.

Had Dian Xia really beaten up those people from Dehui Medical Hall himself?

Had he rushed off to hide an injury, worried Shen Lian would be concerned?

He always figured the Young Male Concubine wasn't the type to be that thoughtful or warm-hearted.

What worried Shen Lian the most was the eunuch from Prince Xi's mansion handing that goodbye letter to Dian Xia.

That would be absolutely mortifying.

Back then, to prove he was willing to take all the blame, Shen Lian had genuinely praised Dian Xia's talents in that letter.

Oh my god!

A person should always leave themselves an escape route while they're still alive; that kind of overly mushy crap should be taken to the grave.

He just hoped the eunuch still hadn't remembered there was a retainer named "Dian Xia" in Prince Xi's mansion.

Weird, how many retainers did Prince Xi's mansion even have?

As a head eunuch, how could he not know who Dian Xia was?

Ugh, Shen Lian didn't have the brainpower to dwell on it; he just hoped Prince Xi would summon him soon.

The second he stepped into the mansion, he'd make a beeline for the old eunuch, intercept and destroy that goodbye letter, and never let the Young Male Concubine lay eyes on it.

Even though Prince Xi hadn't summoned him, Lu Huaizhi did invite him to a get-together with the Tengxiang Guard in a few days.

On the way home that day, the two of them relaxed and chatted.

Lu Huaizhi wanted to know what kind of formula was worth Shen Lian turning down five hundred taels to sell outright.

Shen Lian explained what it did, and Lu Huaizhi got curious, asking if he was free five nights later to bring the miracle cure to the Garrison's little hangout.

If it worked as fast as described, a lot of the officers there might become regulars.

Lu Huaizhi had already done him a huge solid, and Shen Lian hadn't even bought him a meal yet—now he'd be crashing their gathering and hawking his product, which felt awkward as hell.

But Lu Huaizhi insisted, so Shen Lian agreed, promising over and over that once the next batch was done, he'd keep one bottle as a sample and give the other two to Lu Huaizhi.

Lu Huaizhi couldn't talk him out of it, figured it was just two bottles of Wound Healing Powder, and accepted the thanks.

Shen Lian could only crank out three bottles per batch—painfully inefficient.

The equipment in the system shop that could speed up his production cost over fifty thousand popularity points a pop.

Earlier, he'd seen a sudden spike in female-reader popularity points and thought he'd soon save up enough for the machine, but in the last two days, those points hadn't moved an inch, while male-reader points had gone up by over a hundred.

What the hell was that dragon-spirit male lead up to?

Did he ditch his romance subplot halfway and switch back to torturing the protagonist?

He never thought the day would come when his love for Prince Qi would get tangled up with a craving for points.

He drifted off to sleep in the middle of all that random thinking.

The next day at noon, as Shen Lian sat at his workstation eating lunch, a eunuch from Prince Xi's mansion finally showed up in front of him, summoning him to take care of Master Song's health.

Prince Xi had taken Song Jin out for a few days of fun, leaving the young master unable to straighten his back, and now he wanted some kidney-boosting remedies.

Finally, he got his wish to set foot in Prince Xi's mansion.

Now, Shen Lian didn't need a gatekeeper to show him around, but he didn't head straight for Song Jin's courtyard. Instead, he went to the yard where the old eunuch had been on duty that day, poking his head in to look for him.

If the old eunuch still couldn't remember who Dian Xia was, that cringe-worthy goodbye letter should still be in his hands.

He looked all over but couldn't find the old eunuch.

Getting anxious, Shen Lian planned to "accidentally" stroll past that plum grove.

He was checking whether Dian Xia had seen that farewell letter.

As Shen Lian passed by the Western Garden, Prince Xi and Prince Qi, discussing state affairs in a nearby corridor, both spotted the furtive figure of the young imperial physician.

Prince Xi was about to call out to Shen Lian when his fourth brother clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Let's see where he's going," Xie Yuan said in a low voice.

Xie Hang pried his brother's hand off his mouth and muttered in complaint, "You enjoy teasing this young imperial physician so much—why not summon him to your own residence?"

Xie Yuan, hiding behind a corridor pillar like a hunter stalking prey, followed the physician's movements with his gaze: "I can't summon him; Prince Qi can't afford the reward."

Xie Hang was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

Xie Yuan, slipping furtively, shifted to the next pillar, shadowing Shen Lian.