Chapter 242: Snow Lake Flower
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The new residence on Heavenly Water Bridge would take a few days of purchasing furniture before it was livable. It was inconvenient for the three of them to go back and forth, so they still stayed at Third Lady’s house.
After busying herself with the various arrangements of their new home today, Luo Ning returned to Dye Workshop Street with Ye Jingtang to get some rouge, powder, and clothes.
On Double Osmanthus Alley, Luo Ning held a small umbrella and walked toward the courtyard door. Along the way, she said, “The four courtyards in the back residence are all prepared for your wives and concubines. Every courtyard has a main room and an east and west wing. In total, there are twelve rooms. I don’t even know what Third Lady is thinking…”
Ye Jingtang was wearing a black robe with his long saber hanging at his waist. He led the horse behind him and smiled. “It’s better to have more empty rooms than none at all. In the future, when we have children…”
“The young masters have the east residence, the young ladies have the embroidery building, and the maidservants have the side and back rooms. Those four courtyards are for your women to live in. Do you think I can’t tell?” Luo Ning turned around and looked at the extraordinary little thief beside her. “Third Lady is already ready. If you don’t fill up the rooms, won’t you be letting her down?”
Ye Jingtang put his arm around Luo Ning’s shoulders and entered the courtyard with her. “Are you kidding me? I’m not a donkey. If I bring twelve of them home, I’ll turn into medicinal dregs before I’m thirty.”
Luo Ning’s shoulders twisted slightly. “Then, how many are you going to marry?”
Ye Jingtang thought about it seriously. “What a man wants is nothing more than to dominate Jianghu, be a noble, and have three wives and four concubines. Three plus four equals seven. Seven—Hiss! I’m just joking.”
Luo Ning’s expression was slightly cold. After glaring at the little thief, who was eating from his bowl and looking at the granary, she entered the courtyard. “I’ll brew some medicine for you when I get back.”
She looked around the kitchen. “Where is the medicine I bought?”
Ye Jingtang smiled and said, “I came back in the afternoon. I was afraid that it would expire if left for too long, so I threw it away.”
Threw it away? 1 spent so long with Madam Wang to get her to prescribe the medicine…
Luo Ning gritted her teeth and walked toward the courtyard gate. “I’ll go to
Literary Virtue Bridge to get medicine for you. You… Eh?! Little thief!”
Ye Jingtang blocked the way, picked up the cold and elegant, light and soft heroine, and apologized, “I’ll grab some when 1 have time. The weather is so hot, and we’ve been running all day. Take a break, and I’ll massage your shoulders and legs.”
How could Luo Ning believe this? Yunli and the bird weren’t here, and there were no outsiders in the entire alley. How could she not know what he would do if he carried her into the room?
Luo Ning pressed the soft sword at her waist. “Little thief, 1 just came back to get something. 1 have to go back soon…”
“It’s just resting. It’s broad daylight. How could I have ulterior motives?”
Ye Jingtang pushed open the door of the west wing with his shoulder, sat on the bed, placed Luo Ning on his lap, and gently massaged her shoulders and arms. “You’ve worked hard these past few days. Let me massage you. Sit down and chat with me before going back.”
Luo Ning wanted to get up, but Ye Jingtang wouldn’t let her. So she turned her head and pretended to be aloof.
Ye Jingtang had been inspired by Dumdum today and discovered that the Wind Listening Palm had other misguided and marvelous uses.
Although it was a little wasteful of a top-notch martial arts, Liu Qiansheng wasn’t his master. It was fine to waste it.
Holding Luo Ning, Ye Jingtang massaged her with his hands and carefully sensed the fluctuations of her blood and qi, searching for the parts and intensity that Ning’er found the most pleasurable. His technique was extremely gentle.
Luo Ning didn’t want to speak at first, but after a while, she realized that the little thief was different today. It was completely different from the anxious pawing from before. His massage was quite comfortable, as if he was really serving her.
Luo Ning blinked. Because of the excellent experience, she slowly leaned against Ye Jingtang and asked coldly, “What kind of technique is this?”
Ye Jingtang had a smile in the corners of his eyes. Seeing that Ning’er was no longer resistant, he placed his hand on the little watermelons. “It’s the Wind Listening Palm. Is it powerful?”
As an internal martial arts expert, Luo Ning knew about this top internal martial arts. She was skeptical. “Is this how the Wind Listening Palm is used?”
“Martial arts don’t have to be used for fighting. This is a supplementary use. Do you want to learn it?”
Luo Ning naturally wanted to learn it, but once she opened her mouth, the little thief would definitely push his luck. She thought for a moment and said calmly, “It doesn’t matter whether I learn it or not. If you have a heart, teach me. If you don’t, forget it.”
Ye Jingtang held Ning’er’s heart and smiled. “How can 1 have no heart? If you don’t believe me, feel it.”
“I’m not touching… Ah, you-”
Luo Ning lightly hammered Ye Jingtang with her hand. Helpless, she still lowered the curtain…
In the Imperial City…
Unknowingly, the moon rose above the branches, and gorgeous palace lanterns lit up between the palaces and pavilions.
The front hall of Eternal Joy Palace was the place where the emperor discussed government affairs. At this moment, the hall was brightly lit. The empress of Great Wei was sitting in front of a dragon-carved screen. There was a gauze white screen in front of her, and only her figure behind the screen could be vaguely seen.
In front of the white screen was a stool. The white-haired Imperial Physician Wang was sitting upright on the stool with a confession in his hand. He was reading it carefully. “Zhang Jinglin should be a personal disciple of the Northern Liang Medical Sage. More than twenty years ago, he followed a Northern Liang envoy to Yun’an and visited me once… This man can be considered talented, but he likes to use fierce medicines and folk formulas. It is a lack of medical ethics to value medical skills over the lives of patients.
It is taboo to test medicine directly with humans. With the first time, doctors will no longer have any scruples. From the confession, Zhang Jinglin should have already walked the evil path before he was expelled by the Northern Liang Medical Sage.”
“Imperial Physician Wang, can you tell what kind of medicine he’s researching?”
“It expands the meridians in a short period of time to increase the internal energy by several times, and it even lasts for half an hour before causing death. Ordinary forbidden medicine can’t do it. If the confession is true, a medicinal herb similar to the Snow Lake Flower should have been added to the formula to repair and protect the meridians.”
The empress frowned. “He has the Snow Lake Flower.”
Old Imperial Physician Wang shook his head. “The Snow Lake Flower grows in Heavenly Carnelian Lake. It blooms once every sixty years. The last time it bloomed was when the country was founded. Now, there’s very little stock left in the world. Even if Zhang Jinglin has it, he can’t be so wasteful. I estimate that he’s researching a medicine that can replace the Snow Lake Flower.”
The empress’s eyes moved slightly as she sat up straight. “Is there any medicinal material in the world that can replace the Snow Lake Flower?”
“Zhang Jinglin should have some clues since he can make the people testing the medicine last for half an hour. But even if he found a substitute, the medicinal effect can’t compare to that of the Snow Lake Flower, which precipitates the essence of the sun and moon for sixty years. If it can have one-hundredth of the medicinal effect, it’s already considered a divine item.”
The empress nodded slightly, deep in thought.
If a martial artist’s meridians were broken, they wouldn’t be able to use qi circulation methods. If the main meridians were all broken, this person would be crippled, and their injuries wouldn’t be able to recover at all.
In the past, only the Snow Lake Flower and the Fire Bathing Picture could treat this kind of injury. But the Snow Lake Flower was too rare. It was basically a special offering reserved for emperors. Needless to say, the Roaring Dragon Chart couldn’t treat many people unless it fell into the hands of Jianghu martial artists.
If a substitute could be found, and the quantity was large enough, the hidden injuries of countless martial artists in the world would turn around.
As for her, she was thinking about the Roaring Dragon Chart. If something happened, the first thing that would be damaged would be all the meridians in her body. The remaining Snow Lake Flower in the treasury had to be kept to save lives, so she didn’t dare to use it. She could only rely on the flawed Fire Bathing Picture to resist.
With a substitute, even if the medicinal effect were only 1%, it would at least help her last a few more days longer than if there was no medicine…
The empress’s eyelashes fluttered. After some thought, she asked, “The last time the Snow Lake Flower bloomed was when the country was founded. Now that sixty years have passed, is it going to bloom again?”
Imperial Physician Wang said, “According to the calculations, it will be in this year or the next. However, the Heavenly Carnelian Lake is currently in the territory of Northern Liang and heavily guarded by Northern Liang soldiers. The truce between Your Majesty and Northern Liang has only been a few years. It’s probably not appropriate to send troops at this time.”
Hearing this, the empress didn’t say anything else…
A moment later, Imperial Physician Wang left under the escort of palace servants.
The empress pondered for a long time before she got up and returned to her bedchamber. She changed into a fiery red long dress, and her hairstyle returned to its refreshing and capable style. She jumped onto the roof of her palace and left the Imperial City silently.
The empress had extraordinary martial arts skills. In the past, she often strolled around the capital alone. Because she liked poems and songs, the places she frequented the most were poetry conferences on Parasol Street, but she had never shown herself in public. The reason was not that the empress was low profile but that in the fields of zither, Go, calligraphy, and painting, she really couldn’t be high-profile.
The empress rose and fell gently over the city. She first went to the Black Office, found the White-Haired Diting, and asked about Ye Jingtang’s whereabouts. Then she went to Heavenly Water Bridge.
The moon was high in the sky, and there were many pedestrians on Heavenly Water Bridge. The depths of the Pei family’s alley were also very lively.
The empress landed silently on the wall. She could see that a table had been set in the viewing pavilion in the west residence. A delicate young lady and three maidservants were sitting inside. They were focused on the bloody battle on the table. There was a big bird squatting beside them.
“Little chick?!”
“Chirp?1
“I didn’t call you!”
In the small garden of the back residence, a charming and beautiful mature woman was walking beside a middle-aged madam and said with a worried expression, “Sister-in-Law, I’m an unmarried girl. It’s not appropriate for me to live there…”
“Jingtang already asked you to live there. His meaning is so obvious. Why are you being so shy? If you continue to be like this, 1’11 roll you up in a blanket and throw you over…”
“Sigh, Sister-in-Law, I can’t do anything about your arrangements. I’ll listen to you…”
The empress looked around but couldn’t find any traces of Ye Jingtang in the huge residence, so she waited among the buildings.
After waiting for about two hours, she noticed a horse coming over from a secluded back alley.
Ye Jingtang, who was dressed in a black robe, was sitting in front. His back was straight, and he looked in high spirits.
Behind him was a stunning beauty in a blue summer dress. She was sitting sideways with a small bag on her lap and her face resting on Ye Jingtang’s back, looking weak.
When the empress saw this, she thought that this lady was sick. But after taking a closer look, she realized that she was wrong.
When the horse arrived near the Pei residence, Ye Jingtang stopped. The beauty in blue jumped down, and her legs went weak for a moment. Then she frowned and hit Ye Jingtang with her hand. “I just went back to get some things, but you had to mess around.”
Then she carried the small bag and quickly entered the Pei residence.
The empress blinked, feeling that Ye Jingtang must have gone out on a date with his sweetheart and kissed and touched her.
The empress secretly observed for a moment and saw Ye Jingtang hand his horse over to a servant, speak with a maidservant, and then walk to a courtyard alone. She sneaked over silently…
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