His entire body was limp, but he still tried to act brave.
Ji Yunshu’s hands felt like they were on fire as she struggled to support him. Her fingers unknowingly tightened around him.
The weight of his body gradually caused her knees to buckle. Finally, she gritted her teeth and pressed on a part of Jing Rong’s waist. He, who was on the verge of falling to the ground, suddenly stood tautly.
The distance between them shrank to a paper-thin distance as Ji Yunshu’s ear flattened against Jing Rong’s strong chest. She could hear the cadence of his heartbeat. At that instant, his heartbeat seemed to magnify many folds, making a deep drumming sound in her ear.
But, this was not the time for her to blush.
“You… Hold on. I’ll carry you, so don’t move.”
She used everything she had to support him, but when it came to moving forward, she could not take a single step.
How about she just let go of him, so he could fall and “break into pieces”.
The thought crossed her mind for a moment and was very sinister.
‘That won’t do!’
“Your Highness!”
Like the sound of Providence, a voice was heard not far away.
Lang Po was first alarmed by the corpses. Soon after, he rushed in and caught sight of his Prince in an ambiguous position with Ji Yunshu, causing his brain to short-circuit.
“What are you standing there and looking dumb for? Hurry up and take your Prince.” Ji Yunshu’s tone was heavy.
Lang Po was a strong man, so he was far from being delicate and attentive like a girl. He roughly separated the two of them and took over from Ji Yunshu in supporting his master. He was ready to bring Jing Rong back into the hall.
“Where are you going? Put him down.” Her voice was urgent and her expression grave.
Lang Po obeyed her without hesitation, laying the unconscious Jing Rong on the freezing ground.
In a second, Ji Yunshu was squatting next to Jing Rong and tearing her sleeves into a long strip.
After a moment, she grabbed Jing Rong’s tattered sleeve and ripped it away, tearing it until his wound was clearly exposed.
His arm was dyed in black blood!
Lang Po cried out in alarm, “His Highness is injured?”
‘Hey fellow, are you blind? Your Prince is unconscious. If he’s not injured, did you think he was sleeping?’
At this moment, Ji Yunshu could not be bothered to explain the situation to him.
She used the long strip made from her sleeve and made a tourniquet1 around 10cm above his wound in order to slow down the spread of the poison.
When she was done, she raised her head and looked at Lang Po. “There’s strong liquor beside the memorial tablets on the offering table. Hurry and go get it for me.”
“Yes sir.” His servile nature had kicked in! Lang Po ran into the house and found the strong liquor without needing to search for it. He rushed back and delivered it to Ji Yunshu.
Ji Yunshu took the jug and poured the alcohol into her mouth. Then, she sprayed the rest on Jing Rong’s wound. In a flash, the blisters on his wound burst, releasing its contents with a sizzling sound. It was very like the bubbles in a cola bottle, except the color was similar to a dark energy drink.
Lang Po, who was clueless about Ji Yunshu’s treatment, watched helplessly in worry. Not waiting for him to react, Ji Yunshu restrained Jing Rong’s arm with both of her hands, before leaning over him. She started to suck out the poison from his wound.
As she sucked out the black blood, she spat it out and repeated the same steps more than ten times before she stopped.
Her mouth was now covered with black blood. Although it was clearly a cold winter night, Ji Yunshu’s brow was beaded with sweat.
Lang Po asked nervously, “Teacher, how is his highness?”
Ji Yunshu replied, “He was exposed to Shiban poison. The effect is very fierce. Fortunately, the poison didn’t seep into his bones. He won’t die.” Then, she grabbed the jug and stood up before quickly adding, “Hurry and bring him into the house.”
“Yes sir.” Once again, Lang Po’s servile nature resurfaced. He obeyed Ji Yunshu and brought Jing Rong into a small room that Ji Yunshu pointed to. Then, he put Jing Rong onto the bed.
Meanwhile, Ji Yunshu went into Fu Bo’s room with the jug of alcohol and used the same method to temporarily treat Fu bo.
Following that, she navigated the shelves of the memorial hall to find several raw medicinal materials. She hastily compounded them into a medicine which she spread on Jing Rong’s and Fu Bo’s wound. After that, she bandaged both of them up.
If she was a bit slower in treating their injuries, only death would have awaited them.
After being busy the whole time, her legs weakened from tiredness. She cracked her neck and took in a few deep breaths.
‘It’s finally done!’
Lang Po, who did not understand her actions, inquired, “Teacher, what medicine did you give to his highness?”
‘Can he die from it?’
This Lang Po really took after Prince Rong’s moral conduct, fearing that she would poison them.
Ji Yunshu frowned at him, “The medicine is made from common ingredients: fresh ginger, a couple of spices and viola mandshurica. I compounded them together and applied it to the wound. This can stop bleeding and absorb the poison from the wound. It won’t kill people.”
“How did his highness get poisoned?” In fact, Ji Yunshu did not understand how the brain of those ancient people were geared. Why do they love to poison this, poison that, poison here and poison there?!
Other than poison, hidden weapons were just as popular!
‘Stupid people!’
“If you want to know, let’s go out and search for those men in black. Examine the sword that almost claimed your Prince’s life.”
Hearing Ji Yunshu’s words, Lang Po rushed out right away. ‘He isn’t planning to hack those corpses into pieces in retaliation for poisoning his master… right?’
Ji Yunshu shifted her gaze down, to Jing Rong’s pale complexion.
At this moment, his appearance lacked its usual spirit, looking quite meek and docile with his well-shaped brows and eyes. That tall nose bridge and lips which weren’t pursed from the arrogance about his own power looked quite soft, and that sharp feeling he gave vanished.
‘Ah! And look at that skin. It could only be described as perfect.’
When she realized how “obsessed” she looked as she stared at him, it caused her to panic. It really did make her feel ineffably nervous.
Then, she recalled the moment when Jing Rong shielded her by pulling her into his arms. Although she was very grateful, inwardly, she was also flushed with excitement, but only a bit.
Despite the fact that he was the main reason of the night’s events, he did suffer from a sword slash, so she should feel grateful to this deity.
The more she thought about it, the more confused and panicked she felt, which annoyed her to the point she became restless.
She might as well go outside and calm down.
She headed outside right at the time Lang Po was studying the corpses of the attackers. He was looking at them with a serious frown.
Ji Yunshu couldn’t take it any longer and blurted out, “Not only did those killers want to take our lives, they even coated their swords with poison. It was very clear that their aim was His Highness, they wanted him dead most of all.”
‘Hey! You better speak the truth. Did your Prince owe someone money? Or extort others? Or even employ a hit-man?!’
Lang Po remained silent.
Ji Yunshu wrinkled her nose. At this moment, apart from the smell of the dead pervading the courtyard, the smell of blood was equally strong.
Suddenly, deep within her heart, curiosity gnawed at her. She wanted to know the truth of the matter.
She walked over to one of the corpses and was about to crouch next to it when Lang Po shouted, “Teacher! What are you doing?”
“I’m curious.” She threw the words at him, leaving him at a loss for words.
She promptly pulled down the mask covering the dead man’s face. Under the mask hid a dark-skinned man with a rough appearance. Clearly of foreign origin.
It was a commoner.
Ji Yunshu would not stop until she got to the truth, even if she was courting death. She continued to take off the masks on all the corpses.
They were all commoners, but there was nothing strange about that.
As soon as she got up, her foot unknowingly kicked something.
Clang!
She lowered her head to take a look and saw a blue jade pendant next to her foot. She stooped down to pick it up and carefully examined it.
The jade pendant was round and engraved with a bouquet of pear blossoms.
The engraving could be considered quite exquisite and nice to look at.
But, this thing also looked quite familiar!
1.A tourniquet is a usually a very constrictive bandage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourniquet