Chapter 388 – Frightened to Tears (2)
Ye Zhen continued to ignore him, focusing on picking up the moldy herbs.
Looking from outside the door, Eunuch Fu was speechless before he immediately pretended to be an inanimate statue, gaze focused towards the horizon. He had never seen the emperor trying to coax a woman like that, and he couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander.
If Princess isn’t the princess but is the empress of the harem… I don’t know how pampered she would be.
Mo Rongzhan, oblivious to his trusted eunuch’s thoughts, was currently helping Ye Zhen pick up the herbs. “These herbs have worms on them. Don’t touch them. Let me.”
Thus, Ye Zhen stood at the side and watched him sweep those worms from the herbs, feeling somewhat surprised at how familiar he was with the job… as if he was used to rough work before. So she couldn’t stop herself from blurting out, “Have you done this kind of work before?”
She’s not angry anymore and is willing to talk to me again? The corners of Mo Rongzhan’s mouth curled up with joy. “What kind of life do you think zhen was living back in the military camp? When zhen entered, zhen started from being a small soldier and had to do all kinds of work. At that time, zhen didn’t even have any rations and fodder, so naturally, zhen had to go to the mountains to dig for wild vegetables. Back then, zhen was so hungry that zhen even ate the tree roots.”
Ye Zhen was stupefied, unable to even imagine that he had experienced such a day. “Weren’t you a prince?”
No matter how unfavored he was, he was still an imperial son. Did he really have to bear hards.h.i.+ps in the barracks?
“In the past, our imperial father did not like me, so zhen was sent out of the palace when zhen was only seven or eight years old. Then, zhen followed General Li from the West Camp and killed the enemies on the battlefield at the age of thirteen. But when zhen came back after achieving great victory and got our imperial father to place high hopes for me, the result was zhen became blind.”
Although he was bestowed as Qin w.a.n.g, having lost all his qualifications, he could no longer go to the battlefield and kill the enemies. Throughout his life, many of the things he had were something he obtained on his own. Back in the military camp, not only did he have to practice martial arts but also his calligraphy and read books on his own. He had to work a hundred times harder than other people just to have today’s stability.
Ye Zhen glanced at him and asked, “Was… was it Ye Yisong’s doing?”
Mo Rongzhan’s shoulders stiffened for a moment. He didn’t want to mention this man at all, but… he looked at her. And in the end, he opened his mouth, and said, “Ye Yisong is not a good man, but your father is a good one.”
“I know,” Ye Zhen said faintly as she bowed her head and no longer spoke.
“Yaoyao—” Mo Rongzhan called her softly.
Before he could speak, he was interrupted by a scream from outside the door.
“Your Majesty! What are you doing here? You… What are you doing?” Gong Tang, having been reprimanded by Huangfu Chen, was very embarra.s.sed. Therefore, he had come to check the condition of the medicine storehouse alongside Huangfu Chen. However, when he came, he saw that the emperor himself was unexpectedly disposing of the moldy herbs inside. The sight frightened him so much that he almost sat down on the ground.
Meanwhile, Huangfu Chen only smiled faintly as he looked at Mo Rongzhan who was picking up the spoiled herbs, finding the sight before him very interesting.
Mo Rongzhan glanced at Gong Tang and spoke to him coldly, “Zhen is helping you clean up the medicine storehouse.”
Gong Tang was almost in tears. “Your Majesty, you… you are making a fool of this small official. How can your n.o.ble self do this kind of rough work? I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”
“Zhen can’t do it, but the princess can?” Mo Rongzhan asked with a bone-chilling voice, still holding the broom in his hand.
It was only then that Gong Tang knew that the person drying the herbs today was Her Highness, the Princess, herself. Knowing this, he sullenly stated, “Your Majesty, this… The person who arranges for the female physician’s work is not this small official. If this small official knew, how could this small official let the princess do such a thing?”
“Zhen thinks you have been living your life so comfortably that you can’t even manage the Imperial Physicians’ Courtyard,” Mo Rongzhan said as he threw the broom to the ground, voice growing colder and harsher.
Gong Tang sweated like a pig as he stammered, “Ye-yes… this official must be strict with his supervision, and will not let Her Highness the Princess be bullied by others.”
Mo Rongzhan took a look at Ye Zhen, coldly saying, “As the princess wants to stay in the Imperial Physicians’ Courtyard, naturally, she will no longer be a princess. But, how could a female physician be ordered to do a task that is strenuous even for a man?”
What does he mean? Gong Tang was at a loss. What was it that the emperor wanted him to do?
Before he arrived at the medicine storeroom, he had already been scolded by Huangfu Chen, and was already feeling a bit wronged. He was a chief of the Imperial Physicians’ Courtyard. How could he ever come in charge of the matters like how the medicinal herbs in the storage were kept? Moreover, how could he have known that the person coming to dry the medicinal herbs today would be Her Royal Highness the Princess?
When he came here, before he had the time to call anyone over to help, he had suddenly realized that the person cleaning up the storage was the emperor.
He was about to cry for his mother, okay?
He had thought that the emperor was angry at him for not respecting the princess and that he shouldn’t have viewed the princess as an ordinary female physician. But the emperor’s words seemed to say that that was not what he meant.
Huangfu Chen smiled and explained from aside, “What His Imperial Majesty means, is that you shouldn’t leave such rough work for the female physicians in the future. Look at the medicinal herbs outside. By the time a little girl is done drying them, she’ll have fainted already.”
Gong Tang hurriedly agreed. “Yes, your humble servant will remember.”
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