Chapter 177 That Is My Brother! My Sibling!
She only ran for a couple of feet and someone who sensed that something was wrong already started coming this way.
But they were all covered up by the poisonous fog, so when the back-up came, they couldn’t surround the a.s.sa.s.sins and kill them. They could only go into the fog to search.
After a while, Jiang Yashuang whose one sleeve was covered by blood supported the dying Qiu Jinglan out of the fog that was starting to get thinner.
Qiu Yelan, who was waiting anxiously felt like all her blood had rushed into her head when she saw the two bolts in Qiu Jinglan’s chest.
She didn’t know how she walked to them and helped Jiang Yashuang hold Qiu Jinglan. She could only hear her voice asking, “Will he die?”
She was surprised by how steady her voice was. It was calm and collected.
Jiang Yashuang looked at her and frowned lightly. He thought for a while and said, “I don’t know. Only the doctor can…”
“Yashuang, are you hurt too?!” Princess Yongfu had been squatting in front of Ou Qinglan, trying to wake her up. No one knew when she came over. She pointed at his sleeve surprisingly, “How bad is it? Were you poisoned? Are you ok?”
The princess asked a string of questions at once. Jiang Yashuang could only reply, “I’m fine. I just got sc.r.a.ped by a bolt.”
“There’s poison on that bolt!” Princess Yongfu’s expression immediately changed after hearing Jiang Yashuang. She scolded angrily, “You idiots! Go find the imperial doctor! Go find some Detoxication Pills! Why are you all just standing there?!”
“Carry him into the room!” At the same time, Qiu Yelan wiped away her tears that were just coming out. She choked with sobs while ordering the servants, “Go get the doctor. And is there any Detoxication Pill that can be used? Get it here…”
Jiang Yashuang watched her losing her calm. Since they came out of the fog, Qiu Yelan’s sole attention was on Qiu Jinglan. She didn’t even notice Jiang Yashuang’s b.l.o.o.d.y sleeve. He didn’t know how to feel.
But he didn’t say anything. He put Qiu Jinglan on the door plank that the Ruan Family’s servants carried over. He just stood up when he saw Qiu Yelan staggering. He immediately held her, “Watch out!”
When he grabbed her hand, he was startled. Her palm was wet and slippery. He didn’t even need to see it to know that was blood. And he knew it was probably not Qiu Jinglan’s blood.
Jiang Yashuang didn’t say anything and just took over her hand to look. Qiu Yelan’s palm indeed had four pinch marks like crescent moons and blood was gushing out of it.
“You…” No matter how tolerant Jiang Yashuang was, he finally got angry after seeing this. He quickly tore off a piece of his clothes and wrapped her hand. He looked serious and wanted to say something, but Qiu Yelan tried to break off to follow Qiu Jinglan. When she couldn’t, she finally realized Jiang Yashuang was grabbing her. She didn’t realize he was taking care of her wounds. She just thought he was jealous that she cared for Qiu Jinglan more. Qiu Yelan turned her head back fiercely. She stared at him for a second and said word by word, “That is my brother. Former Young Prince of the Duke of Xihe, Qiu Jinglan. Do you know that?!”
“What?” Jiang Yashuang was dazed.
He was surprised but he didn’t let go. Qiu Yelan still couldn’t go. She thought he didn’t believe it. With all the emotions raging in her heart, she finally couldn’t hold it any longer and started screaming, “That’s my brother! We have the same father and mother! Do you understand?! Let me go!!!”
Jiang Yashuang let go of her at a loss. He watched her unsteadily chasing after Qiu Jinglan. After a while, he mumbled, “Brother?”
“Former Young Prince of the Duke of Xihe?” Princess Yongfu was startled. She said surprisingly, “He faked his death?”
“No wonder he was nice to Lanlan…” Jiang Yashuang felt so embarra.s.sed at this moment, “No wonder Lanlan listens to him. He is not an illegitimate grandson of General Ruan that was lost! It’s just a cover-up! He is the brother of Lanlan! I was just blind! How come I didn’t see something this obvious!”
He was wondering why Qiu Yelan had known him for this long, yet she always defended Qiu Jinglan. They were siblings!
How couldn’t she be partial to her sibling?!
Thinking about how he treated Qiu Jinglan as a compet.i.tor, negotiated with him, and threatened to make him leave the city, Jiang Yashuang was so embarra.s.sed that he felt like committing suicide right now.
Princess Yongfu looked weirdly. She reminded him, “You don’t have time for all this! Go find the imperial doctor now!”
“Yeah, you’re right!” Jiang Yashuang immediately walked out, “I need to get the imperial doctor here now. I hope he can still save Ruan… No, Lanlan’s brother!”
“I was saying that your arm is also injured!” Princess Yongfu felt speechless. She was surprised by Qiu Jinglan’s ident.i.ty, but she was only a bit angry that Qiu Yelan was too close to Qiu Jinglan. When it came to Qiu Jinglan and Jiang Yashuang’s safety, she naturally only cared about the later, “Go finds an imperial doctor to take care of you!”
But Jiang Yashuang didn’t have the mind to take care of himself now. He didn’t feel like there was a poison acting up, so he just left the Ruan’s Mansion to find an imperial doctor to save Qiu Jinglan. Just looking at how Qiu Jinglan adored Qiu Yelan, if he died, Qiu Yelan probably wouldn’t be able to take it!
Things like this happened in the Ruan’s Mansion. Words naturally came to the Palace very soon.
Empress Jiang, who was arguing with Empress Dowager Gu changed her countenance for fear after hearing the news. She immediately jumped up and ordered, “Send the Imperial Army there! Make sure to bring back Yongfu and Yashuang safe and sound!!!”
The Empress grabbed the golden vessel that was filled with fine wine and crashed it on the brick in front of Empress Dowager Gu. She said furiously, “If anything happened to my child, I would kill all the killer’s children and grandchildren as a sacrifice!”
Empress Dowager Gu, who came specifically to question why Princess Yongfu and others left the Palace now looked calm, “Yongfu is a lucky girl. You gave her the t.i.tle of ‘Yongfu (Forever Luck)’, didn’t you? Just sit down and wait for the news. I don’t think anything will happen to her. You’re an Empress. Be more patient!”
Empress Jiang looked at her eerily, “I hope it is as you said. Otherwise…”
Empress Dowager Gu knew she was trying her best to contain herself, so she didn’t want to keep provoking the Empress. She then turned her head around and started talking with Princess Changping. The hall was full of people. Except for the Empress Dowager, everyone else was terrified.
The royal princes and princesses were especially frightened. No matter how much they envied Princess Yongfu, they all hoped that she would be fine at this moment. Except for Empress Dowager Gu, who dared attack the only precious daughter of Empress Jiang?
Empress Jiang said that she would kill the killer’s children and grandchildren. That was talking about them!
All of a sudden, the hall that was loud and lively fell deadly silent.
When people in Beijue Hall were waiting anxiously for the update, Jiang Yashuang finally brought Dr. Qi into Qiu Jinglan’s inner chamber.
Ruan Ciyi, who came after hearing the news had pa.s.sed out twice. She had fallen ill during the last engagement. In the past two years, she couldn’t eat any meat during her recovery, so she was still very weak. Hearing that her only dependence might die, she was dazed.
The talk that was going all over the Mansion, saying that the young master was not the General’s blood but his nephew, who was actually the sibling of Commandery Princess Ningyi was ignored by her. She just waited by Qiu Jinglan’s bedside, grabbing his hand tightly and wouldn’t let go.
“Ciyi, please step aside. Let the imperial doctor see him!” Qiu Yelan was actually no better than her, but at least she kept a sense of clarity. Seeing Jiang Yashuang leading Qi Shuluo in, she immediately came over and pulled Ruan Ciyi away.
Qi Shuluo knew this was urgent. He didn’t care for small talks. He calmed himself down by taking some heavy breaths. Then he started diagnosing.
Qiu Yelan and the others didn’t even dare to breathe!
It was like a million years later when Qi Shuluo finally stood up.
“Dr. Qi?” Qiu Yelan and Ruan Ciyi asked simultaneously. They couldn’t hide their trembling voice.
“Luckily, the poison will not kill him.” Qi Shuluo contemplated for a while and gave a piece of good news.
The whole room relaxed.
“But…” The whole room was intense again after this single word!
Qi Shuluo looked serious, “One bolt scratched the side of his heart. I suspect that it could have shot his heart. But young master Ruan contracted his heart after sensing the danger, so he barely avoided the bolt. So… I can’t be a hundred percent sure!”
“How sure are you?” Qiu Yelan asked with a sobbing tone.
Qi Shuluo thought for a while and said, “I don’t know.” He opened his kit, “First, let’s take off the bolt.”
The young servant who came with him asked all women to leave, so they could take off Qiu Jinglan’s clothes.
Qiu Yelan staggered out of the door. She comforted Ruan Ciyi who was on the edge of a breakdown for a while before she realized that Jiang Yashuang was standing behind her. He was still wearing the clothes he wore when they were attacked. The bloodstain on the sleeve had turned black.
Looking at his pale face and the sweat on his forehead, Qiu Yelan was also startled, “Why haven’t you patch up your wounds?”
Jiang Yashuang barely smiled, “It’s okay. When I went to find Dr. Qi, he saw it. He said the poison was not strong. People that are strong like me can just hold through it.”
Even though Qiu Yelan was worrying about Qiu Jinglan, she dazed for a second. She asked, “This poison… Is it from the bolt?”
“Yes.” Jiang Yashuang knew why she was surprised. He said, “I found it odd too. Those two a.s.sa.s.sins were clearly Men of Sacrifice. They were ready to risk everything to kill Ruan… your brother. And they’ve been on his tail for some days. Otherwise, they couldn’t get this opportunity. Under this situation, the poisonous fog they prepared and the poison they put on the bolt were knockout incense and mildly poisonous. It feels like someone swapped their poisons!”
Qiu Yelan mumbled, “Yeah. What’s going on?!”
She guessed a shadow man of Tianya swapped the poison. Because the fact that the fog was not poisonous could be explained as considerations that killing Princess Yongfu and Jiang Yashuang by accident may lead to Empress Jiang and the Jiang Family’s rage. As for the bolt that went after Qiu Jinglan, it should have some highly toxic poison that would kill him instantly!
But the question was since the shadow man swapped the poison into unharmful ones, why couldn’t he alert Qiu Jinglan to avoid this crisis?
“That’s right. I came to the Ruan Family all of a sudden. I didn’t notify anyone. The servant who pretended to be Empress Jiang’s man took this chance to help us. He was also improvising!” Qiu Yelan suddenly figured it out, “So the shadow man didn’t have time to notify us. He could only swap the poison to buy brother a chance. Will the shadow man be exposed after doing this?!”
In this second, her remorse was ineffable, “Why am I so stupid?! I came to brother so recklessly just for one sentence said by Princess Yongfu. I not only forced brother to expose his ident.i.ty to the Jiang Family but also pushed him into this near-death situation. Now his life is at risk and it’s all my fault!”
Jiang Yashuang was waiting for her a.n.a.lysis. Suddenly he saw her becoming sluggish. Then tears fell down her cheeks. He panicked, “Don’t worry. Qi Shuluo is quite good. Your brother is also strong. He would be fine… Don’t cry… Don’t cry!”
When he was comforting her, Qiu Yelan suddenly wobbled and fell right on the ground!