Chapter 104 – Thinking of a Person
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
"Yes, your worries weigh heavily on your mind."
Besides insomnia and anxiety, Chen Changsheng mentioned several other symptoms that completely matched her situation. At the end, he also seemed to mention something about disharmony.
"Enough!"
Mo Yu"s face was slightly red as she said, "I admit that everything you said is correct. Just tell me how to treat it."
Chen Changsheng was somewhat baffled. He asked, "Even if the imperial physicians can"t immediately cure your illness, there should be no problem with temporarily alleviating it. Did you not go see them?"
Mo Yu did not reply.
Chen Changsheng shook his head and advised, "It"s not a good thing to hide your illness and not see a doctor."
"What do you understand?" Mo Yu couldn"t help but ask as she stared at him.
As she was the female official who served as the Divine Empress"s most trusted aide, no small number of people in the Great Zhou Dynasty were keeping a watch on her every movement. There were some illnesses that she could consult a doctor over, and some illnesses that she couldn"t. At the very beginning, when her own a.s.sessment of this illness showed a possible relation with her heart, she broke off any idea of seeking out the opinion of the imperial physicians.
Her worries weighed too heavily on her mind? What worries did she have?
The entire continent knew that all of her family had been executed. Was this her greatest worry?
Could the Divine Empress still hold some resentment?
Thus, she could not treat it.
She could not let anyone know that her mind was so heavily weighed with worries that she could not sleep.
Until today, when Chen Changsheng exposed it with a single sentence.
She stared into Chen Changsheng"s eyes, thinking about which was the greater risk: killing him or believing him.
"Can you keep my secret?" she asked.
She and Chen Changsheng were enemies, but for some reason, she believed in Chen Changsheng"s promises. Chen Changsheng"s thoughts were simpler. Since a medical consultation had already taken place, the relationship between them was no longer that of enemies, but of doctor and patient.
The doctor naturally needed to protect the secrets of the patient, so he nodded his head.
"How will you treat it? Do you need to take my pulse?"
When Mo Yu recalled that he was Daoist Ji"s disciple, she developed some confidence in his medical skills. She extended her arm in front of him and said, "It"s best if decoctions aren"t used."
Chen Changsheng knew why she didn"t want decoctions, because the dregs of the decoction would make it very difficult to keep a secret… When he thought of how this seemingly well-off woman actually had to live with such care and prudence, living every day as if right before an abyss, his ill will towards her inexplicably lightened somewhat.
He lightly pressed his fingers onto her wrist and, in a short time, reached a diagnosis, saying, "It will still be okay without taking medicine, but it will be somewhat slower."
Mo Yu relaxed a little and waited for what he would say next.
"Relax your mind, take more strolls, eat pearl barley porridge mixed with thickly cut pseudoginseng, and also…"
Chen Changsheng looked at her face. The makeup had already been cleaned off, but a tinge of impatience was still visible. After hesitating for a while, he said, "There are some illnesses that will naturally be cured after marrying."
Mo Yu was a little startled and then understood. Her two cheeks instantly flushed red, but her face exploded with a monstrous aura.
She fiercely glared at him, and then without any words, her body blurred and she vanished.
Chen Changsheng walked to the window and watched the woman"s figure vanish into the autumn forest, shaking his head.
While walking amongst the thick leaves covering the ground of the forest and listening to them rustle, Mo Yu felt her mind to be somewhat messy. Although the chilly autumn wind blew through the trees and across her face, it was still boiling. Earlier when Chen Changsheng had spoken of disharmony, she had already felt extremely humiliated and angry, but his revealing that she was still a virgin only added to these emotions.
If Chen Changsheng were some old imperial physician advanced in both years and virtue, it naturally would be okay, but no matter how she saw it, he was just a youth inexperienced with matters of the world.
The fallen leaves crumbled beneath her feet, and the autumn wind blew against her sleeves and through the Orthodox Academy"s forest. As she reached the palace walls, she gradually calmed down. Turning her head back to look at the indistinct house behind the forest and thinking about those things she had just done, she found it impossible to believe.
She actually aimed flirtatious glances at a youth, and even spoke such shameless words to seduce him? Although he currently knew her secret…the youth was not her enemy, and she was very relaxed around him, but…what she had done today was too excessive, wasn"t it?
The just-cooled cheeks once more became scalding hot, and her beautiful eyes exploded with resentment. If someone were to find out how she had acted in front of Chen Changsheng today, the entire capital would probably go insane.
Suddenly, she became calm. She stood in the forest by the palace walls for a very long time, seemingly lost in thought. Rustling fallen leaves drifted about her dress, gradually acc.u.mulating around her and making her figure seem somewhat thinner and much lonelier.
As the autumn deepened, winter was naturally not far, and the Grand Examination grew ever closer.
The Orthodox Academy once more welcomed a long period of peace. Chen Changsheng deeply valued this peace and put all his time into cultivating and studying. Xuanyuan Po did so as well, and while Tang Thirty-Six still thought of the world of flourishing blossoms beyond the academy"s walls, he was compelled to be more diligent in the face of two such companions.
In the library, Chen Changsheng would spend each night drawing in starlight for Purification. Although his body remained the same and his cultivation continued to make no progress, he was not the slightest bit discouraged. Every part of the process, from the meditation to the receiving of starlight, was done meticulously, without the smallest error.
The injuries of Xuanyuan Po"s right arm gradually began to improve, and at an ever-increasing rate. If he could completely recover before the start of winter and begin to learn the cultivation techniques in the library from Chen Changsheng, there was a real possibility that he could still make the Grand Examination.
Tang Thirty-Six cultivated incessantly, the quant.i.ty and purity of his true essence incessantly advancing. He stabilized his position at the upper level of Meditation more and more and had long since reached the threshold of Ethereal Opening. However, just like his fellows on the Proclamation of Azure Sky, he was absolutely not intending to take that step until he had finished all preparations.
In order to cross this pa.s.s of life or death between the Meditation and Ethereal Opening realms, this steepest and most dangerous of pa.s.ses, even the most genius cultivator would prepare for a very long time. Even Qiushan Jun had used an entire year to prepare, and this was with the Mount Li Sword Sect providing him countless medicines to help firm up his foundation.
It now seemed that Tang Thirty-Six was certain to be the first person in the Orthodox Academy to confront this trial of life or death that was the threshold of Ethereal Opening. As the first student of the Orthodox Academy, Chen Changsheng would never just look on as Tang Thirty-Six struggled on his own. In reality, Chen Changsheng had already made many preparations.
The first was medicine. In the past few days, he and Tang Thirty-Six had taken advantage of the darkness to sneak into the Hundred Herb Garden three times, taking from it many rare medicinal herbs and spirit fruits. When they were needed, he would refine them into medicines using the methods taught to him by his teacher, Daoist Ji. He was confident that he could definitely refine medicines that would not lose out to the medicines in places like the Mount Li Sword Sect or the Heavenly Dao Academy. The second was the method. Although he had not yet succeeded at Purification, he had already begun to read books concerning Meditative Introspection in the hopes that he would be able to help Tang Thirty-Six smoothly make it through the pa.s.s when the time came.
When they were stealing medicinal herbs in the Hundred Herb Garden, he had felt very nervous. These actions were somewhat contrary to his principles, but before the great principle of placing matters of life and death above all else, he didn"t think too much about it. However, when he saw the oil lamp on the stone table, he very naturally thought of the middle-aged woman.
And then he thought of Luoluo.
If not for the fact that Luoluo had opened up that door in the academy wall, if she had not lived in the Hundred Herb Garden for so long, if Guardian Jin who she had asked to remain in the Orthodox Academy had not shadowed them while they were stealing herbs, none of this would be possible.
On a certain night, when Chen Changsheng was reading a notebook left behind by someone who had pa.s.sed from Meditation into Ethereal Opening, he thought of a very important matter that he had forgotten.
It was still about Luoluo.
In an instant, the back of his clothes was soaked through with sweat.