Chapter 1287: Poison Neutralization (2)

“You have to think carefully,” the State Preceptor said. “Your body is weaker than ordinary people to begin with. If you exchange for half of the poisonous blood, even if you can neutralize the poison in the end, you won’t live past 40.”

Little Treasure said seriously, “My life was given to me by my parents. Even if I die for Royal Father, it’s only right.”

Li Jinghua covered her mouth and couldn’t make a sound. After all, one was her husband, while the other was her son. Her heart felt like it had been stabbed by a knife.

Little Bear went forward to grab Little Treasure and said to Yuan Hui seriously, “State Preceptor, why don’t you take a look at mine? I’m also blood-related to Royal Uncle. I’m in good health, so let me take Brother Crown Prince’s place.”

Little Treasure hurriedly stopped him. Smiling, Yuan Hui said, “It’s unknown if it can be done yet. It’s still too early for you to fight over it.”

In modern times, all kinds of tests had to be run to verify if the patient and the donor’s blood were compatible. But here, Yuan Hui only needed two things to determine if the two were compatible for blood transfusion.

Firstly, it was their birth characters. Secondly, it was their blood.

Because the Emperor’s life was in danger, Fan Zijin and Rong Xuan rolled up their sleeves and offered to let the State Preceptor draw their blood as well, just in case it turned out to be compatible.

Among the many princes in the palace, only Little Treasure and Qi Wensu had their blood drawn. The other children were too young to be considered by the State Preceptor.

However, the results of the verification were not ideal. Yuan Hui held Little Treasure’s name tag with a solemn expression and said, “The Crown Prince and His Majesty’s blood are only 70% compatible. The Prince’s is slightly lower at 65%. If we rashly do the blood exchange, it might result in failure for both parties. And the result of failure is death.”

Fan Zijin’s expression darkened and he asked, “What about the Second Prince’s?”

Yuan Hui shook his head. “No, even the Second Prince’s blood isn’t compatible. None of those present is compatible.”

Fan Zijin said thoughtfully, “Why don’t we try the other princes?”

“They’re too young.” Yuan Hui shook his head and said, “The heavens are virtuous. Even if His Majesty is the chosen one, we shouldn’t use the lives of children to extend his life. I won’t check theirs. You should turn your sights to other adults. Start with the Qi clan first. Being related by blood, their compatibility ought to be higher than ordinary people.”

Fan Zijin and Rong Xuan looked at each other and their hearts sank. The others might not be willing to do so. When the time came, they might not be able to contain the news.

As the two of them walked out of the palace, Rong Xuan said, “You can make the arrangements for the imperial clan. I’ll send two more groups of people to invite Haoran back. Though the commander of the Forbidden Troops is loyal to His Majesty, the West Mountain camp can’t be left unguarded.”

“Let Little Bear go to the West Mountain camp,” Fan Zijin said solemnly. “Most of the generals in the West Mountain camp have worked under Haoran. With Little Bear around, they will more or less remember this favor. Besides, Little Bear is very similar to his father.”

Rong Xuan immediately nodded.

After the two of them discussed it, Fan Zijin handled Qi Xiuyuan’s poison neutralization matter, while Rong Xuan took care of the government affairs.

However, what neither side mentioned was that other than the above-mentioned actions, they had also sent people to search for and protect Mu Yangling’s family.

Since Yuan Hui said that Mu Yangling was in danger, there were only two possibilities. Qi Haoran had been separated from them and thus was away from danger. The second possibility was that Qi Haoran had also encountered danger like Mu Yangling. No matter what, they had to do their best to make sure nothing happened to Mu Yangling.

After all, this concerned the fate of the country. Although the two of them were skeptical of metaphysics, they would rather be safe than sorry.

For the next three days, Yuan Hui and the imperial physicians inserted needles to seal the spread of the poison while checking the birth characters and blood sent by Fan Zijin. The most compatible among them was only 60%, not even comparable to the Crown Prince’s.

The Qi clan had long been checked and now checks were being done among the ordinary people.

Fan Zijin tried his best to find as many eight characters and blood samples as he could, but none of them matched the Emperor well.

Among the ten members of the Qi clan, there was only one person whose blood could fuse with the Emperor’s. When it came to the ordinary people outside, there was no possibility of compatibility.

Fan Zijin had lost a lot of weight. Although he was trying his best to stay awake, one could still tell that he was exhausted from his haggard appearance.

By now, the courtiers noticed something amiss seeing that the Emperor had not appeared for a long time. Although the imperial physicians claimed that the Emperor had only fainted from exhaustion, seeing that the imperial physicians were detained in the palace and that the Emperor’s most trusted Left Prime Minister and Prince An were making frequent movements, it was impossible for them to comfort themselves that the Emperor was fine.

Meanwhile, Prince Rong, who had always been inseparable from the Crown Prince, actually went to the West Mountain camp to train the soldiers under an imperial edict. The Forbidden Troops also strengthened their control over the capital. For a moment, the courtiers were in a panic. No one was in the mood to stop the reform of the official system anymore. Instead, they allowed the reform to proceed exceptionally smoothly.

However, no one in the reformist faction was happy at this moment, because they had already sensed that something had happened to the Emperor.

As the hearts of the people wavered, be it the reformists or the conservatives, they only wanted King Rong to quickly come back and take charge of the overall situation. Whether to continue waiting for the Emperor to wake up, for the Crown Prince to supervise the country, or for the Crown Prince to directly succeed the throne, they had to wait for King Rong to come back and decide.

The concubines in the harem, too, sensed something amiss. Some of them wanted to keep a low profile and seek peace, while others wanted to barge into the Palace of Earthly Tranquility to find out the truth.

Just as the chaos gradually began, Qi Haoran rushed back to the capital.

During the new year, he despised the cold in the north, so he brought his family south. In the end, they stayed in a small town for two months. Not only did they celebrate the new year there, but they also spent half of spring there.

Five days ago, their family packed their things and was traveling slowly towards the capital. Unexpectedly, after walking for only two days, they received a letter via the carrier pigeon from Tiger Head and Little Lion.

A secret language was used, just like the one he and Ah Ling had used to flirt, which was inspired by The Analects of Confucius. The children found out about it by chance, but they were not proficient in it, which explained the stiff writing style. Still, this did not stop him from understanding the message.

Only after comparing The Analects of Confucius to Qi Haoran did he realize that something serious had happened.

The twins said that something big had happened in the capital, that their Royal Uncle had fainted at the court assembly, and the palace was on guard. Not only could the two of them not leave the palace, but even Brother Little An was locked up in the palace.

As for Uncle Fan, he entered the Palace of Earthly Tranquility every day. When he met them on the way, he left hurriedly without saying a word. He only told the three of them to be obedient and not cause trouble. He did not even tell them what had happened in the palace.

Meanwhile, the Palace of Earthly Tranquility was surrounded by the palace guards, stopping others from getting close a hundred steps away. And now, not only could the two of them not see the Crown Prince and their big brother, they could not even see Qi Wensu, whom they went to school together with.

The three children sensed that something big must have happened in the palace. According to Little An’s guess, something must have happened to Royal Uncle. The three of them unanimously felt that they shouldn’t hide this from Qi Haoran, so they secretly wrote a letter to him.

Fortunately, the three children were still reliable and knew how to use secret language. Otherwise, once the messenger pigeon was shot down, everyone would know that Qi Xiuyuan was critically ill.

Pigeons were naturally faster than humans. It would take two and a half days for a soldier to bring the letter to Qi Haoran, but it took the messenger pigeon just one night.

Hence, Qi Haoran rushed to the capital without waiting for the urgent letter to reach him.

However, it was raining and thundering along the way. Due to the awful weather, the roads were not easy to walk on. In spite of those conditions, he had been traveling day and night for more than two days.

When Qi Haoran rushed into the capital covered in mud, Yan Du was holding Rong Xuan back with all the officials and interrogating him. “What exactly happened to His Majesty? He hasn’t appeared in court for three days. How long are you and Prince An going to hide it from the court?”

These words were a little heartbreaking. Rong Xuan said with an ashen face, “His Majesty is fine, just weak. That’s why he didn’t make an appearance. The imperial physicians of the Imperial Institute of Medicine are attending to His Majesty at the moment. Minister Yan, if there’s anything, you can file a complaint. There’s no need to bring so many officials here to accost me.”

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