Jun Huailang sat quietly beside the bed.
The miracle physician’s words from earlier were still echoing in his ears.
By now, Xue Yan’s wounds had been freshly bandaged. It was only when the miracle physician treated Xue Yan’s injuries right in front of him that Jun Huailang realized just how badly Xue Yan had been hurt.
New wounds covered the old scars on his body, and several of them were so deep that the bone was almost visible.
Jun Huailang’s eyes grew hot.
He firmly believed everything Xue Yan had said, because Xue Yan truly did what he said he would.
When he said he was not afraid of death, he would certainly tie his own life to Jun Huailang’s. When he said Jun Huailang should wait for him to save him, he would risk his life to do so.
He had never lied, and he had always given everything without reservation.
The room was quiet now, with no one coming to disturb them.
Jun Huailang sat beside the bed and watched Xue Yan for a while. Gradually, he made up his mind.
He rose and walked over to the writing desk beneath the window.
His books and belongings were arranged neatly across the tabletop. Jun Huailang had always been particular about such things and never allowed others to casually move anything on his desk.
Because on this seemingly orderly desk, Jun Huailang clearly remembered that one particular book contained a note that no one else could be allowed to see.
It was still daylight, yet Jun Huailang used a fire striker to light the lamp on the desk.
He thought that perhaps he should bring certain matters to an end himself.
Whatever had happened in his previous life had nothing to do with the Xue Yan of this life.
He loved the person standing before him, and that person had entrusted his very life to him.
Not to mention how many times Xue Yan had saved him in this lifetime, and how many times he had saved Jun Huailang’s family.
He was innocent. Jun Huailang should not impose things that had never happened upon him.
Even if Jun Huailang himself still remembered them, he should bear those memories himself.
Even if there truly was such a thing as cause and effect in this world, and punishment would eventually fall upon him for having fallen in love with someone he should not have loved in defiance of morality, he was prepared to bear it himself.
After lighting the lamp, Jun Huailang opened the hidden compartment in the desk and took out a book.
He opened it, and sure enough, a note drifted lightly out.
Two sides of the note were clean, straight cuts, while the other side had an uneven, ragged edge. It was clearly a corner of a sheet of paper torn from a page of some book.
Jun Huailang put down the book, picked up the note, and held it over the lamp.
The flame flickered quietly.
Firelight reflected in Jun Huailang’s eyes.
His hand paused. Finally, he turned the note over one last time, intending to look at it for the final time.
He was completely prepared.
Yet when he saw the writing on it, his gaze suddenly stopped.
The words had changed.
It was still the same strange script with missing strokes, whose meaning could only be barely understood through the strokes and the surrounding context. It was the same writing used in the book he had originally read.
“Bodhi originally has no tree; the bright mirror is not a stand.”
That line quietly appeared on the note, while the original incomplete sentence had completely disappeared.
…Originally, there was nothing at all; where could dust possibly gather?
Jun Huailang’s fingers tightened.
Whoever could alter the words on this note while using the exact same script could not possibly be an ordinary mortal.
Only the original owner of this book could have done it.
So… was he telling Jun Huailang that everything written in the book was false?
If it had never been real in the first place, how could it give rise to knots in the heart and suspicion?
…Just as he thought.
Jun Huailang had already sensed a deep sense of incongruity from the words in the book he remembered. It was as though the person described in those pages and the Xue Yan he knew now were simply two completely different people.
So the things written in the book had been false all along.
That meant Xue Yan had never done those things to Linghuan in his previous life. The words Jun Huailang had seen were nothing more than the contents of a book.
Jun Huailang stared at the note, unable to make a sound for a moment.
The obsession that had troubled him for so long had suddenly disappeared. Even he himself did not know what he was feeling at that moment.
After a while, he raised his eyes and looked toward the inner room.
There was not the slightest ripple in his heart now. It was completely calm, with only a feeling of, As expected.
—And at the same time, an overwhelming desire to see Xue Yan, take his hand, and kiss him.
He released his grip and turned to walk into the inner room.
The piece of paper drifted and swayed down onto the candle flame, burning to ash.
——
After night fell, Jinbao came in once.
He prepared some thin rice porridge and several small dishes for Jun Huailang, then quietly reported the current situation in Jinling.
The medicine prescribed by the miracle physician had taken effect very quickly. After it proved successful on several patients, they immediately gave the medicine to all the patients who had been gathered together.
And almost as though he were deliberately going against the rumors about Prince Guangling that had previously spread through the city, Duke Yongning—who had always been detached from worldly matters and uninterested in such trivial affairs—actually had someone deliberately spread the news.
They said that the miracle physician who had prescribed the medicine had been found by Prince Guangling himself after he traveled over mountains and through the wilderness into the mountains of Yangzhou, and that the medicinal catalyst used by the patients throughout the city was wolf blood that Prince Guangling had personally obtained in the mountains.
Rumors among the common people had always spread quickly, and they tended to become increasingly exaggerated along the way.
Now, throughout Jinling City, Prince Guangling’s name was being talked about everywhere. Even three-year-old children knew that the lives of everyone in the city had been saved by His Highness Prince Guangling.
It had only been half a day. Before long, this news would surely spread throughout the anxious Jiangnan region.
Thus, although the epidemic had been fierce and its onset frighteningly rapid, it had been suppressed in time and had not caused any significant casualties.
Instead, among the people of Jiangnan, Xue Yan had gained an extremely good reputation.
Hearing this, Jun Huailang could not help laughing softly as he glanced toward the bed.
Ever since Xue Yan was born, he had never had a good reputation.
He was the Calamity Star. He was said to bring misfortune upon his relatives. Even the loss of Yanyun and its fall into the hands of the Turks had been blamed on him.
Yet now, he had become the savior of all Jiangnan.
Of course, the master of all these rumors was still sleeping soundly, completely oblivious to the world.
Under the lamplight, the affectionate look in Jun Huailang’s eyes was impossible to conceal.
Jinbao, who was secretly watching him from the side, immediately noticed something.
He looked at Jun Huailang, then followed his gaze toward Xue Yan. His expression gradually became rather subtle.
This… had his master actually succeeded?
Good heavens. As expected of Prince Guangling, a man who always kept his word. Even if it were a star in the heavens, he would somehow drag it down and hide it in his arms.
Jun Huailang withdrew his gaze and immediately met Jinbao’s expression.
Jinbao had been marveling at his master and, caught off guard, had failed to compose his face. Jun Huailang had caught him red-handed.
But Jinbao was not afraid in the slightest. He was very bold.
Who was the person standing before him?
The kindest living Bodhisattva there was. He certainly would not punish Jinbao for the slightest thing.
Besides, now that his master had His Highness the Heir, even if his master possessed heaven-shaking abilities and had a temper that could ignite at the slightest provocation, he was now like the Monkey King trapped beneath the Five Elements Mountain. Could he possibly make any trouble?
On the surface, it looked as though His Highness the Heir had fallen into his master’s hands.
In reality, his master was the one completely wrapped around His Highness the Heir’s finger.
Jinbao did not even try to hide it. He simply grinned at Jun Huailang.
“Your Highness the Heir, this servant serves our master at his side every day. If there’s anything going on, you needn’t hide it from this servant.”
He smiled ingratiatingly, his words sweet as honey.
“This servant is quick with his hands and feet. Serving one master or two masters makes no difference.”
Jun Huailang knew that Jinbao had figured it out.
His gaze flickered, and he was somewhat embarrassed, but he did not deny it.
“…Don’t mention it to outsiders,” he said.
Jinbao’s smile grew even wider.
“Of course! This servant is the best at keeping secrets. Rest assured, Master!”
He had even stopped calling him “Your Highness the Heir” and directly changed to calling him “Master.”
Jun Huailang could not help pointing at him.
“You really know how to curry favor.”
Jinbao grinned.
Jun Huailang then asked, “Did the miracle physician mention anything about the cause of the epidemic?”
Jinbao’s smile disappeared. He scratched the back of his head.
“The miracle physician did say, ‘If an orange is planted south of the Huai River, it remains an orange; if planted north of the Huai, it becomes a trifoliate orange.’”
He continued, “He said… people from Lingnan? He said that people living in the mountains of Lingnan, especially the bandits who have lived there for years, live in places filled with miasma, and the things they eat often contain traces of toxins. Over time, those toxins also enter their blood. They can resist this toxicity themselves, but people from Jiangnan cannot.”
As he spoke, Jinbao looked confused.
“But this servant doesn’t understand. How would people from the mountains of Lingnan end up in Jiangnan?”
Jun Huailang’s gaze froze.
Lingnan?
The terrain of Lingnan was complicated and the soil poor. Combined with its high mountains and deep valleys, the region had given rise to countless groups of bandits who occupied the mountains as their own territory.
Moreover, Lingnan was the fief of the Prince of Yunnan.
The Prince of Yunnan was descended from the younger brother whom the founding Emperor had enfeoffed at the beginning of the dynasty after they had fought together to establish the empire.
Strictly speaking, the system of hereditary enfeoffment had been abolished hundreds of years ago. But first, the founding Emperor’s brother had rendered outstanding service, and second, Lingnan’s terrain was unique. As a result, the region had become the hereditary fief of the Prince of Yunnan.
The bandits of Lingnan had always been the Prince of Yunnan’s greatest source of trouble. That continued until the current Prince of Yunnan took the throne and used thunderous methods to pacify most of the bandits, recruiting them as soldiers, stationing them throughout the region, and providing them with provisions and military pay.
In his previous life, the Prince of Yunnan had relied on precisely this arrangement to secretly raise troops, gathering a massive army before marching straight toward Chang’an with the intention of usurping the throne.
Jun Huailang had a vague suspicion.
If the people who had infiltrated Jiangnan included bandits from Lingnan, then it had to be an arrangement made by the Prince of Yunnan.
If that were the case, then not only the officials of the Xu family faction, but also the turmoil in Jiangnan, had the Prince of Yunnan’s hand behind them.
Xue Yan had once told him that the Xu family faction was entirely focused on accumulating wealth, yet no one knew where all the money they amassed had gone.
Could it be that the Xu family had been in contact with the Prince of Yunnan long ago? They provided the money to help the Prince of Yunnan raise troops, while the Prince of Yunnan provided the manpower to eliminate their political enemies?
Jun Huailang’s gaze darkened.
To seize power and place the Fourth Prince on the throne, the Xu family had truly been playing an enormous game.
But judging from what had happened in his previous life, the weapon they had raised to eliminate their enemies had ultimately turned around and bitten them.
In his previous life, when the Prince of Yunnan relied on their assistance to raise an army and marched straight toward Chang’an, he had not cared about the Xu family’s favor.
Nor had he cared that the person about to ascend the throne was the Xu family’s own close relative, the Fourth Prince.
Jun Huailang withdrew from his thoughts.
This matter had to be established with solid evidence.
And to get to the bottom of it, the most important thing was to identify the group of people who had infiltrated Jiangnan.
“The people I previously ordered to be arrested—are they still being held?” he asked.
Jinbao hurriedly replied, “They’re all still locked up. Without your order, not a single one has been released.”
Jun Huailang nodded.
“Later, I’ll interrogate those people myself,” he said.
Among that group, once the Jiangnan locals who had been incited were eliminated from consideration, there would certainly be some infiltrators from Lingnan.
Those people should be relatively easy to investigate. After all, no matter how early the Xu family had begun making its arrangements, it could only have been within the past few years.
Jinbao hurriedly asked, “When do you plan to go? This servant can make the arrangements in advance.”
Jun Huailang looked toward Xue Yan.
“After he wakes up,” he said.
Jinbao immediately answered.
“Very well! This servant will go prepare the medicine! These days, everyone in Jinling City has to drink it as a precaution. Master hasn’t had his yet. Once he wakes up, I’ll have to trouble you with it!”
Jinbao was absolutely delighted.
His master normally hated taking medicine more than anything. Usually, if he could avoid taking it, he would. And whenever he absolutely had to take it, he would always find some excuse to throw a tantrum.
Now that he had His Highness the Heir, he had finally been rescued from his sea of suffering!