After Being Mistakenly Taken for a Fellow Traveler by Emperor Long Aotian - Chapter 32

The guards exchanged glances, and Lu Xian pressed his hand down to stop their actions.

 

“Your grandfather was the chief physician of the Imperial Hospital, Zhang Shiyen. He passed away last year during the local conflicts in the Western Province’s epidemic. You say you completed his prescription?” 

 

Zhang Lingsu gritted her teeth. “Yes!”

 

“Bring the prescription.” Lu Xian instructed.

 

Zhang Lingsu reluctantly took out the prescription from her chest. She had been keeping it close to her these past few days, afraid of it being snatched away.

 

The guards slowly examined the prescription. Seeing no response for a long time, Zhang Lingsu anxiously said, “I won’t go to the capital, I’ll stay on this side of Qingzhou… I want to go to the Western Province! Isn’t there an epidemic there again this year? I want to prove that my grandfather’s method is correct, that it can save people. Why won’t you…”

 

“I am not a physician. I can’t judge the effectiveness of the prescription.” Lu Xian handed the prescription back to her. Zhang Lingsu took it back in a daze. “But if the young lady wants to go to the Western Province, I’m afraid I can’t help.”

 

“Why not!” Zhang Lingsu became anxious. “Why can’t I?”

 

“The young lady is young and has never practiced medicine. Without a foundation or experience, why should the governor of the Western Province believe you?”

 

“I am the heir of the Zhang family’s medical knowledge. I have been studying medicine with my grandfather since I was young…”

 

As Zhang Lingsu spoke, her voice softened.

 

—No one understood her isolation and helplessness better than herself.

 

“Is there really no way?” She bit her lip, almost despairingly. “Truly no way?”

 

Lu Xian quietly watched her, saying, “I suggest the young lady accompany me back to the capital. Perhaps with the prescription, there will be a chance to meet the emperor.”

 

—But would the emperor really believe her? As Lu Xian said, how could a seemingly naive and innocent girl like her write a life-saving prescription?

 

“Miss,” Chun Tao whispered anxiously behind her, “why go back to the capital? Now that the emperor has bestowed rewards and returned our ancestral home to us, and we are now ‘martyrs’ children, no one in Qingzhou can bully us. Why leave our hometown and go to the capital…”

 

“Please wait a moment, Lord Lu.” Zhang Lingsu raised her head calmly. “I will go back and pack my things.”

 

“Miss?!” 

 

Zhang Lingsu bowed deeply to everyone and left. Chun Tao followed her, puzzled and uncertain. “Miss? Miss?”

 

Lu Xian watched her departing figure without surprise in his expression.

 

“Young heroes have always emerged.” He said to the smiling little guard beside him, “Get a few people to help her move her belongings.”

 

—

 

Forbidden City, Imperial Study.

 

It had been several days since Xie Zhengqing last entered the palace, and the season in the palace had finally transitioned from late spring to early summer.

 

Zhou Xun sat below the window, holding a pen, carefully annotating a book. He wrote in a beautiful running script, elegant and powerful.

 

These annotations were not just for his own reading; they were also for the emperor. In recent days, the emperor had been unusually diligent, not only attending court daily but also staying busy after court, either meeting ministers in the warm pavilion to discuss state affairs or sitting in the imperial study, earnestly reading books as if he wanted to understand every aspect of the kingdom’s situation as quickly as possible. However, he seemed to struggle with reading the formal language, often scratching his head while reading and having to seek Zhou Xun’s help to write annotations.

 

Recently, Zhou Cai hadn’t bothered him, and the Fifth Prince had been confined to the mansion. Zhou Xun enjoyed this rare peace. He woke up at dawn every day, went to bed at dusk, and spent the rest of his time either reading or annotating papers for the emperor. The emperor was very busy, but he never forgot to take walks with him under the sun. As he put it, “Get more sun, it rains heavily in summer and things are prone to dampness and mold.”

 

The summer days in Zhou Xun’s memory had never been as quiet and leisurely as they were now.

 

With the final stroke of his pen, Zhou Xun blew dry the ink on the tip of the pen and placed it on the pen stand. Just as he put the pen down, he heard the emperor’s voice from outside. It seemed like he was talking to someone else, and his tone was quite intense.

 

“…The Fifth Prince? Your Highness? He is Your Highness’s brother. When His Highness did not confine him, he did not make any contributions to the court or the people…”

 

“The Fifth Prince is still Your Highness’s brother.” The other voice sounded somewhat helpless, belonging to a middle-aged man of about forty, possibly a high-ranking official in the court. “If the Fifth Prince goes on a hunger strike in the mansion, if this matter is spread out, how will the world view Your Highness? They will surely say that Your Highness is ruthless and forced his brother to death…”

 

“Then spread the news first: the Fifth Prince is on a hunger strike at the mansion because he wants to lose weight. Don’t put this blame on me!” The Emperor seemed impatient. “How old is he? Can’t he feed himself? It serves him right if he starves to death!”

 

“Your Majesty… If this statement gets out, you…”

 

As the bright yellow hem fluttered at the door, the Emperor’s figure appeared in Yangxin Hall. Following closely behind him was a man in his early forties. The man looked very refined and scholarly, dressed in purple official robes, appearing to be a high-ranking minister.

 

Zhou Xun stood up and nodded. “Your Majesty.”

 

The Emperor’s eyes lit up. “Ah!”

 

“You’ve been writing all afternoon again, haven’t you? Are your hands tired?” The Emperor glanced at the book under his hand, puzzled. “What is this?”

 

Zhou Xun cleared his throat. Then, as if the Emperor had just realized, he introduced, “This is Prime Minister Lu.”

 

Zhou Xun bowed to Prime Minister Lu. “Prime Minister Lu.”

 

Prime Minister Lu seemed to be stunned, standing there as if in a daze. It wasn’t until Zhou Xun finished his bow that he hurriedly returned the gesture. “This young man is…”

 

“This is the remarkable person who proposed the plan to manage the epidemic in the Western Province earlier,” the Emperor said, revealing a mysterious smile. He blinked at Zhou Xun, seeming even more pleased than Zhou Xun himself.

 

“I see. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Prime Minister Lu said, showing some admiration on his usually inscrutable face. “…But I didn’t expect the author to be so young. May I ask for your name?”

 

“I am surnamed Zhou, named Xun, with the courtesy name Yuwen. I am from Jiangzhou,” Zhou Xun replied straightforwardly, not intending to conceal his identity or name.

 

“Zhou…” Prime Minister Lu paused. “This name… It seems somewhat familiar.”

 

The Emperor took a deep breath, but Zhou Xun remained unchanged.

 

As a mere son-in-law, he wasn’t well-known in the capital, and he had been framed into the Wang Mansion before even participating in the imperial examinations. This was not a glorious matter, known only to the Wang Mansion, the Zhou family, and a few others familiar with both. Even those who knew about it might not know his name—only that a son of the Zhou family had entered the Wang Mansion, but they might not know his name was Zhou Xun.

 

Prime Minister Lu didn’t delve into the name issue further, just smiling and saying, “Heroes emerge in their youth. Master Zhou, with such insights at a young age, will surely achieve great things in the future.”

 

Zhou Xun graciously thanked him, “Thank you, Prime Minister.”

 

Following the Emperor, Prime Minister Lu left the Imperial Study, originally intending to discuss the matter of the Fifth Prince. Seeing that the Emperor had made up his mind, he didn’t persuade further and retreated from the study.

 

“Jiangzhou, Zhou Xun, Zhou family… so similar…”

 

“Prime Minister Lu? Prime Minister Lu?”

 

The call of the young eunuch pulled him out of his thoughts. Prime Minister Lu left the Forbidden City in his sedan.

 

After returning to his mansion, he summoned his longtime steward and said, “Send someone to Jiangzhou to investigate.”

 

“To Jiangzhou? What does Master want to investigate in our hometown?” the loyal steward asked.

 

“To investigate…”

 

As the words left his mouth, Prime Minister Lu closed it again.

 

“Never mind,” he said. “Forget it.”

 

—If Zhou Xun really was her son, and if her son could accompany the Emperor, then perhaps it also meant she was living well now?

 

Since she had married into another family, asking about these things would only be impolite.

 

He thought.

 

—

 

Prime Minister Lu left the Imperial Study, and the Emperor finally slumped back in his chair, returning to his usual relaxed self.

 

“Your Majesty seems in a bad mood today,” Zhou Xun remarked, sitting beside him. “Is it because of the Fifth Prince’s matter?”

 

The Emperor glanced at him, seeing Zhou Xun’s calm expression, indicating neither anger nor sadness, only objectively inquiring about the issue.

 

…Somehow, as he let out a sigh of relief, he also felt a bit secretly amused.

 

“Just encountered a fool, that’s all. A grown man threatening to go on a hunger strike? And they call me a tyrant? Hmph!” The Emperor spat disdainfully. “A tyrant? If I really were one, I’d exterminate his entire clan on a bad day! Hmph!”

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

After the Emperor said this, he saw Zhou Xun looking at him with a calm expression, causing him to unconsciously touch his nose, cautiously saying, “Is… Is it too brutal? Did I scare you?”

 

“It is a bit too brutal,” Zhou Xun replied.

 

“Eh? I-I was just joking, sir, please…” 

 

Zhou Xun continued, “Your Majesty, while it’s understandable to be angry, you must take care of your health. Among those nine clans, there’s also the clan of Your Majesty.”

 

The Emperor: …

 

Only then did he realize that Zhou Xun was making a dark joke. Seeing the Emperor’s bewildered expression, Zhou Xun couldn’t help but raise his right hand and smile.

 

“That joke was really cold… Wait, what’s this on your hand?” The Emperor noticed the red mark on Zhou Xun’s arm. “Wasn’t the ointment prescribed by the imperial physician effective?”

 

Zhou Xun was puzzled. “What ointment?”

 

“Of course, the scar-removing ointment. I had people searching for it for a long time!” the Emperor said.

 

Zhou Xun thought for a moment. It seemed that the Internal Affairs Department had sent many strange things. For example, there was something about “Master Zhou being lonely in the palace, so the Emperor specially ordered someone to find a companion for you,” and pulled out several boxes of allegedly spiritually infused ancient books, such as the newly planted rice in the garden behind the side hall (when Zhou Xun first saw them, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him), and…

 

“There seems to be such a thing, but it’s not necessary to apply, and it doesn’t bother me,” Zhou Xun said.

 

Hong Lian entered the study with something in hand, just in time to hear the Emperor urgently say, “You should still apply it, after all, that red mark…”

 

She placed the tray down, only to hear the Emperor’s next words: “I caused it.”

 

Hong Lian: ??

 

Hong Lian left after placing the tray down, pondering the strange conversation. As she walked towards the East Flower Gate, she almost bumped into someone.

 

“Hong Lian?”

 

Hearing the voice, she looked up and met Zhou Cai’s face.

 

“Master Zhou,” Hong Lian blushed. “Just now…”

 

“Why are you walking so carelessly?” Zhou Cai said gently, his tone devoid of blame.

 

Author’s Note: Regarding that light red scar, it was caused by the Emperor accidentally spilling red ink on the book corner before he crossed over. Emperor: The mark on your body was caused by me!