Chapter Eighty-Eight: Malevolent Temper? None of Your Business!

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"What? Your prince is that badly ill?" Qingyue panicked.

"He still has not woken up. If anything happens to our prince, then... then we are finished!" Xiao Xu stamped his feet in anxiety.

"Then wait here. I will go find our young lady at once!" Qingyue dared not delay and hurriedly said.

She left Xiao Xu waiting there and turned back inside. Seeing her expression change so drastically, Quyue did not dare to ask more.

"Young lady, Xiao Xu came saying that his master has not eaten for a whole day because of his illness!" When Qingyue came in, Qin Wanru was selecting carefully preserved maple leaves from a book. She meant to use them for making maple leaf bookmarks. Just as she heard this, the maple leaf she was trimming was pierced by the scissors in her hand.

"What happened?" Qin Wanru looked up.

"I do not know either. Xiao Xu ran over asking you to go take a look," Qingyue said.

"Come on, let us go see." Qin Wanru set down the scissors and the maple leaves, lifted the hem of her skirt, and headed out. She ran into Quyue, who was carrying a food basket.

"Young lady, are you going out at this hour?" Quyue asked, setting down the basket.

"I told Qingyue I was stepping out for a bit. I will eat later. Clean up the maple leaves in the room," Qin Wanru said casually.

"Yes, young lady," Quyue answered, stepping aside to make way.

Qin Wanru hurried out. Qingyue jogged a few steps to catch up, led the way, and before long brought Qin Wanru to Xiao Xu.

"Second Young Lady Qin, this servant..." Seeing Qin Wanru, Xiao Xu was so moved that tears nearly fell.

"Come, let us go see your master together," Qin Wanru said in a low voice. If Chu Liuchen truly came to harm in Jiangzhou, the whole of Jiangzhou would be in trouble.

Given his status, the exalted one in the capital would have to make an even more conspicuous show of it to cover things up. In that case, the matter would likely be treated no differently from an attempt on the prince's life or an assault on the sovereign.

Otherwise, how could the world be made to believe it? Even in the history books, a harsh and indelible stroke might well be laid down.

If not for his young age back then, the one now sitting on the throne would have been him. By rights, he was the legitimate crown prince. For that very reason, though the current emperor had several sons, not one had been named crown prince.

The ministers were all waiting and watching.

If something happened to Chu Liuchen at this time, and the emperor did not shift the blame onto several scapegoats, the entire realm would be thrown into turmoil. And those scapegoats would, without question, be the officials in the Jiangzhou region, with Qin Huaiyong the first to bear the brunt.

The courtyard was still the same courtyard, but the large reclining chair outside was gone. Xiao Xu led Qin Wanru into the house, around the winding screen, and into the inner room. Seeing Chu Liuchen lying on the bed, his face so pale it held not the slightest trace of color, Qin Wanru felt a touch of panic herself.

He must not come to harm. If he did, Qin Huaiyong would surely be implicated; it was even possible the entire family would be seized and destroyed.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, reached out to take the hand resting outside the quilt, steadied her heart, and carefully felt his pulse.

It was heavy and sluggish, almost painfully difficult to move through, beat by beat!

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From the pulse alone, one could tell he was in poor condition. Qin Wanru opened her eyes and saw a bowl of medicine on the table beside her. The medicine had already gone cold, not the faintest warmth left in it.

"Why have you given your master such cold medicine?" Qin Wanru reached out and touched the bowl. It was indeed ice-cold. Her expression darkened at once.

"Second Young Lady, the master refused to drink it, so it was left here and went cold. There has always been a fresh bowl simmering on the stove. This servant will pour a hot one at once," Xiao Xu said as he took the bowl away, crying, "Since this morning, the master has refused to drink his medicine and has not been able to eat anything either!"

"Who prescribed this medicine?" Qin Wanru's brows drew tightly together. So it was not the medicine that was bad, but that Chu Liuchen had no intention of taking it properly.

"It was prescribed by the abbot of Quiet Heart Nunnery. It is quite suitable for the illness, but the master simply does not wish to take it!" Xiao Xu had tried every method he could think of, yet Chu Liuchen paid him no mind. With no other choice, he had thought of Qin Wanru.

In all of Jiangzhou, only this Second Young Lady Qin had a relationship with their master that was anything but ordinary. Xiao Xu could only be said to have grasped at a straw.

"Go and bring another bowl of medicine." Hearing that it had been prescribed by the abbot of Quiet Heart Nunnery, Qin Wanru still trusted it. At times when she saw the abbess prescribing medicine, it was not as meticulous as her own Mistress Mingqiu, but by and large it was still good.

"Yes, this servant will pour one at once!" Xiao Xu withdrew.

Qin Wanru took Chu Liuchen's hand again. His hand was very large; spread open, it could almost have enclosed both of hers. Looking at his tightly closed eyelids, Qin Wanru did not hesitate for a moment before lifting one sharp nail and狠狠掐ing the web of his thumb.

This time she used real force.

"Ah!" The man on the bed cried out in pain. His long eyelashes fluttered twice, and Chu Liuchen's eyes opened. A faint brown hue underlay his gaze, but there was a chill within it, an icy detachment that kept others at arm's length. He stared fixedly at Qin Wanru, without the slightest warmth, without the slightest expression.

The moment Qingyue saw that look, she was so frightened that she lowered her head at once, her heart in turmoil. Even weakened to the point of lying in bed, Chu Liuchen still gave off a chill and a sense of unease that crawled up from the spine.

"When one is ill, one must take medicine. If you do not take it, how is the illness supposed to get better?" Seeing a small stool by the bed, Qin Wanru picked it up casually and sat down, then let go of his hand.

Chu Liuchen looked at Qin Wanru with icy eyes. His thin lips were pressed tightly together, not a trace of color on them.

That deathly chill, as though there were not the faintest spark of life in him, was even more bizarre than his usual sternness, numbing the entire body. The temperature in the room seemed to have dropped several degrees all at once.

"In a moment Xiao Xu will bring the medicine. Take a little first, then have some more medicine and eat something afterward." Qin Wanru acted as though she did not see Chu Liuchen's expressionless face or his dark, brooding eyes. She reached out to hold his wrist and checked his pulse again.

As before, he was indeed not unconscious at all; he simply did not wish to open his eyes.

"Do not want to eat," Chu Liuchen said coldly, his gaze falling on Qin Wanru. The atmosphere made Qingyue lower her head even more, not daring to move an inch.

"Why do you not want to eat?" Qin Wanru opened her eyes and lifted a smiling face. Her cheeks were softly flushed, making that little jade-white face all the more alluring. The corners of her eyes rose ever so slightly, carrying a natural charm; yet she had not fully grown into herself, so there remained a trace of childish innocence, and the allure was not especially pronounced.

"Your complexion is truly nice," Chu Liuchen said in a low voice.

No one had expected him to suddenly lift his hand and touch Qin Wanru's face. The touch beneath his fingers was soft, faintly warm, and very pleasant, very full of life. He froze for a moment, and his long eyelashes fluttered twice, as if he were a little unable to collect himself.

Qin Wanru had not expected him to reach out and pinch her cheek. She looked at him in astonishment, only to see the expressionless face beneath her gaze slowly turn languid. His exquisite features instantly came alive, as though the spirit of a water-ink landscape painting was being gently breathed into the deadened face of a handsome young man.

Yes, expressionless indeed—an expression that was nothing more than lifeless.

"Truly very nice." Chu Liuchen reached out again. Under Qin Wanru's startled, wide eyes, he half-closed his own, pinched her once more, and the smile at the corner of his pale lips grew even more distinct.

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"You..." Qin Wanru struck hard at the hand that was misbehaving. She could tell that the first time, Chu Liuchen had touched her unconsciously, but this time he was plainly doing it on purpose.

She had used plenty of force, yet she did not hit his hand; it actually slipped away. Chu Liuchen's face took on a lazy, roguish expression, like that of a young man bent on mischief.

"Master, you are finally awake, Master..." Xiao Xu came in carrying a bowl of steaming medicine. Seeing the vivid expression on Chu Liuchen's face, tears nearly spilled from his eyes. The bowl in his hands almost dropped.

"I do not drink medicine!" Chu Liuchen turned over and faced inward, showing them only his back.

"Master, if you do not take your medicine, how can your body recover? If you..." Xiao Xu began coaxing him earnestly again, placing the medicine on the table, his face full of worry.

"Annoying. Leave," Chu Liuchen said coldly from his turned-back position.

"Master..." Xiao Xu drew out the word in misery. He was truly frantic. It had already been a day without medicine, and the master's condition was visibly worsening. This worried him nearly to death.

"Master..."

"Get out at once, unless you are trying to make this prince angry!" Chu Liuchen's voice was not merely cold now, but carried a touch of ferocity, cutting Xiao Xu's words off at once.

"Master..." Xiao Xu's eyes were red with urgency. Though that very soft call of master was directed at Chu Liuchen, his face was pleading toward Qin Wanru.

"Xiao Xu, Qingyue, you two go down for now," Qin Wanru said after thinking for a moment, waving them away.

"Young lady..." Xiao Xu relaxed in relief, but Qingyue panicked.

"I am fine. You go down with Xiao Xu," Qin Wanru said, taking a deep breath. It would be better to have Qingyue go down with Xiao Xu. What she was about to do might not please Chu Liuchen, and could even anger him. Better to avoid the chance that if he transferred his ire, he might vent it on Qingyue.

"Yes, young lady." Seeing that Qin Wanru was so insistent, Qingyue had no choice but to withdraw. She turned and headed toward the outer room, and even as she reached the doorway, she still looked back inside with worry. She truly could not rest easy.

Qin Wanru waved at her again, and only then did Qingyue retreat into the outer room.

"Prince, there must be some reason why you do not wish to take your medicine, must there?" After everyone else had left the room, Qin Wanru wrapped her hand in her kerchief, rose to pick up the bowl of medicine from the table, and sat down again by the bed. Blowing on the medicine in her hand, she glanced sideways at the proud young man on the bed and asked.

"You are in no position to meddle," Chu Liuchen replied with a dissatisfied, icy laugh, his voice carrying a trace of ruthlessness.

"Truthfully, I did not want to meddle either. It's just that I have something I wish to ask of you. If Your Highness were to simply leave like this, there would be no one else for me to ask to do it." Qin Wanru frowned and said, her tender little lips pressing together with some difficulty. "And this matter is also connected to Her Majesty the Empress Dowager's illness. If I let someone else handle it, I would not feel at ease, and I fear they would steal my credit. It is truly vexing."

This matter was related to a piece of news she had heard in her previous life...