Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Ailment of Longing

Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Illness of Longing

"Sanniang, what are you finding so strange?" Wu Hong asked on impulse, his nerves tightening at the tone of Madam Li’s voice.

Wu Songran and Li Ruolan also grew tense. This concerned Wu Hong’s reputation. The two women cared deeply for him and could not help but be worried.

The truth was long past, and the matter was far too grave. Madam Li had never told Wu Songran of it before. The reason she spoke now was that she had heard the rumors about Wu Hong, that he was almost invincible beneath the level of the innate. Moreover, Emperor Yang Guang had supposedly advanced to the innate realm, and fewer and fewer people still knew the truth. Those capable of restraining Wu Hong were exceedingly few.

Though the current emperor, Yang Wei, might perhaps take those close to Wu Hong as hostages, he had only just ascended the throne and did not yet possess the courage to commit such a vile act openly.

After composing herself, Madam Li said, "Hong’er, I suspect that Madam Zhao never harmed the prince. The spiritual medicine soup you drank may not have been poisoned at all."

"When that terrible matter happened, I could not shield you, because it was simply too serious. And without proof, if I had spoken of it openly, disaster would surely have followed. So I secretly sent experts to release you. Who would have thought that at the time your tendon lines in your hands and feet had already been severed, and that you then vanished without a trace? It filled me with deep guilt."

"Sanniang, that was all in the past. Since the truth has now been brought to light, I bear no resentment whatsoever. Only gratitude."

Only then did Wu Hong learn that the one who had secretly freed him had been an expert under Madam Li’s command.

"Afterward, I questioned Madam Zhao about it. Though she was agitated at the time, when the matter of her having harmed the Prince of Wu was mentioned, she denied it outright. Think of how she treated you in the past. She always treated you as her own son, just as she did her own child. How could she suddenly have framed you? Most likely Yang Guang the Emperor threatened her. As for whether she obeyed his orders, I think probably not."

"Madam Zhao is an utterly resolute woman. Her hatred for Yang Guang the Emperor came too late for anything else. The only thing Yang Guang the Emperor could truly use to threaten her with was Wu Lie, but Wu Lie is Yang Guang the Emperor’s own son. To say that Madam Zhao secretly harmed the Prince of Wu Wei does not hold together at all. It is far more likely that Yang Guang the Emperor had someone steal Madam Zhao’s poison, then secretly bribed one of her subordinates. That would be plausible."

After Madam Li’s analysis, Wu Hong’s mind was suddenly crystal clear.

"Yes... Madam Zhao has always treated me well. How could she have used my own hand to harm my father? Even if it were to allow her son to seize the throne, she could simply have deceived me into going to some remote place and imprisoned me there. There was no need to use such a method to eliminate me."

After thinking through the key point, Wu Hong sighed. "I never imagined that I would become the sacrifice in the scheming of emperors and ministers. My father must have understood the crucial point at the last moment as well, but because he advanced to the innate realm, he was taken away by some other master. Truly, fate toys with man."

"But there is one thing I still do not understand. Why did Madam Zhao hide within the imperial palace? If she had done nothing wrong..." Wu Hong frowned and said.

Madam Li had already regained her composure. Her whole person radiated a refined and noble elegance. She smiled faintly and said, "Hong’er, with your present cultivation in martial dao, you could be said to be unmatched throughout the Great Qian Dynasty. But in all things you must use your mind more. Yang Guang the Emperor is certainly afraid that you might rise again one day, and that the Prince of Wu Wei, who vanished so suddenly, might one day appear before him to take vengeance.

"He surely believed that your disappearance was because the Prince of Wu Wei had rescued you. And at the crucial moment, he could also push Madam Zhao out to take the blame. He feared that you and Madam Zhao might meet again, which is why he placed Madam Zhao under house arrest in the imperial palace.

"As for me, if you had not seen certain things in the Mirror of Observation and connected them together, I would never have reached such a conclusion by chance."

Wu Songran listened to her mother discussing old matters with Wu Hong, analyzing the course of the entire affair. As she looked at Wu Hong, her heart suddenly began to pound for no reason at all.

Her gaze toward Wu Hong changed. "Brother Hong... if he is not my brother and we have no blood relation, then perhaps we can..."

Her mind ran wildly with fanciful thoughts.

Ever since Wu Hong had cultivated the Great Sun Tathagata True Scripture, there had gradually come over him a transcendent quality. His bearing was overwhelmingly masculine, with an almost extraordinary attraction to all things feminine. Women are of yin, men of yang, and Wu Hong was yang among yang. His looks could not be called more beautiful than Pan An's, but the masculine force about him was unlike anything of this mortal world.

Even Madam Li was affected by it unconsciously. With her normally graceful and noble air, a woman who would not turn pale before the greatest calamity, she was smiling brightly whenever she saw Wu Hong, feeling only that her Hong’er before her eyes was now a thousand times more pleasing than before.

"Then there is no need to hesitate. I suspect Madam Zhao has mostly been confined within the imperial palace, but I do not think she is in great danger. After all, the current court's most favored consort under Yang Guang the Emperor was Duan Fei, and Zhao Rong is Madam Zhao’s own younger sister. Now that Yang Guang the Emperor has advanced to the innate realm, his position is still not one to be ignored. Presumably Madam Zhao will not be in any danger for the time being. Tonight I shall enter the imperial palace by night and rescue her."

Wu Hong spoke with unwavering conviction, though inwardly he was also somewhat lost. His true enemy had already advanced to the innate realm.

As the saying goes, disaster does not reach one's descendants. Although the current emperor, Yang Wei, was the son Yang Guang prized most, and though he had often stood against Wu Hong in the battle at Black Wood Cliff, he was, after all, an innocent existence.

What Wu Hong needed to do now was to advance to the innate realm as soon as possible, and then seek out Yang Guang the Emperor in that unknown world to settle the blood debt.

"Brother, the day is still young, and you have not returned to the capital for several years. Why do we not go out and enjoy ourselves for a day?" said Wu Songran.

She cared nothing for Wu Hong’s desire to find the true culprit, Yang Guang the Emperor, and exact revenge. In her heart, she did not even acknowledge such a father, one who would use anyone—wife, children, all people in the world—if only it served his purpose.

She took Wu Hong’s broad hand and shook it, looking intimately affectionate, though the tenderness carried a hint of something strangely different.

Madam Li saw all of it and could not help but laugh softly. "Hong’er, Ran’er is right. You have not been home for so long; accompany Miss Ruolan and Ran’er and spend a proper day in the city."

Wu Songran was delighted to hear her mother say this, and her face flushed red.

"Then the young master should take us to see the most famous place in Bianjing City, the Great West Lake," said Li Ruolan, who had remained silent beside them until now.

"Very well. Let us go to the Great West Lake," Wu Hong said.

The Great West Lake was one of the most famous sights in Bianjing City. Among the city’s best-known attractions were the Great Buddha Temple of the capital, the former imperial palace of the previous dynasty in Bianjing, and the Thousand-Year Snow Mountain. Each of these places had its own distinct charm.

As for the Thousand-Year Snow Mountain, it was said to have existed for ten thousand years, while its snow, which never melted throughout the year, had already remained for a thousand. The environment there, however, was quite harsh.

The Great West Lake, by contrast, was a picturesque place of mountains and water, a landscape that drew scholars and poets year-round for strolling, viewing, composing verse, and painting. Even poets and talented men from neighboring states around the Great Qian Dynasty were often attracted there.

Wu Hong led the two women out on foot, without taking any other servants or attendants, and hired a carriage straight to the Great West Lake.

Along the way, Wu Hong could sense several not-weak presences secretly following their party.

But he paid them no mind, chatting and laughing with the two women.

Yet he noticed that Wu Songran seemed somewhat unusual. Sitting together in the same carriage, she kept blushing for no apparent reason, and Wu Hong saw that her gaze kept drifting toward him in furtive glances.

"Ran’er, are you feeling unwell? Why are you always blushing?" he asked.

"Ah! Pfft—" Li Ruolan had just taken a sip of tea when she suddenly sprayed it out, splashing Wu Hong all over.

"Ah! My apologies, Young Master! I did not mean it! Miss Songran does indeed have an illness."

Wu Hong was startled. Seeing Li Ruolan’s smiling face, he had been tense at the mention that Wu Songran was ill, but relaxed at once and asked, "What illness? Is it serious?"

He knew that Li Ruolan was extremely knowledgeable about poisons, and such knowledge naturally meant she was also very familiar with the ailments of the human body. To study poison, one first had to study the human body and understand pharmacology thoroughly.

It was no exaggeration to say that Li Ruolan was highly skilled at both poison and medicine.

Li Ruolan’s beautiful face suddenly turned solemn. "This illness is very serious. At the very least, I cannot cure it."

Wu Songran, who had thought from Li Ruolan’s reaction that she had seen through her thoughts and was teasing her, was suddenly startled when Li Ruolan’s expression hardened. She trembled faintly and asked, "Sister Ruolan, what illness do I have?"

"Hm. This illness is a little strange and not convenient for the young master to hear. Bring your ear closer and I will tell you," Li Ruolan said, coughing once in an air of deep mystery.

Wu Songran did not know what ailment Li Ruolan could possibly have found in her body, yet she really did believe her and leaned in.

Li Ruolan bent to Wu Songran’s ear and whispered, "Sister Songran, you have the sickness of longing."

Her voice was as soft as silk.

Wu Hong had not intended to eavesdrop, but with cultivation such as his, if he wished to hear something, he could even distinguish the clamor of ants fighting. With a trace of curiosity, he heard Li Ruolan’s words to Wu Songran.

"Ah! Hahaha! So my little sister has already taken a fancy to someone! Which family’s young master is it?" Wu Songran suddenly burst out laughing.

Wu Songran’s face flushed crimson to the roots of her neck. She lowered her head and twisted the corner of her clothing, mortified beyond measure. "Sister, you’re awful. You were tricking me."

Her murmur was nearly inaudible.

But Wu Hong heard it very clearly. Perhaps this was the downside of having too sharp an ear. He could not help but continue, "Sister, by your reaction, it seems you have been longing for quite some time. When will you bring your brother-in-law to let me have a look?"

He spoke teasingly.

Li Ruolan, beside them, pressed her translucent, jade-like palm to her forehead. "Good heavens, another person has fallen ill. And it is the rare, world-renowned disease of becoming a wooden dummy."