Chapter 45 On Your Bed

The man in black saw the woman before him crying out that she was about to give birth.

He did not let her go because of this.

He used the hilt of his sword to lift her veiled hat.

What met his eyes was a face covered in disgusting pustules. The woman had her eyes tightly shut in terror.

He put his sword away. If he killed her here, soldiers would soon be patrolling this area.

The man in black left.

Tang Chaoyang opened her eyes. They were completely calm.

If this man had actually tried to kill her just now, he wouldn’t have survived either.

When an enemy was this close, she still had some ability to defend herself.

Though the man in black had left, she continued pretending to be terrified and weak in the legs. She sat on the ground clutching her belly, gasping a few times before struggling to stand and walk away.

Tang Chaoyang climbed into the carriage, took off her veiled hat, and let out a long breath.

When Liu’er saw the face covered in disgusting pustules, she cried out in alarm.

Tang Chaoyang said calmly, “It’s me, don’t scream.”

The driver had been about to stop the carriage when he heard the cry, but after hearing Tang Chaoyang’s voice, he continued driving.

Tang Chaoyang took out a pill, quickly poured a cup of water, and swallowed it.

When she went out, she always carried a few little tools on her person.

Sometimes, medicine and poison were not so different.

Liu’er was genuinely frightened. “Mi—Miss, what happened to your face? Should we go see a physician first?”

Tang Chaoyang untied her outer garment and removed the pillow she’d strapped to her belly. “No need to see a physician. I’ve already taken the antidote.”

These days, following Tang Chaoyang around, Liu’er had come to sense that this young lady was not someone easy to provoke, and definitely not simple.

She simply behaved properly as a maid, not daring to question her mistress.

Tang Chaoyang knew Liu’er was, for the most part, dutiful, which was why she kept her close.

The little maid’s courage was just a bit lacking. With time and more experience, she would grow braver.

Tang Chaoyang lowered her eyes, thinking about the man in the black robe.

He resembled Fei Yan…but also didn’t. That man’s aura carried a certain wickedness.

The mystery was growing larger.

When the carriage arrived at the General’s residence, because of the pustules on her face, Tang Chaoyang obediently wore her veil again, to avoid frightening anyone.

Her face wouldn’t return to normal until at least tomorrow.

**

In the imperial study.

A shadow guard was kneeling on the ground, presenting a dossier.

Chief Steward Feng took the dossier and handed it to the Emperor.

Ling Gurong set down his brush, opened the dossier, and read rapidly, his eyes skimming ten lines at a time.

By the time he finished, his head hurt instantly.

Tang Dahong really was Tang Chaoyang.

He had actually been calling Tang Chaoyang “sister.”

Was it too late to regret this now???

Before he finished having a headache about it, the shadow guard reported another matter.

In the imperial kitchens, the old eunuch who washed vegetables had died.

“We have always kept a man watching him. He had been acting completely normal. Today, after washing vegetables, he went back to lie down and simply stopped breathing. The other purchasing official is still alive and showing no abnormalities.”

“The old eunuch showed no signs of poisoning, and he hadn’t been ill recently. His organs simply failed from natural causes.”

Ling Gurong chuckled lightly. “Natural causes.”

When the shadow guard and Chief Steward Feng heard this little laugh, cold sweat broke out on their backs.

Ling Gurong checked the hour. It was almost noon—he needed to head to Zhuque Alley.

He rose to his feet and strode out of the imperial study.

So long as he was still alive and well, he had time to uncover the truth.

Clearly, the person behind this had been laying plans since he had been an insignificant prince.

Ling Gurong arrived at Zhuque Alley, walked into the courtyard as if it were second nature, and entered the house to wait for Doctor Tang.

At this point, he really couldn’t bring himself to call her “sister” anymore.

Tang Chaoyang came inside.

Ling Gurong turned to look—and saw a terrifying face covered in pustules. He was shocked. “…Your face?”

Tang Chaoyang smiled, and smiling only made her face more horrific. “I took the wrong medicine. It’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

You could take the wrong medicine?

Ling Gurong didn’t believe her explanation for a second.

But at least it wasn’t permanent disfigurement. A woman would surely be devastated if her face were ruined.

“Take off your clothes. Get on the bed.” Tang Chaoyang opened her acupuncture case and shot him a sideways look when he remained motionless.

Usually, Ling Gurong would obediently undress and lie down to wait for the needles.

Today…he was a little hesitant.

“Apologies, I was thinking about something just now.”

Ling Gurong sighed silently in his heart. His gaze calmed. She was a physician.

His long, slender fingers rested at his waist.

He first unfastened the jade pendant tied at his belt and set it lightly aside. Then he undid his sash, letting the outer robe fall partly open.

Tang Chaoyang had already looked away when he took off the jade pendant.

The man’s tall, lean figure walked to the bed and lay down.

“Today, the needles go in the back.”

He turned over without a word, presenting his back.

When Tang Chaoyang performed acupuncture, she was always focused.

After she had inserted the needles, she still needed to let them sit for a while before removing them.

Ling Gurong finally spoke about something. “Doctor Tang, someone lay on the bed and died. He wasn’t poisoned, yet his organs failed as if from natural causes.”

Tang Chaoyang was first surprised that he called her “Doctor Tang.”

This was the man who, not long ago, kept calling her “sister.”

But she only found it curious for a moment.

She paid attention to what he described.

She frowned. “His organs failed naturally? If it wasn’t disease, it was old age.”

“It wasn’t disease, and it wasn’t old age either. He was a bit elderly, but not yet at the point of dying of old age.”

Ling Gurong spoke with a faint smile.

He turned his head to the side, his handsome face resting on his hands, the muscles of his bent arms defined and graceful.

Tang Chaoyang lowered her eyes to glance at him. This sort of death was very unusual. She was itching to investigate. “Where is the body? I’d need to see it to possibly determine the cause.”

Ling Gurong said calmly, “Go have the corpse brought over.”

Tang Chaoyang: “?”

Were there other people in this room?

She reflexively turned her head to look upward.

Her movement made Ling Gurong let out a low laugh, his voice intentionally lowered to the point that it tickled the ears.

“Doctor Tang, there’s no one above,” he asked teasingly, “You wouldn’t happen to think the shadow guard is hiding up on the beam?”

“Then where is he? This room doesn’t have anywhere to hide.” Tang Chaoyang asked bluntly.

Unfortunately, Ling Gurong didn’t intend to answer.

Tang Chaoyang ground her teeth. She was too curious, itching all over to know.

She cleared her throat and got up. With her hands clasped behind her back, she shuffled around like an old granny, inspecting every part of the room, determined to find where the person was hiding.

Ling Gurong raised his brows, watching her search.

When she crouched down to check under the chairs, he…

…

He barely managed not to laugh.

Tang Chaoyang meticulously searched every corner and found not a single place where a person could hide.

She frowned, hands propped on her hips, puzzled. She turned to look at the man lying on the bed.

He was watching her, clearly amused.

When she approached the bedside and stared him down, he lifted his brows, questioning, “What is it?”

Tang Chaoyang rubbed her chin and, in a tone of great solemnity, declared, “I know where your shadow guard is hiding.”

When Ling Gurong heard how confident she sounded, he thought she had truly guessed it. “Where?”

“He’s on your bed,” she said.

“?”

“???”

Ling Gurong was dumbfounded. What kind of absurd guess was this?

Imagining a shadow guard lying on his bed made his face change color again and again.

And the shadow guard, hearing this, couldn’t help his breath hitching just a little.

A sly gleam flashed across Tang Chaoyang’s eyes. She walked over to a window, pulled it open, and looked outside.

Sure enough, she saw a shadow guard clinging to the wall like a gecko.

Ling Gurong chuckled. “Doctor Tang, truly clever.”

Tang Chaoyang rolled her eyes silently. She knew the shadow guard had deliberately not avoided her.

Otherwise, the moment she opened the window, he would have vanished without a trace.

She quietly closed the window and nodded with composure. “I am very clever.”

Because there were needles in his back, Ling Gurong couldn’t laugh aloud—otherwise, he would have.

Suppressing his laughter was agony.

She had praised herself in utter seriousness!

Tang Chaoyang shot the man on the bed a sideways glare. What was so funny?

She might not be any good at poetry, calligraphy, or painting, but in other matters, she really was clever. What was so amusing about that?

Sometimes, Tang Chaoyang’s vanity was just like her son Fei An’an’s—both would inexplicably feel they were quite smart.

She fell silent and stopped talking.

Ling Gurong turned his head to face the inner side of the bed.

He couldn’t keep looking at Tang Chaoyang’s pustule-covered face as she fumed—it would make him burst out laughing.

Honestly, she looked a bit like…a toad.

Tang Chaoyang truly had no idea what he was laughing about with his head turned away, his shoulders shaking as if he were having a fit.

And so the two of them silently, mercilessly, ridiculed each other in their hearts.