Jiuxi

Chapter 829 827 [Leaning on the Railing]

One late night a few days later.

"Duke, I have accomplished my mission!"

Tan Zheng was holding a volume in both hands, and the bright candlelight illuminated his excited face.

Lu Chen raised his hand to take it, nodded and said, "Well done."

Tan Zheng was delighted, but he was good at observing people's expressions and was keenly aware that Lu Chen was in a bad mood at the moment, so he said respectfully: "I'll take my leave."

"it is good."

Lu Chen didn't say much, and later said to the outside: "Zilong."

Qin Zilong immediately appeared and said, "Here!"

Lu Chen slowly stood up and said after a moment of silence: "Tell the light and dark sentries to move away, and no one is allowed to approach here tonight."

"Yes!"

Qin Zilong agreed, and then asked cautiously: "Duke, I want to leave too?"

Seeing Lu Chen nod slightly, he quickly bowed and left.

Lu Chen placed the file on the table but did not open it immediately. Instead, he paced slowly around the room.

Since coming to this world, he has encountered many dangerous situations, and there have also been many times when he needed to make decisive decisions. He almost never hesitated. This was an instinct he gradually developed in his previous life. He must never be indecisive when facing danger.

However, this time he was torn between his conscience and his desires. Even though he asked Tan Zheng to sneak into the Imperial Hospital to retrieve the file, he still had not made up his mind to open it.

The reason is simple. Once the truth of the past events is consistent with his guess, it will be extremely difficult to deal with it later.

Lu Chen stopped and stood by the window, looking up at the distant starry sky in the early summer night, a self-deprecating smile appeared on his face.

"Now he is in a high position but has many concerns. It shows that people will change."

Although he said this, his eyes suddenly became sharp, and then he turned around, walked to the table and picked up the file.

Written on the cover were six simple words: Your Majesty's Medicine Record.

The word "Your Majesty" above certainly does not refer to Li Zongben, but to the late emperor Li Duan.

The late emperor's health had always been poor, and he had been taking medicine frequently since the fourth year of Jianwu.

Of course, the emperor cannot be careless when using medicine. The Imperial Medical Bureau has its own set of standard procedures, and the palace also has corresponding strict supervision. Even if it is just a most ordinary prescription for nourishing the spirit, there must be someone to cross-supervise the entire process from prescription, medicine preparation, medicine boiling to the final drug testing.

In fact, this is not only the procedure for the emperor to use medicine, but also for other nobles in the palace.

Since Gui Qiuliang was promoted to the director of the Imperial Medical Bureau, he has been fully responsible for the health of the late emperor. Although there are other imperial physicians with superb medical skills cooperating with him, the work mainly depends on Gui Qiuliang's grasp and control. This medicine purchase log was naturally written by him.

Just as Lu Chen had guessed, the late emperor had a lot of records of medication. The one in his hand was the sixteenth, covering the period from the early autumn of the fourteenth year of Jianwu to the March of the fifteenth year of Jianwu, which was the last six months of the late emperor's life.

On the day Gui Qiuliang died of a sudden illness, Lu Chen found a piece of paper in his study, and the first group of numbers on it was sixteen.

The file was very thick, and Lu Chen felt it was heavy in his hand, and his mood was also very heavy at the moment.

He slowly turned the pages, one by one. Through the cold records on the paper, he seemed to be able to see the scene of the middle-aged man struggling to hold on, fighting the pain in his body while working hard for the safety of the Great Qi.

Turn to page ninety-three.

Lu Chen's gaze shifted slightly and looked at the second set of numbers on the paper on the table, ninety-three.

He exhaled slowly and continued to look at the file.

"On October Jiashen, the emperor was ill and began to make decisions in the side hall. I, Gu and Zhen, attended to your majesty's illness together and prescribed a prescription to strengthen your body. Your majesty took it and gradually recovered."

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this passage.

The following is the content of the prescription and the details of the late emperor's medication, which also showed nothing unusual.

In fact, this is very normal. Although this drug purchase ledger was written by Gui Qiuliang, the Imperial Medical Bureau generally only keeps it for files. However, before keeping the files, several other officials of the Imperial Medical Bureau would review it to ensure that it was consistent with the actual situation. Therefore, it is unlikely that Gui Qiuliang would write something strange here.

Lu Chen couldn't help but frown. He didn't believe that Gui Qiuliang would leave a set of meaningless code words for no reason.

He flipped through the pages again and again, and accidentally saw page 94 at the back. Suddenly, his eyes fixed and he stopped moving.

"However, I have observed this prescription and found that the effect is different. This is because one of the herbs is not suitable for the normal use. It seems that it has been replaced by another herb. The medicinal properties are not compatible, just like poison invading the body. This may not be an isolated case."

A bolt of thunder suddenly struck Lu Chen's mind.

On the surface, this passage is Gui Qiuliang and other imperial physicians summarizing another new prescription, but when you put the same parts of the two pages together, the two paragraphs can be connected very smoothly.

"On October Jiashen, the emperor was ill and decided things in the side hall. I, Gu and Zhen attended to your majesty's illness together and formulated a prescription to strengthen your body. Your majesty took it and gradually recovered. However, I observed this prescription and found that the effect was different. This was because one of the herbs was not suitable for ordinary use. It seemed that it was replaced by another medicine, and the medicinal properties were not compatible, just like poison invading the body. This may not be an isolated case."

In short, the prescription Gui Qiuliang prescribed for the late emperor was intended to strengthen the body's constitution. However, after taking the medicine, the late emperor was fine at first, but his condition worsened later. Gui Qiuliang suspected that someone had tampered with the medicine during the process and replaced one of the ingredients, so the tonic turned into poison!
A ferocious look suddenly appeared on Lu Chen's face.

Gui Qiuliang was obviously just suspicious, but at the same time he was worried that people would suspect him of poisoning the late emperor. After being entangled in all kinds of difficulties, he could only record it in this obscure way.

He was willing to leave these clues, so it was obviously not him who did it. Then who could be so cruel?

Lu Chen looked at the paper again.

The meanings of sixteen and ninety-three have been determined, and there are two other sets of code words, namely Chun Sheng and Qi Ming.

Lu Chen didn't need to think hard because Wang Chulong had already helped him solve the puzzle.

"My husband, there is an old saying that says, 'wood' represents the nature of spring growth. 'Eye' represents the clarity of qi. So these two words refer to the characters 'wood' and 'eye' respectively."

Looking at Wang Chulong's elegant and timeless handwriting on the paper, Lu Chen was unable to recall her gentleness and thoughtfulness, nor did he feel like admiring her beauty and intelligence.

Because Lu Chen only saw these two words, he immediately guessed what they meant. Left wood and right eye, it means appearance.

In the court of Da Qi, there was only one person who could force Gui Qiuliang to cover up the truth so carefully and not dare to reveal anything in public.

The former Crown Prince, Prince of Xiang, Li Zongben.

At this point, the meaning of the cryptic words left by Gui Qiuliang before his death has been fully revealed.

He noticed that someone had tampered with the medicine taken by the late emperor, but he had never had solid evidence. He also suspected that the incident in October of the 14th year of Jianwu was not the first case, which meant that someone had connections and had been trying to find ways to worsen the late emperor's condition.

In his opinion, who else could do this except Crown Prince Li Zongben, who had already grasped the power both inside and outside the country at that time?
When Gui Qiuliang discovered this, the late emperor was already terminally ill and had not much time left, the eldest prince had been dead for more than half a year, and the third prince was imprisoned in Qiushan Lane. Even if he suspected that this was Li Zongben's doing, how could he dare to rashly accuse the crown prince without any real evidence?
Not long after, the previous emperor passed away and Li Zongben ascended the throne. Gui Qiuliang dared not utter a word because he knew that Li Zongben would not be willing to be charged with regicide and patricide and would definitely execute Gui Qiuliang's entire family.

However, the director of the Imperial Hospital must have been tormented in his heart. In the end, he could not bear the guilt towards the late emperor and chose to end his own life in extreme pain.

He dared not mention this matter until his death, otherwise everyone in the Gui family and even his closest friends would be implicated.

But how could he be willing?

So he left behind that cryptic message as a kind of consolation, perhaps in the future someone will be able to understand this dusty past.

Lu Chen wanted to understand the whole story and sat on the armchair in a daze, his face changing constantly, with anger and sadness intertwined.

Memories came flooding back.

"What do you think of the situation in Jiangbei?"

This was his first time entering the palace, and the late emperor asked him questions directly without any pretense or deliberate attempt to win him over. The emperor's trust and expectations for him were evident in his words.

"I heard from the imperial physician that your injuries healed very quickly. It seems that you are well now?"

This was after Lu Chen recovered from the attack in Xiliu Lane. The late emperor showed concern for him with a smile on his face, without any airs.

"Your name consists of just one character, Chen. Your father should be named after someone who is resolute, dignified, and stable. I thought about it last night and felt that the characters Jing'an and An are more appropriate. What do you think?"

This was a courtesy name specially given to him by the late emperor when he left the capital.

"Lu Chen, I am afraid that I will never have the chance to return to the old capital in this lifetime, and I will never have the chance to pay homage to the ancestors of the Li family again. This is my unfilial behavior. If one day in the future you can lead the army to the north again, please go to the imperial mausoleum in the north of Heluo and kowtow to the ancestors on my behalf, and pray that they will forgive Li Duan, this unfilial descendant."

This was the earnest advice given to Lu Chen by the late emperor when he was in charge of the Jinwu Camp of the Beijing Army.

"Lu Chen, don't let me down."

These were the last words the late emperor said to Lu Chen before he led his troops north to fight against Qing Yugong.

These were also the last words between the monarch and his subject.

……

To be fair, Lu Chen was not born and raised in this world. He received a good education in his previous life and had no concept of loyalty to the emperor in his mind at all. It was the late emperor who built a majestic mountain in his heart with trust, respect and kindness.

To him, the late emperor was not only the emperor who ruled the Great Qi Dynasty, but also an elder who cared for him deeply. In essence, he was no different from Xiao Wangzhi and Li Tianrun, and his position in his heart was second only to Lu Tong.

Be it a favor or friendship, that bond is an objective fact and is by no means a pretense of sadness.

When he learned that Li Zongben had killed the eldest prince, he was indeed very angry, but he had to agree with Li Daoyan's opinion. If he did not want to see the collapse of the good situation that the late emperor and others had painstakingly built, he could only sit back and watch Li Zongben continue to be the emperor of Da Qi. In fact, this was also the reason why he promised Li Daoyan to go north immediately after the marriage.

He was afraid that if he stayed in the capital for too long and often saw Li Zongben's hypocritical face, he would not be able to control his temper.

But tonight—

Lu Chen looked at the files and the paper on the table, his eyes gradually turning red.

He stood up and walked slowly outside the house, standing on the porch looking at the night sky above his head.

The moon was dim and the stars were sparse, looking a little desolate, just like the grief and anger that he couldn't vent in his heart at that moment.

"boom!"

Lu Chen kicked out, and the railing in front of him broke into pieces in an instant and shot out to the outside!

The sound instantly tore through the quiet night.

Although he had received Lu Chen's order, Qin Zilong still did not dare to be careless. He appeared in the courtyard carefully. Seeing that Lu Chen was standing in the corridor and there was no danger, he was relieved and said guiltily: "Duke, I will take my leave."

"and many more."

Lu Chen looked towards Qin Zilong, and the brutality surging in his tiger eyes made the heart of this bloodthirsty leader of the personal guards tremble. He had never seen such an expression on Lu Chen's face even on the battlefield where life and death were unpredictable.

"Please give your orders, Duke."

Qin Zilong realized at this moment that something big was going to happen, and his whole body tensed up.

Lu Chen said nothing more.

Qin Zilong didn't dare to urge him and stood solemnly with his hands clasped.

After a moment, Lu Chen took a deep breath, the fierce look in his eyes faded a little bit, and he said slowly: "It's late at night, there's no need to let them toss and turn in the middle of the night. Send someone to inform Ye Jintang tomorrow and ask him to come to see me the next morning. Also, ask Tan Zheng to find Ning Bugui and come here the next afternoon."

"Follow the order!"

Qin Zilong bowed and responded.

"Go down."

Lu Chen turned around and walked back to the study, then sat down at the table.

I sat there all night, unable to sleep.

(End of this chapter)