TGPSAC – Chapter 3

Xia Qu was about to make a move, but Chun Gui stopped her and asked the imperial physician, “Can Her Highness truly not enter the cold spring?”

The imperial physician paused for a moment before answering definitively, “Of course she cannot enter the cold spring. However, if Her Highness has a fever, it is acceptable to wipe her body with a small amount of ice.”

“But from my observation, Her Highness does not have a fever. It seems to be poisoning.”

Anyone who could become an imperial physician naturally had a few tricks up their sleeve. Using only the first two of the four diagnostic methods—observation and listening—they had already determined that Yu Jiuzhou was poisoned.

Seeing that the imperial physician’s words matched Chi Wan’s, Chun Gui immediately had Xia Qu carry Yu Jiuzhou back to the heated chamber.

It was cold in winter, so the heated chamber was always kept warm. However, Yu Jiuzhou did not like sleeping there and preferred her usual bedchamber, which had given Chi Wan’s predecessor the perfect opportunity.

In Chi Wan’s memory, her predecessor had arrived at the heated chamber early and waited. Once Yu Jiuzhou was sound asleep during her afternoon nap, the predecessor entered the bedchamber from the heated chamber, drugged Yu Jiuzhou unconscious with an incense, and carried her back to the heated chamber.

The main quarters were interconnected, typically divided by folding screens, door curtains, and partition doors. Although the heated chamber was a separate room, it was an inner chamber; leaving it led directly into Yu Jiuzhou’s bedchamber from the inside.

When her predecessor had slipped into the heated chamber, Yu Jiuzhou had been at the imperial palace. She had waited patiently for several hours for her chance. With that kind of patience, she could have accomplished anything, yet she insisted on not putting her mind to proper use.

Chi Wan inwardly scorned her predecessor, but now she had inherited the mess, and she was the one being scorned by everyone.

“Can you be any faster? If this goes on, her mind will be damaged by the fever,” Chi Wan said, exasperated. She had just noticed that despite their lengthy discussion, not a single thing she had requested had been prepared.

But Chun Gui ignored her and continued to question the physician, “Then please diagnose Her Highness quickly, Imperial Physician.”

“No.”

The heated chamber was filled with Yu Jiuzhou’s pheromones, and more were still emanating from her body. In such a sealed space, a Qian Yuan would surely go mad.

Chi Wan had been injured twice in quick succession, but her body seemed to be brimming with strength, giving her a strange feeling. In her past life, she had practiced the Five-Animal Frolics and frequently took medicinal baths, so her physical constitution was excellent. In high school, she could escape unscathed even when cornered by a dozen thugs. She felt that her current body was even better than her previous one.

However, her predecessor had not been in good shape. She wasn’t even a high-grade Qian Yuan, and her body was severely depleted. Chi Wan attributed the change in her body to her transmigration. After all, her memory had also improved significantly. As an avid reader of novels, she figured this must be a transmigrator’s bonus—her body had evolved into that of a top-tier Qian Yuan.

Was this some sort of consolation? A small perk in an environment where she could die at any moment.

Chi Wan once again blocked the imperial physician, drawing the crowd’s displeasure. The hot-tempered Xia Qu was particularly incensed. “This won’t work, that won’t work! Does the Fuma know how to cure poison?”

Chun Gui walked directly into the heated chamber, clearly leaving the matter for Xia Qu to handle. In her predecessor’s memory, Xia Qu had a fiery temper. Leaving her in charge was practically an invitation to use force against Chi Wan.

As expected, her predecessor, the Fuma, held no status whatsoever in the Princess’s Residence. She was, at least, a Fuma Commandant of the junior fifth rank. Oh, but Xia Qu, the captain of the princess’s personal guard, was a senior fifth-rank general, half a rank higher than the Fuma.

The Emperor had only one child, Yu Jiuzhou, so in the Great Zhou, a princess’s residence was on par with a prince’s, employing officials like tutors, chief administrators, and marshals. The Royal Tutor was of the junior third rank, the Chief Administrator of the senior fourth rank, and the Marshal of the junior fourth rank—every one of them outranked her, the Fuma.

Besides being the Fuma, Chi Wan was also the second legitimate daughter of a marquis’s house, which granted her the honorary title of a senior sixth-rank Captain, and nothing more. These were all sinecures with no real power.

Someone like Xia Qu, on the other hand, commanded several hundred people. The crowd had been momentarily taken aback by Chi Wan because the Fuma was the princess’s spouse, the emperor’s half-daughter. But they all knew what kind of person Chi Wan was and that the princess disliked her. Once they recovered, they paid her words no mind at all.

Even the Emperor had to yield to the princess; what was a mere Fuma in comparison?

Xia Qu waved her hand, and several women in armor stepped forward, blocking the entrance to the heated chamber, making it clear that Chi Wan was not to enter.

When Chi Wan claimed she could provide treatment, she was met with nothing but a sneer. Helpless, she could only turn to the old imperial physician. “Ma’am, cover your nose and mouth before you enter. Prepare an extra basin of hot water for a foot soak, and add these herbs to the water. Make the heated chamber even hotter. The rest of these herbs are to be brewed into a decoction—part for drinking, part for bathing.”

A pile of herbs was thrust into the old physician’s arms. She couldn’t refuse the Fuma, so she could only say, “After this servant has finished her diagnosis, I will certainly report back to the Fuma.”

She didn’t dare agree outright. No one had ever heard of the Fuma knowing medicine. Nevertheless, she tore off a piece of her sleeve and tied it over her nose and mouth.

As the old physician entered, Chi Wan worriedly tried to follow, but Xia Qu immediately blocked her path. “The Fuma will go no further.”

The old physician suddenly turned back and silently placed some medicines from her kit on the ground. She thought that if the Fuma truly understood medicine, she would naturally know what these were for.

Seeing the medicines, Chi Wan finally remembered that her forehead and arm were both injured. Her forehead was fine; the bleeding had stopped on its own. As for her arm, she had squeezed it tightly on her way to the pharmacy, which had slowed the bleeding.

But in her haste to run with the herbs, she had neglected it, and the wound on her arm had split open again. Her clothes were now stained with blood.

Her predecessor, intending to assault Yu Jiuzhou, had stripped down to her white inner clothes. Chi Wan had just run through the Princess’s Residence dressed like that. No wonder everyone had been so horrified—the sleeves of her white inner robe were dyed red.

Chi Wan picked through the herbs, then crushed some and applied them to her arm before tying it with a strip of white cloth in a simple bandage.

A short while later, the old physician burst out. A woman in her fifties or sixties, she was sprinting like she was in a hundred-meter dash. She collapsed the moment she was outside, her face flushed, looking very unwell.

Chun Gui ran out after her. The old physician, suppressing her own condition, fell to the ground in agony and used the last of her strength to say, “The Fuma… the Fuma can treat the Princess.”

Everyone looked from the old physician to Chi Wan in astonishment.

Chi Wan grabbed some herbs, tore off the leaves, mixed several kinds together, and stuffed them into the old physician’s mouth. “Chew.”

The old physician obediently chewed, and her complexion improved slightly.

Seeing this, Chun Gui understood. She immediately walked over to Chi Wan and bowed, her proud demeanor gone. As long as the princess could be saved, what was a little humility? “I implore the Fuma to treat Her Highness the Princess.”

After being repeatedly blocked and nearly beaten, Chi Wan was certainly angry. But in her heart, saving a life was the most important thing.

She said nothing more, simply turning and walking into the room, ordering over her shoulder, “Prepare what I told you to.”

She felt the temperature in the heated chamber. It was probably around thirty degrees, but that wasn’t enough. “Make the heated chamber even hotter.”

It needed to be like a sauna, to steam the toxins out of the body.

Yu Jiuzhou was already soaking her feet in the herbal water she had prepared. The old physician had approved of her treatment method before being overwhelmed and running out to call for her.

Lying on the bed, Yu Jiuzhou’s face was alarmingly red. Unconscious, she had lost her sharp, imposing aura, appearing as peaceful as a sleeping beauty. Her skin, fair with a rosy blush, possessed an unusual beauty.

She was like an exquisite piece of high-grade blue and white porcelain, fresh from the kiln—smooth, soft, and crystal clear, a beauty that made it impossible to look away.

Chi Wan tested the temperature of the foot soak with her hand, then instructed the person behind her, “Prepare silver needles. Brew the herbs I brought into a decoction, as quickly as possible.”

She helped Yu Jiuzhou sit up and gave Chun Gui a meaningful look. Chun Gui immediately sat down beside the princess to support her.

Chi Wan reached out and began to unfasten Yu Jiuzhou’s clothes, revealing her fair shoulders. She needed to perform acupuncture on her back, and the clothes were an obstacle.

Beside them, Chun Gui’s pupils contracted. She wanted to say something, but she closed her mouth. The princess’s safety came first. As for everything else, that could wait until the princess woke up.