“Physician Zhang, quickly see what’s wrong with Jinghe!” Ye Jingchen asked urgently.
Physician Zhang took Ye Jinghe’s pulse, examined his eyes and tongue coating, and after pondering for a long while said, “The Fifth Imperial Prince’s symptoms just now are very much like epilepsy.”
“Impossible!” Ye Jingchen denied instinctively.
In the novel, although Ye Jinghe grew up to be gloomy and ruthless, he did not suffer from epilepsy at all. He was a perfectly normal person.
Precisely because Ye Jingchen knew this, he had not believed Consort Shu for a second when she said in Changchun Palace that Ye Jinghe had epilepsy.
Now that he thought about it, Consort Shu could not have said such a thing without reason. Since she dared to use that excuse, she must not have been afraid of being exposed.
Could Ye Jinghe really have had epilepsy as a child?
Or had Consort Shu done something?
“Physician Zhang, is there any medicine in this world that can make someone show epilepsy-like symptoms after taking it?”
“Does Your Highness suspect that the Fifth Imperial Prince’s symptoms were caused by medicine?” Physician Zhang asked.
“I just think my fifth imperial younger brother couldn’t possibly have epilepsy,” Ye Jingchen said.
“Lin Zhongquan, go to the Imperial Hospital yourself and bring all the imperial physicians who have treated my fifth imperial younger brother to the Eastern Palace. This prince has questions for them!” he ordered the chief eunuch of the Eastern Palace.
Physician Zhang was somewhat unsure of Ye Jingchen’s intentions, but he was only a doctor. A doctor’s duty was to heal the sick.
Since the Crown Prince had raised the question, he followed that line of thought and re-examined the Fifth Imperial Prince.
But when he lifted the Fifth Imperial Prince’s sleeve, he saw that the thin, fair arm was covered in many scars. Some were old, some new, blue and purple, and they were shocking to see.
Ye Jingchen’s expression changed drastically when he saw those wounds.
He rolled up Ye Jinghe’s trouser leg in one motion, and sure enough, his thighs were also covered in scars.
For a moment, Ye Jingchen felt the urge to kill everyone in Changchun Palace.
They deserved to die, not because they had bullied an Imperial Prince, but because they had bullied a child.
Physician Zhang still could not tell whether Ye Jinghe’s condition was true epilepsy or whether he was being controlled by medicine. The only thing he could confirm was that there were no signs of poisoning in Ye Jinghe’s body.
Without a clear diagnosis, he could not prescribe the right medicine.
With that sallow little face, sunken eye sockets, tangled hair, and ill-fitting ragged clothes, Ye Jinghe looked no different from a beggar child on the street, and perhaps even more miserable than an ordinary beggar child.
When he read the novel, Ye Jingchen already knew that Ye Jinghe’s childhood had been hard, but he had not known it was this hard. He also had not known how the little Ye Jinghe had survived such a dark childhood and grown up so tenaciously.
Ye Jingchen reached out, wanting to smooth the frown that even in sleep remained tightly knit.
“Your Highness, your arm is bleeding!” Fangcao had sharp eyes and noticed the brown stain spreading across Ye Jingchen’s pale yellow sleeve. She cried out in alarm.
Her shout made Ye Jingchen’s already numb pain nerves flare back to life, and he finally remembered that Ye Jinghe had bitten his arm while struggling just now.
He rolled up his wide sleeve and revealed the wound: a deep bite mark, still oozing blood, and rather frightening to look at.
He had heard that wounds caused by teeth were very likely to leave marks, and novels often had such clichéd scenes, like identifying someone from a bite mark or something similar. Ye Jingchen thought bitterly that maybe he should keep a bite mark too. Then, if Ye Jinghe ever disobeyed in the future, he could show him the mark and guarantee that he would feel guilty and become obedient.
While his mind wandered off, the palace attendants of the Eastern Palace saw the ferocious wound and felt as if the sky were about to fall.
The Crown Prince was precious beyond measure. From childhood to adulthood, he had been served by a crowd of palace attendants and had never even scraped his skin, let alone bled.
“Physician Zhang, quickly! Stop Your Highness’s bleeding!” Even Fangfei, who had always been calm and composed, panicked and hurriedly spoke.
Fangcao directly pulled the old physician over to Ye Jingchen.
The others were all as anxious as ants on a hot pan.
The Crown Prince was His Majesty’s darling. Even if he merely bumped into something by accident, the people serving him would be stripped of their skin; let alone such a horrific wound?
The old physician did not dare neglect the matter. He opened the medicine box he carried, cleaned and disinfected Ye Jingchen’s wound with strong liquor, sprinkled on medicinal powder, and finally bandaged it with cotton cloth.
“Your Highness, don’t worry. The wound is not deep. It will heal soon and won’t leave a scar!” the old physician comforted him.
“Oh.” Ye Jingchen answered flatly.
The wound already stung from being washed with alcohol, and the old physician’s words only meant that all that pain had been for nothing.
“Your Highness, where have you ever suffered such abuse? The Fifth Imperial Prince is too dangerous. You should send him back to Changchun Palace.”
“The Fifth Imperial Prince is indeed not suited to staying in the Eastern Palace.”
“Your Highness, your safety is the most important thing!” The palace attendants all gathered their courage to persuade him.
Ye Jingchen said nothing. He only looked at the sleeping Ye Jinghe, unable to imagine how he had struggled to survive in Changchun Palace along the path his original life had taken.
No wonder he had grown into such a vicious and ruthless character.
Ye Jingchen reached out and touched Ye Jinghe’s little face. It did not feel good, because there was no flesh on his cheeks at all, only skin and bone.
“Why hasn’t Lin Zhongquan come back yet?” Ye Jingchen asked impatiently.
The Imperial Hospital was already some distance from the Eastern Palace. After Lin Zhongquan went there, he still had to make inquiries and flip through records, so naturally he could not return in such a short time.
Ye Jingchen sat and waited for a while. Finding the wait hard to endure, he had the palace attendants all withdraw, leaving only the old physician behind.
He personally stripped Ye Jinghe’s clothes off. Taking advantage of the child being unconscious and unable to stop him, he stripped him completely, leaving nothing on.
Once fully undressed, the wounds on Ye Jinghe’s body looked even more terrifying. Without clothing to cover him, he was so thin that his ribs were visible.
Ye Jingchen tried hard to control himself, barely suppressing the violent emotions in his heart.
He carried Ye Jinghe onto the bed, covered him with a quilt, and then had the old physician examine him carefully. He called Fangfei in and ordered her to find a set of clothes suitable for Ye Jinghe.
Fangfei quickly brought in a set of clothes and stepped forward to dress Ye Jinghe.
As she approached, the child who was still asleep actually showed a look of unease. His brows twitched as if he were about to wake up.
Ye Jingchen sent Fangfei away and dressed him himself.
Just as he finished, Lin Zhongquan came in to report.
He had been ordered to go to the Imperial Hospital to find the imperial physicians who had treated the Fifth Imperial Prince, but in the end he brought back only one person.
In the past four years, the Fifth Imperial Prince had seen an imperial physician only a handful of times, but each time it had happened to be the same Imperial Physician Tao that Lin Zhongquan brought back.
Even more interestingly, Imperial Physician Tao had gone to Changchun Palace yesterday to treat the Fifth Imperial Prince.
Ye Jingchen left Fangfei in the bedchamber to look after the sleeping Ye Jinghe, and he summoned Imperial Physician Tao in the main hall of the Eastern Palace.
He was a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties, with a pale face, a high forehead, and small eyes.
By appearance alone, he was unpleasant.
Sitting alone on the high platform, Ye Jingchen asked carelessly, “Imperial Physician Tao, do you know the consequences of harming an imperial heir?”