Volume 1 Chapter 4: This Man Is Under My Protection Now
Xie Lingyu was unwilling to let it go: "Today, the head of the Imperial Hospital happens to be at the Prince's residence. This Dowager can summon him immediately to diagnose the Prince."
"No need," Gong Jinxing flatly refused. "Quack doctors harm people, unable to distinguish life from death. This Prince's health will be managed by my Princess Consort."
"She just married into the Prince's residence and caused your illness to flare up, bringing you to the brink of death. This shows she is truly unlucky, an inauspicious person unworthy of the Prince Regent. She should be sent back to the General's Mansion immediately. Moreover, this Dowager does not believe that a sheltered young lady like her could understand the art of medicine."
"Whether she is worthy or not is for me, Gong Jinxing, to decide when taking a consort." Gong Jinxing turned his face to glance at Hua Xieyi beside him, his lips parting faintly as he spoke word by word: "Whether to believe or not concerns this Prince's own life! It has nothing to do with others."
Xie Lingyu choked, instantly flushing with anger.
"Fine, since the Prince Regent is willing to court death himself, this Dowager will not stand in the way. If Hua Ruyi is just spouting nonsense and delays your condition, she should know what consequences await!"
Hua Xieyi, provoked, felt her stubborn streak rising.
Others could question her character, but they absolutely could not question her medical skills.
As the dignified nineteenth-generation master of the Ghost Doctor Hall, she had always been arrogant, her poison arts roaming the martial world unchallenged—even the King of Hell would give her some leeway.
From today onward, this man is under my protection.
She curled one corner of her lips, slightly narrowing her eyes, and said in a casual, roguish tone: "Just because your Imperial Hospital can't cure the poison doesn't mean there's no remedy. This job, I'll take it."
Xie Lingyu wore a thin, insincere smile: "This Dowager will give you seven days. If you cannot cure the Prince Regent's illness, bring your own head to see me."
Gong Jinxing said coolly: "According to the Empress Dowager's words, what punishment should those incompetent quacks in the palace who are helpless face?"
"Scared now?"
Faced with the provocation, Hua Xieyi chuckled lightly: "Seven days is too many. Half will do."
Gong Jinxing's hand stiffened. Is this girl foolish?
The Empress Dowager laughed heartily: "Arrogant enough! Then it shall be as you say—three and a half days! This Dowager will wait to collect your corpse! Prepare the carriage, return to the palace!"
The palace attendants followed behind her, dispersing in an instant. The guests also cupped their hands in farewell, not lingering.
Gong Jinxing, his strength failing, had to release Hua Xieyi's hand, leaning half against the official's armchair brought by the guards. With a brocade cushion placed behind his back, he finally let out a long sigh: "Are you in such a hurry to die?"
"If I can't cure the poison in your body, do you think you'll live past three days?"
"You can cure this poison?"
Hua Xieyi shrugged, helplessly spreading her hands: "Let's put it this way—I've seen the antidote formula in ancient texts, but the medicinal catalyst is rare and hard to come by, and I don't know if it's truly effective. So, I have zero confidence."
Gong Jinxing's eyes dimmed, as if a flame struggled and extinguished. He forced a slight curl of his lips: "Then what about the remaining half day?"
"Of course, to run away. Should I stay and be buried with you?"
Gong Jinxing's gaze swept coldly over her face. He leaned forward, lowering his voice as he spoke word by word: "You dare to defy your superior and humiliate this Prince? Do you think this Prince would let you leave Shezheng Wangfu alive?"
Hua Xieyi choked. She shouldn't have gotten carried away and told the truth. She wanted to act pitiful, but the vivid rouge lip print on his face was truly too amusing to hold back, so she wore a thin, insincere smile.
"There are priorities in all matters, aren't there? I just wanted to wake you up quickly, otherwise we'd both be buried alive. You wouldn't kick down the ladder after crossing the river, would you?"
Then she muttered quietly, "Besides, I was acting under orders. That old witch allowed two slaps—I didn't hit you any extra."
Gong Jinxing snorted coldly, "And my waist? Was that also under orders?"
Hua Xieyi felt a chilling breeze at the back of her neck and couldn't help shrinking her shoulders. So, this guy had already regained his senses and awareness—it was just that his body hadn't fully recovered yet.
Hua Xieyi stubbornly insisted, "We're barely considered husband and wife, right? We've even slept in the same coffin. Between a couple, a little playful teasing shouldn't be taken seriously, should it?"
"By your logic, if I were to punish you, say, by cutting off your limbs, would that also be considered playful teasing?"
Hua Xieyi shook her head like a rattle-drum, "Absolutely not! Think about it—we're like two grasshoppers tied to the same string right now. The poison in your body relies entirely on me to cure. Even if I can't cure it, in three days, I'll be buried with you. If I'm missing an arm or a leg, lying next to you would be downright creepy."
Gong Jinxing leaned back in his chair, disdainfully closing his eyes, "Buried with me? Are you even worthy?"
Setting up a tent over a cesspit—what kind of pretentious airs are you putting on?
Hua Xieyi's eyes rolled around, and a thought struck her with delight, "Unworthy, of course I'm unworthy. To avoid me overreaching, I think it's better this way: I'll give you the antidote prescription, and you set me free. We each get what we need, and neither loses out. As for the medicinal catalyst, whether you can find it will depend on your own fortune."
Gong Jinxing lifted his eyelids, giving her a cold glance before closing them again.
"No need to wait three days. I can order my men to divert the eyes outside the mansion right now and send you far away from the capital, to a distant place."
"How chivalrous!" Hua Xieyi was naturally overjoyed, "You're setting me free—that's more meritorious than building a seven-story pagoda. Here's the prescription, and we're even."
Gong Jinxing was completely indifferent and had no interest in her so-called prescription. His poison was notorious—even the renowned Elder Yao was at a loss. This immature young girl was just blowing hot air.
He wouldn't dare take any prescription she wrote, and he certainly didn't care for her as a burial companion. But considering she had, in a way, saved his life, he would spare her.
Summoning his strength, he immediately ordered his guards to prepare brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.
Hua Xieyi was confident. She turned around, leaned over the coffin, and hastily scribbled the prescription onto the paper in one go.
Strangely, those obscure and difficult traditional characters flowed effortlessly from her brush today.
Gong Jinxing sat upright in his armchair, using his knee as a desk. He spread out a sheet of white paper, lifted his brush, and without hesitation wrote the words "Letter of Divorce." Then, frowning slightly in thought, he painstakingly added a few more words before signing and stamping it.
From then on, the two could marry others and have nothing to do with each other.
By the time Hua Xieyi finished writing the prescription, blew the ink dry, and turned around, Gong Jinxing had already neatly folded the Letter of Divorce in his hand. Casually taking the prescription without even glancing at it, he turned and instructed the guards behind him.
"Qingzhou, Zhuifeng, you two take the Princess Consort to change her clothes and disguise her appearance. Leave through the back gate and escort her a hundred miles outside the capital."
The two guards glanced at Gong Jinxing, then at Hua Xieyi, but didn't move from their spots.
Gong Jinxing's sword-like brows furrowed slightly, "What is it?"
Qingzhou and Zhuifeng were a bit reluctant. This new Princess Consort possessed Herculean strength and an awe-inspiring presence, capable of holding up half the Prince's mansion in times of crisis. She and their sickly, delicate Prince were clearly a perfect match, promising a lifetime of security. This was a losing deal they couldn't accept.
The two exchanged covert glances. Zhuifeng, clumsy with words, anxiously jabbed Qingzhou in the waist. Qingzhou, ticklish, couldn't hold back and let out a snort of laughter.
"Your Highness, Zhuifeng says that traveling a hundred li out of the city at this hour—first, it's late at night, and second, there are no villages ahead or behind—might be unsafe for the Princess Consort to travel alone."
Gong Jinxing lowered the corners of his eyes, glancing at the coffin boards shattered into pieces on the ground, and merely uttered faintly, "Is that so? Who wouldn't be safe?"
Whoever dared provoke her would be the one in danger, of course.
Qingzhou and Zhuifeng dared say no more and promptly escorted Hua Xieyi away to change her clothes.
Before leaving, Qingzhou kindly handed Gong Jinxing another handkerchief, reminding him to wipe his face.
Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, Hua Xieyi slipped away faster than a rat. Any later, and her release might have turned into abandonment in the wilderness.
She didn't even bother to take the Letter of Divorce.
Behind her came a fit of frantic, exasperated coughing.
Gong Jinxing panted heavily, his cheeks tightening as he stared at the rouge imprint on the handkerchief.
This woman truly was a calamity. Ever since encountering her, nothing good had happened!