The Slender Waist-Chapter 407 - 294: The Thief Who Stole the Country
The gauze curtain stirred.
Lamplight settled on the man’s upright back, as the woman in the tent breathed shallowly.
Pei Jue personally wiped her body and changed her clothes, and then fed her the medicinal soup. The young girl was as light as a feather, as gentle as a breeze, seemingly weightless, not even denting the bedding. Her delicate and slender figure could hardly be grasped, and her eyelashes fluttered faintly, exuding a gentle tranquility that intoxicated the long night.
Pei Jue’s fingers lightly caressed her cheek, his eyes dark and indistinct.
"General," Zuo Zhong’s figure appeared outside the tent, greeting with a bow, "Xiaoman has been found."
Pei Jue turned to glance at him but said nothing.
Zuo Zhong continued, "She was unconscious in the storeroom of the council hall. I have brought her back..."
He seemed to hesitate, "Should we call a doctor to have a look?"
Servant girls, being lowly, often endured discomfort or casually sought a traveling doctor for some herbs to eat. However, Xiaoman and Daman, who followed Feng Yun, had never been mistreated. Zuo Zhong felt it was the right thing to do...
Especially Xiaoman, who often saved some tasty treats for him, her smiling dimples sweet. When Zuo Zhong saw her curled up among the firewood with a pale face, he felt a blockage in his heart.
Pei Jue did not lift his head.
"Do as you see fit."
Zuo Zhong answered, but did not leave, hesitating slightly as he said:
"It has begun to snow outside, and Tang Shaogong is still waiting at the door with the military tally."
Pei Jue replied, "Let him be."
Zuo Zhong fell silent then.
Puyang Jiu and Yao Ru were in the outer room, one on the left and the other on the right, with little communication between them. As Zuo Zhong approached to ask, Puyang Jiu was about to move when Yao Ru stood up, smiled gently, and said:
"Let Yao take a look at Xiaoman."
Yao Ru and Xiaoman were neighbors in Huaxi Village and knew each other well.
Zuo Zhong nodded, "I appreciate it, Doctor Yao."
Yao Ru, carrying his medicine chest, left. Puyang Jiu also stood up and offered his medical record to him with a bow.
"Have a look, Doctor Yao. If there are no objections, I’ll present it to the General."
The Puyang family, being a lineage of imperial physicians, had their particular habits and unique ways of documenting medical cases. Yao Ru naturally took the records, glanced through them, and said, "The medical skills of Puyang are impeccable. Yao has no objections. It’s just that the Lady..."
The two men exchanged a look and both fell silent.
They had both taken Feng Yun’s pulse and made diagnoses, understanding her physical condition better than anyone else.
A patient who injures herself but refuses to take medicine properly is a great headache for a doctor.
Initially, Puyang Jiu thought Feng Yun feared bitterness, and he tried his best to adjust the prescriptions for her. Later, he realized this was not the case.
She was capricious—disliking discomfort, preferring to indulge in comfort, yet she was not particularly caring for her health. Sometimes she even deliberately indulged herself, acting willfully as if there was no tomorrow, not caring about her infertility.
Puyang Jiu smiled wryly.
"The more treatment, the worse the depletion. How can I, a doctor, claim to be skilled in medicine?"
Yao Ru let out a heavy sigh and left with Zuo Zhong.
The General’s wife was full of contradictions and doubt.
Yao Ru did not know the hidden details, nor would he ask.
In this world, who doesn’t have a secret they cannot tell?
-
Puyang Jiu entered the inner room, his footsteps light, his expression not as frivolous as usual when seeing Pei Jue. Tonight, he was especially serious and composed.
"Wangzhi."
Before he spoke, his brows were already furrowed.
Setting the medical record on the table, he lowered his gaze and said, "Take a look."
Puyang Jiu and Pei Jue were born on the same day. The elders said he was younger by two or three hours. Since learning this, he had taken to sticking close to Pei Jue. At first, Pei had been indifferent, paying him little attention, but after incessant pestering, Pei’s indifference remained, yet a place for him by Pei’s side had been made.
Years of brotherhood enabled Pei to sense Puyang’s anomaly without turning around.
He turned to look at Puyang Jiu, and then toward the medical record.
"Is there something wrong with the Lady?"
Puyang Jiu gave a wry smile and shook his head.
"Lady has an old ailment that won’t be cured in a short time. She caught a chill again last night. She won’t die but it has cost her greatly. Take the medicine slowly and adjust accordingly..."
Pei Jue slowly stood up, gesturing for him to sit.
"No need," Puyang Jiu pressed his lips together, not looking into Pei’s eyes, "The Lady’s medical condition is all recorded there. Doctor Yao is a hidden gem, his medical skills are no less than my father’s, he can be trusted..."
Pei Jue: "What are you trying to say, exactly?"
Puyang Jiu’s eyelids trembled, and suddenly his nose turned sour.
"I have to leave."
He wanted to smile, to sound lighthearted, but seeing the dark circles under Pei Jue’s eyes, he felt an unbearable sourness inside. He raised his sleeve to cover his face, steadied his emotions, and then bowed deeply with both hands.
"My father’s years are advancing, and he’s no longer fit to walk the palace grounds. He’s preparing to resign his post and retire to Pingcheng for rest. As his son, I should be by my father’s side..."
Puyang Li, in his prime at forty, used the excuse of advancing years, which no one would believe.
But Pei Jue did not ask, just sat down beside Feng Yun’s bed.
"Go ahead."
A terse word, devoid of emotion, yet it made Puyang Jiu’s tears burst forth.
"Why won’t you ask me to stay?"
Pei Jue lowered his head to pick up the cool tea from the table, poured it into the cup, filling it to the brim.
He took one cup and handed the other to Puyang Jiu.
"There’s heavy snow in Xinzhou, I’ve arranged for Jiu You to take a few men to escort you to Andu."
He was born with a face that seldom smiled or spoke carelessly, and his tone was calm, sounding quite merciless. Puyang Jiu was so angry that his chest heaved, and he was gnashing his teeth.
"Pei Wangzhi!"
He strode forward, snatched the cool tea from his hand, gulped it down, then slammed the cup onto the table, staring at him with eyes wide like a bull’s - unblinking.
"Defying the Empress Dowager’s decree, leading troops to surround the Zhu River crossing, getting into a fierce fight with Qi Jun. Disregarding the decorum between sovereign and subject, intruding into the Empress Dowager’s chamber, refusing the command tally, ordering the twelve hundred thousand Northern Yong army to stand ready... Tell me, what are you trying to do? Pei Wangzhi, what on earth are you trying to do?"
His voice was very low. Whether out of anger or annoyance, his eyes turned bloodshot, his back molars grinding so audibly that his extreme emotions were evident.
Pei Jue glanced at him, then refilled the cup with cool tea and handed it to him.
Puyang Jiu looked down at it, sat in front of him, didn’t take the cup, only stared at him.
"Do you realize your actions, any single one of them could be seen as acting against and causing chaos?"
Pei Jue: "I don’t care."
Puyang Jiu wished he could punch some sense into him.
"When did you change like this? Wangzhi, I almost don’t recognize you."
If anyone in the Great Jin Dynasty was to be deemed the most loyal, it would be none other than the Great General Pei Jue.
Three generations of the Pei family were loyal and valiant, revered by many.
The grandfather, Pei Ying, made contributions to the founding of the nation, enjoyed offerings in the temple, and would be remembered for generations; his father, Pei Chong, was brave and good in battle, expanding the territory, a body of injuries - an era of loyalty and integrity. By Pei Jue’s generation, a young hero with outstanding military achievements so much so that the Emperor of Xifeng praised him as "unmatched in the world."
On his deathbed, entrusting his legacy, he personally handed the Young Emperor over to Pei Jue, saying,
"With Lord Pei aiding my successor, my legacy can thrive, the lands of Dajin secure. I will rest in peace."
The lands protected by three generations of the Pei family, the last words of the dying emperor - was he not concerned about them?
Puyang Jiu didn’t believe it.
This was not the Pei Jue he knew, not the General Pei who would rather die in battle than see Dajin’s lands compromised.
"Tell me, brother, what happened to you?"
He glanced at the draping curtain, slowly lifted his head, and pointed inside.
"For her? For a woman?"
"Puyang Jiu," Pei Jue slowly looked over, "Put down your hand."
Puyang Jiu abruptly startled, stung by the coldness in his eyes.
"Alright." He slowly lowered his hand, "Tell me, why."
Pei Jue turned his face away, avoiding eye contact.
"My birthday is not on the same day as yours."
Puyang Jiu was stunned, "What did you say?"
Pei Jue said, "I was born in the third month of the third year of Xifeng."
"What? You’re actually a year and a half younger than me?!" Puyang Jiu was shocked, his face turning pale, and then as if a thought struck him, his entire being felt like it was plunged into an ice cellar, his complexion turned ashen.
"Why is this? By telling me this, what are you trying to say?"
Only then did Pei Jue raise the cup he was holding high in tribute to him.
"Go back, don’t let the Imperial Physician wait too long."
He offered no explanation, and that meant he did not wish to explain.
"Are you crazy?" fumed Puyang Jiu, his brain overheating, "She is forcing you. Don’t you see?"
Pei Jue’s Adam’s apple bobbed forcefully, "I know."
"She wrought her own fragility; the sickness in her was never addressed by her. Don’t you know?"
"I know."
"The council was her doing, the secret of the watchtower unknown to others but certainly to her - you cannot deny that, can you?"
"I can’t deny it."
"Knowing all this, why are you still led by the nose? Do you not fear the grievous sin of breaking the oath you swore in front of the Ancestral Emperor’s Mausoleum, truly all for such a ruthless and scheming woman?"
Puyang Jiu was intensely vexed, his face turning a sickly green.
He was a doctor, not wanting to witness power crush people, or rivers of blood.
He didn’t want to see his dear friend labeled a "thief of the state" for his backbone.
And he certainly didn’t want him to face off against Dajin for a woman, ruining himself.
"She’s treacherous by nature, harboring wild ambitions! She’s not just pressuring you; she wants your life!"
Pei Jue looked down, lost in the silence, "It doesn’t matter."
Puyang Jiu was so angry he slammed the table.
"She wants your life, and you’re willing to give it?"
Pei Jue frowned slightly, then looked back at the fallen curtain.
Feng Yun had taken medicine and was sleeping soundly.
Outside the window, the snow seemed to be falling even more fiercely now.
He said in a deep voice, "Jiu You, escort Medical Officer Puyang out."
