Even Long Feiye had spoken up, so how could Gu Beiyue dare delay in reading the letter? Actually, he could more or less guess the nature of the emergency, so his heart was currently filled with both anxiety and fear. He was nervous because something must have happened with the task he entrusted to Fourth Young Miss Ren and fearful because that meant he couldn’t hide Han Yunxi’s pregnancy from Long Feiye any longer. Although he was prepared to be resented, he still dreaded the fact, especially since he was at fault.

Gu Beiyue hastily opened the envelope and realized there were two enclosures within; one talked of Fourth Young Miss Ren going missing, while the other was a prescription! Today was the morning of the fifth, but she had disappeared on the night of the third. For this letter to reach them at the Medicine Cottage from Medical City within two days was extremely fast. Less than four hours after her disappearance, someone received this prescription in the maternity ward and submitted to the doctors for inspection.

Long Feiye dismounted his horse, so Gu Beiyue naturally handed over the letters and prescriptions for him to review. Gu Qishao and the rest anxiously drew close as well. But besides Gu Beiyue, none of them could see how this had any relation to Han Yunxi’s whereabouts.

“Fourth Young Miss Ren is a doctor in obstetrics, right?” Gu Qishao asked curiously.

Gu Beiyue stole a glance at Long Feiye, feeling rather helpless. Still, he didn’t hesitate or delay and got straight to the point. “Everyone, look at this prescription first. This was sent to the maternity ward after Fourth Young Miss Ren disappeared.”

“And so?” Gu Qishao was still clueless while Long Feiye knitted his brows, on the edge of impatience.

At this moment, Tang Li pursed his lips. “There’s something wrong with this prescription! Purple Forest Gra.s.s, Horseshoe Greens, and Ten Mysteries Bud are all banned medicines! Who wrote this?”

Besides Gu Beiyue, none of the men here knew anything about obstetrics medicine, but Tang Li was very clear. When he was making preparations for Ning Jing’s birthing day, he invited the most skilled midwives and multiple obstetrics doctors to stay on call at the Tang Clan. His little notebook was full of things to note and details to attend to, including which medicines were banned for pregnant women. He had even memorized all of the forbidden medicines that Gu Beiyue told him about by heart!

Long Feiye ignored Tang Li to look coldly at Gu Beiyue. It was clear that Tang Li only knew a smattering of intel, not the full story.

“Yes, if we got rid of those three medicines, this would be a regular prescription designed to calm the fetus. Judging from the quant.i.ty and combination of ingredients, it’s a very professional prescription. Someone capable of writing this out has to be a sixth-rank doctor or above,” Gu Beiyue explained.

“If that’s the case, why did they add forbidden medicines?” Pill Furnace Master couldn’t help asking from the side.

“Of all the obstetrics doctors in the world, only Fourth Young Miss Ren is above sixth rank if we don’t count the few older experts,” Gu Beiyue went on.

“So Fourth Young Miss Ren wrote in these mistakes on purpose!” Tang Li exclaimed in alarm.

“Yes. Fourth Young Miss Ren fell into the hands of brigands and was probably forced to write a prescription to calm a fetus. Thus, she used this method to send out news,” Gu Beiyue was certain.

After all this time, Long Feiye still hadn’t heard anything relevant to Han Yunxi. He said coldly, “So much for an emergency report!”

Special emergency letters were reserved for the most urgent cases by the shadow guards. Unless it was critical information, the shadow guards would never act with such speed. A simple matter of Fourth Young Miss Ren’s disappearance didn’t warrant such an envelope!

Gu Beiyue hastily backed away and cupped his hands in a bow. “Your Highness, this one has been hiding something. I don’t dare hope for Your Highness’s forgiveness, but I ask that Your Highness remain calm and wait until the princess’s return to punish me.”

At this, everyone quieted down. No one dared to speak, because any mistake that Gu Beiyue committed had to be grave. He didn’t stop, but went on to explain, “Your Highness, the princess is pregnant. Judging by the date, she should already be five months in.”

The crowd collectively sucked in a cold breath at his words. Long Feiye even swayed on his feet as he staggered back, staring at Gu Beiyue in disbelief. He couldn’t believe his ears. News like this was probably the biggest shock of his life!

It’d come so suddenly!

He always knew Han Yunxi had been preparing for pregnancy, but this was still a surprise. If the child was five months along and Han Yunxi had vanished three months ago, this meant she was pregnant when she was kidnapped? Shouldn’t Han Yunxi had told her that herself? She was a doctor and should know her own body best! She should’ve been the first to find out!

But why hadn’t she told him?

This was both an accident, shock, and pleasant surprise. Long Feiye stood stiffly, lost as to the reasons. He seemed to feel the world had tilted on its axis. Instead of wondering why Han Yunxi never told him, or blaming her for taking the risk to get pregnant and traveling all over with him, he was only thinking about the contents of the prescription. Could something have happened to Han Yunxi?

No one present had ever seen Long Feiye in such a state. He who stood between Heaven and Earth had never seemed to unsteady on his feet. That was the last thing Gu Beiyue wanted to see, but with things like this, he had to face the facts and tell Long Feiye everything. Back at Celestial Mountain, he calculated from the princess’s body temperature and pulse readings that she showed signs of pregnancy, but it was impossible to ascertain. Clues and hints didn’t guarantee a baby but could go either way. Even a miscarriage could occur instead. The early days of any pregnancy were filled with uncertainties, including women who successfully got pregnant and lost the baby afterwards without a clue. The resulting blood could be mistaken as their period running rampant instead.

Gu Beiyue had only come upon the pregnancy pulse by chance, but it was too early to say anything, so he kept quiet. Instead, he wrote some prescriptions to nourish Han Yunxi’s body that wouldn’t affect the potential baby in her womb.

By the time he took her pulse again, he was certain she was with child, but he still kept mum. That was because it was still in the early stages of the pregnancy. Even the most skilled doctors were hard-pressed to see the signs, much less the princess herself. Gu Beiyue knew that it would only be another half month before the princess could figure it out herself, so he kept mum. Things like this should be found out by the princess on her own and told to His Highness personally. In the end, he was nothing but an outsider, even if he knew earlier than anyone else.

He had hesitated then because they were heading to Tiger’s Prison to rescue the hostages, but after getting these complicated relations sorted out, he decided to conceal the truth. He gave the princess more medicine to soothe her womb and looked after her with care on the road. In fact, he even had a plan in place when Jun Yixie asked the princess to enter Tiger’s Prison. No matter what, he wouldn’t have let her take a single risk. After that fiasco was taken care of, he silently breathed a sigh of relief and was even looking forward to the princess sharing her good news with them all. But who would expect the Li Clan’s Mu Family to raise up in arms just a few days after the Tiger’s Prison incident? They’d hardly reached the central regions before Mu Yuanbo’s threat reached their ears.

They’d ridden without rest while hurrying about. During that time, he wasn’t sure whether the princess was too busy to notice her the state of her own body, or simply afraid of His Highness keeping her confined once he found out the news. At any rate, she never said anything, so Gu Beiyue could only continue to use her health as an excuse to feed her more decoctions. Back then, he would prefer the princess to stay clueless. Faced with the pressure of Bai Yanqing and her dual cultivation deadline, a faceoff with the man within those few months would have been inevitable. In other words, the princess would have chosen to go to Tianan’s capital city even if she did find out about her pregnancy.

Rather than have the princess be painfully self-aware while risking herself, he would let her stay ignorant. The burden of such a cruel choice could rest with him alone. Unfortunately, they lost their bout at Tianan’s capital city and fell into Bai Yanqing’s maze. From then on, he knew that he had to keep the pregnancy a secret no matter what. If His Highness found out, he would lose the last of his rationality. Thus, he had endured it all while giving Fourth Young Miss Ren the details.

Of course, Gu Beiyue didn’t tell Long Feiye all of this. He only revealed two facts: 1) the princess was unaware of her own pregnancy at the start and 2) he was worried that the pregnancy would affect their plans against Bai Yanqing, so he kept the fact a secret.

Gu Beiyue chose to be the villain until the very end. As soon as he finished, Long Feiye raised an arm to punch him, scattering the people around him with the force from the attack. Gu Beiyue didn’t budge, having long prepared himself after receiving Fourth Young Miss Ren’s secret message. The force of this punch would probably cave his face in! But he acknowledged this and closed his eyes.

Yet Long Feiye actually stopped before his fist made contact, only a few centimenters away from impact. Rage was infused into his fist, which had struck out so fast that the energy would backlash upon himself if he didn’t give it a vent! Gu Beiyue’s eyes flew open at the same time the energy concentrated in Long Feiye’s fist rebounded and struck his own body, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.

No one could tell whether the blood came from the backlash of Lusbite energy or the acc.u.mulation of his own rage and anxiety. In any case, he ended up injuring himself instead of Gu Beiyue.

“Big bro!” Tang Li shouted. He could understand Long Feiye’s feelings, because he’d experienced the exact same thing. Thus, when his sister-in-law fell into Bai Yanqing’s hands, he hadn’t brought up Ning Jing once or urged them to rescue her. He knew there was no need.

Gu Qishao stood on the sidelines with fists clenched, but didn’t say a word. Heaven knows what he was thinking. Pill Furnace Master and Ye Xiao were both worried, but neither dared to speak in the face of Long Feiye’s icy visage. Gu Beiyue dearly wanted to give His Highness more time to lick the wounds in his heart, but time was pressing and he didn’t dare tarry.

“Fourth Young Miss Ren went missing less than four hours before this letter reached the maternity ward, so it means she wrote the prescription within Medical City. I cannot guarantee that she was kidnapped by Bai Yanqing, but here’s one clue! If Bai Yanqing’s truly the culprit, then judging from the prescription, the princess won’t suffer any serious consequences!” Gu Beiyue’s only words of comfort were thus.

Long Feiye’s eyes were rather bloodshot as he slipped both the Ganjiang and Moye swords onto his back. Despite their combined weights, he still stood tall and wiped away the traces of blood from his lips.

“To Medical City!” he declared icily.