Chapter 215 Obtaining the Medicine for Treatment

Lin Mengya shook her head, thinking that this was a tricky matter. Nevertheless, she was confident she could deal with this.

She glanced at Baishao’s snow-white wrist by chance and spotted the exquisite jade bangle she was wearing, and thought it looked beautiful against Baishao’s fair skin color.

“I’ve noticed that you’ve been very busy lately. Would you like me to get someone to share your workload, so you can be relieved from all the hard labor?”

In fact, Lin Mengya did not really take Baiji’s words to heart.

She maintained her belief that Baishao was completely trustworthy.

The only thing which was tugging at Lin Mengya was that she did not wish for Baishao, who was like a sister to her, to be keeping any secret from her.

Baishao did not turn away from Lin Mengya’s gaze, neither did she look guilt-stricken. She merely gazed at Lin Mengya with a tender look in her eyes and said, “It’s alright. I’ll be fine until the Winter Solstice. Unlike the others who are so capable, I guess this is the only thing I could help you with.”

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Lin Mengya smiled back, thinking that Baiji ought to have been overly suspicious.

After a long time, Lin Nansheng finally returned to the tent after patrolling the camp. However, no one heard anything about the three men who had gone into the capital city to get the medicine.

A strip of white appeared at the east of the horizon as the dawn broke. Lin Mengya had unknowingly fallen asleep in her elder brother’s arms.

“Baizhi, does your Master usually love to sleep this much?”

With a perplexed look, Lin Nansheng stared at his little sister sleeping soundly in his arms.

When she was young, she was always reluctant to go to sleep at bed time.

As she grew, she became a lighter sleeper. There was not a day she would obediently go to bed.

However, it seemed that she was yawning and exhausted all the time.

“Yes, Master loves to sleep nowadays. It’s because she had fallen very ill a while ago.”

“Ill? What happened?”

Lin Nansheng furrowed his brows. He had thought that Prince Yu had taken good care of his sister, but now he had his doubts.

Could his little sister be having a hard time in the prince’s mansion?

“It’s…”

Baizhi suddenly realized that she might have said something wrong. She was about to use some made-up story when fortunately Baiji came over and saved the day.

“There was once she went hunting with the prince and accidentally she fell off the horse. She took a long time to recover from her injuries.”

Lin Nansheng was a little suspicious at first, but after listening to Baiji’s explanation, his heart was put at ease.

It was no wonder this happened. His little sister had always been afraid of horses. The incident sounded plausible.

“Was it a serious injury?”

Baiji smiled and in a rea.s.suring tone she said, “Please be at ease. Our Master had been specially treated and taken care of by the imperial physician and had almost fully recovered. The physician said since she had injured her ligaments and bones, she needed more care for recuperation.”

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Actually Lin Nansheng had been taking special notice of the four maidservants of Lin Mengya the moment entered the tent.

Apart from Baizhi, whom he knew since young, the other three were apparently excellent talents besides being good-looking.

He felt much at easing knowing that his younger sister was surrounded by them.

As he returned his gaze to his little sister who was now a married woman, a tender feeling welled up inside him.

He was thankful that she was doing well.

“They’re back! Master, the prince and Childe Yu are back!”

Baishao cried out excitedly and woke Lin Mengya immediately. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked out the tent to realize that the sky was bright.

“Are they back? That’s great!”

She wriggled out of his elder brother’s embrace and tried to stand up, however, a dizzy spell came to her and she had to sit back down.

She ma.s.saged her glabella and suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to eat anything since last night from all the frenzy.

The three men, covered in dust, immediately spotted Lin Mengya, who was at this moment, in another man’s embrace.

Although that man was none other than Lin Mengya’s elder brother, it was apparent from their eyes that they had mixed feeling about what they saw.

“What’s the matter? Baizhi, will you bring your master some food?” instructed Lin Nansheng, feeling pained.

Lin Nansheng knew exactly what was happening to his younger sister.

“Yes, I’ll go prepare the food right away.”

Baizhi hurried away to look for food, while the three men took out some warm food hidden in their coats and pa.s.sed them to Lin Mengya.

In Lin Zhongyu’s hands were the most nice-smelling pork buns, while Qinghu was holding sweet pies that smelt alluring.

However, Lin Mengya’s eyes were drawn towards what was in Long Tianhao’s hands.

Nestled in his big hands was a honey glazed chicken drumstick which was giving off a heavenly aroma.

Lin Mengya took the drumstick and bit down on it. Immediately, the juice from it filled her mouth.

“Oh, the drumstick is indeed the most delicious!”

Long Tianhao smirked at the other two men smugly.

See, Lin Mengya had chosen his lotus leave chicken drumstick over what they had to offer.

Lin Mengya, who was totally absorbed in eating that she failed to notice the little compet.i.tion between the three men.

The fragrant pies and pork buns eventually did not escape her clutches.

Under the four maidservants’ shocked gazes, Lin Mengya finished eating the amount of food which she usually could not even finish in an entire day.

She patted her slightly bulging stomach, looking very satisfied.

“Alright, time to start working.”

Lin Mengya turned around and strode into the tent, leaving behind the bunch of stunned maidservants.

“When did Ya’er become such a hearty eater?”

Lin Nansheng knitted his brows. He did not recall his little sister having such a hearty appet.i.te.

“I guessed she must be famished. Baizhi, let’s get into the tent to help,” said Baiji.

Baiji, who came around first, led the other four girls into the tent.

In fact, Lin Mengya felt that she had overeaten, so much so that she felt like throwing up.

However, the solemn expression on her face had now disappeared. She furrowed her brows as she tried hard to suppress the nausea she was feeling.

Lately, she had been feeling exhausted easily and more frequently.

With the nourishment from the tonics she was taking in, she was only able to increase her intake of energy from the food she ate.

Nevertheless, she was fully aware of her own condition. Despite increasing the intake of food, she was losing weight by the day.

This sounded ironic. If this were happening in the past, she would not have to worry about maintaining a good figure.

As she looked at her skinny arm, she knew that one day she would not wake up from her sleep because of how the poison weakened her if she did not purge it out of her body.

This particular poison was indeed tricky. It did not create any sensation of pain and itch, yet there was no way she could ignore it.

She patted lightly on her face to perk up.

Three packages of medicine brought back by the three men were placed on the table.

Although she did not state the amount which was needed, she thought those packages looked like there were too many medicines.

Lin Mengya opened the packages to have a look and started frowning.

For some reason, all three of them did not manage to buy water caltrop gra.s.s.

“What happened? Did we make a mistake?”

Qinghu asked when he saw the severe look in Lin Mengya’s eyes.

“No, no, you didn’t make a mistake. I was the one who had forgotten to tell you that the water caltrop gra.s.s was a very commonly seen herb, but it only grows on cliff faces. For this reason, the pharmacies always run out and don’t keep stock of it.”

Lin Mengya was at a loss of what to do. Although this was not the only possible prescription, water caltrop gra.s.s was one component that they could not do without.

What should they do now?

“Water caltrop gra.s.s? I remember this is one of the components in the Emperor Father’s prescription medication which was why all the supply in the city had been bought by the imperial physicians,” said Long Tianhao, frowning.

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Long Tianhao thought if his mother was still in the palace, she might be able to get hold of some.

Unfortunately, not only was it still too early in the day, the Queen and the Crown Prince were wary of him.

It was unlikely that they would give Long Tianhao what he asked so easily.

Even if they were to finally give it to him, Qin Mo would be dead by then.

“Don’t worry, this herb grows in winter as well. Someone prepares a horse for me, I’m going to pick some!”

The most useful part of the water caltrop gra.s.s was its roots.

Most plants would wither during winter and the medicinal effects would be concentrated on the roots of the herb.

“No, Ya’er! Let me go. Just describe to me how it looks.”

Lin Nansheng grabbed on to his younger sister, but Lin Mengya shook her head in response.

During winter time, the roots of the water caltrop gra.s.s looked exactly the same as the roots of other herbs. Apart from Lin Mengya, the rest of the people would not be able to tell it apart from other herbs.

If they were to help and ended up picking the roots from the wrong plants, they would have wasted both time and perhaps even Master Qin’s life.

“Elder Brother, I promise I will bring the water caltrop gra.s.s roots back with me. The four of you will remain here to take care of Master Qin.”

Before Lin Nansheng could stop her, a pair of big hands grabbed hold of the rein of the horse in front of Lin Mengya.

“I will protect her,” said Long Tianhao firmly.

Long Tianhao gave Lin Nansheng a determined look.

“In that case… alright then. I will send my personal guards to escort you to make sure you’re safe. Prince Yu, please, she is my only sister.”

Lin Nansheng and Long Tianhao exchanged knowing looks as they were both protective of this young lady.

Lin Mengya gave her elder brother a last glance, nodded, then she nimbly leaped up onto the horse.

Long Tianhao followed after her and got up the horse, grabbed the rein and put his arms around the slender Lin Mengya protectively.

“Go…” Long Tianhao tightened his legs around the horse and the two soon disappeared from sight.

A group of well-trained guards set off following behind them.

Finally Qinghu and Lin Zhongyu, who did not say a word, also trailed behind.

As Lin Nansheng watch the entire procession of people disappear from his sight, he could not help but start to worry.

The people who tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate him were ruthless, highly skilled and well-trained. They were not ordinary people.

If they were only after Lin Nansheng’s life, they would not have fled right after injuring Qin Mo.

If the truth was as he thought, it would not be a ha.s.sle-free journey for Lin Mengya and the rest.

He turned to look at his buddy, whose life was in danger. He could only hope for the best for his sister’s safe return.

“Isn’t this a residential area? Why is it so quiet?”

Lin Zhongyu looked around warily and said to Qinghu with a soft voice.

This village was enroute to the place where they were looking for the water caltrop gra.s.s.

Although dawn had broken, they supposed the farmers would have gotten out of bed to prepare breakfast for their families.

For some unknown reason, there was stillness everywhere they pa.s.sed.

Not only did they not see any smoke from the chimneys from cooking, but they also did not even see any cattle running around.

“Stop talking, you guys, speed up. I’m going to check it out.”