Chapter 23#
My buddy is not only a modern-day Sherlock Holmes but also a contemporary Song Ci. He can casually recount a past case that makes me want to kneel and call him “master.”
And while he’s captivating me with his stories, the one often sitting beside him with a “I see you showing off” expression is his senior, the divine physician Jiang.
Today, I’m here to bid farewell to Guan Ruiyue and get medicine from Physician Jiang.
Medicine that can make a person appear to have insufficient vital essence and lower abdominal weakness in a short period.
Yes, I was inspired by Chu Ruiyuan’s story and thought of feigning impotence.
As for bidding farewell to Guan Ruiyue, it’s because in a few days, he will be heading to Jiangzhou to serve as the provincial judicial commissioner.
The system for local judicial commissioners involves a three-year rotation. Guan Ruiyue’s family also has considerable connections, so this trip is essentially for him to gain experience, after which he can return to the capital and be promoted to a position in the Dali Temple.
So, even though we’re about to part, neither of us is sad. We’ll exchange letters for three years and then reunite when he returns to the capital.
However, what was quite unexpected was that Senior Brother Jiang was also going to Jiangzhou with my buddy.
Considering the medicine I wanted to feign impotence, and the fact that they didn’t ask why and just prescribed it for me, I feel like I’ve figured something out.
On a side note.
Those ruffians who tried to extort me, but instead led to my acquaintance with Guan Ruiyue, had been causing trouble in the capital for several years and had quite a few connections.
But for some unknown reason, less than a month after their failed attempt to extort me, this group of thugs and their protectors were thrown into prison, their homes confiscated, and they were exiled three thousand li away.
My father and brother both insisted they weren’t responsible, so I could only guess if Heaven had finally opened its eyes.
Two years passed quickly after I got the medicine from Senior Brother Jiang.
My parents invited various famous doctors from the capital to treat my “inability to perform,” but to no avail. They could only accept the reality that their second son was “impotent.”
By the time I turned seventeen, they had arranged a seventh-rank sinecure for me and no longer thought much about my marriage.
My sister-in-law, however, looked at me with an exceptionally sharp gaze.
So sharp that I felt she had seen through everything.
Fortunately, my sister-in-law didn’t say anything to my parents or my brother. Instead, she continued to treat me as usual, and continued to educate me about how the current imperial family was utterly worthless, and how Chu Ruiyuan, this crooked sapling, would never grow into a towering tree.
I think my sister-in-law makes a lot of sense.
However, I no longer call Chu Ruiyuan the “stupid crown prince.”
Last month, the late emperor died suddenly on the bed of his imperial concubine, who had never borne him a child.
After the late emperor was interred in the imperial mausoleum and the imperial concubine voluntarily accompanied him in death, the stupid crown prince Chu Ruiyuan was promoted to emperor, with the reign title Chengho.
So now, when I curse him in my heart, I call him “Emperor Chu the Scumbag.”
Logically, since Chu Ruiyuan is now the emperor, and I am merely the second son of the prime minister and a minor official without even the qualification to enter court, and he has always been very friendly to me, there’s no reason for me to keep calling him “Emperor Chu the Scumbag” behind his back.
But he actually coveted my brother’s backside.
Yes, the current CEO of the empire actually likes my brother, who has been raised plump and fair by my sister-in-law.
I hadn’t noticed this myself until one day my sister-in-law got drunk and let it slip.
My sister-in-law said that Emperor Chu the Scumbag kissed my brother when my brother was drunk.
When I heard that, I was horrified, okay?
Fortunately, that day it was just my brother, my sister-in-law, and me having dinner. My brother had already passed out drunk, and the maid who was serving in the room had gone to the kitchen. Only I heard my sister-in-law’s drunken words, otherwise, who knows what a big fuss it would have caused.
I originally wanted to ask my sister-in-law for details, but just as I was about to speak, her personal maid returned with a hangover remedy. By the time my sister-in-law sobered up, she had forgotten what she had said, leaving me scratching my head, wanting to know what exactly happened, but unable to find another opportunity to ask.
So I could only rely on my own observation and deduction.
And with such observation and deduction, I really did uncover some clues.
For example, Chu Ruiyuan and my brother originally had no close relationship, yet when my brother got married, he, as the crown prince, sent my brother an exceptionally generous wedding gift;
Another example is that he repeatedly asked me to persuade my brother to lose weight, saying that a talented Hanlin scholar shouldn’t ruin himself like that;
Even more so, whenever he summoned me to the palace after his ascension, he would always, seemingly unintentionally, try to extract information from me during our conversations, with the central theme being whether my sister-in-law was pregnant.
Even if the first two points were me overthinking, the last one couldn’t be, right?!
If he wasn’t harboring ill intentions towards my brother, would he be so concerned about my sister-in-law’s belly?
He couldn’t possibly like my sister-in-law, could he? If he really liked my sister-in-law, she would have been the crown princess or a concubine long ago. How could she have had the chance to marry my brother?!
My brother’s foundation is good, but now he’s been raised like that by my sister-in-law, and Emperor Chu the Scumbag can still fancy him.
Should I praise the current CEO for his discerning eye?
And then, just as the discerning CEO of this dynasty predicted, my sister-in-law was indeed diagnosed with a pregnancy pulse these past two days, and she’s already about three months along.
When the good news reached me, my eyelid twitched.
Sure enough, after I reported this to Chu Ruiyuan, he began to bestow precious medicines for fetal stabilization, asking me to bring them to the prime minister’s mansion every time I returned.
I helped the current CEO deliver fetal stabilization medicine to the wife of the person he secretly loved for over half a year, and my sister-in-law was finally about to give birth.
As a result, Chu Ruiyuan even issued an imperial decree for my buddy, Guan Mingyue’s divine physician senior brother, to temporarily reside in the prime minister’s mansion until my sister-in-law safely gave birth.
Yes, when my buddy left the capital for Jiangzhou, he was still called Guan Ruiyue. But by the time he completed his term as judicial commissioner and returned to the capital with Physician Jiang, he had already changed his name to Guan Mingyue to avoid offending the emperor’s taboo name.
Sometimes, one has to admit, the feudal imperial system is truly powerful.
However, Chu Ruiyuan’s order for Physician Jiang to be on standby at the prime minister’s mansion actually came in handy.
Our prime minister’s mansion had prepared two famous midwives from the capital and a gynecologist early on, but my sister-in-law suffered from difficult labor and heavy bleeding during childbirth. If Physician Jiang hadn’t been there, she might have passed away after giving birth to the pair of dragon and phoenix twins.
This made me deeply moved and admire the current CEO’s spirit of silently caring for his beloved and selfless dedication.
Presumably, my sister-in-law was also very moved by her rival’s great love. When our prime minister’s mansion held the full moon celebration for the twins, Chu Ruiyuan also came. My sister-in-law didn’t even badmouth him as usual after he left.
She even sighed, “He’s truly devoted,” and never again told me those truly terrifying stories about the imperial family of this dynasty.