After making up her mind, Ye Wanmian finally relaxed the tight string in her mind.
She crawled back under the bed, hid the wooden box back in the hole in the wall, and then got up to prepare dinner.
So many things had happened today. Ye Wanmian's mood had fluctuated several times in Liuxiang Tower. She had been on tenterhooks all the time, fearing that Prince Xuan would see through her identity. She was really exhausted.
After dinner, she copied out the medical records she had written in the medical clinic with charcoal according to today's memory. By the time she finished, she was so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open.
She rubbed the yellow dog's head, yawned, then went back to bed and lay down. With a bit of worry, she fell into a deep sleep.
Not long after she fell asleep, two barks came from outside the small courtyard. Xiao Jingcheng jumped out of bed, ran to the wall on all fours, and smoothly crawled out through the dog hole.
At the corner, Sang Biao and Curly were already waiting there.
As Xiao Jingcheng approached, he found that Curly was holding something in his mouth.
As soon as Curly saw him, he wagged his tail and warmly greeted him. He dropped the thing in his mouth in front of Xiao Jingcheng and let out a whine, looking like he was asking for praise.
In the moonlight, Xiao Jingcheng saw what the thing was. It was a broken boot!
He immediately perked up.
This should be the broken boot that Sang Biao had mentioned, the one that Bu Hua had found by the river! He didn't expect that they had really managed to get it from Bu Hua!
Curly had done a good job. Xiao Jingcheng didn't stint on his praise. Curly was so happy that he excitedly circled around, trying to bite his own tail.
Sang Biao watched enviously from the side. He secretly swore in his heart that he would strive to make contributions and get praised by the "General Tunri".
Just as he was thinking this, Xiao Jingcheng gave him a task.
"You gather the brothers and have a good smell of the remaining smell on this boot. Find more objects or people in the town that have the same smell as this thing."
"After you find them, don't make a sound."
Sang Biao perked up and immediately let out a "woof" to agree.
"By the way, how's Shorty? Any movement?" Xiao Jingcheng had sent a small team of dog soldiers to keep an eye on Jiang Zhiqing's yard, but he hadn't received any news from there.
Sang Biao indicated that everything was normal there and nothing unusual had happened.
Xiao Jingcheng remembered the word "mother" that Ye Wanmian had blurted out accidentally. He couldn't help but take it to heart and asked Sang Biao, "Who's locked up in there? Why is she locked in the house?"
These stray dogs like Sang Biao roamed around the town all day long. They were very familiar with the whole town and thus had a unique intelligence network of dogs.
Jiang Zhiqing's situation was so special that as soon as Xiao Jingcheng described it a little, Sang Biao understood. He lowered his voice and "whined" to tell Xiao Jingcheng about it.
What Sang Biao told was the story of how Jiang Zhiqing had secretly had a child with someone and then been abandoned by the man.
Crawling back through the dog hole and returning home, Xiao Jingcheng jumped onto the bed. He looked down at the girl's sleeping face in the moonlight with a frown.
Since she called that crazy woman "mother", it meant that the child the crazy woman surnamed Jiang had given birth to all those years ago hadn't died but had been replaced by someone.
Many years later, after learning about her own background, the girl had finally returned to Dongli Town. She had found her own mother and had been guarding her from afar, secretly planning to take her mother away.
Maybe she wanted to learn medicine because of that crazy woman.
She had been living such a difficult life and had so many sad things hidden in her heart. But she always smiled as if nothing could defeat her. She could even comfort him in his dreams and persuade him to cheer up.
Even though she still had a whole bunch of problems of her own to solve.
But at this moment, Xiao Jingcheng was really a bit heartbroken.
...
Liuxiang Tower.
After Doctor Wang and Ye Wanmian left, Prince Mu slept for an hour and then woke up again.
The fever on his body had subsided. When he woke up again, he felt much more relaxed and had an appetite for food. He called for Eunuch Wang and asked him to prepare dinner.
Eunuch Wang had already made arrangements. He immediately had the cooked porridge brought in.
While serving Prince Mu to eat, seeing that he had eaten most of the bowl of porridge, Eunuch Wang's face was full of relief. Taking advantage of Prince Mu not noticing, he quickly turned around and wiped the corners of his eyes. He felt even more grateful to Doctor Wang in his heart.
He didn't expect that there would be a doctor with such excellent medical skills in the countryside. Fortunately, he had been lucky enough to invite him. Otherwise, he would have been separated from the prince by death today.
"Wang Zhi." Prince Mu called out. Eunuch Wang quickly turned around. "Yes, does the prince have any instructions?"
Prince Mu wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and said, "I heard that you caused quite a stir in the town today in order to treat me and even executed several rural doctors?"
The smile on Eunuch Wang's face froze for a moment. He cried with a long face, "This servant did this for the sake of the prince."
Prince Mu smiled faintly and said in a very calm tone:
"Oh? Just because they couldn't save me, you wanted to execute them. In this way, what's the difference between me and the crown prince that the common people say is bullying others by his power and not fit to be in charge?"
"Without the support of the common people, where would the prosperity of the royal family come from? The fall of the State of Chu was less than twenty years ago. The lesson of the past is still there. Do you want the State of Sheng to follow the same old disastrous road?"
Maybe he had spoken too urgently. Prince Mu covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and coughed violently.
These words were very serious. Eunuch Wang immediately knelt down. "This servant has done something wrong. Please punish this servant, prince."
"Send one hundred taels of silver to the families of the two dead doctors tomorrow to comfort their families. After returning to the capital, you go and receive thirty boards yourself."
Eunuch Wang kowtowed to thank the prince. "Thank you, master, for your mercy and sparing this servant's life! This servant will definitely be careful in words and deeds from now on and will never cause any trouble to the master again!"
Eunuch Wang got up to serve Prince Mu. Seeing Prince Mu looking down in deep thought, he asked, "What is the prince thinking about?"
Prince Mu replied, "I'm thinking about that Doctor Wang."
Eunuch Wang couldn't help but praise, "That Doctor Wang is really skilled. In this servant's opinion, he is no worse than the imperial doctors we brought."
"The most important thing is that he is not overawed by honor or disgrace. Your highness may not know that even when facing Prince Xuan, that Doctor Wang still showed no fear at all. He seemed not afraid of death."
Prince Mu smiled. "Yes, he is really an interesting person."
"A person like this either has real skills and is sure that he can handle things, or he is used to such scenes and can handle them with ease."
Eunuch Wang was stunned and his movements slowed down. "Does the prince mean... this Doctor Wang has another identity?"
Prince Mu didn't answer. Without a response, Eunuch Wang had no choice but to suppress his doubts back into his heart.
Prince Mu said, "Go and call Prince Xuan and Prince Ning here. Tell them that I have something to order."
Eunuch Wang answered and quickly walked out. In a short while, Prince Xuan and Prince Ning appeared in front of Prince Mu again.