Chapter 200 Added Insult to Injury
Xue Nongqing just fell in a faint, while Qiu Jinglan and Qiu Yelan ran around for her. Qiu Jinglan was busy asking Qi Shuluo to diagnose and treat Xue Nongying, but he had to prevent him from playing tricks and tipping off at the same time; and Qiu Yelan, on the other hand, sent Xue Nongqing back to the Xue Family under the name of “Miss Nongqing seemed to be frightened, so she fainted just now while speaking”, and by the way told the Xue Family that Xue Nongying’s injury had worsened.
The Xue Family was naturally shocked when they heard the news. As the prime minister, Xue Chang was shocked, but he was still calm. He agreed decisively, “Go downhill! Even if Qi Shuluo wouldn’t plot to murder Ying’er, the herbs on the mountain are even not available. They even can’t live in a house after being injured. Even if Chunjun takes good care of him, how will he recover in such a bad environment?”
Qiu Yelan secretly thought that Xue Chang was indeed a sensible person. He seemed to repeat what Dongran had told him before simply, but it was tantamount to implying that Xue Nongying’s deterioration was caused by objective conditions, and even if something went wrong, it would be nothing to do with Qiu Jinglan or others.
Xue Chang said to her again as expected, “No words can express my thanks to your great kindness. Your Grace, Chunjun, I’m sorry to trouble you about going downhill. I’d like to allocate some bodyguards for you, but I am afraid that we have to rely on the Green Villa more!”
The Xue Family is not involved in military affairs. Although Xue Chang had some fantastic bodyguards in his hands, they were really inferior to the master reserves in the famous “Tianya”.
The person who stabbed Xue Nongying had not been found yet, so Xue Chang naturally worried that the person was hiding in secret.
Qiu Yelan nodded, “You’re welcome. It is what we should do.”
“Let Qing’er go with you. Just say that because she is not in good health, I want to send her down the mountain and my family sends some people to accompany her.” Xue Chang said again, “Others will continue to search for Ying’er on the mountain as bait. I hope that action can attract the attention of the person in the dark and let you go down the mountain in peace!”
“What you are saying is right. My brother intends to leave under the name of his recurrence, so that he can cover it up as he is carried by others even if someone sees him from a distance.” Qiu Yelan stood up, “No time to lose in doing it, so let’s go right now.”
Xuesun, who was weeping by the side, hurriedly asked, “Can I go together?”
“But you can only stay with Qing’er!” Xue Chang knew that this daughter-in-law only had one son and one daughter. Now that the life and death of her son were unpredictable, she must be worried. He sighed in his heart and said, “Don’t get close to Ying’er before settling down. It would have hurt him if you were caught out.”
“Thank you, father!” Xuesun agreed quickly.
At the moment, Qiu Yelan returned to the Green Villa to prepare, while the Xue Family began to pack things and order staff.
Both sides were vigorous and resolute at the moment, and they gathered behind the Green Villa after a short while. At this time, Qi Shuluo was also demanded in both hard and soft tactics, “The situation of young master Xue is really bad. Now we’ll send him down the mountain, so we hope that you can show your kindness and go with us.”
Based on Qi Shuluo’s experience, he understood after thinking about it simply. Anyway, he was ordered by the Jiang Family to take charge of Qiu Jinglan’s safety during this period, so he didn’t ask anything else and agreed immediately.
They walked down the mountain in a hurry, but on the way, they met another group of people who were venturing back to Jing City. It was just the Xiao Family of the Duke of Puyang.
“It seems that the old Princess Qin is in a bad situation.” Qiu Yelan held the veil hat and looked at the opposite side. Everyone looked anxious. In the middle was a young man in a brocade robe who looked like her age with narrow arms and a bee waist. He was tall and walked tightly next to the only sedan in the team. She could guess without asking, he must be Xiao Mu, the strong brother of the Duke of Puyang.
And the person in the sedan must be old Princess Qin!
For those who were on the mountain, the aftershocks after the earthquake were a big problem. This was also the reason that neither the emperor nor the empress had the intention to leave after the first earthquake stopped for a day. What if they went down the mountain and then aftershocks happened on the rugged mountain road?
It must be a must for them to leave the mountain at this moment. They even ignored the risks on the way!
“Commandery Princess Ningyi!” As Qiu Yelan was looking at Xiao Mu, Xiao Mu suddenly came over, bowed his hand, and then asked, “Do you accompany your brother down the mountain for medical treatment? How about your brother’s injury?”
When Qiu Yelan heard this, she understood what he meant, “It is okay if your family wants to walk ahead. But the speed….”
Xiao Mu was overjoyed and bowed solemnly, “I will urge them to descend the mountain quickly!” After saying a few words of gratitude, he returned to the team to command. Because of the construction of the Summer Palace, the mountain road of Mount Dizi was originally wide enough for two teams to walk side by side.
However, the earthquake had destroyed many places, so it was difficult for two teams to walk side by side at this time.
In this case, when two teams met, the question of who should go first came up. Old Princess Qin’s team should go ahead out of both her age and status. Even if it was Xue Nongying who was in urgent need of going down the mountain for medical treatment, things would not change still. So, it was better to let them go first to avoid delays instead of bargaining with Xiao Mu. Anyway, the Xiao Family had sent the only intact grandson Xiao Mu to escort the old Princess down the mountain, so they would not compromise absolutely.
After the people in the Xiao Family left, Qiu Yelan did not feel that their way was blocked when they set foot on the mountain road as expected.
Besides worrying about the safety of the old Princess, the servants were fear of another earthquake. Once it occurred again, they would probably be stuck on the mountain road and lose their lives. Thus, the servants did not dare to stay here and they tried their best to take the old Princess to leave. Fortunately, no aftershocks happened on their way to the flat ground!
Upon experiencing this, both the Xiao Family and Qiu Yelan wiped their cold sweat and ordered with their hearts still fluttering with fear, “Hurry up. Return to Jing City!”
The official road back to Jing City had also been destroyed partly. Fortunately, the problem was not serious and they made a detour to leave there.
Finally, the city wall was in sight, and everyone was relieved. However, as soon as they got relieved, the galloping carriage suddenly crooked to the side!
“Has the horse stumbled? Or something happened on the road?” After the ideas crossed her mind, she saw that the surrounding scenery was trembling. The aftershocks happened!
“Brother!” Qiu Yelan was shocked, got up from the ground and rushed into Qiu Jinglan’s carriage!
Madam Sun, who came here in the name of accompanying her daughter, was scared out of wits. She had no time to care about whether she would expose her identity but just rushed over to check on her son who was staying with Qiu Jinglan!
Fortunately, the aftershock was not strong. It stopped after a while.
It was just that the team that was speeding up was in a panic at the moment. Qiu Yelan and Madam Sun were injured and bruised, and some of the unlucky servants were crushed by the mounts. Fortunately, Qiu Jinglan and Xue Nongying were fine, which should be attributed to Qiu Feng. They asked him to ride with them to guard against the assassins originally, but when the aftershock happened, he quickly grabbed they two with sharp eyes and agile hands so that the two wounded had not been thrown out of the carriage!
But the Xiao Family, who was on the official road with them, was not so lucky. Although Xiao Mu personally accompanied old Princess Qin in the car and he had been practicing martial arts since he was a child, he was distinguished, and he hardly had real fights with others. So how could his experience and reaction be compared with Qiu Feng, who had been making a living in Jianghu for so many years and had been accustomed to killing and fighting?
Old Princess Qin was thrown out of the carriage and fell on the official road badly out of oversight.
“Grandma!” Xiao Mu was terrified. He stumbled over to pick up old Princess Qin, only to see that she, who was dying before, was even more fragile at the moment. She was gonna die!
Seeing this, Qiu Yelan hurriedly let her team set out quickly, and she led Qi Shuluo over, “Young master Xiao, don’t move the old Princess. Let Dr. Qi checks her!”
Xiao Mu was so anxious and in a state of stupefaction, so he was about to cry when hearing her words, “Thank you!” He didn’t say anything more then and gave Qi Shuluo his place for diagnosis.
But Qi Shuluo sighed inwardly when he glanced at the old Princess’s face. After taking her pulse, he was more certain. Therefore, he even did not open his medicine pouch but said in a low voice, “Anyway, send the old Princess back to the Prince’s Mansion! ”
Xiao Mu was stunned when he heard the words, “You mean…?”
“It’s not because of the fall just now. It’s just the old Princess is… Even if she didn’t fall down just now, she won’t survive more than a few days after returning to Jing City….” Qi Shuluo knew how he felt at this time, so he comforted him. Then he took out a jade box for personal storage from his arms, took out half of the old ginseng, and then cut two slices from it with a small silver knife around his waist. Then he fed old Princess Qin with them, sighing, “let’s go!”
The implication was that old Princess Qin would die on the road if they didn’t set out at this time.
“Young Master Xiao, calm down!” Seeing that Xiao Mu looked so pale as soon as he heard the bad news, Qiu Yelan was sympathetic to him, so she said softly, “Think about Princess Puyang and the Duke of Puyang on Mount Dizi. And since the old Princess is coming back now, maybe she still has something to tell you then?”
Seeing Xiao Mu leading old Princess Qin towards Jing City dully, Qiu Yelan sighed and turned to ask Qi Shuluo, “So how about young master Nongying?”
Speaking of Xue Nongying, Qi Shuluo got a little more relaxed than just now, “He is different from old Princess Qin. Although he is injured more severely than the old Princess, he is just a teenager who is full of energy, and he has a strong desire to survive! Besides, the medicine you fed him before was not ordinary… From my perspective, there is a fifty-fifty chance that he will recover!”
“….” Qiu Yelan frowned, feeling that this possibility was still not big enough. But thinking about the severity of Xue Nongying’s injury, she thought that it was fortunate for him to have a fifty-fifty chance to survive.
“I hope he will live a little bit longer. I hope he can survive!” Qiu Yelan muttered in her heart, “Otherwise, I don’t know what Xue Chang will do.”
How could losing a grandson be easy to withstand for an old man? Especially he placed great hopes on this grandson.
At that moment she was not in the mood to speak then, hurrying on silently.
She arrived at Jing City later than Qiu Jinglan and his group. They saw many houses collapsed before entering the city gate. Bodyguards were seen on the streets, and some people even wore the costumes of the Imperial Army.
It was not surprising actually. Feng Rugui supported the Empress firmly, and many of the Jiang Family were serving in the Imperial Army. After the earthquake, to prevent rumors and riots, Feng Rugui asked the remaining guards in the Imperial Army to come forward to help suppress the situation, so as to facilitate peace. Even if something went wrong, the Imperial Army could handle that.
They had reached a consensus with the Xue Family that Xue Nongying would be placed in the Ruan Family. In this way, they could ask the doctor here in the name of injured Qiu Jinglan, so as to give the Xue Family more time to find out who attacked Xue Nongying.
Therefore, Qiu Yelan went straight to the Ruan’s Mansion after entering the city. Although the Ruan’s Mansion had not been completely repaired due to the defeat in the past ten years, it was the General’s Mansion before, which was really a good thing.
The martial-arts field was indispensable in the mansion of a military officer.
Out of the former glory of the Ruan Family, there was not only one martial-arts field here.
So even if it was uncertain whether the earthquake would happen again, there was no need to hide outside the city.
When they arrived at the Ruan Family, the aroma of medicine was already floating in the mansion at this time. It was the prescription that Qi Shuluo prescribed before. As soon as they returned to Jing City, someone was asked to get the herbs and brew them.
Qiu Yelan took Qi Shuluo to the backyard, and saw Qiu Jinglan sitting on the soft couch on the peach blossom tree and sipping tea. Seeing them coming over, Qiu Jinglan got up to greet them, “How is old Princess Qin? Is she okay?”
“Not really. Maybe she can’t survive tonight.” There were no people who were close to the Prince’s Mansion of Puyang, so Qi Shuluo said bluntly, “She was on her last breath when she fell down… It was the blessing of Xiao Mu that she didn’t die on the spot.”
If old Princess Qin died on the spot, besides his self-blame, Xiao Mu would be condemned badly by public opinion.
After all, he escorted the old Princess alone and he was even in the carriage when the incident happened on the way returning to Jing City for treatment!
“Old Princess Qin has nothing to do with our family.” Qiu Yelan worried more about young master Xue, “How is young master Xue now?”