After Marrying The Paranoid God of War (Rebirth) - Chapter 43
In the Xiang residence.
He Xinruo was in the study, her head bowed as she copied Buddhist scriptures. A maid knelt by her side, placing a warmed soup container on her lap and said respectfully, “Second madam, the weather in Chang’an has turned cooler recently. You knelt outside the main mother’s courtyard for too long; be careful not to hurt your knees.”
The small Boshan incense burner in front of the Buddhist scriptures was burning incense with a deep and calm fragrance, but neither it nor the Sanskrit could calm He Xinruo’s heart.
After He Xinruo’s menstrual period ended, her abdominal pain eased a lot, but she was still confined to this small courtyard, only able to smell the outside air when visiting Madam Gao’s courtyard.
The warmth from the soup container gradually penetrated her knees, healing and yet causing pain as if pricked by dense needles.
He Xinruo remembered that morning, kneeling outside Madam Gao’s courtyard, where Huo Xi was also there, keeping Madam Gao company for a while. That child was as clever as a demon, making Madam Gao very happy.
She noticed that Madam Gao was growing fonder of this step-grandson.
—”Brother, why have you come?”
Suddenly, Huo Changjue’s voice came from beyond the screen, causing He Xinruo to pause slightly in her action of dipping her brush in ink.
“Let that poisonous woman come out.”
The man’s voice, soaked with a bone-chilling coldness, made He Xinruo’s spine shiver, and with a “clatter,” the brush in her hand also dropped to the ground.
How did Huo Pingxiao barge into her courtyard? Did he know something, and that’s why he came to the Xiang residence to settle accounts with her?
With the man’s arrival, the atmosphere in the entire room seemed to press down, frightening He Xinruo into trembling, fearing that Huo Pingxiao, like a murderous god or King Yama, would come with a knife in hand, recklessly cutting her in half to support the Fang family.
Huo Changjue’s voice trembled, “Brother, please calm down…”
Huo Pingxiao, exuding a deep and heavy murderous aura, said heavily, “Our Huo family cannot tolerate such a poisonous woman. If you don’t let her come out, write a divorce letter now. If you don’t write it, I’ll go find Father and have him send that poisonous woman back to the He family tonight.”
At this moment, He Xinruo walked behind the screen, her knees trembling with fear. Fortunately, the maid quickly supported her, allowing He Xinruo to barely stand steady.
Looking again at the two brothers standing in the hall, He Xinruo’s eyes widened in shock.
“Thump—”
But she saw Huo Changjue suddenly kneeling in front of Huo Pingxiao, also blocking his attempt to charge into the screen.
“What are you doing?”
Seeing him like this, Huo Pingxiao’s already furrowed brows became even more fierce.
“Brother, Miss He has been willful and unruly, truly should not have used those cunning methods against sister-in-law, but she has been punished. The doctor said her knees have developed rheumatism from kneeling for so long, and she has brought this upon herself… Besides, if she is divorced by our Huo family, Miss He will never be able to lift her head again if she returns to her maternal home. I earnestly request brother… to give Miss He another chance.”
For a moment, the air seemed to freeze.
Huo Changjue knew well that Huo Pingxiao, who could support the family with his own strength, was extremely assertive in character.
Although he has been willful since childhood, he never bullied the weak and took care of the younger members of the clan.
Huo Pingxiao would not use brute force to oppress others. If he ever resorted to violence, it was because the other party truly provoked him.
Many brave soldiers followed him, mostly out of respect for his integrity.
Huo Changjue had pinned his hopes on this aspect of Huo Pingxiao, kneeling before him, risking everything in the hope that he would spare He Xinruo this time.
Huo Pingxiao’s dark eyes filled with a heavy sense of oppression. He silently looked at Huo Changjue for a long while, then said in a deep voice, “My patience is limited. If she dares to provoke your sister-in-law again, if she harms even a single hair on her, I will not easily forgive her.”
Upon hearing what Huo Pingxiao said, Huo Changjue slightly relaxed.
“Brother will definitely remember, and will properly instruct the He family. Please rest assured, elder brother.”
After Huo Pingxiao left with a gloomy face, Huo Changjue heard, to his surprise, the suppressed sobbing of a woman coming from behind the bamboo curtain.
Huo Changjue followed the sound, frowning as he entered the inner room.
He Xinruo had lost a lot of weight recently. She knelt on the ground in a frail posture, her voice choked as she asked, “Second master, will you divorce me?”
“As long as you stop causing trouble and rein in those improper thoughts, I will naturally remember our past and let you continue as the second mistress in the prime minister’s residence.”
Seeing the haggard appearance of He Xinruo, Huo Changjue still helped his kneeling wife up from the ground, whispering, “Your knee is still injured, you shouldn’t kneel like this. Your house arrest will be lifted in a few days, just endure a little longer.”
He Xinruo nodded her head lightly, tears staining her cheeks.
He’s mother had secretly sent someone to remind her that the second son of the prime minister’s residence, Huo Changjue, had a soft heart. If she wanted to protect herself in the prime minister’s residence, she must make the man feel pity for her.
He Xinruo knew well that Huo Changjue was not like other men; he had never touched the concubine given to him by the Gao family before their marriage, and a man would have special feelings for a woman with whom he has had a close relationship for the first time.
As long as she grasped this point, Huo Changjue would surely protect her.
He’s mother also said through the maid that since the Fang family and Marquis Huo did not live in the prime minister’s residence, the scandal of drugging could be overlooked after some time.
In the future, as long as she recuperated and bore the Huo family’s offspring, no one would mention those past disputes again.
After comforting He Xinruo, Huo Changjue did not stay in the study for long; he had to go to the Jingzhao Mansion for his duties in the afternoon.
He Xinruo was helped up by the maid, enduring the pain in her knee, suddenly feeling that her tragic situation today was all because of Huo Xi, such a calamity.
She had merely mentioned the anecdote of Cao Chong, yet Mrs. Fang lost her composure, which must mean she also knew that a child as smart as Huo Xi was likely to die young.
Now, He Xinruo’s attitude towards Ruan An and Huo Xi had changed from previous wariness and slight hostility to deep hatred.
She swore in her heart that she would reclaim all the humiliations she suffered this month from Mrs. Fang and Huo Xi.
The early autumn in Chang’an was characterized by rolling clouds and pleasant breezes.
Ruan An arrived at the medicinal garden and saw the manager chatting happily with a strange man. When the two noticed her approaching, they stopped their conversation.
The manager excitedly said, “Miss Ruan, this gentleman is a Hanlin medical officer from the Imperial Medical Bureau. He’s very interested in our medicinal garden and says that in a few days, the Neizang Treasury will purchase a large amount of medicinal materials from the public.”
Ruan An looked at the Hanlin medical officer mentioned by the manager and saw that the man was wearing a rui-purple round-collared robe, with a silver feiyu fish talisman worn by officials in Chang’an at his waist, and he was only in his early twenties.
The man nodded to her with a courteous greeting, calling her “Miss Ruan,” but the temperament he exuded was not that of a frail and gentle doctor.
Instead, he carried an inherent noble aura.
This man was not any Hanlin medical officer; he might deceive the manager of the medicinal garden, but he could not deceive her.
Ruan An, without showing her realization, immediately recognized the identity of the stranger — the emperor’s third son, Prince Xiao Wen of Dunjun.
In fact, Xiao Wen was the only member of the royal family for whom Ruan An had some fondness. In her previous life, he had requested the emperor to establish a large number of pharmacies and hospitals in various surveillance routes of the Li Kingdom.
The reason Xiao Wen had this idea was because, like Ruan An, he had personally experienced the suffering that disasters brought to the common people.
When droughts and floods struck, they not only destroyed crops and left many people homeless and hungry but also brought plagues.
Many local officials lacked compassion for the people. Although they opened the granaries to distribute grain, they did not deploy soldiers to maintain order, and often, diseases would spread among the hungry people gathered for grain.
In the face of natural disasters, people are almost powerless. Ruan An, while practicing medicine in the southern regions, had grown accustomed to the sight of famine-stricken fields littered with corpses, and the horrifying scenes of cannibalism.
Many newborns were abandoned by their parents by the roadside, and even more tragically, some were cruelly drowned in lakes. With no one to retrieve them, their bodies simply floated on the water.
She herself was an infant abandoned by her parents during a disaster, nearly becoming one of those deceased infants. Girls, in such circumstances, were even more likely to be abandoned than boys.
Such scenes were unforgettable for Ruan An, and it was those experiences that further solidified her dedication to medicine.
Xiao Wen, in his previous life, indeed wanted to seek welfare for the people and achieve some political accomplishments. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, the emperor never really considered him, a son born out of wedlock, worthy of attention. Although the emperor praised his talents verbally, his heart still favored the crown prince, Xiao Chong.
Following Xiao Chong’s ascension to the throne, he gradually established welfare institutions and dispensaries in Chang’an, based on Xiao Wen’s suggestions.
Regrettably, in the second year of Xiao Chong’s reign, he whimsically decided to take Li Shuying to Yangzhou to see the beautiful flowers. The Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue submitted memorials stating that the expenses for ships were too great and some government expenditures needed to be cut.
That year, there were no major epidemics within the borders of Li, and Xiao Chong, without a second thought, immediately ordered the closure of the welfare institutions and dispensaries in Chang’an.
This decision led to widespread public grievances, which could be seen as the spark that led to Xiao Chong and Li Shuying’s downfall.
Ruan An quickly shifted her thoughts and asked softly, “Our pharmacy only has plant medicines and lacks animal medicines like deer antler, dragon bone, musk, etc., mainly featuring good medicines from Sichuan and southern Sichuan. May I ask which medicines the medical officer is looking to purchase from us?”
Xiao Wen looked towards the nearby medicine field, asking in confusion, “May I ask, madam, what kind of medicines are planted in your garden?”
Ruan An replied, “Based on the soil here, we first planted angelica, poria, and aconite.”
Having seen some medical books in the court before, Xiao Wen was surprised to hear that Ruan An could grow angelica and poria in the area around Chang’an.
“Angelica, a herb usually found in Sichuan, can you really grow it and poria in the outskirts of Chang’an?” he questioned.
Ruan An smiled confidently, “In my youth, I gathered herbs in Sichuan and saw many mountain people attempt to grow angelica. In fact, angelica doesn’t necessarily need to be wild to be of high quality. As long as the soil is fertile and well-tended, a good harvest is assured next year.”
During her time in Jiazhou, Ruan An also researched ways to improve the cultivation of medicinal plants, documenting her preliminary ideas in the first draft of “Jiannanling Medical Records.”
She believed that with the right terrain and soil, those herbs traditionally grown in Sichuan could also be cultivated on the outskirts of Chang’an.
Xiao Wen stood with his hands behind his back, becoming increasingly curious about this gentle-looking, ethereal old medicine woman.
He came to the pharmacy garden firstly to arrange for supplies for the Anji Institute in advance from civilian pharmacies and gardens.
Secondly, he had heard that the pharmacy was backed by the Marquis of Dingbei and was curious to meet this famous doctor from the southern region, having heard of her rumored romance with Duke Huo.
“Madam has profound insight, understanding both medicine and the art of cultivation,” he commented, before his gaze became slightly scrutinizing as he asked, “I’ve heard you’ve been living in seclusion in the mountains of Jiazhou. Why come to Chang’an to open a pharmacy garden?”
Ruan An’s expression shifted subtly, quickly concealing any oddity, not wanting Xiao Wen to detect anything amiss.
Xiao Wen was indeed no ordinary man, immediately putting her on the spot. It seemed he also sought to learn about Huo Pingxiao through her.
Ruan An responded calmly, “I became a traveling doctor at a young age, and my lifelong wish has been to leave my mark as a physician across all the inspection paths of Li. Chang’an just happens to be the last stop on my journey. I’m getting old and can no longer wander, so I’ve settled here.”
At that moment, a brisk autumn wind blew, slightly lifting Ruan An’s sleeves.
Perhaps it was just an illusion, but Xiao Wen thought he caught a glimpse of her partially exposed arm, which was fair, soft as jade, and tender as snow, not at all like the skin one would expect of an elderly woman.