Chapter 117: Entering Chang’an to Seek the Spirit Gu
Hao Da carried Su Jingzhi down the mountain on his back and prepared a carriage and horses for the Su couple. Wei Wanlan took Su Jingzhi and left Xiong’er Mountain.
On the way back to Chang’an, they had to pass through the main city, Luoyang.
It had been more than ten days since the accident where the Turks destroyed the city during the Grand Feast. With both the Emperor and the Regent absent from the court, Wei Wanlan didn’t know if anyone was in charge.
Inside the carriage, he let Su Jingzhi lean against him. Wei Wanlan observed the outside through the gap in the curtains lifted by the wind. He saw that entry and exit into the city were orderly, without the chaos of closed city gates.
Wei Wanlan didn’t have time to explore the reason.
The carriage had already reached the city gate, stopping for the routine inspection.
Wei Wanlan’s hand tightened on his thigh. He was afraid of any unexpected delays; he was fighting for every second now. But the vehicle ahead waiting for identity inspection didn’t move an inch. Perhaps the inspection was thorough.
Wei Wanlan felt anxious.
He lifted the curtain and poked his head out of the window to look. In doing so, he forgot that ancient women rarely showed their faces in public. His appearance as a young married woman instantly attracted the attention of the inspecting soldiers.
Just as Wei Wanlan was about to shrink back, a rough voice called out to him: “Little Lady, wait!”
The carriage curtain was thrown open by a hand.
Wei Wanlan hurriedly protected Su Jingzhi. It was almost a subconscious action; he held half the Regent’s body, appearing to outsiders as a deeply affectionate wife clinging to her husband like a little bird.
It scared Li Jiucheng silly.
Outside the carriage, Li Jiucheng’s mouth opened wide enough to fit an egg: “This—”
Actually, he had originally thought the little woman sticking her head out to look around was strange. Who knew that after checking, he would discover it was the Emperor of Great Wei dressed as a woman, with the Regent sitting beside him.
Li Jiucheng knelt outside the carriage immediately. Clearly a tall and strong man, he now looked visibly ready to cry. He opened his mouth to shout “Found His Majesty and the Regent!”
Wei Wanlan made a gesture at his lips: “Shh.”
Li Jiucheng accepted the order blankly.
This was Su Jingzhi’s trusted aide; he could be trusted.
Seeing him calm down, Wei Wanlan quickly issued a decree: “The Regent…” He considered and decided not to tell Li Jiucheng the whole truth yet, so he said half-truthfully, “The Regent is injured; he is closing his eyes to recuperate. Select a squad of men and quickly take us back to Chang’an.”
Li Jiucheng: “This subordinate will go personally!”
The General of Shangzhou immediately selected personnel from the city guards. Rerigging the carriage shafts, they replaced the farm cart’s inferior horse with a warhorse. The situation was urgent, and there was no time to get Wei Wanlan’s men’s clothing. Li Jiucheng cracked the whip, and the escort convoy sped along the official road from Luoyang to Chang’an.
“Hyah—”
Since Yuan Xizai’s fall, the official roads near Luoyang had undergone some renovation.
The carriage ride wasn’t bumpy, and Li Jiucheng was a skilled driver. Leading the way was this carriage carrying the Emperor and the Regent, followed by fifty or sixty elite cavalry guards.
“Hyah!!!”
Wei Wanlan hugged Su Jingzhi tighter inside the carriage…
Usually, Su Jingzhi was the one afraid Wei Wanlan would bump his head on the carriage boards. Now that Su Jingzhi couldn’t move, Wei Wanlan mimicked the Regent’s manner, guarding against his head getting bumped, protecting him strictly.
Sitting at the front of the carriage, Li Jiucheng reported the court’s movements to Wei Wanlan:
He mentioned that Secretary Xiao (Xiao Ji) had returned to Chang’an to preside over the operations of the Secretariat. He also said that the reason he and the other soldiers were standing outside the city gate looking for people was also due to Secretary Xiao’s arrangement before leaving, fearing the Emperor would have trouble entering the city upon returning to Luoyang.
Wei Wanlan let out a slow sigh of relief. He felt a fierce warrior was indeed a fierce warrior—a good friend and a good military advisor who didn’t drop the ball at critical moments.
But how did Xiao Mengshi command this group of martial men?
Without the Regent’s face, the Great Wei soldiers had always only recognized the military tally. Could it be that the army had united with the civil officials because of Zhen’s disappearance?
Just as they were speaking, they encountered a steep slope.
Wei Wanlan went to cover Su Jingzhi’s head again.
Li Jiucheng turned his face, intending to remind the Little Emperor to sit steadily. The curtain was half-open, and Li Jiucheng saw the scene inside clearly! It looked exactly like the cross-dressing Little Emperor throwing himself into an embrace.
His heart was greatly shaken: The Little Emperor’s disguise was too misleading. In that instant, he actually had the illusion that the Prince and the Little Emperor were quite a match!?
But isn’t the Little Emperor a little boy?
Right? Right!
Men and men can’t be together, right…
No way? No way!
A bizarre and strange combination, yet somehow revealing an inexplicable harmony, very pleasing to the eye.
Li Jiucheng was in disarray in the wind.
After about seven or eight double-hours (14-16 hours) of non-stop galloping, aided by good horses from relay stations and changing for fresh mounts midway.
Traveling by starlight and moon, then welcoming the rising sun, by the time the sun set on the plains the next day, Wei Wanlan lifted the curtain and finally saw the towering, breathtaking city towers of the Imperial Capital, Chang’an.
The defending general of Chang’an had been changed to Tang Tuan.
Tang Tuan guarded the city personally. With wheat-colored skin all over and full pectoral muscles under his armor, he stood on the tower draped in the red glow of the sunset, resting his hand on his saber and gazing into the distance.
Ever since the Boss went alone out of the capital to find the Little Emperor, he had always vaguely felt uneasy somewhere. This uneasiness grew stronger the longer the Regent was away from Chang’an.
Midway, when the Boss found the Little Emperor in Luoyang, killed Yuan Xizai with him, and established some Drum of Grievances system, Tang Tuan’s worry for the two eased slightly.
Later, when Xiao Ji returned to the city alone and took charge of most of the Secretariat’s tasks, Tang Tuan’s sense of unease rebounded, reaching its peak.
So much so that without Xiao Ji needing to propose it, Tang Tuan applied to guard the city himself. Tang Tuan feared the Turks would make some move at this critical juncture, or that Xiao Ji wanted to take advantage of the chaos to seize power…
But Tang Tuan really wasn’t a person suited for using his brain.
Doing this much was already his limit.
He could only stand on the tower every day, looking forward to the Regent bringing the Little Emperor back, hoping the two were safe and sound. Even if they were just having a small tiff like before, it didn’t matter. Anyway, the Boss could always coax him back; the Little Emperor didn’t hold grudges, and the two always looked very loving.
He was pondering what they had quarreled about last time.
His brain wasn’t very sharp. He scratched his head; he seemed to have heard that the Regent bullied the Little Emperor at night. He was quite imaginative, being full of youthful vigor, his head filled with nonsense. Then he saw a plain carriage about to “brave Chang’an.”
Followed by a squad of cavalry!
Tang Tuan was shocked right then.
Who are these people?
Thinking that because the Boss isn’t here, they can barge into this city at will? Fifty or sixty light cavalry wanting to rebel? That’s too overconfident.
He quickly snapped back from his wandering thoughts, drew his saber to block them, and stood beneath the wall, gazing at the driver on the carriage board.
…Looked a bit familiar.
Looking again at the two silhouettes revealed through the half-rolled curtains of the carriage, they also looked a bit familiar. Tang Tuan rubbed his eyes.
Li Jiucheng shouted loudly from outside the city. He shouted very implicitly, not actually mentioning the identities of the two people in the carriage. It seemed a rough fellow could also perform above average at critical moments: “The Master has returned from the Eastern Tour! Brother Tang, open the city gates quickly—”
Another rough fellow actually understood this urgency tacitly. Tang Tuan’s heart skipped a beat, feeling his ominous premonition coming true, but not knowing exactly what it was. He hurriedly ordered the city guards to throw the gates wide open, and jumped onto the galloping carriage himself to rush towards the Imperial Palace!
The Boss is in the carriage!
And a woman!
Tang Tuan was horrified. Amidst a series of shocks, he realized this woman was actually the Little Emperor. The Little Emperor had his hair pinned up and bangs combed back.
The Little Emperor’s doe eyes were red as a rabbit’s, still hugging the Regent tightly without letting go. His youthful voice, after many trials, had been honed with a bit of majesty: “Enter the palace and go straight to the Imperial Medical Bureau. Summon all medical officials for a secret consultation.”
Only when he was sure he was basically in a safe environment did Wei Wanlan dare to tell the truth to Su Jingzhi’s die-hard subordinates: “The Regent was poisoned long ago. The poison flared up during this trip. His life is in imminent danger. We must find the Twin Gu, otherwise, it will be very hard for him to survive…”
Chang’an Imperial Palace, Imperial Medical Bureau.
After entering the palace, Wei Wanlan stationed himself directly in the Imperial Medical Bureau.
Imperial Physician Fang received them. Tang Tuan and Li Jiucheng split the work; Vice General Tang led the Jinwu Guard to surround the Imperial Medical Bureau so tightly not a drop of water could trickle through. Before the Regent was cured, the matter of his poisoning absolutely could not be leaked.
Li Jiucheng notified Xiao Ji.
Xiao Ji hurriedly tucked dozens of important documents from the Secretariat into his chest and ran directly to the Imperial Medical Bureau to have an audience with Wei Wanlan.
This was a crisis moment. Xiao Ji had known about the Regent’s condition for a long time, so he didn’t care about propriety or gentility, nearly tripping over the threshold as he entered.
Stumbling closer, he muttered an explanation to himself: “Urgent as fire, imminent peril. Your Majesty returned just in time. If Your Majesty hadn’t returned to the palace, those old ministers in the Secretariat were going to dig up this humble official’s ancestral grave…”
It was evident that it wasn’t easy for Secretary Xiao to control the situation.
An Ruyi was a trusted confidant of both Wei Wanlan and Su Jingzhi, and one of the few people who had been friendly to Wei Wanlan from the very beginning. So even though Wei Wanlan was buried in the Imperial Medical Bureau looking for the Twin Gu, he had to report his safety to Eunuch An.
Sure enough, as soon as the message arrived, the considerate steward An Ruyi also rushed to the Imperial Medical Bureau.
Who could have imagined that the Imperial Medical Bureau, in a remote part of the palace, would now house all these great figures?
And who could have imagined that the Little Emperor, who was called a puppet in the palm of others less than half a year ago, could now command the collective respect and protection of civil officials, military generals, and inner court officials?
The Little Emperor was no longer that pitiful Little Emperor who could be replaced or killed by anyone at any time.
People placed high hopes on him. Whether in Chang’an or Luoyang, he had won the hearts of the army and the people. Calling him a Ruler of Restoration would not be an exaggeration.
The herbal storehouse was filled with the strong bitter smell of medicinal ingredients.
Situated on higher ground, it was dry, ventilated, and had thick walls. Inside, traditional medicine cabinets stood like the bookshelves in the Tianlu Pavilion. The arrangement of these cabinets was categorized just like history books:
Roots, leaves, fruits, flowers, as well as animals and minerals…
The Monarch of Great Wei hastily changed out of his women’s clothing.
Wei Wanlan made a request to the pharmacists: Find the Twin Gu.
But the pharmacists looked at each other in dismay.
Gu worms did not belong to any category here.
A pharmacist explained: “Your Majesty, Gu worms move; they are essentially living creatures, not plants like cordyceps. If placed in the medicinal storehouse like this, the Gu worms would definitely die.”
Wei Wanlan froze, his heart clenching in a place unknown to others. Counting the time since Hao Da applied the “Soul-Stabilizing Needle,” more than twenty double-hours (40+ hours) had passed. The Regent had at most ten-plus double-hours left.
But he couldn’t transmit this anxiety to his subjects.
Even though the Regent had told him that a superior carries no fault, he felt he should occasionally learn from the Regent. With the Regent absent, he had to be a calm and composed Little Emperor.
“Little fool, from now on you have to rely on yourself.”
He was about to not have the Regent anymore…
Tears were about to well up in his eyes again.
Wei Wanlan suppressed his grief, organized his thoughts, and said again: “Then, who is in charge of Gu worms? Are there still Miao doctors in the Imperial Medical Bureau?”
The pharmacists said: “There are! There still are!”
A pharmacist hurriedly explained: “Miao doctor Bai Linyue is a senior of our Imperial Medical Bureau. He has served three generations of late emperors. However, due to his old age, he no longer gives consultations. He has no family in Chang’an and is living out his old age in the Pulse Case Room (Archives) of the Imperial Medical Bureau…”
Wei Wanlan’s eyes flickered.
An Ruyi immediately said: “Summon Bai Linyue, summon him quickly! Have him bring the Twin Gu for an audience!”
How could Wei Wanlan wait?
He stood up, his robes trailing, the brocade dragon pattern dragging on the floor.
Wei Wanlan asked for the location of the Pulse Case Room and stepped out, leaving his youthful voice echoing in the herbal storehouse: “Gentlemen medical officials continue the consultation; pharmacists continue searching here. Zhen will go see the Miao doctor personally.”
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