The Splendid Brocade of the Painting Physician – Chapter 97

Chapter 97: My Prince Also Has an Illness

After leaving the pleasure boat, Gao Changgong’s lips were constantly upturned, making Lu Yu, who was standing beside him, curious and dumbfounded.

“The Prince seems to be in a good mood today. Could it be that the Young Lady gave the Prince some kind of benefit?”

Lu Yu asked tentatively. He knew that when the Prince was in a good mood, he was usually not stingy with a few more words.

“You could say that! A promise is enough!”

“Oh, what promise is that?”

Lu Yu pressed on, but when he looked up, he found that his Prince’s expression had changed, and he was looking at him with a contemptuous and fierce gaze.

“Prince, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have spoken out of turn!”

He immediately admitted his mistake, then said with a grin, “I suddenly remembered something and need to ask the Young Lady. Prince, I’ll go first!”

After saying that, he ran into the pleasure boat like a wisp of smoke.

At that moment, inside the pleasure boat, Xiao Jinyu was also asking Lady Wei:

“You seem to be very afraid of this Prince of Lanling?”

“Oh my, Young Lady, you haven’t seen what kind of person he is. He’s from the Northern Qi Gao family. What kind of people are the Gaos? Debauched, cruel, insane… Their ruler, Gao Zhan, spends all day playing with women…”

“But he is the Prince of Lanling, with a reputation for virtue,” Xiao Jinyu interrupted.

“So what if he has a good reputation? That’s just what other people say. Let me tell you, yesterday he called me to his embassy for no reason and forced me to drink tea for an hour. In the end, he even had two guards escort me out the back door… This kind of thing, isn’t something a normal person would do?”

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a voice say sinisterly:

“Lady Wei! You dare to gossip behind my Prince’s back? Do you not want to live anymore?”

Lady Wei looked back and saw that the speaker was Lu Yu. She quickly apologized with a smile, “I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare. I only said this to the Young Lady. If anyone else asks, I won’t say anything. I’ll say what you told me to say!”

“Good to know. If you dare to speak a word to anyone else, you won’t have a good time!”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

After saying that several times, Lady Wei quickly covered her mouth and ran out.

Lu Yu ran back to Xiao Jinyu with a grin and sat down very consciously.

“Young Lady, don’t listen to her nonsense. Our Prince is not like what she said. Even if the Gao family’s reputation is not very good, our Prince is a famous good person in the Gao family. Usually in the military camp, the Prince treats all of us soldiers as brothers, sharing fruits and treating us like family. Otherwise, why would I, Lu Yu, follow him with unwavering loyalty!”

Xiao Jinyu nodded, “I know. It was my fault that this matter was originally helped by your Prince, but it damaged his reputation.”

“That’s not what I meant, Young Lady. Our Prince does not blame you. He is happy to help!”

Seeing Xiao Jinyu’s slightly stunned expression, Lu Yu explained, “I mean, our Prince is very happy to help the Young Lady. However, there is something I also want to ask the Young Lady to help our Prince with.”

“What is it?”

Lu Yu paused for a moment, then leaned closer and whispered:

“I heard that Xiao Yun has suffered from a psychological illness since the Elegant Poetry Pavilion incident that day. He has lost interest in women. To be honest, our Prince seems to have a little bit of that too…”

Before Xiao Jinyu could be surprised, Lu Yu quickly explained:

“However, it’s not the same as Xiao Yun’s. It’s because… When our Prince was ten years old, he went to see his uncle, Emperor Wenxuan, but he saw the Emperor holding the body of a beautiful woman in the main hall, singing and dancing. Later, the Emperor dismembered the beauty in front of everyone and made a pipa out of her thigh bone, playing and singing every day.

Our Prince was terrified when he saw this and never dared to enter the palace again. He volunteered to go to the military camp and stayed there for seven or eight years. Later, Gao Yan succeeded to the throne and granted him the title of Prince of Lanling. He even rewarded him with beautiful women, but he was not interested.

And Empress Hu…”

At this point, Lu Yu suddenly stopped talking and looked at Xiao Jinyu’s calm and expressionless face. He then said,

“You should have also heard about our Prince’s background. Everyone says that his mother was a lowly concubine who couldn’t be seen in public. But the Prince himself doesn’t believe it. He said that he had seen his mother when he was very young. He just can’t remember what his mother looked like, but she was definitely not a concubine like Consort Xue…

Uh, Consort Xue is the beauty I just mentioned who was killed by Emperor Wenxuan and whose bones were made into a pipa.”

At this point, Lu Yu looked at Xiao Jinyu’s expression again and asked:

“Young Lady, after I’ve said so much, can you understand what I mean?”

Xiao Jinyu just nodded.

“I roughly understand. However, being virtuous and self-respecting is a good thing!”

✿✿✿

Lu Yu was stunned. He felt like he had been talking for a long time and had said nothing!

She didn’t understand at all!

“No, this has nothing to do with being virtuous and self-respecting. Young Lady, you are a divine physician. Don’t you think this is also a kind of psychological illness? As a normal man, it’s not right to not have any desire in your heart, right?”

After a pause, he changed the subject, “But our Prince seems to be different towards you, Young Lady. He is willing to approach you…”

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly heard a sneer from beside him:

“If I were your Prince, I would tear your mouth apart!”

Lu Yu jumped up in shock and looked towards the sound. He saw Fenghuang sitting by the window, where the beaded curtain was half-rolled up, looking at him mockingly.

“You boy, you’re so young, how can you learn to eavesdrop?” He pointed at Fenghuang and shouted angrily.

Fenghuang didn’t care and didn’t look at him, just showing a look of contempt and smugness.

“You better get out of here quickly, or your Prince might skin you and make you into a pipa!”

Lu Yu was about to retort, but his eyes glanced over and saw that the Prince of Lanling was standing by the door at some point, staring at him coldly. His deep eyes flashed with anger.

He looked like he wanted to eat him alive!

✿✿✿

“Prince, Prince, don’t sell me out. I said and did this for your own good. The Young Lady is kind and knows how to repay kindness. You have helped her, and after she hears about your situation, she will definitely feel pity and repay you in the future!”

The Prince of Lanling stopped abruptly, his eyes like lightning, striking Lu Yu with chills!

“Do I need pity?”

Lu Yu lowered his head, not daring to look anymore.

“Yes, the Prince doesn’t need it!”

“What you’re doing is taking advantage of a favor. If I help her and save her in order to ask for her repayment in the future, then I’m no different from those villains who have hurt her before!” After a pause, he added, “Besides, she has saved me before!”

Lu Yu didn’t know when Xiao Jinyu had saved his Prince, but he just nodded:

“Yes, the Prince is right! I won’t speak out of turn again!”

Gao Changgong looked back at the pleasure boat again. He could vaguely see a white figure sitting upright beneath the swaying beaded curtain in the secluded corner. She was still so calm and composed, as if what Lu Yu had just said didn’t cause any ripples in her heart.

It seemed that she also felt his gaze, and Xiao Jinyu suddenly raised her long eyelashes, her clear eyes, like obsidian, quietly looking at him.

She looked at him and smiled slightly.

Although he couldn’t see her face or expression clearly, the Prince of Lanling seemed to feel her smile. This smile made the chills in his heart disappear, and he was instantly filled with warmth.

His anger melted away, and Gao Changgong couldn’t help but smile.

“Let’s go!” He ordered Lu Yu.

Lu Yu responded with a grin, but when he looked up, he found that they couldn’t leave at all!

✿✿✿

The Prince of Lanling didn’t notice at all that when he smiled slightly, his smile was like the thawing of a frozen river, like the setting sun piercing the sea. All things in heaven and earth lost their color.

All the nuns were mesmerized. After a burst of cheers and excitement, there was a silence that made people hold their breath!

Standing on the pleasure boat, facing the wind and smiling slightly, he had become the focus of everyone’s attention.

For a time, the entire bank of the Qinhuai River was empty!

“This Gao Changgong, why is he showing off so much? He used to wear a veil so people couldn’t see him, and now he’s afraid that people won’t know he’s here?”

Yuwen Hui, who was standing on the bank of the Qinhuai River and being jostled by the nuns, couldn’t help but sneer.

Lu Yu: There’s a kind of illness called ‘I think he’s sick.’

Xiao Jinyu: Besides summarizing six points, I don’t know what to say…