154

When the news of the Imperial Decree withdrawal came, Song Qinghan finally heaved a sigh of great relief, yet the next moment he got tense again.

He took out a pack with several pieces of silver coins within, and stuffed it into the hands of the eunuch who came over to announce, he whispered, “How… about Infanta Hening?”

The eunuch didn’t intend to say anything at first, but at the moment he measured the weight of the pack in his hands a bright smile emerged on his face, and then he said leisurely, “Lord, you don’t have to worry about him, His Highness Hening will head to marry the barbarian king for the peace of the country. He will never ever be a threat to you again, Lord.”

Song Qinghan stood dumbfounded there as if he was struck by lightning, and then he murmured, “Is that true? Did he make that decision by his own or…?”

Noticing that Song Qinghan got a reaction beyond his imagination, the eunuch didn’t bother to say something further but just left with a bright smile.

The atmosphere in the palace became better since Infanta Hening was about to marry for the peace. The Imperial Noble Consort and the Fifth Prince generously awarded every servant. Well, as for those court servants, including the eunuchs, it was just too wonderful for words.

The image of Hening who was always with a causal indifferent face emerged in Wu Dahu’s mind as he saw that Song Qinghan was rather self-guilty there, and then whispered softly, “It’s a truth that he made everything wrong at the very beginning, but at the same time we have to admit that we owe him once for the fact that he finally gave in in this matter, otherwise, probably we have to bear the bitterness ourselves in the end.”

Something flashed in Song Qinghan’s mind and he cried out, “Will he do something silly?”

Well, Song Qinghan would ask so because he knew Hening wouldn’t just give in so easily and show no strive for a chance if he still got a hope and lust for a better life. Promising so directly to accept the deal probably was because that he had already nursed a determination to kill himself. Moreover, he did tend to make a suicide before!

With that consideration, Song Qinghan rushed out directly. Wu Dahu didn’t even have to guess and he knew Song Qinghan’s final direction.

When Song Qinghan arrived at the Hening’s mansion, he found that this place had totally changed. Differed from the scene days ago which came with an ambience full of peacefulness like a fictitious land of peace away from the turmoil of the world, the current mansion was bleak and cold.

In the center of its yard stood the lonely Hening, seemingly he was doing something there. Song Qinghan fixed his gaze on him, and found that Hening was releasing the captive birds in the birdcage back to the wild.

For some reason, even Hening released all them out, but those birds were just acting like they knew nothing while making circles around Hening and didn’t want to leave at all.

Hening smiled when he noticed Song Qinghan’s appearance, and then he said softly, “See? Animals do have emotions, they know me as their master.”

Song Qinghan didn’t waste time with him and asked directly, “What’s wrong with you? Are you planning another suicide again?”

Hening raised his eyebrows showing astonishment while saying, “What’s the relation between me packing my package and ‘another suicide’?”

Seeing that Hening was serious by saying so, Song Qinghan paused, and then asked dubiously, “Is it really your decision to marry for the peace of the country?”

“I heard that it’s fun for the barbarians to eat human flesh and get their husband changed frequently. Do you think I’ll be good?”

He answered very quickly and his tone was as calm as ever, as if he was talking about something small.

“What’s more,” he thought for a moment and then added, “The barbarians have long been collecting and storing their food for the upcoming war. And once the war is triggered, he who goes for the marriage will be threatened to bear the brunt, if not, why would the Fifth Prince be so resistant?”

Song Qinghan had never known about these facts before. When he was informed about them by Hening, he immediately came to have a deeper understanding of the danger of getting married to the country peace. A hint of worry flashed across his eyes and he subconsciously said, “Since everything hasn’t come to its worst side yet, you don’t have to make such a bad decision yourself. Let’s wait and see, and get some other ideas…”

“No need. Life and death are up to the fate. We can’t force it or try to alter it.”

Hening suddenly threw the birds in his hands into the air. He smiled happily when he witnessed these long-imprisoned birds flew high and disappeared in the sky.

Song Qinghan walked out of Hening’s mansion with full of worries. Being absent-minded without recognizing the route, he arrived at Huichun Shop.

Luo Haiyun was surprised when he saw Song Qinghan’s appearance. He took the initiative to greet him and asked with concern, “What’s wrong? It’s your duty today to visit patients?”

Reminded by Luo Haiyun’s words, Song Qinghan realized that since he promised the Huichun Shop about the duty thing, he had not followed what he had promised before. He didn’t get a chance to visit any patients with Luo Haiyun ever and to find any possibilities to combine traditional medicine and Western medicine.

Therefore, he agreed decisively, “Alright, where are we heading to today?”

Seeing that Song Qinghan said so on a whim, Luo Haiyun suddenly got a trace of strangeness in his eyes, but he didn’t bother to ask further. He ordered the servant to prepare the carriage and explained after they settled on the carriage with Yuan Wenxuan, “A large scale of cold symptom cases burst out in a village in the suburban area. Those who got severe symptoms died already and meanwhile the rest of them are now suffering from the unknown disease. I have never heard that there existed any cases being cured successfully.”

Song Qinghan nodded solemnly and motioned to Yuan Wenxuan.

Yuan Wenxuan took out three clean ‘masks’ and three rough ‘gloves’ from his bag.

Since the last case of combating the small pox, Yuan Wenxuan had already developed a habit to carry those stuff with him in case they required at any time. And as for the ‘manufacturer’ of these delicate-made medical armors, Hualian should be the one who was practical and capable of doing so.

Luo Haiyun took the gloves and mask in surprise, and put them on with him imitating the action of Song Qinghan and Yuan Wenxuan. After he realized the functions of them, he suddenly praised, “What a genius creation!”

Song Qinghan analyzed Luo Haiyun’s words about the disease carefully in his mind, and then he frowned and said, “You said that the serious cases had already died away, so how serious it is? Are you sure that it is just the same symptom with the normal cold? Besides these symptoms, have you detected the other abnormalities? Like the adjoint stomachache and headache?”

Seeing how detailed Song Qinghan was, Luo Haiyun paused for a moment and said hesitantly, “It should be similar to normal symptoms of a cold, because the medicine that the doctor prescribed before was the normal ones to treat the cold. As for the rest of the disease, I haven’t heard of any yet.”

Song Qinghan glanced at him and didn’t say anything to correct him.

It was Yuan Wenxuan who quietly reminded Luo Haiyun, “If you’re not sure about the fact, you’d better not draw a conclusion with confidence, otherwise false consideration might lead your future judgement to the wrong direction…”

Luo Haiyun was stunned. After he reacted, he smiled and shook his head, “Sorry for my stupidness, just forget about my self-righteous conclusion.”

Seeing that Luo Haiyun didn’t seem to care about what he said, Yuan Wenxuan nodded and leaned back with the bag in his arms, seemingly intending to close his eyes for a short nap.

Looking at Yuan Wenxuan’s experienced reaction, Song Qinghan got a sudden idea in his mind, and then he ordered directly, “Wenxuan, you will be responsible for any operation today, and I will be your assistant. And, it falls to you today to make diagnosis for the disease, of course, you can negotiate with Doctor Luo if you wish while in the process.”

He knew that Yuan Wenxuan learned very quickly. Although the child was still a little slow on operating, this kind of thing could be honed out. That was why he made such a decision.

Yuan Wenxuan’s heart tightened, he subconsciously opened his eyes, straightened up, and said with a stern expression, “Yes, Master!”

Though he answered decisively, he still had a lot of concerns in his mind. He didn’t even dare to sleep but stared at the top of the carriage roof, zoning out.

Luo Haiyun secretly praised in his mind, conceiving of a scenario himself that he would accept a disciple one day as well. He didn’t expect his future disciple to compete with Yuan Wenxuan. As long as he could be half as sensible as Yuan Wenxuan, he would be grateful.

The journey was not too close. He saw that Song Qinghan seemed to have a hint of worry between his brows, so he came to ask subconsciously, “Why still the long face since Hening had already given in bothering you and Dahu? And by the way, Dahu was successfully assigned with a decent duty. You still got something troublesome?”

Song Qinghan came back to his senses and suddenly remembered what happened in the palace that day. Now he recognized why the Emperor succeeded remembering him, it should be the credit of Luo Haiyun! So he made a slight bow with both hands clasped in front, saying, “Brother Luo, I should thank you for the fact you helped us getting out of the trouble that day. Thanks to you, everything is settled smoothly down now. But I’m still a bit of unease. Hening is innocent after all, and I and Wu Dahu should bear the responsibility for it, more or less.”

Hearing that, Luo Haiyun didn’t make a sound.

His identity was not that kind of ordinary, so he had already acquire some information about the things in the palace himself in advance. He knew that Hening’s whole life was indeed misery, yet no one should be responsible for his life since it was he himself asked for the troubles this time.

Song Qinghan sighed faintly and murmured himself, “It would be better if we can send Hening to the targeted place and ensure that he won’t do something silly.”

In fact, he didn’t believe the rumors about the barbarians who were so uncivilized with customs of ‘eating human flesh’ and ‘changing husbands’, and so on. Even if such uncivilized actions did exist, they wouldn’t be popular among the majority.

In addition, Hening got an extreme personality himself. Even Song Qinghan tried to convince Hening by these facts, probably Hening would never give a credence at all. He would still do something silly and kill himself on the journey heading to the world of barbarians.

If he were to escort Hening over, he would at least be able to guarantee that he would not do anything stupid along the way. And as soon as they reached the land of the barbarians and found that they were indeed some uncivilized people as they imagined, he could conceive of any possible means to assist Hening to escape other than being disrespectful to his own life.

Seeing that Song Qinghan was serious about this matter, Luo Haiyun pondered for a while and said slowly, “What I am going to say isn’t out of my original intention, but I can see that you are quite sincere to Hening.”

He paused and noticed that Song Qinghan was looking at him with a confused expression, then he continued to say, “The escort team for the state ‘minority-pacifying’ marriage usually consists of the army and the imperial guards as a united form. That means, if Wu Dahu requires so, it’s possible for you to join in the escort team. Yet, I should still remind you seriously that the lands of the minority nationalities are full of various dangers. You should think it twice before making a decision.”

A flash of surprise flashed across Song Qinghan’s eyes, followed by excitement. He asked excitedly with his eyes lit up with hope, “Really? It seems that the Buddha is helping Hening!”

He seemed to have let go of a big stone in his heart as he relaxed.

He wasn’t afraid of the danger at all but the fact that he would get a trouble going over this matter for his whole life if he did not do anything to help Hening. In addition, he always believed that as long as Wu Dahu was beside him, he would be strong in mind. Just like the fact that they overcame the difficulties to get the snow lotus before, nothing was going to defeat them as they stayed together.

Luo Haiyun seemed to want to say something more, but now Song Qinghan was just hyper-excited. He pondered for another brief moment and decided to keep his silence instead.

Any words to ruin excitement, they suck!

Not long after they set off, they finally arrived at the village Luo Haiyun mentioned.