Ji Zizhao helped the Fourth Prince lie down on the bed, then turned to fetch the medicine box.
The Fourth Prince on the bed breathed softly, his aura weak.
He lay there peacefully, as if vanishing with time.
In the short time it took Ji Zizhao to turn and grab the medicine box, when she looked back, a thin layer of frost had already covered his long eyelashes.
An ominous premonition arose. Ji Zizhao furrowed her brow and began to unbutton his robe. As his firm, taut abs were revealed under the candlelight, the ice shards congealing on his abdomen were equally striking.
At the same time, the Fourth Prince's exhaled breaths carried wisps of white mist.
Ji Zizhao was no stranger to such symptoms.
Gu poison.
Indeed, as Ji Zizhao reached for the Fourth Prince's bone-chillingly cold wrist, she could clearly feel something growing and rapidly developing beneath the pulse.
The same butterfly gu, but in a different location.
Ji Zizhao had no time to think. She opened the medicine box, took out a hemostatic powder, chewed it, and then leaned down to feed it into the Fourth Prince's mouth.
The temperature of his lips and teeth was not much higher than the frost congealing on his chest.
Even though Ji Zizhao had been prepared, she still trembled uncontrollably from the cold.
Once she felt him instinctively swallow all the medicinal powder, Ji Zizhao took a surgical knife, specially crafted, from the medicine box.
Although not as sharp and convenient as she remembered, it was still much faster than ordinary knives.
She sealed the acupoints with silver needles, forcing the gu hidden in his blood to the wrist. Then, she tightly constricted the wrist with a white cloth. When the skin visibly began to turn pale, Ji Zizhao finally cut through the skin with the knife.
The wrist was connected to an artery; a single mistake could be fatal.
Time ticked by. It wasn't until the town clock struck the hour that Ji Zizhao finally placed the extracted gu into a sealed jar and carefully stitched and bandaged the Fourth Prince's wrist wound.
After tidying everything up, Ji Zizhao collapsed onto the bed, exhausted.
Seeing the white frost gradually receding from the Fourth Prince's eyelashes and his breathing slowly recovering its warmth, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
This gu was similar to the butterfly gu, yet not entirely the same.
The butterfly gu required a very strict time limit for the poison to mature.
It had to be introduced into the body between the ages of four and seven to ensure its growth.
And while this gu was indeed a butterfly gu, at the Fourth Prince's age, a normal constitution would not allow the butterfly gu to survive and grow within the body.
Unless he had been infected with the butterfly gu before, the new gu would be rapidly nurtured to maturity upon entering his body and directly cause poisoning.
Although Ji Zizhao didn't know what had happened to the Fourth Prince, it was clear that someone was testing him.
Otherwise, why would they continue to implant the butterfly gu into him?
However, the poisoner was likely not a mere mortal.
Butterfly gu worms were difficult to find and even harder to cultivate.
Gu books recorded that possessing even one butterfly gu required ten thousand taels of gold, let alone two.
Looking at the Fourth Prince's beautiful sleeping face on the bed, Ji Zizhao was deeply unsettled.
The Imperial City was indeed not lacking in noble families and high officials, but few could afford twenty thousand taels of gold, nor possess the necessary channels and connections.
When these individuals were filtered out, the answer became apparent.
But this answer was something even Ji Zizhao dared not believe.
She checked the Fourth Prince's pulse again and, seeing that it was still stable, leaned against the bed and closed her eyes wearily. As her consciousness blurred, Ji Zizhao felt herself slide off the bed and onto the ground, only to fall asleep again instantly.
The moment Xie Jinglan regained consciousness, he smelled a faint medicinal aroma wafting towards him.
Frowning, he opened his eyes, finding himself in an unfamiliar environment.
Fortunately, Xie Jinglan had only been poisoned, not drunk, so his memory was intact.
Indeed, as he lowered his gaze, he saw the familiar face...
And the person sleeping soundly on top of him.
He hadn't expected her to save him again.
In fact, when he came here, there had been a significant element of gambling, but he hadn't expected to win.
Whether it was for his sake or due to the current coexistence of the Ji family and himself, she had saved him again, and still without asking any questions.
Looking at her sleeping face, his breath hitched, and he quickly averted his gaze.
As he surveyed the unfamiliar room, his thoughts gradually grew heavy and cold.
He had known for a long time that person harbored suspicions about him. Even after he had removed the butterfly gu from his body before that person's test, that person had still found the same butterfly gu to make him consume.
Xie Jinglan smiled silently. Did they really not tolerate him that much?
However, that person's suspicion was correct; he was indeed not what the world saw him to be.
And...
This disguise would probably not last much longer.
A cool, small hand reached into his sleeve, and his plump fingertip accurately pressed against his wrist pulse.
Xie Jinglan snapped back to attention, seeing that the person who had been leaning on him had silently sat up.
Their eyes met. Xie Jinglan offered an apologetic smile, "Did I wake you?"
After carefully examining his pulse, Ji Zizhao withdrew her hand and said, "Your Highness, are you so sure that I would come to your aid?"
With his martial arts and internal energy, if he hadn't willingly ingested the poisoned gu, who could force him?
Ji Zizhao could not ask for reasons, but she still had to voice her displeasure.
She was a doctor, but that was no reason for him to put himself in danger.
Xie Jinglan's gaze softened, his dark eyes seeming to twinkle with countless stars. "Did you not save me already?"
Ji Zizhao: "..."
She wondered if it was too late to put the gu back.
Seeing her anger, Xie Jinglan's chest rose and fell, and he chuckled softly. "Coming to disturb you in the middle of the night means I was at my wit's end. No matter why Miss Ji of the Ji family chose to save me, I owe you this favor. If there is an opportunity, I will repay it tenfold. I hope Miss Ji will not be angry anymore. If you truly fall ill from anger, I am utterly ignorant of medicine."
Ji Zizhao was stunned for a moment, then realized she was indeed angry.
The main thing was that after agonizing for a long time, she couldn't find any reason to be angry.
When she looked up again, she saw Xie Jinglan had propped up a pillow and was leaning on the bed, gently gazing at her. "Are you still angry?"
"Why should I be angry?" Ji Zizhao asked inexplicably. But then she realized her tone still carried a hint of fury. She froze on the spot, her half-open mouth forgotten.
Seeing this, Xie Jinglan's smile deepened.
However, noticing Ji Zizhao's increasingly gloomy expression, Xie Jinglan quickly decided to stop while he was ahead.
He was still a patient. It would be too pathetic to be kicked out at this point.