Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 83: Golden Juice

   Inside Chuxiu Palace, palace maids hurried in and out. Basins of clear water were carried in, only to be carried out again as basins of bloody water.

Noble Consort Hui lay face-down on the bed. Her originally smooth, jade-like back was now pitted and scarred like muddy ground after rain. Fresh blood sprouted like new shoots, continuously welling up from the wounds.

“It hurts… it hurts so much…” Noble Consort Hui reached one hand toward her back. “It itches… it itches so badly…”

“Niangniang, don’t touch it!” Zhilan was drenched in sweat beside her. “Please, don’t touch it… Ah! Physician Ye! Physician Ye, you’re finally here!”

Ye Tianshi—once a renowned doctor of Jiangnan, now a guest of honor at Hongli’s table, his reputation surpassing even that of the Imperial Medical Bureau—hurried in carrying his medicine chest.

After examining Noble Consort Hui for a moment, he turned to Hongli, who had come with him, and said: “Your Majesty, such severe burns must be cold-compressed and medicated as soon as possible. But Noble Consort Hui keeps asking whether they will leave scars. If scars remain, she refuses treatment.”

“Nonsense!” Hongli frowned. “Hold her down and apply the medicine immediately!”

Hearing this, Noble Consort Hui immediately screamed: “No! I don’t want scars! I don’t want to be left with scars, Your Majesty! I don’t want scars!”

Several palace maids stepped forward to restrain her. Noble Consort Hui writhed like a fish on a chopping block, struggling desperately and letting out continuous wails of anguish. When Physician Ye began applying the medicine, her cries grew even more pitiful and shrill.

“This smell…” Physician Ye sniffed, then suddenly stopped his hand. In shock, he said: “This is bad!”

Hongli quickly asked: “What’s wrong?”

Physician Ye’s face crumpled in distress: “Your Majesty, this smell is wrong. I’m afraid this isn’t molten iron—it’s golden juice!”

Hongli, of course, knew what “golden juice” meant. To put it plainly, it was excrement water. In warfare, when two armies clashed, boiling water was sometimes used to repel the enemy. If feces were mixed in, the enemy’s wounds would suffer repeated infections and become extremely difficult to heal.

Noble Consort Hui, already in such agony that her vision had darkened, could no longer bear it after hearing those words. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

When she slowly regained consciousness, Hongli was no longer by her side. Only Physician Ye remained, still carefully bandaging her wounds.

Noble Consort Hui desperately wished everything that had happened was just a nightmare. But the dull, throbbing pain in her back told her it was all real—her back was injured, and the wounds had been splashed with the filthiest golden juice. Her lips trembling, she asked: “How is it? Have the wounds scarred yet?”

“This…” Ye Tianshi thought to himself how this could possibly be, yet he spoke words of comfort aloud: “Your Ladyship Noble Consort, your wound was originally not large. With careful nursing for half a year, it could gradually heal completely. It’s just that…”

“Just what?” Noble Consort Hui struggled to sit up, glaring at him with a ferocious expression. “I don’t care. You must treat me. You must cure me completely — not the slightest scar can be left behind. Do you understand?”

“This… your humble servant will do his utmost…”

Ye Tianshi truly did his utmost, but half a month passed and Noble Consort Hui showed not the slightest improvement.

“Trash! Useless trash! You said to wash with light salt water to reduce inflammation, and to remove the blisters. I obeyed every single instruction! Having each blister individually popped — do you know how painful that was?! Ah?” Noble Consort Hui sat on the bed with disheveled hair. The beauty who once rivaled a peony in splendor now resembled a vengeful debt-collecting ghost. “Why hasn’t the wound scabbed over yet? Why isn’t there even the tiniest sign of healing? Speak, Ye Tianshi!”

“Your humble servant has truly done everything possible!” A corner of Ye Tianshi’s forehead was swollen blue — the result of being struck by a porcelain pillow hurled by Noble Consort Hui. He spoke with extreme difficulty: “But the molten iron was mixed with golden fluid! Golden fluid is filthy… the wound keeps becoming repeatedly infected. This servant… this servant has truly done his utmost!”

Noble Consort Hui reached again to find something to throw at him, but everything within reach had already been thrown. In the end she could only scream hysterically: “Get out! Get out! I never want to see you useless slaves again!”

Ye Tianshi said urgently: “Niangniang, you must not become angry! You must not become angry! Niangniang — what’s wrong, Niangniang?”

Noble Consort Hui swayed and collapsed softly onto the bed.

Ye Tianshi was greatly alarmed. He rushed forward to examine her for a moment, then let out a long sigh: “The wound surface is necrotic, constantly oozing yellow fluid, fever and cough, floating and rapid pulse… I cannot treat this! I cannot treat it anymore!”

Having said that, he began to pack his medicine chest to leave.

Zhilan, terrified, grabbed him desperately: “No! You cannot go! You are a divine physician — you can bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh from white bones. How can you not treat this!”

Ye Tianshi: “At most one month, at least ten days — her whole body will split open with sores and she will die. Alas, forgive my powerlessness.”

With that, he shook off Zhilan’s hand and strode away quickly.

Zhilan chased after him: “Physician Ye! Physician Ye!”

Not long after Zhilan ran out, Noble Consort Hui slowly regained consciousness, though she still felt dazed and could not open her eyes fully: “Zhilan… water…”

A cup of water was brought to her lips. Noble Consort Hui took two sips, felt it was somewhat cool, and was about to slap the person and curse them when she froze: “Why are you here?”

The one holding the cup was not Zhilan, nor any palace maid of Chuxiu Palace — it was an unexpected person — Consort Xian.

Consort Xian smiled coyishly: “Why so surprised? Noble Consort, do you not wish to see me?”

Noble Consort Hui huffed with a sneer: “Zhilan! Zhilan! Where has everyone gone!”

Consort Xian: “Noble Consort’s wound has not healed for so long. You should restrain your temper and rest quietly. How can you still be so impatient!”

Noble Consort Hui sneered: “Ulanara Shushen, rest assured — this palace will definitely recover. I will absolutely not let you have the satisfaction of watching me become a laughingstock!”

Consort Xian: “Right now your back is a vivid red expanse of rotting flesh. Even if you eventually recover, it will leave black scars. Your Ladyship Noble Consort — that was boiling, bubbling molten iron!”

Noble Consort Hui raised her hand to slap her, but unexpectedly Consort Xian moved first — she grabbed Noble Consort Hui’s hair in one swift motion, dragged her forcefully in front of the bronze mirror, and said coldly: “Gao Ningxin, take a good look at what you look like now!”

Since being injured, Noble Consort Hui had not looked in a mirror for a very long time. Now, pressed against the mirror, her gaze did not fall on herself — instead she stared fixedly at Consort Xian’s reflection in the bronze mirror, her eyes filled with hatred.

Consort Xian smiled sweetly: “Why stare at me like that? Haven’t you always relied on your beauty to look down on the entire harem? That won’t be possible anymore. From now on you can only live by relying on the Gao family’s favor… and by relying on His Majesty’s pity!”

Noble Consort Hui suddenly jolted awake: “…It was you!”

“To be precise — not only me.” Consort Xian gave a gentle laugh. “Someone used ‘Ten Thousand Purples and Thousands of Reds’ to scald your skin, intending to ruin your snow-white complexion and deal you a heavy blow. But she was too soft-hearted — she didn’t aim at your face, and didn’t even take the chance to take your life. Naturally, I had to lend her a helping hand.”

Noble Consort Hui’s eyes widened in shock: “Golden juice…”

Consort Xian let out a loud, mocking laugh, no longer bothering to conceal anything, and laid bare the entire truth: “That’s right. Even the most beautiful flower needs manure to nourish it. So I mixed excrement into the molten iron—to ‘nourish’ you, this peerlessly gorgeous peony!”

Looking at her arrogant and vicious expression, Noble Consort Hui trembled with rage from head to toe: “Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell His Majesty everything?”

“Do you think His Majesty will believe you, or believe me?” Consort Xian smiled. “Don’t forget—I am the one who saved His Majesty. If you dare accuse me, His Majesty will surely despise you completely. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and try. But… do you still have the time?”

With that, she released her fingers. Noble Consort Hui dropped to the ground like a torn rag, like a sack of garbage, discarded carelessly. Then Consort Xian turned and strode away.

“His Majesty won’t believe you…” Noble Consort Hui wailed hoarsely behind her like a bereaved dog. “His Majesty won’t believe you!”

Is that really so?

Consort Xian glanced back with a smile.

A night breeze carried faint fragrance into the Shui Hall; a single moonbeam peeked at the people below. That night, Hongli spent it in her Chengqian Palace.

The candle flames flickered. Hongli gently removed her outer garments, revealing half of her right shoulder that had been scalded. Though medicine had been applied, a scar still remained—though it was gradually fading and would likely disappear completely in time.

Hongli touched the wound with some heartache and asked, “It’s also a burn, yet Noble Consort Hui screamed as if she wanted the whole world to hear. How is it that you didn’t make a sound? Does it really not hurt?”

Consort Xian smiled slightly. “It hurts. I am also made of flesh and blood—how could it not hurt? But whenever I think that this injury did not fall on Your Majesty’s body, my heart feels comforted. No matter how much it hurts, I no longer mind.”

Hongli was stunned. The gaze he directed at her grew even more tender. At that moment a palace maid came in from outside carrying medicinal ointment. Hongli took it casually and said, “Let me apply the medicine for you.”

Consort Xian shyly consented. The two sat close together like newlyweds, red candles burning brightly beside them, dripping until dawn.

Gazing at her gentle profile, Hongli couldn’t help calling her by her childhood name: “Shushen—”

“Your Majesty.” Consort Xian lowered her head even further, her cheeks flushed as if stained by the candlelight. “It has been many years since you last called me that.”

Hongli embraced her lovingly. “I have neglected you for too long. Yet in the moment of greatest danger, you were the first to throw yourself forward to protect me—even though you clearly knew that I am fully capable of protecting myself and did not need you to risk your life or sacrifice yourself.”

“Yes, I know Your Majesty has the power to protect yourself.” Consort Xian leaned against his chest and said softly, “But in that kind of situation, I simply had no time to think. In the future, this concubine will remember to protect herself first, so as not to make Your Majesty worry.”

Hongli sighed, lowered his head, and kissed her hair.

He did not notice the cold, faint curve that rose at the corner of Consort Xian’s lips.

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