Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 58: Bitterness and Sweetness

   Several days later—

“Where is that lowly maid?”

Ye Tianshi was in the middle of packing up the medical case on the table. Hearing this, he turned around. “Your Majesty, are you referring to Yingluo?”

“Who else could it be besides her?” From behind the bed curtains came the shadowy outline of a figure, speaking in a voice as cold as frost. “Summon her here. I want to personally skin her alive!”

The Empress sat on the edge of the bed, holding a porcelain bowl filled with brownish medicinal decoction. The liquid was still a little hot, so she kept stirring it with the spoon to cool it down. At his words, she looked up and smiled. “Your Majesty, Yingluo only spoke recklessly because she wanted to cure your illness. Now that you have cleared the bloody phlegm and your spirit has greatly improved, in this consort’s view, Yingluo is not only blameless—she has rendered a great service.”

“…What kind of bewitching potion did that stinking girl pour into your ears that you would believe her words like this?” Hongli said coldly. “In Our opinion, if those words hadn’t already been buried deep in her heart, how could she have spoken them so fluently? She clearly used the pretext of treating Our illness as an opportunity to vent her anger and take revenge!”

The Empress sighed. “Even if Your Majesty wants to settle accounts with someone now, I’m afraid it’s no longer possible.”

Hongli suddenly fell silent. The bed curtains hid his expression, leaving only the gaunt, illness-wasted silhouette of his profile projected onto the fabric. After a long pause, he finally spoke. “…Why?”

“As soon as Yingluo returned, she developed a high fever and broke out in large red rashes all over her body. Physician Ye said she caught the illness while caring for Your Majesty and could no longer hold on—she has collapsed.” The Empress reached out and lifted the curtain in front of her. “Even if Yingluo has ten thousand faults, considering how attentively she served you and how she contracted this serious disease in the process, Your Majesty really shouldn’t blame her for a momentary slip of the tongue! Otherwise, in the future, who would still be willing to exhaust themselves and risk everything to serve you?”

From behind the curtain emerged Hongli’s pensive face. He suddenly turned toward the Empress and gave her a dark, chilling smile. “Very well. I will not blame her. Not only will I not blame her—I will reward her handsomely…”

In a side chamber of Yangxin Hall, several palace maids arrived bearing Hongli’s bestowed gifts.

“This… this is…” Wei Yingluo was half-propped up in bed. When she saw the bowl of black medicinal soup being carried toward her, the corner of her eye twitched uncontrollably.

“Yingluo, this is the medicine His Majesty specially instructed Physician Ye to prescribe for you. Please take your medicine quickly!” One palace maid stepped to the bedside, helped her sit up, while another brought the spoon filled with the medicine to her lips.

When it is bestowed by the Emperor, how can one refuse?

   Wei Yingluo had no choice but to drink a mouthful extremely unwillingly. The result was immediate—she spat it all back out with a loud “wah,” coughing violently for a long time with one hand clutching her throat before she finally managed, in horror, to ask, “W-why is it so bitter? What on earth did you put in this?”

The palace maid answered honestly, “Coptis root.”

Wei Yingluo immediately sensed something was wrong. “But the medicine Physician Ye prescribed for His Majesty didn’t contain any coptis!”

Palace maid: “His Majesty’s portion doesn’t have it, but the prescription Physician Ye wrote for you absolutely must include it.”

Wei Yingluo said in astonishment: “Why?”

“Special instruction passed down from His Majesty.” The palace maid’s face remained expressionless, yet Wei Yingluo felt as though she could see a petty, calculating expression behind those words. “Coptis root clears heat, dries dampness, purges fire, and resolves toxins!”

“…Is it possible not to drink it?” Wei Yingluo stared in dread at the large, brimming bowl of coptis soup.

“Serving Yingluo her medicine.” The palace maid answered with action rather than words.

At the same moment, inside the sleeping chamber of Yangxin Hall.

   Ye Tianshi attended beside Hongli, holding a similar medicine bowl in his hand. The liquid inside looked almost identical—except for the conspicuous absence of coptis.

Even so, Hongli drank with his brows tightly furrowed. As if to lessen his own suffering, he spoke up: “Physician Ye, has that girl taken her medicine yet?”

His temper really flared up quickly and faded just as fast. That morning she had been “that lowly maid,” and by evening she had become “that girl.” Who knew what she would be called tomorrow. With this thought in mind, Ye Tianshi replied aloud: “With His Majesty’s verbal decree, of course she must drink it. However, this humble subject doesn’t understand—why did you insist on making her take coptis?”

Hongli scoffed with a sneer. “That girl is full of cunning tricks—enough malice to ooze poison. Coptis purges fire and resolves toxins; it suits her perfectly! What other symptom-relieving Chinese medicine is the most bitter?”

When he threw a tantrum, even the Son of Heaven became like any ordinary man—a petty, vindictive one at that. Ye Tianshi could only adopt the attitude of “better a fellow Daoist die than a poor one” and cautiously reply: “Among the most bitter medicines, coptis, akebia, gentian root—all are unbearably bitter. The absolute worst is sophora flavescent (Ku Shen)—”

Hongli waved his hand dismissively. “Then starting today, three doses a day, each with a different kind of bitter medicine, rotating the varieties to make her drink them! If she refuses, force it down her throat! Good medicine is bitter to the taste but beneficial for the illness. I am doing this for the sake of saving my benefactor’s life. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Ye Tianshi replied.

“Hehehehe…” Perhaps picturing the pitiful sight of her gagging and spitting while drinking, Hongli’s mood suddenly improved dramatically. When the medicine bowl was brought to his lips again, he no longer minded the taste; he drank it all down with a beaming smile.

Seeing this, Ye Tianshi’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t dare say a word.

Yet receiving this assignment from Hongli wasn’t entirely a bad thing—at the very least, he no longer needed to rack his brains for excuses or reasons to visit Wei Yingluo.

After leaving Yangxin Hall, he carried his medicine chest and hurried without pause to the side hall’s ear chamber.

The palace servants had already received word; no one obstructed him along the way. He strode boldly through the door, closed it behind him with a backward push, and addressed the figure lying on the bed: “Ms. Wei, it’s me!”

Wei Yingluo, who had been barely breathing and looking on the verge of death from illness, suddenly sprang up like a startled rabbit the moment she heard his voice. Her face full of complaint: “Physician Ye, can you please stop adding coptis? It’s way too bitter!”

“That’s not up to me—it’s an order from above.” Ye Tianshi pointed upward, hinting that this was a direct imperial command. Then he opened his medicine chest, rummaged inside, and pulled out a small medicine bottle. “Sulfur ointment treats scabies—it’s not the right medicine for this. Let’s switch to this one instead!”

After a brief pause, he tentatively asked: “Yingluo, there’s something I don’t understand…”

Wei Yingluo took the bottle with both hands. “Ask away.”

“You’ve known since childhood that you’re severely allergic to peanuts—why deliberately consume them to trigger such a widespread rash? And on top of that, you even asked me to forge medical records claiming it was scabies…” Ye Tianshi asked. Recalling Hongli’s behavior, a vague answer was already forming in his mind.

There was nothing difficult about answering this; in fact, it was better to give him the truth so he wouldn’t start imagining things on his own.

“…I deliberately provoked His Majesty. The moment he came to his senses, the first person he would come after to settle scores would be me. But if I’m ‘sick,’ even if he’s furious enough to smoke from all seven orifices, he can’t very well punish me anymore.” Wei Yingluo smiled coyishly; her face carried the sickly pallor of illness. “After all, everyone knows I caught this illness while attending to His Majesty.”

Ye Tianshi was slightly surprised, but upon reflection he found it completely logical. He nodded in genuine admiration. “Yingluo you are intelligent, loyal, and righteous—few others could come close. Rest assured, this humble physician will do everything possible to cover for you. I won’t let even the slightest flaw show!”

Wei Yingluo smiled but said nothing.

Only after Ye Tianshi had left did she murmur to herself: “Loyal and righteous? I’m just taking the chance to vent the anger in my heart. Who told him to treat the Empress like that…”

Like a lotus blooming unsullied from the mud, the Empress’s character stood out in the palace as truly spotless and pure. Wei Yingluo liked her very much; sometimes she couldn’t help but compare the Empress to her own sister, only to conclude… the two were remarkably alike, both in their moral integrity and in the gentle, caring way they looked after her…

Wei Yingluo had been willing to enter the palace alone for the sake of her sister, and she was equally willing to berate Hongli to his face for the sake of the Empress.

“Scolding him felt good in the moment, but the days ahead are going to be rough…” She let out a soft sigh, yet she felt no regret. There was no one attending her now, and she didn’t dare let anyone near. She uncorked the small bottle, scooped some ointment onto her fingers, and with difficulty applied it to the places she could reach. Then she blew out the candle and lay down to sleep.

The pain was unbearable. Wei Yingluo shifted uncomfortably, and the areas she couldn’t reach—the spots still untreated—itched and burned fiercely.

…Who is it?

Wei Yingluo didn’t open her eyes. She continued to pretend to be asleep.

A cool hand settled gently on her forehead, quietly checking her temperature for a long moment before withdrawing.

Then came the soft sound of a bottle being uncorked. The hand returned to her skin, carrying the faint, fresh scent of the ointment. The movements were light and slow—along the backs of her arms, the nape of her neck, the curve of her shoulders… precisely those places she couldn’t reach herself. He applied the medicine with care, yet never once overstepped. He avoided entirely the areas a man should not touch—her back, her waist—even though she was “asleep,” even though she would not have blamed him even if she had been awake.

Yes, this was unmistakably a man’s hand.

The hand of a man she knew.

The bottle was recapped. The room fell silent once more.

Wei Yingluo kept her eyes closed. Her body felt much more comfortable now, but her heart was both itchy and numb. She didn’t know whether she should open her eyes at this moment, whether she should look at him and give him a smile.

Yet she was also afraid he would flee in panic, as he always did.

Until a tender kiss landed on her eyelashes—like a dragonfly skimming the water’s surface, like a fierce tiger gently sniffing a rose.

Wei Yingluo had to exert all her self-control to keep her lashes from trembling the way her heart was—fluttering wildly out of rhythm.

Only when the soft sound of the door closing reached her ears did she finally open her eyes. She let out a quiet sigh and raised her hand to cover the eyelashes he had kissed.

“…This illness,” she murmured into the pitch-black night, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curving upward, “isn’t entirely a bad thing.”

Illness comes like an avalanche, but recovery is slow as silk being drawn from a cocoon. On the tenth day of taking Ye Tianshi’s decoction, in the Imperial Guard station, Fuheng was leafing through a military treatise when a pair of hands suddenly reached from behind and covered his eyes.

“Yingluo, why are you here?” Fuheng let her keep his eyes covered, instantly recognizing her by touch alone. He smiled and asked, “Has your illness fully recovered?”

“How did you know it was me?” Wei Yingluo lowered her hands and moved to his side. The recent days of sickness seemed to have left her even slimmer, her waist appearing fragile and delicate, as though it could be encircled with a single hand. Yet the smile on her face had grown more captivating. The way she smiled at him was always different from the way she smiled at anyone else. “I’m all better now—thanks to a certain ‘snail gentleman’ who took such meticulous care of me. Every night he changed the cool cloth on my forehead and wiped my hands and arms with cold water.”

“Ahem.” At the term “snail gentleman,” Fuheng awkwardly raised a fist to his lips and coughed once. “And who might this person be?”

Seeing him play dumb, Wei Yingluo decided to play along. She put on an expression of surprise. “Wasn’t it you?”

Fuheng shook his head.

“…Then what am I to do?” Wei Yingluo bit her lip gently, leaving faint white marks from her snow-white teeth on her red lips. “I thought it was you, so I allowed him to apply the medicine to those places. Those areas—I would never let any other man touch them…”

Fuheng froze at her words.

“Since it wasn’t you, then I’ll be going.” Wei Yingluo gave a soft sigh and turned to leave.

“Wait!” Fuheng could sit still no longer. He stood up and caught hold of her arm.

“…Do you have something more to say to me?” She turned her face away, refusing to look at him.

“I…” For a moment, Fuheng truly didn’t know what to say to her.

Truly reaping what one sows—why had he told such a lie? Now how was he supposed to get out of this mess?

“Fuheng!” Just as Fuheng was agonizing over it, his friend’s booming voice burst through the door. “Ten straight days on duty—I’m falling apart—”

With a loud bang, the door flew open. Hailancha remained frozen in the act of pushing it, eyes darting left and right. He gave an awkward laugh. “Did I… interrupt something? I’ll leave right now, right now. You two carry on, carry on, haha…”

“…Ten days?” Wei Yingluo suddenly spun around and punched Fuheng squarely in the chest. Her cheeks were as crimson as her lips—not so much from anger as from embarrassment. Gritting her teeth, she said, “And you still claim it wasn’t you!”

Fuheng watched her storm out the door. He couldn’t help but raise a hand to his chest. He felt as though he, too, had fallen ill. That spot felt both ticklish and soft—like soaking in warm soup, like bathing in a sea of flowers.

“I really didn’t mean to,” Hailancha said. Seeing Wei Yingluo run off, he assumed it was his fault. He rubbed his hands together ingratiatingly. “How about… I cover another day of your shift for you?”

Fuheng slammed a fist into his friend’s chest. Unlike Wei Yingluo’s light, decorative punches, this one carried the force of splitting stone and nearly made Hailancha cough up blood.

“No need!” Fuheng laughed. “You big-mouthed idiot!”

His heart bloomed like a flower, layer upon layer unfolding. By comparison, another person’s mood was far less beautiful.

“What did you say?”

In Yangxin Hall, another teacup shattered.

The Hongli Emperor sat on the edge of the bed with a dark expression. “You’re saying that lowly maid has already returned to Changchun Palace? When? Wasn’t she still ill?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, Wei has fully recovered. She moved back to Changchun Palace last night,” Li Yu replied cautiously.

At those words, Hongli; the Emperor’s fury erupted. He swept the nearby bronze basin off its stand. It rolled across the floor, spilling warm water everywhere, while everyone in the hall dropped to their knees.

“She clearly caught the illness after me—her course of sickness should last at least a month!” Hongli; the Emperor said coldly. “How could she recover before me?”

“This… this…” Li Yu stammered. “Perhaps… her case was milder?”

“Because she was never sick to begin with!” Hongli; the Emperor roared. “Bring that lowly maid here—this time I will personally skin her alive!”

“What’s wrong with Your Majesty? Such a terrible temper.” A gentle, soothing voice suddenly rang out. Everyone turned toward the sound and, seeing her smile, felt their hearts settle.

In this world, only two women possessed smiles with such calming power: one was Guanyin, the other was the Empress.

Even Hongli; the Emperor, upon seeing her smile, felt half his anger drain away. Just as he was about to unleash the remaining half, she spoke again:

“This consort walked all the way here and heard many palace servants praising Your Majesty.”

“Oh?” The Hongli Emperor was slightly surprised. “What did they say?”

“A great many things.” The Empress sat down on the edge of the bed. “For example, that Your Majesty can endure what ordinary people cannot. When Wei Yingluo offended you in the course of treating your illness, you did not hold it against her at all—you are a magnanimous and enlightened ruler.”

The Hongli Emperor’s expression turned strange.

“Not only did you not blame her, but after learning she had been infected with the same serious illness by you, instead of sending her away, you allowed her to remain in Yangxin Hall and arranged for the best physicians to treat her. Truly a ruler of virtue, rare throughout the ages…” the Empress continued.

“Enough!” The Hongli Emperor could bear it no longer and cut her off.

The Empress stopped speaking and simply looked at him with a gentle, smiling gaze.

Li Yu cautiously glanced between their faces. Seeing that neither of them spoke, he finally ventured,

“Your Majesty… shall we still bring Wei Yingluo back?”

Hongli was in no mood to direct his anger at the Empress. Seeing Li Yu walk right into the line of fire, he immediately turned his fury on him instead. With a kick from his dragon-embroidered boot squarely to Li Yu’s chest, he sent the eunuch sprawling. Hongli roared in rage, “Didn’t you hear?! She deliberately provoked Us to save Our life! She caught a serious illness while attending to Our sickness! Even if word of it spreads, everyone will praise her as a loyal servant who fears neither power nor danger! And what’s more—she’s already completely recovered; there’s no handle left to grasp against her! If We were to punish her now, wouldn’t that make Us an ungrateful, muddle-headed ruler?! This is truly like a mute man forced to swallow coptis—bitter beyond words, with no way to speak of it!”

As he spoke, a genuine look of bitterness crept across his face, as though he had just swallowed one dose after another of coptis, akebia stem, gentian root, sophora root…

All those bitter medicines he had ordered poured into Wei Yingluo’s bowl were now being swallowed by him instead.

Truly bitter—unbearably so.

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