Chapter 19

*Cough, cough, cough. *

The Thirteenth Prince began to cough violently.

"Your Highness, Your Highness, are you alright?"

Du Ren Mei hurriedly wanted to step forward to pat his back, but the Thirteenth Prince raised his hand to stop him; because he was coughing so hard, his peerlessly handsome face was even more stunning at this moment.

"Do you believe I'll kick you to death?" he said through gritted teeth.

Yes, his reputation isn't very good—liking men, having a "cut-sleeve" obsession—but is it appropriate to stuff a man to him so blatantly?

If a prince is angry, your official hat won't be saved.

Du Ren Mei knelt down with a *thump*: "Your Highness, please calm your anger; it is this official who didn't explain clearly. This official deserves to die!"

How could he have forgotten that this master has always been eccentric and doesn't recognize his own kin when angry; he had even pulled the beard of the Imperial Uncle, let alone a small Assistant Magistrate like him—if things went wrong, the man would really kick him to death.

"It is like this," Du Ren Mei hurriedly explained. "When Your Highness was assassinated this time, it was thanks to Jiang Li and Wang Bujiu drawing their swords to help that Your Highness's safety was protected, and the lives of this official and the Magistrate's entire family were saved. The two of them have innate divine strength and the courage of ten thousand men; with a little training, they will surely become Your Highness's right-hand men in the future. So this official has already ordered people to bring them over. I wonder if Your Highness likes this gift?"

The Thirteenth Prince's gaze suddenly sharpened. He looked down at the man kneeling before him and asked: "Are Jiang Li and Wang Bujiu both willing to follow me?"

Du Ren Mei's expression stalled: "Naturally, it is their blessing to be able to serve by Your Highness's side; how could they be unwilling?"

He laughed: "Your Highness probably doesn't know yet, but Jiang Li is this official's son-in-law."

Jiang Li is Du Ren Mei's son-in-law?

The Thirteenth Prince doubted: "Didn't your daughter Du Mingzhu say a few days ago that she was not yet betrothed? How did she get married so quickly?"

"No, no, no, Your Highness has misunderstood. The one Jiang Li married is not Mingzhu, but this official's other daughter, Aman. Aman has poor health and has always been raised in the countryside; she and Jiang Li have had a marriage engagement since they were children."

So that's how it is. The Thirteenth Prince frowned.

He had indeed taken a fancy to Jiang Li and originally intended to take him back to the capital, but Jiang Li had refused, and the reason for the refusal was that he couldn't let go of his young younger brother and sister.

He was recruiting talent, so naturally, he wouldn't force anyone; anyway, there would be plenty of time, and it wouldn't be too late to recruit him when the time was right.

He didn't expect that Du Ren Mei, in order to curry favor with him, would actually force his son-in-law to go to the capital; one could imagine he must have used some means.

Truly despicable.

The Thirteenth Prince smiled coldly: "Old Du, one must be kind when living in this world. I guess you threatened Jiang Li with his younger brother and sister, didn't you?"

Cold sweat broke out on Du Ren Mei, and he kowtowed repeatedly: "Your Highness, this official... this official was also for your sake..."

"Enough, stop the nonsense; this Prince is in a hurry to travel." The Thirteenth Prince waved his hand impatiently: "Go back and release Jiang Li and Wang Bujiu for me immediately. If they lose even a single hair, I'll take your life. Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand."

"If you understand, then get lost quickly; looking at you is annoying!"

Du Ren Mei didn't even dare to let out a fart and retreated with his back hunched.

The Thirteenth Prince peeled a lychee and put it in his mouth in a bad mood, suddenly remembering that fat woman, and called out: "Hehuan?"

Hehuan lifted the curtain and entered, looking a bit guilty.

"Master."

"Where is the person? Did you bring her?"

"The... the person is gone."

The Thirteenth Prince stood up abruptly: "What did you say?"

He immediately lifted the curtain to look outside, and sure enough, the place where the fat woman had been was now empty.

His expression immediately became very ugly.

"What's going on? How could the person suddenly disappear?"

Hehuan was also puzzled: "When this servant took people to look for her, she was already gone. This servant also searched the vicinity but couldn't find her; perhaps she went home."

She secretly glanced at her master and asked tentatively: "How about this servant sends people to look again?"

With such a large build, she definitely couldn't have run far; finding the person was just a matter of time.

The Thirteenth Prince's face was uncertain, and after a long while, he sighed: "Forget it, don't go to such great lengths; it would disturb the people."

That shouldn't be her; she was such an exquisite person, she wouldn't allow a single pimple to appear on her face, so how could she let herself become so sloppy and ugly?

Forget it, when his power is strong enough, he will send people to search the whole country; as long as she is still alive, he will definitely be able to find her.

Hehuan also felt it was a pity and advised: "Master doesn't need to be unhappy. Although this one can't be found, there are plenty of women in the world who look like her. When we return to the capital, this servant will immediately have people look for them; ten or eight of them won't be a problem."

Listen to that—is that human talk? Ten or eight?

The Thirteenth Prince leaned weakly on the couch: "It's getting late, let's set off quickly."

Before long, the procession set off, moving majestically toward the outside of the city, gradually moving further and further away.

At this moment, Du Ruo was squatting in the latrine of a grocery store near the city gate.

She might really have heatstroke.

Kneeling on the scorching blue stone slab on such a hot day was truly quite a torture for someone like her whose body was already in poor condition.

Her head ached, her chest felt tight, she felt dizzy, and she especially wanted to have diarrhea.

And that damn prince's carriage had to stay at the city gate for half a day without leaving—it was truly going to be the death of her.

Du Ruo really couldn't hold it anymore, so she moved backward slowly. Fortunately, those guards only glanced at her, probably thinking she wasn't a dangerous person, and ignored her completely.

Then she ran to the street, found a shop, and rushed in. The shopkeeper's wife was very kind and enthusiastically led her to the latrine in the back, which finally resolved her embarrassment.

To thank the shopkeeper's wife, Du Ruo specifically bought several dozen copper coins' worth of seasonings in that shop, which was exactly what they were lacking at home.

However, one thing was very strange: there were no chili peppers in this era, and even Sichuan peppercorns were very scarce.

Thinking that she might never be able to eat chopped chili fish head or spicy blood curd again, Du Ruo felt a bit upset.

After buying the things and coming out, she went straight to the city gate.

The crowd had mostly dispersed, and Jiang Zhan and Yao Yulan were anxiously asking the soldiers guarding the gate about her whereabouts.

The soldier had a very deep impression of Du Ruo and comforted them: "Don't worry, little brother, your sister-in-law won't get lost; even kidnappers have eyes."

Du Ruo called out to Jiang Zhan from behind.

Jiang Zhan turned around and saw her, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief: "Sister-in-law, where did you go?"

As long as she was fine, Yao Yulan teased: "You made us search so hard; I thought you couldn't bear to part with Jiang Li and ran back!"

Du Ruo smiled awkwardly.

Couldn't bear to part with Jiang Li? She wished Jiang Li would never come back in this lifetime, so they wouldn't have to look at each other and feel disgusted.

"My stomach hurt a bit, so I borrowed the latrine."

Hearing this, Jiang Zhan became a bit worried: "Abdominal pain can be minor or major; why don't we find a medical clinic to take a look before going back?"

Du Ruo opened her mouth to say it wasn't necessary, but then she thought, *Right, I was planning to go to a medical clinic to get medicine anyway. *

And the scale of the medical clinics in the county must be much larger than those in the town, and the quality of the medicinal herbs must be much better; it would be good to go and take a look.

The three of them asked along the street and soon arrived at the most famous Herbal Hall in the county.

The Herbal Hall mainly operated as a pharmacy, but for convenience, they arranged for several doctors to see patients every day.

Those who could see patients here naturally had good medical skills, at least much better than Old Doctor Gu in the village.

"Young Lady, have you made enemies with anyone?" The kind-faced Doctor Sun, who was examining Du Ruo, looked grave: "Judging by the young lady's pulse, it should be that you have taken Andrographis paniculata, causing the poison to enter your body, affecting the six viscera, and finally dispersing from the skin; and you have been taking it for quite some time."