Chapter Eighty-Seven: A Hundred Urges

“Look at him again, Your Majesty.”

The imperial physician had practiced medicine for many years, yet he had never before seen a man who could so utterly command his respect. With wounds this severe, he had still forced himself back by sheer will alone.

He rolled up the other sleeve, and sure enough, the arm beneath it was likewise covered with knife wounds of every size, some shallow, some deep, the flesh torn open and raw.

Placed side by side, those two hands were enough to imagine the suffering their owner had endured.

The physician was, by nature, a healer with a compassionate heart, and he could not help speaking a few sincere words on behalf of this iron-boned general. “Your Majesty, a hundred strokes of the staff can cost a man his life. To go into the cliffs of Mount Wangyao to gather the Flower of Ten Bloods was no less a matter of life and death. Moreover, the round trip to Mount Wangyao takes half a month, yet General Chang’an returned in less than ten days. One can only imagine the agony he endured, how he must have strained every ounce of strength just to survive the journey home. This shows a tenacity and resolve beyond ordinary men. To gain such a fine general, loyal and devoted to Your Majesty, to guard the realm of the Li state, is truly the blessing of all the people under heaven.”

The emperor was deeply moved as well. How could he not know that this young general was a pillar of the realm, no fish in a pond, but a dragon waiting for the sky?

His heart warmed, and he said excitedly, “My loyal minister, you must do everything in your power to save General Chang’an! Spare no expense, and use only the finest and most precious medicines! When he awakens, I shall richly reward him! I shall reward him handsomely!”

A reward?

What reward could there be?

The crown prince stood by the bed, looking at the grievously wounded general, unconscious and near death, and his heart was a tangle of conflicting emotions.

Could he be rewarded with a homecoming?

Father, do you know? General Chang’an risked death and suffered immeasurably, giving all he had to bring back the Flower of Ten Bloods. It was not only out of loyalty to the imperial house, but because he loved your daughter, the princess of the entire Li realm, Gu Li.

Then could you grant Gu Li to him? Could you bring them together?

The crown prince was filled with impulses. He wondered whether, at this very moment, when his father was so moved by General Chang’an, he might speak up and win them some chance for their love.

He knew very well that General Chang’an and Gu Li loved one another, and that each would freely risk their life for the other. If, before, he had still harbored reservations about the general and wished for them to turn back before it was too late, now that he had seen the lengths to which the man would go for Gu Li, he only wanted to help them.

Yet the crown prince knew his father’s mind all too well. His father himself had been able to rise and dominate the former court only because he had behind him a powerful clan, riding the winds and waters as though born to them, until in the end he relied on that family’s support to raise an army in rebellion and seize the dragon throne.

Thus the emperor had always believed that a powerful family was the greatest pillar of support. What was more, all the women in his harem were daughters of court ministers, balancing and restraining one another, allowing him to sit securely upon the empire. For that reason, he believed it all the more firmly.

As for the empress, there was no need to mention her. She was the daughter of the current chancellor, and also the niece of the empress dowager; the former empress was her own elder sister. Backed by her maternal family’s influence, she had entered the palace as the undeniable choice for empress.

Along the way, her family’s power had only grown stronger, and with her deep bond to the emperor, the position of empress was even more unshakable.

Such notions of rank and lineage had long since taken root in them. The crown prince had no confidence that he could persuade them, and feared even more that speaking rashly would only make matters worse. Thus, his face showed hesitation.

The empress had weathered the storms of the inner palace and was the one most skilled at reading expression and mood. The moment she saw the crown prince’s hesitation, the conflict and struggle in his eyes, and then looked again at General Chang’an lying gravely injured and unconscious on the bed, a little thought was enough for her to understand at once.

The crown prince was caught in an inner conflict. Yet when he looked up, he saw his mother cast him a gaze cold as frost and heavy with warning. A chill ran through him, and all his thoughts were strangled in the cradle at once.