The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 37: The Gift of Medicine

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》Yanxi Gonglue

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 37: The Gift of Medicine

   Fucha Fuheng turned his face away from Wei Yingluo, with only one reddened ear towards her and he was three paces away from her, a distance at which he could have fled at any moment and said: “Take it.”

   Wei Yingluo hesitated for a moment and raised her hand to take the bottle of medicine from him.

   Fucha Fuheng, as if relieved, turned away and said: “This medicine is very useful for external wounds; rub it once in the morning and once in the evening.”

   Wei Yingluo cared more about his current attitude than the injuries he had sustained and carefully sized him up and said: “Young Master, why are you avoiding me?”

   “...” The question seemed to embarrass Fucha Fuheng a little and it was only after a long time that he coughed and said, “A man must not look directly at a woman’s body, you. You put your sleeves down.”

   Wei Yingluo remembered that earlier, in order to examine her injury, she had rolled one sleeve up to her shoulder, exposing her whole arm to him, white as a fresh lotus root, growing in the clear blue water.

   Slowly lowering her sleeve, Wei Yingluo said softly: “There, you can turn around now.”

   Fucha Fuheng now turned back to her. He was indeed a bit thin skinned and he had only seen the woman’s arm but he had blushed, looking both wretched and innocent, without realizing it and with his usual seriousness and inviolability, he asked her: “Why did you light the mantle today, knowing that Do you know that if you are not careful, you may burn Noble Lady Yu and yourself?”

   “I knew it was very dangerous but, in that situation, but in that situation, it was the only way to draw a crowd.” Wei Yingluo whispered, “Imagine if I had shouted for help and said Noble Consort Hui was going to kill someone, who would have dared to enter the Yonghe Palace? They’d all be afraid to run into something like that and would just pretend they didn’t hear it. But when there is water in the palace, it is very different and everyone will come to put out the fire, so that Noble Lady Yu and I may be saved.”

   Remembering her desperation and helplessness, when she was crying out for help, Fucha Fuheng’s heart softened, so his tone also softened and he said: “What if Noble Consort had broken into the house before everyone arrived?”

   Wei Yingluo suddenly looked up at him and said: “Aren’t you here?”

   Fucha Fuheng froze at his words.

   Obviously, she was fully clothed, not showing anything, she shouldn’t, not smiling at him, not doing anything out of the ordinary and yet he was trying to avoid her gaze.

   Lest she catch herself blushing a little.

   “Young Master...” Wei Yingluo came a step closer and said, “Are you sick, your face is a little red ...”

   She reached out a hand, as if to check the temperature of his forehead.

   Fucha Fuheng hurriedly took a step backwards.

   “Sorry.” As if noticing that her current behavior was a bit inappropriate, Wei Yingluo withdrew her hand and smiled apologetically at him.

   Not knowing whether he was disappointed or relieved, Fucha Fuheng whispered: “Next time, be more careful, don’t ... Don’t smile at women like that again, didn’t your foremother teach you what is the etiquette of a lady?”

   Wei Yingluo stopped smiling and said faintly: “I am not a lady of the house and I have no mother.”

   Fucha Fuheng froze at this and was deliberating on his remedy when he heard Wei Yingluo speak again.

   “I have only one sister, named Wei Yingning.” After a pause, Wei Yingluo laughed, “But in the palace, she has another name, Amman.”

   Fucha Fuheng’s face bristled.

   “What?” Wei Yingluo stared at her opponent, refusing to let go of a single change and said, “Young Master, do you know my sister?”

   “Don’t know.” Fucha Fuheng said after a pause, “The medicine has been delivered and Royal Guardian has business, so I’ll go first.”

   Rather than leave on a pretext, you should have fallen away.

   He walked away in such haste that he did not notice, until he left, that Wei Yingluo had stood still and unmoving, her fingers holding the bottle of medicine in a death grip, staring at him with an expressionless face.

   “This is a good healing medicine that ordinary people can’t get, only high ranking military officials have it.”

   In the night Zhang Momo came to visit her and brought her a bottle of medicine for her wounds, which she had asked for from the Royal Physician but it was a far cry from the bottle of medicine for military officials that lay on the table.

   Wei Yingluo was lying on her back, her clothes removed, her bare back exposed and the worst part of her injury was not her arm but her back--an awkward place out of her reach.

   Wei Yingluo said lightly as she glanced at the jade bottle on the table: “It’s from Fucha Fuheng, I don’t want to use it for now.”

   Hearing the coldness in her words, Zhang Momo shook her head and persuaded her as she applied the medicine: “You still suspect him?”

   “I met Fucha Fuheng today and he said he didn’t know my sister.” Wei Yingluo laughed, “But looking at his face, it’s not the same thing at all ... Ouch.”

   Zhang Momo was quick to easing up a bit and said: “How is it now, it doesn’t hurt anymore, does it? How can you treat him as a murderer without any evidence?”

   “Evidence?” Wei Yingluo said with a flash of hostility in her eyes, “Momo, you also know my sister, so you should know that with her personality, if she found a valuable jade pendant, she would definitely return it to the owner but she left it behind. There are only two possibilities, one is a lover, the other is an enemy. Sister has her own beloved and even if she is ruthlessly abandoned, she will not easily change her heart. Then there is only one possibility left, Fuheng has humiliated her!

   “Another one of your guesses!” Zhang Momo, knowing that she was already a bit stumped, was quick to analyzing with her, saying, “Maybe your sister really found the jade pendant by chance and didn’t know who the owner was and couldn’t return it, or ... Fuheng did know your sister but he had nothing to do with her death ...”

   Wei Yingluo’s face was cloudy and only after a long time did she slowly let out a breath and say: “Momo, you say that my sister has lost her innocence and you persistently refuse to say who the other man is and that the only man in the palace is His Majesty, or the Royal Guard. If it is His Majesty, then he is the holy favorite and there is nothing to say, so that leaves the Royal Guard in the palace. She will not say anything, not because she does not want to but because she does not dare to! She was afraid to bring her family, Ama and me into trouble and who would make her so afraid but the powerful Fucha Fuheng!”

   She turned back to Zhang Momo with a sharp look, as if she had found a bayonet and as if she had found a fuse, she gritted her teeth and said: “He is the Young Master of the Fucha Clan, the younger brother of the Empress and the future Minister of the Emperor and that is why my sister was killed and silenced!”

   “That’s enough of you...” Zhang Momo felt an unbearable headache.

   “Momo, do you dare say it’s never possible?” Wei Yingluo asked rhetorically.

   Zhang Momo was speechless for a moment.

   If Wei Yingluo was just being a buzzkill, she could have given her a stern reprimand but the problem was that it was a real possibility and with the jade pendant as a clue, it was still very likely.

   “... Well, even if Fucha Fuheng did it, what do you want?” Zhang Momo said helplessly, “What can you do?”

   “What can I do?” Wei Yingluo said with a cold laugh, “Naturally, I will kill to pay for my life and pay for my debt!”

   Zhang Momo was shocked and grabbed her hand: “Don’t be impulsive! If not for yourself, then for your sister. Think of all the hard work your sister has put into raising you, just so you can die?”

   Wei Yingluo flinched, not from fear of death but from the tears flowing in the other’s eyes.

   One cannot help but think of the words she had sighed earlier--” No one will cry for someone who doesn’t matter.”

   “... You’re right.” Wei Yingluo, somewhat moved and ashamed, bowed her head and said, “I can’t die yet.”

   Since there were still people in the world who were holding on to her, she could not die. She was afraid that if she died, the other person would become a second her, caught up in pain and hatred and would do anything to get revenge.

   “Good girl, good girl...” Zhang Momo stroked her hair lovingly and said, “Here, turn over and Momo will continue to put the medicine on you.”

   Wei Yingluo mewled good naturedly.

   Calloused, rough fingers, the pain of a wound that was hot when applied, fell together on Wei Yingluo’s shoulders.

   She gritted her teeth and endured it, even though she was bruised and battered, even though there were better options but ... Fucha Fuheng sent the medicine and she didn’t use a single drop of it.

  

  

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS