Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Magistrate Lu immediately did as he was told.
My father sensed that things were wrong and shielded my mother at once. “My lord! The princess’s life matters, but ours do too! If you must draw blood, take mine. Don’t touch my wife!”
The prince consort sneered. “Your lives are worthy of being compared to the princess’s? Do it! Now!”
My parents had already been bled for two bowls. They were weak to the point of collapse, and once the guards pinned their arms and forced the blood from them, they had no strength left to resist.
They were bled through the entire night. It was not until the next morning that the princess, after drinking dozens of bowls of medicinal blood, suddenly showed signs of improvement.
The prince consort was overjoyed. “Do you see that? As long as enough blood is fed to her, the princess can live!”
Only then did the guards grow troubled. The prince consort went to the next room to look, and there he saw my parents, the divine doctors who had been bled dry for an entire night. Their faces were deathly pale, and their eyes were still open. They had already been dead for some time.
“There’s no blood left, Your Highness,” a guard said, holding the bowl, unable to hide his reluctance.
“Prince Consort! Their family still has a six-year-old daughter!” Magistrate Lu said eagerly, as if presenting a treasure. “That girl’s blood can be used as medicine too!”
The prince consort’s men immediately went to the house and dragged my little sister back.
My six-year-old sister was still holding a bundle of danggui root. She had thought she would be able to see our parents and was still planning to ask them how that herb should be used in medicine.
Only when she saw my parents’ corpses did she realize what would happen to her.
That afternoon, a rare torrential downpour fell from the sky.
I was gathering herbs on the mountain when a knife suddenly sliced my hand. Unease surged through me, and I hurried down the mountain in the rain. By the time I was almost home, the rain had already stopped.
From afar, I saw my sister, Ye Li, staggering a few steps before tumbling with a splash into a muddy puddle formed by the rainwater.
“Sister!”
I rushed over and gathered her into my arms, only to find her face as white as ash and her lips without a trace of color.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” My words caught in my throat when I saw that Ye Li’s right wrist had nearly been cut clean through.
The wound was still pouring blood, endlessly, soaking into the mud and spreading through the rainwater.
No matter how hard I pressed, I could not stop the bleeding. My sister’s hand was almost severed.
“Father and Mother are dead, Sister. They bled us dry to save the princess…”
Their blood had brought the princess back from the brink.
My sister’s blood had awakened the princess.
Only after the princess woke up was my sister finally spared.
She dragged herself home through the rain, already having lost far too much blood. Dazed and barely conscious, she clutched the danggui root in her hand and grabbed my collar.
“Sister, run. Run…”
The danggui root slipped weakly from her fingers and scattered into the rainwater.
On the rainy day when the princess was saved, I, Ye Gui, lost my father, my mother, and my little sister.